Pulling dumped cars out of the Cotter

Perhaps we could combine a this topic with the ever popular bad parking ones.

They should use the helicopter to lift up cars parked really badly and kindly drop them back in their owner’s driveways (from a great height).

KB1971 said :

p1 said :

Even at tens of thousands of dollars per hour for such a job – and it would be that kind of money – it would be much cheaper then the earth moving equipment needed to make road access to get a crane close enough to pull the cars out (our you could drag them out with a dozer… either way, not very tidy, since the aim is to clean the place up).

Really?

What is a D9 worth? Half a million or more? It would have to be charged out at $500/h ish.

It then has to build a road good enough to get an off road crane with a massive boom close enough to lift cars out of gullies quite a distance away.

Cranes dont come cheap, the smallish Japanese ones you see getting around here are worth half a mil too but would not have the lift capacity or boom length at full extension, so a more expensive jobbie would be needed.

Then you have to build a road close enough to get to each wreck, not evey wreck will be in the same spot.

Weeks of work, then there is the WHS issues of having such heavy machinery working in steep terrain.

Then there is the environmental damage. Any disturbing of the surrounding hills in a water catchment would degrade water quality.

Given the location & what they are removing, the helicopter would be the most sensible option I would think.

Apology in advance P1, I miss read “Then” because of the typo. I am assuming it should have been “than”?

p1 said :

Even at tens of thousands of dollars per hour for such a job – and it would be that kind of money – it would be much cheaper then the earth moving equipment needed to make road access to get a crane close enough to pull the cars out (our you could drag them out with a dozer… either way, not very tidy, since the aim is to clean the place up).

Really?

What is a D9 worth? Half a million or more? It would have to be charged out at $500/h ish.

It then has to build a road good enough to get an off road crane with a massive boom close enough to lift cars out of gullies quite a distance away.

Cranes dont come cheap, the smallish Japanese ones you see getting around here are worth half a mil too but would not have the lift capacity or boom length at full extension, so a more expensive jobbie would be needed.

Then you have to build a road close enough to get to each wreck, not evey wreck will be in the same spot.

Weeks of work, then there is the WHS issues of having such heavy machinery working in steep terrain.

Then there is the environmental damage. Any disturbing of the surrounding hills in a water catchment would degrade water quality.

Given the location & what they are removing, the helicopter would be the most sensible option I would think.

Even at tens of thousands of dollars per hour for such a job – and it would be that kind of money – it would be much cheaper then the earth moving equipment needed to make road access to get a crane close enough to pull the cars out (our you could drag them out with a dozer… either way, not very tidy, since the aim is to clean the place up).

KB1971 said :

It was amazing to see the amount of cars dumped on the northern side of the river after the fires. They were all hidden by the undergrowth.

Your observation highlights the problems of visually locating missing/crashed light aircraft in the mountain ranges of Eastern Australia. There are still several missing aircraft (and the poor souls that were in them) unaccounted for in areas around Canberra.
Also, even though the authorities have located numerous cannabis crops in the ranges around Canberra, how many more are there that are undetected?

460cixy said :

I guess they HAD to use a chopper

No cheaper alternative ?

Have you been along the Cotter River valley upstream of the dam?

460cixy said :

I guess they HAD to use a chopper

No cheaper alternative ?

It wasn’t a matter of finding a cheaper alternative, there was no alternative. Using this special lift helicopter was very cost effective, the whole job being done in a few hours with the cars being lifted from recovery vehicle inaccessable areas to access road where tow trucks could take them away.
Good job done TAMS – maybe this type of operation could be done regularly from now on to recover other trashed vehicle around Canberra.

460cixy said :

I guess they HAD to use a chopper

No cheaper alternative ?

Why do you care? Like me, you’re contributing a poofteenth of a dollar to this.

I guess they HAD to use a chopper No cheaper alternative ?

Dude, where’s my car?

Just the odd one or two hundred insurance jobs over the decades.

It was amazing to see the amount of cars dumped on the northern side of the river after the fires. They were all hidden by the undergrowth.