GOAT ISLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27042, 29 March 1949, Page 4

GOAT ISLAND

REMOVAL OF ROCK HARBOUR IMPROVEMENT AID TO NAVIGATION When the Otago Harbour Board carries out its plan to blast away a portion of Goat Island at the entrance to the upper harbour—tenders have been called for this operation—the navigation channel between Goat and Quarantine Islands will be widened by 100 feet and longer vessels should be able to come to the Dunedin wharves. Recently the board increased the navigable draught of Victoria channel to 25 feet, but the Overseas Shipowners’ Allotment Committee considered that ships drawing more than 24 feet and with a greater length than 495 feet should not be asked to navigate the channel. The committee referred to the narrow passage between Goat and Quarantine Islands. The board’s object is to widen the channel between the islands—now 300 feet wide —by a further 100 feet, with a minimum depth of 30 feet at low water. About 26,200 cubic yards of solid rock have to be removed. Only about one-third of the surface area to be removed is above low water, the other two-thirds shelving fairly steeply from low-water mark.

Two options have been offered to contractors, who have been invited in New Zealand and Australia to submit

tenders for the work. One is for the drilling and blasting- of the rock, in which case the board will remove the broken rock with the dredge Otakou, and the other is for the complete drilling, blasting, removal and disposal of the broken material.

It is not possible at this stage- to estimate when the work will be done. The contractors’ operations will be under the control of the harbour master, Captain F G. Macdonald, and there will be no interruption in the Dunedin shipoing trade. In 1931 2000 cubic yards of rock was blasted from an underwater reef at Quarantine Island, and the material removed by dredge 222. This operation increased the width of the channel between the islands to 300 feet and gave a draught of 30 feet at low water.