NEW COLONY PLANNED

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20986, 14 October 1933, Page 18

NEW COLONY PLANNED

AN AMBITIOUS SCHEME BIG AUSTRALIAN AREA A plan for the settlement on a large scale of 110,000 square miles of the Kimberley region in Western Australia has been prepared by Sir James Connolly, former Agent-General for Western Australia. He proposes settlement and development of the area by a National Colonisation Company, and claims that with sufficient funds and the necessary enthusiasm and efficiency 100,000 British families could be settled there inside 12 years. As an essential preliminary, Sir James Connolly advocates the building of a railway of 3ft 6in gauge from Wyndham to Meekatharra and also a line to Camden Harbour. He says he considers that the area is a No Man's Land, with infinite possibilities and as habitable in every way as the wheat belt of Western Australia, well watered, practically drought-proof and free from the ordinary tropical diseases. He points out that near Wyndham and Derby are several hundred thousand acres on which fruit, vegetables, rubber, sugar cane and tobacco grow well, while cotton will grow almost wild. The area contains 97 million tons of practically pure iron ore above sea level.

Sir James makes the point that as the scheme aims at developing a new and practically undeveloped territory, it would not involve competition with workers already established in other parts of the Commonwealth. He suggests that the entire unalienated area should be transferred to a National or Chartered Company in absolute fee simple, including all mineral, trading and other rights. The present leaseholders, he says, who are mainly pastoralists, are no doubt willing to part with their rights for reasonable compensation on account of the low price of cattle. Sir James estimates the whole expenditure for the first two years, including the railway cost, would be £6,000,000. The cost of the two lines of railway he sets down at £4,500,000, and claims that Ihe building of the lines would give a year's employment to 16,000 steeiworkers in Britain alone. It is proposed by Sir James that during the first two years a consistent and sustained policy of detailed exploration and survey work should be carried out. He recommends that nobody over the age of 30 should be eligible as a colonist and that those selected should first undergo an intensive course of training in England. Preparatory advances made to each agricultural settler, he says, could be repaid in instalments over 15 or 20 years.