AUSTRALIAN DESERT AREA

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 September 1939, Page 12

AUSTRALIAN DESERT AREA

MANY LEGENDS DISPROVED. SYDNEY, August IS. The expedition which recently made the first crossing 'of the Simpson Desert has exploded many fantastic legends about that 55,000 square miles of the “dead heart” of Australia.

Mr. H. O. Fletcher, of Sydney, who was palaeontologist with the expedition, said that no light-skinned, aborigines or red-haired gins lived in the middle of the Simpson Desert. I here were signs that, natives had .been near thomiiddle of tlio desert, but, that was probably many years ago. Reports that hills or small mountains of borax were to be found were disproved. The Whole area comprised red sand. It was found that die Macumba. Warburton,an.iLaiio.Uwr river appearing on the maps as feeding North Lake Eyre did not reach it. In one place the car

tracks of a party of 1929 were still to be seen in a river bed. proving that no water had passed through there for 10 years.

Little water was found, but as it rained several days, the party was able to augment its supplies. The na tnral fauna of the desert, said Mr. Fletcher, was singularly scarce. Large inumbers of dingoes were seen almost every day. and were an intolerable nuisance to him because they robbed the traps of mice, rats- and other small animals. Beyond a few wrens, crows and brown hawks, .no bird life was observed. The flight parrot for which they kepi a close watch was not seen in this, its last line of retreat, and is now believed to be extinct. The desert contained little plant life. Snakes were plentiful in one area. No fossils or geological specimens were found in the desert itself, ibut sbme brush-tailed mice, pig-nosed-and black and white-tailed rats were seen.