Atlas Page 95
By Sir T. Cockburn-Campbell

Of the third or Kimberley division of the colony much has been heard of late, but its fortunes are all before it, and little more than speculative forecasts can so far be made of its future. Since 1879, when Mr. Alexander Forrest travelled up the Fitzroy, and crossing the watershed of that river, followed the Ord to its junction with the Negri, settlement in the Kimberleys has made fair progress. The explorer’s description of the country was so favourable that it was taken up under pastoral lease with much rapidity, but chiefly by speculators whose sole object was to sell out at a profit. Some few of the leaseholders, however, most of them West Australians, determined to stock the banks of the western rivers, the Fitzroy, Meda, Lennard, and others, and sheep were sent up by sea at great risk and serious expense. Several stations were established by these pioneers, but of late they have had few additions to their ranks, and the further stocking of the district is being left chiefly to the natural increase of the sheep already placed within it. To East Kimberley the Messrs. Durack brought cattle overland from New South Wales in considerable numbers, and there, on the Ord River, several stations have been formed. The distance from settled country is, however, so great, and the consequent cost of stocking Kimberley runs and making the necessary improvements so heavy, that notwithstanding the admirable character of much of the pasturage in these new districts, they have not hitherto proved so attractive of squatting enterprise as was expected when first their resources were made known. With the probable large approaching development of the Kimberley reefing industry, however, and the consequent establishment of a local market for fat stock, pastoral industry in that part of the colony may be expected to receive a considerable impetus —more especially cattle-breeding, for which the elevated inland plateaux seem well adapted. No attempt has been yet made to introduce the culture of tropical products on the banks of the Kimberley rivers, nor is it expected that at a greater distance than fifty miles from the coast such industries are likely to be carried on with success. Even on the coast lands it is doubtful whether without irrigation much can be done with products requiring constant moisture.

The country beyond the Leopold Ranges, on the Glenelg and Prince Regent’s Rivers may, however, prove more suited to the purpose than those portions of the district which are better known. Sir George Grey, now of New Zealand, discovered the beautiful and fertile valley of the Glenelg in 1837, and from the account he has given of its soil and climate hopes are entertained that it may support a population devoted to agricultural pursuits. The Kimberley districts present features of much interest, being by no means a mere wide level of fine pasture land. In the eastern part on the Ord, and in the western on the Fitzroy and its neighbour rivers, are rich plains and magnificent alluvial flats in abundance, but in the central country mountain ridges are heaped together in wild confusion, producing scenery of a peculiar and striking character. The high escarpments of the Leopold Range bearing from Collier Bay to the Margaret River, close with their bold outline the heads of the fertile valleys of the west coastal rivers, and beyond them hills and highlands of curious formation and fantastic shape, within which rise the Ord and its many affluents, form pictures of rugged beauty or grim originality. Some of the country is wildly strange in appearance, as for instance the rugged hillocky district through which flows the Panton stream; the great Antrim Plateau with its flat-topped elevations; and the endless peaks of the Rough Range, looking like grouped masses of druidical stones. Then as the Ord River broadens on its seaward course, the scenery softens and forms lovely views of hill a rid dale, melting into the broad grassy plains which gladden the squatter’s eye. To the gold-bearing areas of the Kimberleys and their reefing prospects allusion has already been made, and the latest available information on this subject justifies the most encouraging hopes.

The fourth of the divisions into which the colony has here been classed comprises the vast interior and the coast lands of the Bight. From the explorations of Colonel Warburton in 1873, of John Forrest in 1874, and of Ernest Giles in 1875 and 1876, we are in possession of some meagre information respecting the general nature of this country. It is riverless, but not waterless, supporting throughout a certain amount of animal life and a small native population. In the northern areas between Roebourne and Sturt’s Creek are vast deserts, stretches of rolling sand ridges; but how far south these extend is not yet known. Elsewhere are impenetrable thickets, salt lakes, and other useless country, with occasional oases of good soil and serviceable feed, watered by springs and native wells.

There may, however, be a far larger extent of land in the interior fitted for eventual settlement than is at present supposed, probability being lent to this assumption by the fact that half way between Perth and Eucla, in the heart of the wilderness, a considerable area of magnificent country has been discovered, known locally as the Hampton Plains. These were first visited by Mr. Maxwell Lefroy, who describes them as lightly timbered, with a rich, stiff, dark-red alluvial soil, clothed with splendid pasturage, and sloping into endless mazes of shallow lake bottoms, waterless except in the rainy season. The Hampton Plains, in Mr. Lefroy’s opinion, are "destined to become one of the richest agricultural and pastoral districts of Australia;" and the accounts of them given by latter explorers confirm the favourable impression he received. Half-way between this fertile country and the southern coast, surrounding the Frazer Range, another but smaller area of good soil has been discovered, and is utilised as a sheep run by the brothers Dempster. Eastward of the Frazer Range grassy plains extend, it is believed, to the South Australian boundary. But this belief is based upon mere surmise, want of water having prevented any thorough exploration of the country. In the neighbourhood of Eucla there is some pastoral settlement, and, as far as exploration northward and north westward from that station has been attempted, well-grassed plains have been encountered. The soil on these is not of any depth, and rests upon a porous limestone base in which numerous deep crevices occur. The rainfall is light, but heavy dews freshen the herbage. Every effort, however, hitherto made to obtain water by sinking has been futile, and, until some system of water storage has been successfully resorted to, the Eucla Plains with their apparently almost unlimited stock-carrying capabilities must necessarily remain closed to squatting enterprise.

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