Earthmoving Labourer
What the work is
Performs routine tasks in excavating earth, clearing and levelling sites, and digging irrigation channels.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Performs routine tasks to manually excavate and move earth, rocks and other materials
- Loads excavated materials onto conveyors, wheelbarrows and trucks for removal
- Spreads and levels soil, gravel and sand on roads and driveways, trench bottoms and similar locations
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a residential building site where an old house is being renovated and a new extension is going up. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- The slab is poured and finished, and everyone stands back to look at a perfectly flat surface
- A site that is clean and tidy at the end of the day because you cleared it as you went
- A tradie tells the foreman that having you on the crew makes their job easier
Hard days
- A hot day carrying materials up a ramp for hours with little shade
- Work that looks routine until someone cuts a corner and the site becomes dangerous
- Being the newest on site, and being sent for everything
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 821135, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.