Tree Scientists Work Near Roar Of Rockets

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27962, 8 May 1956, Page 10

Tree Scientists Work Near Roar Of Rockets

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

A WOOMERA. As strange supersonic missiles howl into the sky at the British and Australian rocket range at Woomera a group of quiet, slow-moving men tend slow-growing plants which may transform great areas of Australian “desert” and other treeless countries. The men who are employed by the Australian Government department which built the range facilities, are experimenting with plant growth in the semi-desert country 300 miles north-west of Adelaide on which the range is sited. Their garden, about a quarter of a mile . from the village housing scientists, servicemen and other range workers is referred to even by the children at Woomera as the Arboretpm, a name not out of place in the scientific atmosphere of Woomera. In the Arboretum, amid the red soil and grey-green saltbush of the range country is one of the greenest and smoothest lawns anyone could wish to see - The lawn is of South African couch, grown specially at Woomera to test its suitability in that area. Woomera is at the centre of a stone covered tableland 60 miles in diameter Most Australians call it desert, but nearby Mount Eba sheep station, from which the Government leased the land on which stands the village of Woomera, shears about 30,000 of some oi the choicest merino sheep in Australia each year. Scattered at one to 20 acres, they browse among the sparse tufted saltbush which subsists in the reddish clav and loam soil, watered by an annual rainfall of some four to five inches. Although the horizon is a deadly, fiat monotony, the land itself is gently rolling, like a sea swell with several miles between the crest and trough of the waves, and with not a tree to be seen.

The planners of the range soon realised that trees must be considered one of the amenities of the village—particularly for the eyes of the English workers, used to the softness of their own countryside—and that an afforestation scheme must be incorporated into the general development of the place. From this realisation grew a project which may revolutionise the treeless areas of Australia and which may have its effects on other parts of the world.

The Department of Works appointed a full-time arboriculturist and charged him with production of trees and grasses suitable to the Woomera area. Nurseries were established at Port Augusta—nearby township. 130 miles to the south-east—and at Woomera itself and contact was established with authorities in most of the dry areas

of the world. These areas included The. Sudan, South Africa and Arizona. Seeds were secured from all over the world and extensive experiments are now under way to see whicl\ plants are best suited to Woomera.

Tree Planting Campaign In the meantime, a vigorous treeplanting campaign ir the village area itself led to the planting of more than 34.000. There are more to follow. The main species being planted are eucalyptus, the Australian native which already has found its way to America, Africa and Mediterranean countries, acacias and peppers. The growth of many oi these trees has been phenomenal, according to the Woomera nursery supervisor, Mr E. F. Martin. He is particularly watching the progress of what he called an Israel bush, a spiky-looking grey bush from the Holy Land. The Israel bush, thriving at Woomera is believed to have a higher nutritional value for sheep than the local saltbush, he said. Mr Martin said that, despite the un promising fodder, locally produced sheep yielded some of the finest merino fleeces and had some of the heaviest carcases among their kind in Australia. Scientists believed that this was because Woomera soil lacked no important trace elements. Mr Martin said.

Agronomists in countries from which plants, particularly fodder plants, were imported to be grown at Woomera. were interested in the results, he said because of what they might learn of mineral lack in their own soils.

Thus, Australia’s first dry-country plant research station might not only transform the face of the many hundreds of square miles of dry country in Australia, but be of invaluable assistance to other countries, particularly in the Mediterranean area. Mr Martin is interested also in ornamental trees to help break the awful monotony of the treeless plains. He is proud of his pencil pines, a Mediterranean plant which looks as if it comes straight from a trim formal garden, and several Blue Nile wattles, which he said were very successful. The Manager of Mount Eba station has taken a lead from the laboratory and has planted ornamental shrubs and lawns around the station homestead, carefully following Mr Martin’s advice. Other sheepmen from a station hundreds of miles away (distance means little in this country where every homestead has its adjacent light aircraft landing strip) have literally dropped in at Woomera to see for themselves the arboretum and Mr Martin believes that the transformation of this part of the Australian continent is already under way.