Not for White Men

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 419, 30 July 1928, Page 11

Not for White Men

Arnhem Land Explored RAIN FOR EIGHT MONTHS What kind of aman is he who will cycle round Australia on a dilapidated bicycle “just for an outing,” and will organise, finance and lead three exploration expeditions into unknown regions of New Guinea and Northern and Central Australia because adventure calls? Such a man is Mr. Donald Mackay. who returned to Sydney after 15 weeks of wandering in the wilds of Arnhem Land in completion of what* he calls “his last tramp,” says a Sydney paper. With an expedition consisting of himself. Dr. H. Basedow, of South Australia, as surveyor and geologist. Messrs. Walter Sully, cinema operator, I. Coonan, in charge of the horses and pack animals, and F. Feist, in charge of equipment, and two natives, Mr. Mackay set out from Sydney on April 3 to penetrate hitherto unexplored parts of Arnhem Land. In the time which has elapsed, the party covered about 1,000 miles of country under the most difficult conditions. The weather was hot, aid for much of the distance a path had to be hacked through grass nine feet in height. On account of the wet season, a great portion of the country traversed'was under water, and horses

frequently sunk to their girths ill slime. Trees had to be felled to permit the party to cross the swollen streams. A species of green ant, which builds its nest in folded leaves, reinforced by myriads of mosquitos, attacked the travellers viciously. In the opinion of Mr. Mackay, Arnhem Land is not a white man's country. For eight or nine months of the year it rains, and the remaining months are humid and unpleasant. If it is to be developed, he says, black labour must be employed. That was an incontrovertible fact. Those who knew the country knew that it was so, hut few if any had the courage to say so. Lure Of Adventure The tract of country traversed was, of course, uninhabited except by aborigines, who were very shy of coming intc contact with the whites, whom they probably thought to be on a punitive expedition, as some Japanese had just previously been murdered on the coast. However, they were in their native state, and no chances were taken by the party, which selected camping grounds in the open, lest the blacks became treacherous. Mr. Mackay added that there were large tracts of good country In Arnhem Land, but there were also enormous areas of stony, unproductive land. Dr. Basedow would make a geological report, which he (Mr. Mackay) would hand to the Commonwealth Government to do with as It wished. The trip was from Darwin to Catherine, 200 miles south, thence by horse to Roper Bar, across the Roper River to Wilton, whence the party struck across the Goyder eastward, turning back north-westwards toward the Liverpool River, and thence to Darwin. Other trips made by Mr. Mackay were to the head waters of the Purari in Papua in 1908, and to the Perterman Ranges, in the south-western corner of the Northern Territory, in 1926. Thirty years ago Mr. Mackay, who was then 28, rode a bicycle round the coasts from Brisbane to Brisbane in 243 days 7 hours, a record for the class of machine which still holds. All these things he has done because the spirit of adventure calls him into the open, but he is emphatic that he has made his last trip. “I am too old now for the rough life and the toll it takes?’ he says; “in that country, if one falls sick, one dies. There are no doctors and no aids, and it calls for young men willing and able to rough it.”