Machinery: bobcat, excavator, and hire versus hire-with-operator
What each machine is for, what it costs in Perth, what access it needs, and the honest calculation of whether to learn to drive one or pay someone who already can.
Machinery is not a horsepower decision. It is an access decision measured in millimetres, and a liability decision buried in a hire contract most people sign without reading.
On a renovation the access is already built and you do not get to change it: a 900 mm side gate, a meter box, a paved path you intend to keep, a tree whose roots you are not allowed to chew up. When this goes wrong it is not subtle — the float arrives, the machine will not fit, and you pay the delivery both ways for nothing.
What a professional does at this stage
They walk the access route with a tape, write the narrowest point down in millimetres, and book the largest machine that fits with clearance. Largest, because machine time is the cheapest labour on a site and a machine one size too small turns a one-day job into three.
They lodge the Before You Dig Australia enquiry days before the machine is booked, not the morning it arrives, because each asset owner returns its plans in its own time.
And they book a machine they can already drive. Learning to operate on your own job, with the day rate running, is the most expensive training in this trade.
Measure the access before you look at machines
Walk the route from street to work area and record, in millimetres:
- Narrowest gap — gate posts, meter box to wall, tap to fence. One pinch point decides it.
- Lowest overhead — eaves, patio beam, pergola, low branch, the service wire over your verge.
- Tightest turn — corners the machine must swing through, not just pass along.
- Steps — a machine that cannot climb a 200 mm step stops at the step.
- What it crosses — paving you are keeping, lawn, a soakwell lid, the sewer junction, live retic.
Allow transport width plus about 100 mm each side, and get that width from the depot in writing, quoting the model number. “1.7 tonne” is a weight, not a width, and two machines of the same tonnage can differ by 300 mm depending on whether the undercarriage retracts.
Crossing paving or turf you are keeping is a plywood or track-mat job — plan it in site establishment. Rubber tracks are gentler than steel; a wheeled skid steer scuffs every time it turns.
The machines, and what each is honestly for
| Machine | Typical transport width | Best at | Worst at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shovel and barrow | ~600 mm | Working within a metre of services, roots and footings | Volume, and February |
| Mini loader (Dingo / Kanga class) | 750–900 mm | Standard side gates; shifting soil, sand and mulch | Deep digging, lifting, limestone |
| Mini excavator, 1–1.7 t | 1,000–1,300 mm | Soakwell holes, trenches, stumps, digging tight to a boundary | Moving spoil — it digs, it does not cart |
| Excavator, 2.5–5 t | 1,500–2,000 mm | Limestone, depth, big root balls, real volume | Fitting down the side of a Perth house |
| Skid steer / posi-track (“bobcat”) | ~1,000 mm mini to ~1,900 mm | Spreading bulk, levelling, loading a truck | Precision; wheeled ones tear turf |
| Dumper or tipper | Varies | Getting spoil off site | Everything else |
Those widths are the shape of the market, not a guarantee — confirm each against the spec sheet for the machine your depot is actually sending. Perth sand digs easily, so a small machine goes further here than it would in Melbourne clay; but if your soil profile hits cemented limestone at 400 mm, a 1.7 t machine bounces off it. That is a bigger machine or a rock breaker, and a cost you find in the test hole rather than on the day.
Hand digging stays on the list. It is the only sensible method within about a metre of a known service or a retained tree’s root zone, and it is how you pothole. The limit is heat.
Dry hire versus wet hire
Dry hire is the machine only: you drive it and every consequence is yours. Wet hire is machine plus operator, quoted by the hour with a minimum and usually a separate float charge to get the machine there and back, with the operator’s employer carrying the insurance and the work health and safety duty for that operator’s work.
