The properties of giant colour flux tubes-colour ropes-are investigated using the colour-dielectric model. Such ropes may be responsible for quark-gluon plasma formation during ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. The phenomenological parameters in the model are determined by fitting a simple one-flavour nucleon model to experimental data. The string tension radius and chromoelectric field have been calculated as a function of the colour charge on the rope. The pair creation rate and transverse momentum distribution for quarks created in ropes by the Schwinger mechanism are also calculated.