DIG DEEP Event for Mental Health
William Adams’ Global Operator Challenge takes charge at the DIG DEEP Event
With capacity crowds and the Melbourne sun beaming, the Dig Deep Event was one to remember. The event was held on Sunday 29 May, dispersed amongst football ovals in Keysborough, Victoria. The Dig Deep committee comprises of an extremely passionate group who are involved in the civil construction industry. Their vision was to create and host Victoria’s newest construction show that would raise funds and awareness for mental health in the construction industry. Not only this, but the total profits of $288,945 being donated to Beyond Blue.
Over 5,000 people turned up to show their support, eager to check out new machinery display, carnival rides, delicious food trucks and a kid’s digger park. But the main attraction was the William Adams’ Caterpillar Global Operator Challenge Finals, featuring 10 finalists, who had made the cut from over 95 registered operators, and 32 participating in the heats the
weekend prior. “By teaming up with Dip Deep to hold our operator challenge, we want to normalise conversations about mental health and encourage our operators and staff to reach out if they need help,” says Ryan O’Doherty, General Manager – Sales at William Adams. Showcasing their agility, speed, and accuracy with three types of machines, these challenges were not for the faint hearted.
The ‘Load & Go’ event, staring a 950GC wheel loader, was designed to test operators’ accuracy in moving material around the course while winding through a series of bollards to achieve a target payload of six tonnes. In another challenge, ‘Backhoe or Bust,’ operators had to pick up a piece of wood with a 432 backhoe loader and use the wood to knock tennis balls off
cones, and finally place a soccer ball into a drum.
Finally, ‘The Big Dig’ featuring a 320 excavator with grade technology. Having this technology was important with this challenge as operators had to dig a trench to a pre-determined grade using 2D Grade, at 1 bucket width with a target payload of 8 tonnes.
“This event is a great opportunity to showcase the skills of our operators here in Victoria and Tasmania, and demonstrate exactly what Caterpillar machines can achieve,” says Ryan O’Doherty.
The atmosphere was euphoric, as the crowd filled all sides of the arena. Adults and children cheered away as they saw the operators have some near misses and some exceptional times. The energy was electric as Glenn Avard took out the best time on the wheel loader of 3:48 minutes, Aaron Parsons incredible time of 3:34 minutes on the excavator and the overall winner Patrick Doheny with 3:43 on the backhoe loader.
Patrick Doheny, co-director of CRE Group, took the title of the 2022 William Adams’ Caterpillar Operator Challenge Champion. This will take Patrick to the regional finals in Chichibu, Japan, where the top 17 competitors from dealers across the Asia Pacific region will battle it out for the top 3. From there, the top 3 will take on the global finals at the CONEXPO-CON’AGG in Las Vegas 2023, where one winner will be crowned the World Champion of the Caterpillar Global Operator Challenge.
We wish Patrick all the best and stay tuned for updates on the William Adams CAT social pages!
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