The northern stirp beneath the southern skies—I build a Nation for an Empire's need,Suffer a little, and my land shall rise,Queen over lands indeed!
The northern stirp beneath the southern skies—I build a Nation for an Empire's need,Suffer a little, and my land shall rise,Queen over lands indeed!
The northern stirp beneath the southern skies—
I build a Nation for an Empire's need,
Suffer a little, and my land shall rise,
Queen over lands indeed!
The Quest for Gold a Colonising Agency.—Earliest Discoveries of the Precious Metal in Queensland.—Port Curtis.—Rockhampton District.—Peak Downs.—Gympie.—Ravenswood.—Charters Towers.—Palmer.—Mount Morgan.—Croydon.—Later Discoveries.—Yield at Charters Towers and Mount Morgan.—Copper Mining.—Tin.—Silver.—Queensland the Home of All Kinds of Minerals and Precious Stones.—Mineral Wealth in Cairns Hinterland.—Copper Deposits in Cloncurry District.—The Etheridge.—Anakie Gem Field.—Opal Fields.—Extensive Coal Measures.—Railway Communication with Mining Fields.—Value of Queensland Mineral Output.—Prospects of Industry.
The Quest for Gold a Colonising Agency.—Earliest Discoveries of the Precious Metal in Queensland.—Port Curtis.—Rockhampton District.—Peak Downs.—Gympie.—Ravenswood.—Charters Towers.—Palmer.—Mount Morgan.—Croydon.—Later Discoveries.—Yield at Charters Towers and Mount Morgan.—Copper Mining.—Tin.—Silver.—Queensland the Home of All Kinds of Minerals and Precious Stones.—Mineral Wealth in Cairns Hinterland.—Copper Deposits in Cloncurry District.—The Etheridge.—Anakie Gem Field.—Opal Fields.—Extensive Coal Measures.—Railway Communication with Mining Fields.—Value of Queensland Mineral Output.—Prospects of Industry.
The quest for gold, to say nothing of other minerals, has had much to do with the settlement and development of Queensland, apart from the direct advantages conferred on the State by her mining industry. It has brought to our shores many thousands of people who would not otherwise have come here; it has helped to open up for occupations other than mining previously unknown and unexplored regions that, but for the prospector, might have lain dormant for many more years; while the successful development of the territory's rich and almost unlimited mineral wealth has aided in making our State known in other parts of the world, and thus assisted in attracting hither the people and capital that have been the chief contributing factors to our wonderful progress.
Fifty years ago, when what is now Queensland, casting itself free from the parental skirts of New South Wales, began to walk alone, its mining industry did not exist. It would not be correct to say that gold—here, as elsewhere in Australia, the first to be sought and found of the numerous minerals that have since proved a source of so much wealth to the State—had not been then discovered upon our shores. Fifteen years before, men attached to an official establishment at Gladstone, Port Curtis, found "colours" of the yellow metal; and in 1858, the year preceding "Separation," occurred the Canoona "rush," whichproved so disastrous to the 15,000 or 20,000 adventurers who then swarmed to the Rockhampton district in search of the "saint-seducing gold." But the so-called "colours" detected at picturesque Gladstone were nothing more than can to this day be traced in scores of places in Queensland; while the find at Canoona proved a fiasco so great as to spread abroad the impression that this part of Australia, as a prospective field for mining enterprise, was a delusion. But was it? Within a dozen miles or so of the scene of the Canoona disappointment was situated the "mountain of gold" that has since earned world-wide fame under the name of Mount Morgan; and by the end of Queensland's first half-century the Rockhampton (or Central) district has turned out gold to the sum of nearly 3,500,000 fine ounces, representing a money value of over £14,500,000—the bulk of it won within the last moiety of the half-century.
MOUNT MORGAN: COPPER WORKS, LOOKING NORTHMOUNT MORGAN: COPPER WORKS, LOOKING NORTH
MOUNT MORGAN: COPPER WORKS, LOOKING NORTH
MOUNT MORGAN: GENERAL VIEW OF WORKSMOUNT MORGAN: GENERAL VIEW OF WORKS
MOUNT MORGAN: GENERAL VIEW OF WORKS
Three years after the foundation of the colony of Queensland gold in payable quantities was discovered on the Peak Downs, inland from Rockhampton; but it was not till the finding of the Gympie field late in 1867—eight years after severance from New South Wales—that Queensland first definitely took rank as a gold producer. Within six months from the time when the wandering digger Nash, fossicking in the gullies running into the upper Mary River, found the promising specimens in his dish which made him hasten to Maryborough to report his discovery, 15,000 men had flocked to the spot from all parts of Australia. The place had hardly been heard of before. Pressmen in Brisbane did not even know how to spell the name "Gympie" when first the news arrived; but within a very few weeks its fame spread far and wide. The gullies in the vicinity of Nash's claim were rich and numerous. One nugget brought to light weighed nearly a thousand ounces, and was worth £3,675. Soon alluvial gave place to quartz mining, and within five years gold to the value of more than £1,500,000 had been won. Up to the end of 1908—that is, in forty-one years—the field had produced gold worth £10,350,000, and is still "going strong." Like all other fields, it has of course had its ups and downs, and just now is recovering its feet after one of its "downs." Last year Gympie produced gold to the value of nearly £270,000; the grade of its ore is improving, and its monthly yields are now showing comparative increases.
