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AUSTRALIA;

3 Populor Srronnd

OF ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES, INHABITANTS,
| NATURAL HISTORY AND
PRODUCTIONS.

WITH THE HISTORY OF ITS COLONIZATION.

Fi) - 7
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———

PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
THE. COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION,
APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,

 

a Cu mepemrere

LONDON :
HOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE ;

| SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES :

77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS;
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AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS,
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AND CHARING CROSS.
 

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER
I. AUSTRALIA : INTRODUCTORY REMARKS .
II. GEOLOGICAL FEATURES AND PHYSICAL ASPECT
oF THE COUNTRY .
IIT. CrivATE, RAINFALL, Danses AND Froovs,
Hor Winbs, &c.
IV. THE ABORIGINAL Tei anranTe
V. NaTurAL History : MAMMALS .
Vi. Do. Brrps
VIL Do. Reprives, FIsHes, Trgrors,
si CAND Natives SEE
VIII. Boraxy: TREES, nnn AND FLOWERING
PranTs :
IX. DISCOVERIES OF THE Pavey Vovioundh .
X. NEw Sours WALES
XI. TASMANIA .
XII. WESTERN ATHIRATIA.
XIII. SovTH AUSTRALIA :—
THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT ADAM BAY
XIV. Vicroria :
XV. QUERRSIAND: .. . ow aii,
XVI. PENAL SETTLEMENTS :—
Tue Coxvicr SYSTEM. TRANSPORTATION
XVII. PASTORAL fe AND Busan LiFe iN Avus-

TRALIA  . ; .
XVIII. Tue Got rmiD. AND he OF THE Goin
DISCOVERIES .

V3 73452

PAGE

20

38
49
69
85

116
125
134
161
177

188
227
249
260
272

285
1v CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE
XIX. EXPLORATIONS OF THE INTERIOR :—
Evans, Oxtey, Hover axp Hume, Cox-
NINGHAM, STURT, MITCHELL, STRZLECKI,
GREY a Lo pa Tae,
XX. PROGRESS OF EXPLORATION :—
Eyre, LErccHHARDT, STURT, KENNEDY, GRE-
GORY, BURKE AND WILLS, STUART, MCKINLAY 324
XXI. Ox tHE FouNpATION, PROGRESS, AND PRE-
SENT STATE OF THE CHURCH THROUGHOUT
THE AUSTRALIAN CoroNzes . . . . . 349

(3
=
PREFACE.

THe object of this volume is to present to its
readers, in a popular manner, such information
concerning the Great Island-Continent of Australia
as may enable them to form a general idea of its
geographical and physical aspect, its aboriginal
inhabitants, its natural productions, and the rise
and progress of the vast British colonies which,
during the past century, have established them-
selves upon its shores.

Unlike all other portions of the globe—with
a flora and a fauna peculiarly its own—the “ Great
South Land” was long an unknown region to the
civilized world. When Europe awoke from the
slumber of the dark ages, and bold adventurous
spirits went forth in their frail ships from Spain
and from Portugal and from Genoa, doubling the
Cape of Storms, and opening up to the nations a
new western world, the Australian Continent re-
mained still undiscovered. No ship ploughed its
silent seas; no foot-fall save that of the wandering
vi PREFACE.

savage broke the solemn stillness of its evergreen
forests. A fair land, of vast extent—bearing the
oldest living forms of tree and mammal, and
peopled only by a thinly-scattered nomadic race
of inferior type—lay cradled and unknown in
the blue Southern Ocean, awaiting the good time
when the finger of God should direct the exodus
of millions of the Anglo-Saxon race to its shores.
Although the commander of the good ship
“ Duyfhen,” in the year of grace 1606, was the
first to discover the northern portion of the conti-
nent, near Cape York, and Tasman, another Dutch
navigator, sailed round the south of Van Diemen’s
Land in 1642, it was not until the renowned Cook
had undertaken his voyages of discovery in the
southern hemisphere, and touched at New Holland
in 1768, that Australia first engaged the attention
of Europeans. On the 13th of May, 1787, six
convict vessels, containing 565 men and 192
women, with a body of 160 marines and their
officers, set sail from Spithead, and on the 20th
~ January, in the following year, the * first fleet”
cast anchor in Botany Bay. During the seventy-
eight years that have elapsed since this company
of prisoners landed on its shores, Australia
has been explored from south to north; and,
in most part, from east to west—great, populous
communities have formed themselves into separate
PREFACE. vii

colonies, each having its own local government,
vet all acknowledging British rule—cities have
been built, vying in splendour with those of
Europe—flocks and herds have stretched in count-
less millions over the green pastures, far away
into the interior—cornfields and vineyards smile
around the settlers’ peaceful homesteads—gold and
copper are dug from the earth in fabulous quan-
tities by thousands of brawny arms— ships of all
nations crowd the harbours—the whistle of the
locomotive startles the old primeval woods—the
busy steamboat furrows the once silent river—
and the flashing wire of the aah has already
girdled half the land.

A recent writer says: “ We do not exaggerate
when we say that the grandest thing done by
England—the chief of her many superb services
to humanity-—is that she has laid, in backwoods
and prairies of the wilderness, as in a hundred
islands, the foundations for future states to be
built up after her own great type, speaking her
own noble language, and inspired by her own
magnificent traditions. English colonization is
really epic in its grandeur; there has been no
such gigantic feat in the whole history of the
world—none so pregnant with meaning—none so
full of happy auguries for the years that are to
come. From these little islands in the grey
viil PREFACE.

Northern Sea, it is our grand destiny to protect the
growth and to shape the course of ‘new Eng-

y

lands ;’ some of them destined, probably, in the
fulness of time to be greater than ourselves.”
Hence it is well that we should make acquaint-
ance with the history, productions, and resources
of a portion of the globe so recently known to us,
and yet so intimately connected with our country
and our race; and one that bids fair to be, in time,
the great centre of civilization in the southern
hemisphere.

G.F. A
AUSTRALIA,

CHAPTER 1.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

   

A
—

THE MURRAY, NEAR LAKE ALEXANDRINA,

   

Vy

{VL TR 70 iii

AUSTRALIA, the largest island on the globe, now
more generally styled a continent by modern
10 AUSTRALIA.

geographers, is situated to the south-eastward of

Asia, in that vast ocean which extends from the

east coast of Africa to the western shores of South

America. It lies entirely in the southern hemi-

sphere, rather more than one-third of its surface

being within the tropics. Its northernmost head-

land, at Cape York, is in lat. 10° 43’ S.; its ex-

treme southern angle, at Wilsons Promontory, is

in 39° 11’ S. lat. ; beyond which lies the Island of
Tasmania, separated from the mainland by Bass’s

Strait. Its easterly limit is at Cape Byron, in

long. 153°37" E. ; its westerly one at Cape Inscrip-

tion, on Dirk Hartog’s Island at Shark’s Bay, in

long. 112°55' E. Its greatest breadth from north to

south is 1,965 statute miles; and its extreme length
from east to west about 2,600—giving a superficial

area of nearly 2,900,000 square miles, or some-

where about three-fourths of that of the whole

continent of Europe.

Australia is bounded on the north by Torres
Strait, which divides it from the large island of
Papua, or New Guinea; and by that part of the
Indian Ocean which is studded with the islands
known as the Eastern Archipelago, the nearest of
which is Timor. On the east it is bounded by
the Pacific Ocean; on the south by the Southern
Ocean ; and on the west by the Indian Ocean.

Formerly the name of New Holland, which
had been given by the early Dutch navigators,
was applied to the entire continent ; more recently
that term was used to designate the western
portion only; whilst that on the eastern side was
POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 11

called New South Wales, by Captain Cook, its
explorer. At the present time, however, the
whole country is more appropriately known as
Australia, a name by which it is now universally
recognized and described.

Australia is at present divided into six political
provinces or colonies, each under a distinct local
government, but all subject to the imperial sway
of Great Britain. These colonies are as follows :—

1. New South Wales, on the southern portion of
the east coast. :

2. Victoria, occupying the south-eastern ex-
tremity of the continent. i

3. South Australia, which lies between Victoria
and New South Wales, on the one side, and
Western Australia on the other; and which, ac-
cording to a recent Act of the British Parliament,
has had its northern boundary extended to the sea
in that direction.

4. Queensland, lying north from New South
Wales, and comprising the north-eastern portion
of the continent.

5. Western Australia, including all that vast
extent of territory lying to the westward of South
Australia.

6. Tasmania, being the island of the same name,
and formerly called Van Diemen’s Land, which
is situated off the southernmost extremity of
Australia.

The whole of the coast line of this great extent
of country has now been carefully examined and
explored; and our knowledge of the interior has
12 AUSTRALIA.

been of late years considerably increased, and its
general features understood, owing to the exertions
of the numerous explorers who have from time to
time penetrated the continent in all directions, and
have latterly succeeded in crossing it from south
to north. The only portion of the country of which
we still have no knowledge whatever is the region
extending from Central Australia towards the west
coast.

The principal mountain ranges are those ex-
tending parallel to the east coast, which terminate
in the Australian Alps, and form the great Eastern
Cordillera, in which most of the important rivers
take their rise. In the south-eastern portion of
the continent there is a range of mountains near
the coast, running east and west. There is also a
high range flanking Arnheim’s and Tasman’s Land,
in the north-west; and a mountain belt extends on
the west and south ; so that the whole of Australia
may be said to be surrounded with hills and ele-
vated plains, at a distance of from 50 to 140 miles
from the coast, of various elevations, alternating
from a few hundred to 6,900 feet in height. The
only exception appears to be onthe north-west coast,
from lat. 16° to 21°, where there are low sandy
beaches, with no appearance of high land behind
them. The rivers which flow to the coast, with
the exception of the Murray, have their origin on
the outer side of the mountains. Most of the
streams emanating from the side next the interior
lose themselves in its vast desert and sandy plains.

There is perhaps no country in the world with
PHYSICAL FEATURES. 13

8,000 miles of coast line that has so few navigable
rivers. Descending from the mountains, most of
these streams run, for a considerable distance north
and south, parallel to the range; so that they have
frequently a lengthened course, though the direct
line from their source to the sea is only a few
miles. The most important are those which belong
to the eastern half of Australia, the western half of
the continent being almost destitute of rivers
thronghout the greater portion of its territory.
Those falling into the sea on the north coast are the
Albert, the Roper, the Adelaide, and the Victoria.
On the east are the Burdekin, the Fitzroy, the Bris-
bane, the Clarence, the Richmond, the Tweed, the
Manning, the Hunter, the Hawkesbury, the Shoal-
haven, and others. On the west is Swan River,
with the Prince Regent and the Glenelg on the
north-west. On the south are the Yarra Yarra and
the Glenelg, together with the Murray, the most
considerable river of all, which takes its rise in
the Australian Alps, and its stream is perennially
supplied from the melting of the snows which
cover their summits. In the early accounts of
New South Wales we meet with mention of the
river Hume; this was the upper part of the
Murray, so named from Mr. Hume who discovered
it. It has a long winding course; but a con-
siderable part of it is margined by an alluvial
soil covered with lofty trees, and intersected by
narrow lagoons, which render it often difficult to
approach the main channel. The Murray receives
the Murrumbidgee, or “the beautiful river,” the
14 AUSTRALIA.

Darling, the Rufus, and several other tributaries.
The Murrumbidgee runs between banks which
are covered with herbage, vines, and creeping
plants. The whole course of the Murray is about
1,500 miles. Once a year it flcods the surrounding
lands; but both the rise and fall are very gradual.
Captain Sturt tells us that ¢ the natives look to
this periodical overflow of their river with as much
anxiety as the Hgyptians do to the overflowing
of the Nile. To both they are the bountiful
dispensation of a beneficent Creator; for, as the
sacred stream rewards the husbandman with a
double harvest, so does the Mwray replenish the
exhausted reservoirs of the poor children of the
desert with fish.” Most of the smaller rivers and
creeks dry up during the summer, or become
merely a chain of deep water-holes. There are
many depressions in the soil in the immediate
neighbourhood of rivers, which are at times filled
with water, forming extensive lakes, whilst at others
they are perfectly dry; they form receptacles for
the overflowings of the rivers, and for the streams
of water which run over the surface, after the heavy
rains to which the country is subject.

Although Australia is deficient in rivers, it
possesses many excellent harbours, together
with capacious gulfs and bays, where secure
anchorage may be obtained. The large Gulf of
Carpentaria indents the north coast from 158°
to 164° E. longitude. It has several harbours on
its shores, with Melville Bay at its N.W., and
York Harbour, or Endeavour Strait, at its N.E.
BAYS AND HARBOURS. 15

extremity. Moreton Bay, Port Stephen, Broken
Bay, Port Jackson, Botany Bay, Jervis Bay, Bate-
man’s Bay, and Twofold Bay, are the principal
harbours on the east coast. On the south are Port
Philip, Western Port, and Portland Bay; whilst
further to the west lie the two extensive gulfs
that so deeply indent the province of South
Australia, viz., Spencer’s Gulf and Gulf St. Vincent.
The harbour of Port Adelaide is an inlet on the
eastern side of the latter gulf. Nepean Bay is in
Kangaroo Island, and Port Lincoln to the west-
ward of Spencer’s Gulf. In Western Australia
are the harbours of King George’s Sound, the
Swan, and Shark’s Bay. There are also several
harbours and deep bays along the north-west
angle of the coast, as also on the northern shores
westward from the Gulf of Carpentaria, where
Port Essington and Van Diemen’s Gulf are situated.
Tasmania, too, has some fine bays and harbours,
including Storm Bay, Port Dalrymple, and Mac-
quarie Harbour. The entrances of several of these
bays are marked by prominent and lofty head-
lands, which descend abruptly to the sea; and
there are many projecting capes, some of which
are bold, naked promontories, whilst others con-
sist of broken and precipitous masses of rock.
The most prominent of these are Cape York, at the
extreme northernmost point of the continent ;
Cape Howe, at its south-eastern extremity; Wilson's
Promontory, Cape Otway, and Cape Northumber-
land, on the south coast, with Cape Grim, South
Cape, Cape Pillar, and Tasman’s Head, in Tas-
16 AUSTRALIA.

mania; (ape Lewin, at the south-west corner;
with Cape Capricorn and North-west Cape on the
west, and Cape Londonderry and Cape Van Diemen
on the north coast.

The only island of importance on the Australian
coast is that of Tasmania, which is separated from
the most southerly point of the mainland by Bass’s
Strait. It is about 200 miles long. and nearly the
same in width. The straits themselves are studded
with numerous small islands, and towering pin-
nacles of rock: some of which are remarkable
objects, as viewed when sailing through the
straits.

Kangaroo Island is the next in size to Tas-
mania ; it is situated at the entrance of Gulf St.
Vincent, to which it acts as a natural breakwater.
It is for the most part covered with a dense and
inhospitable scrub, and has but a scanty supply of
water, which is limited to one or two spots on the
island. Following the coast westward, we fall in
with numerous small islands, such as the In-
vestigator’s group, and the Archipelago of Nuyts,
and that of the Recherche—clusters of islets lying
opposite the shore, on either side of the Great
Australian Bight. Houtman’s Abrolhos and Dirk
Hartog Island, so named by the early Dutch
navigators, are barren sandy islands on the west
coast. 2

Bathurst Island and Melville Island are situated
at the entrance of Van Diemen’s Gulf, in latitude be-
tween 11° and 12° S., at the north-west extremity
of Arnheim's Land ; they are divided by a narrow
ISLANDS, 17

arm of the sea called Apsley Strait. Both islands
are of considerable extent, but they are low and
swampy, and covered with impenetrable forests of
mangroves.

There are several islands in the Gulf of Car-
pentaria, of which Groote Eylandt (or Great
Island) is the most considerable. The Bountiful
Isles were so called by Flinders on account of the
number of turtles and their eggs which he found
there. Torres Straits may be said to be almost
one mass of islands, reefs, and shoals, extending
between Cape York and the shores of New Guinea,
and this renders the navigation peculiarly dan-
gerous. In passing through these shallow straits in
calm weather, Mr. Montgomery Martin tells us, “the
beautiful light of the tropics is increased by the
reflection of the nearly colourless bottom, covered
with various mollusks, some perfectly transparent,
others of various hues. Fish of all sizes, shapes,
and colours, are seen ; the voracious shark, eagerly
pursuing his prey ; the turtle, rolling along in his
unwieldy shell ; and sea-snakes of large dimensions
and of glowing lustre may be traced in their rapid,
gliding movements, as clearly as if they were
flying in the air.’

Booby Island lies at the western cities of
Torres Straits, and takes its name from being the
resort of large flocks of gannets, called boobies
by sailors, on account of their stupidity. It is
situated in the ordinary track of sailing-vessels,
and most of the ships which pass between Australia,
India, and China touch there. On this island is a

: B
18 AUSTRALIA,

small building, where are deposited pens, ink, and
a book, in which any memoranda or directions
may be entered. A supply of water, and some
casks of salt meat, biscuits, and other provisions,
are also stored there, for the sustenance of any
boats’ crews who may escape from the frequent
wrecks that occur on the reefs and sandbanks of
the straits. Letters are left here by ships, and
notices entered in the book, announcing the date
of their arrival or departure, the position of ship-
wrecked vessels, and other information of im-
portance.

