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It was a new sound on the Westland rivers, replacing the roar of hydraulic sluices. This was a bellowing, screeching cacophony of sound that echoed up the creeks and gullies. It came from the gold dredgers. Alwyn Owen tells the story of dredging in Westland, with comments from several unidentified elderly men who are former dredge workers.
The old techniques of the cradle and sluice box, were replaces by the hydraulic sluices which in turn have been replaced by dredges. Alwyn Owen explains how the sluicing process works with gravity and reviews the history of dredging technology.
An unidentified man explains primitive spoon dredges were first used in Central Otago in the early days with paddle wheels, and were later fitted with steam engines to drive them.
In 1900 the dredging boom started on the West Coast. An excerpt is read from newspapers of the day about the 'pegging out' of terrace top claims which is taking place with feverish haste.
An unidentified man talks about how a dredge was set up and launched. Another unidentified man says how small they were compared to today's equipment and explains how they were built and the different kinds of dredges designs, including the 'Roberts', the 'Reeves' and the 'Bignall's'.
The workers worked two men per shift, except the engineer and the dredge-master. He explains the different roles the men performed.
Ten shillings per day was the rate of pay.
The companies soon learnt West Coast conditions were much harder than in Otago, with large boulders and buried tree trunks in rivers, plus many floods to contend with. Many dredges were soon abandoned where they lay. An list of abandoned dredges is read from a local newspaper.
An unidentified man says only about half a dozen dredges ever paid their way. The best ground was in the beds of the feeder streams, such as Nelson Creek. Some worked until World War I and an unidentified man talks about the difficult conditions they faced with machinery breaking down when dealing with the rocky river beds.
But investors came back, this time from America. A man talks about the General Development Company of New York, led by Mr Cranston, who saw a report on Rimu Flat in the New Zealand Mining Journal and sent out a man called Gregory and in 1920 the Rimu Dredging Company was set up with equipment from New York.
Two unidentified men talk about the new American 'Dreadnought' dredges which were much bigger with a different technique. At the end of the Depression men were keen to work on dredges as work was hard to find. A man says 140 men applied for one job he went for on a dredge. Another man says he employed 80-100 men building dredges from 1930-1938, while others were employed in foundries and sawmills supplying dredge building companies. At one time over 320 men were in the Dredgeworker's Union, which had a big effect on the West Coast economy during the Depression.
A man explains during the Seocnd World War it was hard to get men to work the dredges as electricians and other skilled tradesmen were necessary. Gold reserves were considered too useful to the war effort and dredge workers were not manpowered into war service.