Since the discovery of the Gympie goldfield there has been no cessation in the progress of mining in Queensland. From one end of theterritory to another the existence of gold and other minerals has from time to time been disclosed. For many years—
"Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!Bright and yellow, hard and cold—"
"Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!Bright and yellow, hard and cold—"
"Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold—"
but still much to be desired—was the magnet which attracted the peripatetic prospector away from the comforts of civilisation into the rugged wilds of the coastal ranges and the gullies and stony stream-beds of the eastern watershed; and for a long while it was only the gold discoveries that attracted much attention. A year or so after the Gympie find, the Ravenswood goldfield, south-west from Townsville, "broke out," to use the phrase of the old-time digger. In 1869 the precious metal was found on the Gilbert River, and the Gilbert, Etheridge, and Woolgar fields were proclaimed. Then came Charters Towers, our premier goldfield, in 1872; the Palmer, inland from Cooktown (then the very far North), in 1873; the Hodgkinson, a little more to the south, in 1875; the great Mount Morgan in 1882; Croydon in 1886; and other discoveries, until Dickie, a veteran prospector, found the Hamilton and Alice River fields in the Peninsula—the former in 1899 and the latter as late as 1904.
In its thirty-six years of existence Charters Towers has turned out over 5,800,000 ounces—more than £24,600,000 worth of gold; last year's output was of the value of £700,000; and to-day the indications in the deeper ground of the field are such that there is reason to expect that both the term of its existence and the volume of its output will be greatly extended. At Mount Morgan—the show mine of Queensland, and one of the greatest in the world—there has been quarried out of the hill and dug from the depths beneath stone that, under treatment by works in every way worthy of such a mine, has, in a little over twenty-two years, yielded gold to the value of over £13,760,000; has paid in wages and other expenditure about £7,000,000; and has given to the fortunate holders of its 1,000,000 shares some £7,230,000 in dividends. That is what the big mine has done. What is it doing now? True, the phenomenal yields of gold and the high grade of its auriferous ores that characterised the earlier years of its history showed signs of diminishing as time went on; but diminishing yields were counterbalanced by improved methods of mining and treatment, with consequent reduction of costs; and a few years since copper as well as gold was found in the lower levels, with the result that the mine has become at once the most productive copper and the mostproductive gold mine of the State. It has already turned out copper to the value of about £1,500,000, which has to be added to the gold yield, given above, to arrive at its total product; while the value of the mine's aggregate output for 1908 (over £1,017,000) was greater, with perhaps one exception, than that of any previous year in its history.
Though for some years gold was the only string to the bow of Queensland's mining industry, that state of things has long since changed. In the early sixties copper was mined in the State, but then and for many years afterwards only to a limited extent. Tin came on the scene in 1872. During the first forty years of Queensland's existence the gold won within her borders was four times the worth of all other minerals and coal produced; but so rapid has been the increase during the past ten years in the production of the industrial metals—or "other minerals," as they are officially termed, to distinguish them from gold—that in 1907 their value exceeded that of the gold yield by over £170,000. Indeed, during the five years ending with that year there was an almost phenomenal expansion. The output of 1902 was of the value of only £589,960. In the following year it increased to £846,280, and then for four years jumped up by leaps and bounds, until in 1907 the yield was worth no less than £2,153,226.
The known mineral-producing country of Queensland extends over an immense area. It begins on the southern border, where the Silver Spur mine maintains a constant output of silver and other mineral products, and where the Stanthorpe district, our first stanniferous field, still materially assists, with the aid of dredges, in the tin production of the State; and extends northerly a hundred miles beyond the goldfield of Coen, in the Cape York Peninsula. Over this immense distance of some 1,300 miles from south to north, and extending inland from 50 to 200 miles from the eastern coast, are located at varying intervals fields producing gold, silver, copper, tin, coal, lead, sapphires, manganese, wolfram, molybdenite, bismuth, and graphite; while further to the west are the opal fields of Jundah, Opalton, and Kynuna, the copper deposits of the vast Cloncurry district, the silver-lead mines of Lawn Hills in the Burketown district, and the Croydon goldfield, also on the Gulf waters. Queensland, with a huge area of 670,500 square miles and a scant population of little more than half a million of people, has a hundred proclaimed gold, mineral, and coal fields, having a combined area of about 50,000,000 acres.