On the north-east coast are numerous small
rocky islands, some of which are picturesque in
aspect, having beautiful green and verdant spots.
Lizard Island is granitic, 1,200 feet high, with
open grassy plains, and good water. The Percy
and Northumberland Isles are elevated masses,
their ridges covered with pines and other trees.
Keppel Island and Sandy Island lie further to the
south ; and Moreton and Stradbroke Islands, which
are hilly and wooded in places, form the entrance
to Moreton Bay.

A chain of coral reefs of great extent runs along
the whole of the north-eastern coast of Australia,
from the tropic of Capricorn to Cape York, which
is called the Great Barrier Reef. Captain
Flinders, who was wrecked upon one of them
during his survey of that part of the coast, says:
*« Having landed on one of these creations, we had
wheatsheaves, mushrooms, stags’-horns, cabbage-
leaves, and a variety of other forms, growing
CORAL REEFS. 19

under water with vivid tints of every shade
between green, purple, brown, and white. It
seems to me that when the animalcules which
form the coral at the bottom of the ocean cease to
live, their structures adhere to each other, by
virtue either of the glutinous remains within, or
of some property in the sea-water; and the inter-
stices being gradually filled. up with sand and
broken pieces of coral washed by the sea, which
also adhere, a mass of rock is at length formed.
Future races of these animalcules erect their
habitation upon the rising bank, and die in their
turn, to increase, but principally to elevate, this
monument of their wonderful labours.”
20

CHAPTER II

GEOLOGICAL FEATURES AND PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE
COUNTRY.

 

MOUNT GAMBIER.

THE outline of the Australian continent consists
generally of an even unbroken line along its four
sides, having two deep indentations, one on the
north and the other on the south, nearly opposite
VAST PLAINS. 21

to each other: the morthern indentation is the
Gulf of Carpentaria; the southern is formed by
the Gulfs of Spencer and St. Vincent. From the
fact that between these two approaches of the
surrounding sea there extends across the continent
a. vast level tract of recent tertiary formation,
extending to the primary rocks of the mountain
chains east and west of it, geologists are led to
suppose that at a former period Australia was
divided by the sea into two or more separate
islands. The mountain range of South Australia,
running from Cape Jervis north to the lowlands
about Lake Torrens, was probably isolated by the
surrounding ocean at the same period ; the bed of
which former sea is now indicated by the extensive
tertiary deposits of fossil shells, which occur on °
both sides of the primary cordillera.

North of Spencer's Gulf are desert flats stretch-
ing far away into the interior, which consist of
limestone, with recent marine shells and salt water.
Some portions of this desert are sandy, whilst
others consist of immense beds of shingles, without
shells. As the marine fossils of this central tertiary
bed consist of forms corresponding with those
which at present exist in the Australian seas, it is
pretty certain that at some far distant period the
ocean rolled between the eastern and western
portions of the continent.

The mountain ranges of Western Australia are
found to consist of primary rocks; and the cor-
dillera which forms the backbone, as it were, of
New South Wales, and extends from the snowy
22 AUSTRALIA.

Alps to Cape York, is composed of granite, por-
phyry, and other ancient rocks, which have never
been covered by a tertiary sea.

This eastern cordillera, which terminates in the
Australian Alps, takes a westerly sweep near the
colony of Victoria. Some of the highest peaks of
the Alps are covered with snow for a large portion
of the year; and it is from the drainage of these
mountain ranges that the principal Australian
rivers have their supply, but the land through
which they run is generally of a poor nature at
any distance from the banks, as is the case with
the Murray. This river, which, like the Nile,
periodically floods its banks from the melting of
the snow in the mountains whence it takes its
rise, has a wide channel-bed worn through tertiary
flats covered with mallee scrub, the sandstone
cliffs on either side showing vast loyers of fossil
oyster-beds and other shells.

The height of the Australian Alps varies from
2,400 to 4,700 feet above the sea level, whilst
Mount Kosciusko, the loftiest of all, is about 6,900 ;
the view from its grassy summit sweeps over an
area of 7,000 square miles. The rugged and
savage character of these mountains far exceeds
what might be expected from their height. By far
the greater part of the chain, though wooded along,
is crowned by naked needles, serrated peaks, and
flat crests of granite or porphyry, mingled with

patches of snow.
~ There is a large extent of country in the
Portland Bay district, extending westward from
VOLCANIC TRACES. 23

Geelong to Cape Northumberland, which displays
unquestionable evidence of having been, at some
remote period, subject to fearful volcanic eruptions.
Mr. Lloyd, who resided for some years near Lake
Colac, thus describes the peculiar scenery of this
igneous region :— “The beautiful sheepwalks of
the plains, as well as almost every other part of
the district, are studded with conical-shaped hills,
in each of which may be seen large craters, long
extinct, representing a hollow, inverted cone,
from 50 to 100 feet in depth, clothed with grass
and copsewood. In the immediate vicinity of
these—indeed I may say for miles around them—
are to be found quantities of pumice and iron-
stone, the former being light as a sponge: each
mass, however, is perforated with holes, from
having been at some time in a state of fusion. In
the Warrian Hills, bounding Lake Korangamyte,
there are several exhausted craters within a circuit
of five miles. The bottom of each forms a beautiful
little salt lake, fringed with evergreen shrubs,
and covered with an abundance of wild fowl,
which, when viewed from the heights around,
appear like their respective kinds in miniature.
Each sheet of water is divided from its neighbour
by a lightly-timbered grassy bank, twenty or
thirty feet wide at its summit, increasing to a
proportionate width as it approaches the water-
line or level. While, therefore, the visitor is awed
by these vestiges of past convulsions, he cannot
but feel exquisite delight and admiration at the
peaceful and picturesque beauty of the scene.
24 AUSTRALIA.

Countless stony mounds and granite rocks prevail
throughout the lowlands around the Warrian Hills,
as well as for miles about the base of the dark-
frowning Mount Parndon, which is densely wooded,
and contains an immense extinct crater. There,
mixed heaps of pumice, granite, and porous iron-
stone lie in confusion incredible, resembling the
waves of a raging, short, cross sea; yet, in the
midst of all this ancient ruin do stout-hearted
men, with their wives and children, reside in
thoughtless and happy security, not dreaming that
the hand of Providence will ever again disturb
those romantic scenes, or ordain a recurrence of
such fearful visitations; and troubling their
minds with no other thought than the welfare of
their flocks and herds that daily traverse those
intricate and densely-timbered pastures.”

This volcanic region extends into South Australia,
where, in the neighbourhood of the now flourishing
pastoral township of Gambierton, in the south-
eastern extremity of the colony, there exist several
very remarkable extinct craters and volcanic lakes,
of which Mount Gambier is the most interesting
and extensive. The extinct volcano, which is
included in the general title of Mount Gambier,
is a chain of craters, extending nearly east and
west, three of them having lakes at the bottom.
Mr. Angas, who visited this district with Sir
George Grey in 1844, thus describes the scenery
of Mount Gambier:—“ A ride of nine miles,
through a rich country thickly studded with
blackwood trees, brought us to the foot of Mount
MOUNT GAMBIER. 25

Gambier, which is composed of the united shells
or walls of three distinct craters (each containing
a lake of water) that rise in abrupt peaks from a
fertile and level country composed of a dark
volcanic soil. After toiling up the outward slopes
of the mountain at the most accessible place
we could find, the sudden view of the interior
of the largest crater burst upon us, and called
forth our rapturous admiration. It was, indeed,
a glorious and enchanting scene: a vast hollow
basin, rising at one side into a lofty peak, shut
out from the world by the walls of lava that
surrounded it, and covered with emerald verdure,
burnished to an almost metallic brightness on
those eminences that caught the golden tints
of evening, which now lit up with a fairy-like
radiance the eastern walls of the crater. Small
hillocks interspersed amongst miniature plains
and valleys, carpeted with grass of the most
velvet smoothness, and dotted here and there with
a few trees, formed one portion of this enchanted
dell. At its western extremity, terrace above
terrace rose along the edge of the crater; and
caverns of red cellular lava opened in its sides
occasionally. But the most pleasing sight, as we
stood gazing on this scene of natural beauty, was
the deep, still lake that filled the other half of the
crater: its dark-blue waters, never ruffled by the
wind, lay in calm repose at the base of lofty cliffs of
pure white coral limestone, every line of which
was mirrored on its tranquil bosom. Some tern
were skimming over the lake; and several small
26 AUSTRALIA.

lakes or ponds ornamented the green carpet of this
wondrous spot. The declining sun threw orange
- and amber reflections across the sky ; and, as the
light faded away, the steep walls of the volcano
loomed solemn and terrible, the cold mists of
night settled down upon the lake, and the scene
of fairy loveliness was changed to one of lonely
grandeur. All was still save the shrieking of the
podargus; and when the moon rose up from be-
hind the dark peaks of lava, the effect was beauti-
ful indeed ; the soft light bathing every object in
that vapory splendour which adds sublimity to
the landscape. We bivouacked for the night
within the crater, our fires glimmering like stars
along the edge of the lake.”

Thé eastern crater, called the «Blue Lake,” is a
large and deep body of water, of an oval shape,
surrounded by steep banks or walls of volcanic
soil from 200 to 300 feet high, and covered with
verdure and small trees: the descent is so steep
and rugged that it is impossible to approach
the water excepting in one or two places. This
lake is 240 feet deep in the middle, and from
soundings it would appear that the bottom is
flat and equal like a floor. Mr. Woods thus
describes it: “Huge and craggy rocks descend
precipitously for forty or fifty feet. These crags
‘sometimes hang over the water, whose already
dark-blue tint is rendered still more gloomy by
the reflection of their black and stony fronts.
The whole appearance of the lake is wild and
sombre in the extreme. The deep indigo, or
VOLCANIC PHENOMENA. 27

rather inky aspect of the waters, the blackened
precipices, which bear so plainly the tokens of
fiery ravages, the thick and tangled nature of the
brushwood, give the place an air of savage loneli-
ness ; and then the spot is so quiet, so still, that,
but for the splashing of a solitary waterfowl, one
might almost imagine nature to be at rest, tired
with sending forth those volcanic fires which
poured out ages ago.”

The middle lake is merely a good-sized pond of
moderate depth. The water in all these lakes
is of exquisite purity, clear as crystal, and delici-
ously cool even in the hottest days of summer.
The inhabitants of the township now established
in the vicinity of Mount Gambier obtain an ex-
cellent supply of water from a cavern lake; and
many volcanic basins occur in the coral limestone
around, which afford never-failing reservoirs of
the purest water, always obtainable by means of
a pulley and bucket.

This region is peculiarly interesting in a geo-
logical point of view; an extensive coral reef
has gradually upheaved from the sea, through
which have burst forth from beneath it the lavas
and ashes of raging volcanoes. There have been,
successively, a coral reef, a desert, and a burning
mountain, where beautiful lakes now rest, and
each period has left behind it the evidences of
its action.

The imposing crater of Mount Schank rises,
like a truncated cone, rather abruptly from a
wooded level country, a few miles to the south
28 AUSTRALIA.

of Mount Gambier. Its elevation is about 600
feet-above the plain. The ascent is very steep,
and is clothed with grass, and scattered here and
there with shea-oak trees. Unlike Mount Gam-
bier, there is no water at the bottom to give it
that air of placid loneliness which the other pos-
sesses; but on gaining the summit, and standing
on the rim or outer edge of the crater, a grand
and stupendous scene opens to view. The interior
is one vast hollow basin upwards of two miles in
circumference, and so deep that the trees growing
in the rich soil of the windless valley at the
bottom appear like minute shrubs dotted over
its surface. ILooking beyond, the panorama is
bounded only by the blue haze of immeasurable
distance; and the line of the southern ocean
stretches away, until it is broken by the high land
at Cape Nelson. The windings of the Glenelg,
separating South Australia from Victoria, Bridge-
water and Discovery Bays—and the bold head-
land of Cape Northumberland, may all be traced
from the brow of the crater. Heaps of black
cellular lava lie around the base of Mount Schank ;
and at the foot of the cone, surrounded by wild
masses of rock and tangled verdure, is a little
lake of picturesque beauty, which appears to have
been formerly a vent-hole as it were, from which
steam issued during the active period of this
volcano. Now, the trees and flowers quietly
growing on the softened rocks in the crater itself
tell us, by their tranquil growth, that the fire has
long since fulfilled its Author’s work and disap-
CAVES. 29

peared, leaving for ages the black and empty chasm
staring into the heavens, lonely and desolate.

In the limestone country of South Australia
there are numerous caves of great beauty and
extent. Perhaps the most interesting are those
called the Blanche Caves, about twenty-five miles
north of Penola, on the Musquito Plains. The
Rev. Mr. Woods thus describes them :—¢ In the
midst of a swampy, sandy country, plentifully
covered with stringy-bark trees, a series of
caverns is found, whose internal beauty is at
strange variance with the wildness of the scenery
around. The entrance is merely a round hole on
the top of a hill, which leads to a small sloping
path under a shelf of rock. Descending this for
about twenty-five feet, one gets the first glimpse
of the magnificence enshrined below. The ob-
server finds himself at the entrance of a large
oblong-square chamber, low, but perfectly lighted
by an aperture at the opposite end, and all around,
above and below, the eye is bewildered by a pro-
fusion of ornaments and decorations of natures
own devising. It resembles an immense Gothic
cathedral, and the numbers of half-finished stalag-
mites, which rise from the ground like kneeling
or prostrate forms, seem worshippers in that silent
and solemn place. At the further end is an im-
mense stalactite, which appears like a support to
the whole roof; not the least beautiful part of it
being that it is tinted by almost every variety of
colour, one side being a delicate azure, with pas-
sages of blue, green and pink intermingled; and
30 AUSTRALIA.

again it is snowy white, finally merging into a
golden yellow. The second cave or chamber is so
thickly studded with stalactites, that it seems
like a carefully-arranged scene, which, from the
interminable variety of form, and magic effect of
light and shade, might easily be taken to repre-
sent some fairy palace. Very soon the cavern
becomes as dark as night, and further exploration
to the numerous chambers and fissures beyond
has to be made with the assistance of torches.
“On leaving the last chamber we return to the
light: a narrow passage, richly wreathed with
~ limestone, is observable on the right hand going
out. Proceeding a little way down, a large
vaulted chamber is reached, so perfectly dark and
obscure that even torches can do but faint justice
to its beauty. Here, above all other portions of
the caves, has nature been prodigal of the fan-
tastic ornament with which the whole place
abounds. There are pillars so finely formed and
covered with such delicate trellis-work, there are
droppings of lime making such scroll-work, that
~ the eye is bewildered with the extent and variety
of the adornment. It is like a palace of ice, with
frozen cascades and fountains all around. At one
side, there is a stalactite like a huge candle that
has guttered down at the side ; at another, thereisa
group of pillars, which were originally like a series
of hour-glasses, set one upon another from the
roof -to the ground, and the parts bulging out are
connected by droppings like icicles, making them
appear most elaborately carved. In addition of
| TUFA BISCUITS. 5%

this, there is, above and below—so that the roof
glistens, and the ground crackles as you walk—
a multitude of small stalactites, which fill the
whole scene with frostings that sparkle like gems
in the tor chlight. ”

It was in a crevice in one of the outermost of
these caverns that the body of an aboriginal native
was discovered, petrified by the droppings of the
limestone. After it had remained for years in its
stony shroud, an adventurous individual stole the
body, and successfully carried it off for purposes of
exhibition in Europe, baffling all the attempts which
were made by the local government to recover it,
and restore it to its original place in the cave.

At Wellington Valley, in New South Wales,
there are some very fine caves, somewhat similar
to those of South Australia, in which there are
large deposits of the bones of extinct animals.

The tufa ¢ biscuits,” which occur on the flats
about Lake Hawden, and other localities in the
neighbourhood of Rivoli Bay, in South Australia,
are remarkably curious, and have puzzled many
persons as to their origin. They are round, flat
pieces of limestone, of various sizes, as like bis-
cuits as stones can possibly be. Sometimes they
are small, that is, about the size of a penny-piece ;
at others they are as large as an ordinary ship-
biscuit, covering the ground so thickly that
nothing else can be seen on any side. The
Rev. Julian Woods thus accounts for their for-
mation :—¢ It has been already observed, that
the ground is generally pitted over with little
32 AUSTRALIA.

depressions, in which the remaining water col-
lects as soon as the dry weather sets in. These
are the last to dry up. In doing so, a small
quantity of lime and pipe-clay (in which soil
only they occur) gets hardened into a cake at
the bottom. When the summer goes on, they
curl up to some extent, before they are quite
dry, becoming detached from the ground; and,
when quite hardened, the atmosphere and rain
during the ensuing winter give them their rounded
form. That this is the whole of the process
“may be easily perceived by any one who ex-
amines a few of the -biscuits where they are
thickly strewn, and then every stage of the pro-
cess can be seen. Where there is more lime and
pipe-clay, the mud (for such it is) gets detached
in large fragments, and this is the cause of the
large spherical masses. Where they are very
small and thin, they appear to be formed from
a large sheet of hardened sediment, which has
cracked away and become subsequently broken
small by the weather.” In places where there is a
mixture of sand and pipe-clay the soil has frequently
another peculiarity. It is known by the name of
“Dead-men’s graves,” or the ¢ Bay of Biscay”
ground. Large tracts of this kind of soil are
seen covered with mounds, just like graves in a
churchyard. Sometimes these mounds are two
or three feet high, and then they are rounded
in form; but, more commonly, they are no more
than a foot in height, and then they are long and
narrow, exactly like the objects-the name of which
CURIOUS UNDERGROUND PHENOMENON. 33

they bear. They are never seen except where
there is a good deal of surface-water in winter;
and they are probably caused by the unequal effect
of water upon the soils on which it lies, together
with the fermentation, which is the result of the
chemical action of carbonate of magnesia and lime
upon each other.

