timber country, easily reached from the sea. Here we see the
beginning of the end: the cutters have built a rough platform 62
above the undergrowth and up to the point where the trunk of the
tree rises straight and even. They are using the saw, though
sometimes the whole work is done with the axe. They are fond of
the axe in this part of the world, and it enters even into their
sports, since the chopping match is a favourite form of athletic
contest among them.
The trees in this district grow to a great size; here we have 63
a forest scene, with the huge logs scattered on the ground, or
loaded on to trucks which will carry them to the mill. Geeveston
is noted for its saw-mills, one of which we have before us. The 64
logs disappear inside the mill, and we meet them again as sawn
timber on the little wharf, ready to be shipped to all parts of 65
the world.
In the valley of the Huon, as well as in that of the Derwent, are
orchards everywhere, proving that we are still in the sheltered
lowland which we have traced from Launceston southwards. The
cottages and gardens, with their masses of English flowers; the
English trees, oaks and elms, and the hawthorn hedges all along
the roadside, remind us strongly of England. Many even of the
birds are English. In fact, this part of the island has been
quite transformed by the colonists until it closely resembles
the mother country. But we enter the forest and step at once
from England to Australia. Here are the tall gums with their
untidy bark and dead branches, and the swarms of honey-eating
birds flitting among their blossoms. Here, too, are the wattle
and banksia and many other plants peculiar to Australia, and the
further we move from civilisation the less there is in the face
of the country to remind us of England. But one difference may
be noted between Tasmania and the rest of Australia: however
far we penetrate into the wild interior we shall not meet the
aborigines. They were few in number at the time of the first
settlement, and the last survivor died many years ago.
LECTURE V
SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA
On our visits to other great capitals we have found steamers
unloading their cargoes in the very heart of the city; but
Adelaide, founded in 1836 and named after the wife of King
William IV., is neither on the sea nor on a navigable river.
The original settlers were aiming at a purely agricultural
colony, and so chose a position a few miles inland in the midst
of fertile land and pleasant scenery. So we must land at Port
Adelaide and take the train.
Partly owing to the separation of the port from the city, partly 1
owing to the slower and more even growth of South Australia,
Adelaide seems quieter and less crowded than Melbourne or
Sydney, and its inhabitants consider it to be the model capital
of Eastern Australia. King William Street, which we see here, 2
with the statue of Colonel Light, the founder of the city, in
the foreground, does not look in the least commercial. We get
the same impression as we walk along the tree-clad banks of the 3
little Torrens River, or cross it by the City Bridge. We miss
the wharves and warehouses and steam cranes, and might almost 4
imagine that we were on a backwater of the Upper Thames. The
main streets, too, of the city remind us rather of the West End 5
than of the City of London; while even the post-office stands
in an open space with trees. In fact, the whole city, with its 6
wide streets, its parks and gardens, gives the impression of 7
spaciousness. If we make our way, however, to the railway station
we shall see that Adelaide is not by any means without trade.
Here are collected the products of all the country round; but as
this is purely agricultural, and Adelaide is not the only outlet,
there is not the rush of business which we saw at Melbourne.
[Illustration: SOUTH AUSTRALIA: OROGRAPHICAL.
_By permission of the Diagram Co._]
Here is a general view which will give us some idea of the 8
position of the city. It lies on a plain; a few miles away to the
east the view is shut in by a long, low ridge. If we climb this
ridge and look back towards the city, we have in sight a large
part of the original South Australia.
South Australia of to-day is a somewhat difficult country to 9
analyse; but the ridge on which we are standing may give us the
key to the whole. If we follow the heights northwards, we shall
find that they disappear, hundreds of miles away, in the country
south-east of Lake Eyre. South of Adelaide they curve round and
end in Kangaroo Island, which stretches across the mouth of the
Gulf of St. Vincent. These heights are really the edge of a
plateau, and the plateau slopes gently away from the sea towards
the basin of the Murray. The Murray, at the great bend, turns
sharply southwards and reaches its outlet in Lake Alexandrina
just beyond the southern end of the highlands.
