GRANITES GOLD RUSH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21329, 2 November 1932, Page 8

GRANITES GOLD RUSH

WARNING TO MINERS DIFFICULTIES OF tra nspo^M FLOOD IN A DESERT —— Further particulars of the rush to flfclffi Granites goldfield in Central Australia and "'•! the difficulties of transport are given bySpl the special representative with the Sydney ' 1 f Sun-Telegraph expedition. Mr. R. T. Decean, formerly of Adelaide®! and a young prospector of 10 years' stand- ■') ing in gold, mica and wolfram, recently reached Alice Springs after a journey from ; The Granites of almost a week. "Those who think they can come here •1 from Sydney or any other city and make' '' their fortune need to be disillusioned," Mr. Decean said: " I know of no worse journey than that over the 320 miles of i|£l desert. A truck left Alice Springs dozen young fellows from Adelaide. Well, fif they do not know what they are going tc.l#S Mind you, for the old-tirner life is not so terrible at The Granites, but it will take months for any man unused to the territory to get comfortable. "The isolation is the worst feature, if we get police, medical and postal facilities on the field then that may be overcome ' bufc to-day the isolation is terrible. And apart irom queer water and flies and heat, that vury isolation saps men quicker than anything else." Life Sit The Granites Mr. Decean, says the correspondent, is simply voicing the feeling of the north. The men from Alice Springs and the other districts have no objection to men coming from other States. But they have asked that the conditions be published throughout Australia. The days are spent in arduous work. The hesitations, are crude—either tents or bough sheds. Water is four miles from the fields. At nights most men are too tired to do anything but sleep. Occasionally visits a.re made to neighbouring camps and a sing-song may be held. That is the life of The Granites. Before men went to New Guinea they » were warned of what lay between them 'M and the goldfield. They should be doubly warned! before setting out on a trip which contains what is probably the worst dry stage in the Australian desert country. ' *.■ After a six days' trip, Pilot A. J. Turner, of the Hart Aircraft Service, Melbourne, returned to Alice Springs on October 22 with Messrs. A. G. Bands, of -.j: Melbourne, and Caldwell, of Alice Springs, \ after having cleared a landing ground at Tanami and chosen the site for a landing ground at The Granites, leaving residents to clear it. Adventures in the Bop The party left Tanami on October 14 *§; in a truck, and when two miles out were bogged to the top of the wheels. They walked back to Tanami, and were taken in to The Granites" by the Schnltze expedition. At The Granites rain was teeming. Mr. Turner left The Granites on October 17. "We were hopelessly bogged night after night," he said. " Attoufc 40 miles the other side of Brooks' Soak, we were approached by two big natives, with their spears and boomerangs. We got our guns out, and waited. They watched us for five minutes, and then put thejr * weapons behind the bushes, and came over. " W<3 armed them with shovels, and they worked hard for half an hour. They made signs for tobacco, but we had been out of it ourselves for three days, so we gave them a tin of beef each Crossing the Lander River we suddenly went down below the running-board in soft mud. W« dug three feet deep, and. built up a roac with tree logs. We did six and;, a hall miles in 13 hours." Terrific Rainstorm There was a terrific rainstorm over the AJice Springs section of Central Australia on October 16. With it came lightning and a wind, which howled through the gap in the McDonnell Ranges; the Todd River rushed down in flood, and far to the northward water holes became lakes, and sandy creeks hurtling rapids. In all this tumult a little man with a red face, pale blue eyes, and a shock of brown hair, was driving a dilapidated " buck-board " motor lorry through blinding rain and huge hailstones, 200 miles north-west of Alice Springs. Timeis without number the lorry would stop, sunk to tho running-board in red mud and swirling wr.ter. Each time the vehicle went down the red-faced little man would call to his sons and his daughter. How they rescued the lorry no one but the family knows; but they salved it, and they started it again. Through the rain and the night they continued; sleep out of the question, rest unthinkable. From the rear of the buckboard annoyed shrieks and whistles and twitters could be heard, even above the' driving storm. Applications for Leases There have been 177 applications for leases, including 15 on the Tanami field in The Granites locality, the majority being leases of 40 acres, requiring four men to work them. "At the most, on the applications 1 have,'" said the mining warden, " 500 men would be necessary to man the leases, but many are held by the same man or men. There are also two-men leases and six claims of five acres, which can be worked by one man." The mining warden's statement should not be taken to mean there is room for 500 men on the field as he is simply quoting the size of the leases and the working requirements. Mr. Powell, manager of Granites Gold, recently warned Australia that there was little room for workers until the fields were much further developed.