D9 Government Photo

Interesting shot of a D9 finishing the controversial Gordon road into what was the wilderness here in Tasmania back in the early 1960's, taken by an environmentalist.

These road were often pushed into wilderness areas for mining or in this case for dams for hydro power or simply to open up the country. Around this time the Government's Hydro Electric Comission or 'Uncle HEC' as the workers knew it, employed several thousand men and dozens of bulldozers - mainly Internationals and AC's early on with a few Vickers too, but later on Cats and then Komatsu's before the dam construction and standing workforce was ended.

A former Premier and therefore the person ultimately in charge of Uncle HEC's endeavours, Eric Reece was known as 'Electric Eric' because of his obsession with dams - a policy that almost later bankruped the State.

Contractors waited gleefully for the big Cats and other machinery (eg., at one time 200 Leyland trucks) to come up for sale as they were often sold off cheap to favoured men in the 'know'. In other cases machinery surplus to needs simply vanished off the site because it was the easiest disposal method at that time.

This one looks to have suffered significant track wear as a result of the granite/quartzite base material in this region which is very abrasive. No doubt all new running gear would be fitted before it was sold off cheap😊

Unfortunately few photographs exist for Government roads construction departments including the Public Work Department (PWD) or 'Paid Wet and Dry' as the workers called it - probably because of sensitivities around wilderness destruction and the like.

Accidents during dam construction were also common with several drivers killed as a result of rock falls or dozers faling over the edge of cuttings. Early dozers had no ROPs or canopies whatsoever and yet they were commonly used to clear primary forests.

Note the D9 operator's [attachment=28153]cat d9 gordon road.jpg[/attachment]hard hat and ear protection😊

[attachment=28155]gretna dozer ramping.jpg[/attachment]These relate to the PWD - the D7 appears to be hooked up?

[attachment=28154]D8 Hooked Up.jpg[/attachment]

great pics there thanks for sharing
wonder what type of blade that one is in the last picture theres a D7 with a blade like that at Tilleys at the moment I thought it may have been home made but I would tend to think not after seeing more than one !

Paul

The blade is quite odd. My son reckons it has been converted to hydraulic to enable it to tow a scraper. But I'm not so sure. Back in the day, the PWD had a massive workshop which fabricated just about everything needed for both machines and infrastructure, eg., road rollers, scrapers, barges, bridges and so on. They often modified machines to suit the purpose. It could well be an in-house conversion.

Interestingly I was working on the D7D 17A today, emptying a bucket of dirt from the air cleaner base and draining litres of water from the fuel filter housing and scraped off some paint. Lo and behold underneath is a coat of PWD orange. So it looks very much like my D7D is also ex-government and later modified for forestry work😊

I'll get the spelling wrong but here goes....the D-7 looks like it is an early 3T with LaPlante Choates hydraulics and maybe a Bucyrus Erie blade. And the other picture looks like a AC HD-14 with a Baker blade.

here is some pictures of the one at Tillys

[attachment=28156]pa280066.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=28157]pa280069.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=28158]pa280075.jpg[/attachment]

Paul

Thanks for the additional info. The Tilly's tractor looks in good condition and there's some parts I need right now!

I asked a retired contractor why the indutry persisted with Cat cable blades for so long - even up to 1963 - when non-Cat machines had all gone to hydraulic and he said it was due to the operators wanting speed. Early Cat hydraulics were slow and so the operators preferred the fast lifting and lowering speed of cable blades.