Dunedin man reigns supreme at Otago regional excavator operator competition

25 Jan 2026

Few people can pour a cup of tea and dunk a basketball using a digger, but for Dunedin’s Damien Nagle, it’s par for the course.

The Pro Civil employee completed the eye-catching tasks on his way to claiming victory over a field of 11 other competitors at the Civil Contractors New Zealand CablePrice Otago Regional Excavator Operator Competition on Saturday.

The contest, held at the Taieri Showgrounds in Mosgiel as part of the 166th Taieri A & P Show, attracted hundreds of spectators eager to watch contestants push their excavators to the limits.

Nagle said as it was his first time tackling the competition he didn’t expect to win but was delighted with the result after facing tough challenges including torrential rain.

“I thought I’d be nowhere near coming where I am. I’m very, very happy. There was a lot of nerves on the go when I was doing it, but we got there in the end.”

In addition to deftly pouring cups of tea and dunking basketballs using their machines, other more conventional challenges included traversing logs in excavators, truck loading, a test of operators’ health and safety knowledge, and an excavator pre-start check.

Nagle’s victory qualifies him for the national finals, where he will represent Otago against 11 other regional winners at the CCNZ CablePrice National Excavator Operator Competition, held during the Central Districts Field Days from 19-21 March.

His company, Pro Civil, also won the company competition, and he said he was looking forward to the challenge of the national finals, even though the win hadn’t quite sunk in yet.

“I’m overly proud of achieving something like this. For anyone who is keen I would recommend them to do this because it’s a fun day out and you meet lots of new people.”

Jason Cooper from Andrew Haulage finished as runner-up in the regional competition, while Kaleb Holland from Hollands Excavation secured third place on the podium. The prize-giving ceremony was held at Mosgiel District Motorcycle Club, where the top three finishers were recognised, alongside Chetan Raju of Twin Peaks Earthworks, who won the social division.

CablePrice representative Andrew Gowers presented the winners with the prizes.

“The highlight for me was seeing the new faces … you get some young guys coming through and having a turn and building a bit of confidence. Those are the guys that will shape the industry in years to come and come back next year and win the trophy,” he said.

A have-a-go for the public to get behind the controls and get instruction on operating excavators also featured alongside the main event, to allow everyone to build their skills and understand the expertise required to operate excavators with pin-point precision.

The CCNZ CablePrice Otago Regional Excavator Operator Competition was made possible by the support of major sponsors including CablePrice, Humes, First Gas, Hirepool, Connexis, Attach2, Caltex Lubricants, Civil Trades, Contractor Magazine and beforeUdig.

Local sponsors involved were Hollands Excavation, Andrew Haulage, KB Contractors Mosgiel, Fleet Review Services, Fulton Hogan Dunedin, Total Harvesting, Isaac Construction Dunedin, Hall Brothers Transport, Hynds Pipe Systems Dunedin, Continental Event Hire Dunedin, Fairfield Transport and Blackhead Quarries.