CHAPTER XXITHE NORTHERN TERRITORY

TheNorthern Territory is one of Australia’s many problems. How can the immense tract of rich and fertile country with its tropical northern area be cultivated, and its great resources developed, without the importation of coloured labour? The native black population, though they are useful and efficient with stock, are found to be unadapted for agriculture, and incapable of the steady methodical work essential to its success. The immigration of Chinese, who formerly were the market gardeners of the neighbourhood of Port Darwin, supplying the small resident white population with fruit and vegetables, has now been discouraged, and we saw the plantations they had cultivated falling back into, and becoming merged with the wilderness of the bush. It is still an open question whether white men can perform manual labour under the tropical suns of the coastal belt. Yet the future of Port Darwin must be assured if it is eventually to become our nearest and mostdirect port of call in Australia. It will in time be connected by railroad with the southern states, as it now is by the telegraph service. In the interior nomadic tribes of blacks hunt and fish and wander; hardy settlers have pitched their homesteads in a clearing in the forest, and raise cattle there, with the nearest neighbour a hundred miles away; the lonely buffalo hunter plies his lucrative trade with the help of native hunters.

The Australians themselves do not seem to know very much more about the Northern Territory than the average Englishman. They speak of it as an arid wilderness, much in the same way as they regard Western Australia; yet, to the visitor from home, it is the beauty and the wildness of Western and Northern Australia, that make an appeal far more profound than that of the busy, civilised, and comparatively populous southern and eastern states. With all their differences they are still too much like home to stir the imagination. What is popularly known about the Northern Territory is largely learned from the writings of a clever Australian woman,25who has lived the isolated yet stimulating life of the settler’s wife in the interior. The part to be played by women in the future of the Northern Territory is a very important one. Itis a hard thing for a man to go into exile with his cattle and his black retainers, but if Australian or European women will consent to share the hardships, and the rough life, and the loneliness, in order to make a home for their men; bringing to it, as opportunity offers, the atmosphere and the comforts of civilisation, the problem of opening up the inland country is helped considerably on its way. That there are compensations in the life no one can doubt, who has talked with those who know it, or seen the lonely homesteads in the bush, that wonderful primeval forest with its manifold beauty and mystery.

For those who stay at home, no better idea of it can be derived than from reading Mrs. Gunn’s “We of the Never Never,” in which she describes the daily life of a cattle station up-country, and all her odd adventures with the native servants, honest warm-hearted creatures, with the artless cunning, and the caprices of children. The residents of Port Darwin talked of the light-hearted gaiety of their native servants, and their happy irresponsibility. Yet they seem to work well in their own erratic way; but from time to time they find the call of the wild irresistible, then they obey it, and steal away to their native island, or forest tribe, till the conditions of life there weary them, and the whim seizes them to return.

VIEW NEAR DARWIN.

Approaching Port Darwin from the east the navigation is difficult and dangerous. All the day before, we had steamed very slowly in order to avoid reaching the passage of the Vernon Isles after nightfall. The islands are inhabited, and the smoke of bush fires was frequently to be seen, either signal fires lighted by the natives, or by Europeans, to burn off the dead grass at the end of the winter.

The approach to Port Darwin is charmingly pretty. The tropical vegetation that comes down nearly to the water’s edge is a vivid green, and the cliffs that fringe the shore a warm red. The tops of quite important-looking houses were showing among the trees.

This was Port Darwin, where we had been told there was “nothing to see,” for it was only “an arid wilderness.” There is no sensation quite like that of steaming slowly into an unknown port, the future is so fraught with delightful and unusual possibilities. The shores take shape and colour, houses just descried with glasses become clear and distinct, people are seen on the beach, the vegetation can now be identified, and finally the ship draws up alongside of the wharf, or the tender has come to fetch us, and we set foot on a strange shore in quest of new adventure.

