NOTES ON CARPENTARIA CODNTRY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 204, 7 January 1869, Page 2

NOTES ON CARPENTARIA CODNTRY.

From an interesting article under the above heading in the columns of a Brisbane contemporary we make the following extracts : — 'lhe general appearance of the country is very similar to descriptions of the large Pampas of South America. For hundreds of miles the traveller may wander over immense plains, seldom timbered, except along* the banks of rivers. Sometimes the coarser grnsses (seldom found, however, more than 100 miles from the coast) extending above head make it difficult to distinguish a companion at the distance of a few yards. Here, at midday, the most skilful bushman, who can translate every sign of the heavens, must consult his compass, or he may perish for the want of water whilst crossing from one stream tb another, despite his canvas water-bag, without which no Gulf man ever travels. But more generally the eye skilled in such matters will light up with pleasure at the sight of a beautiful short, and mixed herbage, sweet, and as nourishing to stock as . the best oaten or lucerne hay.and to tell the truth, very nearly as dry; in fact, three months after the season the grass haa ceased to be such according to southern ideas, but has become through the drying effects of a tropical sun, hay aud the very best of hay too. This should be borne in mind by strangers visiting the district, who are very often prejudiced against it at first on that account; and in fact, until they find that instead of their horses falling off on this apparently dry and innutritious feed, tjthey actually improve in firmness and condition, these plaius, though to the eye apparently level, must be in the shape of an inclined plane; for when we consider that the heads of the Cooper Creek waters take ; their rise about the line of the 21at parallel (that being about the dividing line between the southern and Gulf watershed), the country there must have a very considerable, elevation, at the very least 2000 feet; and as the direct distance from there to the most southern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria is only about 250 miles, without any apparent fall that the nicest eye can detect, it necessarily follows that the country must have a gradient of about eight feet to the mile from the shores of the Gulf to the 21st parallel. An inspection of the chart of the Gulf will Bhow that this inclined plain continues hundreds of milea under the sea to the northward. There is a mountainous tract of land to the south-west of Burke Town, on the Gregory river, and another to the south-east of the Norman river township, on the Upper Gilbert river, but the country between and for in most places 200 miles south is one vast level, with the exception of a few, isolated tabletopped hills, averaging from 100 to 300 feet in height. Such, are Donor's Hills at the junction of the Cloncurry and Flinders rivers, Reaphoot and Stokes' Ranges on ttie^ower

Flinders and Bynoe, Fort Bowen, and Mounts Little and Browne, on the Flinders river. Such also are Fort Constantine and neighbouring hills, near Sheaffe and Henry's copper mines, at the head of Conclurry river. These hills spring from the plain like warts on the face of nature, or like islands on the breast of a slumbering sea, a more poetical if not a truer simile. From these apologies for hills we will descend to the rivers — no very arduous undertaking. It may seem a rather startling announcement to make, but it is the truth nevertheless, that there are more in number, and generally finer rivers running into about 100 " miles of the southern coaßt of the Gulf of Carpentaria, than there are flowing into the whole of the eastern seaboard of Queensland, a distance of not less than 1800. Sweer's Island is a healthy and pretty place, in the track of the trade winds, within easy distance of all the rivers — the Albert, the nearest, being thirty miles, and the Norman, the farthest, being eighty miles distant. Generally the waters of the Gulf are very tranquil (sometimes, of course, the reverse is the case). Making a trip from the island to any of the rivers is, as a rule, quite one of pleasure. Thirty miles N.N.E. from Sweer's Island are situated the Bountiful Islands, wheie those who have aldermanic tastes can procure unlimited supplies of turtle and oysters. The climate of this district is most decidedly tropical, the solar heat during the months of November, December, January, February, anit March being very great, though tempered for the most part by cooling winds, being the S.E. and N.W. monsoons. The SK. winds set in abou: March, and last with little intermission until October, when the N.W. wind takes his innings, and contrives to restore the atmospheric equilibrium by blowing back what his opponent sent him. The seasons are remarkably regular. A man who has lived a few years on the Gulf can judge with the greatest precision of the weather. From the beginning of March until the end of November — a period of nine months—constitutes the