DescriptionTHE DREDGE
“The Mawhera” was a steam powered bucket dredge. It had an endless chain with scoop buckets. The chain boom could be lowered through the centre of the stern. The chain slowly turned, grinding metal on metal, creating an eerie moaning groan. The buckets scooped the mainly stony river bed up, carrying it up to the top of the structure and as it tipped over the gravel dropped out of the bucket, dropping down a chute into a big hopper.
The dredge while working would with its bow facing upstream against the river flow, move sideways across the river back and forth. Once fully loaded it sat very low in the water, the bucket boom was raised up and Captain Harle would come alongside the wharf, and any children on the wharf watching and who wanted to, could come on board, with a limit of twelve.
Parental permission was never considered in those days, just get on board. I did many trips to sea to unload the “tailings,” they’d just opened two flap doors, releasing the load and immediately you could feel the ship rise very suddenly. David Tillyshort whom I mentioned earlier, his father was an engineer on that dredge, but he worked below deck and I never saw him.
West Coast New Zealand History (13th Jun 2015). The Bucket Dredge Mawhera. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 6th May 2026 03:21, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/903