At Port Darwin adventure had come to us.It was the prettiest scene imaginable. The coming in of a boat is a gala day for Port Darwin. It brings letters, and newspapers, and butter, and contact with the outside world. So the rough wooden pier wore an air of some gay festival, for most of the European inhabitants had come down to welcome us on our arrival, and to claim those among us, who had had introductions to them from friends in the other states. The men were all in sun helmets and white ducks, the women in white linen, and the little pier, crowded with its throng of white figures in the strong sunshine, had for background the brilliant red and green of the shore. We were fortunate in falling to the share of an official who knew and cared for the district, and could tell us all we wanted to know about it. His wife was with him, and another lady, to whom we had had an introduction, and whose husband was kept busy by the incoming mail.

They are great organisers at Port Darwin. We were to be taken to a tea-party in the Botanical Gardens, and received there by the Administrator, as the Governor of the Northern Territory is called, and his wife; and an evening lecture was to be given by one of the passengers. With Australians you become friends in a very short space of time in their own country. Oftheir generous kindness and hospitality too much cannot be said, and the very fact that you are ignorant of all they know is a bond. At home it is different. They are often a little on the defensive, because they have an idea that we shall assume superior airs and consider them “colonial”—a vague term of opprobrium. Then, too, our ways chill them; their open-handed, open-hearted hospitality is the natural thing there. In a country, where there is a perennial shortage of servants, nobody minds or regards it, if the hostess and daughter of the house change the plates, except in the richest and most sophisticated circles. We should put off a dinner-party if our servants were ill, because we are so hampered by hard-and-fast conventions, not so much because we are inhospitable, but because we must maintain an accepted standard—it must be impossible for an Australian quite to understand this.

A little stuffy lumbering train takes passengers and merchandise from the wharf to the foot of a steep hill that leads up to Darwin. But it was too beautiful to immure ourselves in it, so we walked to the shore, where a Government horse and cart had been commandeered on our behalf. Its reins were held by “Tommy,” also in white ducks and all smiles. Tommy was the nativeservant who, with his “lubra” and a Chinese cook, ran our friend’s house. We got in and began the ascent of the steep red hill. The Government horse was tough but deliberate, and crawled leisurely through the thick red dust. The air was heavy with the sweet strong scent of a curiously twisted Japanese-looking tree, not unlike an olive. It was covered with small white flowers, and was called a milkwood tree. The natives say that the milky juice of the wood produces blindness.

At the entrance to Darwin is the Chinese quarter, all tumble-down tin shanties, unsightly and comfortless, and very poverty-stricken looking, with shrill children screaming and playing in the dust. Its appearance gave one an inkling why Australians would rather dispense with the cheap and efficient Chinese labour than leaven the population of their great clean land with people who could thrive contentedly in a little colony of pigsties. Here suddenly was a bullock cart laden with wood, the little Chinese driver in his immense flat hat, looking exactly as if he had just stepped off a valuable old tea-tray. It was the very soul of all Oriental picturesqueness. Leaving behind the comfortable verandahed houses of the European residents, we struck into a soft red road that led throughthe bush to the Botanical Gardens. It seems incongruous to talk of Botanical Gardens in a place that is yet hardly a town, but in a new country foresight is essential, and the Government has set apart here as elsewhere a reserve for the future, when Port Darwin shall be a great busy port crowded with shipping, and its lonely shores thronged with houses.

COCONUT GROVE, DARWIN.

It was just at the end of the dry season when we were there, and as we drove along between eucalyptus and coco palms, and all kinds of unfamiliar tropical plants, their vivid green contrasted oddly with the absolutely bare red soil—there was not a blade of grass or green upon it. This is its normal condition in the dry season, which occurs with perfect regularity from May to October. The rains are ushered in by violent thunderstorms and hurricanes, increasing in frequency till the end of November, when about an inch of rain falls nearly every day. In January the wet season has penetrated to the heart of the continent.

Of course, these climatic conditions do not exactly apply to the whole of a tract of country, which covers more than 500,000 square miles. From north to south the Territory extends for about 900 miles, and it is roughly divided into three areas, according to its climatic conditions.The northern coastal belt is well watered by numerous rivers, many of them navigable for some distance inland; the district is very fertile, especially in the neighbourhood of the rivers. It is described as “luxuriantly grassed” and well adapted for dairying, for intensive farming, which is, however, at present non-existent, and for the growth of many subtropical products.

