BULK OIL FUEL TANKS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25305, 3 October 1947, Page 6

BULK OIL FUEL TANKS

SALE BY WAR ASSETS BOARD LARGEST STILL NOT SOLD Nobody in New Zealand apparently wants to buy a 750,000-gallon fuel oil tank, or any tanks holding more than 11,000 gallons. For nearly two years the War Assets Realisation Board has been trying to sell 67 tanks, most of them installed underground, which were built during the war for the storage of oil fuel. Fifty-seven tanks ranging in capacity from 500 gallons to 11,000 gallons, and one of 180,000 gallons, have been sold, but all efforts to dispose of the balance have- failed. Most of the tanks, which were declared surplus by the Air Department and • the Public Works Department, were installed at Royal New Zealand Air' Force stations, and others were planned as secret aviation fuel dumps in the event of an emergency. The 750,000-gallon tank which 1 nobody wants was built in a plantation less than 100 yards off the main highway at Bankside, which is 31 miles from Christchurch. It was largely made of steel plates from the wreck of the Port Bowen, and its erection was. one of the best-kept secrets of war-time construction.

Many of the tanks had a capacity of 11,000 gallons, and they were installed at aerodromes in the North and South Islands. There were single tanks at Nelson, Woodbourne, Wigram, and Norwood, and four at Ashburton. Three were built under the trees near the Te Pirita aerodrome between Dunsandel and Hororata. They were to hold aviation fuel for the world’s largest aircraft, which the aerodrome was built to accommodate. When the War Assets Realisation Board invited offers from firms interested in purchasing the tanks, it stated that they had to be bought as they stood. The purchasers were required to replace earth moved during salvage excavations, and also any earth on the site excavated when the tanks were installed.