Grass is greener on the other side

Crusader Hose was recently able to play a role in the rebuilding of a Healesville farm, savaged by the Black Saturday bushfires.

Laurence operates a small cattle farm in Healesville, approximately 50km from Melbourne, Victoria. In 2009 the area, along with many other suburbs just outside of Melbourne, was attacked by the worst series of bushfires the state has ever seen.

After losing everything, the task to rebuild his farm has been long and difficult. However from this tragedy, Laurence was provided with the opportunity to rebuild everything from scratch – and fit out his farm with some of the best equipment available.

Laurence decided that a solar powered pump was the best fit for his farm, allowing him to pump water to where it was needed and tap into the benefits of solar power.

Laurence worked with an agent in the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill, who recommended a Lorenz pump, which was imported from Germany.

To complement the solar pump, a desire for a flexible system for pumping the water around his farm led Laurence to consider Crusader Hose’s Flexibore range. Flexibore connects directly to the Lorenz pump (as well as most other brands of solar pumps) and can transport water from depths up to 150m.

To Laurence, part of Flexibore’s appeal was the fact that the hose can be easily installed with the pump – in fact, Laurence was able to make a mini roller and get the system up and running in just 2 hours.

Benefits of Flexibore

One of the main benefits of Flexibore is that it can be very easily retrieved in case of servicing. In actual fact, Laurence plans to lift it himself when the pump is due for service.

Crusader Hose designed and manufactured the flexible riser to replace metal rigid riser pipes, as well as poly pipes, which can be costly to install and cannot be easily retrieved. Flexibore is an economical solution that makes pump handling and maintenance an efficient exercise.

For solar pumps, which are becoming increasingly popular in the Australian market, Flexibore offers the only solo solution for farmers needing to service the bore pump. Therefore, if a farmer in the outback comes across his water trough that is empty, he can pull up the pump alone to check for faults.

The other main benefit Flexibore offers over steel pipes is that it is resistant to rust and encrustation. In areas with high iron bacteria, scaling can build up inside rigid pipes and this is not the case with Flexibore.

The grass is greener

For Laurence, the main benefit of using Flexibore combined with a solar powered pump is evident in the appearance of his farm today. From being totally decimated a little over five years ago, today, the paddocks are green and the cattle are thriving – thanks in part to the solar powered pump/Flexibore solution.

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