CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 29, 3 August 1923, Page 7

CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

A RAILWAY WANTED

BREACH OF FEDERAL AGREEMENT. (FKOII DUE OWN CORRESPONDENT. 1) SYDNEY, 25th July. The construction of the Federal capital at Canberra is not the only work definitely promised by the Commonwealth in the terms of federation with the State in 1901 which has been neglected. The long-deferred North-South ■railway, the early construction of which was one of the principal inducements offered to South Australia to hand over the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth, has also been a subject of constant equivocation. Now that the Federal capital is at length hovering about the realm of practical politics, a resolution having been carried by the House of Representatives last week that the next Parliament should meet there —a resolution generally deemed more pious than hopeful—the people of South Australia, who, with those of the North, will be the immediate beneficiaries from the scheme, are energetically demanding the fulfilment of this other pact. SOME WONDERFUL COUNTRY. The Premier of South Australia, Sir Henry Barwell, one of the dominating personalities of Australian politics, has personally inspected the remote regions through which the line would pass, and j he has just returned to sing its praises and denounce as misrepresentation the arguments put forward on behalf of Queensland pastoral interests that the proposed route should be deviated into 'Queensland because the direct South Australian-Northern Territory route was mainly across desert lands. Sir Henry Barwell, in demanding not only the early construction of the line, but strict adherence to the original route, says that in the Territory, and particularly beyond the MacDounell Ranges, his party passed through some wonderful country, much of which was unoccupied, 'simply because of the difficulty, the impossibility almost, of transporting the materials necessary for effective occupation. , There was much country suitable j for sheep, but to keep sheep it was I [ necessary to erect dog-proof fencing, the material for which could not be taken there under existing conditions. There | was also the difficulty of getting sheep to market from such a distance without railway comrnunica<tion. Had South Aus- | tralia regained control of the Territory, the work would have been well in hand by now. This State made a mistake in parting with it, but South Australia pad insisted upon an agreement that the Commonwealth Government should complete the North-South line, and this .agreement was ratified by the Northern Territory Acquisition Act, 1910. South Australia was asked by the Commonwealth to forego its right to have the North-South line constructed first in favour of the immediate construction of the East-West line, but there was an understanding that there would be no undue delay in the subsequent completion of the North-South line in terms of the agreement. After thirteen years from the date of the agreement nothing had been done by the Commonwealth Government to fulfil its obligations to complete the line. NO REALLY PQOR LAND. No portion of the country between Oodnadatta and Central Mount Stuart was a desert. There was near Oodna-' datta a short stretch of gibber country, but this was by no means a desert. It carried a certain amount of feed, and much of it was good sheep and horse raising country. Then there were some sandhills, but most of these were fairly well covjbred with mulga and spinifex, the seeding stalks of the spinifex being very good for stock-fattening purposes. Even in the sandhill country there were well-grassed flats between the sandhill ridges. The country kept on improving 'as one went north. In all the area covered by the party there was not much country that could be described as really poor. There were immense areas splen- | didly grassed, and much carrying mulga and acacia, which' was very thick in I places. There was not much permanent surface water, but water seemed to be obtainable almost anywhere in the parts visited, and often at very shallow depth. "" ■ ■■• .