vegetation was correspondingly luxurious. Possibly the eighty palms 
which occur in Palm Valley in Central Australia are the last descendants 
of th‘s luxurious flora.* We must go 500 miles away across barren ~ 
sandridge country to the north to find another specimen. 
There is, of course, some compensation in the well-watered east 
coast for the barren interior and west. Queensland owes much of her 
prosperity to the constant south-easters, which give her the heaviest 
rainfall in the continent. Hereabouts they blow from sea to land, and 
‘impinging on the elevated coastlands, they deposit as much as 14 feet 
of water per annum in the Cairns district. 
There is little doubt, however, that a site some ten geographical 
degrees to the south of our present position would have made Australia 
a rival of the United States of America, whereas her natural assets 
cannot compare with that country. Our latitude is, therefore, a severe 
handicap. 
We may now consider the topography in some detail. Here also 
it must be admitted that most large land areas are better served by 
Nature. In temperate lands large areas of lowland are the most suitable 
for white settlement, while in the tropics plateaux are much to be 
desired, as far as the comfort and health of the white race is concerned. 
Large areas of tropical America (North and South), of Asia, and 
of Southern Africa consist of highlands over 2,000 feet above sea level. 
Only in Northern Africa and Australia has Nature been niggardly. 
It is an instructive parallel to compare Rhodesia with tropical Aus-. 
tralia (which is a little over double its area). About 90 per cent. of © 
Rhodesia is a plateau with a correspondingly cool climate. Only 4 per 
cent. of tropical Australia is so favoured. (See Fig. B.) { 
In the Atherton plateau, in North Queensland, we have a most valu- 
able tract of country, where farming and dairying are already being 
extensively carried on. It is situated within 18 degrees of the Equator, 
and an area of some 12,000 square miles is 2,000 feet above the sea. 
No doubt electric power will be developed on the eastern flank of the 
plateau, which dips steeply into the Pacific, and is watered by many 
small rivers. 
But it stands almost alone. On the tropic is the Macdonnell Range 
‘region, This, however, is in the centre of the trade wind area, and the — 
rainfall is too low for a heavy population, although the climate is 
excellent for the greater part of the year. In' the Kimberley region, in 
Western Australia, is another small plateau, and near the Fortescue 
River (on the tropic also) are some highlands. Temperature and rain- 
fall conditions are somewhat adverse jn both these regions, and they can 
never approach the Atherton plateau as a nucleus of white settlement in 
the tropics. : 
Tt is often stated that a high range, resembling the Andes, in the 
heart of the continent would save our interior. This is improbable. 
If we look at similar latitudes in South America we see that the flanks 
of the Andes where they cross the tropic have a rainfall below 10 inches, 
* Probably in Pliocene times this region was much better watered. (See ‘‘ Climatic Cycles,” 
in Bibliography.) 
462 