Farther from the rivers the land is held to be suitable for agriculture and grazing. This tract of country stretches inland to the tablelands, where different conditions prevail, and which form the second climatic zone. The rainfall here is less than half that of the coastal area. The land rises to some fifteen hundred feet above the sea, and the sharp distinction between the wet and dry seasons is less strongly marked. In these tablelands, though there is a poor supply of surface water, subartesian water is available by shallow boring. The conditions here are admirable for stock raising. The third area stretches into the temperate latitudes of the South Australian border, where the rainfall is variable, but on the average low. Here are the McDonell Ranges, including fine tracts of country that compare favourably with any part of Southern Australia. But when all this has been said there remains at present the question of transport. The greattranscontinental railway has now been extended from Pine Creek to Katherine River, and the Government has decided to construct another section from Katherine to Bitter Springs.

Till lately, settlement has not progressed rapidly on the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the railway. It is hoped that the Northern Territory lands will be better developed as the trade in frozen beef develops. At present the mainstay of the state is beef-production. In an article on the Northern Territory in “Australia To-day,” December, 1914, Mr. W. H. Clarke, late Director of Agriculture, states it as his opinion that: “The possibilities in this direction are not far behind those of Queensland, where the meat export industry is taxing already to the utmost the output of cattle.” He goes on to say, however, “That many holdings have been stocked and abandoned, hundreds of leases have been taken up and forfeited. Men of sound experience and substantial means have tried the industry in different parts of the Territory, and given it up in despair. To-day some of the foremost cattlemen condemn the country outright, yet there are many stations carrying between them about half a million head of cattle.” He explains the causes of this anomalous state of affairs by the distance from markets, “the wasteand anxiety of inadequately watered stock routes, an industry in most cases on lines of crudest pioneering,” a lack of fences or musterers, and, in the dry season, drinking-places that become “boggy death-traps,” which hundreds, sometimes thousands of cattle frequent, “till their numbers are decimated.” The opening of the Freezing Works at Darwin, and the extension of the railway are the first steps towards making it worth the while of the Territory pastoralist to remedy these defects. Freezing Works are being erected.

Agricultural lands are granted in the Territory on perpetual leases as long as the holder complies with certain conditions, such as the erection of a house within two years on his lands, and residence there for a certain number of months in each year. Pastoral leases are granted on still more easy terms, and advances are made to settlers for the purchase of building materials, plant, fencing, and stock.

The mineral wealth of the Northern Territory is as yet unexplored, and is still awaiting a more complete geological survey, before it can be estimated accurately. Gold, tin, and copper have been found in considerable quantities, but have not as yet been adequately worked.

When we visited Port Darwin the rains wereexpected. In about another week, said our host, they would begin, and in less than a week from that time the bare red soil would be covered with springing vegetation, three or four feet high. Here the mango trees, that we had seen in flower at Cairns, were already bearing the yellow globes of their fruit. Among a grove of coco palms we saw the picturesque corkscrew palm, with its odd spiral stem, but we saw no animal life, except a few peeweets of the smaller kind, though our host said the flocks of wild geese, that herald the coming of the rain, had already begun to pass overhead. He also pointed out a spot on the road, in which a short time before, a large kangaroo had run out of the bush and, startled at seeing him, cleared his horse’s head at one bound.

