LURE OF RICHES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22852, 6 October 1937, Page 10

LURE OF RICHES

RUSH FOR WOLFRAM MINERS FORSAKING GOLD Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory of Australia, which was filled by a gold rush, is being emptied bv a wolfram rush. The exodus includes miners, ore carters, with their trucks, and even the barmen and yardmen have been enticed away by the lure of easily-won riches. Although the local gold mines hare just yielded the richest return in their history, Tennant Creek is rapidly becoming a dead place. The rush for wolfram has depleted the town to half its strength. Miners in hundreds have gone already, and the proprietors and guests are carrying on the work in the hotels. Garages have been closed until further notice. Wolfram has become a magnet. High in price, and won with comparative ease, the men have rushed to Wauchope, 80 miles away, and to Hatches Creek, 150 miles to the south-east. More than 300 men are now on these two fields, winning possibly £3OOO worth of wolfram a week. Compared with this opportunity, Tennant Creek has been too difficult, too intractable, too hampering, to hold its miners, hence the exodus. inning gold in Tennant Creek demands luck. Living costs, ore carting costs, and water carting expenses have been so high that, with heavy crushing charges still to be faced, only the richest deposits hare repaid the miner for wrestling with the Ted-hot ironstone, amidst the woe of flies and dust and crude living conditions. Thus the life that was. Tennant Creek now makes W aucliojie and Hatches Creek buzz with activity. Within a week of arriving in these fields, the miner has results —a quarter, a half| a whole bag. of the heavy black metal which is worth something like £3O a bag. Miners are abandoning regular pay to join the wolfram rush.