A DESERT THAT MAY SMILE.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15731, 26 October 1916, Page 7

A DESERT THAT MAY SMILE.

4 ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S EMPTY SPACES. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, October 18. In the south-west of' South Australia, .north of tho head of the Australian. Bight, south of the Musgrave Range, there i_s a great stretch of territory, hundreds of miles by hundreds of miles in extent, which, even on recent maps, is shown as a blank space, bearing scarcely a name. Apparently, it is a desert- Right through the middlo of this empty land, Australia is building a railway, designed to link up Perth and Adelaide.

Recently, the Commonwealth meteorologist, Mr H. A. Hunt, went out over this growing railway. He went to study rainfalls, and the like, but ho found everything interesting. For instance, ho travelled in the construction train which, becauso it leaves civilisation 60 far behind, is itself a village on •wheels. It carries a butcher, a baker, a storekeeper a blacksmith, a postmaster, a. paymaster, tho railway offices, and other things for the convenience of wio-men who are out there scoring the face of the wilderness. But what interested Mr Hunt more even than rain gauges and meteorological fixtures was the potentialities of this country.

'"It is not a desert," he said. "North ■af Bowler's Bay, tho rainfall is about 15 inches a year, or about the same as Boiirke, in New South Wales. It is well-grassed country, thin'v timbered, and with an elevation of GOO feet. Tho soil is exceedingly porous, and all the rain that falls sinks into tho ground At once. There is an abundance of grass and saltbush on much of this land, and I am sure it would carry sheep well if water were provided for them. I am convinccd. too, that it is good wheat country. The rainfall, we already know, falls just at the right time for wheat, in tho winter and spring. Tho land i.s quite equal to tho Pinnaron or much of the Malice country, and it could bo very cheaply and easily cultivated."

'Mr Hunt went on to say thnt tho water resources of the littlo known Musgravo Range, away to the north, might be utilised in a practicable ant* extensive irrigation scheme, and that he was recommending tho Homo Affairs Department to have an investigation made. The' Government Tiad an inducement to do this in that it holds the land for half a mile on each side of the new railway.