Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955), Thursday 21 May 1953, page 1


Minister to visit Beef Areas,

THOSE "UNTAPPED RICHES

MAY YET BE EXPLOITED

Interest by Government departments and in-vestment by private companies in the Territory's pastoral and mineral industries is continuing to boom. The days of promises may yet give way to those of achievement, because

. Territories Minister, Hasluck, is to tour Territory cattle country next month;

. The aerial search for radio-active minerals is to Start again;

. A private company is actively searching the northern coastline for valuable black mineralised sands;

. Irrigation and pasture prospects in the Centre are to bè investigated by Victorian expert.

The Administrator, Mr. F. J. Wise announced yesterday that Mr. Hasluck in company with other Federal Ministers, would arrive at Brunette Downs in the Barklys in time for the stud stock sale on June 23rd/ His party would travel : west on

June 27th, passing by Newcastle

Waters, the Murranji track, Wave Hill, the VRD, the Kim-berleys.

Mr. Hasluck's route will tra-

verse some of the meat de-

velopment roads; constructed in the last few years, said Mr. Wise."I was recently in the area", he continued, "and I understand that this Minis-terial visit could have a farreaching effect on Government decisions concerning road-mak-ing, stock transport and beef production."

Also to visit the Territory shortly is Mr. J. A. Aird, a Commissioner of the Victorian State. Rivers and Water Supply Commission.

Mr. Aird's visit next week is to be made at the request of the Department of Territories. He is to investigate, in con-junction with N.T. Administra-tion Lands and Animal indus-try officers, the prospects of pasture growing under bore ir-rigation. He will be concerned largely with tne area around Alice Springs.

On the mineral front, big moves are being made by the Bureau of Mineral Resources in its large-scale ground and aerial prospecting for radio-active ore. in addition, the Dowsett En-gineering Co. (Sydney) is ac-tively engaged in tne search for zircon-bearing beach sands along the northern coastline. (Zircon-and associated rutile

-is very important in heavy industry metallurgy).

Scintillometer surveys from aircraft are to continue next month, and upwards of 100 men are thus engaged on ground and air Mineral Re-sources prospecting. Ground purvey camps are being estab-lished near Darwin and to the south-one such camp already has a staff of fifty including geologists and geophysicists. These men aim to investigate the 100 new indications of radio-activity located in the aerial survey so far.

Dowsett Engineering are also employing skilled , geologists and hope to find black sand deposits such as have already foeen found by Bathurst Is. missionaries.

ON THE DEBIT SIDE

All these four preceding items can be put on the credit side of N.T. development, bat Mr. Wise yesterday told of a grave debit item.

He pointed out that during his visit to the pastoral regions

of he Territory recently he found that Auvergne station (N-W of VRD) had shot 5000 unbranded scrub bulls this year! Auvergne, owned by the Peel River Co., he said, "was strenuously attacking a ser-ious problem on their hold-ings."

The obvious inference from this fact is that much less developed stations like VRD might ffipive four times this

number of cattle which should be shot.

Auvergne's herd is some-thing under 18,000 head.

(Last week Mr. J. N. Nelson MHR accused VRD of having up to 20,000 unbranded cattle on their station).

The colossal wastage in these shootings is a grave indict ment of those "take-all" pastoral companies who have abused their position in the cattle country over 60 years.