Shane Poole from Diamond Excavators has taken out the Queensland Final of the prestigious Caterpillar® Global Operator Challenge (GOC) — and he did it on his own patch.
The GOC finally made it to Queensland, with the state recently hosting the last leg of the Australian finals for 2025, pulling in a large number of observers to watch some of the region’s best machinery operators in action.
Competing against some of the best operators from Queensland and the Northern Territory, Shane delivered an outstanding performance on his home property, showcasing not only his exceptional skill behind the controls but also his deep connection to the land he works every day.
Diamond Excavators operates in Far North Queensland and is involved with numerous mining and civil projects.
Its extensive premises and demo site at Townsville has already been used for a couple of years by Cat dealer Hastings Deering for its Smart Iron Training Event, aimed at helping Cat operators hone their skills at operating the machines and understand the new technologies available.
The sessions have been so successful that Hastings Deering approached Shane to host the GOC event, designed to test operators’ accuracy, speed, and safety across a series of real-world machine challenges.
All state winners will proceed to Japan for the Regional Semi-Finals in October, to compete against the best from the ANZP region. The top three from this stage move on next year to the Global Final in Las Vegas, where the world’s top operators go head-to-head, and one will emerge as the GOC Global Champion.
The winner is set to walk away with a prize of US$10,000 or an equal value trip for two to a location around the world where Caterpillar has a presence.
For Shane, the GOC Qld event was an opportunity to prove what decades of hands-on experience can achieve — and he did just that on his beloved Cat machines.
“I live and breathe Caterpillar, and we have some of the best technology on the Cat machines,” he said.
“I’ve been dedicated to Caterpillar all my life. To win here has been a dream come true in regard to our dedication and everything we do as a business.
“We’ve been running for about 20 years. We’re only a small little company but we’re involved more with the detailed operations of a lot of earthworks.
“I’ve been operating since I was about 16. I’ve always been on the farm before that, driven tractors and the like. And then I moved into the loaders and then onto the excavators and the dozers.”
Shane said his favourite gear was the excavator, although he performed just as well with the wheel loader.
“Excavators are brilliant. The things you can do with them, the boundaries you can push. You can do anything on them, as long as you have imagination,” he said.
From precise trenching to tight obstacle navigation, Shane showed total mastery of the various machines, turning in the fastest times with almost zero penalties.
But he said that although he knew he would do well, he never thought he’d actually win the event.
“I guess it was because I’ve had the experience of being on everything, so it’s given me an advantage. I’m often jumping from one machine to the other. I’m not specific on one plant,” he said.
Shane said it would be “awesome” if he could make it to Vegas and win again.
“It will be something I will work hard for. We’ve got a fair bit of competition to get through in Japan first, and you have to have your game on,” he said.
“I’ll be training very hard to really get there and hopefully have Hastings Deering and the Caterpillar teams on my back to push it all the way.”
Shane said he was delighted to have the opportunity to host the GOC finals.
“Caterpillar and Hastings Deering have invested a fair bit of money to make it happen. To have this sort of event in a regional area in Townsville, is unbelievable. I was happy to give them the access to the property, as it’s a great venue,” he said.
Other challengers were just as delighted to make it to the final and to have a chance to compete.
Black Cat Civil director Jai Tomlinson was excited to have a go at some of the newer equipment.
“Our business has been playing in the dirt for more than 25 years now, so it’s great to be here for the GOC and to work with the best of the best,” he said.
“It was definitely a little bit tricky out there. There’s some machines that I was comfortable in, while the new wheel loader with the hydrostatic transmission was something new for me,” he said.
“The skid steer round was good and the excavator challenge was pretty fun.
“It’s been a little bit nervous for me; operating is not what I do every day now and it just brought back loads of memories of trying to be the best out in the field, and the best here today.
“Ultimately, I think it’s great that an event like this brings some of the best operators through Hastings Deering’s territory and it challenges them to get the absolute most from an operating skill point of view.”
Jai’s brother Todd, leading hand with Black Civil, was just as pumped and nervous.
