New Army rock stars have a Pucka blaste
Volume 11, No. 47, July 13, 2006
By Lt Dale Hopcraft

Rock show: The Jaques Crusher, a huge rock-crunching monster, is operated by 80 Quarry Tp. Photo by Cpl Philip Rees

IT WAS a show of explosive proportions when 22 Const Regt’s newly raised 80 Quarry Tp blasted off at Mt Puckapunyal Quarry during a recent training exercise.

The blast was an important highlight of the June 2-4 training activity for the Melbourne-based GRes quarrymen, allowing them to produce good material for their Jaques Crusher, a huge steel monster capable of pulverising rocks and spitting out construction-grade material within minutes.

CO 22 Const Regt Lt-Col John Raike said the regiment was unique in being tasked to maintain Army’s sole heavy crusher capability.

“Winning rock also provides real-time assistance to various construction, training and maintenance tasks at Puckapunyal,” he said.

It only takes a small team to operate the Jaques Crusher, however there are many people involved in the identification of a suitable source of material, the drilling of blast holes and then there is the blasting and transport of the material itself.

The Jaques Crusher is fed via a hopper located to the rear of the crusher, which leads down to a feed opening. There the powerful jaws of the crusher, driven by a 110kW electric motor, begin to break down the rock. The material is then fed further along the crusher through a variety of screens that can output rock between 5-50mm in diameter.

Lt-Col Raike said while the Quarry Tp soldiers were pleased with the results of the activity, they were determined to enhance their capability through the training of more specialists.

“In October we plan to conduct Shotfirers and Air Track operators’ courses in order to upgrade the skills of the Quarry Tp and Resources Tp,” he said.

“This will enable 22 to continue to provide qualified personnel to support AACAP tasks and other deployments.”