MISNAMED DESERTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 August 1924, Page 8

MISNAMED DESERTS.

MAP-MAKERS’ LIBELS

LOY ELY M ALLEY, BU SH SYDNEY, August i. liie early map-makei.- m ""■lien at a loss lor ueian, appear iaave always iieid tor reauy expedient, tne lepeiiant word "ciestrct, ’ and once uuiy lnipnmecl, peppered over the contiiicat; u lias remained there. Beople nestiLate to- visit what the geographer in all seriousness informs t.nciu is deseil- la'itd. Thus country, iiKe a dog. once given a bad' name, scLdom sheas u. mien opprobrious reputation has long been borne by a stretch of country uetween Melbourne and Adelaide, ana skirted by the 1 ail way known as the "-IN mcty-Mile Desert.” Happily years ago the desert in question proved sufficiently alluring to an artistically-mind-ed child to implant m linn a desire to tramp through it and explore its mysteries. Years have elapsed before that desire could be gratified, and in the meantime Mr Uercv Grainger, musician and composer, has lived and won reputation m three continents. A month ago, however, the opportunity long awaited came. Mr Grainger took up a swag and meandered by uav and slept by night in the Ninety Mile Desert, which, il we are to believe his glowing description, is in truth no desert at all, and, like.many another Australian "desert,” should in till justice have the libel erased from the map. "in my early childhood, my dear mother and i often crossed this desert country in the train while travelling •* Adelaide from Melbourne, and vice versa/’ said Mr Grainger. ”1 tf femember our walking early in the bright summer mornings and seeing the gently undulating sandy plains, clad with low bushy scrub, roll past our window, and my thinking it the most entrancing scene 1 had ever seen. Even at that early age I longed io walk through the ‘sandy desert’ and that yearning has never left me, nor has the vividness of that impression of my Australian childhood ever been quite equalled by anything I have since seen in several continents. Indeed I can recall nothing of equal loveliness m poetic charm elsewhere, unless it be the exquisitely coloured deserts of Southern California, and the romantic heatherlands of Jutland, in Denmark. It is ieally a misnomer to call the country between Cooke’s Plains and Bordertown a ‘desert/ since it abounds with a very great variety of shrubs, grasses and creepers. You see, th® outstanding quality of this country is the variety ol shapes, contours and colours —they should appeal, to the eye of a painter. This so-called ‘desert’ can really boast of a far wider range of contrasts than more heavily timbered country.”

Mr Grainger proceeded to describe colour effects—“ The prevailing growth is, of course, the mallee,” he said. Its fresh green leaves grow on darkly scarlet stems, which become a brilliant wine-red towards the tips. Thus, the commonest bush of mallee is in itself a thing of exquisite colouration and vivid contrasts. Quite otherwise in line and tint are the stunted shrubs of slie-oak, that spring from the jearth much as a narrow sheet of flauie rises from a fire, narrow at first and flaring unevenly towards the middle and top; these are of a sage-green or sage-yellow tone when alive, and bluey-grey when dry or dead. Another brilliant colour contrast fs afforded by (ruddy creepers that trail with long arabesqued fingers along the whitish grey sand. Some sections abound in ‘honeysuckle trees/ ample bushes upon which the. numberless flowers and seeds show like yellow bottle brushes amid the lighti-green foliage. Interspersed .among all. these other growths are plenty of yuccas, like tall bulrushes throwing their hiaek spears up above a man’s height. Among the smaller bushes are some rust red or russet brown, and there are ’many kinds of heath. The impression of variety in this kind of landscape lies largely in the fact that the stunted growth of the bushes makes it possible for the wayfarer to see large areas in which shrub against shrub make delightful patterns, the fan-like; outlines ol grasses and rushes, and. the flaring fornmtion of she-oaks being silhcmted against the larger bushes in a kaleidoscopic mingling of colours. These desert scenes should have a special message for a painter of decorative tendencies, so, when one feasts one’s eyes on the scroll work of this South Australian ‘desert/ one can readily imagine the delicate and subtle school of Australian decorative art to which these native influences will give rise ~i due course. And the plant life is not one whit more lovely than the flowing lines of the earth itself, which rise and; fall gently mile after mile with a soothing, billowy rhythm, never billy enough to cut off the vistas of wide expanses. Here you have the eahrm that desert and prairie lands, above all others, bold for dreamy and artistic natures.”