FROM EAST TO WEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19718, 18 August 1927, Page 6

FROM EAST TO WEST.

AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS. REMARKABLE UNDERTAKING. LINKING UP THE GAP. THROUGH THE "DEAD HEART." [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY, Aug. 11. Australia is traversed from east to west by a railway, one of the most remarkable in the world. From north to south there is a great gap between the northern and southern termini, which is untapped by the "steel roads." One of the inducements to South Australia to enter the federation of the Australian States and to transfer her Northern Territory to the control of the Cornomnwealth was the promised construction of the uncom-' pleted section of the railway line. At ' length after a-quarter of a century's delay that promise is to be fulfilled.. From Adelaide the State railway runs some hundreds of miles to Oodnadatta, the edge of the arid region which some have described as the "dead heart of the continent." From Darwin, on the nothern coast, a railway runs south to Alice Springs, also an oasis in a desert. To span the gap between the -two termini, the Commonwealth authorities have recently let a contract to the Victorian Construction Company for £695,320. The length of line will be 271 miles. Details of the Work. In three months the great work -will be under way. The job of getting'camps ready to cater for about 700 men will take that time. Some idea of the extent of the task facing the contractors may be gauged from the materials which have to be taken to the railhead, and the extent and nature of. the route to be traversed. Five steel and concrete bridges to carry the line over the Alberta, Hamilton, Stevenson, Finke'and Todd Rivers, in addition -to smaller structures over several creeks," will be built, and innumerable flood openings and culverts have ; to be provided. . Seventy-five miles of [ sandhills have to be spanned by the slenI der steel rails. Earthworks totalling 895,000yd5., stone banks 32,000yd5., sheathing 35,000yd5., and ballast 195,600yd5. form part of the contract. Forty-five thousand tons of sleepers and rails will carry the traffic, and 230 miles of telegraph, lines must be erected. The steel in the bridges amounts to 670 tons and 10,000 cubic yards of concrete in the bridges and culverts have to be bnilt. Hie timber requirements represent 10,000 cubic- feet, and 40.000 bags of cement will be used. The men will have laid nearly 300 miles of track along the most inhospitable route of Australia before the train runs. Fifteen hundred concrete piles will be used in the work, and 16.315 chains of surface forming will be necessary. Sydney-Broken Hill Line. While the Federal authorities are era barking on this gigantic construction, tht New South Wales Railway Commission ers ere congratulating themselves on lb* near-completion of, the linking of Syd ney and Broken Hill, the rich silver-lead zinc mining centre in the far west o the State. Hitherto all Broken Hiil' trade has gone through Adelaide, be cause the New South Wales railway h;t run only as far west as Bourke Bir now the line has been extended as f;. as the eastern bank of the Darling Rivtat Memndie from Bourke, and iroi Broken Hill to the. western bank Th most difficult portion of the job has beei the construction of a . bridge acio&s tli> river to link the two ends, but at lengti this is nearly complete and within a few weeks the trains will be running from Sydney right out.