FIFTH CONTINENT

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

FIFTH CONTINENT

VASTNESS OF AUSTRALIA. TRADE COMMISSIONER SPEAKS. "Australia has a. square mileage of nearly 3,000,000, or to be exact, 2,954,581,” Said Mr. R. H. Nesbitt, Australian Trade Commissioner, in the .course of an address before the Wellington Rotary Club. ‘‘lt is one of the oldest lands on earth, and yet it is inhabited and is being developed by one of the youngest peoples. In area it is one-fifth of the territory of the British Empire.” To illustrate the dimensions of the States of the Commonwealth Mr. Nesbitt said New South Wales was equal in size to Norway, Sweden and Denmark; Victoria to England, Scotland and Wales; Queensland to Persia; South Australia to France and Spain; Western Australia to Arabia; Tasmania to Ireland, and the Northern Territory to France, Spain and Italy. “Our wide spaces are not very closely populated,” said Mr. Nesbitt, “in fact a very big percentage of the total population of 6,600,000 people is centred in our cities. At the same time, it is recognised that the population is scattered along the ribbon of coastline as well as back into the interiors of Victoria and New South Wales. Actually speaking, the population is divided in the following manner: New South Wales 2,600,000, of which Sydney has . 47J per cent.; Victoria 1,800,000. with Melbourne having 541 per cent.; Queensland is just short of the million mark, and Brisbane contains 32 per cent.; South Australia has 580,000, Adelaide accounting for 54 per cent.; Western Australia holds 440,000, of which Perth contains 48 per cent.; Tasmania, the island state, has just about a quarter of a million people, Hobart containing 27 per cent.; the Federal Capital Territory has 10,000 people, and the Northern Territory 5000 people. “In the development of Australia the railways have played a very considerable part and may be said to be one of the prominent features of the policy of the different governments,” said Mr. Nesbitt. “At date there are 27,000 miles of railway of varying gauges,, namgly 3ft,

6in., 4ft. ’B|in., and sft. 3in. It is possible to travel from North Queensland round the coast to the north-west of Western Australia—a distance of approximately 5700 miles, or almost half the distance from Wellington to London. The main journey, however, that is taken is from Brisbane to Perth, and occupies in travelling time 170 hours. “Because of individual development of railways in the early days of Australia, due to these being under State control, and not Commonwealth national control, we have the problem of the different gauge. Various conferences have been held to endeavour to overcome this disability, but the cost to convert has been thought to be so excessive that the matter has not been proceeded with. To demonstrate exactly what this conversion would mean, the line from Albury, on the New South Wales border, through Victoria into South Australia, to Adelaide, was considered, and it was found that it would cost £21,500,000 pounds to reduce the gauge from sft. 3in. to 4ft. BJin.

“Recent development In transport have extended to airways. Australia to-day has a very big mileage of territory covered by airways; in fact it would be equivalent to the distance from New Zealand to London. The flying conditions generally are good. Last year over 101,000 flights were made, carrying 714,000 passengers, and £10,000,000 of goods.” After dealing with Australia’s rainfall and water conservation works, Mr. Nesbitt referred to the development of Victoria’s tremendous brown coal deposits at Yallourn. only 100 miles from Melbourne.

“This gigantic brown coal mine,” said Mr. Nesbitt, “covers 50 square miles and is estimated to be 780 feet thick. The total quantity considered to be contained is 27,000,000,000 tons, but to get at this soft brown coal it was necessary to remove 40 feet of over-burden earth. ThL* was done by bucyrus shovels, and today there is a huge open-cut coal mine. Coal is taken direct from the shovels to the power-house every day and supplies electricity to over 200 towns through 2000 miles of power lines and extending to 250 miles distant. The furnaces consume 3500 tons of this coal per day, and, in addition, so that Victoria should be self-contained and not be affected by industrial conditions of other States, brown briquettes are manufactured to the extent of 1200 tons per day for domestic .and. factory purposes."