“Australia’s Wild North-West

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 48, 6 December 1923, Page 13

“Australia’s Wild North-West

'■ . •> . • " ■ ; M. JL Adams, the well-known Australian - traveller, and ~ writer,, writes: —• _ , , v— ,• ; V A small band of Salesian Fathers of Ven. Don Bosco, whose Mother House is in Turin, Italy; are going to the Wild North-West of - West Australia to take over the Missions already established in the Kimberley Division of that Territory, • - 1 . They are to work in one of the least known parts of the great Australian continent which covers a greater area than the 48 States of the United States of America, Fifty odd years ago there was no European settlement whatever within this vast tract of country of which 1 write, while the latest census returns indicate that there is even now only a white population of somewhat less than 7000 souls, exclusive of aborigines, in the whole of the North and North-West Australia. In the Kimberley Division alone there are under 2000 whites. From the year 1628 onwards the North-West Coast was visited by many hardy and intrepid mariners, including Dewitt and William Dumpier, but it was not until 1837, that the first definite attempt at exploration was undertaken on behalf of the British Government by Captain (afterwards Sir George) Grey. The expedition did not accomplish its object, which was to penetrate through the Kimberleys to Perth on the Swan River, but was successful in discovering several of the principal Northern Rivers, and leaving a valuable record which constitutes even today a work of frequent reference. The discovery of gold at Hall’s Creek helped towards the definite settlement of the country. , A wild coast dotted with innumerable small islands , and coral reefs, where treacherous tides play all manner of tricks, its inlets, bays, and rivers teeming with strange, beautiful, and edible, fish, turtles, seacows, giant stingrays, enormous sharks and alligators, and for hundreds of miles inhabited only by tribes of wild blacks (Australian aborigines) with here and there a small township or Mission station, such is the rugged and broken seaboard of the NorthWest where the Salesian Fathers are to take up their splendid missionary work. When they reach Perth, the capital of Western Australia, they will have yet to travel over 1200 miles by steamer up the coast to reach Broome, which is the headquarters of their Mission. Broome is the centre of the great pearling industry in West Australia, and here there is a very mixed Asiatic population engaged in this industry. The township is very scattered and consists of about 4000 souls, including Japanese, Malays, Manilla-men, Cingalese, Aborigines and, about 500 whites. There are several hotels, two hospitals, a number of pretty bungalows, storesand a few churches. ' The climate is very severe on the population, and the death rate is very high, especially from fever. " It is best only to drink water that has been boiled. . The mean temperature at Broome is 79 degrees, while in the sun the heat often touches nearer 160 than 150 degrees. The only way of travelling from one end of this scattered little town to the other is either by auto, which costs a “quarter,” or per boot, and to do much walking when the sun is at its full strength is to look for trouble—many strong men have been knocked out'by the sun in these parts. v • About 100 miles north of Broome is the old Mission Station at Beagle Bay, established over 30 years ago. and „run for many years by a German Order of the Church. The Mission itself makes quite a little village with its sixty buildings scattered picturesquely over some thirty acres amidst grass plots and palm trees. Water is obtained by sinking wells, which form the source of the irrigation system of this Mission and numbers of other settlements in Australia. Strange to say, many of the rivers and sources of water supply are -under the ground, and by sinking wells or putting down an artesian bore a wonderful supply of water may ,be secured in the most unexpected 5 spots in almost any part of the Australian continent. ; The Fathers find it hard to grow vegetables, . except a . few melons and pumpkins. White ants are prevalent, which prevent the growing of fruit trees. There are some fine date, and cocdanut palms. | ' ; About 250 aborigines live permanently at the" Mission,

