DREDGE COMPONENT OR LOCOMOTIVE WHEEL?

The following newspaper extract refers to the building of a dredge, circa 1911:

'The Queenslander, 1 April, 1911

The Government has granted a loan of

£22,374 to the Townsville Harbour Board

for the construction of a dredge.'

1911 was the year the outer harbour at the mouth of the Ross Creek was developed to facilitate larger steamers. There is, however, no reference to a dredge other than "Octopus", operating during this time frame. 

Was there a second?

Yongala went down in March of that year and a large wheel-like components (ref. Max Gleeson's extraordinary SS Yongala, Mystery of a Generation) were found in her hold which was not recorded in the cargo manifest for that voyage. 

Could this have been the wheel component of a bucket-ladder system for a new dredge or spare parts for refurbishment of the existing "Octopus"?

I received this interesting input from the Maritime Museum of Townsville:

"The new dredge built in 1911 was the Cleveland Bay. The wheel component inside Yongala was probably a spare part for the Octopus or maybe even the other dredge, the Crocodile. Both dredges were nearing the end of their useful life and Octopus was scrapped around 1914."

Octopus, 1882. Bucket ladder dredge.
courtesy Townsville Maritime Museum.

courtesy Max Gleeson's SS Yongala, Mystery of a Generation:
http://www.maxgleeson.com/

courtesy Max Gleeson's SS Yongala, Mystery of a Generation.

There is an alternative theory:

Mid March, 1911, the Adelaide Steamship Company's Ouraka steamer brought a locomotive to Townsville, destined for the Great Northern Railway. It is feasible that some of the wheel components were to follow by Yongala, a week later. 

The Northern Miner, 13 March, 1911.

The Adelaide Company's steamer Ouraka,

brought to Townsville a record cargo, which

included 250,000 superficial feet of Oregon

Pine, 980 tons coal, 750 tons coke, a

locomotive for the Great Northern

Railways; all this was for Townsville, 200

tons of cane and tramway material for

Lucinda were on, 100 tons for Goondi

and 300 tons coal and 400 tons coke for

Cairns.

The second image above suggests that the outer flange is a rail tire, specific to a locomotive / rolling stock. 

Baldwin B13 Class steam locomotive, circa 1912 - courtesy State Library of Queensland.

The Baldwin (nicknamed 'teakettle') was re-purchased by Queensland (Northern) Railways and transported to Townsville aboard Ouraka. Work began from Bobawabba 24 July, 1911.

Parting thought:

During the last moments of Yongala's battle with the cyclone and listing to a dangerous degree, could these wheel components and other heavy cargo such as timber, have shifted; a final straw in the playing out of the tragedy??

The wheel components were stowed in cargo hold 1, which was forward in the steamer, a measure to improve draught forward and therefore, trim. The 164 tons of pig iron stabilising ballast was stowed forward in cargo hold 2 for precisely this reason.


courtesy Trove

http://www.maxgleeon.com/

Fix this tex