AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20362, 17 September 1929, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

THE CENTRAL TERRITORY. HEAVY LOSSES OF STOCK. Having completed a journey of 6COO miles from Melbourne to Darwin .mil hark in a delivery van, Mr. S. F. Brown j and his wife and family returned to Mel- j bourne recently. Mr. Brown said that Centra! Australia j was suffering severely from drought., and : stock was dying. Dead cattle were to be seen all along the road. At some stations j water was being pumped from artesian j bores for the cattle, wluch, however, were : dying around the water. For a distance of 20GO miles in .New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Australia they, had not seen any running water. In Northern Australia the only industry which was expanding, said Air. Brown, was that of peanut-growing. .Many new j settlers had taken np sections near j [Catherine River for peanut-growing, and j tho industry was also flourishing on the j Daly River. Mr. and Mrs. Brown, with their five I children, ranging in ago from 7 to 16 j years, were absent for three, months. They j spent seven weeks at Darwin, where Mr. j Brown was born; he lived there until 16, years ago. Thev followed a route through ! Bourka and ifay to Longreach, Queensland. then west to Camooweai, Newcastle Waters, North Australia, and _ Darwin, sleeping in the van and carrying their own food.