At the entrance to the Botanical Gardens we saw our first banyan tree, bare of leaves, and showing the curious formation of the branches. Later we passed one that had already burst into leaf. The drive afforded lovely glimpses of the harbour, its bright blue waters lapping the green, wooded shores. In the Botanical Gardens there were as yet few flowers. The scarlet coral-tree was there, and another scarlet flowering tree, and some waxy, red hibiscus. The Administrator and his wife received their guests upon a lawn, that had somehow retained its grass, and we then satabout at little tables, and were waited on by the young daughters of the residents; and anyone seeing their pretty bright faces and healthy colour, would feel that the much-abused climate of Port Darwin had been greatly vilified. The scent of a wood fire was wafted over to us, from where the billy tea was boiling on some logs. The air was delicious; but we had not started till the heat of the day was over, for, owing to the unfortunate detention at Townsville, our stay at Darwin, a place of a hundredfold its interest, had been lamentably curtailed. We had hoped to see something of the native life. Here the native population has retained its primitive simplicity. The natives of the interior do not come into contact with other races. They are, unfortunately, dying out, like the native Australian animals, for what reason is not definitely known. The Commonwealth Year Book for 1912 gives the total number of the native population of the Northern Territory as 20,000, and adds that it is believed they are rapidly dying out. Of these, 1223 were semi-civilised, through coming into contact with, or being in the employment of, European residents.

The Australian native has always been in a different position from other primitive peoples. He has not had to contend either with racessuperior to himself in intelligence, or with savage wild animals. Consequently he has had nothing to sharpen his wits, and remains the most backward race now existing. Professor Baldwin Spencer, the most recent authority on this subject, points out that though the natives make use habitually of numerous kinds of grass seed, which they grind, and make into cakes, it has never occurred to them to sow these seeds and secure a regular crop. And he adds: “In many tribes, at least, this is because he knows nothing of the relation between the seed and the adult plant, and thinks that the latter grows because he makes it so do by magic.” The habits and character, the strange customs and ingenious superstitions of these interesting people have been charmingly delineated in a series of unpretending sketches called “The Little Black Princess,” by Mrs. Gunn. It is a sort of popular Fraser’s “Golden Bough,” and is valuable as preserving a record of the everyday life of the Europeans in the Northern Territory under conditions that must of necessity soon pass away.

We could not hope to see the “myals,” or wild blacks, and it was already drawing towards nightfall. Our host, with delightful resourcefulness, proposed to take us to the local gaol, as it afforded the only opportunity of our making acquaintancewith the natives. It was a question whether we could get there before it was dark. A Government motor-car had just driven up, arrived back from the Daly River. Its driver was having a hurried sandwich, which he must have badly wanted, but he at once consented to take us. It was a powerfully built car, covered with dust, and with no doors, so that we had to scramble in over the sides, which we did with great alacrity. As we were starting one of the ladies who had taken charge of us said, “Of course you will dine with us to-night. Our servants have gone off, and we have got workmen in the house, but that will make no difference, if you will come.” There was the typical Australian hospitality, which is so unlike what we mean by the word. If we had accepted, we should no doubt have had an excellent dinner served on the verandah; but we declined, as we had to dress for the evening lecture, and accepted instead an invitation to supper afterwards.

This point satisfactorily settled, we proceeded to the gaol. The gaol looked very clean and new and official. Its gates were closed, and some scarlet hibiscus was in flower by the fence. On a look-out station a sooty black man was keeping watch with a telescope for incoming vessels. The prisoners had all gone to bed for the night,but they were fetched out to make our acquaintance, and lined up in the grounds. Inside it was cool and airy, with black cement floors, to match the inmates. Out they came, the poor gaol-birds, wild things of the woods, with the limitless forest to roam over, cooped up in a cell for following the natural bent of any wild animal to fight and kill. They have little sense of time, and their sentences are not for long; they spend nearly all their day in the open air. They stood in a pathetic little row in their dark blue prison dress, with their sooty, shaven heads. One was in chains, as being held to be dangerous and likely to give trouble. There seemed to be different types, some of them were much flatter-nosed than others. Most of them were in for murder; in two cases it had been provoked by cruelty. In one of these a white man had justly earned the hatred of his black neighbours. The case, said our friend, had been very well got up.26It was proved that the dead man was fishing for bêche-de-mer27one moonlight night; the natives whom he had injured lay in wait for him, and speared him to death. Morally they werejustified by their own code, but the forces of order were obliged to assert themselves.

Life sentences are imposed for murder, but the prisoners are always released, the period of their detention depending on their good behaviour, for often they pine away in captivity.

