how does a giant gold dredge work on land

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. 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. 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. Photo: Greymouth Star / Brendon McMahonThe 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.

How does a giant gold dredge work on land