Apart from goldfields, by far the most important and productive ofthese areas is the tract of country which forms the hinterland of the port of Cairns—a tract which includes the tin-mining centres of Herberton, Stannary Hills, Irvinebank, Nymbool, and Reid's Creek; the copper and silver-lead mines of Chillagoe and Mungana; the copper mines of Mount Molloy and O.K.; the wolfram, molybdenite, and bismuth mines of Wolfram Camp, Bamford, and Mount Carbine; and the antimony deposits of the Mitchell River. The two large mineral fields into which this portion of the State is now officially divided—Chillagoe and Herberton—have together an area of over 8,500,000 acres. The port of Cairns was not established till 1876—seventeen years after the foundation of the State. Now there yearly pass through it from the area mentioned minerals worth from £600,000 to £800,000, exclusive of the mineral product from the Etheridge and Croydon fields, which also, for the most part, finds an outlet through the same channel. Copper and tin are responsible for more than half the amount named, but the potentialities of the district as far as other minerals are concerned are almost unlimited. Of wolfram—taking only one example—this part of the State alone can supply the world's demand, and have a good deal to spare afterwards. The Queensland Government Geologist has estimated that the wolfram-bearing country in this portion of Queensland extends over an area of 3,500 square miles. Given anything like a permanent demand and a fair and steady market, wolfram production would soon take a prominent position in our mining industry. The historical tin mine of the district is the Vulcan, at Irvinebank, which has attained the greatest depth (1,450 feet) reached by any tin mine in Queensland, and where the appliances for recovering the metal are more up-to-date than at Dolcoath, the most famous tin mine of Cornwall. During the twenty-five years of its existence, the Vulcan Mine has from 106,000 tons of tin ore produced over 9,790 tons of concentrates, worth something approaching £500,000, and has paid its lucky shareholders dividends to the extent of £160,000. The opening up of this large and prolific district is largely due to the enterprise of the Chillagoe Company, which not only has developed extensively its several mines and erected large ore-treatment works, but has built the railway—in length 93 miles—which connects those mines and numerous others with the Government railway at the top of the Coastal Range at Mareeba, and is building a further extension to the Etheridge field, nearly 150 miles further inland.
Queensland is known as a country of magnificent distances, and oneexample of its vast expanse is the extent of the copper area of the Cloncurry district, which is tapped by the Great Northern Railway 480 miles westward from the port of Townsville. This district is by far the largest tract of copper-bearing country in Australia, and one of the largest in the world. As the crow flies, it extends north and south for more than 150 miles, and east and west some 80 or 100 miles. Over this large area, covering at least 15,000 square miles, copper has been proved to exist. At the close of 1907 there were on the Warden's books over 800 mineral leases, besides some hundreds of claims and several freeholds. The outcrops throughout the district have been described by one of the Government Geologists as innumerable and phenomenally rich. But the district is still in the prospecting stage, and it is yet too soon to pronounce an opinion as to whether the deposits generally will live at depth, or of what value they will be if they do, although it may safely be said that the developments in the more important mines during the past twelve months have been distinctly encouraging. Smelting operations are already in progress at two, if not three, of the principal mining centres of the district, and a railway extension from Cloncurry 74 miles southward is now in course of construction. Another Queensland mineral field of vast extent is the Etheridge. It has an area equal to half that of Scotland, and the Warden for the field, when he undertakes his periodical patrol, has an itinerary of about 400 miles.
CHARTERS TOWERS: PLANT'S DAY DAWNCHARTERS TOWERS: PLANT'S DAY DAWN
CHARTERS TOWERS: PLANT'S DAY DAWN
Passing reference has been made to the sapphire field of Anakie, in Central Queensland, and to the opal to be found in her trackless West. As a matter of fact, isolated finds of many kinds of gems besides these two have been made in widely separated parts of the State, but as a recognised branch of the mining industry opal and sapphire mining has for years occupied an important place. In the Anakie field, 190 miles from Rockhampton, on the Central Railway, the existence of gem-stones was officially reported as early as 1892. Ten years later the Government Geologist, reporting on these sapphire fields, stated that "the total distance along which deposits are found ... is altogether about fifteen miles. Of an area of 400 square miles examined, fifty square miles contain deposits carrying sapphires of more or less value." In 1905, another member of the Geological staff reported that the most important recent development had been the opening up of a second bed of the sapphire wash at a depth of 25 feet, and that excellent stones, freer from flaws than those nearer the surface, were being obtained from the lower deposit. Miningfor these precious stones, many of which are of the most beautiful description, has been to a considerable extent detrimentally affected by the difficulty experienced in getting a regular market and what is considered a fair price for the gems; but, notwithstanding this drawback, there was a large expansion in the industry during the four years preceding 1907—the annual production having increased in that period from £7,000 to £35,000 in value. In 1908, however, there was a considerable falling off, mainly because miners were not satisfied with the prices obtainable; but, with an improvement in this respect, renewed activity on the field, which even now supports a population of over 1,000 persons, may be looked for.
