By D. L. Beetson.
In May last it happened to be my fate to be attached as assistant to an exploring expedition, the original programme being, I believe, that we were to visit the Ruby Fields, returning via Western MacDonnell, round Lake Amadeus, and thence through the Musgrave Ranges to Charlotte Waters. One of the principal objects of the expedition was the obtaining of reliable information from a competent authority as to the geological formation of that portion of Central Australia. Mr. J. J. East accompanied the party as geologist, and to that gentleman I am indebted for much useful and interesting information that I could not otherwise have acquired.
Having been credited with the ability of making a sketch recognisable by those who had seen the spot, I took advantage of the opportunity to outline any places of interest, or characteristic of the country that we came across, and making a few notes on the same that might be interesting in “the sweet by and bye,” when time shall have laid his hands heavily on me, and when these parts of Central Australia have ceased to be to the public a terra incognita.
Leaving Anna Creek Station, the then terminus of the railway line that will traverse the centre of Australia to the North Coast, we struck off to the North-east towards the old mail track, so as to work on to the eastern side of the Peake Ranges, which form the western border of the great salt basin, known as Lake Eyre. Having visited this country several times previously, it had long since ceased to be in any way interesting to me, so I had to depend on a companion who had never seen these parts, for expressions of interest, curiosity, surprise, admiration, pleasure, wonder, enjoyment or disgust, as the case might be, that would escape from the average mortal on travelling on camelback over a thousand miles of country for the first time. I was, however, disappointed in him ; he was a humorous little fellow ; but he had travelled ; and after one or two expressions of curiosity during the first day, I never heard him use any adjectives, excepting in the expression of his intense disgust. But then the man was a Scotchman, and perhaps that accounts for it. One of the first things that strike one after leaving the Hergott Springs Railway Station is the levelness of the horizon, only broken here and there by tent-shaped hills, about seventy-five to one hundred feet high, rising at an angle of 45 deg. from the plain, perfectly flat on the top, and devoid of vegetation, excepting perhaps a few almost dead bushes, two or three feet high. These hills are seldom more than from 100 feet to 200 feet on the top, and usually rise from a bed of gypsus clay, on which nothing whatever will grow, and the appearance of these mud banks, with the sun being reflected by innumerable slabs of gypsum, generally calls the stranger to inspect more closely, and he probably comes to the conclusion that in former times Lake Eyre and the surrounding country, for a radius of some hundreds of miles, was an inland sea, with a bottom fairly level, and rising almost imperceptibly from its present centre to the north, south, east, and west. By the evaporation of ages, it has at last become but a salt bed, the other portions indicating a geological formation of ponds, sandy mud and clay, resting on primary rocks or gravel beds. The rains of ages in finding their level from the highest parts of this slope have acted with remarkable uniformity, and cut down through the upper strata to the clay, leaving these but hills or tablelands, with their tops covered with waterworn porcelain stories, polished as bright as my old grandmother’s pet teapot, and in places as level as if the Corporation steam roller had passed over them. As the Register and Observer of August 21, contain a detailed geological description of these parts, by Mr. J. J. East, I will simply confine myself to the few sketches : —
No. 1. — Edith Springs, Immediately under Mt. Margaret.
This was formerly one of the outstations of what used to be known as the Mount Margaret Cattle Run, the head station being at the Umbum Waterhole, a few miles down the creek. From the summit of the Mount one can, on a clear day, see about a hundred miles away to the eastward across the Lake basin. The spring is in a ravine, which seems to be cutting into the hill itself, but takes a turn and winds through the range for a couple of miles, and where I left it, it seems as if at the head of the watershed of this creek was a tableland plain some ten or fifteen miles away to the west.
No. 2.— The Peake Telegraph Station, Police Station, and Cattle Station.
The view of the station, with its background of bare hills, is not particularly attractive, but looking to the eastward it is dreary in the extreme, and one wonders how on earth stock of any sort can live, but as a fact, it is but a short time since they sent some six hundred head of cattle down to Adelaide from this place, and in the old days it was one of the best cattle runs in the North. A short distance from the Station Messrs. Wigg & Co. have taken out some copper claims, which should be easily developed, now that the railway is so close.
No. 3. — Algebuckina Gold Fields.
The Central Australian Exploring and Prospecting Association have taken up mineral claims here, the alluvial diggings having been abandoned for some time. A considerable quantity of alluvial gold was obtained from the surface of the mound between the water and top of the tableland, the gold-bearing strata being a vein of cement from fifteen to twenty feet from the top, and about a foot thick. No doubt the river bed contains the precious metal in more payable quantities, but it cannot be got in the ordinary way, owing to the underflow of water.
No. 4.— Dalhousie Springs and Cattle Station.
These are some of the numerous mound springs of the interior. These mounds are probably formed thusly:— The underground waters flowing beneath the clay, from the higher slopes of the interior, come to the surface, bringing with them a quantity of carbonate of lime in solution, which was taken up by the water when under great pressure from above. Arriving at the surface the lime forms a coating, this being constantly added to by the calcareous waters from below, and the ever shifting dust above, finally builds up the mound round the spring.
No. 5. The Macumba Cattle Station, Stores, &c., on the Macumba, or Alberga.
This is a typical river of the interior. Its bed is full of porcelain gravel, but the bottom of the – channel is of blue clay. Hence in the wells sunk in these creeks sufficient soakage water is obtained for ordinary purposes.
No. 6.— Is a typical stretch of country north of Hergott Springs, of which I have already given a description.
The Pictorial Australian, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, December 1, 1888