South Australia

“ Equally absurd would it be to state—as South Australian advocates who do not know the value of truth frequently do—that South Australia contains an area of 300,000 square miles, or nearly twenty millions of acres, without adding that a very large proportion of this vast space is occupied by stony deserts and lakes of mud. Nevertheless, enough of land remains admirably fertile and well watered to support a large population, much larger than is likely to occupy it for a long series of years. ”

“ South Australia is at present under a cloud, but the depression can only be temporary. A genial sun, a fertile soil, a healthy climate, with sheep, cattle, English colonists, and a Burra Burra mine, cannot but produce good fruits, although the dreams of empire of newly-fledged legislators may scarcely be realised. ”

“ DENNIS JOSEPH DOHERTY, M.L.C.
AUSTRALIA is so young and so large that there are immense areas of her country unsettled, and even unexplored. In the north of Western Australia, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, and in remote Queensland, there are expansive stretches still hid in their primal gloom. No white man has trod these wastes, no pathfinder has picked his curious way through these tropical regions; the natives—the children of the bush—remain lords of their primeval birthplaces. ”

“ South Australia possesses one advantage over the other colonies, from the geographical fact of her oblong territory extending, so to speak, exactly in the middle right across the continent from the Southern to the Indian Ocean. The dimensions of the colony are in extreme length over 1800 miles, by a breadth of nearly 700, and almost through the centre of this vast region the South Australian Transcontinental Telegraph line runs from Adelaide, via Port Augusta, to Port Darwin. ”

“ A new market for cattle and sheep has just opened on the interior side by the establishment of the new colony of South Australia, an event more fortunate for New South Wales than the most sanguine friend of that colony could have foreseen. ”

“ In this fraternal address, the colony of South Australia was described as "a country where the reward of steady industry, prudence, and sobriety, is certain, where the labour of comparatively few years will ensure a homestead and a competence to the working man and his family—even wealth, abundance, and social advancement to many; where the climate is generally salubrious and agreeable, and where none but freemen tread the soil." ”

“ The province of South Australia could never at any time have been thickly inhabited. There are some numerous tribes on the sea-coast at the head of the Gulfs and in Encounter Bay, as well as on the Murray River, but with the exception of a few scattered families on the northern hills, and in the scrub, the mountain ranges are, and it appears to me have been, almost uninhabited. There are no old or recent signs of natives having frequented the hills, no marks of tomahawks on the trees, or of digging on the flats. ”

“ I have not yet spoken of South Australia, but, when doing so, I will endeavour to show how and why she has prospered.
And then, in another way, the gold-diggings of the eastern colonies have been detrimental not only to the reputation, but to the very existence of Western Australia. Men have constantly gone after the gold. It became almost useless to land emigrants on the western shore. Tidings came of this rush and of that rush, and the new-comers disappeared, soon turning up, as new chums again, in the golden land. ”

“ Passing to political topics, the traveller finds in South Australia one of the most democratic constitutions in the world. The colony boasts that it leads the way in Australia in radical legislation, and runs a dead heat, in most matters, with New Zealand itself. The boast is probably justified. Politics, at all events, with churchgoing, seem to be the principal recreation of the Adelaide man, as gambling in Kalgoorlie mining shares is his business. ”

“ Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia were represented at the Council, and such laws as it can pass will thus affect three-fifths of the area of the continent. The absence of South Australia is understood to be accidental. ”

“ South Australia did a great work in building, unaided by any other Australian State, the telegraph line from Port Darwin to Adelaide, and at one time it was believed that rich goldfields were to be opened in this great empty land, which the British Government had handed over to South Australia, because Stuart had been the first to cross the island continent, and the handful of South Australian colonists bad connected telegraphically the north and the south. ”

“ South Australia is a misnomer; the parent colony is in the southern part of the continent, but its jurisdiction extends from ocean to ocean to the northern shore, and includes the so-called Northern Territory, or Alexandra Land, which will one day, no doubt, form an independent government. To the eastward of the Northern Territory and South Australia is Queensland, and south of Queensland and eastward of South Australia is the parent colony of New South Wales. Then comes the colony of Victoria, south of New South Wales ”

“ South Australia of to-day is a somewhat difficult 9 country to analyse; but the ridge on which we are standing may give us the key to the whole. If we [69] 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. ”

“ In South Australia many efforts have been made in behalf of the Aborigines, and an anxious desire for their welfare has frequently been exhibited on the part of the Government, and of many of the colonists. ”

“ I must first explain that South Australia is a country peculiarly subject to drought,—more so than are the other colonies,—and is especially so subject in the interior. This is a fact so well acknowledged, that all who know the colony are aware that wheat can only be grown in certain parts of it. In order that the government might have some guide to tell it what portions of the land it would be expedient to throw open to agriculturists, and from what portions it would be expedient to exclude them as being unfit for agricultural purposes, a line has been drawn. ”

“ The chain of South Australia runs nearly due north and south, as does the ranges visited in the interior by Sturt,—Stanley Range and Grey Range. The ranges of the hill country of Western Australia, have the same direction from King George's Sound, to the neighbourhood of Sharks Bay. In North Australia, however, we find a great change of strike, there are several dips to the S.S.E. and S.W. mentioned, and the direction of the hills is frequently spoken of as east and west, which seems indeed to be the general bearing of the hilly land from Collier Bay to the Gulf of Carpentaria. ”