Between the plateau edge and the sea, Adelaide and the Gulf towns
lie along a narrow strip of lowland. The Gulf of St. Vincent
is merely part of a larger gulf which is interrupted by Yorke
Peninsula, so that we have really one great inlet running up to
Port Augusta at the head of Spencer Gulf. The west side of this
gulf is formed by another plateau which slopes away from the sea
towards the salt lakes and marshes of the interior. We thus have
two plateaus and a lowland in between, partly flooded by the sea.
A portion of the surface has dropped down between two lines of
cracks or faults, and a rift valley has been formed. Lake Torrens
occupies the northern end of this valley. It is the eastern
side of the valley, together with a small part of the back of
the plateau, which constitutes the real South Australia. We may
notice that the local railways are almost confined to this area.
There is, however, one important piece of the State outside
this area. South of Lake Alexandrina we see a long curving
coast, bounded by sandbanks enclosing a string of lagoons,
the Coorong; behind it is the scrub country which we have met
already in the north-west district of Victoria. Beyond this,
in the south-east corner, especially around Mount Gambier, we
find the same conditions as on the neighbouring coast regions
of Victoria. There is considerable rainfall and there are even 10
fresh-water lakes, as we see here. The soil, too, is fertile,
since Mount Gambier belongs to the volcanic area of Victoria; so
that there is agriculture and dairy farming, and oats are grown.
But the district is cut off from Adelaide by land and has rather
a detached existence, though the railways now being built or
planned will alter this.
We will now explore the country round Adelaide. In the Mount
Lofty ranges, east of the city, there are streams and waterfalls; 11
but the rivers of the plain are very small and do not suggest
a very heavy rainfall. Everywhere are orchards and vineyards
growing fruits which are not grown in the open air in England.
Here is an orchard quite near the city, and here is an orange 12
tree laden with ripening fruit. The rainfall is very light and
comes mostly in the winter, while the summers are hotter than 13
in most of the occupied regions of Australia. We have the sunny
climate of the Mediterranean and a corresponding vegetation.
Yet it is healthy for white people, in spite of the heat, owing
to the dry clear air; while the highlands only a few miles away
offer a refuge in the summer.
On the eastward side of the plateau there are again no large
rivers, and the rainfall is even less than at Adelaide; but there
is enough to grow fine crops of wheat. We see much the same
arrangement of zones as at the back of Sydney, but the wheat-belt
is narrower and the rainfall rather less. Very soon we drop down
into the rainless plains of the Murray basin, where the only
cultivation is in the irrigated district round Renmark. Here we 14
can see them drying the raisins and loading them on to the little
steamer which will take them down to near the mouth of the river. 15
They will then be sent on by rail to Adelaide, since the river
has no good outlet to the sea.
Yorke Peninsula and the western side of Spencer Gulf have a few
small towns on the coast; inland they have no rivers but only
dry pastures, salt lakes, and marshes. Here is one of these
lakes in the Peninsula. The character of this district will 16
change in the future, as much of it is adapted for the growing of
wheat which has already been introduced. The only considerable
population at present is on the coast strip from Adelaide to
Port Augusta, and on the back of the plateau, never more than a
hundred miles from the coast.
As we follow the railway northwards from Adelaide we shall find 17
that agriculture decreases with the decreasing rainfall; in place
of crops we see cattle and sheep. Here is a typical station only 18
a hundred miles north of Adelaide, where the sheep seem to be
in full possession. The further north we go the thinner is the
settlement; and north of Port Augusta we shall only find it at a
few favoured spots near the railway.
Beyond Lake Torrens the plateau edge to the east trends away
and disappears, and we enter the Lake Eyre basin. At one time
this may have been a vast inland sea, as the remains of extinct
animals show that the climate must have been very different from
the present. Now it is a great clay plain, broken by low plateaus
and ridges of sandstone, and with much of its surface covered
with stones or mulga scrub. The lakes are salt, while the long
rivers, shown on the map as flowing into them, may be only a
string of mudholes for years together. Much of this region is
still unexplored, and nearly the whole of it is useless.
