ARTESIAN WATER IX THE STATE OF QUEENSLAXD, AUSTEAIIA. 1^5 



per day. althoiigli Ihe output has not been officially ganged. 

 The water was struck at 1,900 feet. The total output of the 

 515 tlowiug bores is estimated at 321,653,(320 gallons per 

 day, or 117,403.574.585 gallons per annum. In cubic yards 

 this is 695,724,886, i.e., a cube of water with sides of about 

 900 yards. In other words, these artesian wells would 

 fill a canal 100 feet Avide. 20 feet deep, and 1,779 miles in 

 length in one year, or fill up Loch Katrine in a year and a- 

 half. Loch Katrine has an area of 4f square miles and a 

 mean depth of 199 feet. The above figui-es represent no 

 small achievement in the space of 16 years for a country 

 with a population of 490,000 and an area of 668.497 square 

 miles. It must be remembered that no feverish desire for 

 oil or even gold led to the sinking of the 185 miles of 

 bores, but only the necessity for Avater to di-ink. It is 

 jieedless to say that 515 flowing wells of this description 

 dotted over the previously dry country, large though it is, 

 have already produced an important change in the condi- 

 tions of fife in the Queensland interior. The cattle-carrying 

 capacity of the district has been enormously increased by 

 the multipHcation of centres from which the animals can 

 reach pastures hitherto unattamable. 



Before entering on questions strictly geological, 1 may 

 state that the discovery of such a bounteous supply of 

 artesian water does not furnish a perfect cure for all the evils 

 of di'ought, as might at first be imagined. There may be — 

 and unfortunatelv there has recentlv been — a drought so 

 prolonged that not only the sub-aerial water, but even the 

 jjrass itself, fails. Larare as it is. the amount of artesiaa 

 Avater brought to the surface, were it ten times as mucb, is a 

 mere di-op in the bucket to what would be required for the 

 thorough irrigation of the vast pastures. The 695,724,886 

 cubic yards of water annually turned out by our 515 artesian 

 wells, after all only represent a rainfall of "03 inch per annum 

 on the 264.600 square miles of the area under which it is 

 calculated that artesian water may be obtained. Nothiag 

 but the raui from Heaven wnU enable the grass to defy 

 droughts of such vii-ulence as that through which Queensland 

 has recently passed. 



5. Variation in Pressure and Extent of Supply. — A variation in 

 the pressm-e and flow of some of the wells has been observed. 

 It is possible that there may be some connection between the 

 variation and periods of heavy and light rainfall on the 

 intake beds, but until accurate measui'ements of a large 