In speaking of the swamps of the south-east
portion of South Australia, Mr. Woods says:
“There is a curious circumstance connected with
these swamps which have an underground drainage,
which, in any other than a new country, would
surely have been invested with a ghostly legend.
Every evening, during spring and the early part
of summer, distant groanings are heard, like the
lowing of a large herd of cattle; generally, three
such echoing sounds are heard, and then follows
about half an hour’s repose. I believe the sounds
are entirely due to a column of air resisting a
column of water which is draining through the
limestone, and, finally, being driven backwards
or forwards, according to the periodical increase
of the weight of water. To one ignorant of the
cause, the sounds are mournful and startling in
the extreme; and they are not noticed in the day,
probably because there are so many other sounds of
cattle, &c., to mingle and be confused with them.”

In the sandy deserts noises like distant artillery
are frequently heard on windy days. Stuart men-
tions that one morning, when in the interior,
amongst the red sand-hills of that inhospitable
region, he was startled by hearing a loud, clear,

C
34 AUSTRALIA.

reverberating explosion, like the booming of
artillery. In other sandy districts these noises
have frequently been observed; they seem to
come with an explosive echo from the sand-hills,
and reverberate for a considerable time amongst
the surrounding mountains.

Similar mysterious sounds have been heard by
various explorers in the interior: they were
observed by Burke and Wills near Cooper's
Creek; and Captain Sturt, when on the Dar-
ling, in 1828, describes an extraordinary sound,
which astonished himself and party about 3 rp.
one day in the month of February in that year.
He says, “The day had been remarkably fine,
not a cloud was there in the heavens, nor a
breath of air to be felt. On a sudden we heard
what seemed to be the report of a gun fired at
the distance of between five and six miles. It
was not the hollow sound of an earthy explosion,
or the sharp, cracking noise of falling timber, but
in every way resembled a discharge of a heavy
piece of ordnance. On this all men agreed, but
no one was certain whence the sound proceeded.
Both Mr. Hume and myself, however, thought it
came from the north-west. I immediately sent
one of the men up a tree, but he could observe
nothing unusual. The country around him ap-
peared to be equally flat on all sides, and to be
thickly wooded: whatever occasioned the report,
it made a strong impression on all of us; and, to
this day, the singularity of such a sound, in such
a sifnation, is a matter of mystery to me.”
CURIOUS APPEARANCE OF THE TABLE-LAND. 39

Captain Grey thus describes the curious appear-
ance of the table-land on the summit of some of
the sandstone ranges near Hanover Bay, in North-
Western Australia :—‘ Several acres of land on
this elevated position were nearly covered with
lofty isolated sandstone pillars of the most gro-
tesque and fantastic shapes, from which the
imagination might easily have pictured forms
equally singular and amusing. In one place was
a regular unroofed aisle, with a row of massive
pillars ou each side; and in another there stood
upon a pedestal what appeared to be the legs of an
ancient statue, from which the body had been
knocked away.

“ Some of these time-worn columns were covered
with sweet-smelling creepers, while their bases
were concealed by a dense vegetation, which
added much to the singularity of their appearance.
The height of two or three which I measured was
upwards of forty feet; and as the tops of them
were nearly upon the same level, that of the sur-
rounding country must, at one period, have been
as high as their present summits—probably much
higher. From the top of one of these pillars 1
surveyed the surrounding country, and saw on
every side proofs of the same extensive degrada-
tion—so0 extensive, indeed, that I found it very
difficult to account for; but the gurgling of water
which I heard beneath me soon put an end to the
state of perplexity in which I was involved, for I
ascertained that streams were running in the earth
beneath my feet; and, on descending and creeping
into a fissure in the rocks, I found, beneath the
36 ; AUSTRALIA.

surface, a cavern precisely resembling the remains
that existed above ground, only that this was
roofed, whilst through it ran a small stream, which
in the rainy season must become a torrent. It
was evident that, ere many years elapsed, the roof
would give way, and what were now the buttresses
of dark and gloomy caverns would emerge into
day, and become columns clad in green, and
- resplendent in the bright sunshine.”

In many parts of Australia the plains are studded
with large, shallow, briny lagoons, the waters of
which are, during the summer months, converted
into beautiful salt, which glistens in the sun with
a dazzling whiteness.

The Great Salt Lake of Korangamyte, fifty-
seven miles west of Geelong, in the colony of
Victoria, is at least eighty miles in circumference,
very shallow, and excessively salt. The evapora-
tion of its vast surface waters is so great during
midsummer that its boundary line recedes for a
long distance, the parched dry sands reminding the
traveller of some level sea-shore at low tide.
Although the waters of this extensive lake are
so salt as to be undrinkable, yet it teems with
myriads of black swans, ducks, pelicans, cranes,
and other kinds of water-fowl. It is remarkable,
that only four miles from Korangamyte, there is
another lake, called Lake Colac, about five miles
long by two broad, which consists of a beautiful
sheet of fresh water, and has never been known
to be impregnated with salt, even at the driest
season of the year.

Mr. Lloyd says: ¢ During the summer months a
SALT LAGOONS. 37

considerable trade is carried on in the collection
and transport of salt, from the innumerable shallow
lagoons to be found on the extensive plains of the
western or Geelong district to the seaports of
Melbourne and Geelong. Hundreds upon hundreds
of tons of the most pure and snow-white salt are
annually procured from these natural sources,
varying in kind, from that adapted for table uses
to the fine clear crystallized sort, which has proved
of great value in the preservation of beef and
pork.

¢ On that portion of the South Australian coast
which extends between the Lakes Alexandrina and
Albert and Cape Northumberland, and which has,
according to geological evidences, been under the
sea at a comparatively recent period, salt pans or
‘salinas’ are not uncommon. These are im-
mense basins filled with brine in the winter time,
and with crusted salt in the dry season. The salt
in these depressions is generally very coarse and
dirty, somewhat bitter in taste, and always con-
tains a small admixture of sulphates of lime and
magnesia, Round most of these ‘salinas’ there is
a border of whitish mud, of a very fetid odour, and
in this large crystals of gypsum and natron
oceur.”
CHAPTER 111.

CLIMATE, RAINFALL, DROUGHTS AND FrLoops, Hor WINDs,
Buse FIRES, ETC.

 

CHRISTMAS DAY IN AUSTRALIA.

THE climate of so large a space of country as
Australia, extending as it does from 11° to 43° S.,
must necessarily be of a very varied character.
At least one-third of the entire continent is
situated within the tropics, and experiences the
TEMPERATURE. 39

regular monsoon winds and summer rains of
that region. Southwards again is a latitude of
uncertain climate, in which periodical floods and
droughts occur; whilst the extreme southern
portion of Australia, which is exposed to the
prevailing south-west ocean winds, has a climate of
winter rains, and comparatively dry summers.

At Coburg’s Peninsula, in lat. 11° 5’, at the most
northern extremity of the continent, the annual
mean temperature of the air is 82°; in Sydney, in
lat. 83° 51, it is 61° 3’; in Adelaide, lat. 34° 55,
it is 64° 9"; at King George’s Sound, in Western
Australia, in the same parallel as Adelaide, it
only reaches 60° 1’; whilst at Hobart Town, at
the extreme south of Tasmania, in lat. 42° 53’, the
mean temperature throughout the year is 53° 3".

As regards the average and the variations of tem-
perature, the east coast of Australia very nearly
resembles that of the south-west coast of Por-
tugal : thus, Sydney has a mean temperature very
similar to that of Lisbon or ('fadiz. Melbourne, on
the south coast, may be compared with Bordeaux ;
whilst Adelaide, which lies further north, and is
partly influenced by the heated plains of the in-
terior, possesses rather the climate of Northern
Africa.

In the interior of the continent the fluctuations
of temperature are immensely increased. The
heat of the air, as described by Captain Sturt, is
fearful during summer; thus, in about lat. 30° S.
and long. 141° E., he writes: «The thermometer
every day rose to 112° or 116° in the shade.”
40 AUSTRALIA.

Again: “ At a quarter past 3 r.M. on the 21st
January (1845) the thermometer had risen to 131°
in the shade, and to 154° in the direct rays of the
sun.” In the winter the thermometer was ob-
served as low as 24° giving an extreme range of
107°. :

These changes of temperature in the interior
plains are often very sudden and severely felt.
On one occasion, in Central Australia, Captain
Sturt says: “ The heat rose to 110° during the
day, but a squall coming on, it fell to 38° at the
following sunrise ; it thie varied 72° in less than
twenty-four hones? Sir Thomas Mitchell, on his
journey to the north-west interior, had very cold
frosty nights. On the night of May 22nd, the ther-
mometer stood at 12° in the open air! still, in the
day-time, the air was often warm, and the daily
range of temperature enormous.

Owing, however, to the remarkable dryness of
the air, these extreme heats are not nearly so
much felt as if the atmosphere were charged with
moisture, as is the case in tropical countries
generally; were it so, it would be impossible for
men to exist.

During the summer months hot winds blow at
horas from the north and north-west; oc
casionally with furious violence for many hours
together, coming charged with the heated atmo-
sphere of the arid and sandy plains of the interior,
and resembling the blast from an oven. These
are generally succeeded by a violent gale from the
southward, which is termed by the colonists a
BUSH FIRES. 41

“ Brickfielder.” On such occasions the wind veers
rapidly round, and blows tremendously for several
hours, raising, in the towns, blinding clouds of
dust, and carrying before it sticks, stones, and
gravel in its resistless fury. At the same time
the temperature falls so rapidly, that persons who
were languishing with the heat half an hour
previously, are glad to put on a greatcoat, or sit
near a fire. When these hot gales are accom-
panied by extensive bush fires, as was the case on
the memorable ¢‘ Black Thursday,” which occurred
in the month of February 1851, the effects are
terrible and destructive in the extreme. On that
occasion vast tracts of country were on fire along
the southern coast, and the wind, which blew a
scorching hurricane off the land, carried such clouds
of smoke, ashes, and sand along with it, as to en-
velop vessels many miles out at sea in a lurid and
suffocating haze; whilst countless numbers of
birds dropped dead on the vessels’ decks. As the
rolling fires swept on, many a once-flourishing
homestead was reduced to ashes, and many
families were burned to death in their vain at-
tempts to escape from the flames that surrounded
them on all sides. Not a dry season passes but
the country is on fire somewhere. Many of these
bush fires are caused by the blacks burning the
scrub to drive out game; but in the settled dis-
tricts they are generally owing to the carelessness
of persons leaving their camp fires burning, or
dropping matches in the dry grass, which ignites
on the instant. The effects of these fires in the
42 : AUSTRALIA.

forests that clothe the mountain ranges in South
Australia is thus described by Mr. Angas: * The
forests consist of tall primeval trees, their erect
and massive trunks blackened in many places as
high as twenty feet from the ground by the
tremendous fires that sweep through these forests,
and continue to blaze and roll along, day and
night, for many miles in one continuous chain of
fire. These conflagrations usually take place
during the dry heats of summer; and frequently
at night the hills, when viewed from Adelaide,
present a singular and almost terrific appearance,
being covered with long chains of flame, so that
one might fancy them to be a range of volcanoes.”
~~ Mr. Launcelot thus describes a bush-fire in

Victoria : “The emigrant may behold one of these
fiery devastators leaping and sparkling over miles
of country, reducing all it meets to ashes, and
roaring and cracking like a thousand coke fur-
naces. Viewed from a convenient eminence after
sunset, the spectacle is highly sublime, and the
thought how many unfortunate bushmen have,
on these occasions, fallen a prey to the ruthless
element, awakens a shudder of horror. Before
the impetuous conflagration is a paradise ; behind,
a blackened desert. The air is heated for miles
around. Dense volumes of smoke fill the sky, and
put out the bright stars. Myriads of long white
flames are issuing from the trunks of lofty hollow
trees, as from so many pillars of fire. Birds,
snakes, quadrupeds, being driven from their
hiding-places, are all rushing forward, in direful
RAINFALL. 43
confusion, before the coming destruction; and,
commingled with the increasing crash of ancient
gigantic trees, is heard the hissing of serpents,
the screaming of birds, and the wild cries of the
terror-stricken quadrupeds, amongst which the
reiterated hu! Ju! of the kangaroo resembles the
human cough so closely, that the stranger would
take it for nothing else.”

In the Australian climate the rainfall is of an
interesting and singular character. The greatest
fall of rain is supposed to be upon the verge of
the east coast of New South Wales, where the
mean annual rainfall is, at Sydney forty-nine inches,
and at Port Macquarie (two degrees further north)
seventy-one inches; which exceeds double the
average of that of London. On this part of the
coast the wettest months in the year are those of
autumn, viz., March, April, and May. The spring
season appears to be the driest, summer and winter
being intermediate. It is true that drought, or
the want of water, is felt chiefly during the summer,
but this is because the air is then hot and dry, and
evaporation excessively rapid.

In Victoria and Tasmania the rain, although less
in quantity, falls more evenly throughout the
year; but the largest ‘proportion falls in winter
or spring. The same may be said of South Australia
and Swan River, where there is a large excess of
winter rains, while the summers are but little
relieved from drought, except by "occasional
thunder-storms. In those parts of Australia which
lie within the limits of the tropical monsoons, the
44 AUSTRALIA.

rainy season is during summer, when the sun is
overhead, and north-west or westerly sea winds
blow almost constantly. During the winter or
south-east monsoon, the weather is chiefly dry,
because the wind is then off the land.

It would appear that Western Australia, which is
most exposed to south-west winds, and most strongly
marked by winter rains, is also least liable to
variations of the yearly rainfall ; and that in pro-
portion as the southern parts of Australia are
sheltered from the westerly winds, they have a
less preponderance of winter rains, and a greater
liability to prolonged seasons of flood and drought.

While the extraordinary irregularity of the
rainfall in Australia attracts attention, still more
so do those singular eccentricities of the climate
termed floods and droughts, which at uncertain
intervals have impaired the prospects and endan-
gered the lives of the settlers in New South
Wales. In the year 1806, on the 22nd of March,
the great and memorable flood of the Hawkesbury
occurred, at which period the waters of the river
rose ninety-three feet above their ordinary level.
In the course of one dreadful day upwards of
200 wheat-stacks were swept into the stream.
Nearly three hundred persons were placed in situ-
ations of more or less imminent danger, but by
great exertions were mostly rescued from the tops
of houses or trees to which they had climbed.
Several persons, however, were drowned. Cries
for help, and reports of muskets, the signals of
distress, were heard both day and night, and added
FLOODS AND DROUGHTS. 45

greatly 4o the confusion of a scene which was
throughout strange and terrible. An immense
expanse of water, interspersed everywhere with
submerged trees, stacks, and houses, having men,
women and children clinging to them for protec-
tion, and shrieking out in an agony of despair for
assistance, was the aspect the fertile valley of the
Hawkesbury presented on that memorable day.

During the years 1814 and 1815 scarcely a drop
of rain fell on the east coast of New South Wales.
In 1827, 1828, and 1829, there was a long period
of drought, during which the beds of rivers which
had hitherto always had a deep and rapid stream,
even in the driest weather, became totally dried
up, and were traversable for miles: the state of
the country was truly deplorable; not a blade of
grass was to be seen, and the cattle perished in
great numbers. From 1835 to 1839 a similar
state of things occurred; and the season of 1849
was also a rainless one.

The year 1852 was marked by the great flood
which destroyed the town of Gundagai, on the
Murrumbidgee ; and 1853 and 1857 were remark-
able for floods of a serious and destructive cha-
racter. Many marks, often apparently trivial, but
nevertheless significant, have led travellers to con-
clude that the Australian climate has undergone
great and long-prevailing changes. In the maps
of New South Wales is laid down a lake, called
Lake George, of considerable dimensions, and
invitingly coloured blue. When Sir Thomas Mit-
chell first visited it in 1828, he saw a sheet of
46 AUSTRALIA,

water seventeen miles in length by seven or eight
in breadth, a little brackish, but quite fit for use.
Ridges surrounded the lake on all sides, while
four mountain streams supplied it with water. On
his second visit, eight years afterwards, he saw
only grassy meadows extending over the site of
the former lake.

Changes equally remarkable, but more extensive,
have occurred to the rivers Macquarie and Lachlan.
When Mr. Oxley, in the winter of 1818, traced
down the course of the former river, he found it to
spread out at all points from north-west to north-
east, over very extensive plains covered by tall
reeds. The horizon was clear, like that of the
sea. Shortly afterwards he explored the Lachlan
river, and was surprised to meet again with vast
marshes, rendering his further progress impos-
sible. From these facts many were led to sup-
pose that a shallow inland sea occupied the
unknown interior. Yet, when Captain Sturt
visited the Macquarie, ten years later, after the
continuance of the three years’ drought, he found
only an interminable expanse of arid soil, and not
a drop of water.

Every river of Australia is subject to high
floods at intervals often very long; and on the
furthest and driest plains of the interior, explorers
have observed signs of great inundations. High
floods seem to be alternate with long-continued
droughts; but it appears from the evidence we
already possess, that these droughts are almost
unknown in Western Australia, only slightly felt
MEANS OF PROCURING WATER. 47

in South Australia, more so in Victoria, and most
severely in New South Wales.

