Hydrovac potholing, service proving and excavation beside live assets for civil, government, port, industrial and resource-sector work, run from the Mount Louisa base.
Hydro excavation loosens the ground with a pressurised water lance and lifts the slurry into a truck tank by vacuum, so a buried cable, pipe or conduit can be uncovered without steel touching it. On Townsville sites it is mostly used to prove what is in the ground before a design is fixed, a bore is launched or a trench is opened.
Units and crews work from Mount Louisa across the city and out to Ayr, Ingham, Bowen and Charters Towers. Clients range from civil contractors and utilities to councils, government agencies and operators in the port, industrial and resource sectors, each with their own rules on how close to an asset a machine may dig.
The costly surprise on a civil job is the service found during construction that nobody allowed for at design. A hydro excavated pothole, surveyed early, turns an assumed position on a utility plan into a measured one: asset type, depth, alignment and cover.
On road, drainage and utility packages that usually means a set of potholes along a corridor rather than a single hole, planned as a sequence so the surveyor can pick up each exposure while it is open. Underground service locating through LADS, part of the Dynamic Group, can run ahead of the excavation crew so every hole is set out on a located mark.
Inside the port and industrial precincts, the site decides how excavation happens. Energised cables, pressurised lines and live process plant sit behind permits and exclusion zones, and many operators will not allow a bucket near their assets. Non-destructive digging is often the only method they will sign off.
Hydro excavation fits that environment because the setup is compact and the spoil goes straight into the tank, leaving nothing stockpiled in an operating area. Work hours, isolations, permits to dig and inductions are set by the asset owner, so they are settled during scoping and the crew arrives ready to start rather than to be briefed.
Water is the default because it cuts compacted and cohesive ground efficiently, and it remains the faster method for most potholing and trenching. Units carry cold and hot water capability for different ground, and the likely rate of progress on a given site is set at scoping rather than promised in advance.
Dynamic’s rollout of Vacvator air excavation units reaches Townsville. Air keeps the hole and the spoil dry, which helps where water could destabilise ground beside a footing, where slurry would be a containment problem in a substation yard or finished area, or where the spoil is wanted back as backfill. Whether air, water or both suit the site, and whether an air unit is free for your dates, is confirmed when the job is scoped.
Resource-sector clients and projects inland toward Charters Towers bring their own conditions: prequalification, site vehicle specifications, inductions and longer travel. Those requirements are checked against the unit and crew before mobilisation, and current accreditation details can be provided on request for prequalification.
Where an excavation produces more slurry than one truck should haul a long way to disposal, a 10x4 vacuum truck or a hydro tanker can work alongside. Excavators, bobcats and tip trucks are available with operators when bulk material has to come out once the services are exposed and marked.
Proving services along road corridors before upgrades and new crossings.
Excavation in port and industrial precincts under the site’s permits, isolations and exclusion zones.
Service exposure for resource-sector clients, with site vehicle and induction requirements confirmed first.
Exposing electrical, water and telecommunications assets for maintenance and new connections.
Potholing ahead of council and government capital works across the region.
The core of the fleet. Truck-mounted vacuum units for hydro excavation, service exposure and material recovery.
Supplied for: Hydro Excavation, Vacuum Excavation, Vacuum Loading
High-capacity 10x4 units for larger volumes and sustained excavation and recovery programmes on major projects.
Supplied for: Hydro Excavation, Vacuum Excavation, Hydro Tankers
High-capacity tankers, including a 16,000-litre capability, for large-volume material recovery on major projects.
Supplied for: Hydro Tankers, Vacuum Loading
Safety on site
Yes, under the site’s own controls. Tell us the permit system, induction requirements, approved hours and any isolations needed when you enquire, and the crew and unit are planned around them.
Vacvator air excavation units are being rolled out across the network, including Townsville. Availability for particular dates is confirmed at enquiry. On some sites the best result comes from using water through harder ground and air close to the asset.
The number of locations, the services expected at each, target depths, whether a surveyor will record the exposures, and the access and traffic arrangements. For sites outside the city, such as Charters Towers or Bowen, include the travel route so it is priced in.
Underground utility locating delivered by LADS, part of the Dynamic Group.
Industrial vacuum excavation for safe, efficient exposure and removal of material.
High-capacity hydro tankers for large-volume material recovery on major projects.
Excavators with experienced operators for civil earthworks and site preparation.
Hydro Excavation in other regions: Hydro Excavation Brisbane, Hydro Excavation Gold Coast, Hydro Excavation Sydney, Hydro Excavation Sunshine Coast, Hydro Excavation Newcastle, Hydro Excavation Wollongong, Hydro Excavation Cairns, Hydro Excavation Coffs Harbour, Hydro Excavation Tweed Heads
Project evidence
No Townsville case study for this service has been published yet. These show the same service delivered in other regions.
Related insights
Written by the people who run this work, on how jobs are planned and what changes on site.
Air excavation uses compressed air rather than water to break up ground around buried services. Dynamic is rolling out Vacvator units across its East Coast operations, adding a dry option alongside hydro excavation.
3 min read
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On a civil site the excavation method is a programme decision as much as a safety one. Hydro excavation is specified because it narrows the range of things that can go wrong at the point where a project is most exposed.
3 min read
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LADS, Locate & Detection Specialists, joined the Dynamic Group in 2026. It brings CERTLOC accredited underground service locating and ground penetrating radar in house, alongside the excavation and inspection fleet.
3 min read
Read ArticleTell us about the site and the work and the Townsville team will respond. For urgent works, call 1300 822 878.
What to send us for an accurate hydro excavation quoteStep 1 of 6: Service
