Abstract
FOR more than a century the British Government, the colony of South Australia, and the Australian Commonwealth have attempted to develop the half million square miles contained within the Northern Territory. More than £17,000,000 has been expended in the effort, yet to-day the entire population consists of some 3,000 whites, 800 yellow persons, 900 half-castes and probably 20,000 aboriginals. The mining and cattle industries, once promising, have declined. The same state of affairs is found in the tropical parts of Western Australia, where the total non-aboriginal population is less than 2,000. It is only on the patches of richer soil along the coast of Queensland that the population of tropical Australia is relatively flourishing and increasing.
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References
See inter alia, “Australia, Physiographic and Economic”, Oxford. Third edition, 1923, pp. 262–3.
“Tropical Australia”, Aust. Quart., No. 21, 64–72, March 1934.
Quoted by A. G. Price, Amer. Geog. Rev., 23, 371, July 1933.
D. B. Dill and others, “Physical Performance in Relation to External Temperatures”. Fatigue Laboratory, Harvard University, 1931.
“The History and Problems of the Northern Territory, Australia”, Adelaide, 1930.
Amer. Geog. Rev., 23, 353–371, July 1933.
“The Pioneer Fringe”. New York, 1932, p. 186.
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STAMP, L. The Future of Tropical Australia. Nature 135, 136–137 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135136a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135136a0