342 Professor Henry E. Armstrong [Feb. 19, 



other desert regions in Australia, told us that there is no true desert 

 on the continent. Kalgoorlie, the most recently established and one 

 of the most remarkable of Australian mining towns, lies just inside the 

 margin of the desert, about 400 miles west of Perth. The region in 

 which it is situated was uninhabited waste until 1887, the vear in which 

 the Southern Cross goldfield was discovered ; the Coolgardie field was 

 opened in 1892 and the Kalgoorlie field a year later. The prosperity 

 of West Australia dates from this period. But Coolgardie is already 

 a deserted town, while Kalgoorlie flourishes ; it has very broad 

 streets and some good houses and about thirty thousand inhabitants, 

 nearly as many as have all the other towns in the district put 

 together. At first gold was picked up on the surface but it is now 

 Avon from deep mines. Up to the end of 191:> the value of the gold 

 produced in West Australia was about 115 millions sterling ; nearly 

 one-third of the total mineral production of all Australia, in fact, is 

 to be credited to the western State. The average value of the gold 

 produced per man employed above and below orround in 1913 

 was £403-58. 



In early days, the water used was all distilled from the salt water 

 collected in local lakes or reservoirs and the old air condensers are 

 eveiy where visible. Since 1903, however, water has been brought 

 from a great reservoir, constructed near Perth, in a pipe line 33 inches 

 in diameter, 376 miles long, rising 1460 feet. The water is raised at 

 pumping stations about 40 miles apart, at each of which it is elevated 

 140 feet ; it takes eleven days to get up. When the service was com- 

 pleted to Coolgardie, the town for which it was originally intended, 

 the goldfield was already worked out but fortunately by that time 

 the Kalgoorlie field had been opened up ; local opinion does not seem 

 to give this a long life. Visitors to Kalgoorlie tell me that nothing 

 impressed them more than the arrangements made to supply water to 

 the district ; more than 50,000 people and the mines, in fact, depend 

 for their very existence on the pipe. At starting from the town in 

 the train in the afternoon the pipe is alongside the track ; after a long 

 night, it is still to be seen in the morning — and practically the whole 

 time the train has been passing through desert on which grows a 

 short dismal-looking vegetation, mainly blue bush and salt bush 

 and a few stunted " gum " trees. In early days great difficulties were 

 encountered owing to the rusting of the iron main. 



The northern area of Western Australia, in so far as it is settled, 

 is devoted to sheep and cattle ; future settlement seems to be almost 

 entirely a question of water supply. 



On arrival off Adelaide, on Sunday, August 2, our advance 

 party was greeted by the news of the declaration of war by Germany 

 against France and Russia and our own participation was formally 

 declared three days later. We saw prizes in the harbour before we 

 left. The main body arrived on the following Friday and Saturday. 

 At an emergency meeting of members of the Council, on the Satur- 



