Backhoe Operator
What the work is
Operates a backhoe and attachments to excavate, break, drill, level and compact earth, rock and other material.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Operates a backhoe and attachments to excavate and remove earth, rock and other materials
- Breaks through hard surfaces using backhoe attachments
- Uses backhoe attachments to lift and place objects such as pipes, poles and logs
- Loads and unloads materials onto trucks or other vehicles using a backhoe
- Performs routine maintenance and inspections on backhoe and attachments
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a civil construction crew building a new road and drainage link on the edge of a fictional town. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A trench comes out dead straight and the pipe layers drop in without a word of complaint
- A rough paddock becomes a flat, smooth building pad by the end of the week
- A visit from the engineer who says the levels are perfect, for once without a second look
Hard days
- A long wet week where the ground turns to soup and the machine just slides
- A buried service nobody told you about, and the tension of not knowing what is under the bucket
- Being asked to dig further or faster than the plan allows
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 741232, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.