A council in western New South Wales has just finished repairing a pothole so big, workers had to build a dam, pump out thousands of litres of water and remove fish and crustaceans in order to repair it.
The 40-metre long and 15-metre wide chasm was carved out around a culvert on the Booligal-Gunbar Road in the Hay Shire Council area during last year's prolonged flood emergency.
The plains that cover vast swathes of the region — and are the flattest place in the southern hemisphere — resembled an inland sea during the height of the disaster.
Council operations manager Greg Stewart said the culvert was inundated by flooding in an adjacent creek in November.
"It was like rapids flowing through," Mr Stewart said.
He said crews were finally able to access the site about a month ago.
"We put a survey staff down and it went down two and a half metres initially, so we knew it was going to be big," he said.
Mr Stewart said workers built a dam around the hole and then brought in a couple of pumps to remove the water.
"The guys would report back to say how long it was taking and how much water was coming out. The amount of fish and yabbies swimming out, walking out," he said.
"All the guys wanted to work out on that project because it was very unique, something we're not used to."
When the water was gone it was discovered the hole was nine metres deep — meaning the void was almost three times the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Council staff and three contract crews were called in to help with the repair job that involved two excavators, five tip trucks and 7,000 cubic metres of clay.
"The trucks only hold nine cubic metres," Mr Stewart said.
"We had trucks queuing and [the clay] had to be put in in layers and compacted, it was just a case of dumping 7,000 cubic metres in a hole — so that was a bit time consuming."
Mr Stewart said there are a number of other washouts on the same road, but the council hoped it would be able to re-open it to four-wheel-drive vehicles before Easter.