The opal-bearing country extends over a much wider area than sapphires. The width of this country is, roughly, about 250 miles, while in length it extends right from the New South Wales border half-way up the State in a curve bending towards the South Australian border. The chief centres of production have been Kynuna (near Winton), Opalton and Fermoy (in the Longreach district), Eromanga, and Yowah (near Thargomindah). The Queensland opal is recognised as being unsurpassed for its brilliance and iridescence, and there is reason to believe that much more will be found than has yet been unearthed; but the quest for it is difficult owing to the arid nature and vast extent of the western plains where it occurs. In good seasons men in those regions find ready employment on the pastoral stations; in very dry ones, they cannot prospect for the precious stone, and the result has been that the industry has fluctuated even more than that of sapphire mining. The highest point was attained in 1895, when the value of the opal product reached nearly £33,000. Of late years Queensland has been blessed with good seasons, and the uncertain occupation of opal mining has, with many men, given place to the more regular and more comfortable station life. While the opal, the sapphire, and other precious stones have been dug from Queensland's earth, her Northern waters have for years yielded the lustrous pearl, and in 1908 pearl-shell to the value of £71,000 was exported.
Sir William Ramsay, speaking as a scientific authority, lately stated that the day will come when Great Britain, if she continue to be dependent on her own coal supplies, will find it difficult not only to carry on her manufactures but to provide fuel for household purposes. Well, when that day does come, she can send to Queensland for what coal she wants. Here there are coal measures in abundance—in the South, Central, and Northern divisions of the State, and on the Darling Downs. True,we have not yet done much in the way of production, but all that is wanted is a market, and coal, both bituminous and anthracitic, can be dug out of the earth and sent away in practically unlimited quantities. Of ironstone, also, there is an abundance, and that, too, in such close proximity to the coal supplies that when the time arrives for Australia to enter earnestly into the enterprise of iron and steel manufacture Queensland should play an important part both in producing the raw material and in preparing the product for the market.
With only one or two exceptions, all the important mining centres of Queensland are now connected with the eastern coast by rail, and those that are not are being rapidly linked up. During the year 1908 thirteen new railways were authorised by Parliament, five of them to serve mineral districts. Four of these lines are now under construction; and in addition the railway to the Etheridge field is completed for two-thirds of its length.
To sum up: Queensland during the half-century of her existence has produced gold to the value, in round numbers, of over £69,000,000, and other minerals, coal, and precious stones worth more than £21,000,000—or an aggregate of £90,000,000. Last year's mineral production was worth £3,844,000, so that, even at the same rate of output, in less than three years we shall have topped the £100,000,000. The number of men obtaining employment in connection with the industry during 1908 was just upon 21,000—only 4,000 less than Queensland's total population in 1859. The value of machinery and plant used for mining and ore reduction purposes throughout the State is over £2,000,000. The worth of the coal output of the West Moreton district alone last year (£193,000) was more than the total revenue of Queensland during the first year of her existence; while the mineral product of the Herberton district during the same period was nearly four times as great.
In the space available for this article it has been possible to take but a cursory view of the mineral progress which has characterised the first half-century of Queensland's life, but enough has been written to show that that progress has been remarkable, if not phenomenal. And who shall say what strides will be made during the next fifty years, or venture to predict what will be the value of our mineral wealth in the year 1959? It is a safe rule "not to prophesy till you know," but even the most timid prophet could hardly hesitate to predict expansion for Queensland's mining industry. Where there has been so much growth in the past, and where there is such an unlimited field for greater growth inthe years to come, it would be absurd to suppose that there will be no further advance. As a matter of fact, many well qualified to judge do not hesitate to say that the industry is as yet in its infancy. It has been truly said of gold that "what it is, there it is"; and what you have to do is to find where it is. When it is remembered, however, that the prominent hill known as Mount Morgan, with its millions' worth of golden ore, was within a day's journey of the populous town of Rockhampton, and remained undiscovered until 1882, although alluvial gold had been found at its base for years previously and the disappointed miners from Canoona had twenty-three years before swarmed in its vicinity; when we recollect that only quite recently nuggets have been found in the streets of some of the oldest of Victorian mining townships, who shall say what has yet to be unearthed in the wide expanses of Queensland's bush, a great deal of which is already known to be "rich with the spoils of Nature"?
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;"
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;"
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;"
and the experience of the last half-century amply justifies the belief that untold millions lie hidden in the earthen depths of Queensland.
GYMPIE: SCOTTISH GYMPIE GOLD MINEGYMPIE: SCOTTISH GYMPIE GOLD MINE
GYMPIE: SCOTTISH GYMPIE GOLD MINE
GYMPIE: No. 1 NORTH ORIENTAL AND GLANMIREGYMPIE: No. 1 NORTH ORIENTAL AND GLANMIRE
GYMPIE: No. 1 NORTH ORIENTAL AND GLANMIRE
Erroneous Judgment of Western Queensland.—Scarcity of Surface Water.—Water Supply Department.—Discovery of Artesian Water in New South Wales.—Prospecting in Queensland.—Difficulties Experienced by Early Borers.—First Artesian Flowing Bore.—Dr. Jack's First Estimate of Artesian Area.—Revised Figures.—Number of Bores and Estimated Flow.—Area Capable of being Irrigated with Artesian Water.—Cost of Boring.—Value of Artesian Water.—Extent of Intake Beds.—Waste of Water.—Necessity for Government Control of Wells.—Value of Water for Irrigation, Consumption, and Motive Power.—Artesian Water a Great National Asset.
