DISCOVERY 



313 



and distributed to good advantage. Cattle can range 

 ten miles and sheep about five miles from their water 

 supply, and after rains, when herbage is juicy, cattle 

 may range even to fifteen miles. Wells then act as 

 centres, and sometimes may save fencing — an important 

 consideration in a country liable to bush- fires. Rabbits 

 and dingoes must be systematically and uniformly 

 attacked ; stock routes with permanent wells opened 

 up. The land must be scientifically parcelled and put 

 out on permanent lease, and improvement of leased 

 lands and adequate stocking must be stipulated in 

 return for Government aid in well-sinking, etc. The 

 carrying capacity and suitability of various lands 

 for various animals — horses, cattle, sheep, goats, 

 Angora goats — must be tested. All this will stabilise 

 the pastoral industry and probably quadruple its 

 output — an enormous gain over such a wide area. 



Western Queensland and then curve westwards towards 

 Darwin. This would undoubtedly open up much 

 better and more pastoral country, and would probably 

 be cheaper. Under this scheme the Oodnadatta line 

 would also be continued to Alice Springs, thus tapping 

 west Central Australia by a branch route. This 

 much seems certain : the fine pastoral areas of the 

 north-eastern portion of South Australia and Western 

 Queensland will have to be opened up and linked 

 somehow with the north to south railway system, 

 because the economic drainage of the whole of Central 

 Australia is eventually bound to follow the main 

 lines of geographical configuration. That is to say, 

 two systems, one from the north-east and one from 

 the north-west, will unite somewhere south of Lake 

 Eyre and, forming a " Y," will flow south to Port 

 Augusta, which is capable of becoming a first-class 



£000 WORTH OF TIN COMING INTO iL^RBLE EAR FROil WOOI,YEI.LA, 

 (By courU'sy of the High Commissioner of Australia.) 



WF.STHRX ACSTRAI.IA. 



But all this depends on better railway communica- 

 tions. At present the pastoral, like the mining 

 industry, suffers under crippling disabilities, especially 

 in marketing its products. Also droughts, though 

 recurrent, are not universal at one and the same 

 time. One of the great means of fighting droughts will 

 be strategic pastoral railways, whereby stock can be 

 shifted rapidly from area to area. Central Australia, 

 properly linked, will play a large part in this strategic 

 scheme. Australia is taking its north to south trans- 

 continental railway seriously, and two main schemes 

 hold the field. They are based on the two natural 

 divisions of Central Australia indicated above. The 

 one plan is to complete the Oodnadatta to Pine Creek 

 railway roughly along the Overland Telegraph Line 

 (western route) ; the other would take the line east- 

 wards from Marree (Hergott Springs), up through 



deep-water harbour. Eventually, also, the northern 

 fringe of Central Australia may drain economically 

 northwards towards Asiatic markets. 



Besides railways, greatly improved telegraphic, 

 telephonic, and postal services will be needed if these 

 lonely spaces are to be humanised, and light railways, 

 motor traction, and even aeroplanes, will no doubt 

 play their part. 



Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Central 

 Australian development is its essentially pan- Australian 

 character. Australia has increasingly to be thought 

 of as a unity, and the development of Australia as an 

 economic whole is making rapid strides. The solution 

 of Central Australian problems is bound both to 

 typify and to reinforce this tendency. Moreover, 

 though distinct, the problems of Central Australia are 

 largely bound up with those of the Northern Territory, 



