WHERE IS AUSTRALIA?

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 February 1947, Page 7

WHERE IS AUSTRALIA?

MARCHING TEAM STIMULATES DESIRE TO SEE IT Inasmuch as our thoughts are fixed on the Australian girls’ inarching team, which has left such a favourable impression in Wanganui, it is as well to obtain an insight into a part, an integral part, of Australia, namely, New South Wales, which is regarded not only as the epicentre for all “fairdinkum” Aussies, but as the playground of Australia, notable for its diversity of scenery, ana its scenic attractions, which rank as second-to-none in the Southern Hemisphere. 9 Sydney gravitates a network ot bays and inlets woven on a steel-blue harbour, which is criss-crossed at regular intervals by a fleet of ferryboats and small craft which expand and contract like life-giving lungs inhaling the crystal-clear air from a blue Australian sky.

Targets for the harbour boats arc the many enclosed bays within a radius of two to three miles from Circular Quay and North Shore. Charming villas of coloured brick and stone construction overlook the foreshore and Admiralty Island, which is set exquisitely in the centre of the harbour. Bradfield, a rendezvous for Scouts from all the world over, is a domain treasured in the memories of NewZealand Scouts who were privileged to attend jamborees ’midst its encirclement of blue gum trees. Seen on a brilliant day, the plantation effuses a low-lying sea of colour which gives the gums a trellised effect. Olympic Pool, nestling on North Shore, beneath the towering superstructure of the Harbour Bridge, and in close proximity to Luna Park, Sydney’s amusement centre, is the bathing pool de luxe of Sydney. Sydney’s beaches and seaside resorts, such as Bondi and Manly, are without parallel; white, sandy stretches of inviting beach flecked with foam, and flanked by esplanades of native trees, are comparable with those lining the Mediterranean and Levantine coasts. Further afield are tablelands of rugged beauty and open expanses ot country which lan out delta-like into the confines of Eucalyptus bathed in a glow such as was ootained by the ancient Egyptians in their clear-storey lighting effect used in the construction ot temples. Seen in the fading light of evening, the “blackboys,”— trees resembling aborigines crouched in the act ot throwing spears, take on a grotesque, frightening appearance, in contrast to the noble gum trees whose beauty is accentuated. Beneficiaries of the Australian forested beauty, are the Koala bears, whose homes are in the eucalyptus; the Kookaburras, whose mocking laughs are so startling when heard by strangers to the outbacks; the bush turkeys, whose driving thoughts are' not where their next meal is coming from, but where their next snake is coming from, —from which it is gathered that the Australian bush turkey is partial to snakes. Cattle and sheep stations, unconfined by fences, stretch as far as the eye can see ana billabongs (affluences of streams) crawl sluggishly through the scrub lands.

Our journey takes us to Gundagai and Snake Gully, immortalised by those inimitable stage and screen stars “Dad and Dave.’’ Near the township of Gundagai, which boasts of tumbledown shacks frequented by the famous bushranger, Ned Kelly, and his gang, is a monument erected by the Gundagai Hospital Board showing a dog sitting on a tuckar box, and the following inscription appears on the granite base of the monument:

As I was bound for Gundagai, 1 heard a maiden cry, There goes Bill the bullocky, he’s bound for Gundagai. A better poor old never earned an honest crust, A better poor old never cracked a whip through dust. Then Nobby strained and broke the yoke, poked out the leader’s eye, * And the dog sits on the tucker box, nine miles from Gundagai. The verse is symbolic of the old bullockies whose lives were not always “beer and skittles.” This glimpse of New South Wales, whilst providing food for thought, only serves to whet the appetite ot those —who awakened by an “indefinable something” spread across their consciousness by the Australian marching girls—desire lor a real conception of Australia, and of its people.