and others from the surrounding district make an occasional visit.; Beagle Bay. Mission takes in 2000 acres free- ? hold and 8000 leasehold over which the Fathers run 3500 head of cattle, 400 goats , and 100 pigs. There are about 30, horses ; on 'the place, but these are difficult to . keep owing to the Kimberley Disease. Mules are being .tried - here. There are 40 splendid working. bullocks. ' ■ Apart from , the Fathers and Brothers who ■ are at present at Beagle Bay Mission, six Sisters are also laboring there. The place offers great possibilities for further development. ’ - So far Missions have only been established on the coast of this vast territory as they are much more accessible by water than overland. In the Kimberley Division alone it is claimed that there are 40,000 aborigines, numbers of the men standing 7 feet tall and most of these tribes resent the intrusion of the white man. Several remarkable- characters live on this coast. At Tyra-Island/ King Sound, which is reached through wild and bubbling tides, M. d’Antoine, a very stout Frenchman, has lived for nearly forty years. He owns a lugger, and his residence consists of a paper bark hut. At his little settlement there are about 40 aborigines— and women, and a few children, mostly clad in garments that would disgrace the shops of the lowest class of second-hand clothes dealers to bo found in any city in the world. M. Antoine is a. class of beachcomber not unknown in the South Seas. Four and a half miles from Tyra Island is Sunday Island, or Ewenu (native name), where Mr. Sydney Hadley is in charge of a Mission Station. The passage between Sunday Island ~and the mainland western side of King Sound — as Escape Passage, is used by steamers plying along the coast when calling at Derby, the little ,port ■ at the head of the sound. The water in this passage eddies and swirls in such a fierce current that it is very dangerous to small craft. The speed of the current is caused by the rapid rise and fall of the tide, and the water rushing through such a narrow space. Sydney Had- . ley supports his Mission by obtaining trocus shell which is done by the blacks? It is from trocus shell that pearl buttons are madean industry which keeps a whole town engaged in France, and also many factories in Japan, North from the Sound a section of the coast is known as the Graveyard, tiny islands and reefs dotting this area to such an extent that it requires most careful navigation to get a schooner through safely. However, it is in Whirlpool Pass where the power and peculiarity of the currents are- very apparent. When Capt. Johnson took the Cul—the little schooner which carried the North-West Expedition, under the leadership of E. J. Stuart, of Perth, and with cameraman William Jackson, through this pass,, the vessel made three complete turns as the tide took charge of her and simply did what it liked with' this man-made work. * - Unless a vessel is taken through this pass at a most advantageous time,- the Pass is unnavigable. It is four miles long, half a mile wide, shaped like a boomerang, the sides of the pass being formed by rocky hills which often run up to a height of 400 feet. The rise and fall of the tide is 35 feet. In Collier Bay there is a small inlet known as Dugong Bay, so called because it is a great feeding ground for the Dugong or Australian seacow. This is a mammal, and is said to be the origin of the mermaid legends, because it suckles its young by holding it to its breast in the same manner as a mother suckles her babe. The Dugong is hunted on similar lines to the whale, but owing to the tremendous'thickness of its hide, which offers a stout resistance even to a steel harpoon or steel-capped spear, the hunting of it is not always carried out with success. In Queensland the Dugong hide is treated and turned into leather, and use as made of the flesh and the > oil. In the North-West the flesh forms the only fresh meat supply to be.had on the coast. The meat has a flavor somewhere between that of beef and pork. The oil has splendid medicinal qualities, and its powers of penetration are astounding. Quite a lot of this oil is in general use in Eastern Australia to-day. " Round the coast there are beautiful coral formations, islands inhabited by wild tribes, other -islands which are merely the home of thousands of great turtles and wild birds, , such , as sea-hawks, while the hinterland stretches

away' for a thousand * miles to central Australia. These great - spaces of territory are "splendidly grassed and ; there are ; cattle-ranches - covering 600 square males, where; .supplies are” carried from the coast to the homesteads of these ; enormous ranches by the aid of camel trains. Camels were brought to Australia; in the first place for the use of; the; early explorers and surveyors. They have proved invalu- - able to the people “out back” (in the wild country) and ■ also to prospectors. • On the Montgomery Islands a tribe of blacks live whose tribal markings and body ornamenta- '• tion is said to be the most unique in Australia. ” This is a custom that the Salesian Fathers will encounter with sur- . prise. These cicatrices are brought about by opening up the skin With a sharp shell or a piece of stone, and by rubbing in mud obtained from the roots of the mangrove shrub, which flourishes in the stale water. When fully developed they are quite soft and velvety to the touch. This peculiar work of ornamentation is usually carried out by the wife of the man she is known as a lubra. ' The writer also refers to the Drysdale Mission on the Drysdale River— Broome Bay —in a section of North-West Australia which is about the least frequented by white people. The Benedictine Fathers there are very seldom visited. Their only communication with the outside world is by means of the schooner Saladore, which arrives once a year from Broome with supplies. Occasionally a lugger or vessel may drop anchor in the bay, and some people come ashore, but the Mission is so far away out of the world that very- few people even in Australia know of its existence. The Mission covers about three acres, 'and here rice, bananas, tobacco, sugar-cane, rubber, cocoanut and date palms grow splendidly.. Water is obtained from wells. There is also a splendid supply of melons, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, onions, and peanuts, and some splendid grazing country is to be found all around this pretty bay. In Napier Broome Bay, close to the . Mission, some tremendous stingray fish and big sharks are to be caught. There is also an abundance of fish in these waters. The climate is, of course, tropical, and the mean, temperament would be about 80 degrees. East of Napier Broome Bay is the Cambridge Gulf, and at the. head- of this great body of water is Wyndham, the little port for the cattle country of the North-West. The Government of West Australia has erected a fine freezing works at this township, and there is . every prospect that the township,, which till a few years ago held a population of 250 souls, will forge,ahead. There is no doubt about the possibilities of North-West Australia for those, in a position to go forth into .virgin country and build up a cattle-ranch, a plantation, or engage in fishing on a large scale. It certainly provides an astounding - field for one who seeks adventure, because, unlike the South Seas and Africa, the North-West. has not been over-run by explorers and seekers after excitement. For the man who thirsts for adventure let him venture into the wilds of North-West Australia and he will get his fill.