LIFE IN THE FAR BACK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18321, 11 August 1921, Page 9

LIFE IN THE FAR BACK

TINNED FOOD AND FIAT PESTS. (From Ouh Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 1. The unenviable lot of the telegraph linesmen who look after the overland wire between South Australia and the Northern Territory was described the other day in a statement before a Federal Committee which is inquiring into the linesmen's claim for better pay. A statement was put in by one man, who said that, for four years, he had been engaged with a party which operated between Codnadatta, 688 miles - Adelaide, and Powell Creek, 1483 miles from Adelaide. The temperature ranged from 117 degrees in summer to 94 in winter. The plague of flies and mosquitoes in summer made life almost unendurable. They were so bad that, when not moving about, the men had to keep under netting. All then meals wore eaten under nets. They seldom tasted fresh food. The department forwarded supplies to them—-all tinned They lived on tinned meats, milk, cabbage, tu nips, and fish. The department also supplied tobacco, matches and srap. The tobacco was so coarse and strong that I hey could not smoke it. When they were pestered by natives, they gave it to 'the biggest bucks—and it. never failed to “ lay them out ” for a few days. Act the linesmen were forced to pay for all the supplies forwarded. They had fresh meat about once m eight months. The water, which was found in rock holes and soaks, was very brackish. Often it. was necessary to remove the d".ad bodies of dogs from it before it was boiled and consumed. It was sometimes so bad that horses would not drink it The gangs at times were hundreds of miles from a doctor. One man. as the result, of an accident, broke a bon" in Hs knee, and the nearest doctor was 496 rryles awav. The linesman, however, got into communication with him bv teb’grnnb, "?>d the In’ured hnesman set lib own leg nccord’ng to the in struct ions which came over the wire from the doctor.