UNKNOWN AUSTRALIA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 54, 27 November 1907, Page 5

UNKNOWN AUSTRALIA.

OUTPOSTS: IN WEST,

Tako a map of Australia }. and draw a straight lino from Sydney to Melbourne. Bisect it. From tho bisecting point draw a straight lino in a uarth-westorly direction till-it strikes .tho' Jndiiin Ocean. '[' Here, at tho greatest distarico t'rom tho two capitals, will bo found tho least-known part of our continent. To the average Sydnoy-sidor it is really a terra incognita. Ho knows littlo about 'Wynuham, with its cattle exports. He knows nothing about Jho fastnesses of the Kimberley country, with •' its thousands of wild-natives.- Ho has but a faint idea of Derby! and.its hiigo baobab trees. Broome and tho pearling fleet'ho has heard about, but of- the "van-coloured crowd of Asiatics that dwell at Roebuck Bay his information .-is scanty. Port Hcdlnnd \io will not find on the may, unless it be n S - pry recent one. Moolyella, 'Wodg'ma, Cossack, Hall's Creek, and Marblo Bar'aro 'even to well-informed Australians names, but nothing'more. Until a few months ago Port Darwin was almost as little known as tho Nor'-west, but the'recent visits foenssed tlio 'attention of Australians Qn tho Northern Territory'

ButHhough tho great North has'been, exploited the greater North-west'has not' shared in tho publicity. Tropical' Western Australia remains to.all intents and.purposes unknown. And yet that long line of rocky joaßt ..frorn Onslaw .to Wyndham is well worth knowing. ...Situated between Capricorn and. the equator,-its enervating climate has.been the primary causo.of its tardy progress. .. A somewhat pampered race', sticking ilose to the confines of civilisation, takes the line of least Tesistanco. But the British race never demanded- pioneers to blaze the trail without "getting a ready response, > A whisper; from!'the . North told of \Kimberley gold. Asea breezo brought tidings of priceless pearls on the Dampier coast. A nativo i strayed :south with memories of -millions! of grassy acres, and countless kangaroos. Then the Nor'-west awoke from her sleep.' Hardy miners with waterbag and pick tackled , tho long trail to Hall's Creek. Pearlers "'from Thursday Island; men from tho sotitlv with Norse blood in their'veins clamouring foV the salt sea air, all made for tho shoros buck Bay;. Tho Victorian squatter, "cramped up in. a few thousand acres, the overlanders from north of Bodrke, and the farm'er ! :from the banks of the Swan, mado to thdcland of limitless acres. * - Hunters who had -mooned tho possums on tho Hunter, or stalked tho wallaby and dingo' in tho eastern States, made for the wilds,, whero tho'Roo was as plentiful as oven Bunny on tho coast. .It is .not manjvyears since the: Kimberley rush set in. Noither.is it ancient uhistory tho rise of Broome. The squattersjof-the Murchison, Gascoyne, 'and\De GreyiAro.not the great .grandsons, but tho. : iyounger brothers and sons of tho pioneers thejpselves. And see what they havo won from the wilds in so short-;a time.!, Western ..Australia's gold totals eight millions sterling, and a fair share comes from the North-wesfc. Pearls and shell valued at a. quarter million prove eaoh year the worth of. tho pearlingflluggers. Flecks and ■• herds in tho tropicaKoffest run into millions; The .'Singapore- boats tako from every port thousands of skinsy for the 'Roq is every year;wwary r for the Merino. 'What' a fine contributio&i to tho industrial lifo of tho Jiiation, and it. is the work of onlyla few hundred whites. : ■ Truo, the squatters havo commandeered' tho services of ■ tho natives, , whilq the pearling fleet is manned chiefly byJ Asiatics. •! But the brain, the'-'initiative',"'the-.-pioneering work has been ,all the white man's: !o And the products of his-'energies find outlet to the markets of through seven , 'seaports. Theso face the' Indian' Ocean, whence come Ceylon's' spicy 'brßczesJ 'and the willy-willies and cock-eyo bobs! ..The uninitiated .need only be "told that',\a Willy-willy is ll a doublebarrelled " tbrnade; : ivhile' a cock' J eyo bod is something slightly,'worse than a"' cyclone!When ho hears' 1 that the houses Hi Cossack,' Roeburhe, and' Port Hedland are , chained to .tho ground withheavy cables, the stay-aW , home Australian 'sniilps -superciliously, and' says , something .about; "travellers' >y tales.-' Tho casual 'stares' at' th6°iinwonted phenomenon', and enquires'if tho;lbcals.fear that;. burglars might' .cjirry the li'puse away wholesale. ;B*ut.'the• irort cables. ar3'not there for ornament.'.. Sheer-necessity pnd. bitter experience have ordajned it... T]l.b carrier's office at Port Hedland was blown three miles along the beach the day tho willywilly arrived. A great jarrah-beam was cut clean by a flying -corrugated sheet. Cossack was ■ wrecked by a playful willywilly some years'agoty It week .-to collect the.town. , : .Croydon station unwisely got in .the path of, another casual.-. disturbance. „'Six miles away wo, found' parts;.'-'jj that homestead. , The,whole wes.t*coast sytll talks of tho. '87 blow." The "Dandenong gale" , and the "Maitjand, stormj;';'.; well .remembered by Sydncysiders, were only small potatoes'/in comparison. A hundijod pearling boats, and luggers (Went down that timo, and -200 pearlers perished.- These cyclonic: phenomena v only ,payi, periodical visits. It is just as well, out i always,,tho houses are chained down, and wjtioden shutters are ever in readiness. , And tho lot of the dwellers there is not enviable.