“I came here to prove my skill set, to have a go at the GOC,” he said.
“The Black Cat fleet is 100 per cent Caterpillar; we love the machines. So for this event to be put on is fantastic. What a great experience to be here and be a part of it.
“Overall, the competition was 10 out of 10. I’d encourage everyone who wants to get in to have a go at the next GOC.”
Finishing behind Shane in the top three were runner-up Rossco Turner of Townsville Earthmoving, and third-placed Corey Wiggins of Civil Plus.
The challenges
Hastings Deering General Constructions Industries Manager George Brown said the three separate challenges pushed competitors to their limits, testing agility, speed, and precision across a range of Cat machinery, from compact equipment to heavy-duty machines with cutting-edge technology.
• Precision placement: threading the needle
Using a Caterpillar 285 Compact Track Loader, this task focused on placing objects onto small platforms or within tight targets. It tested the operator’s fine control, balance, and spatial awareness, demanding steady hand and razor-sharp coordination.
“The contestants will leave a parking bay, move a cone to a specific area and then proceed through a course,” George said.
“They will then move a pipe along a rope while traversing through some high and low points without damaging the course or the rope.
“After that’s completed, they’ll proceed through another section of the course, turn around and come back and complete that challenge again.”
• The Big Dig
Competitors had to excavate and dig a trench using 2D technology.
Points were awarded for accuracy, smooth operation, and minimal soil disturbance, with penalties applied for over-digging, uneven trench walls, or hitting cones.
“The challengers use the Caterpillar 335 compact radius excavator,” George said.
“They will dig a trench six metres long and one metre deep with four per cent fall.
“At the end of the trenching task, the operators then have the opportunity to complete a task where they can knock a football into a target for bonus points.”
• Load and Carry Challenge
Using a Cat Centennial 938 Integrated Tool Carrier (ITC), competitors had to load material into a bucket, transport it across a marked path with obstacles, and deposit it cleanly into a designated zone. An ITC is a type of wheel loader that is designed for versatility on a construction site or other work environments.
Time and precision are critical, with spills, collisions, or bucket misplacement resulting in time penalties.
“The contestants will leave a parking bay with forks on,” George said.
“They’ll remove the forks. They’ll then pick up a bucket with that, and they will then grab a payload.
“They’ll traverse through a course, dump off in a second stockpile, then load in a second stockpile and come back through the course, dumping off in the first stockpile, removing the bucket, collecting the forks and returning to the parking bay.”
Winning ways
George said each operator’s performance was measured on the three separate challenges.
“We combine the scores from those three separate challenges to create an overall score for every operator. We then measure them individually on one leaderboard to determine the winner,” he said.
George said there was more to the event than just selecting the best operator in the world.
“There is an opportunity for these operators to experience the features, the comforts and the efficiencies of the new machines, with the accuracy that they are built with,” he said.
“It’s a wonderful experience for everybody involved to not only experience the equipment, but also for Hastings Deering and all global dealers to also get closer to the operators that ultimately determine the success of these machines.”
George said that as this year marked Caterpillar’s 100th anniversary, Hastings Deering was fortunate to have use of a Cat Centennial 938 wheel loader for the challenges: a machine which was also used at a couple of the other state finals.
“All in all, this has been a wonderful event. We’ve had some beautiful machinery on display,” George said.
“The public was able to attend, experience the atmosphere and contestants’ families could also witness what their loved ones do day in, day out when they go to work with these machines and in these applications.
“They got to see how they operate machines, how they interact and also just see what we all get out of bed for every single day.”
The final endorsement came from Caterpillar Senior Market Professional Gary Martin, who attended the event as part of his role in working with Cat larger quarrying and heavy construction customers and the Cat dealer global network.
“I look after some of the operator competitions over in the Middle East, and what I’ve seen in Queensland is remarkable,” he said.
“You cannot believe the atmosphere that has been here.
“The operators are unbelievable, with the skills level and the competition beyond what I’ve ever seen before in my life.
“You can actually see the adrenaline on everybody’s faces because they want that top position. They want to go to Japan … and then after that, maybe Vegas.”