Water of the purest quality is obtained from
wells sunk in the sandstone and limestone forma-
tions; and, by means of artesian borings, good
water has been found at greater depths in locali-
ties hitherto considered totally dry.

A remarkable peculiarity of the country along
the southern shores of Australia is, that, where
the sea-beaches are bounded by slightly’ elevated
banks, or higher lands, good fresh water may, in
the majority of cases, be obtained by digging to
a depth of one or two feet, immediately above the
line of high-water mark.

In the dense and arid mallee scrubs, where no
surface-water exists, and where there are no ponds
or rivers, the bountiful hand of Providence has
supplied the sagacious savage with a means of
obtaining water from the roots of the mallee
itself. Laying the largest roots bare, from the
surrounding sand, the black fellow with his toma-
hawk will strike close to the butt of the tree, and
from the porous texture of the wood, which is
easily severed, there issues a considerable quan-
tity of fresh and limpid water. Thus the waters
of the mallee-tree enable the untaught savage to
cross these inhospitable regions, in which so
many white men have perished.

During the autumnal months, the heavens at
night are occasionally lit up with the “aurora
australis,” or “southern lights,” which beautiful
phenomenon may be witnessed in its utmost
48 AUSTRALIA.

splendour in the eclear atmosphere of South
Australia. At times, the, entire southern por-
tion of the sky, from the horizon to the zenith,
is covered with shooting and quivering rays of
a brilliant red colour, changing into orange,
amber, or green alternately, and then fading
away into colours of silvery white, only to re-
sume again their original blood-red hue; at
which period the effect is indescribably awful
and grand.
49

CHAPTER IV.

OX THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA.

 

NATIVES ON THE MURRAY, IN BARK CANOK.

As British colonization is gradually spreading
over the Australian continent, so the primitive
D
50 . AUSTRALIA.

inhabitants of the soil are fast dying out, and, in
many places, they will, ere long, have totally
disappeared. Wherever the white man locates
himself, so surely do the inferior races give way :
as the Red Indian and the Bushman have vanished
before the colonists of North America and the
Cape, so will the degraded nomads of Australia
perish in like manner. A wandering race, with-
out fixed habitations, depending on the chase and
on wild fruits and berries for their subsistence,
the aborigines of Australia will soon dwindle
away as their hunting-grounds are converted
into sheep-runs, and their roots and berries are
turned up by the plough of the settler. There
appears to exist, thinly scattered over all parts
of this vast territory, only one race of indigenous
inhabitants, differing but little in physical ap-
pearance, in manners and customs, and in the
general character of their usages and modes of
life; still there are certain habits and observ-
ances which are peculiar to single tribes, and
totally unknown amongst their neighbours. It
is remarkable that each tribe has a language
of its own: these langnages or dialects, though
probably derived from the same root, are yet so
distinct as to be unintelligible to any other tribe.
Thus individuals occupying localities but a few
miles apart, frequently cannot hold intercourse
together; a circumstance which tends to keep
up the clanship and the animosity which pre-
vail to so great an extent between neighbouring
tribes.
THE ABORIGINES. 31

In stature, the Australian savage is generally
below the average height of the European. The
women are shorter in proportion, and their limbs
are not so well formed as those of the men. The
tribes who inhabit the sea coast, and the banks of
the Murray and other large rivers, where fish and
wild fowl are abundant, are more athletic and
better made than those who seek a scanty sus-
tenance amongst the scrubs and arid plains of the
interior, where snakes, lizards, roots, and gum, are
often their only and uncertain food. Occasionally
men are met with who measure six feet in height,
and others who are stout and robust; but these are
exceptions to the mass, who frequently present
limbs that are much attenuated, and forms ex-
tremely slight and thin. Amongst the ill-fed tribes,
the limbs, especially of the young people, are
miserably small and slender, whilst their stomachs
become so distended by the frequent use of juicy
and green food, as to appear unsightly.

The true colour of their skin is so disguised by
dirt, ochre, and clay, as to be hardly discernible :
it is, however, of a purplish copper tint when
clean, though the accumulation of dirt upon their
bodies makes them appear nearly black. Their
hair is black or very dark brown, coarse, generally
in curls, but never woolly. The beards and
whiskers of the men are strong and abundant, and
the whole body is often covered with hair to a
greater or less degree.

Their eyes are universally of a dark hazel, with
very black lashes, and deep overhanging brows;
52 AUSTRALIA.

and the whites are tinged with yellow, and often
“bloodshot, which imparts a degree of savageness
to their aspect.

These people are not wanting in the perceptive
faculties, though in the reflective they are some-
what deficient. The skulls of the women are in-
ferior to those of the men ; they are elongated and
very narrow, the development of the forehead in
most cases being remarkably small. The cheek-
bones are high and wide, the nose broad and de-
pressed, with but little distance between the eyes;
the mouth large, displaying a set of regular and
beautiful white teeth. The jaw-bone is narrow
and the chin diminutive and retiring. Indepen-
dently of their want of cleanliness, there is a per-
ceptible odour about them, which is rendered more
offensive by the use of ‘animal fat and fish oil, with
which they anoint their bodies, to protect them
from the burning sun and the stings of mus-
quitoes and other venomous flies. Occasionally
they may be seen with the entrails of fish upon
their heads, frying in the sun until the oil runs
down over their foreheads and shoulders.

In the summer-time both sexes may be said to
go without clothing, especially when engaged in
the pursuit of game or fish, or roaming about in
search of eggs and roots. In cold weather, and at
night whilst lying beside their fires, they wear a
cloak of opossum or kangaroo skins, which the
women sew together very neatly with sinews.
The tribes on the Lower Murray manufacture
round mats of grass or reeds, which they fasten
MODE OF LIFE. 33

upon their backs, tying them in front, se that they
bear a quaint resemblance to the shell of a tortoise.
In the upper portion of these circular coverings
the mothers carry their children astride round the
shoulders : the sharp eyes of the little creatures
just peep over the edge of the mat, and if alarmed
they suddenly pop down and nestle within its
shelter.

On grand occasions—such as at a fight, or during
a *“ corrobbory,” or dance—the men adorn them-
selves with the feathers of the emu, the pelican,
and the cockatoo, and paint their bodies with
stripes and spots of red and white ochre, which
gives them a hideous aspect. The hair, indepen-
dently of being copiously anointed with grease,
is often plastered with bright red ochre, and de-
corated with kangaroo teeth, fish bones, dogs’
tails, or bunches of reeds or feathers. Some tribes
wear a bone about six inches long through the
cartilage of the nose, and their backs and shoulders
are rudely tattooed with large scars or seams of
cicatrized flesh ; these prominent decorations being
caused by deep gashes made with pieces of broken
shell, and the flesh kept asunder for a considerable
time, and filled with clay, in order that a bulky
cicatrix may remain after the wound has healed.

They never cultivate the ground, but seek a
scanty and precarious subsistence by wandering
over large tracts of country in search of food, where
the soil in its natural state produces but little com-
paratively for the support of the human race. This
mode of life necessarily causes their dwellings to
54 AUSTRALIA,

be of a rude and temporary character. In the sum-
mer-time, a few green bushes broken off from a
neighbouring tree, and stuck in a semicircle into the
ground, constitute their only shelter from the wind.
Under the lee of these bushes they light their
fires, and wrapping themselves in their opossum
rugs take their night’s repose. On the sea-coast,
and in exposed situations, during the winter, they
construct round huts of boughs, grass, and bark,
about four feet high, and open on one side. The
inhabitants of the woods make use of a sheet of
bark, bent in the middle, and placed on its two
ends on the ground, affording shelter to only one
person, the fire being placed a short distance from
the hut.

On the east coast of Australia, where the stone
of the country is in many places of a soft and
sandy nature, and the rocks abound with caves,
the natives have been accustomed, from time
immemorial, to dwell in these caverns. In parts
where they are mow extinct, a very rich soil,
consisting of shells, entrails of fish, and other
animal refuse, is found at the mouth of the
caves, affording evidence of their having been
occupied by a primitive race, no doubt for ages
past. With this soil the early settlers in New
~ South Wales were accustomed to manure their

garden-plots. :

Their principal weapon 1 is the spear, of which
they manufacture several varieties. Some are
long sticks merely pointed, others have one or
more barbs cut in the wood, whilst some are
WEAPONS. 50

barbed with pieces of broken oyster shells, or
sharp splinters of quartz or obsidian, cemented
by means of a resinous gum. The spear is thrown
like a dart, by means of an instrument called a
throwing-stick, having a hook at one end, on to
which the spear fits; thus they can strike any
object at a distance of sixty or seventy yards, the
throwing-stick remaining in the hand after the
spear is discharged. Perhaps the most remark-
able weapon used by the Australian savage is the
‘“ boomerang” —a sort of semicircular, flattened,
wooden sword, which they throw with astonishing
precision and dexterity. Some of these instru-
ments are sa contrived that after taking a circuit
in the air for several hundred feet, they will
return again to the precise spot from whence
they were thrown; others, which do not recoil,
are used for killing ducks. It is a singular fact,
that in some of the fresco paintings of the ancient
Egyptians, figures are represented in the act of
flinging ¢* boomerangs” at a number of aquatic
fowl, as they escape from amongst the papyrus
reeds ; rand Sir Gardner Wilkinson also mentions
this instrument as occurring in the tombs” at
Thebes, in Upper Egypt. In the northern parts of
Australia, where the myall-tree grows, the boome-
rangs and several other weapons, such as clubs and
swords, are made out of its wood, which emits a
pleasant odour, exactly resembling that of violets.
They use shields, either of an oval or triangular
form, which are manufactured out of wood or the
thick bark of the gum-tree, and are variously
56 AUSTRALIA.

painted with red and white ochre. Their tools
are rude and primitive—the ¢mogo,” or stone
hatchet, formed of a sharpened stone fastened
between two pieces of wood, together with knives
made of quartz, or of sharp fragments of shell and
bone, constitute their principal implements, where-
with they fashion their bark canoes, and shape
their spears, clubs, and shields.

. An old writer on New South Wales, about the
year 1803, remarks, when referring to the natives:
“They have some taste for sculpture, most of
their instruments being carved with rude work,
effected with pieces of broken shell; and on the
rocks are frequently to be seen various figures of
fish, clubs, swords, and animals, not contemptibly
represented.” At the present day, many of these
outline carvings upon the surfaces of flat rocks,
representing men in the attitudes of the cor-
robbory ” dance, the kangaroo, sharks, &c., are to
be met with on the headlands along the coast of
New South Wales. Rude paintings of men and
animals occur in caverns on the north and
west coast. Many of these were found by Sir
George Grey, during his expeditions in 1838;
and more recently by Mr. Baines, the artist, who
accompanied Gregory to the north coast.

Their canoes are simple enough. On the river
Murray they consist of a single sheet of bark
drawn together at the ends, and are paddled with
a spear. At Twofold Bay they are also of bark,
but more elaborate, and are kept open at the sides
by means of small bows of wood. They are
FOOD. B57

moved by two small paddles, one of which is
held in each hand. On the north-east coast, the
natives have canoes of a more substantial kind,
carved out of the trunks of trees, and about
twelve or fourteen feet long. They are hollowed
by fire, and shaped with the “mogo,” or stone
hatchet. Most tribes manufacture baskets of grass
and reeds, and also nets for fishing and snaring
game, from the root of the bulrush and the fibres
of various plants.

The aboriginal Australians have no cultivated
food ; their garden is the waste, and their planta-~
tion the trackless forest. They go forth to the
chase armed only with a slender spear and a short
club—a “boomerang” or a ‘ waddy "—depending
more on their own subtlety and acuteness
than on the efficiency of their weapons. At one
season of the year they live chiefly on roots and
~ vegetable productions. In the spring, eggs and
young birds, lizards, snakes, and the larvee of
white ants and other insects, are sought after by
them. The caterpillar of a large species of moth
of the cossus tribe, which is drawn out of its hole
by means of a long twig with a hook at one end,
is regarded by them as an especial delicacy.
Kangaroos and other wild animals are surrounded
by large parties of natives in the scrub, who,
closing on their game, drive them towards large
nets, where they become entangled. Burrowing
animals, such as the wombat, are either dug or
smoked out of their holes. They can tell with
astonishing precision whether an opossum has
58 AUSTRALIA.

recently ascended or descended a tree, the light
scratches made by its claws upon the smooth
bark disclosing the fact. As the gum trees fre-
quently run up to thirty or forty feet without a
branch, they ascend by making holes in the bark
with a small stick, pointed and hardened by fire,
Just large enough to admit the toe, and thus they
climb, from hole to hole, till they reach the
boughs, in the hollow ¢boles’ of which they find
the sleeping opossums. These they despatch by a
blow on the head with their stick, and then send
them tumbling down to their companions beneath.
Ducks, swans, and pelicans are snared in
various ways. Even the great emu is taken by
stratagem by these wily savages. When these
birds approach the spot where they are accus-
tomed to drink at sunset, a number of” natives
concealed by holding large boughs before them,
will gradually creep up towards the emus, until
they are sufficiently near to spear them ; when the
birds are wounded, they rush upon them, and
- despatch them with their clubs. Amongst the
tribes who dwell on the banks of the Murray, the
bulrush root is the staff of their existence—it is to
them what bread is to the European. It is cooked
in ovens over heated stones, in the same manner
as is the flesh of the wombat and the kangaroo.
Fish of all kinds, fresh-water turtle and their
eggs, crayfish, and fresh-water mussels, all form
important articles of food to the dwellers on the
banks of the large rivers, whilst those on the
sea-coast catch rock-fish with bone hooks, spear
REPORTED CANNIBALISM. 59

mullet and turtle by torchlight, and devour large
quantities of marine shell-fish. The fleshy leaves
and fruit of the mesembryanthemum, a small apple-
like fruit called ¢ monterry,” the nardoo seed, and,
to the morth, the pulpy rind of the pandanus, or
screw-pine, together with the young shoots of
various palms, and many tropical fruits, are all
used as food by these wandering people.

Various reports are current as to the existence
amongst them of cannibal tribes, and it is a well-
authenticated fact that on the north and east
coasts portions of the dead bodies of the deceased
are eaten by their friends as a token of regard. A
German missionary to some of the tribes in Queens-
land, stated to the author as follows: ¢“ At More--
ton Bay, a lad having died, several men gathered
round the body, and removed the head and the
thick outer skin, which was rolled upon a stake,
and dried over a slow fire. During this horrid
ceremony the father and the mother stood by,
loudly weeping and lamenting; and the thighs
were then roasted and eaten by the parents. The
liver, heart, and entrails were divided amongst
the warriors, who carried away portions on their
spears ; and the skin and bones, together with the
skull, were rolled up, and carried about by the
parents in their grass bags or wallets.”

The only animal which the natives cherish or
domesticate is the dog: every warrior, or hunts-
man is attended by several of them; and it is fre-
quently dangerous to approach an encampment,
unless armed with a stout stick, to re; 1 the
60 AUSTRALIA.

sudden attack of a horde of lean and half-starved
curs that rush out with the utmost fury to worry
the intruder.

Their dances, or ¢corrobbories,” as they are
generally styled, appear to have some reference to
mystic rites; and are usually held at night, and
by moonlight. Although these dances differ
somewhat amongst various tribes, a description of
one will suffice to give a general idea of them all.
A writer who has been a careful observer of the
manners and customs of the Australian natives
says: “Of all their dances, not one, in point of
uniqueness and dramatic effect, equals the Kuri
dance,” of which he gives the following account:
“The night was mild—the new moon shone with
a faint light, casting a depth of shade over the
earth, which gave a sombre appearance to the dark
masses of the gum-trees scattered around. In the
distance, groups of dusky figures could be per-
ceived under the trees, whence occasionally a
shout and a burst of flame arose. These were the
performers decorating themselves for the dance,
and no one approached them while thus occupied.
Two men, closely wrapped in opossum skins, noise-
lessly commenced clearing a space for the singers,
who beat time with their sticks to a low, mono-
tonous chant. All the spectators, men, women,
and children, then sat down on the ground in
semicircular rows, three or four deep. The
dancers, in a state of nudity, were painted from
the shoulders to the hips with broad white lines
resembling the ribs of a skeleton : their faces were
THE KURI DANCE. 61

also painted with red and white stripes, making
the most hideous appearance, bunches of dry gum-
leaves were tied round the legs, just above the
knee, which, as they stamped about, made a loud
switching noise. In their hands they held clubs
and spears, from the top of which large tufts of
emu feathers hung suspended. The dancers now
moved in a compact body to within a short dis-
tance of the spectators. After standing for a few
minutes in silence, they suddenly burst out into a
deep, terrific yell, and the leader of the dance
stepped forward and commenced stamping, the
rest all joining in, and keeping time with the
singers. The regular and alternate stamps, which
seemed to shake the ground; the waving of the
spears and emu feathers ; with the loud switching
noise of the gum-leaves, combined with the wild
chaunting and unearthly shouts of these painted
savages, formed a truly wild and exciting scene,
as viewed by the glare of their fires, and the pale
light of the moon. After going through various
performances, intended to illustrate the hunting
and capture of the red kangaroo, they all sank on
their knees, and began to leap away in a mass,
with a sort of grunting noise, while their bodies
heaved and tossed to and fro: when they had got
away about a dozen yards from the spectators they
ceased, and giving one long terrible grunt or
groan, dispersed. The rattling accompaniment of
the singing ceased, the strain died gradually away,
and the shouts and acclamations of the spectators
rent the air.”
62 AUSTRALIA.

