The Duck Pond

I could not believe the pictures I had seen of the Dragline at Ensham. Emerald, Central Queensland.

The dragline was completely submerged, excluding the boom, during the 2008 floods.  

Having walked the dragline the last few days to the sight in the early nineties.  It was the first machine to work the site.   The company, REB Engineering had walked the dragline from Oakey Creek. Quite a distance.  They move a 100 yards every half hour.  I timed it.  I was on the machine for a short time making a video of the walk.

Moving 3000 tonnes of steel,  is a big, big job. it took the team about 6 weeks through various properties.  Most times when these monster are moved, the farmer's price for tresspassing on his land is that the building of a dam would suffice as payment.  

When walking on to the Ensham site we had to fill in the creek to move further onto the area. The operator then turned and dug the creek out to its original depth.  There was never any water in these creeks at this time of the  year.

I have a friend who works there, he reported the flooding. I just could not help myself. I had to do a cartoon.  What I did not know was, it was actually called the "Duck Pond."  I think the machine is nearly ready to work again.  It has been over a year since the Emerald floods.