AUSTRALIA’S WILD NOR’ WEST

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 637, 13 April 1929, Page 16

AUSTRALIA’S WILD NOR’ WEST

Where Southern Cross Flew

LONELY LAND OF STRANGE PERILS

LOW but precipitous hills, scrub-covered and densiy wooded valleys, a rugged coast-line with mangrove swamps at the river mouths, miles of grass 12 and 14 feet high, snakes, iguanas, kangaroos, wallabies, 'possums, and millions of wild fowl—this describes the Kimberley division of Western Australia over which Kingsford Smith and his companions in the Southern Cross flew through blinding rain seeking a landing. The description was given The Sun by Mr. Harold C. Fenton, of Mount Eden, Auckland, who, for several years, was with the North West Mounted Police. He joined in search of adventure —and found it. In the wild country of the interior, and along the lonely coast he often slept out or sheltered at some isolated station, eating bully-beef and damper, accompanied usually by black-trackers.

FT is rubbish to talk of mountain peaks striking up through the clouds,” remarked Mr. Fenton, referring to a description published in Auckland. “There is just one ridge after another, rising about 600 or 700 feet, with huge precipices, almost impossible to pass. Very often, if you have horses, you have to go miles to find a place to get across a ridge. “Six or seven miles a day is quite usual, and horses will pull their shoes off as often as once a day.” Mr. Fenton did not give any unarmed, foodless white man on foot much chanec of getting our ot thi3 country alive if he was well hack. IMPENETRABLE GRASS At this time of the year the country, and the high grass after the rainy season, are well nigh impenetrable. Th* grass is dropping its seed, also, and this seed is of a clinging, penetrating character, in addition to being extremely irritating—so much so that the troopers usually followed the example of the blacks, and did not wear anything above the waist. There are no alligators up the

rivers, as they do not go far above salt water level. The carpet or hill snakes are anything up to 14 feet long, and the iguana provides excellent eating—if he can be caught. “Howevr, he runs like a horse, and stops when he gets to the top of a tree,” remarked Mr. Fenton. “Usually under the gum trees is fairly clear, and you could drive a four-in-hand there,” he continued. “But taking prisoners from Wyndham to Broome or Derby, we had to make long detours to get the drays through. The long grass is full of huge rocks, which would smash up a plane. As for the mangrove swamps. Mr. Fenton has often been laughed 1o scorn when he has asserted that lie has seen walking-fish there —fish that came out of the water, climbed round the mangroves, and went back to the water. This has since been confirmed, however. ROARING “COCK-EYE-203C.” The Southern Cross took off to cros? this area just at the end of the bad season. Tt is unusual for the howling gales that sweep the area to ex-

tend into April, though hundreds of pearl divers have been caught unexpectedly later than March in these “willi-willis,” or “cock-eye-bobs,” as they are known in local parlance. It is at this time of the year, too. and later, that indescribable fires sweep through the long grass and lay the country bare. By degrees, white population ts creeping into the north-west, but long years will go by before there is any density of settlement. Year ago practically an open offer of land in any quantity at Is 6d a thousand acres a year, was made, and individual owners have taken up huge areas with leases that extend for anything up to 90 years. MENACE IN YEARS TO COME Broome, the city of the north-west, is situated on the west, coast, out of the hill area. It has about 2,000 white and 4,000 coloured residents, including among other personages the resident magistrate and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England. That Broome has a cosmopolitan population is best indicated by the fact that the townspeople converse in 22 different languages or dialects. The half-caste and other mixed population is growing with such rapidity that it has been predicted that in another 50 years the Kimberley division will be another Mexico, with a turbulent and excitable citizenship all over it. For quite a number of years there has been an agitation to have this area made into a separate, state in the Commonwealth, those favouring the idea being convinced that Perth, over 1,200 miles to the south, has enough to do with its wheat development and other activities, without having to attend to the troubles of the north-west. NATIVE TROUBLES TELLING LESSON GIVEN AN AMAZING EXECUTION Fears of what the natives might do to the crew of the Southern Cross have been expressed, but they were not treated with a great deal of concern. It was away back in about 1890,

that the most salutary lesson was - j given the natives, said Mr. Fenton, ; . who, as a member of the police, took ? j part in it. Two miners had been killed, and Mr. Fenton was sent to I 1 get the offenders, the orders being: > “The murderers, alive or dead." CHAINED TO A TREE j To find the murderers was another r question, but it was accomplished by r capturing a “gin,” securing her to a . tree by a chain round her neck, and • feeding her and giving her tobacco L until the black trackers gained her [ confidence. From the footprints of i her tribe the “gin” could name the > blacks who made them, and finally she showed the trackers the footprints of the murderers, after which it was only a question of time before -• the three wanted men were arrested. The custom had been to hang mur- * derers at Perth, which, beyond the ' fact that they never returned, did not ; create much of an impression with : the blacks. A REMARKABLE “HANGING” 1 On this occasion the decision was i that the three should hang as near as I possible to the scene of the crime. ; A dray conveyed the murderers. The magistrate, jury, police, and last but not least, the hangman, had their own horses and a cavalcade of some 60 packhorses. Twenty-eight-pound 1 leg irons, rivetted on, secured the prisoners. To ensure that the natives had their lesson, some 200 were rounded up by the police and secured to trees with ; chains. 1 Probably British justice has > never been carried to its just con- - elusion in more remarkable sur*l roundings or before more outland- ! ish and thoroughly scared specta- ; 1 tors. [ Picture a gathering oi natives, a handful of white men, some 80 horses, a tip-dray to be used as the execution platform, a newly-dug pit under the dray, and three manacled priso- ; ners, hundreds of miles from civilisaj tion, in the heart of the wildest land ; on the huge continent. The three natives were big six-foot men of an intelligent variety, and their capture and trial, their long travels until they at last reached this scene, and their mental sufferings, are better left untouched. STROKE OF IRONY It was something in the way of a ) 1 stroke of irony that the hangman, a

man of some 20 years' experience, should have been attacked with dysentery, and that his part in the wilderness drama was to watch the final scene from under the lifted edge of his mosquito net. and afterwards to comment favourably on the efficiency with which his substitutes attacked the unwelcome task thrust upon them. The affair had all the elements of barbarity, but it made its impression on a barbarous people, and for many years, in fact until quite recently, the white man's life was comparatively safe. This scene took place near Mount Dockrell, in the McClintock Ranges. The mountains contain many caves, and these are used as burial grounds, the procedure differing from that of our Maoris in that the body is left in the trees until only the skeleton remains, and this is placed in the caves. Several mission stations cater for the area, and th6ir greatest difficulty appears to be to circumvent the tribal customs and laws.