Grant Range Oil Well Spudding In Party, 31 October 1954

Summary

As its three rigs were still busy down at Rough Range and Cape Range-1, Wapet purchased a National 100 from the Commonwealth Government for 375,000 pounds and spent another 65,000 pounds on refitting it. To get it to Grant Range via Derby where the tidefall is 36 ft and the jetty a mile long, Wapet had to Charter a freighter to take 4000 tons, get the W.A. Government to strengthen the jetty, build a staff camp and a goods yard, get a railway line built from the jetty to the goods yard, get the road from Derby to Grant Range reconditioned, build 11 miles of new road to the drill site..... and build a camp site at Grant Range. And after drilling to 12,915 ft from October 29th 1954 to October 22nd 1955 without reaching the predicted Devonian section, end up with a pile of worn-out bits. (extracts from Show Me A Mountain, Colin Simpson, 1961). (from PESA news, Oct./Nov. 2004 http://www.pesa.com.au/publications/pesa_news/oct_04/pesanews_7220.html )