OUTBACK EPIC

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1927, Page 4

OUTBACK EPIC

.jo,—: HAliEvil I 1 P.S OF THE BUSH. SYDNEY, Oct. (i. The dramatic story of how two women drove n motor lorry with a 500 gallon water tank more than ,‘,O miles on a storm swept night near Wilcannia. out on Hie iringe of civilisation is' ail epic of the outback. The water on the propel ty on which the women live is brackish, and while useful for stock, is unsuitable for domestic purposes. A pastoralist helped them in their plight. He had a 500 gallon tank fitted on to a motor lorry, in which the women made a hazardous journey I :r Ire.sh water, as the in on folk were struggling at the pumps lor

a supply ol hrnekish water for I lie stock. Ily the time the women had had their tank filled, and had repairs effected to the lights on flic lorry the ■run had sot, and they were forced to mike the long journey back in the impenetrable blackness ol a stormy night. The water which they brought back will be sufficient to tide the pa relied property over for a time, it is only one of the poignant phases ol life out on the fringe. Another story, with, however, a bright sequel, is-, that o! an eight-year-old hoy in the same country who is threatened with total blindness, and whose parents, the father a linllcaste and the mother, a white woman, in the throes of illness, have been unable to find money to send the youngster to Sydney for special treatment. Through the columns of one of the pa pci's, the Bush Church Aid Society asked for £'so to bring the boy to Sydney and to save him. if possible, from the tragedy of eternal night. The paper was no sooner on the. street with the tragic story of the Ikiv’s suffering than the £SO came to light. The appeal had touched the heart of one of the big figures in the picture show business. Since then money has poured into the Society, which will now have no difficulty in sending one of its missioners on the journey of Ist>o miles by ear out on to the horizon to firing the boy and his fiail mother hack to th e railhead, preparatory to making still anothci long journey to Sydney.