While the dredge was a completely new build at the time, it incorporated many elements of the core of the famous West Coast dredge of the 1940s to the 1970s, the Kaniere, along with parts from the Arahura dredge. "We've been here 30 years," Birchfield says. The initial operation was fairly brief before Birchfield Minerals bought it in 1992. Initially owned by American company R A Hanson, after "fits and starts" the massive steel beam structure atop a barge at least 100m long finally rattled into life in 1989. "It's only a dredge of that size that can get down that deep," Birchfield explains.Ĭonstruction of the Grey Valley dredge began about 1980. The dredges finally allowed miners to plumb the riverbed down to 20 or 30m where the precious gold really was. It was the emergence of big dredge technology in the early to mid-20th century that coalesced real action on the Grey River goldfield. Blackball, Moonlight and Nelson Creek all had their time but their boom was relatively brief as the hard won efforts of pan, cradle and sluice eventually petered out. Photo: Greymouth Star / Brendon McMahonĪbout 140 years ago, gold digging in the Grey Valley was about the easy pickings on the accessible terraces and tributary streams bordering the river. The colour of dreams - gold and hope - focused a community around the dredge when it employed upwards of 100 people in the Grey Valley.įrom 1989 the dredge managed to delve deeper than any old-time goldminer could have dared to dream, as it meandered and chewed its way through 300ha of riverbed.Īllan Birchfield. "It's not always about money: it's about mining and having machinery working - if you are into that," he says quietly of the dredge that has occupied his thoughts for more than 30 years. On that day a refreshed looking Birchfield says the regional council is off the agenda - for now - but he does express some hope the dredge will somehow spring back to life. On a stifling late summer's day when the Greymouth Star visited the mothballed dredge in question, there was barely the ruffle of a flapping pigeon wing in the air nor a ripple on the deep clear pond where the monolith quietly floats beside the Grey River bed. I was basically over it," Birchfield said at the time.įor eight years the $157,025 cost against the VCS ledger due to the agreement has remained on the balance sheet like an uncomfortable boil - raising the spectre of conflict of interest. I said, 'Okay, if you want to have a go, go for it'. that it would be a great thing for the district. "To be honest, I was talked into this deal. Shortly before going on leave Birchfield stood by the VCS deal, but he told the Greymouth Star in hindsight he would not have done it again. With an internal row brewing among councillors in December, he admitted it was not such a good idea at all. It seemed like a good idea at the time - but the dredge has not sold, and the debt remains. The debt would remain on the council books and not have to be repaid until the dredge was sold. He was again nominated for the chair following the 2022 local body elections, but he has been on leave since December as the dredge financial storm was whipped up again amidst other murky happenings around his tenure at the council.īack in 2015, the council-owned VCS approached Birchfield suggesting they take on the dredge project, gain the consent renewals and then sell the dredge on his behalf. And it is certainly something he now regrets.īirchfield is the longest current-serving local body politician on the West Coast, into his seventh term on the regional council - and for now, his second term as chairman. The dredge and the entanglement of its owner and West Coast Regional Council helmsman Allan Birchfield, through a deal brokered by the council's business arm VCS eight years ago, has unmoored him. Local Democracy Reporter Brendon McMahon got a tour of the mothballed dredge with Birchfield - before his own councillors signed a requisition to remove him as chairman. Since about 2013 the dredge has been idle, but its mere presence has caused a bit of a flap lately - and will potentially be the downfall of West Coast Regional Council chairman Allan Birchfield. For more than 30 years it has floated amidst a riverscape dominated by the moody Paparoa Range to the west, and between the villages of Blackball and Ngahere on opposite sides of the river. The Grey Valley gold dredge sits like a giant bulwark in the Grey River. The 'bow' of the dredge complete with the improvised gangway to land, made out of flat-deck railway wagons joined together.
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