Giant Dredge Leaves Trail of Desolation

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26774, 18 May 1948, Page 4

Giant Dredge Leaves Trail of Desolation

Special Reporter CROMWELL, May 16. Squatting like some prehistoric monster in a dreary waste of shingle, the long antennae of its ejectors thrust hungrily forward, the great dredge at Lowburn Ferry comes as a surprising sight to unaccustomed travellers on the road to Wanaka. Many acres of land have now passed through the maw of the monster, and it is no longer possible to reach the dredge from the road—a punt has to be used. Residents of the area derive a certain satisfaction from pointing the dredge out as the largest _in the

Southern Hemisphere, and they do not deny the fact that the dredging activity is responsible for a considerable amount of money being spent locally. But their pride is tingfed with apprehension for the future. What will happen when the dredge has completed its work? To that question there is no definite answer, except that supplied by the melancholy record of the P ast in many other parts of Central Otago the local legacy will be a barren wasteland, an eyesore for generations to come. Although the Daily Times was told that there was no clause in the dredging company’s contract specifying that the top soii should be replaced after the land had been processed, it is understood that some work in this direction was done in the earlier stages of the dredge's operations. A breakdown in the machinery had, however, put an end to this replacement. Whether or not soil relaid on top of the tailings would work back into worthwhile land, there is a firm body of opinion in Central Otago which holds that the tailings should, anyway, be planted out in some form of vegetation, even if it is only scrub and coarse grasses. This, it is submitted, would at least improve the appearance

of the ugly spoil dump?. Also, in the process of time, it might give an earth covering to the tailings through the seasonal dropping of leaves and withering of grasses, and it might provide a modest source of firewood. Further down the river at Roxburgh, optimists are predicting a brief boom for amateur prospectors when the course of the river is diverted during the building of the Coal Creek dam. Their expectations are that, if and when the work is well under way—and the qualifying “if” is surprisingly prevalent in conversations —a large section of the bed of the rtver will be

bared and, with any luck, nuggets will be there for the picking for anyone with energy and a sugar bag. Some of these super optimists have something tantamount to revival-meeting fervour in their “ Shall we gather at the river ” suggestions, but others recall the gloomy fate which befell similar hopeful prophecies made before ? the building of the Kawarau dam.