CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

Hokitika Guardian, 4 April 1921, Page 3

CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

PLUCKY SKTTIJinS MAKING GOOD

SYDNEY, March 22,

An official of the Northern Territory, who has just completed the difficult overland journey from Darwin to Adelaide, states that, contrary to the popular belief, wide areas in those remote regions lie traversed are, so far as water and grass conditions are concerned, quite suitable for settlement. A surprising number of indomitable people have pushed out into these lands, and appear to ho doing well. Over the greater part of this overland route the voice of white women and the laughter of white children are never heard. They have yet to come but, dotted bore and there, white men are settled. At Wydiffc Wells, near the heart of the Continent, however, there is an English family named Crook —the only white woman within hundreds of miles. Crook came out seeking employment on tbe Wolfram fields there, and when the industry collapsed he remained oil the land, and his wife and two girls stayed with him. It was poor country, but they seemed to he happy enough. At Mount Stewart, in the very centre of the Continent, settled on the land and doing well, - were two returned soldiers.

It-is a curious fact, says this official, that on these lands settlement is being pioneered by men who arc practically without resources, but who, in many instances, have gradually acquired estates so large and prosperous that they have to employ managers. This is in contrast to the Barclay Tablelands (south of the Gulf of Carpentaria) and the remote west of Queensland and New South Wales, where the land has been developed by great and wealthy companies. At Newcastle Waters (Northern Territory) this official inspected an estate carrying 12,000 head of Shorthorn cattle ; he traversed the Banka Banka estate, where there are no less than 45.700 head of Herefords. These are exceptionally big places; but all through this wide interior there are many estates carrying from 5000 to 10,000 head of cattle.