HEART OF AUSTRALIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21552, 25 July 1933, Page 12

HEART OF AUSTRALIA

SPECIAL AERIAL SURVEY <3 RETURN OF EXPEDITION DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS [I'ROM OITIt OWN correspondent] SYDNEY. July 20 The Mackay aerial expedition, which returned to Sydney 011 Sunday aiter--110011 after its special survey of Central and North-western Australia, covered a total area of 200,000 square miles. According to a member of tho expedition, only about one-eighth of that vast area could bo described as desert, and the remainder would.carry stock providing there was a practicable scheme oi water conservation. This is the fifth expedition financed personally by Mr. Mackay and it appears to have done excellent work. It will bo interesting to seo what action the Federal Government will take following the receipt of a special report prepared by tho leader. He complains that 110 does not know what happened to his previous reports. They may have been placed in a pigeon-hole or dropped into the waste paper basket. He says he was amazed that ho should have had so little encouragement from tho Federal Government. Mr. Mackay said that generally he was very satisfied with the results of the latest expedition. He was convinced that his outlay was justified in the cause of exploration and in order to make the centre of Australia more widely known. Tho only hope of the country traversed was in the direction of stock raising and mining. He was firmly convinced that gold was there and he would not bo discouraged from that view. In country where ono would not imagine that human beings could live, one would find natives—an indication that there must be water there. Tho country would carry stock in a fairly big way some day, although there were extensive stretches that were so absolutely poor that they would not carry a single rabbit. One had to go into the heart of Australia to appreciate the enormous size of tho Continent, said Mr. Mackay. If a man was looking for gold out there, he would feel ant-like in his smallness. He did not think that Central Australia would ever carry a big population. Portion of the country surveyed was a reserve for tho aborigines and should be left as such, since it was essential that the blacks should be isolated from tho whites if they were not going to disappear altogether. Among tho discoveries made by the party was a chain of dry salt lakes about 70 miles long in the desert country surveyed. A map of tho country had been prepared by Commander Bennett and will he presented to the Mitchell Library in Svdney.