| Collection |
Marlborough Province - down the decades from early days |
| Description |
A sepia photograph showing men laying portable railway lines at the Salt Works at Lake Grassmere.
On the back is written in an unknown hand, "Salt Works at Lake Grassmere. Laying portable railway lines. Right to left: Eric Badman, Neville Goodwin, Steve Waldron." And the number "529". At the bottom in the same hand is added, "1988 Eric Badman lives in Seddon." In another hand, in pencil, is written, "A.M. Hale Collection".
A scan of this photograph will be used in the Changing European History Gallery 3 display in commemoration of the Marlborough Provincial 150th anniversary on 1 November 2009.
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Caption December 2009:
Laying portable rail lines in a Lake Grassmere evaporation pond. When used in the early 1970s,
such lines could support a heavy harvester, or small wagons carrying harvested salt. The men with faces side-on are (right to left), Eric Badman, Neville Goodwin, and Steve Waldron.
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SOLAR SALT FROM LAKE GRASSMERE
Christchurch innovator-industrialist George Skellerup launched this wartime project in 1943.
It took atleast five years to prepare the pond, and get things running. The locality was ideal, with a flat site by the sea, a shallow lake, only 585 mm of rain, plenty of sun, and dry evaporating winds.
Manufacturing salt at Lake Grassmere is a process of concentrating the salt content of seawater by evaporation, then harvesting the crystallised salt. The salt forms crystals on the bottom of these ponds over the summer. In March, when the salt is ready for harvest, the remaining brine is pumped from the crystallisation ponds back into the sea. Before draining, the ponds are a bright pink-red, from the brine shrimps present.
|
| Object ID |
2009.067.0077 |
| Object Name |
Photograph |
| People |
Badman, Eric
Goodman, Neville
Waldron, Steve |
| Place |
Ward/Grassmere |
| Title |
Laying Portable Railway Lines at the Salt Works |
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