AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 14 February 1927, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY.

FROM NORTH TO SOUTH. MISSING LINK OF LINE. CONSTRUCTION COMMENCED. SYDNEY. Jan. 27. In the heart of the Australian Continent last Friday a simple ceremony marked the honouring of a 20-year-old. promise to the South Australian State and people by the Commonwealth Government. The ceremony was the turning of the first sod of a line of railway to Oodnadatta, the terminus of the South Australian railway northwards. to link up with Alice Springs,; the terminus of the Northern Territory line southwards from Darwin. The promise was one given by the: ffedery 1 Ministry of *1906 to South Australia that in exchange for the transfer of control of the Territory, then a portion of South Australia, from the State to the Com-, monwealth, the north-south transcontinental line would he completed. The' distance between the two present ter-, niin.ii is 294 miles. Ooodnadat-tn is in the middle of the vast, drv silent interior. Tn spite of ■ K dryness this country is declared by 1 those who know it to he capable of’ '■’rofitnblo development and production. The sneeinl train hearing Fed-

’■a '■ and State politicians' to the scene of the ceremony saw plenty of evidence that the efforts of man could tui'n this apparently arid region, to blossoming plains, t and residents aver that the linking of Oodnadatta and Alice Springs by rail will mean much in the development not only of the present settled districts, but also of others where cattle and sheep rearing has not yet been attempted. The actual ceremony of turning the ‘•yd was witnessed by a. little group of local residents arid railway gangers. The weather was cool, but a roaring wind- scoured the bare br.own plains and sent, the dust swirling' round the speakers and audience. Tn the background aborigines beamed at the proceedings. The hells of -a. came;] team jangled and a little group of Afghanis, drivers of the camels, watched, with ning of a work that will make their who knows what feelings, the begi 11camels out of date.

No fewer than eleven speeches were made at the ceremony. The Federal Minister for ’Works. Mr. W. Cl Hill, .said that the line would cost, excluding rolling stock, £1,700,000. and would be completed not later than June 30, 1929. The principal advantages claimed for the new railway link that it will prove an additional means: of defence in a. time of war. it will tend to unite the people of sohtb. north and central Australia., and, it will be the forerunner of ia, definite attempt to provide a water supply and other facilities which would make for the settlement and development of the .interior of the continent .