Who are we?
BIG DITCH CAME TO life in 2003 in Sydney, Australia to provide quality stylish work while bringing water security into the public conversation. Since then, the company has built more than 320 dams across the country, proudly pouring our hearts and souls into the work we do.
Get in touchDam good moments
“Big Ditch came to life in 2003 in Australia to provide quality stylish work while bringing water security into the public conversation.”
– Angus Hughson CEO Big Ditch
We focus on low maintenance, ecologically friendly dams, water features, and waterscapes. We believe strongly in aquaculture and permaculture principles, and those are infused in all our work
Although the initial market was Australia, we built partnerships that have widened our scope to a global company. In 2020 we partnered with AQUALL – an international water specialist with projects in Europe, North America, and South America.
Nothing beats experience
We are the most experienced dam builder in Australia, and the global industry leader in earth dam construction.
At Big Ditch, we specialise in innovative design with creative construction techniques. We offer topography and design visualisation.
We ensure that dam sites have been analysed from contour maps and always take each step with accuracy from aerial photography taken from topography to help us determine the type of design of appurtenant structures.
Digital spatial topography data helps us make informed decisions by helping us establish flow, catchment, and containment systems to apply.
Find out about site inspections
The most award-winning dam company in the world
Award winning
Big Ditch’s awards include:
- Australian Enterprise Award – Best Dam Builder Australia 2019
- 50 Most Admired Companies – Australasia 2019
- Winner BUILD 2020 Annual awards for Sustainable Innovation
- Australian Enterprise Award – Best Dam Builder Australia 2020
- 2020 Innovation & Excellence awards – Best Water Resource
- GLOBAL 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World 2020
- Australian Enterprise Award – Best Dam Builder Australia 2021
- Winner 2021 M&A Global awards – Best Dam Building Company
The company offers dam planning, design, construction, rebuilds, repairs, dam consulting, rainwater harvesting planning & water analysis.
A History of Beautiful Dams
We started Big Ditch 18 years ago with the mission statement ‘we want to do good work for good people’.
Since then, I think we have helped changed the thinking of people when it comes to capturing and storing rainwater in Australia.
We are proud of our history of constructing beautiful dams that provide valuable water security for our drought prone country.
Dirt Artists
Angus Hughson, Director of the Big Ditch Dam Building Company in Australia, explains why the company consider themselves to be landscape artists, but using D7 bulldozers instead of paintbrushes.
Water is the source of life, and it is important to bring a collaboration between the public and private sectors to help conserve water and streamline water practices. We provide innovative means of water conservatism through biomimicry strategies, eco-dams, and organic dams. With a focus on ecology and maximising return on investment, we also provide commercial and civic aquatecture serving commercial and government organisations
Evaporation management is another area of focus, and we also specialise in locating and sealing dam leaks. Almost 50% of our work is to fix leaking dams that have been constructed incorrectly. At Big Ditch, we have succeeded in helping the two biggest hydroelectric plants prevent continued evaporation by providing shade balls – small floatable sphere-shaped
objects that cut water loss through evaporation by 90%.
The Projects
At Big Ditch, we believe that it’s better to focus on dynamic design than to scale massively.
Dams must be operational for water security, but we also believe that they can be beautiful landscape objects that improve the natural environment, while they should also offer the owner years of pride and happiness.
Before we start work on a dam, we first develop a pre-build visualisation so that our clients can see what the proposed dam will be like.
We focus on low maintenance, ecologically friendly dams, water features, and waterscapes. We believe strongly in aquaculture and permaculture principles, and those are infused in all our work
Although the initial market was Australia, we built partnerships that have widened our scope to a global company. In 2020 we partnered with AQUALL – an international water specialist with projects in Europe, North America, and South America.
At Big Ditch, we specialize in innovative design with creative construction techniques
We offer topography and design visualization – we ensure that the dam sites have been analyzed from contour maps and always take each step with accuracy from aerial photography taken from topography to help us determine the type of design of appurtenant structures. Digital spatial topography data helps us make informed decisions by helping us establish flow, catchment, and containment systems to apply.
We are the only company that gives you fixed-price contracts, which means you are safe and should not expect extra costs on your side.
We save clients from the headaches of additional charges that might not be agreed on. This means that we shift any risk from the clients to us – and we own it.
This guarantees efficient work.
Dam repairs
We offer repairs & upgrades geared towards improving flood control through optimization processes such as additional gates or improving seismic resistance.
Streamlined water practices – water is the source of life, and therefore saving water is saving not only the planet but everything that lives in it. It is important to bring a collaboration between the public and private sectors to help conserve water.
At Big Ditch, we have succeeded in helping the two biggest hydroelectric plants prevent continued evaporation by providing shade balls that reduced evaporation by a big margin. Shade balls are small sphere-shaped floatables that cut water loss through evaporation by 90%.
“We innovate by using water security conservation capture design, biomimicry strategies, low impact eco-construction techniques with small footprints, and organic permaculture principles”
Live to surf, surf to live
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“Your surfing can get better on every turn, on every wave you catch. Learn to read the ocean better. A big part of my success has been wave knowledge.”
-Kelly Slater
Who are we?
They say that the sunset at Tuscany in Italy is a beautiful view to behold. People wow at the snow peaks. We are always amazed and drawn by the amazing idea that the kangaroo can punch.
But what is more impressive is looking at an aquatecture installation dam designed by us; because behold, we are the Leonardo da Vinci of water, and we give the world a new Monalisa each time our D7 bulldozers hit the ground.
Get in touchWe’re all equal before a wave
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Read moreContact us
Address
Street Name 10
Building 45
1234 AB
Honolulu
hello@yourcompany.com
Telephone
0800 123678