LAND OF DESOLATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1920, Page 10

LAND OF DESOLATION.

DINGOES AND SANDHILLS.

HOMESTEAD LEFT TO BLACKS. Sydney,.June 14. Just before the recent rain, Mr. C. C. McGarry, postal inspector, Dubbo, returned from 4m official tour of the country west of the Darling. He proceeded by train to Cobar, and travelled many hundreds of miles by motor car and coach. There are not many coaches at present running, as horse feed in these regions is practically unprocurable. The general outline of his tour was from Cobar to Wilcannia, thence due wsst almost to 'Broken Bill, and north to Cobham Lake, Milparinka, and Tibooburra. On the return journey he proceeded to Wanaaring, down south to Tilpa, and thence along the course of the Darling to Bourke and Brewarrina. Mr McGarry said that the back of Bourke, once a graziers' paradise, was a land of desolation and silence all day, and by night hideous with the weird bowlings of dingoes. The once pretty homesteads were abandoned or given up to blacks, who were themselves severely drought-stricken. Mr. McGarry mentions, as an. instance of the tragic toll of the drought, the fact that on one station, which used to carry over 180,000 sheep, there are now not more than 1300. The whole countryside is windswept, and the immense sandhills are continually shifting their location. Some of these sandhills are 20£t, 30ft, and up: to 60ft. high. While travelling through.; this country, one of these hills may b?( passed 100 yards from the road, and, on returning a few days later, it may bs found to have shifted, perhaps, right across the road. Thousands upon thousands of sheep have been killed by the dingoes, which seem to be innumerable, and, now that the stock have nearly all died, or moved to other parts, the dingo pest is moving inwards. Hundreds of these wild dogs have been making their presence felt on a frontage of hundreds of miles just west of the Darling. This invasion is fraught with serious results ;to stook-ownerß east of that river. ,