THE BIGGEST ARTESIAN WELL IN THE WORLD. A Subterranean River In Queensland.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 246, 14 March 1888, Page 7

THE BIGGEST ARTESIAN WELL IN THE WORLD. A Subterranean River In Queensland.

The hero of the Barcaldine artesian well, which is flowing in the arid centre of Queensland it is estimated ab the rate of 500,000 gallons of clear, fresh snow-water a day, has arrived in Sydney from the scene of his greatest success. Mr J. Loughcad, the managing director of the Federal Boring ' Association and inventor of the apparatus they use, is a big blunt man from America, and the coolness of his temperament has been in no way disturbed by striking what. 1)0 admits to be the biggest artesian well in the world, and in a part of Queensland far removed from any watercourse and where thousands of stock perished in the last drought. He has flooded Barcaldine in the middle of summer. The water poured out to such an extent thab the hydraulic engineer of Queensland endeavoured "to turn it off," but it was no use ; the glorious picture of a huge volume of water flowing into the air could not be wi]>ed out, and the latest information is bhab the water is still flowing out without any diminution of pressure or quantity. A lagoon in which cattle wade up to their middle has been formed, and the water has found its way to the UHce River. Hundreds of people have travelled hundreds of miles to witness the extraordinary spectacle. In the natural bequence of events Mr Longhead has been feasted in indifferent hotels ab Barcaldine, where there are 14. Ab one of these banquets the hydraulic engineer, who arrived eight days after the discovery, stated that he had roughly estimated the supply ab4,QOO gallons per minute, or 5,760,000 gallons of water per day. Barcaldine is situated some 400 miles west of Kockhampton, on tho Central Queensland Railway. It is the receiving railway station for the wool and stock of tlve surrounding pastoral properties, which cover an area of some hundreds of miles. It was badly off for water, and the wool teams, of which there arc a great number, 3uffer many hardships in consequence. The nearest waterhole is six miles from the town. Thousands of sheep and cattle in the district succumbed to the last drought. And ac it is, the land is as rich as any in Queensland. The surface consists of rolling downs of rich black loam, and no alteration is seen in travelling over a vast area of country. It is occasionally watered by a lagoon or wide creek, bub these occasions have been so much like angels' visits as to cause the designation— "The Dry Lagoon." It was here that the Government of Queensland, who had entered into a contract with Mr Loughead to bore 7.500 feet for water, determined to put down the first bore. The stake for his guidance was placed on the summit of a small hill, the surface of which was of a* sandy formation. There was nothing in the appearance of the place to lead anyone to think that an artesian well would be found there more than at any other, and the latest evolution in geological science provides no divining rod for unearthing wator ab great depths. Boring operations were begun on Novem- ! ber 18bh. No sij*n of water — brackish or otherwise— was seen all tho way down, and the tirst intimation of its presence was obtained on Friday evening, December 16th, when the drill suddenly dropped seven feet. Within a few minutes the water ascended the bore and the memorable deluge of Barcaldine commenced. It ros,e several feet into the air and then fell away in the form of a large glass dome. Its temperature then was 120deg. Fahrenheit; butsoon afterwards, receded to JLo2deg,, and Mr Loughead anticipates that it will go down t& abo\i 1 90deg. Before the rods were removeji the bore was continue^ to a t<otal deptlv v bf 691 ft. 9in. so as to form a recepbtaele for any sediment and prevent its inter- s fefencG 1 . with tho source of ..supply.'* .^T^e, rods' were 'then lifted and some/ additional, casing )was put' in to preserve the sides of the bore where any weakness had been* ,re,vealed. To stQp the floyr.in th,e % way firs.b attempted was found , impossible, ,eacji wt^qderi^ pl£|g, being forged out as often'as'it f whs driven lnto^the'bore-hbjfy ] Alspip^ 'J/ffb, long' was inserted', info',«tl^£ore^fjid|. carried up to the top of .t^ejdemc^'w^ucljC had been-usedih connection wi'fcli the 'boring-

Lan t, and over tho^top of this the stream of water, 12in. in diameter, had seemingly been, allowed to run to waste. The pressure indicated that had the piping been carried a much greater distance into the air the stream would not have reached its natural level. Teamsters who had camped on ground lower than the mouth of the stream. were flooded out, and after innumerable water holes had been iilled the stream found its way to a cicck. The miraculous spectacle of a stream in a creek which had long been dry and had never been known to ;eceive the overflow of other water-courses bewildered people who weie not aware of what had occurred at Baicaldine, into whose precincts people came to know what was really the matter. Everybody tasted the water, and everybody testified to its excellence. It is aw clear as eiy^tal: examination ha.s proved that it contains not the slightest injurious ingredient. The \alue of the discoveiy ib incalculably. En three widely-separated icrritoiics in the heaitoi Queensland, each of which was a little while bock almost devastated by drought, and where the ro.eiage lainfall renders stocking hazardous, the fact ha*, been established that an abundant supply of fiesh water exists beneath their arid plains. Water was their only great want. The capabilities of the soil aic revealed this season, which has been a remarkably good one, for sheep are almost bin led in the succulent grasses. Every gallon of water per day from a subterranean source represents an additional sheep, hence it is that by .striking a supply of 40,000 gallons a day at Thutulgoon.i the owneis have been able to stock the run with 40,000 moie sheep than it previously carried. Mi Longheads contract ends when water is struck or whenever he readies a depth of 2,500 ft. In this case ho receives .0691 15s for i-ho Barcaldine bore. Jb\n bunately he was not paid by results— say 2s 6d per lOOgal., a low ligure in Queensland — or he would have involved Queensland in anothei deficit. The Government supplied the tubing and the wood and wuLor for fcne engine. This brought the total co-t of the ar-tesian well to .C 775.