The railway ends at Oodnadatta, to which a train runs at rare
intervals; and off the railway the camel, which has been 19
introduced into Australia for this purpose, is the only means of
transport. To the east of this line something may be made of the
country by boring through the clay to reach the artesian water,
as we have seen already in Queensland and New South Wales; so
that settlement may spread slowly towards these States. To the
west is the arid plateau which covers so much of the central part
of the continent--the Sahara of Australia.
Adelaide is a little south of Sydney in latitude, and Oodnadatta 20
a little south of Brisbane, yet what a difference between the two
parallel journeys by rail! The explanation is to be found in the
rainfall figures: north of Port Augusta we enter the zone where
the annual amount is under ten inches. The railway reminds us
of those starting from the east coast and ending at some remote
point in the interior; but there seems very little country here
for our line to exploit or develop. To understand fully its
meaning we must look back at the past history of the region.
South Australia was founded by an Association formed in England
with the object of building up a model agricultural colony. The
plan was to sell the unoccupied land and use the proceeds to aid
suitable emigrants in settling there. With this idea Adelaide was
founded in 1836. For a few years the colony was poor, as it was
intended to be self-supporting and the capital in private hands
was insufficient to develop the country. But progress was helped
by the various discoveries of copper, from 1842 onwards, at
Kapunda, Burra and other places; and by 1855 the colony was able
to export large quantities of agricultural produce to the other
colonies, which had depended mainly on Tasmania up to this time.
It is curious that the State which is still mainly agricultural
was the first to develop its minerals on a large scale; but
as the mineral was copper and not gold, it led to no rush of
settlers, but only to a steady growth of population. The older
mines have been long worked out, but those in Yorke Peninsula and
in the Flinders Range still produce large quantities. Here are 21
views of the Wallaroo and Moonta mines in the Peninsula. 22
With the exception of some iron ore, which is not much worked,
South Australia has no other important minerals of its own: yet
at Port Pirie, on the east side of Spencer Gulf, we find large
smelting works. To explain this we must look back again at the
railway map. From the port a line runs north-east for two hundred
miles or more, to the Silverton country, just inside the New
South Wales border which we have already visited. It is the
natural outlet for this district, as Sydney is more than twice as
far away.
Here we see Port Pirie and some of the smelting works. The works 23
also handle iron ore which is brought down to the opposite shore 24
of the Gulf by a short railway from Iron Knob, near Lake Gilles,
in the dry interior of the western plateau. In the case of this
district we notice once again that the artificial boundary
following a line of longitude has no correspondence with the
natural features of the country.
We have already seen how, on the constitution of Queensland as
a separate State in 1859, the country to the west was left as 25
a detached portion of New South Wales. In 1855, Gregory had
crossed what is now the Northern Territory, from the Victoria
River in the west to the Flinders River, and so through North
Queensland to Brisbane, following the line taken earlier by
the explorer Leichhardt, but further inland. At the same time,
various explorers had been following up Eyre’s discoveries in
South Australia, and miners and shepherds were pushing steadily
northwards from Yorke Peninsula along the line of the present
railway. In 1859, South Australia offered a prize for the first
explorer to cross the continent from south to north, urged on
by the proposal to connect Australia with England by a cable
which must be landed somewhere on the north coast. A party from
Victoria, under Burke, started first, and following roughly the
western boundaries of New South Wales and Queensland, came out
by way of the Flinders River to the Gulf of Carpentaria. But
on their return Burke and Wills perished at Cooper’s Creek of
starvation, and only one member of the party was rescued.
In 1862, Stuart, for South Australia, succeeded in crossing to
the north coast and returning to Adelaide by the route west of
Lake Eyre which is now followed by the railway and telegraph.
The immediate result was that the Northern Territory became
politically part of South Australia, instead of being an annex
to New South Wales; but it has recently been transferred to the
Commonwealth Government by which it is now administered. By 1872,
the telegraph line was completed to Palmerston, the northern
capital, on Port Darwin, where the cable is landed. By 1889, the
railway from the south had been pushed forward to Oodnadatta,
nearly seven hundred miles from Adelaide; while in the north one
hundred and fifty miles of line was built southwards. Some day,
probably in the near future, the rail will stretch from shore to
shore, but there still remains a gap of over a thousand miles.
