Abstract: A winch assembly (38) comprising a winch (10) having a winch spool (23), an hydraulic drive motor (15), a clutch (17) for directly coupling the drive motor (15) to the winch spool (23) to effect rotation of the winch spool (23) by the drive motor (15), an hydraulic power pack (39) having an hydraulic pump (40) driven by an electric motor (42) for supplying hydraulic fluid to the winch drive motor (15) via a valve assembly (45) and a controller (43) for controlling operation of the hydraulic power pack (39) and the valve assembly (45) to control the supply of hydraulic fluid from the hydraulic power pack (39) to the winch drive motor (15).