LONELY AUSTRALIA : THE UNIQUE CONTINENT 



479 



expanse of territory, comprising fully 

 half of the continent. 



The heart of the United States is a 

 well-watered land of fields and woods 

 and cities ; the corresponding part of 

 Australia is dry and barren and thinly 

 populated. 



The Murray-Darling is the one great 

 river system of Australia. From the 

 source of its uppermost branch, the Con- 

 damine, in the highlands of Queensland, 

 80 miles from the edge of the continent, 

 to its mouth, through the sand reef of the 

 Coorong, the stream travels 2,310 miles, 

 receiving supplies from 414,000 square 

 miles of land. It drains five-sixths of 

 New South Wales, more than one-half of 

 Victoria, and nearly one-seventh of the 

 entire Australian Continent (see map on 

 pages 480-481). 



In relative length and area drained, it 

 is the Missouri-Mississippi of Australia ; 

 but in other respects the two systems are 

 quite unlike. The Mississippi, whose 

 basin occupies nearly three-sevenths of 

 the United States, flows through the heart 

 of the country and receives abundant 

 water from mountains on either side. 

 The Murray is on the edge of the con- 

 tinent, far removed from the interior ; its 

 course lies between well-watered high- 

 lands on the east and arid plains on the 

 west. The Mississippi receives supplies 

 from nearly every part of the 1,250,000 

 square miles of its basin ; the Murray re- 

 ceives effective contributions from only 

 160,000 square miles ; from the remaining 

 254,000 square miles the water is lost be- 

 fore it enters the main stream, and the 

 dry air abstracts further toll from the 

 river itself. 



Instead of a delta pushed out to sea, 

 the Murray terminates in a lagoon in- 

 closed by a barrier of sand pierced by an 

 inlet with scarcely seven feet of water. 



Because of its unfavorable outlet, its 

 small volume, its snags and sand-bars and 

 great sinuosities, navigation of the Mur- 

 ray is limited to small, light-draft steam- 

 ers towing one or two barges. Regular 

 traffic in grain and wool is maintained 

 during seven months of the year from 

 the mouth of the river to Wentworth, 500 

 miles, and small boats reach Albury. 



During times of exceptional floods 



boats have reached Walgett on the Dar- 

 ling, 1,900 miles from the sea. In the 

 flood year of 1870 a steamer went beyond 

 the Queensland border along a river 60 

 miles wide, and in 1890 steamers on the 

 Darling between Wentworth and Burke 

 "traveled for hours without seeing any 

 land, and in one instance discharged cargo 

 25 miles from the ordinary channel of the 

 river." But a few years later (1902- 

 1903) the Darling ceased to flow for 

 eleven months. During exceptional years 

 the bed of the Murray is partly dry and 

 the waters near its mouth become too salt 

 for stock. 



THIS GREAT CONTINENT WAS NOT DISCOV- 

 ERED UNTIL JUST BEFORE OUR 

 REVOLUTION 



That the size and form of a land-mass 

 nearly as large as Europe should have 

 remained unknown until 1770 is most 

 remarkable. 



Louis de Torres, sailing from Peru 

 (1606), thought the northern Queensland 

 coast another of those island groups 

 (Marquesas, Solomon, New Hebrides) 

 through which he had passed. The Dutch 

 proceeding from Java several times met 

 the west and north of Australia, but 

 learned little regarding the land. They 

 reported a "barren," "wild" country, in- 

 habited by "barbarous," "cruel," "black" 

 people. Abel Tasman, in 1642, found 

 Van Diemens Land, Tasmania, which he 

 left in disgust. Following the westerly 

 winds he sailed east, found New Zealand, 

 but missed the Australian coast. 



In 1688 William Dampier, an English 

 buccaneer, landed in West Australia, and 

 the following year mapped the coast, 

 which he described as "sandy and water- 

 less," with stunted trees, inhabited by 

 "the miserablest people in the world." 



These early explorers were singularly 

 unfortunate in the route which they 

 traversed. They visited the tropical belt 

 of northern Australia, the inhospitable 

 shores of western Australia, and sailed 

 along the southern coast, where cliffs pre- 

 vented landing and where for a distance 

 of nearly 1,000 miles no water was pro- 

 curable other than that from their ships. 

 The attractive parts of the country were 

 not seen at all. Small wonder that little 



