Safety Must Be Number One

By Kevin Borg, Chairman, CANEGROWERS Mackay

We are moving slowly towards the end of the 2022 crush, but there is no room for complacency when it comes to safety.

Road users, please keep in mind that both haulout vehicles and cane trains will still be on the roads and tramlines across Christmas and into January. Rail crossings will be active, use your train brain.

We also ask for the community’s continued patience with the slower moving haulout vehicles. There’s no value for anyone involved in crazy high-speed manoeuvres to overtake, it just places everyone in jeopardy. So please be mindful on the roads- these are people earning a living in an industry that works hard for the regional economy.

Most years, the large low-loader trucks moving harvesters between farms are off the road and the crush done and dusted by the Christmas Heavy Vehicle Curfew, but this year they will be about, as with the end of 2021.

CANEGROWERS Mackay has worked with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, Queensland Transport and Main Roads and relevant harvester contractors who are CANEGROWERS members, to smoothly ensure that permits are secured for operators over the curfew period, holding a workshop last week between all stakeholders. The event was highly beneficial for all involved, hopefully introducing some streamlines to the process, should we find ourselves negotiating the Christmas Curfew in years to come. Also present at the information workshop were representatives from Mackay Sugar, Mackay Regional Council, and CANEGROWERS Proserpine.

To help extend community safety messaging, in coming weeks you will also start to hear our radio ad played across 4MK, KIX and HIT, reminding road users that we are out there for the longer harvest this year.

No-one likes working over what should be a festive season celebrated with family and friends, but that is what the sugar industry is grappling with again in 2022. Weighing on growers’ minds is the spectres of dwindling sugar content, standover cane and the ongoing viability of their agribusinesses. The rush is on, also, to get as much of the crop away as possible as the monsoon moves in.

Despite these pressure points and their toll upon stress levels, we must not sacrifice our safety. The recent incident between a haulout tractor and a cane train in the Burdekin is a strong warning on the importance of vigilance and keen awareness of our surroundings as we go about our work. It’s an industry of big machinery, and big consequences when things go wrong.

It has been a long crush, people are looking to get the job done, but this is not the time for complacency. We urge growers and harvesters to think safety in the paddock, in the shed and around sidings: to be mindful of our environment and the machines around us.

There’s not a dollar in the world for which it is worth losing a life. Think safety, wherever you are working.

Image 1: Harvest Contractors, and other stakeholders gathered at CANEGROWERS Mackay last week for the information workshop on NHVR permits for the Christmas oversize vehicle curfew. Pictures: Contributed

Image 2: As part of our Christmas Curfew oversize vehicle permit NHVR and TMR staff were taken to the farm of CANEGROWERS Mackay Area Committee member Andre Camilleri, to get a first-hand look at some of the large agricultural machinery involved in cane farming operations.

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