ARID AUSTRALIA

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1924, Page 9

ARID AUSTRALIA

There are many Australians who regard as, a reflection on this country any suggestion that-there is in Australia any really desert wastes. Through the portr ?LZ J, r°5S '" S-Vdney Professor Griffith Taylor, of the Sydney University, and others have been" burling words atone another, on this point until finally the professor, as if' to clinch the. argument, has adopted the unusual course of accompanying his latest letter to the papers with-a map showing, the settlement of Australia, and ' the map lias been reproduced. He uses the map to illustrate his two main points- First that an area, which, li c says, is nearly half the continent, is inhabited, after a century "of settlement, by about onehalf of 1 per cent, of the population; secondly, that'the big region shown on his tell-tale map by dots or wavy lines is capable of only very sparse pastoral occupation, and is of exactly the same origin as the Sahara. The professor says he cannot understand' the mental process by which some people conclude that there is no desert in Central Australia. His argument is that we can well leave .the desert to the future, seeing that there is plenty of good country" yet untouched in Australia.