Not every mining machine earns a nickname. But at Peak Downs Mine, Dragline 16 became known across the pits as Parting Pete.
Former Peak Downs Maintenance Manager Gerry Dempsey, who worked at the mine for nearly three decades, remembers when the machine first arrived.
“We think it was around 1976. I’ve got a copy of an equipment register from 1977 and the dragline appears on that,” Gerry revealed.
The dragline came into service as the mine expanded south and crews began encountering increasing layers of interburden, known in the pits as parting, between the coal seams.
“It was impractical to remove the amount of parting with scrapers or bulldozers so the mining engineers redesigned and configured the pits so that a dragline operation would accomplish the job.”
Dempsey had already been working at Peak Downs for several years by then. He started as a fitter, the fourth to be employed at Peak Downs in 1972. Over the years he worked his way through the ranks, eventually becoming Maintenance Manager, a role he held for 13 years before leaving the mine in 2000.
Gerry said that naming large machines was common practice across Bowen Basin mines during that era, and Dragline 16 soon became known as Parting Pete, a nod to the job it performed in the pits.
“Most of the time though, crews still referred to the machines by their plant number, something everyone had been used to since the early days.”
While smaller than the massive draglines working along the highwall, Dragline 16 played a key role in uncovering coal.
“DRE16 had a 12 cubic yard bucket where the big machines were about 48 yards and moved about one million bank cubic metres of overburden per month.
“Depending on where they were digging, they might only uncover down to parting and never expose coal. In those areas it was up to DRE16 to come along, remove the parting and expose the coal and this could happen up to three times in the one pit.
“Dragline 16 might only work in half the width of the pit exposing the coal and the loaders and trucks would quickly come in and remove the coal. That then left room for the parting on the other half of the pit to be put somewhere.”
Because of that arrangement the machine was constantly moving forward.
“The dragline moved along within the pits at a fairly rapid rate as it was always being chased by the coal crew.”
Operating Parting Pete also required a different set of skills. Unlike the larger draglines working along the highwall, Dragline 16 operated with just one hoist rope and one drag rope, meaning the operator had to control the bucket in a different way.
“Even though it was small compared to the big draglines, the skill to operate this dragline was significantly different. It took some pretty good skills to manage the bucket and rigging in generally confined spaces.”
While the big machines worked high along the pit walls, Parting Pete spent most of its time hidden away in the pit itself.
“I think DRE16 or Parting Pete was always seen as the little brother on the mine site as 99 percent of the time it was hidden away in the pit out of sight and mind.
“Its working environment was always filthy dirty compared to the large draglines up on the highwall.”
Inside the machine space was tight, with machinery packed into a small area that made maintenance and cleaning difficult.
“Due to its design the machine was very tight and congested, particularly in the machinery house with a lot of machinery packed into a very tight environment.
“That made it difficult to get about, and it was always hard to keep it clean due to its operating environment in the parting and coal.”
Despite the conditions, the crews working on the machine developed a strong bond.
“The work crews did a pretty good job considering the tough conditions. The crews on DRE16 were a pretty closeknit mob as they worked in a very different environment to the guys on the big draglines.”
Parting Pete rarely worked alone. Before the dragline could begin removing the parting, blast crews prepared the ground ahead of it. Drilling and blasting opened the rock layers so the machine could move in and expose the coal seams below.
Most of the time the little dragline worked out of sight down in the pit while the big machines towered above on the highwall.
But for the crews who worked around it, Parting Pete quietly did some of the most important work on the mine. And decades later, the little digger is still remembered by those who worked alongside it.
