Transmission pole change-out, Darling Downs
Eleven concrete poles replaced across cropped paddocks without a single machine track through standing sorghum.
The constraint
The easement crossed 4 km of irrigated cropping with landholder agreements limiting ground disturbance.
Wet-season subsoil could not carry a 60 t crane or a pole trailer.
Outage windows were capped at eight hours per feeder.
The lift
- Load weight
- 1,420 kg
- Aircraft
- Black Hawk UH-60
- Line length
- 50 m
- Crew
- 8
- Exclusion zone
- 70 m
- Lift cycles
- 22
01Poles were staged in threes on a hardstand beside the highway and flown in sequence.
02Old poles were flown out to the same laydown for disposal, keeping the easement clear.
03Linesmen worked from elevated platforms only where road access already existed; all other structures were serviced from the air.
04Twenty-two cycles across one day inside two outage windows.
The numbers
- Time on site
- 6.4 hrs
- Flight time
- 4.1 hrs
- Crane alternative
- 9 days · $118,000 + crop compensation
- Road closures
- 0
On site
Flight record
Long line operations, Black Hawk UH-60, Cambooya, Darling Downs.
Client record
“Eleven structures in a day with no crop damage claims. The paddock looked the same at knock-off as it did at dawn.”