Diesel Dirt & Turf 2019

The Diesel, Dirt & Turf (DDT) is an annual expo for all things construction, tractors and mowing, held in Penrith. It’s been making waves in the construction industry for over 4 years and this year they didn’t disappoint.

Entry lines were backed up hundreds of metres, with the crowd so excited they chanted the countdown until it was time to open the gates.  

With more than 200 vendors displaying their machinery, the Penrith showgrounds were full to the brim with contractors, dealers, sole traders, and (of course) plenty of kids!

Here’s a glimpse at this year’s expo:

How Did DDT Start?

We spoke to Satch Santilli, Semco Equipment Sales CEO, and co-founder of the Diesel, Dirt & Turf expo, to talk about the expo’s success and how it came about.

“Today’s been a great day, it’s sensational. This expo has been running now for 4 years, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.” Said Satch.

“For 2 years we [Steve Zivkovich, Norm Presch, Satch Santilli, and Chris Wilcox] thought about making our own show, then we decided to give it a try. The first year kicked on and we’ve gone from strength to strength. The first couple of years were tough, we didn’t make any money but that’s okay, it was an industry thing and we wanted to do it. And now we get visitors from all over the world: Japan, England, America, Sweden, and more.” 

The expo has gotten so big that even John Deere, one of the largest brand names in the industry, chose to announce their latest news to Australian customers at DDT.

“RDO and John Deere chose DDT to launch their new partnerships. There’s nowhere else you could really do something like that.” Said Satch.

What Others Are Saying About DDT

It’s clear that the expo has evolved over the years. So we caught up with some of the regular vendors to see what they thought of the expo this year.

“We came here on the second show, so it’d be 3 years for us now. The first show had smaller operators, and year on year it’s brought through a better and larger client base, a lot of end users and more small to medium businesses, which is great.”
— James Fishburn, Roo Attachments

“We’re happy to be part of the DDT, it’s been a great forum for getting Ultro and Sany into the market. This is our first major expo anywhere, it’s been great and it’s a lot of hard work but it’s been fun. Meeting our client base face-to-face and having a chat with them is where we need to be. We’ll be back next year.”
— Matt, Ultro Plant & Equipment

“DDT for us brings in the right demographic, it’s one of our largest shows we do around the country. We’ve found over the years that it’s attracting the right people. And we’re getting the opportunities we want to get out of here.”
— Rod Lapalmer, Kanga Loaders

“The reason why we’re here at DDT is to help support the industry. It’s an industry we’ve been involved in for 35 years.”
— Alex, Moody Kiddell

We’d also like to say a huge congrats to the winners of the 11 mega prize draws:

Take a look at construction machinery for sale here, or take a look at what construction equipment is available at auction.