KATRINA BRANDON
By KATRINA BRANDON
HAWTHORN footy great, ‘The Big Dipper’, caused a lot of destruction on the footy field in his time, but now on Dipper’s Rigs on 7mate, ‘Dipper’ or Robert Di Pierdomenico, explores the industry that uses large equipment to do with demolishing, mining and travelling. On September 2, 7mate aired an episode where Dipper met with the Delta Group at Hazelwood Power Station. Here he learnt about the stations processes, measures and the recycling of materials in its closure. “I have always wanted to know how things are done. Like how cranes are built and what happens when you do a different demolition, who gets all the stuff,” Dipper said. “We have been able to film a lot of the work. I think it was the biggest job in the Southern Hemisphere, it was a really big job. “Everything that has been pulled down has been recycled. Every brick, every piece of iron, glass and whatever. It all gets recycled.” Dipper told the Express he was surprised with the outcome of the project and that what he saw in the end was “kangaroos running around, everything looks so lush and green compared to how it was before”. He also mentioned that he doesn’t know what will happen with the land, but he thought it might become farm land again or something that would benefit the community. The show took more than 12 months to become ready to air, according to Dipper, due to how much was involved and learning all that he could about what was there. Dipper said the show had been great, meeting new people and learning about the different industries. In the show, it touches on what management goes on in these projects, safety measures, and dangers within the industry. Dipper said most people did not know what goes on in these industries and the types of measures taken to ensure that everyone gets home safely. Before each project, Dipper said that he had to take a safety lesson to be aware of the measures taken. “It’s all about giving space to trucks on the road because you don’t know what load they carry. There is so much to them, such as the tuning of the truck, the servicing,” he said. Truck safety is so much more than what people think, according to Dipper. Drivers have weigh bridges on the sides of roads to weigh their load, check their breaks, check their log books and make sure everything is up to scratch so that there is confidence in the company that their vehicles are safe on the road. Dipper said, “Demolitions like Hazelwood are amazing because if you don’t know something and you see it, like if something blows up, how it blows up”. “Every demolition is organised. It’s not just ripping it down. It is like ‘We are going to take this side down, we have a couple of bricks here’. “It’s all like a big theatre, well put together.”
