AN ACTIVE VOLICANO IN AUSTRALIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2135, 15 May 1889, Page 2

AN ACTIVE VOLICANO IN AUSTRALIA

The report recently brought to Adelaide by a mounted trooper from the district near the Maodonali Ranges, to the eff act that the Natives told him of the existence of an active voloito some distance beyond Alioa Spring?, has been to some extent confirmed by tne* well-known Australian explorer, David Lludsay, who nas jaat returned to Adelaide from a trip to the baok country, Mr Lindsay did not fnppen to see the amoke himsalf when he pißßod through the territory more recently but all the .Natives he met confirmed the reports previously given by the trooper Wiltshire, The blaokfelloffS from the Upper Maroolaon to the Fuzcoy river In Western Australia, believe In the existence of an aofclve crater Inland. As far as can be ascertained, the mo<?nt lies aoout 200 miles m a north-westerly dtreotlon from Alioj Springs, with a bearing from the latter place towards the. coast, at a point roughly speaking, about midway between tha Fiizroy and the Morohleon. The natives informed Mr Lindsay that 'a large hole is always burning, »od that it growls and throws up sand and Btones,' They appeared afraid to talk much about the place asserting that it was 'no good ; blackfellow did not make it.' Mr T. R. O'Grady, another explorer, heard a good deal of this volcano when he visited the head waters of the Lyons River some half doz^n years ainoe. He reported at the time that there was a strange sonnd sometimes heard m the dry solitary parts of the north-west interior. It was known as the 'deoert sound 'in those regions, and was like a. dall, distant explosion. It had alwaya been a Bubjoot of considerable speculation among busbmon aa to what produoed it, the general supposition being that it proceeded from the reading or maestßof granite rook by unequal expan eion from the great solar haac. O'tfraay believed m this theory until the explosion m the Straits of Bunda, when the island of Kr&katoa was destroyed. At that time he wav engaged m exploring the bead waters of the Lyons River, and beard toe ' desert sound ' louder, sharper and more cootinuous than he had eve.* noticed it before The oouutry is a terrible desert but m the direction of where the mountain is supposed to lie, and the spot is thus to some txtent unapproaohable by ' single handed* travellers wno pass near.