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NULLARBOR PLAIN
To the Editor
I am. Sir. &c.,
F G HUGHES
Sir—Some of the passengers on
the trans-Australian train last
week were ready with suggestions
for improving the immense sterile
area known as the Nullarbor Plain
which though distant, must have
much influence on the climate of
South Australia.
At Cook. 31 miles inside the bor
der, a row of pepper trees had been
planted along the siding. These
were growing reasonably well,
though not as luxuriantly as others
planted at Wynbring and Tarcoola.
A schoolteacher myself, I naturally i
walked across to the school at Cook.
A more desolate, uninviting build
ing I have never seen. Through
the windows I saw pictures stand
ing on the floor against the walls.
Children told me these could not
be nun?, for the winds would blow
them down: yet there was no
break-wind or fence of any kind
round the building.
If trees will grow a hundred
yards away, it is worth while try
ing to grow them several deep as
a breakwind round that school. If
the trial proved satisfactory we
might expect that reafforestation
could be attempted successfully
over an area so huge that the cli
mate of Australia would be im
proved by receiving an increased
rainfall with fewer dust-storms.
Such an extensive work would be
a national matter and could be
done only, by the Commonwealth
Government; but the Governments
of SA and WA could encourage pre
liminary experiments at schools
and siding along the railway
through their portions of this vast
territory
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