Prison guards and inmates hope to revolutionise sandbagging


Bill and Wayne operating their 'Sandbagger' (David Harris)

Two Darwin prison guards have created a new sandbag filling machine that has caught the attention of emergency services.

Northern Territory Emergency Services initially approached the Darwin Correctional Centre seeking inmate help to fill sandbags for the Top End wet season.

But prison officers Bill Gobbert and Wayne Murray decided it was time to revolutionise a "prehistoric" method.

They invented a sandbagger that they say is both affordable and more efficient than the old-fashioned approach of relying on a shovel and back-breaking labour.

"Wayne went off with some of the inmates to look at designing the machine and putting the machine together," Mr Gobbert said.

"Then eventually we came up with this machine that was free-standing.

"From there it's been handed over to our metal fabrication workshop (at the prison) ... they're currently making ten machines at the moment."

The inventors say it's the machine's accuracy and easy operating that is most appealing to emergency services.

"What emergency services wanted was two-thirds of (sand in) a sandbag," Mr Murray said.

"The reason for two-thirds of a sandbag is the sandbag has still got to be pliable so that when you throw it down on the ground, over a door sill or against a wall it's got fold around it so it makes a water seal."

A patent has now been taken out protecting the invention, and there are plans for it to be commercialised and made more widely available.

The pair hope to eventually see their machine used in most of Australia's flood-prone regions, and ultimately they hope it could also be used overseas.