Erroneous Judgment of Western Queensland.—Scarcity of Surface Water.—Water Supply Department.—Discovery of Artesian Water in New South Wales.—Prospecting in Queensland.—Difficulties Experienced by Early Borers.—First Artesian Flowing Bore.—Dr. Jack's First Estimate of Artesian Area.—Revised Figures.—Number of Bores and Estimated Flow.—Area Capable of being Irrigated with Artesian Water.—Cost of Boring.—Value of Artesian Water.—Extent of Intake Beds.—Waste of Water.—Necessity for Government Control of Wells.—Value of Water for Irrigation, Consumption, and Motive Power.—Artesian Water a Great National Asset.
Fifty years ago the white population of Australia, including Tasmania, scarcely exceeded a million persons. At that time the theory was generally accepted that only a fringe of the coast south of the tropic of Capricorn would be found habitable by a British or European population. The reports of explorers led to the conclusion that the vast inland area of our continent was an irreclaimable arid desert, save when, at long and uncertain intervals, it was ravaged by destructive floods, the water from which, licked up by a fiery sun or absorbed by a porous subsoil, disappeared from the surface with marvellous rapidity. A little more than forty years ago squatting occupation had been pushed towards the interior of the continent with not only rapid strides, but it was held by many explorers with a presumptuous boldness that could only be followed by disaster. So deeply had this conviction been driven into the minds of experienced men that a distinguished Australian explorer, the late Sir A. C. Gregory, declared in his late maturity, little more than ten years ago, that on what is now some of the richest and most productive country in Western Queensland a bandicoot could not live; and on the statement being challenged he said he spoke from personal experience as an explorer after two visits separated by an interval of nine years. The country more particularly so condemned was the well-known pastoral run, Wellshot, a little to the south of Longreach, and one of the largest and finest wool-growing properties in Australia.
It must be frankly conceded that the occupation by flocks and herds nearly forty years ago of what was then known as the Barcoo and Thomson country was venturesome to the point of recklessness. Except in the sandy beds of these rivers there was practically no surface water of a permanentnature; and the average rainfall was so inadequate, not to mention its capriciousness, and the ground in many places so porous, that any attempt to provide artificial water by the construction of dams or tanks seemed almost tempting Providence. Yet there arose a persistent belief, afterwards more than justified, that underneath the arid surface was flowing water in great abundance. The rainfall, however copious in exceptional seasons, certainly did not reach the sea, and the hypothesis that great subterranean rivers would disclose themselves to a systematic search attracted much notice. In the dry year of 1883 the necessity of an improved water supply if the country was not to be denuded of stock forced itself upon the attention of our leading public men. The Premier, the late Sir Thomas McIlwraith, decided to constitute a Government Hydraulic Department with a competent engineer at its head. There had previously been so-called hydraulic engineers, but their work was chiefly confined to the water supply of a few towns and of the more settled districts on the coast. But Sir Thomas McIlwraith, as a runholder in the Far West, realised that nothing but heroic efforts, assisted by the Government, would save the country from desertion, with appalling loss to its adventurous occupiers and their flocks and herds. Mr. J. Baillie Henderson was at the time in the Queensland public service, and the Premier knew that he had served with distinction as an engineer in the Water Supply Department of Victoria. That gentleman was therefore selected to organise a Water Supply Department in Queensland, and on 1st February, 1883, he was gazetted Hydraulic Engineer, an appointment which he has ever since held with credit to himself and advantage to the country.a
At that time the existence of artesian water in Queensland was no more than suspected. It had been tapped four years previously in New South Wales, but the boring appliances were so inadequate as to make the process tedious and of questionable practicability on an extensive scale. In Queensland some prospecting work had been done, and in some places fair supplies of water obtained by sinking ordinary wells. But in the Far West there was little scope for enterprise in that direction. Hence some extensive dams were constructed across watercourses ordinarily dry, but without conspicuous success. For often the rush of flood waters either carried away the embankments, or the reservoirs they created quickly silted up, or the porousness of the subsoil could not be entirely combatedby "puddling." Then streams at times complaisantly abandoned their old channels and formed new ones, leaving the intended reservoirs high and dry after the most deluging rains. After a time it was found that better sites than the beds of main watercourses could be found for dams, and that the construction of tanks would suffice in many places to provide sufficient water for a scattered population and the increasing numbers of live stock, although the expense of this mode of conservation was great for the limited supply obtained. Evidently, if the Far West was ever to be completely utilised, its almost illimitable areas of splendid pastures must be watered by some more effective means.
Attention was at this time attracted to the success of the few artesian bores in New South Wales, and to the vast scale on which water had been tapped by that means in the United States of America. The chief obstacles, however, were the great depth at which artesian water might be expected to be found, and the utter inadequacy of the boring machinery then in use in Australia; moreover, the search was most needed in the areas practically inaccessible by reason of the absence of surface water. For a considerable time, as is disclosed in the digest of the Hydraulic Engineer's annual reports reproduced in Appendix H, little progress could be made.