Besides these moonlight dances, the natives
have some peculiar ceremonies connected with
their initiatory rites into the privileges of manhood.
Those on the east coast knock out the front tooth
of the candidate. About Port Lincoln they cut
gashes in their backs with pieces of sharp quartz;
and on the Murray they pluck out all the hair
from their bodies, and anoint them copiously with
red ochre and fat.

Perhaps in mo country in the world are the
dead disposed of in so many different ways as by
the aborigines of Australia. Some tribes are
buried in a bent posture, in a circular pit about
five feet deep: sticks are placed horizontally
across the top; leaves and grass are strewn over
them ; and finally, a mound of earth, like an ant-
hill, is raised above the grave.

The natives of New South Wales were ac-
customed to burn their dead. The corpse was
laid upon a pile of dry wood, about three feet
high ; the body being placed with the face towards
the rising sun, with fishing apparatus, spears,
&c., arranged beside it. The surviving relatives
then covered it with large logs of wood, and set
fire to the pile. On the following day, the cal-
cined bones and ashes of the deceased were care-
fully buried. ;

Near the north-west bend of the river Murray,
where they bury in a sitting posture, under small
tumuli, the widows shave their heads, cover
them with netting, and then plaster them with a
thick coating of pipeclay, forming, when dry, a
BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 63

skull-cap, or cast of the head, upwards of an inch
in thickness, and weighing several pounds. These
singular badges of mourning were found by Sir
Thomas Mitchell during his explorations high up
the Murray, lying scattered about near the native
burying-places; and their appearance then caused
numerous conjectures as to their origin and use.

Amongst the tribes on the Coorong, the skulls
of the dead are taken away and used as drinking
vessels by the relatives of the deceased. Favourite
children are put into bags, and placed in the
forked branches of uw casuarina tree; whilst the
bodies of aged women are pushed into wombat-
holes in the ground, or into hollow gum trees,
no attention whatever being paid to their remains.

Some of the South Australian tribes place their
dead upon platforms, elevated about six or eight
feet from the ground by means of posts; the body
is covered with nets and rushes, and left to rot
till the frail structure falls to pieces. On the
banks of Lake Alexandrina these elevated tombs
have a singular and somewhat melancholy aspect,
standing up from amongst the tall reeds, through
which the wind makes mournful music.

When a warrior is slain in battle, his corpse is
set up cross-legged upon a platform, on a hill,
with the face towards the rising sun; the arms
are oxtended by means of sticks, the head is
fastened back, and all the apertures of the body
are sewn up. The hair is plucked off, and the
fat of the corpse, mixed with red ochre, is rubbed
all over the body. Fires are then kindled beneath
64 AUSTRALIA.

the platform, the friends and mourners remaining
around it for several days, during the whole of
which time the mourners are not allowed to speak.
The weapons of the deceased are laid across his
lap, and his limbs are painted in stripes of red
and white and yellow. After the body has re-
mained for several weeks on the platform, it is
taken down and buried; the skull becoming the
property of the nearest relation. Bodies thus
preserved have the appearance of mummies : there
is no sign of decay; and the wild dogs will not
meddle with them, though they devour all man-
ner of carrion.

One of the surest marks of the low position of
the Australian savage in the scale of the human
race is the treatment of their women. The men
walk along with a proud, disdainful air; behind
them, crouching like slaves, and bearing heavy
burdens on their backs, with their little ones
astride on their shoulders, come the despised and
degraded women. They are the drudges in all
the heavy work; and whilst their lords are
finishing the repast which the women have pre-
pared for them, these ill-used creatures sit con-
tentedly at a distance, and gather up the bones
and fragments, which the men throw to them
across their shoulders, just as we should throw
meat to a dog.

The native tribes have no distinct form of
government; each man joins in the common hos-
tility against an opposing tribe, and the men of
most influence in matters of importance are the
RELIGION. 65

old and successful warriors. Each tribe has its
own hunting ground or fishing locality ; and the
infringement of these rights frequently leads to
war amongst them.

Their battles usually take place at daybreak.
The contending tribes meet on an open plain,
naked, and painted, with their spears and shields;
a bunch of emu feathers fastened at the end of a
spear is sent as a challenge by one or other of
the parties, and then, raising themselves to a
dreadful pitch of excitement, using contemptuous
language, and uttering horrid shouts and yells,
they brandish their spears, and rush forward to
combat.

They believe in the immateriality of the soul;
and they have an idea, universally prevalent
amongst them, that after death they change to
white men. Of the general origin of things they
have no definite conception. They acknowledge
no Supreme Being, worship no idols, and believe
only in the cxistence of a spirit whom they con-
sider as the author of ill, and regard with super-
stitious dread. They are in continual fear of
malignant spirits, or “bad men,” who, they say,
go abroad at might; hence they seldom venture
from their encampments after dusk, even to fetch
water, without carrying a firestick in their hands |

Wanany

which they consider has the property of repelling
these evil spirits. en
With a people so utterly savage and degraded,
the work of the missionary has been, as may be
supposed, attended with very partial success. It

2A
66 AUSTRALIA.

is only by taking the children at an early age,
and placing them in the schools set apart for the
natives, that any good results have followed. In
several of these excellent institutions, especially
in South Australia, the children have shown an
aptitude for learning equal to that of the Kaffir
and the Hottentot. Many of the young people
brought up in the schools speak English fluently,
and can read and write well. They are willing
to labour for European settlers, and make ex-
cellent stockmen and shepherds. As mounted
police, for tracking the wild natives who may
have committed depredations npon the flocks or
herds of the farmers, they are remarkably useful :
they will, however, frequently leave civilized life
quite suddenly, and return to their savage state in
the bush, casting off their clothes, and becoming
to all appearance as barbarous as though they had
never been educated or taught differently. Some
years ago, the wife of one of the colonial gover-
nors took a girl from the Mission school, with the
intention of thoroughly civilizing and Christian-
izing her: for several ir
remarkably well, acted as lady’s maid to her
mistress almost as satisfactorily as a European
servant, attended church regularly, joining i in the
service with the congregation, and, in fact, was
pointed out as a living proof that the natives were
capable of the Vichett degree of civilization. One
morning, however, black Sarah was nowhere to
be found: search was made for her, but in vain ;
and it was feared the poor girl had met with foul
PROBABLE ORIGIN. 67

play from a tribe of wild blacks who had en-
camped near the town. ‘Some weeks after this,
her mistress, whilst visiting a distant part of the
colony, happened to observe, amongst the occu-
pants of a native encampment, her long-lost
maid, covered with grease and ochre, and clad in
a kangaroo skin, sitting contentedly beside a
wild-looking young savage, to marry whom she
had eloped from Government House.

As regards the probable origin of the Austra--
lian race, it may be fairly presumed that they
came from the Asiatic islands, and, crossing
Torres” Strait, gradually spread themselves over
the wide continent southwards. The Alfourous
or Endaménes, who inhabit the interior of New
Guinea, are a race whose physical appearance,
manners, and language strongly resemble those of
the Australian. Not only in New Guinea, but in
the interior of other islands of the Indian archi-
pelago, and in the forests of the Malay peninsula,
does this inferior race exist, whilst the coasts are
peopled by Papuans, with woolly hair, and a
superior phrenological development.

In Tasmania the aboriginal inhabitants are all
but extinct. They are described as being of a
fierce and savage disposition, with woolly hair,
their affinities belonging more to the natives of
New Caledonia than to those of the Australian
continent; hence it is supposed that they in the
first instance came round Australia rather than
across it. For many years after the settlement of
'I'asmania by Europeans, the natives were a source
68 AUSTRALIA.

of terror to the colonists, who, in their turn,
avenged the atrocities of the blacks by shooting
them down whenever opportunity offered. At
last the Colonial Government decided upon re-
moving the remnant of the aboriginal population
to some of the uninhabited islands in Bass’s Strait,
and (this being accomplished) some five-and-
twenty years ago, they were banished to Flinders’
Island, where they were supplied with rations by
the government. They however rapidly decreased
in number, and are now, as a people, virtually
extinct, the miserable remnant being transferred
from Flinders’ Island to Brown's River near
Hobart Town, where one man and three old
women are all that remain of a once savage and
formidable race.
Sy
>

CHAPTER V.

ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA : MAMMALS.

 

TIGER-WOLF ( Lhylacinus Sarcophilus)

AUSTRALIA is the great country of the marsupials
or pouched animals; they are everywhere dis-
tributed throughout its entire extent, from north
to south, and from east to west; and their oc-
currence in the neighbouring islands, in New
70 AUSTRALIA.

Guinea on the north, and in Tasmania on the
south, testifies that these countries were formerly
all united, constituting a great natural division of
the globe, characterized by a similar fauna and
flora.

"The most highly organized animals in Australia,
if we except the seals,and the dingo or native
dog (which most probably was introduced by man
at a comparatively recent period), are the rodents
or rats, together with the insect and fruit-eating
bats, all of which are low in the scale of animal
existence. No monkeys are found in Australia;
neither the lion, the tiger, the leopard, nor, in
fact, any of the feline tribe, roam amongst its
forests, to disturb the harmony of its generally
peaceful quadrupeds.

None of the larger animals, such as the ele-
phant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the
giraffe, or the various species of deer and ante-
lopes, are to be met with, yet the great grassy
plains of this vast country would appear to be
favourable for their existence.

Although it is generally believed that no more
highly organized animals than wombats and kan-
garoos ever tenanted the extensive prairies and the
luxuriant brushes of the Australian continent, yet,
formerly, species existed of enormous size, as the
huge skeletons of extinct kangaroos and other
marsupials of gigantic proportions found in caverns
and in alluvial beds, fully testify.

Amongst these huge fossil marsupials, the
Diprotodon, a sort of primeval kangaroo, the sknll
KANGAROOS. 71

of which measures three feet in length, was per-
haps the most remarkable. The Nototherium, a
gigantic kind of koala, a wombat of the size of a
lion, together with carnivorous marsupials of
corresponding dimensions, were amongst the
creatures that disported themselves in the Austra-
lian forests, or roamed across the wide plains of the
interior, at a period far remote from the present.
Of the existing kangaroos there are a great
many species, some of which are of large size, as
the red kangaroo, which measures eight feet from
the nose to the end of the tail; and the great
grey kangaroo, which attains to nearly similar
dimensions, and frequently weighs a couple of
hundred weight. The flesh of the kangaroo is
good eating, and the tail makes excellent soup. .
Kangaroo-hunting is a favourite sport with the
settlers in the bush, who use dogs which partake
of the nature of the greyhound and the deerhound,
and which, from their strength, size, and fleet-
ness, are well adapted for the purpose. When
at bay, the kangaroo becomes fierce and desperate ;
and upon finding itself surrounded by the dogs, it
clasps its short powerful forepaws around its
antagonist, leaping away with it to the nearest
waterhole, and there keeping it beneath the sur-
face until drowned; at other times it will place
itself upright against the trunk of a tree, and
defend itself with its paws, catching the dogs as
they spring at its throat, and inflicting dreadful
wounds upon them with its powerful hind toe,
frequently ripping them open with a single blow.
72 AUSTRALIA.

Although ferocious when thus attacked, the kan-
garoo is at other times a gentle, timid animal,
fleeing at the approach of man, and retreating on
the slightest alarm, with those flying bounds or
leaps so peculiar to these singular creatures.

By far the most remarkable and anomalous of
all the Australian quadrupeds is the Platypus, or
‘“ water mole,” as it is called. It is about twenty
inches long, having the body covered with soft
brown fur, with short legs, large web feet, and a
rather flat head, from which project two smooth
lips or mandibles, exactly resembling the bill of
a duck. So strange is the aspect of this creature,
that it appears to form a connecting link between
the quadruped, the bird, and the reptile; though
from its anatomy and economy it is found to
belong to the lowest form of existing mammals.
The platypus inhabits most of the rivers and
lagoons of the southern and eastern portions of
Australia, and is also found in Tasmania. It
makes long serpentine burrows in the river banks,
at the bottom of which it constructs a nest for the
reception of its young. Some of these burrows
are from forty to fifty feet in length.

The Echidna, or porcupine ant-eater, somewhat
resembles a large hedgehog in appearance. Tt is
found in the most sandy and sterile districts,
living upon ants, which it procures by means of
its long flexible tongue, which is covered with a
viscous secretion to which the ants adhere. The
jaws are not furnished with teeth, but the snout is
prolonged into a hard tubular muzzle, like the
THE KOALA, OR NATIVE BEAR. 73

beak of a bird. The entire upper surface of the
body is covered with strong sharp spines, and
when attacked, the animal rolls itself up into a
ball, presenting nothing but a prickly surface to
the intruders.

The Perameles, or bandicoot, of which there are
several species peculiar to Australia, is a pretty
little creature about the size of a guinea-pig, with
a sharp nose and long claws, with which it digs up
the roots and bulbs on which it feeds. The
“koala,” or “native bear,” is a strange-looking,
sluggish animal, about two feet in length, having
somewhat the aspect of a sloth. It is covered
with dense woolly fur of a grey colour, has large
full ears, and a little sharp muzzle, which gives a
peculiarly ludicrous expression to its face. It has
no tail, and the limbs, which are large and power-
ful, are admirably adapted for its tree-climbing
habits. Amongst the leafy branches of the great
evergreen trees, in the forests of New South
Wales, the koala remains asleep during the day-
time; but at night it becomes more active, climb-
ing to the topmost branches of the gum-trees,
where it feeds upon the young and tender buds
and shoots. These animals are often captured by
the blacks, who esteem them as a dainty article of
food. In confinement they are gentle and tract-
able, and will live for months if fed upon gum-
leaves. All attempts to bring them away from
the country have failed, in consequence of the
impossibility of procuring suitable food for them
during a voyage. Six species of opossum are
74 AUSTRALIA.

inhabitants of Australia. The most abundant
kind is the common or vulpine opossum, which,
like the rest of its congeners, lives in the hollow
spouts and holes of the large gum-trees during the
day, where it sleeps away the sunshine, coming
out at night to feed upon the leaves and blossoms
of the trees, or descending to the ground in search
of herbs and roots. On moonlight nights the
opossums may be seen gambolling amongst the
boughs of the largest trees, running rapidly up
and down their trunks, and uttering their shrill,
sharp ery. In parts of the country where the
gum-trees abound, opossum shooting is a favourite
pastime with the settlers. A moonlight night is
chosen for the sport, when the animals are easily
seen, and vast numbers are annually destroyed in
this manner. “The fur of the opossum is much
valued for the manufacture of rugs, from forty to
sixty skins being required for each rug. The
articles are generally made by the blacks, who
sell them to the Europeans, although they formerly
used them as articles of clothing for themselves
before the introduction of blankets amongst them
became so general. A good warm opossum rug is
an indispensable companion to the bushman when
“ camping out” in the open air at night.

No animal is more used for food by the native
blacks than the opossum : they climb the smooth
trunks of the enormous gum-trees by cutting
notches in the bark with a tomahawk as they as-
cend, into which they insert the great toe, and
thus progress upwards until they reach the
THE OPOSSUM. 5
diverging branches, from the hollow boles: of
which they drag forth the sleeping opossum. A
blow on the head with the tomahawk renders the
animals insensible, and the captor flings them to
the ground, where they are gathered up by his
companions. As many as a dozen are sometimes
obtained in this manner out of a single tree.

The flying opossums, or Phalangers, are also
nocturnal in their habits, and dwell during the
day in hollow trees of the largest growth. They
are remarkably beautiful animals, with long bushy
tails, and possess a parachute-like membrane at
their sides, between the fore and hind legs, which
enables them to leap from tree to tree, floating
through the air in a succession of graceful sweeps.
The largest kind, which is nearly black, and
measures about three feet in length, presents a
startling appearance to a stranger, who, for the
first time, sees by moonlight, in the stillness of the
forest, this sudden apparition flit across his path.

In contrast to this large species is the smallest
of the flying opossums, the beautiful little *opos-
sum mouse” of the colonists. This tiny creature
is one of the most elegant, as well as the smallest,
of Australian animals. An ordinary-sized pill-
box forms its nest when in confinement, and a
more interesting or docile little pet cannot” be
imagined. In its wild state it feeds upon the
honey contained in the flower-cups of the gum-
blossoms, leaping .from one bunch of flowers to
another with the greatest agility.

The Dasyures, or native cats, are flesh-feeding
marsupial animals, about the size of a rabbit;
76 AUSTRALIA.

they are fierce and untractable, preying upon
small animals and birds, and dwelling amongst
rocks and in holes in the ground. In appearance
they somewhat resemble the pole-cat, and are of a
brown or black colour, handsomely spotted all
over with large white spots. Very beautiful
rugs are made from the skins of these animals.

The Thylacinus, or *“tiger-wolf,” and the Sarco-
philus, or “native devil,” are the two largest and
most ferocious of all the Australian carnivorous
pouched animals. They are confined exclusively
to the island of Tasmania, in the chapter descrip-
tive of which a more lengthened notice of them
will be found.

