Excavator Hire Rates

4,700 excavators available for hire across Australia

We’re Australia's leading marketplace for the hire of earthmoving gear, construction machines and services. With over 2,800 excavator hire companies listed on our marketplace nationwide, who have documented over 4,700 excavators in our database, we make it easy for you to request multiple hire quotes from reliable excavator suppliers close to your job site.

Our promise is to help you find the best excavator closest to your jobsite, so you don't have to outlay an unreasonable expense in mobilising a good machine to your job. This decreases cost, and increases jobsite productivity. That is why our software helps you search and find someone with the exact machine spec you need in your current location. The directory will throw up a bunch of suppliers and rank them in terms of best fit, but also, closest proximity.

Below you’ll find details regarding average excavator hire rates you can expect from suppliers, a breakdown of the types of excavators available for hire and popular excavator attachments that can be requested for hire from our suppliers.

Excavator Hire Rates Averages in 2025- Wet and Dry Hire

Below is a table of average hourly rates for excavators on wet or dry hire. If you want to calculate the day rate, multiply the hourly rate by 8-10 hours (depending on how many hours your site operates). If you have a long contract, some suppliers will offer you a discount of between 5-10% for a term exceeding 30 days.

Despite tending average rates below as a guide, we always recommend getting multiple accurate quotes using our Get a Quote tool. The following rates include GST.

Additional Costs for Hiring an Excavator

While every supplier has a different charging method, below are some common additional charges that could be included in your hiring costs. Be sure to ask your supplier for a comprehensive quote.

Types of excavators for hire on iseekplant

iseekplant has a wide range of excavators available for hire depending on your needs. The main excavator category is classed as a 'track-mounted' excavator and comes in sizes ranging from below 1 tonne and above 350 tonne. We do have a separate category for mini excavators which is just for excavators that are below 5 tonne. Then, we have a range of specialist excavator categories where you can find more niche machines. In terms of specialist excavators we offer demolition excavators, high-reach excavators, long-reach excavators, and chameleon clamshell excavators. We also offer even more rare amphibious excavators for watery jobsites, and https://www.iseekplant.com.au/spider-excavator-hire for excavating from a concrete platform. Thirdly, track mounted excavators operate on rough terrain, whereas wheel mounted excavators can only handle stable terrain.

At iseekplant, you can also hire vacuum excavators if you are excavating around services and hi-rail excavators if you are working from on a rail job.

You can also hire an excavator from an earthmoving, earthworks or bulk earthworks contractor, or as part of a earthmoving combo - which includes a tipper truck, mini excavator and a skid steer (usually).

Learn more about excavator options here

Wide Range of Excavator Sizes Available

The range of excavators our suppliers provide for hire are made to suit small to large jobs. From 1 tonne mini's to large civil and mining excavators, our platform helps you search for the most suitable excavator hire for the job..

Micro Excavator Hire

Commonly used as a hire option for residential jobs by DIY operators, a micro excavator will deal with compact spaces and are perfect for excavating around obstacles, such as trenching, digging foundations, excavating footings, grading and excavating drainage systems. Good alternatives are ditch witches, dingo loaders or small skid steer loaders.

Mini Excavator Hire

At iseekplant, we consider a mini excavator to be a machine that is below 5 tonnes in operational weight. Our supplier's mini excavators are unrivaled when it comes to small-scale projects and tight spaces. If you're looking for ideal solutions for residential landscaping, plumbing or small construction jobs.

Civil Sized Excavator Hire

Ranging in size from 5 to 40 tonnes, a machine of this caliber is the most popular and prolific excavator in the Australian construction industry and are suitable for a variety of civil & heavy commercial sites, like road construction, trenching, the establishment of commercial building foundations, and utility installations.

Large Civil & Mining Excavator Hire

For large-scale projects, such as mining and major construction operations, our heavy-duty mine-spec excavators are the perfect hire solution. Ranging from 30 to over 300 tonnes in size, these mighty machines pack the punch needed for large-scale excavation and mass haul projects.

Common Excavator Attachments

Not only can you hire excavators on iseekplant in a variety of sizes, but our suppliers also feature a huge array of excavator attachments. The attachments can be found on the machine listing, if you click on each individual machine llisting in our directory. Here are the most common attachments available for excavators:

Excavator Buckets - The most common excavator attachment used within Australia when handling bulk materials. It comes in a range of different sizes that can be fitted to both mini diggers and excavators. There are many types of buckets including:

• Tilt Buckets - These attachments allows you the flexibility of using a bucket that delivers a maximum flexibility. They are designed to trim up to a 45 degree angle.
• General Purpose Bucket: Also called a digging or standard bucket - and can dig almost any type of relatively soft material.
• Heavy Duty Bucket: Used for digging compacted or muddy soil
• Trenching Bucket: Used for digging trenches for plumbing or services.
• Rock Bucket: Used for pulling up rock, broken concrete or other lumpy aggregates once it's been broken down
• Ripper Bucket: Used for pulling things out like tree stumps, or large rocks or other obstacles

Auger Drills - The auger drill attachment is used for drilling holes for upright pipes or poles. Augers range in width from approximately 100mm to 1500mm. An auger comes in a range of different lengths and dimensions and is mainly used across road constructions, subdivisions and installation of gas or water.

Post Hole Digger - Is a super common attachment in the residential and agricultural space for people wishing to install long runs of fencing on their property and the need to rapidly create post holes.

Grapple - A grapple attachment is ideal when you have oddly/awkward objects such as rocks, logs or piles of concrete that need to be moved. You can specialist log grapples, demolition grapples and rock grapples for these types of applications. It can easily scoop up loose debris like dirt or sand and will assist in efficiently cleaning up the site.

Ripper Blades - Attachments of this nature are ideal when your project requires breaking through surfaces such as rock, tarmac or paving, to loosen roots and rocks in soil and other solid ground.

Rock Breaker - A rock breaker attachment (sometimes referred to as a hydraulic hammer attachment) can be used to service a wide range of jobs including road construction, trenching, landscaping and demolition.

Multiple Excavator Hire Quotes from Local Suppliers

Hit the Get a Quote button and that puts you into a tool that asks you a bunch of questions about your job so it can be sent to a number of local suppliers.

On average, about 3 will respond and be available (depending on the quality of your job and requirements). Our goal is to try to get every Seeker on iseekplant 3 responses.