Courageous contractors social media stars

An Urquhart Contracting staff member drives a John Deere tractor towing a Strautmann loader wagon on a Dingleburn Station track. Photo / Urquhart Contracting

Heavy machinery navigating a narrow track cut into a cliff face on a high country station in Otago has gone gangbusters on social media recently.

Urquhart Contracting owner Donald Urquhart, of Hawea Flat, said the photos were taken when his contracting team were travelling to cut silage on Dingleburn Station in December last year.

The station, owned by farmers Guy and Davida Mead, is on the eastern side of Lake Hawea.

Urquhart said his staff Alex Edwards, Alex Stewart and Flynn Stewart were driving the heavy machinery of a JCB loader and John Deere tractors towing Strautmann loader wagons.

An importer of Strautmann machinery, Strautmann Hopkins in Palmerston North shared the images on social media recently prompting hundreds of comments from across the world ranging from "epic" to "brave".

The drop from the track to the lake was up to 30m, he said.

In some places, the track was just wide enough to accommodate the machinery.

"You are right out on the edge."

Most of the track was straight, so it was easier to navigate, but a couple of the corners "were quite dodgy".

"The worst part is about 800m long."

He had been cutting silage annually on the station for about a decade.

The track was difficult to improve because of the steep cliff face above it.

A hairy moment on the most recent journey included his heavy machinery needing to reverse to allow a truck travelling in the opposite direction room to get past.