The wombat is a curious creature, of which
four distinct species have been met with in the
southern portion of Australia. It is a squat,
thick, short-legged, and rather clumsy-looking
quadruped, its figure and movements strongly
reminding one of those of a bear. It usually
measures about three feet in length, and is
covered with coarse brownish or yellowish fur.
In its habits it is strictly nocturnal, living in
enormous burrows in rocky places, especially in
barren districts, where the limestone crops out
upon the surface. Although in such localities
the holes are very numerous, the animals are
rarely seen, as they only come out during the
night to feed. The flesh of the wombat is much
esteemed by the natives, who adopt various
methods for its. capture. In confinement it is
docile and harmless, sleeping ayidy a great por-
tion of its existence.
RATS. 77

Various kinds of rats are abundant in all parts
of the country. In large cities, such as Sydney
and Melbourne, European rats have been intro-
duced from the shipping, and, in Sydney espe-
cially, have become a terrible pest. Of the native
rodents the most remarkable are the ¢building-
rats,” one species of which, inhabiting the lofty
gum-trees in New South Wales, builds a nest
among the branches with leaves and twigs, like
that of a bird. Another species, which abounds
on the low, sandy, and sterile regions about Lake
Torrens, and in the brushes of the Darling, is
thus described by Captain Sturt: “It builds a
nest of small sticks, varying in length from
three to eight inches, and in thickness from that
of a quill to that of the thumb, arranged in a
most systematic manner, so as to form a com-
pact cone, like a beehive, about four feet in dia-
meter and three feet high: those at the founda-
tion are so disposed as to form a compact flooring,
and the entire fabric is so firm, as almost to defy
destruction, except from fire. The animal, which
is much like an ordinary rat, lives in communi-
ties, and traverses the mound by means of pas-
sages leading into the apartments in the centre.
One of these nests or mounds had five entrances
at the base, nearly equidistant from each other,
with passages leading from them to a hole in the
ground beneath, in which I am led to conclude
they had their store.”

The Hydromys, or * beaver-rat,” inhabits the
banks of the Murray and other rivers, and is
also met with on some parts of the sea-coast.
78 AUSTRALIA.

One species, “the golden-bellied beaver-rat,” is
remarkable for the brilliant orange colouring of
the under portion of its body.

Bats are very numerous in Australia, and some
of them attain to a large size, especially the fruit-
eating kinds, one of which, the grey-headed
vampire, or “flying fox,” as it is vulgarly called,
measures nearly two and a half feet from one
extremity of its wing to the other. These large
bats during the day seek the recesses of the
forests about Illawarra, and the dense brushes
of the Clarence and other rivers of New South
Wales and Queensland, where they may be ob-
served hanging in clusters from the uppermost
branches of the trees, which often bend so much
under their weight that they appear as though
they would break off and fall to the ground en-
cumbered with their heavy load of bats. Occa-
sionally they may, when disturbed, be seen flying
about the tops of the trees during the day, when
they so much resemble rooks at a distance as to
have been mistaken by many persons for those
birds. At times, during warm summer evenings,
these enormous bats may be seen flying about in
the streets of Sydney; but their favourite haunts
are the mountain forests, from whence they come
down during the night and commit sad havoc
amongst the peaches and other fruit in the gardens
of the settlers.

Both hair and fur seals inhabit the rocky shores
of Australia and Tasmania. Amongst the islands
of Bass’s Strait they were formerly very nume-
rous; but during the period since they were first
SEALS. 79

sought after by the sealers, they have been nearly
exterminated. In 1798 Colonel Collins describes
the rocks on the sea-coast of New South Wales
“as being nearly covered with fur-seals of great
beauty ;” whereas at the present time they are
but rarely met with. The two most important
species are the great cowled seal and the sea
leopard. The former has been occasionally seen
on the South Australian coasts, and is still nume-
rous amongst the low-lying islands of Houtmann’s
Abrolhos. The old males measure upwards of
ten feet in length, and are as large in girth as
a bullock : their colour is a dark brown, with the
crown of the head and nape of the neck of a fawn
colour. Mr. Gilbert, who landed on some of the
islands on the west coast of Australia, says: “They
have been so seldom disturbed that I frequently
came upon several females and their young in
groups under the shade of the mangrove-trees;
and so little were they alarmed, that they allowed
me to approach almost within the reach of my
gun, when the young would play about the old
ones, and bark and growl at us in the most
amusing manner; and it was only when we
struck at them with clubs that they showed
any disposition to attack us, or to defend their
young.”

The sea leopard, although measuring ten feet
in length, is less bulky than the cowled seal,
and is of a greenish creamy-white hue, darker
on the back, and spotted about the body with
slate-coloured spots. This handsome animal is
now but seldom seen; two or three individuals
80 AUSTRALIA.

have been cast ashore within the last few years
on the New South Wales coast, having probably
become disabled in the surf; one of these, captured
near Newcastle on the Hunter, is set up in the
Australian Museum at Sydney.

The “ Dingo,” or wild dog, which is found all
over the Australian continent (though it does not
occur in Tasmania ), is about the size of an ordinary
fox-hound, and has a wolf-like aspect. Its usual
colour is reddish-chestnut, the tail being invariably
tipped with white; but varieties entirely black,
or piebald, are sometimes to be met with. Re-
specting the dingo, Mr. Gould says: ¢ Without
going into the probable origin of this race of dogs,
or offering reasons why it should not be considered
as indigenous, I may briefly state that T believe it
has followed the black man in his wanderings
from Asia, through the Indian islands to Australia.
From what I have seen of the animal in a state of
nature, I could not but regard it in the light of a
variety to which the course of ages had given a
wildness of air and disposition ; indeed it appeared
to have all the habits of a skulking, low-bred dog,
and none of the determined ferocity of disposition
of the wolf or jackal: in confirmation of this
opinion, I may cite the facility with which the
natives bring it under subjection, and the parti-
colouring of its hairy coat.” These animals are
the terror of the sheepfold, and although, to a
great extent, they have been destroyed in the more
settled parts of the country, they still exist in
great numbers in the wilder and more secluded
districts. Where the wild dogs are numerous, it
DINGOES OR WILD DOGS. 81

is the custom for the shepherd to sleep during the
night in a wooden watch-box close alongside the
yard where the sheep are folded, so as to be ready
with his gun on the slightest alarm; for when a
wild dog approaches the sheep-pen, the timid
animals rush about in the greatest confusion.
When the dingo succeeds in entering a sheepfold,
he not only wantonly kills a large number of the
sheep, but scatters the remainder to such an extent
as frequently to entail the loss of the whole flock.
Like all dogs in a state of nature, the dingo never
barks, but utters a sort of melancholy howl, the
dismal and prolonged sound of which, echoing on
a still night amongst the hills, is about the most
awful noise it is possible to conceive of. Like
kangaroo-hunting, the chase of the dingo affords
capital sport to the Australian Nimrods, who hunt
it exactly in the same way as the fox is hunted in
England ; the « brush ” being retained as a trophy,
and stuck up in some conspicuous place in the
homestead of the settler.

Of the whales inhabiting the Australian seas,
the gigantic sperm-whale is the most important,
and many vessels are annually fitted out, both in
Sydney and Hobart Town, for its capture, the oil
forming a considerable article of export to Great
Britain. Many other species of cetaceans are to
be found along the vast seaboard of Australia, but
as yet little is known of their habits. In the
Sydney Museum there is a fine skeleton of the
catodon whale, measuring about thirty-four feet in
length, which was prepared from a dead specimen
found floating on the sea outside the Heads, and

F
82 AUSTRALIA.

which was towed by a vessel into the harbour of
Port Jackson.

One of the most interesting marine animals
belonging to the Australian coasts is certainly the’
Dugong, or sea-cow of the colonists; its native
name is the yungan. Belonging to the family of
the whales and porpoises, it presents also some of
the characters of the seal in its general aspeet.
It frequents the shallow waters of the bays on the
N. E. coast, especially about Moreton Bay, where,
before the dugong fishery was established, it
might frequently be seen popping its head above
water, or browsing peacefully upon the marine
herbage that grows upon the flats. It frequently
attains the length of from eight to ten feet; it
rises to the surface to breathe; is generally found
in pairs, and suckles its young with great tender-
ness. It is caught with the harpoon, but is with
difficulty approached on account of its extremely
acute sense of hearing. The flesh of the dugong
is not only palatable and nutritious, but actually
curative in a high degree for all forms of scrofula
and other diseases arising from a vitiated condition
of the blood. When fresh, it somewhat resembles
beef, and when salted makes very good bacon.
But the principal value of this animal consists in
its oil, which is extracted from it in large quan-
tities. It is said to possess, in a high degree,
the virtues of the celebrated cod-liver oil of the
Pharmacopoeia. When properly prepared, the
dugong oil is almost entirely free from any un-
pleasant odour; and has been prescribed by
several of the Australian physicians, in a great
.

NEARLY ALL THE ANIMALS MARSUPIALS. 83

number of cases, and with very satisfactory results.
Each animal, when full grown, yields from eight
to twelve gallons of oil. ;
The footprints of buffaloes, which have been
mentioned by explorers as having been observed
by them on the northern coast, are, doubtless,
those of animals which have been brought over by
the Malays at various times, and have run wild in
the bush. It is well known that at certain seasons
of the year the Malays cross over in their prahus
from Java, Timor, and other islands of the Indian
archipelago, to fish for trepang (a sort of sea slug).
Professor Owen thus accounts for the fact that
nearly all the Australian animals are marsupials,
or pouched quadrupeds. He cbserves: «“T have
always connected with the long droughts in
Australia—with the extensive tracts where there
are no waters—with the difficulty of obtaining
that necessary element of life, the singular pecu-
liarity of organization which prevails amongst the
quadrupeds of Australia. No matter whether they
burrow like the wombat, climb like the phalanger,
jump like the kangaroo, trot like the bandicoot, or
fly like the petaurist—all these creatures are
marsupial. They are creatures carrying their
delicate, prematurely-born young about with them
wherever they go. They have this condition, viz.,
a soft, warm, well-lined, portable nursery-pocket,
or “ perambulator.” Take the case of one of our
wild quadrupeds—a fox, or a wild cat : they make
their nest; they have their litter. Suppose it
should happen that they must travel one or two
hundred miles to get a drink of water, and are
34 : AUSTRALIA.

obliged to leave the little family at home, where
would that family be when the parent returned
from its journey? Why, starved to death. In
order that quadrupeds should be fitted to exist in
a great continent like Australia, where the me-
teoric conditions are such as to produce the
dilemma I have instanced, those quadrupeds must
possess an organization suited to such peculiar
and climatal conditions. And so it is: that form
of mammalian quadruped in this great continent,
native to it, and born so as to make these migra-
tions to obtain that necessity of life, has the super-
added pouch, and genetic peculiarities, enabling
them to carry their young ones wherever they go.
And since we find that marsupial animals have
lived in Australia from a very remote period, so
we may infer that its peculiar climate has prevailed
during as vast a lapse of time.”

It is remarkable that the native tribes, through-
out all portions of the country, speak of the exist-
ence of a large animal, or reptile, which they call
the “bunyip.” They say that it is exceedingly
fierce, and dwells in the rivers and amongst the
reeds of extensive swamps and lagoons, lying in
wait for its prey concealed mear their banks.
Whether such a creature be fabulous or not, yet
remains to be proved ; but it is a singular fact that
all their descriptions of the dreaded ‘ bunyip”
agree in the main points; and it does not seem
unreasonable that some large water animal, still
unknown to us, may be an inhabitant of the vast
reedy lakes and fresh waters of the southern part
of the continent.

.
CHAPTER VI.

ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA : BIRDS.

 

THE SPOTTED BOWER BIRD (Chlamvydeta Maculata).

Ix the variety, beauty of plumage, and peculiarity
of habits, of its feathered tribes, the continent of
Australia stands unrivalled. The number of species
already known, equals, if it does not exceed, that
of all Europe; whilst many of them are remark-
86 AUSTRALIA.

ably adapted to suit the conditions of the country
they inhabit, and belong to groups unknown in
other parts of the globe. As in Europe, many
species are migratory at certain seasons of the year,
whilst others disappear suddenly, are not met with
for a lengthened period, and then again reappear
in vast numbers. This is the case: with the
tribonyx, or ‘“moor-hen,” a bird not much given
to flight. Of this bird Mr. Gilbert relates that
they “ came to the Swan River Colony in May,
1833 (where they had not been previously seen),
in myriads, treading down and destroying whol
fields of corn in a single night. The natives, not
having seen them before, termed them the ¢ white
man’s birds.” After the harvest was over they
nearly all disappeared as suddenly as they arrived,
nor have they been observed since.” Captain Sturt
says this bird appeared suddenly in South Australia
in 1840. “It came from the north, fresh flights
coming up and pushing on those which had pre-
ceded them. It was, moreover, evident that they
had been unaccustomed to the sight of man, for
they dropped in great numbers in the streets and
gardens of Adelaide, and ran about like fowls.
They made their appearance in November and left
in the beginning of March, gradually retiring north-
wards as they had advanced.”

Enormous flocks of parrots and pigeons, of
species previously unknown to the locality, will,
during certain years, arrive in places all at once,
remain for a few weeks, and then take their de-
parture as mysteriously as they arrived.
ACCLIMATIZATION OF BIRDS. 87

Many of the Australian birds have, through the
exertions of the Zoological Society in the Regent's
Park, become acclimatized in this country ; amongst
which may be mentioned the cereopsis, or Cape Bar-
ren goose, the black swan, the emeu, the wonga-
wonga and bronze-wing pigeons, and several spe-
cies of parrots. That singular mound-building bird,
the brush turkey, has also bred in confinement in
the Gardens, and as its flesh, together with that of
the great wonga-wonga pigeon, and the Australian
bustard, is delicious eating, it may be hoped that
these useful and elegant birds will, before long, be
reared abundantly in this country.

Already many of our British singing birds,
such as the thrush, the blackbird, the lark, linnet,
and goldfinch, have been introduced into the
southern colonies ; and so successful have been the
results, that English skylarks may now be heard
pouring forth their melody in a state of freedom
on the Barrabool hills.

Amongst the birds of prey inhabiting Australia
the largest is the wedge-tailed eagle, a noble bird,
about the size of the golden eagle of Europe, and
not unlike it in general aspect. It is known by
the colonists under the name of the «“eagle-hawk,”
and commits sad havoc amongst the lambs and
poultry, swooping down from the hills, and bear-
ing off its prey in its enormous and powerful
talons. It builds its nest at the top of the most
lofty and inaccessible trees. Many of these birds
measure upwards of seven feet from tip to tip of
their pinions.
88 "AUSTRALIA.

Another species, nearly as large, is the sea eagle,
which constructs an enormous nest of branches
and twigs, on rocks and uninhabited islands upon
the coast. Captain Flinders, who observed them,
says: ‘“ Near Point Possession were found two
nests of extraordinary magnitude. They were
built upon the ground, from which they rose about
two feet, and were of vast circumference and great
interior capacity ; the branches of trees and other
matter, of which each nest was composed, being
enough to fill a small cart.” In describing a rocky
island off the South Australian coast, on which he
landed, Mr. Angas says: “On the edge of a chasm,
which had cleft the island nearly in two parts,
there stood an eagle’s nest, about four feet high,
and built of layers of dead sticks. The white-
tailed eagle was hovering round its eyrie, and a
little robin had fearlessly constructed its nest
amongst the sticks of that of the monarch bird.”

There are four kinds of nocturnal owls, which
prey on the numerous little marsupial animals
that only make their appearance after sundown;
and there is also a class of owls that fly about
during the day time, feeding upon insects and
small birds.

The podargus, or goatsucker, is a stupid-look-
ing creature, with very large eyes, and an enor-
mous mouth, fitted for capturing moths and other
large insects during the might. All day the
goatsucker sits asleep on the branch of a gum-
tree, which it so nearly resembles in colour, as
frequently to be mistaken for a piece of rotten

-
GOATSUCKERS, SWALLOWS, BEE-EATERS. 89

bark or a projecting fork. So soundly does it
slumber that it may be knocked off with sticks
or stones, and if its perching place be accessible,
it may easily be taken by the hand. At the
approach of night it becomes as lively and active
as during the day it is lethargic and helpless.
The cry of one of the night-owls greatly re-
gembles that of the cuckoo; and in travelling
through the Australian forests during the still-
ness of the evening, one is startled to hear the
familiar sound associated with home and spring,
at such an hour, and in so distant a region.

Swallows are numerous, and during the short
period of winter they migrate northwards. They
prove very useful in keeping in check the mul-
titudes of gnats, musquitoes, and other insects
that occur during summer. One species follows
the habits of the European swallow, and builds
its mud nest under the eaves, in the chimneys,
or beneath the verandahs of the houses. The
fairy martin constructs a large nest of clay in
the shape of a bottle with the neck downwards.

The beautiful bee-eater, with its plumage of
green, gold, and blue, is also a summer visitant
to the southern colonies, spending the winter in
North Australia, within the tropics. It makes
holes in sandy banks, about three feet in length,
at the end of which it lays its eggs, which are
four or five in number, and of a pure white
colour.

