Big wheels of progress turning for Bob

One piece of machinery that turned heads at the National Field Days near Hamilton last week was Bob Clarkson's tractor. Actually, two tractors.
Former MP, commercial builder and property investor, Mr Clarkson was happy for his sales agent, Cambridge-based Giltrap AgriZone, to display his Steiger 535 Tractors at the Field Days.
They are the biggest and most powerful tractors to come into the country - built by American manufacturer Case IH in Wisconsin.
The international firm followed Mr Clarkson's instructions and fitted a 15-litre Cummins engine so the tractors could reach 589 horsepower.
They also have bigger tyres, nearly 2m wide and high, and engine braking to easily handle the slopes of his Tauriko land he hopes to turn into a business estate and riverside housing.
Mr Clarkson has, in fact, taken delivery of three Steiger 535 Tractors, six Ashland earth scrapers from Oregon, a 43.5 tonne Komatsu bulldozer plus another small one, and two more diggers - for a total purchase of nearly $5 million.
Each tractor cost $450,000 and the scrapers $140,000 a pop.
The boss of Ashland Industries visited Tauranga and saw Mr Clarkson's 222ha in the Tauriko valley between Redwood Lane and Cambridge Rd alongside the Wairoa River.
"A lot of the land is pumice and clay and you will be impressed how the equipment handles it," he told Mr Clarkson.
He was eager for a deal.
"No-one has ordered six scrapers in one fell swoop," he said.
Mr Clarkson said he "chucked in" a lot of accessories for free.
The big red tractors can pull three hydraulically controlled scrapers at a time.
Each scraper can handle 22 tonnes of soil, so Mr Clarkson can move 132 tonnes in three sweeps if he's using all the tractors and scrapers.
The tractor-mounted scrapers are now considered the most efficient way to move soil over short to medium distances because of the constant non-stop loading and unloading of the traditional earth-moving machines.
"I can do all the earthworks for half the cost," said Mr Clarkson.
"This makes the industrial sections and houses more affordable."
Mr Clarkson will be bringing his big equipment to Tauranga over the next fortnight.
He has bought the equipment without knowing whether he can push ahead with his bold plans at Tauriko.
He wanted to build 900 homes - half of them affordable brick and tile housing under his Gateway first home ownership programme and priced less than $200,000.
But he has struggled to impress the town planners, and presently has an application into Western Bay of Plenty District Council for 90 houses on 20ha next to the river.
He also wants to develop 20ha of land, crossing the Western Bay and Tauranga City Council boundaries, for a business estate.
The rest of the property, in the meantime, will remain farmland.
Mr Clarkson's land, comprising 21 titles, already contains 19 houses but he would remove most of them.
Instead, he wants to re-shape the rolling land by moving 7.5 million cu m of soil, without taking it off site.
He now has an application before Western Bay council and Environment Bay of Plenty for moving 1.5 million cu m of soil.
At the least, he wants to contour the land to make it more productive.