AUSSIE FLOOD RESCUE
It’s obvious to everybody that we are seeing weather changes.
It appears to be more erratic and frequent than ever before. Local government bodies are plagued by flash floods that can result in major damage to roads and even highways.
This story, contributed by Australian Pump Industries, was written on the 2 March 2026, and on that particular day, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and parts of New South Wales had undergone major deluges. Even Alice Springs was subject to massive flood.
AUSSIE PUMPS SOLUTION
Australian Pump Industries build heavy duty 6” portable trash pumps that move up to 6,000 litres per minute. The pumps have been widely used by quarries, mines, construction sites and similar infrastructure applications.
Most recently, they’ve been used to divert the Nile River around the capital city of Juba in South Sudan. The United Nations chose Aussie Pumps 6” pumps because of the ability to pump huge amounts of water, potentially contaminated with overflowing sewage and debris, of all types.
“The feedback we got from the site was that they had tried wet prime pumps using compressors or vacuum pumps for priming with poor results. Our wet prime pumps are designed for high volume trash handling applications that are required in mine sites or flood situations like South Sudan”, said Aussie Pumps Chief Engineer, John Hales
QUEENSLAND FLOODS
We feel sorry for the Queenslanders who seem to be getting more frequent floods than any other part of the country.
Winton Shire Council, innovative and proactive, acquired four heavy-duty Aussie MQ600TD trash pumps, they are just like the ones in the Sudan mounted on heavy-duty trailers. Those four machines together will produce 24,000 litres per minute flow!
The Big Pumps have a huge heavy duty high SG cast Iron impeller that will pump up to 3” spherical solids in suspension. The body itself is cast iron, with a built-in priming tank that enables the pump to prime first time every time.
They are ideal for flood mitigation where there are no levees. The company proved this many years ago when Horsham in Victoria was flooding and a local contractor diverted the flood waters from the town using his 6” Aussie trash pump. Miller’s Contracting saved the town with that pump, it was regarded at the time as a virtual miracle.
Australian Pump has developed a program for flood mitigation to aid council’s resilience in the face of what are often completely unexpected weather events.
“We often get requests from panic-stricken councils wanting to rent these big machines”, said Hales.
We are a manufacturing company building these machines with 80 horsepower diesel engines and designing them for rugged work. We can offer local government lease deals but are not in the business of hire. That’s the job of great hire companies like Kennards.
Further information on how Winton Council decided to spec four of these big pumps is readily available from aussiepumps.com.au.
