Melville Island
p. 80 · Read in the full issue
Short-Lived Plan to Place Jews There
THOUSANDS of foreign Jews, driven out of Germany, Austria, Italy, etc., have been clamouring for admission to Australia, and thus causing embarrass ment to Canberra, which does not know what to do with them.
For a time, prominence was given to a suggestion that 100,000 Jewish refugees be placed on Melville Island. This island, 40 miles north of Darwin, is 80 miles long, by 40 miles wide, and contains 1,500,000 acres. It was claimed to be fertile and well-watered, and eminently fit for coloni sation.
Very soon, however, the plan was vigorously condemned by a number of people who personally had visited Melville Island. They declared that it was hot, humid, low-lying and malarious, and most unfit for colonisation. The plan appears now to have died.
It is recalled that, in recent years, a sort of Australian promotion company has held some option over Melville Island, and has been trying to organise a settle ment plan there.