Trans-Busu Let Again
p. 74 · Read in the full issue
New Timber Area in NG
r!E trans-Busu timber permit area —just east of Lae on the New Guinea mainland —has been let again, this time to a firm of Victorian sawmillers, Messrs.
Murdock and Murphy, of Heales ville.
It was let a couple of years ago to a Queensland firm; but, as the end of last year, the latter asked to be relieved of it on the grounds of recession in the Australian timber industry and prior commit ments in Quensland.
The trans-Busu area is the largest timber permit area so far offered by the Administration, and consists of 21,000 acres of Taun, NG walnut, Pacific maple, Erima, Anisoptera and Terminalia.
The successful tenderers will have to erect a mill within 12 months and supply a million superfeet of sawn timber annually for Territory use. They will also have to do some considerable road and bridge build ing—including one large bridge across the Busu River —in order to get the timber into Lae for ship ment. The rivers in the area have scared most timber men off the project.