Civil Construction Field Days 2021 a success

The second ever Civil Construction Field Days (CCFD), organised by the Civil Contractors Federation of Queensland, had over 3000 visitors stream through its doors over three days and more than 50 exhibitors display their wares and services.

This year, the show partnered up with the iconic Brisbane Truck Show in a bid to attract more visitors across the board, offering reciprocal ticketing as well as bus transfers between the two shows.

The inaugural CCFD in 2019 was held in Archerfield but in 2021 moved to Hamilton Northshore which is just a stone’s throw from the Brisbane Airport and Brisbane CBD.

CCF QLD CEO, Damian Long, said the show was first held two years ago when the organisation realised there was a need for an industry event in the state where like-minded professionals can converge and network.

“There hasn't been anything like this in Queensland for a long time, and we just felt we needed to plug the gap,” he said.

“Looking at what we've done, this is our second year and I'm really happy with the result.”

He added holding the event in the midst of an ongoing pandemic was a risk but it paid off for everyone involved.

“If there's ever an industry that relies on relationships and camaraderie, it's the civil industry,” he said.

“Leading up to COVID, I think the industry was a bit separated so this type of event brings those relationships back together.

“There's nothing more important than people being able to understand who they're doing business with, seeing a face, being able to talk to them, enjoy a laugh and just understand the hardships that both customer and the equipment provider has been through.

“I really hope that everyone had a great time and looks forward to the next one.”

New additions to the show this year include one extra day to the show (three days instead of two), new food vendors and a licensed bar – the Trimble Inn where visitors and exhibitors were able to enjoy a beverage or two and a chat. The expo’s move to the Hamilton portside event space also meant a bigger exhibition space, in addition to improved parking.

The biggest and perhaps most eye-catching site at the show was that of Hastings Deering- Queensland’s Caterpillar dealer and a major partner of CCF QLD.

The site was filled with shiny new Caterpillar machines, some of which are Cat’s latest releases including the 315GC excavator.

A massive Caterpillar 657 scraper weighing approximately 72 tonnes took centre stage at the expo. The machine, sporting a special decal, was delivered to Queensland contractor, Quentin Birt, in celebration of his 100th Cat scraper and was loaned temporarily to the show for display purposes.

Other names which exhibited at the show include Case Construction, Komatsu, Wacker Neuson, Pickles Industrial, Kobelco and more.

Exhibitors presented a wide range of products associated with the heavy industry; from excavators to wheel loaders; and engines to vac trucks.

There was also a mini vintage machinery exhibition featuring a couple of Caterpillar crawler tractors as well as a 1927 Chevrolet truck.

There has been no date set for the next event but CCF QLD hopes to stage the next show in 2023.

“It takes a lot of effort to put a show like this together,” Damian Long said.

“Our plans would be to make the next show bigger. We will learn from this, take away what we did well and what we didn't do so well, bundle it all up and move it into the next show.”

The 2021 Civil Construction Field Days ran from May 13 to 15.

2021 Australian earthmoving and construction events calendar

New construction equipment show announced

Six construction theme parks around the world