Waterview Tunnel

Peter Farr has broken almost every bone in his body building some of our most critical infrastructure, but most of his work is hidden underground.

The noise was overwhelming – Farr lost his hearing early in his career. “The comradeship was amazing. The tunnels were built with competitive teams of men, racing each other to get bonuses. Farr describes how they went in with handheld drills to make holes for explosives, then retreated to blow out the rock before advancing further in. The drill was 87m long and weighed thousands of tonnes, making it one of the biggest tunnelling machines in the world. “It was intense and it was loud. Farr has broken almost every bone in his body on the job, in two separate incidents where he was crushed. But it came with a risk – tunnelling involves a lot of heavy rock. It was noisy. After a few years of that he realised he could make more money getting his hands dirty underground. Machines have made the job easier. He’s been working on tunnels ever since.