Lighting up the grain harvest

The township of Goolgowi in New South Wales, 650 kilometres west of Sydney, becomes a hive of activity during the harvest season. The Emerald Grain receiving and storage site will see over 60,000 tonnes of wheat, barley and canola from farms across the region.

“During the busy harvest season the site operates for extended periods,” said Tony Neven, Goolgowi Site Manager. “To provide lighting for the equipment and machinery operators, Kennards Hire Wagga Wagga supplied 25 diesel powered light towers and delivered them to various storage sites.”

The trailer mounted articulated, telescopic silenced flood light towers feature 4 x 1000 watt metal halide lamps that deliver significant usable light, while the hydraulic controls assist in boom extension and manual controls enable lamp tilt and direction.

With a horizontal reach of 3 metres for out and over; and up and over applications such as pits and under bridges, a powerful diesel generator provides the power for illumination and auxiliary power tools if required. Additionally the lights are separately switched for power saving flexibility.

In addition to the light towers, Kennards Hire Wagga Wagga also supplied a frontend loader, which was used on the grain bunkers at one of Emerald Grain’s larger storage sites in the region, ‘The Rock’.

The Emerald Grain network extends to all key grain growing regions of Australia with 13 grain marketing offices located in regional towns and receives grains and oil seeds from around 10,000 farming families.

The 11 upcountry storage and handling facilities in Victoria and New South Wales have an overall capacity of 1.5 million tonnes. Emerald exports roughly 3 million tonnes of grain from 17 grain terminals across Australia to 35 countries around the globe.

“When filling a grain bunker there were times when we needed to move a light tower,” explained Tony. “From one end of the line to the other could be 150 metres, being trailer mounted units meant they were light weight and easy to relocate.

“The service provided by the Kennards Hire team at Wagga Wagga was fantastic,” said Tony, “They are helpful with advice and flexible with delivery, at harvest times that’s very important.”

Grain Harvest with Kennards Hire in Goolgowi