Far Nor’-West of Australia

Hokitika Guardian, 30 November 1921, Page 4

Far Nor’-West of Australia

OI’IMRTUNITIES FOR CATTLERAISING. SYDNEY, Nov. 9. Lieut.-Colonel ,G. K. Freeman, a man who lias trodden many miles of territory in the'-hur North-Meat of Australia where only a handful of men have settled, tells a remarkable story of opportunities that exist there for development. Although opportunities there have been restricted for many years by an area of -1.00(1,00!) acres, containing some of the best land on t ie Berkley river, having been vested in the Protector of Aborigines as a reserve for blacks, which, lie says, merely keeps it nut of use, he describes great tracts of land s ll pjwised by most people to he barren, as being valuable fo r cattleraising. The North-West, he says, is a plaid that really begs for development. From Ord’s Creek to Victoria river, there is an abundance of Mitchell and Flinders grass, and the country on the Drysdale "and Carson rivers surpasses that, on the Old. Also there, is the King George and Casttrina basins. Tn this area there are many pockets not less than 100,000 acres each —of giand country, and in all there are thousands of acres suitable for settlement. Large quantities of it. he added white man had never before seen. ’Getting down to the Barton Plains.” he said, “one finds more good country. I have 250.001) acres there, and 1 carry 150,l)t)l) of cattle. West of that, on the ('arson, are any amount of splendid [wickets, ranging from 100.000 acres tip. Make Napier-Broom Bay a port, and you make all this area. At the present time between AVyndham and Derby there are only throe white men and two white women on th • Forrest river, and seven Spanish 'Benedictine monks who get rations once n year. After that there is no white person until within a few of Derby. But you cannot hope to develop that country by conforming to the industrial policy of the whites. You cannot pay high rates of wages. Either you must try tu utilise the nlmrinignl labour, which means training youngsters from live years or so, or you must resort to indentured labour. I cannot agree that the white man can live there and do the work all the time. At the saint? time, if lie has the labour, be can live ttier.'. Aly wife has lived there an unbroken period of five years, and we have a child hern there. Cotton grows splendidly .as does rice in th ( . wet lands. Indian .urn also provides a ■rami crop in the wet season, while Kaffir corn grows excellently for stock Millett is also a profitable crop.