It was not until October, 1884, in fact—just twenty-five years ago—that information was obtained of the striking of sub-artesianbwater by the Messrs. Bignell at Widgeegoara Station, close to the New South Wales border. The place was visited by Mr. Henderson, and by him reported upon encouragingly. In the same month the Treasurer received a letter from the late Hon. George King, of Gowrie Station, Darling Downs, directing attention to the "Walking Beam Rig" machine, an American well-boring apparatus, by the use of which it had been ascertained that his firm might have saved £4,500 out of the £6,000 spent by it in well-sinking in the Warrego district. The letter being referred to the Hydraulic Engineer, that officer recommended the introduction of American bore-sinking machinery, and the engagement of American skilled drillers who would undertake to give instruction in the use of the machinery as well as engage in drilling work for the Government of Queensland. Delays occurred, however, apparently through the unwillingness of the Government to adopt the advice tendered. It was not until December, 1885, thatMr. Arnold, an American well-borer, was despatched to Blackall to sink a bore there. The first attempt failed, but afterwards water was struck in abundance, though not by him, or until after the first Queensland flowing well had been sunk by the Government at Barcaldine in December, 1887.
In April, 1887, the Hydraulic Engineer had visited Thurulgoona Station, and there found that Mr. Loughead, with the "Canadian Pole Tool" boring apparatus, had obtained a supply of excellent fresh artesian water from a depth of 1,009 feet, the flow rising 20 inches above ground. From that date boring went on apace, and the exploratory success of the Government encouraged private persons to follow their lead. There were failures to strike artesian water, of course, both on the part of the Government and private persons, but on the whole the results have been such as to add to Queensland occupiable country equivalent to a great new province in the Far West.
map of artesian water-bearing country in Australia
The map presented herewith shows the area of artesian water-bearing country in Australia as estimated by Dr. R. L. Jack, formerly Government Geologist. Since 1893 Queensland has been credited with the area of376,832 square miles, this being equal to 56 per cent. of the estimated total. But that total has since been reduced to 569,000 square miles, and late information shows that the approximate area of the Queensland artesian basin, as ascertained by scaling off the most recent map issued by the Hydraulic Engineer, is 372,105 square miles—4,727 square miles less than the area given in his report for 1893. Yet the revised figures bring the Queensland artesian area up to 65 per cent. of the Australian total. The difference is accounted for by later information acquired in the field. Of the 372,105 square miles mentioned the area of 146,430 square miles has been tested and found to be less or more artesian or sub-artesian. Mr. Henderson says: "The flows from many of the artesian bores which at one time or another yielded artesian water have failed, but owing to the suspension of the hydraulic survey the available data are quite insufficient to admit of a trustworthy estimate being made of the area so affected."
FLOWING ARTESIAN WELLS, WESTERN QUEENSLANDFLOWING ARTESIAN WELLS, WESTERN QUEENSLAND
FLOWING ARTESIAN WELLS, WESTERN QUEENSLAND
The total supply of bore water has not been ascertained by actual measurement except from Government bores. But all possible reports of reputed flows have been obtained from the owners of private bores, and the figures cut down to 47 per cent. of the furnished estimates. This reduction is not an arbitrary one, however, but is the equivalent of the difference found to exist between the average estimate and the measured flow of such bores as the Hydraulic Department has been enabled to test.
Information from the Hydraulic Engineer's office shows that up to the end of May last there were 716 flowing bores in Queensland, pouring forth an enormous supply of sparkling water estimated at slightly over 479¼ million gallons a day, equal to a discharge of 175,000 million gallons per annum.cThis flow, if conserved in tanks and pipes, would furnish a population of nearly 12 millions with 40 gallons of water per capita a day. It would irrigate 644,366 acres of cultivated land with 12 inches of water per annum.dAn area so irrigated, utilised solely for wheat-growing, would produce, at 20 bushels per acre, nearly 13 million bushels of grain, which is equal to 28·87 per cent. of the entire Commonwealth wheat crop for the year 1907-8. The average Commonwealth yield for the last five years, however, was 61½ million bushels. The average area underwheat for the same period was 5,864,114 acres, the average yield for the Commonwealth therefore being slightly over 10½ bushels to the acre. As much wheat is cut for fodder, and as irrigated land should produce a largely increased crop, 20 bushels per acre for such land seems a moderate estimate. Moreover, in 1902-3, the Commonwealth crop was under 12½ million bushels, or less than one-fifth of the mean average for the succeeding five years. At the same time the area of land under crop was in 1902-3 but little below the succeeding five-year average on an acre of land.e
The presumably perpetual daily flow of 479¼ million gallons of artesian water—the quantity named being equal to only 47 per cent. of the reputed flow in the case of unmeasured wells—has cost, so far as an estimate can be made, £1,873,515. This works out at the average of £2,616 per flowing bore, supplying 669,369 gallons a day. Calculating on the basis of 5 per cent., including interest and redemption payments, the annual charge for this money is equal to £131 per well, spread over a forty-one years' term, the average cost to each well-owner being thus £1 for 1,865,000 gallons of water a year. Thus, although much money has been lost in sinking unsuccessful bores, the investment has on the whole been amazingly profitable, even allowing that a further annual charge for maintenance must be added.
