Road To Wau
p. 13 · Read in the full issue
Remarkable Engineering Feat in Markham-Wampit Valleys
rE Australian and American armies, using unlimited engineering skill and labour, and enormous equip ment, have built a very good road from the mouth of the Markham River (south side), to the Bulolo Valley, in New Guinea- To-day, trucks make the jour ney from the sea coast to Wau at an average speed of at least 25 miles per hour. The road does not rise anywhere more than 4,000 feet.
The road follows the Markham to the mouth of the Wampit. Then it turns south-west up the Wampit Valley to Zenag, and thence to Bulwa, where it joins up with the old Bulolo Valley road, to Wau. The worst place on the high way is not on the new road, but on the old one—it is in the Bulolo Gorge, between Bulolo and Wau. There, the ground is so steep and friable that every effort to widen the existing road has caused landslides.
There is no port at the southern side of the mouth of the Markham. Goods intended for up-country are sent across from Lae (four or five miles away, on the north side of the Markham) in barges. It is expected that a bridge across the lower Markham will presently connect Lae with the new road.
A good road already goes from Lae up the Markham Valley, towards the Ramu, in the north-west, but it follows the northern bank of the big, shifting river.
There is a sheltered port at Salamaua; and it might have been supposed that, instead of using unsheltered Lae as a port, a road would have been built north wards out of Salamaua to the mouth of the Markham, 20 miles away. But the Army has taken another view altogether- Lae, right up in the corner of Huon Gulf, is regarded as sufficiently sheltered to permit the construction of harbour works which, in turn, will give ships sufficient protection to lie alongside wharves and discharge cargo.
Old residents of New Guinea will be interested in these developments. It has been shown, first, that a trafficable road, between Bulolo and the coast, via the Markham and the Wampit, is a practic able proposition—despite the 10 years of argument between 1930 and 1940. The two new roads (north and south of the Markham) provide the means, not only for giving a new lease of life to the Morobe goldfield, but also for opening up the Ramu-Mount Hagen tablelands, and the Markham Valley itself. ■ Lae, situated at the mouth of the Markham Valley, already noted for its fine airfield, and now to become also a sheltered seaport, is assured of a wonder ful future. General Griffith’s selection of Lae, in 1938, as the future capital of New Guinea, becomes justified.
In these circumstances, the future of Salamaua is obscure. Salamaua has no “back country”—it is surrounded by swamps and jammed against the moun tains. and its only reason for existence wqs its sheltered harbour, and its labori ously constructed airfield, so that it shared with Lae the duties of a nort of discharge for the Morobe goldfield. Lae, in pre-war davs, held out against Sala maua because it was the headquarters of Guinea Airways, Ltd., and possessed such a good airfield. If Lae is to have, in addition, a good road to the Bulolo, and sheltered berths for shipping, no appar ent reasons will exist for the re-building of Salamaua.