The comparison people get wrong is time. On your first half day in a mini excavator you will do perhaps a third of what an experienced operator does, and do it more roughly. A “cheap” two-day dry hire regularly costs more than the half-day of wet hire that would have finished the same task.
| Dry hire | Wet hire | |
|---|---|---|
| You control | Timing, sequence, idle time | Little — you brief and supervise |
| You carry | Damage, downtime, services strikes, spoil | Less, but read the contract before assuming none |
| Suits | Simple bulk work, long durations, your second job | Tight access, one-day precision work, anything near services |
| Hidden cost | Your learning curve, and your errors | Minimum hire and float charges on a short job |
Wet hire wins when the job is short, precise, near something expensive, or when you would otherwise be learning on it — DIY versus subcontract, applied to a single day.
What it costs beyond the day rate
Perth rates are set per depot and move constantly, so ring three — the yards around Welshpool, Malaga, Bibra Lake, Canning Vale and O’Connor — and compare the total, not the headline.
The trap is the word “day”. At one national chain the day rate runs 24 hours from the start of hire, a half day is four trading hours, a week is seven days, and extra days past a week are charged at 20 per cent of the week rate, with the cheapest applicable rate applied automatically (Kennards Hire rates FAQs). Then add delivery and pick-up, which is two float movements and often the biggest line on a one-day hire; attachments, priced separately; fuel at a premium rate if returned empty; and the bin, because spoil is charged by volume. If you self-collect, a 1.7 t machine plus plant trailer is well over 2 tonnes — check the towing capacity and tow ball download on your vehicle’s compliance plate. Most people should pay for delivery. All of it belongs in labour, hire and hidden costs.
Insurance, damage waiver, and what you are really liable for
A damage waiver is not insurance. It is a contractual cap with holes in it, and you are still required to hold your own cover.
The pattern is consistent. The hirer is responsible for loss or theft outright, pays the full cost of repairing damage they caused, and must hold adequate insurance for liabilities arising from use of the equipment. The basic waiver caps repair exposure at an excess — at one national chain, the lesser of the actual repair cost or 20 per cent of replacement cost — and it falls away entirely if the operator is not properly licensed, the machine is rolled, it collides with an overhead structure through insufficient clearance, it is overloaded, or it is used on unsealed or non-public roads (Kennards Hire contract conditions).
So before you sign: ask your home and contents insurer, in writing, whether they cover liability arising from your operation of hired plant on your own property, because many policies do not; photograph the machine on all four sides with the hour meter visible before it leaves the yard; and ask what the waiver excludes for underground services, because damage to a cable or a main is usually yours regardless, and the bill is the utility’s repair cost.
Add the crossover and verge. Tracking a machine over a kerb or footpath can leave you paying for the repair, and Perth councils routinely hold bonds for exactly this — ask yours before the machine arrives.
Underground services: the one that ends projects
Lodge a free Before You Dig Australia enquiry before you book anything. Then treat the plans as approximate, because they are. The industry sequence is plan, prepare, pothole, protect, proceed, and potholing means hand digging or soft-dig excavation to physically expose the asset before the machine swings.
Water Corporation’s own instruction is to pothole at 5 m intervals where you dig parallel to a pipeline, and to backfill with clean bedding material for the first 300 mm above an exposed asset. Electronic detection cannot find non-metallic pipe, which is most modern water service and all poly retic.
BYDA plans also stop at the meter. Old power to a shed, the pool pump feed, unmarked poly, a forgotten soakwell: those are yours to find, and locating services is where you found them.
The hazards that actually hurt people
- Ground collapse. Perth sand will not hold a vertical face and a cubic metre of it weighs well over a tonne. Never enter an unbattered excavation. Deeper than 1.5 m is high risk construction work with mandatory controls.
- Overhead powerlines. Booms, tipper trays, and the machine on the trailer. Western Power records 30 or more accidental contacts with its network every month — ring them for the approach distance rather than eyeballing it.
- Being struck or crushed. Nobody stands within slewing range. Most small-machine injuries are to the person on the ground, not the operator.
- Rollover. Tracks square to the slope, bucket low, never travel across a batter face, seatbelt on.