It need hardly be said, however, that in practice this enormous flow of artesian water could not be utilised solely either for human consumption or for irrigation. Under existing conditions the first claim upon it may be said to be for the sustenance of live stock, as the domestic consumption in the region of the flow is comparatively trifling. And here arises a problem of vast importance. Will this flow be perpetual, or will it gradually decline until exhaustion of the sources of supply ultimately takes place? The latter contingency there seems to be little reason to fear, for the area of the intake beds, estimated by Dr. R. L. Jack at 5,000 square miles, affords the assurance that our artesian springs will be constantly replenished by the rainfall over that large extent of country. Yet, when the existing number of artesian wells has been doubled or trebled, it seems not improbable that many of them will become sub-artesian, and only yield their fertilising streams in response to pumping-power. On this question, however, expert opinions widely differ. But, taking the experience of America and other countries in which artesian springs have been tapped, it may be said that the flow steadily decreases as the number of bores multiplies.
The Hydraulic Engineer estimates that about two-thirds of the artesian water at present tapped flows to waste. As to the definition of "waste," however, there is sharp conflict of opinion. A pastoralist who distributes a supply of a million gallons of bore water a day by replenishing dry creeks or constructing artificial channels may contend that in his case the loss by evaporation or soakage is not waste, but an expenditure of water necessary to make his artesian well serve its desired purposes. To control and distribute by means of reticulating pipes the product of all Queensland's flowing bores would involve a heavy investment of capital, and one not warranted by the existing population in the artesian area—a population mainly dependent upon sheep-raising and wool-growing for subsistence. But the time may come when it will be deemed indispensable that flowing wells should be brought under Government control, or their product be subject, as in the case of surface water, to riparian rights. The pastoralist who has spent several thousand pounds in sinking a successful bore not unnaturally claims the water issuing from it as his own property; but public policy may require that after diverting so much as may be requisite for his reasonable individual uses the remainder shall be made available for the occupiers of neighbouring lands.
The information that little more than one-half the area of the artesian basin in Queensland has yet been explored is in some respects disappointing, but it is reassuring in others. For if the unexplored country yields as much water per square mile of surface as is now pouring forth from the wells on the tested area—which is not yet fully developed—the total daily yield will ultimately approach 1,000 millions of gallons. Never, according to official information, was bore-sinking more active than it is during the current year, and the thoughtful reader will sympathise with Mr. Henderson's repeated expression of regret that want of money some years ago compelled the department to discontinue both exploration on scientific lines and the periodical measurement of all artesian flows. For with careful surveys of the entire water-bearing area much capital might be saved by teaching where copious springs might or might not be expected to be met with; while with measurement and registration of all flows the question as to the perpetuity or the contrary of the supply would be placed beyond controversy. In that case legislation could be initiated with confidence, and the public interest safeguarded with the least possible disturbance of private interests.
An important consideration in connection with the artesian area is that the land watered by bores is as a rule more than commonly fertile.Its pastures produce some of the most nutritious natural grasses and herbage found on the face of the earth; and, what is of immense significance, they are grasses and herbage that either would not live or would deteriorate under a tropical sun, with a rainfall equal to the coastal average. Thus it may be argued that artesian bore water—at any rate, when so free from mineral impregnation as to be unquestionably potable—is more valuable, gallon for gallon, than the supply direct from the clouds.
In several of his numerous reports the Hydraulic Engineer makes reference to the subject of irrigation by means of artesian water. It is certain that the water from some bores, while useful for live stock, is not fit for either domestic use or for irrigation. The Hydraulic Department many years ago began what was intended to be a systematic analysis of bore water with the view to providing an official record that would be highly useful for public purposes. But in one case at least water pronounced by the Government Analyst as useless even for stock was highly esteemed on the run whence it was obtained; and evidently much has yet to be learned as to the value of subterranean waters not regarded as potable by scientific standards.
Some of the most copiously flowing bores, however, discharge water of unexceptional quality, whether for domestic use, manufacturing purposes, or irrigation. The Hydraulic Engineer doubts, having regard to the immense quantity of water required for irrigation, whether it will ever be found useful for that purpose in so far as the greater agricultural industries are concerned; but for intense cultivation around the homestead he thinks bore water might well be utilised. In some cases it would be in sufficiently large supply for the raising of green fodder for stud stock—perhaps even for protection against minor local droughts. An irrigated crop needs three or four waterings of 3 inches each, and as each inch means 22,614 gallons, the quantity required for a crop, with four waterings, would be 271,368 gallons per acre; so that a cultivation plot of 20 or 30 acres would absorb from 5 to 8 million gallons a year, according to the seasons, the nature of the soil, or the soakage.