“ Western Australia, as its name implies, is the tract of country lying upon the western side of the great island continent of the south. A glance at the map shows that the eastern side of the island, and much of the southern, is occupied by the colonies of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, the land in which is taken up by squatters, by agriculturists and miners for hundreds of miles inland, while the coast-line is studded with large cities, like Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, and with numerous flourishing settlements. ”

“ The South Australian Government and liberal and enthusiastic private persons were now bent on sending parties out to push overland from Central South Australia to the west coast. The overland telegraph line supplied a base, and numerous and determined efforts were made to get over the sullen wastes which stretched from there. Giles, Warburton, and Gosse were entrusted with the command of these expeditions. ”

“ If, in truth, keeping the distant interior entirely out of view, and confining our observations to those portions of the colony into which the settlers have pushed in search for runs, we look to the great extent of unavailable country between the Murray and the Mount Gambier district, along the line of the Murray belt, and the extensive tracts at the head of the Gulfs, we shall find that South Australia, from the very nature of its formation, has an undue proportion of waste land. ”

“ South Australia enjoys the reputation of being one of the most progressive and at the same time one of the most stable of existing communities. From its origin as the venture of private enterprise the state has passed through orderly stages of evolution up to the zenith of democratic government. ”

“ It seemed certain however that we stood in the richest province of South-west Australia, and one which so differs from the other portions of it in its geological characters, in the elevations of its mountains which lie close to the sea coast, in the fertility of its soil, and the density of its native population, that we appeared to be moving upon another continent. As yet however the only means I had of judging of the large number of natives inhabiting this district had been from their paths and warran grounds, but it was most probable that we should ere long fall in with some of them. ”

“ I have no doubt that in the course of time, and when more scientific methods are pursued, South Australia will produce excellent ports and sherries, as well as Constantias, Malagas, and madeira, but I fear it will not be within the present generation. ”

“ Taking South Australia in its length and breadth, the quantity of available land is, beyond doubt, very limited, but I regard it as exceedingly good, and believe that its capabilities have by no means been ascertained. I feel satisfied, indeed, that necessity will prove, not only, that the present pastoral districts are capable of maintaining a much greater number of stock upon them than they have hitherto borne, but that the province is also capable of bearing a very great amount of population ”

“ Territory was added to the dominion of South Australia, and from Adelaide an expedition was despatched by sea to the shores of Van Diemen’s Gulf, in order to form a new settlement. After many difficulties, caused chiefly by the disputes between the first Government Resident, or Superintendent, and the officers under him, a branch colony was successfully founded at Port Darwin, opposite to Melville Island. This settlement has become a prosperous one: all the fruits and grains of tropical countries flourish and thrive to perfection; gold has been discovered ”

“ At this, as well as at every other station I have called at, a woman "hutkeeps," while the husband is minding the sheep. Hutkeepers, shepherds, and other labourers are as difficult to be obtained in this province as in South Australia; all are gold-digging mad. Continued an easterly course; came to a lagoon, and had to turn to the north in order to head it. The country through which I rode this day surpasses anything I have met with in South Australia; vast extensive plains, with luxurious herbage, everywhere meet the eye: these are intersected by belts of fine timber of all kinds. ”

“ It is occupied by five British colonies, namely, New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland in the east; South Australia in the middle, stretching from sea to sea; and Western Australia in the west, which, with the Island of Tasmania, form the Commonwealth of Australia. Their area and population are as follows:—
Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth are the chief towns. ”

“ South Australia has already as many acres of land under cultivation as her two sister colonies, Victoria and New South Wales, can shew in combination, and the wheat exported from Adelaide and other neighbouring ports is of the finest quality, and eagerly bought by the cities upon the western coast of South America. Viewed as an agricultural field, South Australia is indeed the most promising of all the colonies belonging to the Australasian group. ”

“ THE provisions made for the promotion of religion and education are nearly the same in New South Wales and Victoria, having been finally settled before the two provinces were divided. In South Australia the system of the old colony seems to have been taken as a model. ”

“ All of the colonies have a southern exposure except one—Queensland. Properly speaking, South Australia is middle Australia. It extends straight up through the center of the continent like the middle board in a center-table. It is 2,000 miles high, from south to north, and about a third as wide. A wee little spot down in its southeastern corner contains eight or nine-tenths of its population; the other one or two-tenths are elsewhere—as elsewhere as they could be in the United States with all the country between Denver and Chicago, and Canada and the Gulf of Mexico to scatter over. ”

“ But the runagates soon found that everything was not bright in the rich land,—and they returned to their homesteads, many of them with gold in their hands. Though there was great terror in the colony when the exodus was taking place, the opinion is now general that South Australia gained more in wealth than it lost by the discovery of the Victorian gold.
South Australia is at present possessed of a representative government,—as are all the other Australian colonies, except Western Australia. ”

“ The late Sir Thomas Elder, whose contributions of funds towards the exploration of Australia have been immense, and who, out of his princely wealth, laudably strove in every way to benefit the country wherein he amassed his fortune, now proposed to the South Australian branch of the Australasian Geographical Society to equip a party to complete the exploration of Australia, and to add to the scientific knowledge of her flora and fauna. The plan of the proposed expedition was to penetrate the unknown areas so that the whole continent might be topographically marked out. ”