Most of Australia’s wheat still goes overseas in sacks, loaded in ships by belt conveyors, but the grain elevators being built in increasing numbers permit the grain to be handled in bulk at less cost.
The companies operating the world-famous silver and lead mines at Broken Hill and the steel works at Newcastle have been large buyers of American mining machinery and of plant equipment and tools.
American automobiles dominate the market in Australia. Here the motor-car is now regarded as a necessity, especially in the back country where distances are great.
The emu is the national bird of Australia. It is larger than the cassowary, and is often five or six feet in height. It is much like the ostrich, except that its legs are shorter and its body more thickset and clumsy. Its dull brown plumage spotted with gray looks more like coarse hair than feathers, and emu skins are sometimes used for rugs. The cassowaries have no hair on their heads, but the heads of the emus are completely feathered, or I might say haired. The wings are so short that they are invisible when held close to the body. The birds are quite dangerous and can kill a dog or a man with a kick.
Hunting emus is one of the favourite sports of Australia for which dogs and horses are specially trained. The best time for a hunt is early in the morning, when the birds go out to feed on grass. The dogs are taught to catch the emus by the neck, else they may be killed by the bird, which kicks backward or sidewise like a cow. In some sections the settlers try to destroy them, to save the grass for the sheep. They send out men to hunt for the nests and break the eggs. On a back-block sheep station fifteen hundred eggs were destroyed at one time, while in one county of New South Wales ten thousand emus were killed in nine months. In the thickly settled portions of Australia they have been practically exterminated. The aborigines hunt them for food, eating the flesh with the skin on it. They are especially fond of the hind quarters, which taste not unlike beef. Emu eggshells are sometimes mounted in silver and used as milk jugs or sugar bowls.
Among the kingfishers is the kookooburra, or laughing jackass. Its hoarse cry is like a laugh and can be heard for miles through the forests. This bird has a head about as big as its body, but its laugh is a thousand times bigger than both body and head. It says, “Ha! ha! ha! hoo! hoo! hoo!” contemptuously laughing again and again, until at last it puts the nerves of the bush traveller on edge. It eats snakes, lizards, and other reptiles, and for this reason is protected by law.
CHAPTER XX
AUSTRALIA AS OUR CUSTOMER