North of Lake Eyre, and on the Tropic, the Territory is crossed
by the Macdonell Ranges, running east and west. Then comes a
stretch of five hundred miles of sandy plains, with scrub and
spinifex, and then the peninsula of Arnhem Land, a low plateau
with a considerable rainfall. Right on the coast are mangrove
swamps and tropical rainfall, as in North Queensland. Though
some of this country is suited to cattle, and gold has also
been discovered, progress has not been very rapid, in spite of
the importance of the magnificent harbour of Port Darwin. The
population consists of a few hundred Europeans, as many Asiatics,
mainly Chinese, and some thousands of aborigines.
After Stuart’s journey there remained only to complete the
conquest of the desert from east to west. In 1840, Eyre had
succeeded in travelling from Adelaide to West Australia along
the shores of the Great Australian Bight. It was 1870 before Sir
John Forrest traversed the same route in the opposite direction.
The result was the occupation of Eucla, in the middle of the
Bight, and the completion of the overland wire from Adelaide to
Albany in 1877. Finally, in 1874, Forrest crossed the middle of
the great plateau, from Geraldton to the north-south telegraph
line. A few daring journeys and the two telegraph lines still
represent the only land links between the detached areas of
settlement which fringe the central plateau block; but a stronger
link will soon be forged. Already the work is in hand. A survey
of the route was completed in 1909 by the Federal Government;
and at the end of 1911 a Bill was passed for the construction of
a railway from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie, a distance of over
1000 miles. This line will not only shorten the mail route to the
eastern States, but may also lead to some pastoral settlement, as
not all the country traversed is desert.
South and Western Australia, with the Northern Territory,
together include nearly two-thirds of the continent. Western
Australia alone includes nearly a third. It is rather more than
five times the size of Spain, but its population is smaller
than that of any of the States of the mainland. The reason for
this contrast is partly a matter of history, as the State is
comparatively young, and partly due to geographical causes, as we
shall see when we have examined the country.
The map shows Western Australia stretching from north to south, 26
across the whole breadth of the continent, with the Tropic
running through the middle. It corresponds in position to
Queensland and New South Wales; for Cape Londonderry is in the
same latitude as the middle of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland,
while Albany is a little south of Sydney. The greater part of
the State is occupied by a broad plateau, from a thousand to
fifteen hundred feet high; between this and the sea is a narrow
coastal plain, irregular and deeply indented in the north,
narrower and more uniform towards the south, and disappearing
in the south-west corner where the plateau edge approaches the
sea. We may notice a certain likeness here to the structure of
the eastern end of the continent. We shall find nearly the whole
of the agricultural population collected along a comparatively
narrow belt of country from Geraldton to Albany, with Perth, the
capital, in the middle. On the plateau there are no great rivers,
but many short streams run down from its western edge to the sea;
and though the map shows large lakes in the interior we shall
find that in this case the map is not entirely to be trusted.
The Swan River was discovered by Captain Stirling on his
exploring mission from Sydney in 1827. Two years later Captain
Fremantle took formal possession, and the Swan River Settlement
was founded. The Home Government was at first doubtful about
the project, but was urged on to the settlement through fear of
French occupation. Perth itself lies twelve miles up the river; 27
its port is Fremantle, at the mouth of the river, on a deep and
safe harbour, crowded with wharves and shipping. It is the main 28
outlet for the trade of all this part of Western Australia.
Instead of taking the train we will travel by launch up the Swan
River; on our way we notice the large flocks of black swans 29
which are now collected here and preserved by the Government.
