Sulphur "Everywhere And Illimitable"

“One huge mass of pure sulphur from ocean shores to summit” was how a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, T. J. McMahon, described Vanua Lava in an article in the “Sydney Mail” for March 2, 1921.

“It is a series of sulphur terraces,” he said, “the golden yellow in vivid contrast to green vegetation, plants, shrubs, ferns and creepers and clusters of gorgeously-coloured flowers.

“At 900 feet is the source of a sulphur river which runs through the island, emptying into Port Patteson. This is one of the most sublime of natural scenes. It may truly be described as a ‘river of gold’.

“It is a series of waterfalls, one above the other, with sands and boulders, some of giant size, all of golden colour, caused by the sulphur.

A golden mist pervades the air, and the waters as they fall are like flashing gold . . .

“At the height of 1,700 feet on one side of the mountain is a wall of sulphur, and this, seen away out at sea, resembles, as the sun shines on it in the afternoon, a slab of burnished gold. Near this slab are innumerable sulphur springs, and the air is so laden with fumes of sulphur as to have for a few minutes a very distressing effect on explorers, making all feel as if seized with colic pains. This quickly passes off after a short rest.

“It is here that the French company began operations. Sulphur is everywhere, and seems illimitable.”

Mr. McMahon said that when the French company had abandoned its operations it had been given out that malaria, of a malignant form, had undermined the health of its employees. However, this was “not substantiated in the present-day experience of white settlers, who know nothing of any tropic ailment likely to interfere with white settlement or any enterprise”.