Continuing a 40-year tradition of using JCB backhoe loaders called Lily, Victoria’s BJB Excavations recently bought their sixth machine, a 3CX aptly named Lily 6.
BJB, which focuses on water main renewal and trenching across Melbourne, was formed in the 1970s by three mates — Jozef Boucher, Anton Jaspers and Colin Berry.
The first machine they bought was a JCB 3C backhoe loader, which they named Lily after Jozef’s wife.
Anton and Colin later moved on, and Jozef headed the company until he passed away. His son-in-law Eric Bast is now at the helm.
Bast says he’s continued the founders’ legacy of buying JCB machines because they were well-designed, durable and efficient back in the day, and still are now.
“The backhoes in particular give me peace of mind with exceptional hydraulic hose routing on the boom,” he says. “We work under a lot of trees and I know that, with this design, the hoses won’t tear.”
Bast says he also likes the 92-horsepower (68.6kw).DieselMAX engine, which he says are “efficient and clean”.
The JCB 3CX backhoe has a loader bucket capacity of between 1 and 1.2 cubic metres, and a maximum backhoe dig depth of 5.46 metres.
Bast describes himself as a bit of an old-fashioned operator who prefers the mechanical stick control still used on the JCB 3CX, and says “the newer models’ precision control makes the manoeuvrability of the machine that much simpler and it’s more comfortable to operate”.
And the name?
“All our JCB backhoes are traditionally named Lily,” Bast says.” It’s how Jozef started it and how we want to continue it.”