Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1890 — QUEENSLAND'S WONDERFUL WELL. [ARTICLE]

QUEENSLAND'S WONDERFUL WELL.

It Throws a Fountain of Water a Hundred Feet Into the Air. The artesian well at Charleville, on the Warrego Biver, Queensland, iB the newe-t and most remarkable instance of the natural resources of marvellous Australia. The well is situated quite nei r the railway station, but in one of the most unlikely places that could have been imagined. Who on earth would have expected that this ar esian well, which is the best in the world, or at all events yields the largest amount of water, was sunk on the top of a sandy hummock? Yet so it is. Tne site was chosen by the hydraulic engineer, J. B. Henderson, lor jeasons only known to himself, but which have been amply justified. Crossing the swampy flat le ding to this hummock, attention is drawn to a wide channel.cut.through the drift sand, and it .6 expla ned that the outflow of water had done this ere the apparatus for controlling it had been obtained. The bore itself looked a harmless enough kind of thing. It might have been taken for a rather hi. h standpipe placed in an idiotic position in the bottom of a hole sixty or sevemy yards long, thirty broad, and ten feet deep. But a moment’s observation showed that the harmle-s-looking standpipe had made the hole. As a matter of fact, the. water when it was tapped rushed up in such volume that it washed away ihe sand around the bore in a few minutes, and cleaned oat the foundations of the derrick and threatened to wreck .the whole contrivance. If they b a d not got a plug in it pretty soon, it would have washed Charlevnle into the Warrego. On top of the nipe there has keen fixed a right-angle bend, so that the water can be turned in any direction. When the visitors arrived at the bore it was 6een that the water was trickling in a tiny stream from this bend into the thirsty sand below, but in a few minutes the scene was chauged. Mr. Woodley, of the Queensland Boring Company, which sunk the well,opened the valve, and with every turn of the wheel the thin stream thickened and deflected from its former perpendicular coarse. Gradually the volume of water increased and began to roar through the pipe almost like steam blowing from a safety valve. Every moment the sight became more interesting, and when the valve was fully opened it was a spectacle to wonder at. Bushing from the bore and by its own force ejecting itself for a distance of thirty feet in a horizontal direction came a column of water white as milk in appearance. In a second or two it churned up the sand before it into coffee-colored mud. This was the first singular thing noticed, for the falling white torrent driving before it, £3 it seemed, the brown mud, produced a whimsical effect like the pouring of milk and coffee into the same cup at the same time. But this did not last long. In a very few moments a little pond was formed, which filled up until the level of the surrounding ground was retched, and then there was seenut first a rivulet, and then a stream rushing down the hillside. When it is said that this well fills a 400-gailou tank in thirteen seconds it can be readily understood that all this did not lake long. The valve was next closed and the right-angle bend removed. On the second opening of the valve there was witnessed a spectacle at once beautiful and majestic, and which was well worth the long journey from Brisbane to see The water rose in a snowy column like a stalagmite of wool to a height of thirty feet, and descended in a hissing torrent so heavy and close as to quite obscure the pipe itself. It was a marvel of beauty, and a picture that will never be effaced from the memories of those who witnessed it. Subsequently a nozzle one inch in diameter was attached to the pipe, and when the water was turned on it ascended in an even jet to a height of nearly one hundred feet, returning to tbo eurth in a heavy shower, or dissipating in mist clouds through which the rainbows played with au effect that was as beautiful as it was wonderful. It seemed that the visitors would never tire of looking at it. They simply stood and gazed, hardly saying a word, for in the presence of this marvellous phenomenon speech seemed poor and commonplace,, and the mind simply gave itself up to childlike wonderment.— The Queenslander.