WONDERS OF AUSTRALIA

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 12200, 12 March 1934, Page 3

WONDERS OF AUSTRALIA

BARKING LIZARDS ON NULLABOR PLAIN

DIVERS BRAGGED ALONG SEABED./. / y T ... ' : . - • l' t A vast plain ; \vhic]i '‘gasps and. breathes” through great ■ fissures, a Monely Spanish mission with, ings, and •a. general '.atmosphere: which, carry the mind hack center--ies. and -pearling-gromicls where di-i vCrs are " dragged shore of morel miles along the ' ; sca-bbottoin each; clay were" among the little-known spectacles of the Australian Continent described by Mr. C. H. Holmes, director of the Australian National Travel Associatio,, in an address to members of the -Australian Wattle. League (Victorian branch) . at . an Australia Bay celebration. • , . . A s coastal dwellers suffering of necessity, from a geographical domination. .said Mr. Holmes, too fqw Australians knew much, about the.; marvels of; the ,continent, ' although the "covered waggon” story of thgir countrv commenced" when , stockmen crossed the. ranees -t to . -seek now, grazing arejis in the distant.interior.,. Drawing from experiences gained on a -two months' survey by land, air, and water, be described the 100 000’ square miles' of perfectly flat 'Nullarhnr Plain •' in Western Australia as an . old sea bed. which literally vasned and breathed ■ through vents loading to underground caverns and. . waterways of unknown extent. Ko evenlv regulated, was the air flow from, some of the blowholes that it would sustain a. hat in the air at a, constant height -above the ground.. • Her en bout a. were . found-'the harking, lizard, and a blind and .deaf .-marsupial mole. At o‘oelgardie. now living essentinllv' in the past, it was ! difficult but fascinating to wander among the historic . ruini- and visualise the day® when' water was sold there at from -2s-to As a gallon. until 'it was brought by'a pipe line 300 miles in dengtlr, from near 'Perth the water taking a month to travel the distance. Here. too. could he seen vegetation, pushing its way through -the rotting, floor of n hank- ; tng chamber . whore. millions •oh rounds were once handled. ;

Eigh'tv miles from Berth stood the old' Pnanish mission .now conductedas a farm, but still possessing essentially the atmophera of old Spain - anamazing picture in .the .loneliness -o f the' .Australian- West. Northwards; at Broome, the base of the pearl industry, ton Id he seen at work a coloured man who once .received thousand's of pounds a, year 1 for' his skill at "skinning” pearls—removing the’ outer ■ shell to determine whether he was .handling something worth pence or thousands of pounds. Off . the coast Japanese divers performed amazing feats of endurance under water, often being dragged 30 miles in a day along tho sca-hcttom collecting pearl shell. The peculiar customs of the Oriental population thereabouts, the buffalo country inland, Darwin, "the much-maligned” town of brilliant flowers, and the Barrier reefj were just a few of the wonders awaiting Those who would "see Australia first/*