dry season. During this time little or no rain falls, waterholes begin to dry up, and the grass becomes exceedingly sapless towards the end of the season. The squatter begins anxiously to look for rain ; stock, too, about this time begin to fall off in condition ; travellers religiously fill their water-bags when leaving camp in the morning, for fear the waterhole they have in view for their midday halt should be dried up. The thirsty traveller is now often beguiled by the appearance of beautiful lakes, tempting him from his line of route ; but well he knows their deceitful appearance. " Too good to be true," he mutters, and pricks up his jaded beast. Towards the beginning of November thunder clouds appear on the horizon nearly every -evening, with many threatenings and promises of rain, but none falls. After a few weeks of this, the wet sets in in earnest ; wherever the traveller may be, there he must stop ; happy he who has made some comfortable station, where he may await an opportunity of continuing his journey. The teamster, for sometimes two months at a stretch, lives on the top of his dray, perhaps alone; for miles around him the country is covered with water. He lives on the rations he is returning with to the station, or if he has been so foolish as to be travelling down country with wool and thus caught, and with only a small supply of rations, he must live as best he can; pigweed (portulac) and such like dainties being very likely the principal ingredients. This is no coloured sketch, it is the truth. All communication by land is cut off; it takes a bold man with pressing business who will now venture to travel, even if he be able. The chances are, if he makes the attempt, that his beast is frequently bogged; he has then to walk and drive his animals. He may have to wait days, nay weeks, for the subsiding of a stream, only to find after crossing it that a few miles, say ten, fifteen, or twenty, bring him to another independent watershed, which is still flooded, and the tedious task of waiting commences again. No, the man who knows how to live in Carpentaria transacts all his business during the dry season, sends his wool to port, lays in his stock of rations, removes his sheep from the lower lands to what experience has taught him are the highest and safest •pots, and then shuts himself up in his castle, and watches (if he has nothing better to do) the grass grow at the rate of very little short of an inch per diem, after the first falls of rain. Towards the end of January the roads are beginning to be passable again ; now the traveller discards his water bag, for water is rather too plentiful, but in exchange he carries his mosquito tent, made of no flimsy ordinary mosquito netting, hut strong, substantial muslin, a woman's dress in fact, for the Gulf mosquito is a most insinuating little fellow, and will take no denial, the small hole will admit him. For the next three months the knowing bushman carries this, or else he sleeps not. In his pouch too he has a good store of blue pills and quinine, or else some other nostrum in which he particularly believes, for nearly every man on the Gulf has his own peculiar remedy, for this is now the dreaded fever and ague season. The Gulf man gets very thin now, poor fellow ; he often vomits his meal, poor though it be, for in this respect the Gulf country is very similar to parts of Mexico, where that mofct annoying disease called "El vomito " rages, lhe flies are very troublesome too, causing opthalmia by their incessant attack on the eyes. Now you will see bearded men veiled like the fairest ladies ; it is not that they fenr for their complexion, though, or the rude gaze of the opposite •ex. Let not this list of ills, however,' deter the young, strong, and healthy man or woman from facing Carpentaria. Experience of the right way in living there has been bought, though many lives have paid the price of] it. People who live according to reason may a*e- ,» main on the Gulf as free from disease as | in most parts of Northern Queensland, and remember, the climate is not so bad. By this

time we have arrived at the end of April j the sun is now a long way north. The days and nights are pretty equal in duratiou ; blankets are in demand for the nights, and thick Crimean shirts for the days. The flies are becoming less troublesome, the mosquitoes have been driven back to their native swamps ; king ague is leaving the bones, the bushman grasps his axe, and feels himself every inch a man, and flatters himself he can do as good a day's work as ever; the meat is young and tender, and his appetite is excellent, and if not he takes a little quinine, which puts all to rights; the flocks and herds are increasing in numbers, and are in splendid condition -, the squatter looks forward to a good lambing, and consequently is in excellent spirits, and so all go as merry as a marriage bell. If you be a bush hand, a shearer, a shepherd, bushman, or what not, know that there you will obtain the highest wages given in the colonies; there you have not to compete with the effete