One of the most amusing and well-known birds
throughout the settled districts of Australia is
90 : AUSTRALIA.

the great brown kingfisher, or ¢ laughing jackass.”
It may be seen perched on the dead limb of some
old tree in almost every locality, about the home-
steads, or in the woods of South Australia and
New South Wales, though it does not occur in
Tasmania. Of this kingfisher Mr. Gould says:
‘‘ Independently of its large size, which in itself
would tend to attract attention, its voice is so
extraordinary as to be unlike that of any other
living creature. In its disposition it is by no
means shy, and when any new objects are pre-
sented to its notice, such as a party traversing
the bush, or pitching their tent in the vicinity of
its retreat, it becomes very prying and inquisitive,
often perching on some dead branch of an adjoin-
ing tree, and watching with great curiosity the
kindling of the fire and the preparation of the
meal. Its presence, however, owing to the quie-
tude with which it passes through the forest, and
the almost noiseless manner in which it settles, is
seldom detected until it emits its extraordinary
gurgling, laughing note.” Capt. Sturt says:
“Its cry, which resembles a chorus of wild spirits,
is apt to startle the traveller who may be in jeo-
pardy, as if laughing and mocking at his misfor-
tune.” And Dr. Bennett remarks of the laugh-
ing jackass: “Its peculiar gurgling laugh, com-
mencing in a low, and gradually rising to a
high and loud tone, is often heard in all parts
of the colony, the deafening noise being poured
forth while the bird remains perched upon a
neighbouring tree. It rises with the dawn, when
SONG-BIRDS, 91

the woods re-echo with its gurgling laugh. At
sunset it is again heard, and as that glorious orb
sinks in the west, a last < good night’ is; given in
its peculiar tones to all within hearing.”

The artamus, or wood swallow, has the ex-
traordinary habit of clustering like bees on
the branch of a dead tree. A few of the birds
will suspend themselves beneath the branch,
whilst the remainder attach themselves one to the
other, in such numbers that the cluster attains
the size of a bushel measure.

The musical magpie, or piping crow, is an
interesting and amusing bird, and is frequently
tamed and kept as a pet about the houses in the
Australian bush. It has obtained its name of
“magpie ” from its pied black and white plumage ;
and the fact of its being so easily taught to
whistle popular airs, together with its imitative
powers and droll manners, has rendered it a
general favourite. It has been asserted that « the
Australian birds have no song;” but nothing can
be more untrue, for many of them have very sweet
notes, singing both by day and night. The full,
deep, rich tones of the musical magpie may be heard
at sunrise filling the woods with minstrelsy, and
on summer nights when the moon is shining, they
carol away as sweetly as ever. There is also a
little warbler that sings at night in the gardens
and vineyards in South Australia, whose notes
almost vie with those of the most favourite of our
British songsters.

In the dense brushes that clothe the seaward
92 : AUSTRALIA.

slopes of the mountains on the eastern coast, and
in the impenetrable forests of Gippsland, there
dwells also a songster, which combines with its
musical powers the faculty of imitating the notes
and cries of all the other denizens of the forest.
This is the lyre-bird, or mountain pheasant. It
is about the size of a small fowl, of a brownish
colour, the male being adorned with a very large
spreading tail, somewhat of the shape of an ancient
Iyre, and composed of graceful and elegantly-
formed feathers. A droll little bird, called by the
colonists “the pheasant’s mother,” is frequently
seen in company with the lyre-bird. It has the
same habits of scratching up the earth into little
hillocks, playing about, hopping over logs and
stones, and, indeed, in all its actions seems a phea-
sant in miniature. It is the spine-tailed orthonyx
of naturalists.

The “ coach-whip,” inhabiting the same dense
forests as the preceding, is a handsome greenish
bird, about the size of a thrush, with a loud full
note, ending sharply like the cracking of a whip,
with which the woods are constantly reverbe-
rating.

The “robins” of Australia, unlike the little
black-eyed rufous-breasted favourite we greet in
the snow-time in England, are gorgeously-coloured
birds, with breasts of the most brilliant scarlet,
yellow, or rose-colour. These beautiful creatures,
together with the blue and fire-backed wrens, are
amongst the gems of the feathered tribes, and
gladden the glens and groves with their bright
-

BOWER-BIRDS, HONEYSUCKERS. 93

hues, vying in splendour with the most showy
blossoms.

Some species of the finch family are also re-
markable for the great beauty of their plumage,
and are the more interesting from the fact that
they are easily tamed, and thrive well in cap-
tivity.

The “bower-birds” possess the singular habit of
constructing bower-like structures of twigs upon
the ground, which they decorate with gaily-
coloured feathers, bones, and shells. Some of
these bowers or runs are two or three feet long,
arching over at the top, and are the resort of many
individuals of both sexes, which run in and out
of the bower in a sportive and playful manner.
One of these bower-building species, about the
size of a pigeon, is called the satin-bird, on ac-
count of its rich glossy black plumage, which
exactly resembles satin.

Owing to the great quantity of honey-yielding
blossoms which the trees and shrubs of Australia
afford, the tribe of honey-suckers is very nume-
rous, no less than fifty-eight species being known.
They are graceful and elegant creatures, varying
in size from that of a thrush to that of a wren;
many of them display beautiful tints of green
and yellow, and some kinds are furnished with
singular fleshy appendages below the ears, which
has gained for them the appellation of “ wattle-
birds.”

The Australian crow, or raven, is a large,
ominous-looking bird, which is constantly to be
94 AUSTRALIA.

met with in the neighbourhood of sheep and
cattle stations, acting the part of scavenger, and
greedily devouring any offal or dead animal that
happens to be in the way. So far this bird may
be useful enough, but its hoarse, melancholy cry
is one of the most dismal and distressing sounds
it is possible to conceive of, and seems to add to
the mournful solitude of the shepherd’s hut.

No country in the world possesses such a variety
of the parrot tribe. The colours of many species
are gorgeous and brilliant in the extreme; and
whilst their gay plumage enlivens the sombre tints
of the Australian forests, their noisy cries echo
unceasingly throughout ¢the bush.” The largest
are the great black cockatoos, which have red or
yellow tails, are very shy, and go in flocks of
twenty or thirty together. Next in size come
the white cockatoos, of which there are several
kinds; the most common is the sulphur-crested one,
a bird easily domesticated, of which numbers are
annually brought to England: it learns to talk
well, and from its gentle disposition and play-
ful habits is a universal favourite. The pink
cockatoo is a very handsome bird, with a large
crest of yellow and scarlet feathers. There are
about forty species of parrakeets, all of them
remarkable for the beauty of their plumage. One
group feeds upon the honey of the gum blossoms,
but the greater portion of them are seed-eaters,
and these thrive well in captivity. The little
¢ warbling grass parrakeet” appears in vast flocks
in South Australia during the summer, where it is
PIGEONS AND DOVES. 95

caught by means of nets, as many as a hundred
sometimes being taken at once. They are shipped
in large quantities to England, some vessels taking
home several thousand individuals. Their plum-
age is bright green and yellow, prettily marked
with zebra-like black lines, with several blue spots
about the beak. They are about the size of a
canary, very lively and amusing in their habits,
and, unlike other parrakeets, they have a pleas-
ing, inward warbling song, which in captivity is
frequently carried on during the night.

Beautiful and numerous as are the parrots of
Australia, the pigeons and doves are no less de-
serving of notice. The fruit-eating pigeons are
mostly confined to the tropical portions of the
country, and to the dense forests on the east coast,
where the wild figs grow on which they feed.
They are all brightly coloured, some species having
orange or rose-coloured crowns, with the rest of
the plumage golden green, purple, yellow, and
white. The ground pigeons are more generally
distributed, and comprise the ‘ wonga-wonga,” a
large kind, which is esteemed a delicacy for the
table in New South Wales; and the ¢ bronze-
wings,” the metallic brilliancy of their wing
feathers contrasting with the more sombre hues
of the rest of their bodies. Altogether there are
upwards of twenty species of pigeons peculiar to
Australia.

The talegalla, or ‘brush turkey,” the leipoa,
and the megapodius, are very remarkable birds,
which do not hatch their eggs by sitting upon
96 AUSTRALIA.

them, but construct immense mounds of sand, or
decaying vegetable matter, in which their eggs
are deposited, and left for the young to be de-
veloped by the heat engendered during the process
of decomposition, or by that of the sun. The
talegalla inhabits the cedar brushes on the east
coast, from Cape Howe to Moreton Bay. The
mounds are formed by the birds grasping the
leaves and grass in their large powerful feet, and
throwing them backwards to one common centre.
A great many birds lay in the same mound, as
many as a bushel of eggs having been obtained
out of a single heap. The eggs are as large as
those of a swan, of a white colour, and very
thin.

The leipoa, or native pheasant, is an inhabitant
of the dry and desert mallee scrubs of South
and Western Australia. It is about the size of an
ordinary fowl, with a crest on its head, and
beautifully spotted plumage. Its mounds are
formed of sand, about three feet high, and thirty
feet in circumference. The eggs are pink, and are
deposited in layers, in a perpendicular position.

The megapodius has its haunts in the dense
jungles of the north coast, and is abundant about
Port Essington. The mounds raised by this
species are of gigantic proportions. Mr. Gilbert
mentions one which he found at Knocker’s Bay
which ¢ was fifteen feet in length and sixty in
circumference at the base, and was entirely com-
posed of the richest description of light vegetable
mould.”
THE CASSOWARY. 97

Quails are numerous, and afford good amuse-
ment to the sportsman, on the open grassy plains
where they are most found.

The largest bird peculiar to Australia is the
emeu or New Holland cassowary, of which there
are now known to be two distinct kinds. In size
it is only exceeded by the African ostrich, being
between five and six feet in height. It runs very
fast, and may almost be called a wingless bird,
these appendages being so small as not to be seen
beyond the feathers of the body. Its mest is a
rude hollow scraped in the ground, amongst the
scrubs, in which it lays from nine to thirteen eggs
of a dark-green colour, about six inches in length,
and three and a half in diameter. The male bird
takes its turn in sitting alternately with the female.
The eggs are much valued in the Australian
colonies, where they are mounted in silver and
converted into elegant vases, sugar basins, &c.

The emen is hunted with dogs in the same man-
ner as the kangaroo: and a kick from one of its
powerful legs frequently proves fatal to the dog
that attacks it. It produces a quantity of oil, the
skin of a full-grown bird yielding on an average
six or seven quarts. This oil is considered a good
embrocation for sprains and bruises, and is care-
fully collected by shepherds and stockmen for this
purpose. The flesh resembles coarse beef, but the
young birds are tolerably good eating. The Aus-
tralian bustard is a noble bird, weighing from
twelve to sixteen pounds; it is met with on the
open grassy plains of the southern portion of the

G
98 AUSTRALIA.

continent, and is esteemed the greatest delicacy of
all the indigenous game birds.

Plovers, peewits, snipes, and dottrels are nume-
rous, and snipe-shooting is one of the favourite
pastimes of the Australian sportsman.

Three species of ibis, the white, the straw-
necked, and the glossy, are met with on the banks
of the Murray, or in vast flocks, during some
seasons, on the plains of the interior.

Next in size to the emeu is the Australian
crane, or ‘native companion” of the colonists.
This stately and graceful bird, when erect, mea-
sures about four feet in height. It is of a slate
colour, with a red skin about the eyes, and in-
habits the neighbourhood of rivers and swamps.
It is easily domesticated, and will perform the
most amusing antics; dance in a grotesque man-
ner, pirouette like an opera-dancer, and follow its
master about like a dog. It is a bird of powerful
flight, and ascends so high, in a series of circles,
as to become invisible to the eye.

The myecteria, or jabiru, is a fine bird, standing
nearly as high as the crane; it has a large, power-
ful beak, with glossy green and white plumage,
and bright-red legs. It is a shy bird, and but
rarely seen. The banks of the Murray, and other
large rivers and lagoons, are the resort of infinite
multitudes of spoonbills, herons, egrets, and other
wading birds; whilst vast flocks of black swans,
ducks, teal, and other aquatic fowl actually darken
the surface of the water in undisturbed localities.

The cereopsis, or “Cape Barren goose,” was
THE BLACK SWAN. 99

formerly abundant on the islands of Bass’s Strait ;
and the early voyagers describe them as being so
tame that they could be easily knocked over with
sticks and even captured by the hand. Its size is
about that of the ordinary goose ; its plumage grey,
spotted with black, and its beak very small, having
the upper portion covered with a yellow cere. It
is easily domesticated, and breeds freely in the
gardens of the Zoological Society. Owing to its
pugnacious habits it has never been a favourite in
the poultry yards of the colonists.

The black swan has been long known in
Europe, and was first mentioned in a letter written
about theyear 1698 from Mr. Witsen to Dr. Lister :
“Here,” he writes, “is returned a ship, which
by our East India Company (Dutch) was sent to
the South Land, called Hollandia Nova ;’ and
then he adds “that black swans, parrots, and
sea cows were found there.” In 1726 two were
brought alive to Batavia from the west coast of
Australia. Its colour is of a brownish black, with
the extremities of the wings white: the beak is
coral red and the feet black. It inhabits most of
the large estuaries and rivers of the southern por-
tion of the continent, though in many places where
it formerly was most numerous, it has disappeared
before the guns of the settlers, who destroy it for
the sake of the beautiful down with which the
breast of the bird is clothed. In the back-waters

and lagoons bordering on the Murray they may
still be seen in hundreds, gracefully floating on
the surface of these lakes, amongst the reeds of
100 AUSTRALIA.

which, and on the miniature islands, they form
their nests of dry sedge. They fly in flocks at a
great height, arranging themselves in the shape of
a wedge or letter V; and their song, as described
by Mr. Bass, ‘ exactly resembles the creaking of a
rusty sign on a windy day.” Like the cereopsis,
the black swan breeds readily in confinement, is
easily domesticated, and has now become tho-
roughly acclimatized in Europe.

The musk-duck is a singular bird that passes
most of its time in diving, having the power of re-
maining under water for a considerable period : it
emits, during the breeding season, a musky odour
so strong as to be perceptible long before the bird
itself is seen. :

The pelican is by far the largest of all the web-
. footed birds of Australia, and is common both on
the inland waters and upon the sea-coast. In
describing a lagoon at the head of Nepean Bay, in
Kangaroo Island, Capt. Flinders says: “On the
small islands we found many young pelicans un-
able to fly. Flocks of the old birds were sitting
upon the beaches of the lagoon, and it appeared
that the islands were their breeding-places; not
only so, but from the number of skeletons and
bones there scattered, it would seem that they
had for ages been selected for the closing scene of
their existence.”

Penguins are numerous on the southern coast,
and amongst the islands of Bass’s Strait. Mr.
Angas says: “ We visited an island lying off Cape
Jaffa, which is called Penguin Island, from the
PENGUINS. 101

vast quantity of these strange birds which congre-
gate there. The entire island was perforated with
their burrows, and out of many of the holes we
took their eggs, which resembled those of a com-
mon fowl, and were good eating. The species of
penguin found here is about the size of a duck,
and has scaly feathers of a bluish colour on the
back, with a white breast. Owing to the ex-
tremely small wings with which these birds are
furnished, they are incapable of flight, and we
easily took them up with our hands; for it is only
in the water that they appear to be in their proper
element, and they always run towards it as a
means of escape.” Several kinds of albatross and
petrel roam the Australian seas, and may fre-
quently be observed close to the land. Boobies
and frigate birds occur on the northern coast, and
gulls abound on every shore.
102

CHAPTER VII

ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA : REPTILES,
Fisues, Insects, AND MOLLUSKS.

 

CROCODILE-SHOOTING ON THE VICTORIA RIVER.

Ix those rivers of Australia which are situated
within the tropics, there exists a species of croco-
dile which is a formidable and dangerous creature.
Turtle abound in Torres’ Strait, and on the coasts
LIZARDS. 103

of Queensland, from which latter place they form
an article of export to Sydney, where they are
made into soup.

At Moreton Bay the turtle is thus caught by
the blacks: they either sail or pull gently in a
whaleboat across the bays, or round the islands
which the turtle frequent, and endeavour to keep
in about eight or ten feet of water. One native
stands in the bow of the boat, stark naked, and
peers down into the clear water. If he sees a
turtle he darts overboard headlong upon it, seizes
it by the fin, turns it over on its back, and thereby
disables it, so that with the assistahce of those in
the boat he is enabled to get it on board.

Lizards are numerous, some of them attaining a
large size, as the monitor, or “iguana” of the
colonists, which is from four to five feet long, and
beautifully mottled with yellow and black. The
most extraordinary reptile of the lizard tribe is
the Moloch horridus, or *¢ prickly devil :” it is found
in rocky and stony places in South and Western
Australia, and though not more than six inches
long, is covered all over with a formidable array
of sharp spines and prickly bosses, which give it a
hideous aspect. The scaly lizards are sluggish,
repulsive-looking creatures, having enormous
mouths, and short rounded tails, and are protected
with large thick scales, like a coat of mail.

In so warm a climate as that of Australia gene-
rally, it is not surprising that snakes should
abound ; and although many kinds are harmless,
yet there are some of a very venomous and deadly
104 AUSTRALIA,

nature. Dr. Bennett says that ¢ four-fifths of the
snakes as yet sent from different parts of Australia
are poisonous, and many are virulent.”

