Gold Quest By
p. 78 · Read in the full issue
Air
Ambitious Plan of Papuan Concessions Ltd.
UNDER the leadership of Mr. Ward Williams, well-known in Papua and New Guinea as an expert mining engineer, a party of prospectors and explorers has been despatched from Port Moresby by Papuan Concessions Ltd. to establish a base at D’Albertis Junction, 600 miles up the Fly River in Papua.
In June, the party, which includes Messrs. J. Bourke, G. Anderson, Korn, and Gwilt, will commence an extensive search for gold, making a large scale aerial reconnaissance of the centre of Papua.
The company, which is backed by two powerful English concerns (Oroville Dredging Co., Ltd., and Camp Bird, Ltd.), will use a Short Scion aeroplane with ad justable floats. A systematic survey will be made of an area of 29,000 square miles recently granted to the syndicate by the Papuan Administration. Two wireless “pedal” sets have been taken with the party, and a launch, the Papcon, will be employed for river work.
Mr. Stuart Campbell, a former R.A.A.F. officer, is to be pilot during the recon naissance. He took part in the Barrier Reef survey work, and was chief pilot with Sir Douglas Mawson’s two Antarctic expeditions in 1930 and 1931. For the last few months he has been engaged in a geological survey of the Bulolo goldfield in New Guinea, on behalf of Messrs. H.
Hemming and Co., aerial surveyors, of London.
Flights will be made over unexplored country with the object of eliminating limestone areas and noting the promising slate areas. Later, land parties operating from land bases, or from the several large lakes in the vicinity, will prospect the suitable areas.
Some of the Papuan lakes in the coun try where the prospectors will search are as large as 12 miles in diameter. For example, there is Lake Herbert Hoover, named by an American expedition, which was seeking disease-resisting sugar-cane along the Fly River, several years ago.
The prospecting party is accompanied by Patrol Officer C. F. Cowley, of the Papuan Administration, and four native armed constables, in addition to a string of native carriers.