Light Dredge

Operating Successfully in Papua

T'HE light dredge which was made in Australia at the end of last year and shipped to Papua for use in the interior is now successfully operating, and is producing good gold.

The dredge was designed and supplied to the Tiveri Gold Dredging Company, Limited, by Mr. J. W. Hinks, a well known Sydney engineer. It was made in Sydney according to Mr. Hinks’s speci fications, and was shipped to Port Moresby. It was taken thence along the coast to the Lakekamu River, transferred to small boats, transported 90 miles up the river, and then carried by native labourers 10 miles through the jungle to the dredging claim. Those who know the country will have some idea of the colossal nature of the undertaking.

The dredge left Sydney in November, 1933, and Mr. Hinks followed in the fol lowing January, to proceed to the claim and assemble the machinery. But when he reached Papua he found that trans port was a little behind schedule.

His dredge, in small bits, was scattered along 90 miles of the Lakekamu River.

Mr. Hinks hurried along the work or transport and then proceeded to the hole in the jungle, where it was proposed to erect the machinery. Bit by bit, it began to reach him. During the last 10 miles it was carried on the shoulders of sweat ing natives. The natives had to plunge through mud, fight their way through scrub and repel the ceaseless attacks of leeches and mosquitoes. But, somehow or other, the machinery arrived.

Mr. Hinks and his helpers received it on the mining lease and proceeded cease lessly with the work of erection. The machinery began to come in only in February, but such was the driving force given to operations by this Sydney en gineer, that the little dredge actually went into operation on April 2.

It is a remarkable achievement in itself and it is likely to have an important effect on the future of the territory. There are literally scores of places in Papua where dredging can be profitably under taken if once the problem of transport is solved as Mr. Hinks has solved it — namely, by constructing a dredge, that can be split into pieces capable of being carried by native labourers and which is still sufficiently strong and heavy to carry out the operations required.

Now that the dredge is working and producing, the company concerned has arranged to clear a landing ground along side its lease, so that supplies may be brought in by aeroplanes, instead of by means of the long boat voyage from Port Moresby to the river landing, and the painful trek through the jungle.

The problem of motive power appar ently ha« been solved successfully. Mr.

Hinks planned engines which would run on dry gas, obtained from charcoal made in the adjoining jungle. This method has been quite satisfactory. When he left the dredge in April both engines were running smoothly on dry gas, and a steady supply of charcoal was coming out of the bush alongside. Mr. Hinks said that this fuel is costing the com pany less than it would cost to transport oil or motor spirit from the river landing to the dredge—quite apart altogether from the cost of the fuel itself.