From inception to rehabilitation

RTL Mining and Earthworks has long relied on the reliability of Liebherr equipment to help it support the Latrobe Valley's energy industry.

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The Latrobe Valley, located in the Gippsland region of Victoria, is well-known as a region of major historical and contemporary importance to the country's power generation industry.

Blessed with vast brown coal reserves, the site has long been the powerhouse of Victoria, supplying a significant portion of the state's electricity needs throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The development of the Latrobe Valley as an energy hub began in the early 1900s when the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) was established to develop the region's coal resources. Power stations such as Loy Yang and the now-closed Yallourn and Hazelwood facilities became synonymous with Victoria's energy production, using low-cost, high-moisture brown coal to generate electricity on a large scale.

Playing a major part in this development has been RTL Mining and Earthworks, which has become a backbone of logistics and support for the region's energy industry, providing a range of industrial services such as:

• Bulk earthworks and civil construction

• Coal and overburden transport

• Road maintenance and haulage

• Equipment hire and project logistics

We spoke to RTL General Manager Owen Cavanough about the equipment RTL uses that has helped embed itself in the operations that power Victoria.

"RTL offers a full service mining offering, from inception to rehabilitation," he said.

"We have been in operation now for nearly 33 years, founded initially by Roche Bros, Thiess and Linfox (the RTL).

"Since founding, we have completed significant projects such as two separate Morwell River diversions to enable continued mining production and a major highway realignment, in addition to our full service offering at the Yallourn mine where we supported energy production for over 20 years."