FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0858.PDF
86o FLIGHT. AUGUST 23, 1934. We take this opportunity of informing our readers that Flight is practising what it preaches, and is send- ing its inland correspondence by air to all the places available on the above-mentioned main airway. Surveying North Australia T AE Commonwealth Government of Australia hasdecided to invite tenders for an aerial and geo-physical mineral survey of North Australia, that is to say, of the northern tracts of Western Australia, of Queensland, and of the Federal Territory known as North Australia. It is stated that £150,000 has been allotted for the air survey, of which the Commonwealth Government will provide half, while the rest will be provided by the State Governments of Queensland and Western Australia. Details of the invitation have not yet been issued, and it is not yet known what area is to be covered, but a rough calculation on a small-scale map suggests that there are anything from 500,000 to 1,000,000 square miles which would be the better for investigation. The object of the survey is to get some guide for the areas which would be likely to repay close examination by ground surveyors, in the hope of discovering mineral deposits. Very little is known about this great water- less plain of Northern Australia, where everyone marvels how the black aborigines contrive to live. There is evidently reason to suppose that minerals are there, and if they can be located then mining industries may be started in the right areas, and then science will make it possible for white men to live there. The difficulty is to know where to start looking for the minerals. To send out surveyors at random into such an enormous desert with elaborate communications by camel train would be an operation which would appal the most enterprising and opulent Government. The aeroplane can narrow down the field, first noting the areas which seem to deserve closer investigation, and then mapping them in detail. As is well known, air photographs often give clear indications to trained surveyors of the presence of minerals in the soil, and these indications are often invisible to the ground sur- veyor. Aircraft can also take the ground survey parties to the most promising spots and can bring up their supplies. To make this great desert productive would be a very great boon not only to Australia but to the world in general, but without the preliminary help of aircraft the task of knowing where to start looking seems hope- less. The Commonwealth Government is to be con- gratulated on its wisdom in deciding to hold an air survey. If they find any mineral fields for a cost of £150,000, their enterprise will have been very economi- cal of both time and money. THE CANADIAN AIR FORCE DISPLAY: An aerial view, looking east along the Ottawa River, of the RoyalCanadian Air Force Station at Ottawa, taken on July 14, where a fine display was given. The visiting Hawker "Junes were much admired. A Picture showing them at Ottawa will be found on page 872. (Royal Canadian Air Force Photograph.)
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
