By Ian Archibald, 2025.
The following is based on a personal discussion undertaken with Mr Murray Shiner.
Prior to 1964, a dragline, owned by Dan Hunt, who was also the owner of the Albany fish cannery, was in operation in the Albany area. The machine was operated on behalf of Mr Hunt by Stan Cross. Resident on a farming block east of Albany was Murray Shiner and as a teenager, Murray was encouraged by Mr Cross to learn to operate the dragline which was considered to be a complex machine to master. Draglines function using a combination of hoist and drag cables to position the bucket for proficient filling when being used during excavation work. The operator needs to exercise skill and technique to gain maximum productivity from the machine.
The dragline showing the main features of the machine including the bucket, boom, hoist and drag cables, machine house and track gear. Photo taken by John Entwistle.
The dragline bucket showing the teeth that permit self-filling of the bucket when it is dragged across the ground to be excavated. Photo taken by John Entwistle.
Due to a lack of work, in the early 1960s, the dragline was moved from Albany to the Harvey region and Stan Cross relocated with the dragline as did Murray Shiner who took up residence in Yarloop. Murray continued his association with the machine and over time became the full time operator.
Murray’s initial work with the dragline was associated with modification of the Harvey River Diversion. Originally constructed during the depression using primarily manual labour, the Diversion required deepening and realignment to reduce the impact of flooding. The dragline was considered the ideal machine to undertake the task. The scope of work started where the Diversion departed from the Harvey River and continued west towards the Indian Ocean near Myalup.
After the major 1964 flood event which impacted the Harvey townsite, further work, using the dragline, was undertaken. The Diversion split its banks and refurbishment was necessary to prevent further flooding. As a consequence of the flood, Harvey’s residents were ordered to evacuate in case the Harvey Weir wall, located east of the town site and at the base of the Darling Scarp, which rises to an elevation of around 300 metres, failed. Personal recollections of my father, John Archibald, who was an engineer with the PWD, was that he was taking readings of the wall every hour measuring its movement. In hindsight, it was a dangerous exercise. Had the weir wall collapsed, he would have been stranded on one side or the other of the weir or potentially washed away in the torrent of flood water.
After the 1964 flood event, Murray worked on the northern part of the Harvey River that ran into the Peel Inlet. The dragline he operated, as pictured above, had a reach of 15 to 20 metres. About this time, draglines were equipped with a counter weight at the back of the machine to provide balance and reduce the propensity of the dragline to tip forward. Murray commented this was a welcome improvement to the machine. Draglines were relatively low powered machines driven by a 60 to 70 horsepower diesel engine. It was easy to tangle the steel cables and to disentangle was a horrible job. This was a measure of the difference between a good and bad operator. Draglines used either a bucket that was dragged across/through the soil to fill it, hoisted, and the machine had the capability to rotate to where it was to be dumped. At times, clam buckets were used that closed when filled with dirt.
Draglines were not suitable for irrigation canal work as they did not have the precision to get the batter (angle of repose) consistent nor the bottom of the canal accurate enough. However, draglines were very useful when concrete linings in the canals became eroded and dislodged. The dragline came into its own having the capacity to reach and lift the heavy concrete panels out of the drain. Draglines were also very helpful for bridge building, driving in piles and dragging logs across the gap to become bearers for bridge building.
My understanding is that there were one or two other draglines operating in the Harvey region. One of these was operated by Ralph Torr who lived opposite us in Grieves Street, Harvey, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He had a dragline and my father employed him from time to time. Only once did I see him at work with his machine but I noted with amazement his accuracy of placing the spoil where he wanted it through careful positioning and bucket placement technique.
Murray Shiner purchased the pictured dragline from Mr Cross and then relocated to Kununurra in the early 1970s where he worked for many years and conducted his business – Cross Kimberley Contractors. His work included an assignment associated with the Murrumbidgee River to clean up erosion damage. In 1985 he drove an imported dragline from England, off a ship at Fremantle port.
After its service in the Kununurra region, the pictured dragline was sold to a collector and relocated to Perth. Today, both Murray and the dragline are retired but Murray fondly remembers his involvement with draglines and his contribution to construction and refurbishment projects in the Harvey region.
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