ABSTRACT
The drive to Port Augusta was delightful. With fine weather, smiling country, and sleek horses, I started early one morning for that fine natural harbour which is the gateway to the interior of our Continent, and from whence goes the telegraph-line to Port Darwin, north, and another one, via Eucla, to Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia. It is also the starting-point of the Great Northern Railway, which leads to Quorn, thence to Hawker, Hergott Springs, and Oodnadatta, 688 miles from Adelaide, and the present end of the line which will some day—land-grant system or otherwise—be taken right on to Port Darwin at the extreme north of our great Australian continent. But to return to Port Augusta, named after the consort of King William IV. Steamers are in direct communication with Port Adelaide, calling at all the intermediate ports I have mentioned, and it must be a very pleasant and entertaining sea trip. The exports from the port are varied and rich: wool, wheat, flour, copper ore, copper, hides, skins, tallow, and ostrich feathers—for the splendid ostrich-farm is a feature of Port Augusta district, and no one should go there without seeing it.
