“Coonatto is a very orderly station.
The buildings are arranged in quadrangular form, and the whole enclosed by walls and gates, so that the interior resembles a small town, the various offices being arranged in their proper streets, and in some places grouped into courts.
Everything connected with Coonatto bears the same token of cleanliness and care.
The bachelors’ Hall, usually the sleeping place of strangers, is here a bedroom as good as any hotel can furnish.
The house is noted as the best residence in the north, and its owners among the most hospitable and best-bred people in the colony…here in the midst of a desert, we had a dinner which the most fastidious Londoner could not despise.
The following morning, I had a much better view of the vicinity of Coonatto, which might be expressed in one word…desolation.
Partly enclosed by hills, but all bare cheerless, for hardly a tree is to be seen, a little water and that brackish, soil barren and unfruitful, despite all attempts at tillage.
What can be done with this land? What is it for, but a good sheep farm?”