U.S. Surplus Dump Truck

Maintenance Vehicles

PERL obtained and relied upon U.S. government surplus maintenance vehicles to provide transportation within the Cable Station and along the northern Napari Islet.  Photographed above are examples of the vehicles, such as the wrecker truck, pickup truck (shown with PERL staff loaded up on Sunday for the 5 mile drive down to church services at Bairau village on the south side of English Harbour), and one of the highly popular and venerated Jeeps, of which there were two.   Not shown were a handful of other vehicles in various states of repair or disassembly.

Earth Moving Vehicles and Equipment

PERL also obtained and relied upon U.S. government surplus earth moving vehicles and equipment to create and maintain the airfield and roads on Napari Islet.  Photographed on the left margin and below are examples of the units, which included a dump truck for transporting earth and sand, front end loader and backhoe for digging, gallion roller for smoothing road and runway surfaces, and for moving and grading roads and runway surfaces there was a front end loader, a bulldozer, and a grader.  As with the transportation vehicles, and as is evident in the photograph immediately to the left where a forklift is visible, there were various other pieces of equipment that are not shown as they were in various states of repair or disassembly,

Comments

 Considering the size of Napari Islet, which is almost 10 miles from tip to tip, and the fact that there are no other resources to speak of on Tabuaeran (Fanning) upon which one could rely, one can readily appreciate the necessity of establishing and maintaining such a fleet of maintenance and earth moving vehicles and equipment in order to keep the dirt roads and airfield operable, and to maintain essential services.

U.S. Surplus Front End Loader / Backhoe

U.S. Surplus Gallion Roller

     
              U.S. Surplus Front End Loader                                  U.S. Surplus Bulldozer                                              U.S. Surplus Grader