It is only natural that tjfb superficial idiosyncrasies and wickedness should" be most obvious. Beneath the surface are the, same toilTig,, the same trials and troubles as else■vhore. But also hore are -the same victories ind the same , competencies won Its in'our ■ more favoured,.clime. .Only.the fight there is more strenuous. Cossack boatmen, sail, out of the peaceful creek 'to win wealth/; froiji■, the ■ tempestuous Indian. Ocean. Raebourne- mer r chants: handle the.; copper, the wool, and i the skins from the interior, with theitropical'sun beating down to the tune of 120deg.J"The Onslow pier groans under the weight of the bales that sun-itaiyied- teamstors have -.carted a hiindredmjles." Even the wiry, brqwnskinned Majays sweat freely as-they'transfer' the wool to the "w.aiting steamers. Jit," Con-don'the-revetting ftidc leaves the liner's'high and dry,, while .the bullockies hurry: their teams to the side. daily; witnesses the'shambling camel'train moving out with the stores Bar or Moolyella. In and out of Roebuck Bay glide the pearling luggoysy. with their polyglot crews.. It is no child's, play, but in the season Javanese, Malay, Filipino, Mongolian Bingij.and-Caucasian make merry, rTho tropical'''hight comes and myriads.of'istars twinkloi merrily over the decidedly :un-Aus-tralian''scenes enacted in the pearling port. Furthqr : north, on the lnangrove-lirie'cl shores of King's'. Island, the men of Derby ,do their duty, sending sheep and cattle south to Perth, and fleecer-and hides north to Singapore. Cambridge); Gulf every second moon sees'the big ship from the south, with its mailv for the isolated , townfolk. In the- cattle season the northern .port wakes up. Tho .population increases to quite a hundred. Bronzed cattlo men from the Ord River, from Argyle, Sturt's Texas Downs make for tho. Gulf with their thousands of .pikers, a The cattle boats_"eome up from Fremantle. During tho season , ''2o,ooo Kimberley bullocks , ,: forced on by yelling blacks and'swearing;'whites, run blindly along the. race and into.'tho,;' waiting hold, .and the niggers come to tpwn.' Lubras in flaring red petticoats (blouses ,',are. off) camp, along the creek.' Big men ,j,who had helped the drovers in with .cattle enjoy the unwonted sight of a ship, and.strnb'about, sometimes sparing a contemptuous glance for their cattle-spearing brethren in flhe chain gangs. Picaninnies, innocent-'of "clothing, gambol about the beaches, only to fly'screaming to the gins when ft crocodile ,'ppkes his ugly snout above the water.,(.Pioneer graziers with, revolvers at hip, put-in ,a few days at the port, securing siipplie«vandLoiiga«ing *eiv hands ere they again make intottho- hintei'nnd. And what an heroic;'life 'they, lead! Tropitcil heat, myriads of mosquitoes, and tinned tinker are minor evils''when 1 compared to the troublesome'natives. At a.'nibs't' moderate computation 10,000 wild blaik/T: inhabit the Kimberloy country. Af, least'ftOOO head of cattle are s'poared every ; ,year. ■■, The lonely many sturdy pioneors. afford grim testimony to the treacheryJof the blacks.. The visitor to tho north is Overwhelmed with • stories of nativo villainy, for Kimberley is tho ono place in Australia where the rfaTivo black has held his own against the invading white. Such is a glimpse of the vast rior'-west, where, . practically unknown to us all/a few-of our fel-low-Australians are: ■" :'>• -■" , . , Fighting the fires and'floods'and'drought, Tn nights of terror and days of doubt, Shifting the outposts further out-r- - Qoid. —O;H., in the,"Sydney Morning.Herald."--.