Emu 



210 Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. [i^t "j 



submitted by Captain White (South Austraha) and Colonel Home 

 (Victoria). This resolution stated that the congress of the Royal 

 Australasian Ornithologists' Union begged to draw the attention 

 of the Queensland Government to the national importance of the 

 Bunya Range, and suggested that the whole of the mountains 

 be set aside as a reserve. The following reasons were set out : — 

 (i) Their effect on the rainfall in increasing rainfall, diminishing 

 floods, and checking droughts. 



(2) Their great effect as an important, feeder of the artesian 



basins of the interior, and the sub-artesian water supply 

 of Ualby and the plains. 



(3) Their value as a forest asset of soft timber, now rapidly 



disappearing. 



(4) Their scientific interest as one of the few places where bunya 



pine grows in abundance and where unique and valuable 

 Queensland birds are still numerous. 



(5) Their supreme value as a health resort for south-western 



Queensland. 

 It was also suggested in the resolution that, pending considera- 

 tion on the question of general reservation — on M'hich point the 

 Government was urged to consult scientific bodies m Queensland 

 — Mount Mowbullan and contiguous areas be immediately linked 

 up with the National Park, thereby saving to the people one of 

 the most valuable health resorts and vantage-points in the whole 

 State. Dr. J. Burton Cleland (N.S.W.), Dr. E. A. D'Ombrain 

 (N.S.W.), Dr. G. Home (Vic), and Dr. T. A. Price (Qld.), all spoke 

 most emphatically, as leading medical men, of the potentialities 

 of the Bunya Range as a health resort ; Dr. Leach, Capt. White, 

 and Mr. Chisholm referred to the value of the bird-life ; Professor 

 Richards emphasized the importance of the mountains as 

 regulators of the rainfall and of the flow of artesian and sub- 

 artesian water ; and Mr. C. T. White (Government Botanist) made 

 brief reference to the value of the mountain timber. 



A Stimulating Life. 

 It is certainly a fact, as hinted at in the resolution, that the 

 Bunya Range holds health in fee for generations to come. What 

 a stimulus there is in this atmosphere of the south-western high- 

 lands early became apparent to the inter-State campers. Most 

 of them, indeed, were quite unprepared for the coolness which 

 found them out at night. The camp, pitched at the base of 

 Mo^Ybullan, was over 3,000 feet above sea-level, but the genial 

 nature of the daylight hours proved deceptive. With the 

 coming of darkness the whispering zephyr swelled to a sturdy 

 breeze ; and while Brisbane folk were sweltering in the heat of a 

 dry October, campers on the Bunyas were searching for additional 

 clothes to resist the biting wind from the western plains. It was 

 all very pure, however, and in remarkably quick time every one 

 of the party developed a new energy. Those who went there in 



