Bucyrus Start Up

Every two years Coleambally holds a Vintage Machinery Rally and one of the highlights is the start up of the Bucyrus Erie Class III Dragline. Two Holden car engines are used as starter motors and they make a lot more noise than Bucyrus itself when it finally gets going.....

the black smoke only lasted for a few monents then it putted along very quietly.

Sign on Bucyrus:

"BUCYRUS ERIE CLASS III DRAGLINE

This machine is one of four imported from the U.S.A. in 1935 & used to excavate the main channels in the Murray Valley & the Coleambally Irrigation Area.

They were "walked" to Coleambally from Deniliquin following completion of the Mulwala Canal & commenced work here in 1958.

In 1978 the machine was driven to this site & is still in working condition.

Specifications: Weight - 130 tonnes; Speed - 3kph; Bucket Size - 4 cu mtrs

Engine: 275 hp Rushton Hornsby 5cm Diesel Started by compressed air - 300 p.s.i.

A project by the Lions Club as a memorial to all those who made Coleambally a reality."

On show at the Rally were old tractors, old cars and trucks, old machines of all sorts