- Silica dust. Breakers and saws on concrete, limestone, brick and pavers generate respirable crystalline silica — water suppression and proper respiratory protection, not a hardware-aisle dust mask.
- Working alone in heat. Machine work is sedentary and deceptively hot. Tell someone your finish time.
What happens next
Your machine booking now has a date on it, and that date has to cover every task needing the machine, because bringing one in twice is money you do not get back. Sequence it in earthworks.
The next lesson is where most of that machine time goes: digging in soakwells and drainage, at depth, in sand, before anything is built on top.
Checklist
- Measure your narrowest access point before booking anything
- Match machine size to the job and the access
- Compare dry hire against wet hire including your own learning time
- Confirm insurance and what damage you are liable for
Watch
The 5 Ps of Safe Excavation
The national damage-prevention body's own summary of the sequence — plan, prepare, pothole, protect, proceed — which is the order the whole industry works to and the order you should use before a machine touches your block. Short, free, and it comes from the organisation that runs the plan service rather than from someone selling equipment.
Where to go deeper
Every link below was fetched and checked before it shipped. Nothing here is a guess.
- Freetool15 min to lodge, then wait for plansAustralian
Before You Dig Australia
Before You Dig Australia (BYDA)
Why this oneThe single point of contact for asset plans from every utility with infrastructure near your block — power, gas, water, sewer, telecommunications. You register a free account, mark your dig site on a map, and the relevant asset owners email their plans to you directly. The portal is online 24/7 and the service costs nothing, which makes skipping it indefensible if you later hit something.
Change this for PerthBYDA returns plans from asset owners who are members. It does not cover private assets on your side of the meter — the retic mainline, the pool pump feed, the cable someone ran to the shed, an abandoned soakwell. Those you have to find yourself.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- FreecourseAustralian
Book a free BYDA education session
Before You Dig Australia (BYDA)
Why this oneTwo free sessions, run online or face to face, and the booking form lists Western Australia as a delivery state. The first covers safe excavation practice and the consequences of damaging an asset; the second is Utility Plan Reading, which is the one that matters — a set of BYDA plans is close to useless if you cannot read the legend and the symbols. Free and specific beats a paid general safety course you will not finish.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freegovernment20 minAustralian
Excavations and earthmoving plant in construction
SafeWork NSW
Why this oneThe clearest free regulator page on the two things that kill people on small excavation jobs: ground collapse and being hit by plant. It states the 1.5 m trench depth that makes excavation high risk construction work, names the four collapse controls (shielding, benching, battering, and monitored geotechnical advice), requires current essential services information for the work area and any adjacent area, and covers exclusion zones at trench edges and plant slewing into people.
Change this for PerthSafeWork NSW is the New South Wales regulator; in WA the regulator is WorkSafe WA. The wording comes from the national model work health and safety regulations, so confirm the exact WA reference with WorkSafe WA before relying on it for work you are paid to do. The physical controls it describes apply on any block, in any state.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freegovernment10 minPerth / WA
Locating our assets
Water Corporation
Why this onePerth back yards are full of Water Corporation sewer, water and drainage assets, and this is the utility's own method for finding them before a machine does. It sends you to BYDA for free plans, then explains potholing — careful hand digging or soft-dig techniques such as vacuum excavation — including the instruction to pothole at 5 m intervals when excavating parallel to a pipeline, and to backfill with clean bedding material for the first 300 mm above an exposed asset. It also warns that electronic detection cannot find non-metallic pipe.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freegovernment10 minPerth / WA
Working near our network
Western Power
Why this oneWestern Power owns the poles, wires and underground cable across most of Perth, and this is their own page for anyone working near it. The number worth remembering is on it: 30 or more accidental contacts with the network every month. Read it before you raise an excavator boom or a tipper tray anywhere near the overhead service running to your house or across your verge.
