Australia’s Empty Lands

Southland Times, Issue 23379, 10 December 1937, Page 4

Australia’s Empty Lands

The report on the Northern Territory of Australia which, according to a message printed this morning, has been tabled in the House of Representatives at Canberra, was prepared by two “investigators”, and presumably their status is sufficiently high to make their findings authoritative. There must be many persons in Australia, however —some of them with expert knowledge of the territory—who will find it hard to believe that “very little agricultural development can be expected”, and that “much of the vacant land is useless and is as fully occupied as it ever will be.” It is true that the country has serious drawbacks. The rainfall is abnormally low, and concentrated in narrow seasons which are sometimes separated by several years of complete dryness, so that droughts are prevalent and severe. But the sudden appearance of grass across a seemingly barren country is one of the most remarkable features of the Far North. After rains the great water-courses which for years are

as empty as the wadis of Arabia run bank-high, and innumerable channels which normally are nothing more than scars on the earth convey the water across wide areas, to bring a luxuriant undergrowth to the plains. It is the uncertainty of this rainfall that makes the problem so serious. Schemes have been mooted for irrigation on a large scale; but experts hesitate to admit that the results could justify the necessary capital expenditure, which would be considerable. Everything seems to depend on the question whether or not the country could be made suitable for agriculture. Messrs W. Payne and J. Fletcher have given their answer in the negative. Against this must be considered the evidence of other experts, or of practical men whose experience in the interior gives them some right to express opinions. One of these men—William Hatfield —whose recent book, “I Find Australia”, has attracted much attention, described the way in which the so-called “useless” soil can respond to the methods of intensive farming, so that vegetables and root crops can be grown where a few hungry sheep now nibble the saltbush. At the end of his book he declared his intention of working as far as he can for the closer settlement of these empty lands. And it is true that, apart from economic considerations, Australia has every reason to fear the strategic dangers of an empty territory in the Far North. For this reason alone it would seem wiser to decide in favour of experiment, even at the risk of financial losses and possible failure, than to rely on methods which are timid and retrogressive. It will be noticed that the investigators have suggested the construction of two railway systems to cost £3,500,000; but this would be mere folly unless it were part of a wider plan for land settlement. If money is to be spent on these empty lands it would be far better to spend boldly, in the terms of a definite and ambitious policy. The defence of Australia can never be adequate while the Northern Territory re'mains without a population that bears some proper relation to its immense acreage, and the only way to attract this population is by making a determined effort to overcome the handicaps of climate and distance. The suggestions made by the authors of this latest report could lead to nothing better than a rearguard actign, covering a fatal policy of retreat.