Looking at these simple, childlike, confiding creatures, who play marbles for amusement, one felt that any white who could treat them cruelly deserved all he got. Only one of them looked at us with the gloomy, smouldering eyes of a caged animal. The others all greeted our host with beaming confidence. One man’s skull was deeply cleft horizontally for about two inches. “By a black fellow,” he remarked without resentment. Another from Pine Creek was asked what he was in for. “Longa fight Chinaman,” he responded with a reminiscent chuckle of satisfaction. It was the last amusing thing the poor fellow had done. Another was in “longa kill Chinaman,” as he unconcernedly explained. Our friend with the cleft skull had committed a very cruel murder. After acting as guide to a white man in the bush, he followed him secretly for days, and finally murdered him in his sleep for the little food he had got left, and he was almost starving at the time. We had come from England and must return, our host told them. “Nosavvy,” they replied vaguely. So we said good-bye to our poor little dusky brothers, and turned back to the Botanical Gardens to recover the Government cart and horse. At parting, our driver took out of a native basket a little collar of coloured beads made by the natives up the Daly River, and gave it to us as a memento of our brief acquaintance.

ANT-HILLS.

There were only three cars in Darwin, and the snorting noise made by the one in which we returned awoke our horse to such terrified and mettlesome curvetting, that we could only remount the seat with considerable difficulty. We drove back through the gathering dusk with flying foxes soundlessly flitting across our path. By the time we reached the jetty darkness had come on. We had to make a hasty change, and after a hurried dinner, we started back again in the heavy, moist, scented darkness to find the hall in which the evening’s lecture was to be delivered. It was very funny to find that early closing was compulsory in Darwin. Chinatown must hate it. The little shops were half lighted, and in the dusk seated figures like small Buddhas were dimly discernible outside. A strong, Oriental smell hung over it all.

We shall always remember the scene of the lecture in the Town Hall. The moist heat, thelittle red ants that swarmed on the floor, above the voice of the lecturer, the frail rattle of the grasshoppers outside insistent and unceasing; and the white-clad rows of men, gravely, unwaveringly attentive.

After the lecture the kindly lady, who is the wife of the Administrator, proposed a delightful scheme of giving us an early breakfast at seven, and driving us out to the nearest native compound. How exquisite the freshness of morning would have been in that tropical country, and how full of interest and novelty the whole expedition. We were only too eager to go, but there were depressing rumours of our departure at dawn. We were now to visit our hostess of the afternoon, and, guided by our host, we stumbled across what they called a paddock, which seemed to be full of tussocks of some dead weed that smelt like horehound.

The stars were brilliant, the Southern Cross pointing our way as it hung just above the dark roof of the house. At the entrance to the garden was a banyan tree, and there were green ants’ nests among the leaves of the other trees, neatly sewn up like long, narrow bags, and green ants with red legs were running about everywhere, even on the window-sills. We sat on the verandah, and were given buffalo tongue sandwiches, whichhave an agreeable, esoteric flavour, quite incomparable to anything else. It was all very pretty and comfortable, despite the absence of servants. The Port Darwin housewife has to wage an active and unceasing warfare against insect pests. Food cannot be left on the table for a short time without ants swarming on it. Large cockroaches three or four inches long lurk behind furniture; the destructive silver fish conceal themselves in unopened drawers, and mosquitoes make life a continual irritation, unless ceaseless precautions are taken. Still, active vigilance will reduce all these pests to a minimum.

The pleasant evening slipped away too soon. It was time to return to the port. We strolled back through the mysterious night, moist and warm and scented by flowering frangipani in the gardens of the dimly seen bungalows. Our boat lying below in the harbour was a blazing patch of light; the glow of a distant bush fire lit up the opposite coast; and that was all—all that we saw of the Northern Territory, mysterious fascinating, and beautiful, with its vast and intricate problems of labour and climate waiting solution. For with early morning we slipped away from its red and green shores, just as the rising sun had crimsoned all the glassy sea. Thatis our last memory of Australia, and of all the places we visited it was Port Darwin that we were most loth to leave, for we somehow felt that Australia had kept her best till last.

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