Welcome to the jungle

Three Marine Technical sailors from HMAS Gascoyne (LSMT Trinder, LSMT Grundy, and ABMT Gibson) trekked through dense jungle in the Solomons to get this tractor going, much to the delight of the locals.

HMAS Gascoyne (LCDR Dean Schopen) recently found innovative ways to provide assistance to the village of Falamai in the Solomon Islands Treasury Island Group.

Gascoyne is currently deployed in support of Operation Anode, At the request of Chief John Goldie Palupalu, Gascoyne Marine Technical Sailors conducted repairs on a tractor, which had not been running for over six months.

Three Gascoyne sailors showed amazing ingenuity to overhaul and repair the tractor with very limited resources.

After trekking 20 minutes through dense jungle, LSMT Ian Trinder, LSMT Chris Grundy and ABMT Anthony Gibson came upon an old Massey Ferguson tractor that was in a state of disrepair.

They found that the gearbox was seized and all wiring was either corroded or non-existent.

The Gascoyne sailors stripped down the gearbox and filtered the oil with a palm leaf woven together with coconut shell husk, which successfully removed most of the impurities.

The same method was also used to filter the rusty solution in the fuel tank. The fuel system was flushed and the exhaust system was cleaned and drained of water.

The battery was recharged and the tractor tyres were pumped up with a bike pump.

After pushing the tractor up a hill to try to clutch start it, it started with much excitement from the local villagers who had been watching most of the day.

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