THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. FRIDAY OCTOBER 29, 1948. Northern Territory Pastoral Development

Northern Advocate, 29 October 1948, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. FRIDAY OCTOBER 29, 1948. Northern Territory Pastoral Development

The campaign to increase primary production in New Zealand lends interest to what is being done in Australia to secure the same end.

As was announced recently, the Federal Government has in view a big project for the pastoral development of the Northern Territory of Australia, a huge area the potentialities of which were demonstrated during the war years. There existed until comparatively recent years a common belief that the Northern Territory was a waste land, which, because of the vagaries of climate and rainfall, could never become a productive country populated by white men. ’ Even today it is not generally known that the Northern Territory has an area of 523,000 square miles, more than four times the size of the British Isles.

Before the war it had a white population of less than 4000, which constituted a source of anxiety to Australia when Japan joined the Axis Powers.

From early in 1942 until the middle of 1943 Australia had to face the possibility that her existence might depend upon her ability to hold this huge expanse of country against a Japanese invasion. Fortunately, the Japanese were unable to obtain a foothold in the territory, which, before the danger passed, had a force of nearly 100,000

servicemen and civilians concentrated within its borders.

The concentration of this big force resulted in the provision of a transport' system for supply and maintenance of the troops which would probably not have materialised for many years.

Hitherto transport communications consisted of a long and hazardous sea route from the eastern seaboard to Darwin, and a single-track railway from Adelaide to Alice Springs, 900 miles away. Ah all-weather bitumen highway from Alice Springs to Darwin and another from Mt Isa, in western Queensland, which were built at high speed, constituted great arteries that broke down the isolation of the Northern Territory. Thus was conferred a permanent benefit for which it would otherwise have been compelled to wait indefinitely.

In the same way the war left another legacy in the shape of meas-

ures taken by the Army to make itself independent of the outside world so far as supplies of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit was concerned.

As the State did in a small way in Northland and other areas of the Dominion during the war years, the Army established its own gardens in the Northern Territory, and from the middle of 1943 made itself virtually independent of supplies from outside.

Farms were also established, and in addition to supplying meat to the troops, some of the largest farms became important producers of tomatoes and other crops.

The Army, of course, was not hampered as civilians would have been, having no labour troubles, and enjoying first call on fertilisers and freedom to spend all the money it considered necessary to put down bores and pipelines. The farms fulfilled their purpose, and were held up as examples' of what could be done if there were given the right amount of drive and enthusiasm.

It is not surprising that with the passing of the emergency which justified their existence, few of the farms remain today.

However, the possibilities of ■ the territory have impressed the Commonwealth Government, which, of course, realises that a huge area of unpopulated country would continue to be a liability rather than an asset to Australia.

The report of the Payne Committee put the position bluntly in 1937 when it described the territory as being still a “national problem, a national obligation, a challenge to other nations and a detriment to ourselves."

Ths report appeared so near the outbreak of war that though it was praised on all sides as a mastei-ly survey of northern difficulties and possibilities, it had to be put aside until peace was restored. The report, however, has not been forgotten, and the move which is being made to develop the great pastoral possibilities of the Northern Territory may be taken as an indication that the Commonwealth Government is alive to the necessity not only for defensive measures, but for increasing to maximum extent the territory’s production of meat and wool, a matter of which other primary industrial countries cannot but take notice.