INLAND AUSTRALIA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 397, 20 September 1911, Page 7

INLAND AUSTRALIA.

The secrets of Australia's unknown country are being revealed very quickly, and it will not be very long before the white man will have penetrated into its remotest fastnesses. During the past few months a very large portion of the Northern Territory has been explored systematically, and new country has been opened in Western Australia, ft is the opinion of men who have spent many years in the exploration of Australia that the comparatively small areas which still have to be examined will disclose no new secrets. Mr David Lindsay, who during thirty years has tramped through the deserts and over the mountains of inland Australia with numerous expeditions, has been telling his countrymen that the only unknown territory is not worth troubling about at present. lie believes that there is a vast field for expansion in the Northern Territory, which, he says, undoubtedly is a white man's country. Only a small proportion cf it is really tropical. Over an area of 75,000,000 acres there is an annual rainfall varying from forty to sixty inches, and a large part of this area is suitable for the cultivation of upland rice, cotton and wheat, while pigs could be reared profitably. In the tropical belt there are metalliferous areas, producing gold, silver, copper, lead, tin and wonfram. Tableland country is reached about 2700 miles from the coast, at an elevation of 500 ft. The rainfall varies between 18in and 40in, and Mr Lindsay says that the tablelands are equal to the best downs country of Queensland. With adequate railway facilities, this portion of the Territory could be made to carry 40,000,000 sheep. Wheat also might be grown, and near the middle of the Territory and towards the southern boundary stock of all kinds might be raised. There are a number of gold-bearing belts to be exploited, but little can be done with them until a railway passes through the middle of the Northern Territory. There is room for hundreds of thousands of white settlers in the country. Happily the Commonwealth Government appears to be keenly alive to the desirability of opening up this promised land.