New Stores at Lae

GUINEA AIRWAYS LTD., the company which conducts the major aerial transport service on the New Guinea gold fields, is extending its premises at Lae.

Included in the building programme is a new overhaul shop and store, which will cover an area of 128 sq. ft. The steel frame structure has 4-ton trusses, giving a clear span of 120 ft. This enables the largest Junkers plane to be taken right inside the building for overhaul, while provision is being made for a second machine to have engines changed at the same time, without any congestion.

The building will be complete with runway (for engine changing), machine and welding shop, and engine and spare parts store. The existing buildings will be dismantled and re-erected as a carpenter’s shop.

A new cargo store. 70ft. by 50ft., is also being erected for Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd., at Lae. The building also of steel frame will be equipped with a three-tons crane for handling heavy machinery. A railway truck will run through the store and out on to the aerodrome, so as to facilitate the loading and unloading of cargo from the Bulolo Co.’s big Junkers planes.

The contractor for these works is the Sydney Steel Company Ltd., of Marrickville, New South Wales. All the heavy material for the new stores has been successfully carried in, in sections, to the field from the coast by Guinea Airways Ltd.

Reflection of the torch lights in Nukualofa lagoon.