THE NULLARBOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NULLARBOR.

WEIRD AND WONDERFUL

RIVERS UNDERGROUND? i (By EDWARD SAMUEL.) The long journey by the transAustralian express between Adelaide and Perth takes the traveller across one of the most extraordinary tracts of fconntry in the world—the Great Nullarhor Plain. It stretches westward for over 400 miles from. Ooldea in South Australia to Narettia in West Australia. How far to the north the plain extends is not definitely known even to-day, but its southern boundary is the limestone cliffs that overlook the Great Australian Bight. No more appropriate name could be given to this vast plain than Nullarbor, a combination of the Latin words ''nulla" and "arbor," "no tree." The whole tract, limitless and treeless, is practically dead level, a vast sea of limestone. Across this plain runs the length of railway line, for 330 miles perfectly straight, and the variation of level from end to end is under nine inches. The early exploration of this vast area is history. Edward John Eyre's journey round the shore of the Great Australian Bight in 1841, and his desperate plight on arrival with his sole surviving companion, the black boy Wylie; the two subsequent journeys of John (afterwards Lord) Forrest, 30 years later; and the hazardous east-west journey successfully accomplished by Ernest Giles are some of the wonders of exploration. Then, as now, water was the obsessing problem, and it was only the bushman's instinct and the unerring sagacity of the leaders of these expeditions which enabled men and horses to locate it, when failure to do so, as they too well knew, meant indescribable horrors of thirst and, later, bleached bones in the wilderness.

A few miles to the north of the railway lies the Ooldea Soak, known from time immemorial by the wandering tribes of aborigines as a place where fresh ttater could be found a few feet from the sandy surface. Here for centuries the black inhabitants of this great continent gathered to perform tiieir sacred ceremonies, and to barter their spears, boomerangs, wommerahs, shields, clay, etc., for goods or weapons of other tribes. A more unexpected location for water could not be imagined. Standing in the depression nothing is visible but dry, sandy hills scantily vegetated. Even in the valley itself, the dry surface shows no indication of the existence of valuable drinking water which lies only a few feet below. The Commonwealth Railway Department, during the construction of the transAustralian Railway, and for years later, secured sufficient water for locomotives by digging seven shallow wells within an area of half an acre. Eventually other water supplies were developed, and a series of reservoirs constructed at various points on the line.

Northern Boundary Undefined. The north is the mystery land of the plain, for none knows the precise location of the border, somewhere south of the Musgrave Ranges, hundreds of miles away. On the western side, 70 or 80 miles south of Loongana Station, the plain ends abruptly in a long line of eJiffs which drop down like the end of the flat world of other days. Fifty to 100 feet below are the Hampton Plains, and under the overhanging edge of the Xullarbor are caves and huge galleries scarcely known to white men. Six miles from Madura Downs homestead is Mereguda, the aboriginal name for the great cave. This cave is known to barely a score of people, and even now has only been partly explored. The blacks declare it is haunted, and without the white man will not venture beyond the vast entrance hall. Centuries ago it was frequented by aborigines, and recently relics of some lost tribes have been discovered, including a wooden weapon, like a waddv in shape, but with the head studded with dingo teeth, representing the eyes and nose of a grotesque human face. One gallery has been explored for half a mile with no sign of ending. A wide and lofty gallery begins to the right of the narrow way, and the halls are large enough to hold a hundred people. Dinga Donga, another great cave, is difficult to find, for the limestone plain is trackless except for the telltale pads which lead to watering places. \Tlie main cavern is entered through a steep winding way down into the darkness and stifling atmosphere. There are many other caves, some of immense size only partly explored, all huge limestone creations. One cave, Weebabie, has a Luge underground lake, the clear water of which is bitter. The aboriginals have a great fear that a huge serpent named Ganba or Jeedarra dwells here. Their traditional fear is not surprising, as all these huge caverns are awe inspiring, and their exploration is a severe test on the nerves. In most of the main eaves hundreds of feet above the floor are hosts of small bats, and in the balconies there are pale coloured cave owls which blink down upon the intruder and make the eerie light fearsome with their hooting. Prehistoric Monsters. On the plain itself there is a variety of interesting fauna, such as the kangaroo mouse, marsupial mole, housebuilding rat, the crested-tailed Phasgoale, doormouse-opossum, mountain racehorse lizard, sleepy lizard, barking lizard, and, of course, goannas, dingos, emu and kangaroo, with countless rabbits. In bird life there are the wedge-tailed eagles, with a huge 10ft spread of wing, the Australian bustard, the mallee fowl, and many more. Wild camels abound and give much trouble to distant station owners as they are ruthless fence destroyers. In the dim long ago the Nullarbor plain supported a huge form of animal life, as is proved by the fact that discoveries of bones of the diprotodon Australis were made at Balladonia, at Cook's Rocks and elsewhere. These places are large granite outcrops on the limestoneplain and about the rocks water is found, undoubtedly watering places for these prehistoric monsters. * Studded all over the surface of the plain for more than 100 miles from the coast are blow holes, which are generally more or less circular pipe-like openings in the limestone crust, with a diameter of from one to eight feet. Through these openings the air often rushes with considerable force, and in some cases the outward draught is so powerful and constant as to keep a felt hat suspended in it. At other times there is a strong suction, and any light object held over the mouth of the blow hole is rapidly

