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Australian-sponsored Settlement Dedicated in Dead Sea Area

August 30, 1963
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Construction was underway today on a settlement sponsored by the Jews of Victoria, Australia, in an area south of the Dead Sea town of Sodom. Construction began after laying of the cornerstone for the settlement, Neot Hakikar, which was started four years ago by a small group of settlers seeking to prove that the huge wasteland south of the Dead Sea could be tilled.

The ceremony was addressed by H. E. Bolte, Premier of Victoria, on behalf of Australian Jewry, and former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. The Jewish National Fund gave 25, 000 acres to the settlers for a date plantation, a vegetable farm and cattle pasture, Mr. Ben-Gurion noted that Australian Jews were planning to finance a complex of structures to be known as Nachlat Victoria.

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