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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 5 February 1944, Page 3

among the tree tops as a resuit of this flood, and have heard described how the wooden houses floated down the river and collapsed against the bridge at Brisbane before it gave way. lhe Government gun-boat was left stranded high and dry in the Botanical Gardens, but got off, when the flood rose even higher, a week later. It is a country of extremes. DIFFICULT PROBLEM The water supply problem was a very difficult one, and had killed my predecessor. The Water Board was a target for abuse; something had to be done. Ordinary sand filtration such as I had been used to, gave negligible results, so we started experimenting on a big scale, and I visited Broken Hill m South Australia to see the only mechanical filters operating in the country. Then I heard that on two islands in Moreton Bay off the coast composed almost entirely of blown sand there was an unlimited supply of pure water to be had for the digging anywhere along the beaches. Stradbroke Island, the most southern of the two. was only separated from the mainland by two shallow channels at its extreme south. It had never been surveyed except the coast line, and was some 30 miles long, and 7 miles at its widest. There were scrub covered sand dunes as high as 700 feet above sea level, and fresh water lagoons scattered here and there over the island. POSSIBILITIES INVESTIGATED One member of the Water Board was particularly keen about it as a solution to our troubles, and it ended in rr|/ being instructed to investigate its possibilities as a source of water supply for Brisbane. An inland survey was made of the topographical features. One of my assistants —Norman Campbell—now City Engineer of Brisbane —owned a 16foot centre-board cutter, and one early morning he and I sailed down the river and crossed the bay to investigate. The island was uninhabited except for a benvolent institution at Wynum, but there was a stock-owner named North, who fattened cattle, and was of the utmost use to me with his local knowledge. Campbell and myself spent several weeks sailing round the coast and exploring inland. It was of extraordinary interest. Here, in the middle of a fearful drought, was an island, apparently unaffected as regards water supply. Every mile or so along the western side, one would come across crystal-clear streams crossing the beach. . These conditions were brought about by the fact that the coastal rainfall, much greater than that on the mainland, penetrated for the most part straight into the sand instead of running off or evaporating. The actual annual evaporation off the water surface of our reservoirs amounted to abput 60 inches. The island was like a huge sponge from which the water gradually seeped away near sea-level. Its collection was not easy. On the eastern coast the huge Pacific surf had formed a high beach, separated from the island proper by a swamp 30 miles long, and widening gradually to about a mile at its southern end,. where it discharged into the sea through a sheltered inland lagoon. It acted like a huge gutter to half the water discharging from the island, and was big enough to sail up. The water had deteriorated somewhat en route through the swamp, but here unlimited supply.

LARGE STORAGE SCHEME PREFERRED

The chief objection to the scheme were possibilities by. pumping, of an was its vulnerability from the sea and the shifting nature of the coast, and it was finally abandoned for a large storage scheme in the upper reaches of the Brisbane river. The investigation was particularly interesting. I rode on a wonderful horse with North’s stockman, galloping through the bush with my camera swinging on my back, vei’y much the typical English “new chum.” A mad risky adventure, I thought it, tearing under overhanging tree branches; however nothing would curb the spirit and delight of that horse which immediately took my measure and seemed to say:— “You leave it all to me and I’ll see you through.” And he did. They are wonderfully trained these stock horses, and a delight to ride on. Brennan, the stockrider, enjoyed my discomfiture, and we became very good friends. The mosquitoes were awful, great big ones we called “scotch greys” with a fiendish bite. You could catch 50 at a time with a hat swing. There were land crabs that could run down wind as fast as a trotting horse. Others of a dark-green-ish-purple moved about in battalions wheeling as if under command. The estuary waters abounded in dugong, o known as a sea-cow—great huge mammals a ton or more in weight. One constantly heard their sigh as they turned down after drawing breath, but I never saw one. Iguana, 5 feet long, were plentiful. The swamp at its lower end was full of bird life and steamy tropical growth, interesting, but formidable, sinister, and treacherous to wade in. There was the never ending boom and roar of the distant surf, majestic in its force, filling the air with a salt, hazy tang. I carried my gun and Campbell his rifle, and we sampled new forms of flesh in our cooking pot, nursing a baby wallaby, captured when its mother was shot. As the scheme developed the Water Board came down, and finally the Governor-General, Sir Herbert Chernside, together with Cabinet Ministers, members of Parliament, and representatives of the Press, a formidable undertaking, as horses had to be brought over from the mainland to take them about.

Sand-dune water supplies are ideal under favourable conditions. The water is exceptionally pure, and unaffected by such formidable droughts and floods, as are herein referred to. I was lucky to have had the experience.