CENTRAL AUSTRALIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7223, 24 April 1884, Page 5

CENTRAL AUSTRALIA.

(Contributed to the Timaru. Herald.) I happened to notice in a New Zealand paper a short time ago that someone was trying to enlighten his fellow-colonists on the subject of Central Australia. I took this paper with me and read it aloud in camp to the stockmen there assembled for the purpose of mustering cattle. It caused much merriment, a little discussion, and some profanity of a highly ornate type,— the general opinion being that the writer of the article was personally unacquainted with the subject and that he was anything but accurate in his geography, which he could easily have worked up from a map. I propose in the following sketch to give your* readers some idea of the conditions of life in the interior of Australia, prefacing my remarks by saying that they are written near the 26th parallel and close to the border of Queensland and South Australia, and during one of the severest droughts on record. The watershed of the chief of the streams running inland is not far removed, comparatively, from the coast of Queensland on the north and east. Being subject to tropical rainfalls, the surplus water is carried many hundreds of miles into the interior, and, in places, spreads out for miles on either side of the true channel, filling lakes and swamps sometimes as far as forty miles from the general flow. Ihis is itself in times of flood of variable width and depth, with a very steady current, and it has actually boon observed in certain places as being fully forty miles from one siile to the other, flood marks also bearing witness to a tremendous spread of water. 1 am speaking now of streams like the Bareoo or Cooper’s Creek ami the Diamantina, which empty into Lake Byre. A glance at the map will show that a very largo area of country drains into Lake Byre, but it is only in times of heavy flood that water runs into it. As a rule, every flood coming down the creeks or watercourses is absorbed in Idling largo watevholes in the channels proper, or else in backing out to fill large areas of swamp. Hooded ground, and shallow lakes. About once in seven'years there is extra heavy rain at the head waters of, and on the country drained by, the above-mentioned streams, when the volume of water naming to waste into Lake Eyre is surprising, ilns surplus water is quite useless on account of the groat quantity of salt lying on the surface of the lake, which in a short time turns the beautiful fresh water running into it to brino of about the quality of sea water. This is a chief cause of failure in the satisfactory depasturing of stock in much of the country in the immediate vicinity of Lake Eyre; as fine sheets of water, if not replenished by flood, gradually turn brackish, and then salt as the sea. Before this takes place the fish

