GOLD AT GRANITES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21349, 25 November 1932, Page 8

GOLD AT GRANITES

PRECIOUS WATERHOLES

NEEDS OF THE DESERT

HOW THIRST IS ASSUAGED

BY F. E. BAUME

No. V. THE GRANITES, Nov, 9 Soaks—rockboles —native wells—those words have been mentioned frequently in all. the news about the Granites goldfield. Yet few. Australians who have not travelled in the Northern Territory can visualise what the words represent. In the cities and in the country districts of most of thi> States water is not a luxury.

In the north, more thought is given to water than to food, or stock, or business —for without it men die in terror and madness and beasts leave white bones as mute reminders of nature's whims. Here, where evaporation is almost unbelievable, rain falls and leaves millions of gallons of pure water after it, in sandy basins and granite rocks, in creeks and in billabongs—but 24 hours later nothing is left but the shimmer of a mirage and shaky waves of heat, which seem to rise straight to the inverted abyss of the sky.

Unpalatable Appearance I:Jo the blacks and the prospectors and thn stockmen strain their eyes and their serses in their quest for water. Usually in the dssert country the soak is the most usual waterliole one finds. Actually, it is a miniature well, originally scooped out of a bank by the blacks and enlarged by the white man's shovel. Brook's Soak, where an old prospector was murdered in 1928, is typical. It is in the bank of a dry creek, the bottom of which is filled with rippling sand, wi f .h never a trace of moisture. It looks likß a miniature geyser hole, its mouth bu.lt up by the earth scooped ont for many years.

' The hoW was almost dry when 1 filled a water-bag at it and the water was browny-black. On it floated all manner of dead insects and a few dead birds. It was nnpalatable to look at—almost nauseating—for a beast had died near by and its body was not yet dried. But the sun was hot and we had to'do a long stage to more water, 30 odd miles away to Conistan Station, so Simon ReiS, the prospector, said: "Ve haff a drink."

The Brook's Soak water had a pungent tas'je, which, mixed with the dull waterbag mud, was unappetising. But it was water, and three pannikins of it did something to quench the outrageous thirst. L&3t Drops ol Moisture Another soak of the same character, novr bone dry and very deep, ia that discovered by Jackie Lewis, one of the original Granites prospectors. It lies out in the desert a few hundred yards from the track. Finches crowd around it and in it, pecking the mud for a few precious drops of moisture which had vanished. On the same desert are Footner's Soak and Archibald's Soak, both of a similar type. Archibald's Soak was drying up as we returned over the desert, and a tribe of about 60 desert blacks were preparing to Heave for the foothills. When we passed the soak after walking a couple of hundred yards from the truck they "were ecooping out what appeared to be liquid mud and drinking—or eating—it sparingly. , Fifty miles away another water beacon appears, but of a different type. In a cleft between huge granite boulders, boulders ornamented with ancient native circular and spiral ochre paintings, rain water has been collected in a natural reservoir. Reiif says that in good "wet" years the water collects to a depth of 12 feet. Great hawks and crows hover over it and drink from it; it is brown and brackish, and there is a scum over it. But it is better tasting water than that obtained from many of the creeks, especially that near Conistan Station, which is heavily charged with minerals. It is so good that many men drive their trucks 45 miles from the Granites rather than drink the well fwater on the field. Peculiar Well at Granites The well -water at the Granites is difficult to describe. It is actually sweetish; its Content is similar to that of Epsom salts. Its sweetness causes more thirst and does not assuage it, and when it is used for making tea the aroma resembles that of sulphuretted hydrogen. Morning tea became a horror with it. There is some quality in it also, which the experts ,so far have not been able to determine.

Now that the native rockhole on the Granites themselves is nearly exhausted, more men than ever have been drinking the stuff from the well. The result has been increased sickness at the Granites and a virulent form of dysentery.

But the quest for water goes on. The other day a prospector, coming in with his camels, reported a fresh water lake a hundred miles or so from the Granites. This yet may be the water supply of the camp if the Granites is still in being.