While doubtful as to the suitability of bore water for irrigation on a large scale, Mr. Henderson strongly advocates its being applied to machinery of small power. Many years ago he directed attention in one of his annual reports to the extensive use of water power in competition with steam in certain parts of America; and it is satisfactory to note that in some inland towns of Queensland the American example has been followed. In quite a number of towns the public water service isartesian, and in a few it is the motive power of electric lighting systems. The information that the flowing wells of Queensland are discharging daily 320 million gallons of water "to waste" indicates that when population in the artesian area becomes more dense bore power will become an invaluable aid in economic manufacture. The water so harnessed would not be wasted, as every gallon would still be available for human or animal consumption.
ABERDARE COLLIERY, IPSWICH DISTRICTABERDARE COLLIERY, IPSWICH DISTRICT
ABERDARE COLLIERY, IPSWICH DISTRICT
The money value of the water annually discharged from the flowing bores of Queensland runs into stupendous figures, even at the rate of 6d. per 1,000 gallons. At that rate its annual value would exceed 4¼ millions sterling. Capitalise this sum at 4 per cent., and the artesian water flow of Queensland becomes worth upwards of 109¼ millions sterling, less, of course, the cost of maintenance and supervision similarly capitalised. And this colossal endowment is the result during the last quarter of a century of a total expenditure of less than 2 millions sterling. Granting that to utilise all this water already under pressure would mean a very large additional expenditure in tanks, aqueducts, and pipes, that expenditure may be calculated in advance to a minute fraction in every case, and it would of course be disbursed gradually as the demand for the delivery of water under pressure developed with the increase of population and the multiplication of industries. It must be apparent, therefore, that any needful public expenditure to ascertain whether the flow diminishes or increases as the years go on, and to prevent waste if waste there be, is more than justified. Indeed, should any great public loss be suffered for want of State control of this life-giving national asset, it might be difficult for Parliament entirely to clear itself from blame if charged with neglecting the reiterated advice of its own responsible officer in this respect.
Footnote a:For digest of Hydraulic Engineer's reports, 1883 to 1908 inclusive, see Appendix H, post.
Footnote b:"Sub-artesian" is a term applied when the water in a bore rises to or near the surface, but does not automatically flow along it.
Footnote c:t will be seen on reference to Appendix H that since the Hydraulic Engineer supplied his figures a number of additional flowing bores have been sunk, and have substantially increased the aggregate flow, although, the figures not having been officially verified, the aggregate flow remains in the text as from the 716 bores recognised by the Hydraulic Engineer.
Footnote d:The quantity of water deposited on an acre of land by an inch of rain is 22,614 gallons.
Footnote e:See "Commonwealth Year Book," 1909, page 382.
The following summary of correspondence between Governor Bowen and the Secretary of State for the Colonies gives information in addition to that furnished in "The Subdivision of Australia," page xiv., relating to the readjustment of the Queensland western boundary:—
On 30th September, 1860, Sir George Bowen—in transmitting an Address passed by the Queensland Legislature asking that "the western boundary of Queensland should be declared to extend at least so far as to include the Gulf of Carpentaria, without which declaration the Legislature would not feel authorised in taking steps towards the development of the colony in that direction"—referred to the opinion of Mr. A. C. Gregory, then Surveyor-General, that "a boundary at the 141st meridian would just cut off from Queensland the greater portion of the only territory available for settlement,i.e., the Plains of Promise, and the only safe harbour,i.e., Investigator Road, in the Gulf of Carpentaria." The Governor added that until receipt of the Duke of Newcastle's despatch of 21st October, 1859, enclosing the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, the general belief here was that the western boundary of Queensland was identical with the eastern boundary of Western Australia, that is, with the 129th degree of east longitude. But now the Law Officers had declared expressly that the 141st meridian was the western boundary, he urged that the prayer of the local Legislature should be complied with by extending the boundary to the 138th meridian of east longitude.
On 8th December, 1860, Governor Bowen again wrote to the Colonial Office urging that the boundary should be extended, and contending that the question was of Imperial as well as colonial importance. Replying on 26th February, 1861, the Duke of Newcastle said that South Australia had asked for the territory desired by Queensland, and that certain gentlemen in Victoria were desirous of forming a settlement on the northern coast of Australia. His Grace added that there were doubts whether the Government had the power to annex the territory as desired, and if these doubts had any foundation he would submit a Bill to the Imperial Parliament to remove them. In September, 1861, Sir George Bowen again urgedthe annexation of the territory, remarking that "Queensland can gain little but trouble and expense from undertaking the management and protection of any future settlement on the Gulf of Carpentaria; for it is certain that so soon as it becomes self-supporting it will demand to be erected into a separate colony." On 14th December following the Duke of Newcastle wrote to the Governor stating that he had "no objection to the proposal that this territory should be temporarily annexed to the colony of Queensland, and accordingly that Letters Patent would be issued for giving effect to this arrangement under 24 and 25 Vict., cap. 44." But his Grace warned the Governor that the annexation would probably be revoked when the growth of population or other circumstances rendered separation desirable in the interests of the new territory. He closed with these words—"I am not prepared to abandon definitely, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, the power to deal with districts not yet settled, as the wishes or convenience of the future settlers may hereafter require."