riffraff! of a town, who put such a small value on themselves as to work for mere " tucker." You must be a good man and true, and if so, fear not to obtain good employment and good wages. On the Gulf every man is a " gentleman," and scorns to carry his swag, and there is no occasion to do so. Every bushman owns a horse or two, sometimes more; the swagsman and travelling beggar have no existence on the Gulf. It would be difficult to find in any part of the colony a more orderly and decent population; of course there are exceptions to every rule, and sometimes a stray horsestealer finds his way there; but somehow they never stop long. If you be a stockholder on the look out for grazing country, then know that the pastoral country of the Burke district is second to j none in the colonies, and is enormous in extent. It would not be exaggerating the case to say, that with a proportionate outlay of capital in the way of making water reservoirs, euch as dams, wells, &c , the Burke district alone would depasture every head of cattle, sheep, and horses in the whole colony. The district has now been partially stocked about four years. During that time the flocks and herds generally have increased at a full ratio ; the first year or two were required to bring stocks up to their old standard, for in moat caßes they have been driven immense distances, some even from New South Wales. On some stations stocks have done remarkably well, better than could possibly be expected. On others, again, it is true, the flocks have not only not increased, but have not even held their own ; but this is traceable either to bad management, or, what is more generally the case, to placing the wrong stock on country, such as putting sheep on country that would answer admirably for cattle hut not at all adapted to carry sheep, and vice versa. Experience, however, will remedy this evil. The country is not by any means badly watered, considering the length of the dry season ; an absolute want of water has never yet been felt on any of the stations, nor yet grass, although, as stated before, the herbage becomes very dry ; still it holds remarkably well as a rule, especially near the coast, and it retains its nourishing qualities to the last. The seasons are regular ; the country, to use a bull, has never experienced a dry wet season, at all events since it has been stocked. The nature of the country makes long land carriage very easy. The worst enemy the teamster has is the blazing tropical sun, that makes his wheels shake like castanets, and sometimes brings dray and load down by the run. Our friend the teamster, though, keepa a watchful eye on his tyres, and at the slightest sign of a yaw, in goes a wedge. Ten bullocks can take tlieir three and four tons all over the district, for during the long dry season the roads, always level as a railway line, become hard as adamant. This country will never require any very great outlay on roads. In an agricultural point of view it must be confessed this district does not come out very strongly. The country along the shores of the Gulf that is open to the agriculturist or selector is totally unfit for any, even the meanest form of agriculture ; two-thirds of the belt of land is unavailable for any purpose, even grazing, being nothing but low mud-flats, inundated by the sea during the summer months, and iatersected by a complete net-work of salt-water inlets. The remaining third, though suitable enough for grazing purposes, ia totally unlit for agriculture, being for the most part open plains, with a stiff clay soil. So much for agriculture. And now we come to a more important item in the capabilities of the Gulf country, viz., mining; and in respect of mineral productions, it is not improbable that before many years this district will not be behind any in the colony. It is said, and we believe truly, that the richest copper mine in Australia is now at work in the district; we mean the Great Australian Copper Mine, lately opened by Messrs Sheaffe and Henry, on the head of the Cloncurry River. Ore has been already forwarded to poet at the Norman River. The land carriage is doubtless great, being 250 miles, but the road is easy, being one vast level line, on which a tramway might be laid without making any way for it, with I the exception, of course, of crossing intervening streams. The whole of the ranges at the head of the Cloncurry aro more or less copper-bearing. Iron also exists in vast quantities in that neighbourhood. The ranges on the Gregory River are also very rich in copper ore. Gold has not yet been found in any large quantities, although some very fair prospects have been got by the few enterprising men who have ventured their all in that line, both on the heads of the Cloncurry and Leichardt rivers. Prospects also have been obtained in the Gilbert ranges and are spoken of by Mr Daintree, the Government geologist in the north, aa being very auriferous in their character ; aa he goes so far as to prophesy that they will furnish one of the largest and richest goldflelds in Australia -g^7 'fijffflfnpfl