The city of Perth is smaller and more irregular than Adelaide
or Melbourne, and we see it at its best as we approach by the
river. It lies rather in a hollow, and from the higher land in 30
the King’s Park we get a fine view along the river front. The
main streets differ little from those of other Australian cities;
but in St. George’s Terrace they are working on the road, and 31
we notice that the old tree stumps are not yet removed. Although
Perth is making very rapid progress, everything is as yet
somewhat quieter, more picturesque and on a smaller scale than
in the great capitals of the eastern States. On the outskirts of
the city, especially overlooking the river, are the gardens and
houses of the wealthier residents. Here is one of these; notice 32
the lemon trees laden with fruit, although it is winter. In the
country round we shall feel quite at home. Here we have a picture
with pasture and scattered trees and fat cattle; and we pass a 33
poultry farm which might well be in a corner of Surrey.
Let us follow the Swan, now become the Avon River, inland. First
we come to Newcastle, where there are many orange orchards in
the broad valley; then we pass the township of Northam, where we
meet a native woman on the road, and finally we reach York. From 34
one of the surrounding hills we look down on a broad expanse of
plain, dotted with farmhouses, and with a background of hills in 35
the distance. There is a flour mill which might be in our own
Yorkshire, and a very English-looking church on the sloping bank 36
above the river. All looks settled and civilised. On the other 37
hand, the King’s Head hotel is entirely primitive, and carries 38
us back to the days of the early settlers, as it is one of the
oldest buildings in the State. As we cross the bridge we notice
that the trees are standing in the water, for the river is in
flood.
We have here a country full of English place-names, and with
scenery which often reminds us of England; but at the same time
we find wheat and oranges growing side by side, and trees in
fruit and flower in the winter. This suggests something very
different from our own climate. We must remember that Perth is
in latitude 32° S. and that this district therefore corresponds
to Egypt or Morocco. It is a land where frosts are unknown in
the lowlands and valleys near the sea, and where the summers are
hot and dry, though tempered by the sea breezes. Most of the rain
falls in the winter, which is therefore the growing time; we
have already noticed the Avon in flood. Even in the winter there
is plenty of sun, as the rain falls largely in heavy showers at
night.
[Illustration: WESTERN AUSTRALIA: RAINFALL.]
If we travel eastward from York we shall soon find a change 39
in the face of the country, as the rainfall decreases quickly
towards the interior. But for the present we will keep within the
zone of moderate rainfall, not far from the coast, and continue
our journey southwards. Much of the land round Perth has been
cleared for agriculture, though it was formerly covered with
forest. Beginning north of Perth, and stretching southwards at
a distance of twenty to thirty miles from the coast, is a long
belt of timber-country, marking the zone of heaviest rainfall.
This belt broadens out and fills the whole peninsula in the
south-west corner, between Flinders Bay and Geographe Bay, and
finally disappears a few miles to the north-east of Albany. The
dense forest clothes the western face of the plateau, and thins
out eastward to open scrub country with scattered gum trees of
various kinds. It consists in the main of Jarrah, with some
blocks of Karri in the south and south-west.
Jarrah is a very hard red-coloured wood which is useful for
jetties, railway sleepers and all other work where there is great
exposure to damp and weather. We may often walk over it in the
streets of our cities, as it makes an excellent pavement. Here
we see the appearance of the original tree: it is tall, perhaps 40
a hundred feet high, with a trunk a yard or more thick and a
dark-grey furrowed bark.
With the Jarrah is found the Karri, of much the same character
but less durable. It is one of the finest and tallest trees of
the Australian forest. Its bark is yellowish white, and peels
off, leaving the tree clean, so that the Karri is sometimes
called the white gum. The tree sometimes grows to a height of 41
three hundred feet, and is far too large to handle; while even
the smaller specimens need a whole team to haul a single log.
So that, although there is a very large area of forest land, we
can understand that cutting only goes on within easy reach of
one of the short branch railway lines running down to the sea.
The forests of Western Australia have recently been estimated to
contain two hundred and twenty million tons of valuable timber,
worth about three hundred million pounds sterling.
Where the forest thins out eastward the red gum is one of the
most useful trees, as it is spreading and branched, and so gives 42
more shade than the other gum trees. This is important for the
stockowner in a dry, hot country.