Change this for PerthThe page is an awareness hub and does not publish exclusion-zone distances in metres. Ring Western Power for the approach distance that applies to your situation — do not estimate it by eye from the ground.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freesupplier20 minAustralian
Hire contract conditions
Kennards Hire
Why this oneRead one hire contract properly and you will never sign another one blind. This one states that the customer is responsible for loss or theft, pays the full cost of repairing damage they caused, and must hold adequate insurance to cover liabilities arising from use of the equipment. It also lists what voids the damage waiver — unlicensed operator, rolling the machine, collision with an overhead structure through insufficient clearance, overloading, use on unsealed or non-public roads — which is a fair summary of how DIY operators actually break machines.
Change this for PerthThese are one national hire company's terms, not law, and every depot's contract differs. Use it as the list of questions to ask, then read the actual contract you are being handed in Perth.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freesupplier10 minAustralian
Rates and payment FAQs
Kennards Hire
Why this oneHow hire rates are actually structured, which is where DIY budgets go wrong. A day rate is 24 hours from the start of hire, not eight hours of work; a half day is four trading hours; a week is seven days, and extra days beyond that are charged at 20 per cent of the week rate. It also confirms the lowest applicable rate is applied automatically, and that on a credit card a hire under two weeks is taken in full as a deposit up front.
Change this for PerthRates themselves are set per depot and are not published on the page, so this gives you the structure, not the Perth price. Ring three Perth branches for the machine you actually want and compare the total, including delivery and pick-up.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freearticle15 minAustralian
How to use an excavator
Kennards Hire
Why this oneA plain walk-through of the controls before you are sitting in the seat with the meter running: three points of contact getting in, seatbelt, safety lock lever, two travel sticks for the tracks, and which lever slews the cab. It confirms no special licence is required to hire and operate an excavator, sends you to the underground services service before digging, and makes the point that saves most beginners a day — excavators are diggers, not movers, so hire a dumper or mini loader if spoil has to travel.
Change this for PerthWritten by a hire company to sell hire. The technique is sound; the implied 'anyone can do this' framing is not a substitute for practising on something that does not matter.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freegovernment15 minPerth / WA
Silica
WorkSafe WA
Why this oneThe WA regulator's page on respirable crystalline silica — the dust generated the moment a machine attachment or a demolition saw meets concrete, limestone, brick or pavers. It sets out the duty to manage exposure and confirms that the use, supply and manufacture of engineered stone slabs, panels and benchtops is now banned in Western Australia. Perth limestone is a silica source, not soft harmless rock.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
The rules, with sources
WA regulation changes. Each point below names its primary source and the date it was last checked — always confirm with your own council before you build.
Excavation work involving a shaft or a trench with an excavated depth greater than 1.5 m is high risk construction work. Before it starts you must obtain current information on essential services in the work area and any adjacent area, keep that information available for inspection until the work is complete, and control the risk of ground collapse by shielding, benching, battering, or working to written geotechnical advice with daily monitoring.
SafeWork NSW (national model work health and safety wording — confirm the WA reference with WorkSafe WA) ↗ · checked 2 Aug 2026
WorkSafe WA lists the high risk work licence classes in Western Australia as cranes, boilers, forklifts, hoists, reach stackers, reciprocating steam engines, rigging, scaffolding and turbines. Earthmoving machines such as mini excavators and skid steer loaders are not among the classes named, and hire companies confirm no special licence is required to hire and operate an excavator.
WorkSafe WA ↗ · checked 2 Aug 2026
Anyone working near Water Corporation water, wastewater or drainage assets is required to carry out the work in a manner that will not cause damage. Free asset plans come from Before You Dig Australia, exact position is confirmed by potholing — careful hand digging or soft-dig methods — at 5 m intervals where the excavation runs parallel to a pipeline, and clean bedding material must be used for the first 300 mm above an exposed asset. Approval may be required before working near an asset.
Water Corporation ↗ · checked 2 Aug 2026