ADDRESS TO ROTARY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 79, Issue 7102, 2 September 1949, Page 4

ADDRESS TO ROTARY

THE AUSTRALIAN HINTERLAND EXPERIENCES OF MR JOHN EDWARDS Th a following is a resume of an address presented to the Rotary Club on Tuesday night, by Mr John Edwards, on the hinterland of Australia through which he has travelled. Mr Edwards illustrated his address with a largei map and impressed his auuience with the huge distance between the various capitals and inhabitated areas. Mr Edwards said:— Australia was once described by the late Christopher Mudd, an eminent botanist, as a giant island. Its size is best illustrated by quoting distances from the west to the east coast, citing the various capitals: Perth to Adelaide, 1617 miles; Adelaide to Melbourne, 483 miles; Melbourne to Sydney, 590 miles; Sydney to Brisbane, 613 miles; Brisbane to Cairns, 1043 miles. You can travel by rail from Perth to Cairns but are required to change trains at Adelaide, New South Wales border and Queensland border on account of the varying railway guages. Alice Springs is situated in the centre of Australia and is sometimes described as the Axis of the Commonwealth. This is a flourishing township situated 961 miles north of Adelaide and 1000 miles south of Darwin. This centre was formerly reached after a twelve days’ journey by road from Oodnadatta which until a decade ago, was the railhead. If you to-day desire to travel from Adelaide to the Springs quickly and in comfort there is an air service, but if you wish to get to know the people and the country in the arid but colourful north, travel by train. The journey takes two days and the line passes-through impressive stony hills ever inimitable sand and salt to the Springs. This train is called the Ghan which is short for Afghan and so commemorates the sturdy camel drivers of by gon 2 days. Although scheduled to complete this journey in two days, there is no specified time of arrival or departure at any given point. The train will stop at some cluster of huts day and night for anything up to an hour, and is greeted by wagons and trucks in from the horizon. This somewhat unusual system causes no inconvenience as the wires and radios hum far and wide while the train is half-a-day distant. Most of these halts are trucking places for the ’cattle from the interior and there are intense scenes as the men handle this wild stock. They are handling the frightened herds of tonweight steers which are finding for the first time, constriction and discipline. As you proceed north, the sand turns red and the characteristic vegetation of the centre becomes apparent. Mulgar apd iron wood, bloodwood and beefwood become familiar trees. The spiny porcupine grass appears with other better fodders.

After passing through the McDonald Ranges and river which is flanked by stately gums you arrive at Alice Springs. To travel by motor car or truck is even to-day, a difficult business. Your vehicle must be sound, your mechanical knowledge well above the average and your eyesight keen for a thousand jagged stones and mulgar stumps, but with ordinary precautions and ample fuel and water tanks, this journey by road has its compensations. Northern Territory

Striking north of the Springs one reaches the Northern Territory which comprises roughly one-sixth of the continent of Australia, it is larger than the combined areas of England, Scctland and Ireland, France, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Italy and Germany. It is a land with few inhabitants. The main industry is cattle production but owners find it extremely difficult to obtain a return equivalent to the cost of production. The fact that the industry has survived in spite of difficulties hitherto obtaining, is a sufficient indication of how it might flourish under a determined policy of development in which the present difficulties would be materially reduced if not removed. The cattlemen face two major problems, water and transport. Stock succumbs because of scarcity of water and do not die from thirst but from starvation. They feed within a radius equal to their daily range centred about the water holes or bores at which they make their base. The head of cattle per square mile whicli a property will carry is limited by the number of water holes it possesses. The death rate varies according to the rainfall which determines the extent and quality of the grass. The late Christopher Mudd always advocated that you could sink a bore in any part of Australia and find water which if properly conserved would considerably alleviate the present difficulties.

Having grown his cattle, the grazier must travel his stock for hundreds of miles but by the time the market is reached, they have lost so much condition that they are practically unsaleable. To fatten them again takes time and after paying for droving and adjustment, there is quite often very little left. It has been suggested instead of taking the stock to market that the market be taken to the cattle by erecting meat works at strategic points and building railways lines to feed them. In 1917, a large meat works were constructed at Darwin but these operated for a year or so only, when they were closed down rapidly because of labour troubles. At Wyndham in the north-west of Western Australia, there are Government meat works which do a flourishing business. Cattle are driven there from all stations in range, slaughtered on the spot, frozen and carried away in ships. It is not essential to have meat works on the coast provided there is a railway where carcasses can be freighted to the sea border in refrigerated trucks. Northern Australia is a sportman’s paradise. Its coastal waters and rivers teem with fish and the tablelands of the interior are alive with game. Duck, geese, parrots, pigeons, wallabies and kangaroos are common. Aborigines The aboriginee is to be found in greater numbers in this area. They are

physically superior to those that exist in the colder regions of the south. Over the past decade or two, action has been taken to concentrate the aboriginee and there are missions in several parts of the Commonwealth including the Roper Mission in the north and the Tyres in the south-west of Victoria. It has been commonly stated that central Australia cannot be peopled by Europeans on account of the climate being unsuitable, yet men and women established on the table-land of the interior have spent all their lives there and have lived to a good old age. The improved methods for the prevention of tropical diseases, electric plants in the homes to provide power for lighting as well as preservation of food has helped to make life more pleasant. Motor cars provide quick means of transit and nearly every outback homestead has in its vicinity a landing fround for aeroplanes. Missionaries and doctors use aeroplanes and in this way, people are brought much nearer to the larger centres. There is an increasing interest in the Australian inland, particularly in the Northern Territory, especially since the war when so many servicemen had an opportunity of seeing the place and pondering on its possibilities. It used to be the back door of Australia but aviation has changed all that and it is now the front door. The problem of the Northern Territory is one which can be solved only by large scale expenditure on development works. It lies there as a vast potential asset and something will J have to be done sooner or later when fl results in the long-run will far out- ■ weigh the costs. ■ I should mention in conclusion, the 1 work done by the Australian Mission which was pioneered to a large extent by the Rev. John It was he who for many years led by camel from Oodnadatta to Springs and his parish' many tens of thousand squa£MHMH| His name is revered by the for the comfort and joy he these visitations.