AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19764, 15 April 1926, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY.

TRANSCONTINENTAL LINE. (Ebom (Due Own Coeeespondent.) SYDNEY. March 26. A strong appeal is made by the EastWest Australian transcontinental railway to the imagination of overseas visitors who travel by It. Invariably romance clings to the long railways of any country, such as the Canadian-Pacific, and In the East-West line there is also romance, not only of construction, but also of a fight against monetary loss. Although Australians who have never travelled on the line have hazy Idc. s of It, they all seem to know that along the whole 1051 miles It does not cross a single permanent stream of water, and that the population of the region is extraordinarily sparse. The task set the Commonwealth Government, the owner of the line, would have daunted the strongest combination of capitalists, but with a capital expenditure of over £6;000,000 the Commonwealth Railway Department set itself doggedly to the solution of the problem. Much more of a romance than the actual construction of the line Is the persevering organisation which has lifted the revenue, pound by pound, till it is on the point of balancing expenditure. There is every Indication that for the 12 months ending June next revenue will at least equal expenses. The Interest and sinking fund have still to be paid as the price of linking the west to the east overland. It is part of the Insurance premium on the defence of Australia, and a subsidy also towards the encouragement of migration, settlement, prospecting, and complete nationhood. The line Is the Nile of the huge tract of country, partly unexplored, that separates Port Augusta and Kalgoorlle. Inevitably it 13 developing a region that Nature, niggard in her supplies of water, seemed to have thrown contemptuously to the black fellow and the dingo. Sheep are being increasingly run on the land bordering the railway, with the aid of artesian bores and dingo-proof fences. From Lake Hart, near the line, thousands of tons of excellent salt are now marketed yearly. A manganese mine is operating near one station, and goldmining is carried on at another station. Then there is a region of red sandhills which is only inhabited by the dingoes, and no freight and no passengers come from this quarter. At 427 miles from Port Augusta tne line enters upon s great limestone plain which surprises travellers with its treeless, sea-like expanse —the Nullaber Plain, It is here that the railway run 3 etraight as an arrow for 300 miles through the frosted bluebush and the grey-green saltbush. Wonderfully easy haulage, railwaytnen say, but from a revenue point of view they would prefer a more difficult country as long as it gave freight and passengers to the line. The Nullaber Plain gives none of either. ,As there is no run-off, dams cannot be constructed with any, hope of impounding water, and the artesian bore water is, , not good for the locomotives. This is a problem that is being closely studied. A special plant is being installed at one place to treat water chemically so that it will be better lor the engines. Experiments in England with a turbo-condensing type of locomotive, which uses little water, are being closelv watched. There is also a possibility'that a Diesel oil engine may meet the requirements of the plain. No railway service in Australasia is faced with such ditnculties. Rainfall is lost in caverns under the limestone and escapes into the sea. Once across the border into Western Australia the country improves, and south of the hne it has been taken up for sheep runs. But the whole traffic of the line is spoilt by the troublesome break of the gauge, caused by the narrow gauge of South Australia, compared with the standard break of gauge on the trans-continental. Even with that it is interesting to note that all the potatoes used in Kalgoorlie come from a Victorian town. Special consideration has to he given to the needs of the railway employees on the long stretches where they are isolated from civilisation. They receive their supplies twice a week from » goods train, which has a butcher’s shop, grocery, chemist's diapenssrv, and other utilities, goods from which are sold at Adelaide prices. Owing to competition of sea transport, freights are cheaper on tbe line than those charged by the Canadian-Pacific