Brendon Ferguson of Fulton Hogan demonstrated his mettle amongst a tough field of competitors to win the Civil Contractors New Zealand CablePrice Southland Excavator Operator Competition for the second time.

Having won the regional competition in 2017, and with 22-years of experience in the construction industry, the veteran proved unbeatable at the Winton A & P Association Show on 21 January.

The competition featured unique tasks, including an obstacle course for a 12-tonne ZAXIS-130 digger, but for Ferguson the main challenge was calming his nerves in front of the crowd that watched on for the event. He said his approach was to get the nerves out of his head and concentrate on doing what he’s good at.

“If you enjoy it, it goes a lot smoother”.

Ferguson’s win in the regional competition qualifies him as the region’s champion to compete in the CCNZ CablePrice National Excavator Operator Competition Finals in March.

This year’s national finals will be his third, following his appearances as Southland regional champion in 2017 and his last minute qualification in 2021 to replace fellow Southlander TJ Symons, who couldn’t make the event due to family commitments, and was runner-up for the 2023 regional competition.

While Ferguson didn’t win the national event during his previous appearances, he did take top spot in the 2021 event’s Z Energy One-day Job Challenge – an end-to-end event which involved site planning and layout for a task such as constructing a house foundation, as well as precision execution. He was presented with the One-day Job Trophy at the 2021 event by CCNZ President Bailey Gair and past national champion Steve Galbraith (pictured, below).

Ferguson said he was looking forward to this year’s national finals at Central Districts Field Days in Feilding, and hoped to top his past efforts.

He has been operating excavators since he was 17 years old, and said his experience of competing twice before would give him an advantage this time around.

“I know what to expect so I’m not walking into the unknown. I’m good at what I do, and hopefully I’ll do a wee bit better this time”.  

Ferguson also issued a challenge to other potential future Southland competitors, calling on other talented operators from across the region to contest the title against him at the next regional competition.

He said CCNZ does an amazing job of organising the events, handling everything from booking hotel rooms to picking up competitors at the airport when they arrive.

“There’s nothing bad you could say - it’s all awesome and the prizes are fantastic.”

He also thanked the event’s Platinum Sponsor, CablePrice for supporting the event for supplying the Hitachi excavators used throughout the competition.

Sponsors include: CablePrice, Hirepool Ltd, Connexis – Infrastructure Industry Training NZ, Humes Pipeline Systems, Firstgas, Z Energy, Attach2, Milwaukee Tools NZ.

Competition photos are available on the CCNZ CablePrice Excavator Operator Competitions Facebook page.