die and are cast up by the wind on the margin of the lakes in tons, and the resulting putrefaction is horrible. That splendid expanse of water, named Lake Hope, is a strong case in point. Like many others, it is simply a pocket or basin that is filled from the overflow of Cooper’s Creek by means of a channel 12 miles long. It fills to a certain level and then remains still water, the Cooper then continuing its course. Having no outlet no seoui can take place, and the consequence is that in this land of almost continuous sunshine the evaporation is very great, with the result that I have mentioned above. The whole of the lower Cooper and Diamantina would be practically valueless for carrying stock, were it not for the flood water, when receding, leaving such splendid feed behind it on the swamps and flooded flats, where there has been no local rain whatever. Wells have been sunk in the vicinity of Lake Eyre, but the enormous quantity of salt water met with has disheartened runholdeis, and hindered them from trying to penetrate below the salt water in search of fresh. On a bank of a water hole on the Clayton Creek, called Tarkanina, to the south of Lake Eyre, the South Australian Government has been boring for the last two years, and are now down over 1200 feet, having sunk through three different strata of salt water; they expect to strike fresh water at something like 1500 feet, I hear. Hut, this process is altogether too costly for the average runholder, and the number of abandoned wells is surprising, either dry or with salt water in them. Very little well-sinking has been attempted on tho Cooper or Diamantina, the settlers depending almost entirely on flood water ; but those occupying country not reached by it are now endeavouring to get water by sinking, with, at present, varying success. The country drained by the two creeks above mentioned is of varying description, consisting principally of plains, stony table-lands, rolling downs, sandhills, and flooded flats. Tho sandhills and flooded ground after rain, or the recession of flood water, grow the most luxuriant herbage, that fattens stock in the most astonishing manner; but in a dry season, when the country is quite destitute of feed, they have a very desolate appearance. The sandhills, like most of those in Central Australia, are covered with spin if ex or porcupine, and are far more suitable for cattle and horses than sheep. On the table lands and rolling downs sheep do better, on account of the stony nature of the surface. Cattle and horses get tender footed in travelling from ■ the waters to feed, but sheep don’t suffer to anything like the same extent, though they are known to get lame on very stony country in the summer time, when the stones get very hot. Many of the swamps and flooded fiats, when dry, are very much cracked and of a yielding nature also, thus making travelling over them a very arduous task for any animal. The country, for the most part, is destitute of timber, except in the water-courses, on the hanks of creeks, or fringing the lakes filled by flood-water. What there is consists of red gum, bloodwood, and bastard box (also known as coolabah or woollybut), with smaller® timber of a scrubby nature, only suitable for fencing. The timber on the lower Cooper and Diamantina consists almost entirely of the lastmentioned box, and is of a very twisted ‘ description, and when above 15 inches in diameter is almost sure to be hollow or “ pipey.” Bloodwood also is inclined to be the same, though it is far sounder and straighter than the box, but not such a good timber for posts, &e. By far the best for size and soundness is tho red gum, which in places grows to a fair size, and is “ sawable,” though a New Zealand timber man would say that there was none at all worth having. In fact, scarcity of good timber is one of the drawbacks to settlement. Occasionally patches of scrub are met with, but the chief of them (and the worst) are to the northward. The scanty rainfall is the great bar to the successful occupation of Central Australia, and the constant recurrence of prolonged droughts prevents the country from being stocked up to anything like its carrying capabilities. We are now suffering such an one, and the losses in stock are already very heavy indeed, but will be disastrous if rain does not fall within’ two months from now (Feb. 14). Fortunate are those who are lightly stocked! They have a chance of keeping their flocks and herds alive, but the case of those on the Cooper and Diamantina, or their tributaries and like watercourses, is bad indeed. Not only have they very little feed, but now the waters are drying up everywhere, and stock is being crowded on those remaining, with the result that cattle and sheep are dying wholesale. I give you a case illustrating the severity of the drought. A runhoMer on the Diamantina bought IGOO heaoof cattle 500 miles from his nm. In travelling them to his station, it is said that he lost 900 head, beside 70 horses doing it. The stages between the waters are' so great, and the feed so scanty that if extra hot weather overtakes them, those travelling with stock have a very bad time indeed, and suffer heavy loss. The stories going the x-ounds of men perishing of thirst are most deplorable. It is said (and I have no reason to doubt it) that no less than 45 men came to grief from the above cause within a radius of 150 miles of Birdsville during a period of six weeks. Twelve men and 23 horses are reported to have died trying to push through a long stage without water. Our post office is distant from where I write about 85 miles, and there is no water on the track at all, and it is only passable to camels. The farming districts in the vicinity ot the coast have experienced a good season, but tho whole of North and Central Australia is in bad enough case for tho want of rain. At one station, in this neighbourhood, the recorded rainfall since February, ISS3 (twelve mouths), is 1‘72 inches, and plenty of others have very little more. Our own is just over two inches during the same period. If my memory serves me aright, you on the Canterbury Plains think it a dry season if you don’t get over fifteen inches of rain iii the year, but that quantity to us means a magnificent season, with any amount of feed and water, and fat stock everywhere. Our yearly rainfall is about 7 - 50 inches, and on it we do pretty well, but when it drops to 2 and 3 inches for the twelve months we are in difficulties. Of course, tho extreme heat aggravates the trouble, and some startling observations of the thermomotor are sometimes recorded. For instance, a friend wrote me during January that the mercury wont up to 12Sdeg. inside his house ! But this is quite abnormal. 125 deg. in tho shade is a fearful heat, and I personally saw it at 120 deg. throe days running, and 104 deg. at daylight in tho morning during the above-men-tioned month. Of course, the air being extremely drv, makes it endurable, and one can stand it better than lOOdeg. in the tropics, where the atmosis moist and steamy. Anything or anybody hard up for water during a hot burst like that mentioned must soon succumb, and a few hours suffice to end their misery. The usual accompaniment of such Weather is a tierce hot wind, that is entirely unknown to you in New Zealand, though I have hoard that sometimes a hot wind lias been known in the neighbourhood of Auckland. The effect or a strong hot wind is very marked in the decrease of the volume of water in a shallow lake or water-hole. The evaporation is very great from the sun, but add to this a high hot wind, and tie res all is startling. I have still something to say about tnat wonderful natural feature, the Mound Springs, which I propose to deal with in a succeeding sketch, together with the manners and customs of the inhabitants o; the country. Australian Bushman.