21 FEBRUARY 1925, Page 9

WHITE WOMEN IN THE AUSTRALIAN TROPICS

" CAN white women make homes and rear families in the tropical parts of Northern Australia ? " "They can, and they have," is perhaps the best answer to this oft repeated question. It can be backed by per- sonal observation, by information gathered from women who have spent the best part of their lives in the Northern Territory, and by facts stated at a recent Medical Congress at Brisbane.

During the winter of 1921, when Stefansson, the famous Canadian Arctic explorer, decided to make an expedition into Central Australia and the Northern Territory, I,. as the woman member of his party, was commissioned to write of what I saw from a woman's point of view. Before we left so-called civilization I was told repeatedly it was " no trip for a woman." Behind this was the old idea that it was " impossible for the white woman to live in this part of the Commonwealth." There was a general opinion, too, that most of my stories on return would be " hard luck " ones, culled from women who had been forced by Fate to live far away from cities, amidst what were supposed to be impossible Climatic conditions.

. Before we had been a day out on the journey we realized that most of the difficulties, adventures and hard- ships existed only in the imaginations of the people who were content to live in cities and " imagine the worst." On we journeyed northwards until we found ourselves almost 1,000 miles north of Adelaide. This is not the place to expand on the scenic, geological, botanical features of that trip. It will suffice to say that every member of the expedition felt an immediate improvement in his general health after enjoying the air, which had some wonderful, exhilarating quality, the sunshine and the freedom of the glorious open-air bush life.

But what impressed all was the healthy, contented, happy appearance of the white women we met at the different stations on the way. Talking with every one it was impossible to get even a glimmer of a " hard luck story." They were not posing as cheerful martyrs. They insisted one and all that they " loved the life," that it was " better than city life," that they found it " healthy for both themselves and their children," and that they " did not mind the heat." If one woman had told these stories it might have been possible to think of her as an interesting exception, but women who lived hundreds of miles away from each other all had the same point of view. As Mr north as Alice Springs, where the total white population numbers twenty-five, the women and their children all presented a healthy mental and physical appearance. Their homes were well kept and exceedingly comfortable. If they suffered from lack of domestic help they did not stress the fact in the way of city women. They had gardens which they tended with great interest and in which were to be found flowers and vegetables. What was particularly significant and interesting was the fact that, although they were living at a spot where the mail and merchandise only came on camels once a month, they were smartly dressed and interested in all things per- taining to fashion—a something that does not go with the woman who lives in unhealthy and uncongenial surroundings.

All these women lived in tin-roofed houses which lacked modern conveniences of any kind, and which must have been unbearably hot in summer time ; but it did not seem to occur to them that stone ones would have been better, One woman who had lived for a long time in Sydney told me she did not find the heat of the Northern Territory any more trying than that of the capital of New South Wales.

One day I did manage to extract some information about a dust storm which had raged for four days, and which was so severe that " you could not see your hand before you." The woman who told of it confessed that " when it came to getting the house clean again " she had to use a shovel instead of a broom. But she regarded even that philosophically, saying, " But you have the fogs in London," suggesting that the perfect climate did not exist.

In one Far North locality we came across a family of white people who had lived for the past twenty years in the same spot, and who insisted that they " did not want to live anywhere else." There were three children in that family—two girls and a boy—all fair-haired, with pink and white cheeks like English children. The baby was nine months old and had been born at the homestead without medical assistance—the nearest hospital was more than 900 miles away. But nobody seemed to regard that as an exceptional occurrence. The woman was healthy and child-bearing was natural. That was all there was to it !

Of course, it would be absurd to regard these women, who have the true pioneer spirit that has helped to build up the outposts of the Empire, in the same way as one would regard the city-bred woman, who lacks initiative, who is unwilling to face hardships such as are found in any out-back world, no matter what the climate may be. But they are a living proof that life in the tropical portion of Northern Australia is possible for women and children, and is even a happy, health- giving life.

Then to conic to the story of the woman who has lived for a long period in the Northern Territory. Quite recently the English wife of an Australian settler at Darwin wrote to a Southern paper, in reply to a published statement which said " the climate of the Northern Territory prohibits the white family life as we know it."

She stated that with her husband she had been living in the territory for more than sixteen years. Five of their six children had been born there, and, according to the mother, " healthier children could not be found." After giving details of her domestic life—a busy one carried on without much assistance—she continued : " I have proved from practical experience that a sensible white woman's life can be lived in the territory." She told stories of a white woman who had lived forty-eight years in the territory without having a trip away. That woman had reared her children, and had lived to see her grand-children and great-grandchildren. In a calm, practical strain the Englishwoman reiterated : " The territory is a white man's country. I would not live south again after the free, open air, healthy life I know here."

The Report of the Medical Conference at Brisbane contains such statements as : " There is no evidence indicating that tropical Northern Australia is in any way unsuited for the development of a virile white race." And : " After mature consideration of sources of infor- mation embodying the results of long and varied pro- fessional experience and observation in the Australian tropics, the Congress is unable to find anything pointing to the existence of inherent or insuperable obstacles in the way of the permanent occupation of tropical Australia by a healthy, indigenous white race."

FREDA STERNBERG.