Parliamentary Papers

AUSTRALIA.

on the unappropriated waste lands of the Crown in the said hundred [or said portion of a hundred], from the 1st day of July 185 to the 30th day of June 185

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

No. 3.

COPY of a DESPATCH from Lieutenant-Governor Sir H. E. F. YOUNG to the Duke of NEWCASTLE.

(No. 6.)

My LORD DUKE,

Adelaide, May 27, 1853.
(Received August 20, 1853.)

In my Blue Book Despatch of the 7th May 1852, I alluded to the enlarged field for pastoral pursuits which would probably be soon opened up northwards in South Australia by private enterprise.

I have now the honour of enclosing a tracing, showing the positions of the new runs taken up in the district north of Mount Remarkable.

The majority of these new runs, comprising 1,500 square miles, have been claimed since the beginning of the present year, and their further settlement is much retarded by the prevailing difficulty of procuring shepherds and herds

men.

The new country reaches 210 miles northwards from Mount Remarkable up to Mount Serle in latitude 30° 28', longitude 139° 15', and the country to the east and north-east of Black Rock Hill is reported to be likely to be occupied eventually to a great extent.

Mr. Williams, the settler who has advanced farthest in this direction, as shown in the accompanying tracing, has found springs of water in several places, and is sanguine of the existence of a practicable route of 150 miles across from his station to the river Darling.

The total area of this new country may then be reckoned at about 60,000 square miles, that is four times greater than the extent of all the pastoral country hitherto occupied in South Australia.

The future imports and exports of this extensive tract will possess a convenient sea port (westwards) at Port Augusta, at the head of Spencer's Gulf, and eastwards the conveyance of produce will be in all probability most conveniently effected by the steam navigation of the river Murray from its junction with the river Darling.

Port Augusta is described in an official report of the 8th June 1852, by Mr. Grainger, member of the Legislative Council, and by Mr. A. L. Elder, formerly a master in the merchant seamen's service, as "a very superior landing place, with steep hard banks and solid ground approaching to the water's edge, with a depth of five or six fathoms, and a breadth equal to that of the "north arm at Port Adelaide;" and in January 1853, Mr. Nation, the master of the colonial government schooner "Yatala," described "the anchorage as "excellent, capable of accommodating a great number of ships in about three "or four fathoms water, sheltered from all winds, and perfectly smooth, the "approach good, easy of access, as also the landing."

I enclose a tracing of that portion of Spencer's Gulf in which Port Augusta is situate, with the soundings in fathoms. I take leave to suggest that these tracings may be communicated to Mr. Arrowsmith, who, independently of the district maps sent to him to be engraved, was furnished with a general map of the colony on a scale of 20 miles to one inch; and that the tracing of the chart of Port Augusta, with the above observations on the capabilities of it as a place of shipment, may be also sent to the Hydrographer of the Admiralty.

I take this opportunity of stating that Sir Francis Beaufort, in accordance with his own request recently received, will be furnished with a revised compilation of the sailing directions for the ports of South Australia.

The Duke of Newcastle,

I have, &c.
(Signed) H. E. F. YOUNG.

&c.