THE GULF COUNTRY OF NORTHERN AUSTRALIA.
“A Late Resident” of the Gulf country, writing to the RodcJumpton Bulletin, says:— : “ T]here Is here an immense area, larger than the whole colony of Victoria, and it is nearly all of it good grazing land, for the grasses are of the best, and the herbs most fattening. There are no marsupials, no worms, fluke, or other parasites. The .blacks are very few, and not to be feared; free selectors are not likely to be troublesome for years to come, and the only thing wanted to make this a veritable squatters’ paradise is regular steam communication with the Gulf ports, or a trans-conti-nental railway. It is with this object in view I now write, and also with the desire to draw general attention to the district. Within the last two years nearly_the whole of this vast area has beeh taken up, but labor and carriage
rare‘difficult td'be’got,’principally through the' imaginary terror with which the unknown is invested. The Gulf coast country is pre-eminently the land of-promise for cattle. Unlike the eastern coast, the grasses arc not sour or deficient in nutriment when'dry, for they are of the same genera as - the interior grasses, -namely the Mitchell,- Blue, Landsborough, &c.: 1 But these grasses grow ‘ wapty’ —that is, they grow from 2 to Oft. high, instead of from 1 to 2ft. There is ago d undergrowth of herbs as well, and ' these also are : much the same sort as those m the interior. This growth of food makes the carrying capabilities of these runs ' very great ;'but it also is the cause of ranch risk from fires. In the wet season —January and February—a; large part of this coast land is under water, and travelling is impossible, for the country is one network- of rivers, creeks, and billabougs, This is a drawback, but not a fatal one, for' the cattle can nearly everywhere find safety camps on sandhills or ridges, on which to remain till the floods subside. There is then a rapid and great growth of grass, bine-blush, pea-bush, sorghum, and herbs, and the stocky are literally wallowing in feed. . . Mr. T. Gulliver, late of Normanton, an enthusiastic naturalist and botanist informed me (and his authority is Baron Mueller) that a!‘coarsegrass; which we bushraeu call sorghum, is in reality the common rice of commerce, the veritable oriza satira. The cattle are madly fond of it when green. It springs up some six feet high, ripens its seed, and is dead, all in about four months. As this is the case now that it grows spontaneously, is it too visionary to predict that this level flooded Gulf land will some day become one of the ricefields of the world, and with an export trade rivalling the wool in value ?”
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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5292, 12 March 1878, Page 3
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464THE GULF COUNTRY OF NORTHERN AUSTRALIA. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5292, 12 March 1878, Page 3
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