CENTRAL AUSTRALIA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5029, 20 September 1926, Page 3

CENTRAL AUSTRALIA.

DESOLATE OR HABITABLE ?

CONFLICT OF OPINION.

The large central heart of Australia has for a long time been the subject of much controversy amolig explorers, settlers, and geographers (writes the Wellington Post’s Sydney correspondent). Some assert that it is eminently suitable for the settlement of white men and women. Others declare just as emphatically that it is a region of death and desolation. Many expeditions have been led to investigate the. region’s possibilities, yet the conflict of opinion still exists, and Australians a,re no nearer to learning the real truth about it than they were 20 oT 30 years ago. The region remains an enigma.

This was emphasised a few weeks ago, when two exploring parties returned to thejr home towns after long periods of inquiries. The leader of one. said that Central Australia could be made into a white man’s country. The leader of the other stated that if Central Australia had any future it was one of greater desolation. CAN BE MADE HABITABLE. Sir Baldwin Spenceb, of Melbourne, well-known Australian authority on aborigines, natural history, anthropology, geology, and ,what not, has just returned to Melbourne after a four months’ trip into the interior. He was df opinion that Central Australia, which has supported a few blacks, could be made into a white settlers’ country, as Arizona (U.S.A.) and the Majleq (Victoria) had been, by the app'ica,tion of science to agriculture and to means of overcoming the dry climate.* Next to these the, motor-car and the aeroplane would be the chief factors in developing Central Australia. The wonderful fruits and vegetables grown at Alice Springs were, typical of the results which could be achieved in this a,rea. , “ GIVE YOU THE HORRORS.” Contrast with these views those of Mr Donald Mackay, a grazier of Western New South Wales, who, to satisfy a whim and to prove for himself the, truth of Central Australia, financed an expedition to the region and spent three,, months in traversing the country, mainly by cajnels. He prevailed upon Dr. Herbert Fasedow, a leading Australian ethnologist, of Adelaide, to accompany him, and these two, with an experienced bushman, went even further afield than Sir Spencer Baldwin. They went as far west as the Western Australian border. This is what he said: “The country would give you the horrors, it is so poor and worthless, and what animal and vegetable life there was looked miserable and parched. The few pastoralists there will not last another 20 years, in my opinion. The country is, deteriorating. You can travel for over 505 miles over tha place and not collect a hatful of grass. Mile after mile of the country from Charlotte Waters to Western Australia is in a miserable condition. It must have carried millions, of rabbits at one time, and they have eaten everything, ring-barking the trees and leaving dead stumps. There are not many rabbits there now —there is not much of anything—and it is >o/i)ly a matter of time before the country becomes a ( wiaste of shifting sand dunes,.”

On the journey the party met wild aborigines with whom they made friends. The largest tribe numbered 40 persons, who followed the explorers for 30 miles, straggling along in the dust of the camel team, carrying tjieir spears and babies, and dogs, many of which, miserable and fleabitten, were too. weak to walk. Yet the natives lived and seemed wellfed. That was truly a mystery, as lizards, grubs, grass, and roots were staple atricles of their diet. North of Odnadatta the party visited a station wlfe.re a *few days before 300 horses had been shot because they could, not be sold and were eating valuable food. They were beautiful animals. Formerly horsebreeding was the mainstay of the pastoralists in that country. Thus is given a summary of the conflicting views. In this case the scientist, with ample faith in the differences that scientists of the future -might effect, looks, at the country through obviously rosy spectacles. On the other hand, the practical grazier, accustomed to the fertile'*'plains of New South Wales, sees nothing but desdlation, looking, perhaps, through glasses that are slightly darkened by pessimism. The Australian of to-day, with the interest of his country at heart, asks : Which is right ? Perhaps the rising generation of to-day will receive the answer. It will be surprising if older Australians will, live to see results which will give a definite reply one way ot the otherj