drawn in. The blow holes prove the existence of caves and the wide areas over which they are scattered indicate caverns, the extent of which may exceed even the mammoth caves of Kentucky. The blow holes in the morning may be issuing cool air and in the evening may Jbe sucking it in. When it issues it has a peculiar odour resembling seaweed, which some think is due to tidal action at large caves on the sea front of the Great Australian Bight, 100 miles away. Other theories also are advanced, the most likely of which is that the blowing and suction are due to barometric pressure. An awe-inspiring feature about these blow holes is the variety of sounds made by the air. Sometimes it is a shrill whistling, or an ominous roar, often a gentle hissing. Sometimes it is a soft, unearthly sighing. Underground Streams. There are vast underground rivers beneath the plain, and years ago a party exploring one of the caves some miles from Eucla discovered one, a stream of deep pure water running in a southerly direction through the bowels of the earth towards the coast. Procuring a small canvas boat they followed the course of the river, which soon branched off in several directions, rendering it advisable to pay out a ball of string, lest on the return they should follow the wrong channel and become lost. Discretion restricted their exploration to the length of the string, so that the secrets of the underground river await even to-day the arrival of a further band of adventurers better equipped. It is an interesting speculation as to whether the absence of surface water on the thousands of square miles of the Nullarbor may be accounted for by a system of underground rivers flowing into the sea. The vast fresh water lake, seven miles long and nearly two miles wide, which held up the traffic on the Trans-Australian Railway in 1930 certainly drained rapidly into the yawning cavities or blowholes. There is no doubt that there are vast supplies of subterranean water, as artesian bores produce unlimited quantities of water at depth from 110 feet to 140 feet. Up to the north-west edge of the Nullarbor Plain there exists to-day the bed of what was once a very fair sized rivej, flowing into the sea which then covered the Nullarbor Plain. This ancient river bed is known as the Ponton River, and its southern portion as Goddard's Creek, which is crossed by the Trans-Australian Railway 14C miles from Kalgoorlie. When it reaches the Nullarbor Plain, Goddard's Creek simply loses itself in the sand. Lord Forrest, the grand old man of the West, once said that on his overland journey around the coast he noticed a stream of fresh water flowing into the sea, and the captain of a steamer who made a subsequent investigation was emphatic that the water was fresh two miles from the shore. These facts are strong evidence that extensive rivers of fresh water flow underground into the sea. To-day in the "trans-continental" many travellers cross tiie Nullarbor Plains without a thought of their wonders, while they sit in comfortable carriages ujul play bridge, but the whole district in of extraordinary geological and scientific interest, which would well repay extensive exploration by a wellequipped expedition of scientists and •explorers.