WOMAN PIONEER OUTBACK.

Gisborne Times, Volume LV, Issue 6154, 11 August 1921, Page 3

WOMAN PIONEER OUTBACK.

570 MILES FROM DOCTOR. TENNANT CREEK (N.T.), Aug. 1. The section of the Commonwealth Public Works Committee which is traversing the proposed route of the North-South railway arrived at Wycliffe Well on Monday, and, with a view of obtaining a woman’s opinion* of the benefits likely to accrue from the proposed railway, took evidence from Mrs Bertha Crook, a pastoralist holding 200 square miles of country, and running 200 goats, 40 horses and 100 cattle—a typical example of a small holder without capital. She had also the lease of the well and • an additional 100 square miles, hut as *tlie rent charged was £3O a year, and the travelling cattle jin good seasons used the surface water available, while in dry seasons very few cattle took that route, she relinquished the lease, as the amount received for supplying water from the well did not cover the rent. Mrs Crook has two young daughters with her, but there is not another white woman nearer than 180 miles. She stated that supplies cost £29 a ton from Oodnadatta, and had to he brought on camels •, hut during the recent floods camel teams could not travel, and, running short of flour, the family for weeks was reduced to living oil meat and what they could grow in the garden. She hoped that the railway would make for cheaper and more regular supplies, and encourage more men to bring their wives into the interior. At present men • were reluctant to bring their wives into the district, as the nearest medical aid was at Oodnadatta, about 570 miles distant.