The diamond snake, one of the boa tribe, fre-
quently attains a length of from twelve to fifteen
feet, and is the largest species yet discovered ; it is
very handsomely dotted upon the back with
bright-yellow spots, on a black ground. Like all
the large serpents of the boa family the diamond
snake is, fortunately, quite harmless. The black
snake is from five to eight feet in length, of a
glossy black above, and crimson beneath. It is
very poisonous, and chiefly frequents marshy
places, or grassy flats in the neighbourhood of
water. The natives on the banks of the river
Murray are frequently bitten by them, whilst
walking amongst the reeds and long grass, and in
many instances the bite proves fatal. The
method adopted to cure a person who has been
thus bitten, is, after sucking the wound, and
tying a ligature above it, to keep the patient
running about, to prevent him sleeping. The
poison causes excessive drowsiness, which, if
yielded to, ends in convulsions and death. A
gentleman on arriving one day at a small town-
ship in New South Wales, observed a man, who
appeared as though he was intoxicated, running
about the street, followed by a number of indivi-
duals who were beating him with gum saplings.
Thinking that they were administering “Lynch
law,” he inquired of the bystanders, who informed
him that the man had been bitten by a black
VENOMOUS REPTILES. 105

snake, and his friends were adopting this sin-
gular method of keeping him awake. The brown
snake, equally venomous with the preceding is
generally supposed to be the female of the black
one; when attacked it has the unpleasant habit
of turning round and darting at its pursuer.
The “yellow snake” is also of a very deadly
nature; it isof a dark olive-green colour above,
and yellow below.

The death adder is the most venomous snake in
Australia, and its bite generally proves fatal. Tt
is common, even in the vicinity of Sydney, and is
found in dry, sandy places. Dr. Bennett says of
this serpent: “It frequently occurs on roads or
pathways, where, when coiled up, so torpid is its
disposition, that it does not move away on the
approach of a stranger, a circumstance which
renders it still more dangerous. I nearly stepped
upon the first I met with in the colony; it was
lying in the pathway, and- was providentially
perceived in time. From its short, thick, pecu-
liarly-coloured body, broad head, and malignant
eye, the stranger is warned of danger by its
pbysiognomy, which is indeed so hideous, as only
to be surpassed by the puff adder of the Cape, to
which it seems to bear a close resemblance. The
death adder is thick in proportion to its length,
measuring from two to three feet in length, and
about six inches in circumference. I have seen a
full-grown dog, bitten by one of these reptiles,
become strongly convulsed a few minutes after-
wards, and die in less than an hour.”
106 - AUSTRALIA.

Not long since, a little boy about three years
old was playing amongst the sand hills in the
neighbourhood of Sydney, when, observing a
death adder asleep, the child, attracted by its
speckled coat, took it up, and carried it home in
his pinafore to his mother, asking her to look
and see what a *‘ pretty fish ” he had found. The
terrified mother, on seeing the horrible reptile
which her little one had selected as a pet, had
the presence of mind to jerk it out of the pinafore,
and, assistance being at hand, the adder was soon
killed, and the child escaped unhurt!

The ringed snake, a small species heantifully
banded with black and white, is also poisonous.
Several kinds of sea-snakes are found on the coasts
to the north, and one species has been observed in
Sydney harbour: they have flattened tails, are
beautifully coloured, and are all believed to be
highly venomous.

Fishes, many of which are excellent eating,
abound, in endless variety, on all parts of the
Australian coast, and, were fisheries carried on in
a more systematic manner, the dwellers in the
seaport cities and towns need never be without a
varied and choice supply of fish. That scourge of
the seas of warm latitudes, the shark, is common
on all portions of the Australian seaboard, infest-
ing the bays and harbours, where it lurks about
in search of prey. In Port Jackson several sharks
of enormous size have been harpooned and killed
by the fishermen. Dr. Bennett mentions one
measuring twelve feet four inches in length, with
SHARKS, SWORDFISH. 107
a girth of six feet seven inches, which was cap-
tured in Sydney Harbour, in 1858, and he says:
“The contents of the stomach, when this voracious
fish was opened, were found to be—half a ham,
several legs of mutton, the hind quarter of a pig,
the head and forelegs of a bull-dog with a rope
round its neck, a quantity of horse-flesh, a piece
of sacking, and a ship’s scraper.” Another shark,
caught during the same year, near the same spot,
measured thirteen feet in length ; but the largest of
which the capture is recorded was killed by some
whalers near Kangaroo Island, in South Australia.
This huge monster was only overcome after a
fierce struggle, and measured twenty-five feet
from snout to tail. The capacity of its jaws was
so great that three persons could stand together
within their circumference; the fact being fre-
quently proved by persons at Port Adelaide,
where the jaws were exhibited.

The tiger shark, the saw fish, and the hammer-
headed shark are likewise numerous in some
localities, and the stinging ray and the torpedo
lurk upon the sandy flats in shallow water in the
harbours : these two last-named fish are dangerous
to bathers, the one inflicting a severe wound
when trod upon, the other almost paralyzing the
person who is unfortunate enough to come in con-
tact with its electrical powers.

Two species of sword fish, both of large size,
inhabit the Australian seas. They are formi-
dable enemies to the shoals of bonito and albicore,
which congregate about the sterns of vessels to
108 AUSTRALIA.

escape their attacks. Several instances have
occurred of ships, trading between Sydney and
Melbourne, having their planks penetrated for
several inches by the powerful “swords” of these
fish, which have broken off, leaving the end firmly
imbedded in the timber.

The shell-grinding shark is peculiar to Port
Jackson, and is remarkable for being the only
living representative of a once numerous tribe of
fossil fishes, whose jaws were armed with strong
bony plates for the purpose of grinding down the
shell fish which formed their food.

The «fishing frog,” or “angler,” as it is sre
is an ugly little squat fish, of a dark colour, and with-
out scales. It creeps along upon the mud at the
bottom of the water by means of its fins, which
resemble feet; and from its upper jaw proceeds a
curious appendage like a little scarlet flower,
attached by a fine thread about an inch in
length. Nearly concealing itself in the mud, the
“fishing frog” lies in wait for its prey, wagging
its scarlet tuft, and thus attracting the curiosity
of smaller fishes, which quickly fall victims to
their imprudence, in the capacious jaws of the
“angler.”

Some of the Australian fishes, especially those
that frequent the reefs and rocky shores, are of
the most beautiful and brilliant colours, vying
even with the birds and butterflies in the splendour
of their tints. Among these may be mentioned
the numerous tribe of parrot fish, the chatodons,
and the blue and gold glyphisodon, which latter is
SALMON, COD, OYSTERS. 109

only about three inches long, and forms a gorgeous
object in a Sydney aquarium.

The principal fish with which the colonial
markets are supplied are the schnapper, red
~ bream, flathead, John-Dory, whiting, mullet, garr-
fish, mackerel, and groper.

The introduction, with success, of salmon ova
from Great Britain to the rivers of Tasmania and
the southern portions of Australia will, it is to be
hoped, in the course of time furnish the tables of
the colonists with this noble and delicious fish.

In the Murray, and in some of the rivers of
New South Wales, there occurs a large fish called
the cod-perch, or “Murray cod.” It is good
eating, and in the Murray, where it is very
numerous, is taken by means of lines baited with
~ frogs, which are fastened overnight to the trunk
of some tree on the bank of the river. Some of
these fresh-water fish attain the length of three
or four feet, and weigh from thirty to forty
pounds.

Cray fish are found both in the rivers and on
the sea coast. Large and delicately-flavoured
prawns are also to be met with.

Oysters are abundant, and of several kinds.
The rock oysters, with which the Sydney markets
are chiefly supplied, are small, but of excellent
quality. At Port Lincoln large mud oysters are
dredged, and sent to Adelaide, but they are of an
inferior description to those we get in England.

Pearl oysters also occur in many places. At
Moreton Bay persons have from time to time been
110 AUSTRALIA.

engaged in the pearl fishery: but the pearls ob-
tained being mostly small, and of a bad colour, it
has not been regarded as a paying occupation.

Vast quantities of the pinna, or silk-bearing
mussel, dwell in the sheltered bays and estuaries.
Captain Flinders, in his description of Kangaroo
Island, says: “Towards the bottom of Nepean
Bay is a kind- of marsh covered with seaweed, in
which live, buried in the mud and sand, millions
of pinnae marine, or mussels. These shells furnish
a silk equal, in all respects, to that obtained from
similar animals along the coasts of Calabria and
Sicily ; but the European mussels dwell at a depth
of thirty or forty feet, and the fishery is attended
with great difficulty, whilst those of Kangaroo
Island are covered with scarcely twenty-five to
thirty inches of water, and thousands might with
ease be collected in a few hours.”

Many of the marine shells to be met with on
the shores of Australia and Tasmania are very
beautiful, especially those of the volute family, of
which there are numerous species, which are
highly prized by collectors. The Trigonia, the
pearly iridescent valves of which are now so much
used in England for brooches and ear-rings, is
found in Bass’s Strait, and in Port Jackson.

Leeches abound in most of the rivers and ponds.
The best are taken in the shallow lagoons or
“ back-waters” of the Murray, many persons ob-
taining a livelihood by catching them to supply
the chemists’ shops in Melbourne and Adelaide.

On the northern shores the trepang, or «“ Beche-
BEES. 111

de-mer,” occurs plentifully. At certain seasons of
the year the Malays visit that part of the coast in
their prahus, and carry on a fishery for this marine
slug, which is greatly esteemed as an article of
food in the Chinese markets.

In Australia, as in other warm climates, insect
life is prolific to an extraordinary degree. During
the summer months, flies, both in and out of doors,
are extremely numerous and annoying; and sand
flies and musquitoes infest the neighbourhood of
mangrove swamps, and such localities as are ad-
jacent to water or to the rank vegetation of the
brushes.

The common honey bee haslong ago been natural-
ized in Australia ; and owing to the genial climate,
and the vast quantity of honey-bearing flowers
which are indigenous to the soil, it has become
very abundant. In the neighbourhood of Sydney,
many of the poorer settlers derive a considerable
amount annually from the sale of honey. These
people are styled “bee-farmers,” and dwell in
wooden huts in those parts: of the bush which
abound most with wild flowers; at some of these
places may be seen upwards of one hundred hives
at work at the same time. In South Australia
almost every homestead has its bee-house, the
German inhabitants especially devoting their at-
tention to the culture of these useful insects.

In some parts of New South Wales there is
found a small moth, the caterpillars of which
manufacture a beautiful silken web, forming, by
‘the united labour of millions, sheets of delicate
112 AUSTRALIA.

webbing, some of which measure seventy-two
square feet or more. .

Those noisy insects, the tettigonias, or «locusts,”
as they are termed by the colonists, enliven almost
every gum-tree during the summer months with
their shrill, incessant music, which at times be-
comes quite deafening, especially on calm, sultry
days. There are a great many kinds of wasps and
hornets, one of the most singular of which is
a black wasp, which preys upon spiders, seizing
them from their webs and carrying them off to its
cell. These wasps build remarkably neat nests of
finely-tempered clay formed in layers of mud-pats
like those of a swallow. Very large moths fre-
quently fly into the camp fires at night, and also
enter into the houses, attracted by the lights, on
sultry evenings. The caterpillars or grubs of
these moths, which are of the cossus tribe, are fat,
repulsive-looking creatures, about the size of
one’s finger. They live in the wood of decayed
trees, and are much sought after by the blacks,
who esteem them as one of their choicest deli-
cacies.

Excepting on the eastern and northern coasts,
the butterflies are neither numerous nor remark-
able for their beauty. The woods and bushes of
Queensland produce some large and elegant species,
the most showy of which is nearly five inches
across the wings, and of a velvety black colour,
striped with golden green.

The beetles are more abundant than the butter-
flies, and display many curious forms and brilliant
ANTS. 113

metallic colours. The most beautiful kinds are
generally found in the blossoms of the mallee and
other sorts of dwarf gums. The diamond beetle
rivals its Brazilian namesake in the splendour of
its jewelled wing-cases. :

Ants are to be found everwhere. One large
species, about an inch in length, is armed with
strong sharp nippers, with which it inflicts a severe
and painful bite. Another species constructs large
nests of earth, resembling tumuli.

Those destructive creatures, the white ants, are
very numerous, and do much damage to wooden
buildings. They are fat, and sluggish-looking,
about the size of a grain of wheat, and are of a
dirty-white colour. They avoid the light, dwell-
ing in vast colonies in damp places beneath dead
logs, and decaying vegetable matter. As they
attack the timbers and floors from underneath, and
do not show themselves, their insidious ravages
are frequently not discovered until the whole
of the woodwork and planking of a house is
reduced to a honeycomb, and crumbles at the
touch. Many settlers’ houses have been under-
mined and totally destroyed by the work of
these wood-eating ants; mor do they confine
themselves merely to timber; books, articles of
clothing, pictures, and skins, if left undisturbed
in a damp place for some time, are almost certain
to be effectually ruined.

Wood-ticks occur in many places amongst the
long grass, and persons walking in the brushes
are very liable to be attacked by them. They

I
114 AUSTRALIA.

penetrate the skin, causing severe pain and ir-
ritation, and are with difficulty removed.

Fleas make their appearance in such numbers
in deserted huts and buildings, especially in sandy
districts, that it is impossible to enter one of them
without being actually covered with fleas; as
travellers who seek shelter in such places fre-
quently find out to their cost.

The tarantula spider is a formidable creature,
having its body and legs covered with hair. It
frequently crawls into houses, where it lurks
behind the furniture, or shelters itself in some
secluded crevice. Its bite is almost as venomous
as that of the scorpion.

Some of the smaller kinds of spider that are
met with in the bush amongst the flowers, are of
the most splendid colours, being spotted and
striped with green, rose colour, scarlet, blue,
purple, and yellow, in a singular variety of
patterns.

There is a large brown spider in South Australia
which constructs a tube-like nest in the hard
ground. This retreat is lined with a fine silky
web, and furnished with a sort of trap-door at-
tached by a hinge of threads which the insect lifts
up or down at pleasure. When in danger it re-
treats to its hole, shutting the trap-lid after it,
which fits so closely that no trace of its abode can
be discovered.

Those extraordinary insects called ¢ walking-
sticks,” or ¢“ animated straws,” are found climbing
amongst the boughs of the gum-trees. They are
SCORPIONS AND CENTIPEDES. 115

several inches in length, without wings, and have
long jointed legs, looking as if they were formed
of dried twigs.

The Phasmide are the largest of all the Australian
insects, some of them measuring a foot in length.
They are very showy, their large glassy wings
when spread out displaying tints of various hues.
They feed upon the young shoots of the gum-tree,
and when their wings are folded it is difficult to
discover them amongst the foliage, their bodies and
legs being of the same colour as the leaves.

Scorpions and centipedes attain a considerable
size. They are generally found under stones, or
the loose bark of trees, and in old deserted houses,
and decayed timber. Frequent instances occur
of persons being bitten by these noxious creatures,
when sleeping out in the bush, or chopping wood.
The poison is very virulent, causing great inflamma-
tion and drowsiness, and in some cases even the
loss of a limb has ensued from the bite of a large
centipede.
116

CHAPTER V1]],

ON THE BOTANY OF AUSTRALIA : TREES, SHRUBS, AND
FroweriNng PLANTS.

 

ILLAWARRA FOREST SCENERY,

Tur vegetable productions of Australia are varied
MAGNIFICENT TIMBER. 117
in character, and present many remarkable forms
distinct from those of any other part of the globe.
The dense forests bordering the northern coasts
partake more of the nature of those of tropical
regions generally; whilst by far the greater por-
tion of that vast country displays a style of vegeta-
tion peculiar to itself. All the trees being ever-
green, there is no perceptible difference in the
landscape between summer and winter, except that
the grass becomes, during the autumn, of yellow
colour, like hay, contrasting strongly with the
deep-green foliage of the trees.

Most of the mountain ranges are clothed with
magnificent timber, consisting chiefly of stringy-
bark, iron-bark, and other lofty species of gums.
The plains are often entirely destitute of trees,
stretching away for many miles in broad grassy
meadows, which during the spring are enamelled
with flowers of all colours. The gently undulat-
ing country, where the soil is good, presents the
appearance of a park, with noble gum-trees scat-
tered here and there, either singly or in clusters.
The banks of the rivers are everywhere bordered
with the blue gums, which grow to a large size,
and mark the course of the stream from a long
distance, as it meanders through open plains or
low desert scrub. "The parched and arid wastes of
the interior, where rain seldom falls, have also
their peculiar vegetation of mallee and spinifex ;
the latter is a low shrub, like a mass of sharp
prickles, which is abundant in the stony and
sandy deserts, and renders travelling difficult

|
118 AUSTRALIA.

and hazardous. In some localities nothing is seen
but extensive tracts of the shea-oak tree, remark-
able for having long, jointed, weeping filaments
instead of leaves, through which on a stormy day
the wind makes most mournful music. In other
places there occur groves of the beautiful acacia, or
golden wattle, which, when covered with its pro-
fusion of yellow blossoms during the spring, fills
the air with an almost overpowering fragrance.

In the deep ravines and glens, and clothing the
sides of the mountains that slope down to the
Pacific, on the eastern coast of New South Wales,
are forests of infinite beauty, teeming with vege-
tation in its wildest luxuriance. Mr. Angas thus
“describes the descent into one of these forests,
from the brow of Mount Keerah : —

“On entering Illawarra it seemed as though we
had become suddenly transported into a region of
tropical verdure; and the scene all around us was
totally new in aspect and character. We had
passed into another climate: the dry, arid soil of
the stringy-bark forest, with its stunted vege-
tation, was exchanged, as if by magic, for a
damp, humid region, sheltered from the wind by
colossal barriers of rock, and presenting a wealth
of foliage almost inconceivable. Plants and trees
were here altogether of different species from any
we had before witnessed: the graceful cabbage-
palm towered to a height of seventy and even a
hundred feet; the Indian fig reared its tortuous
branches high into the air, clothed with rich
draperies of curious and spreading parasites; and
WILD FLOWERS. 119

the graceful tree-ferns, thirty feet high, flourished
in the warm and damp atmosphere of these wind-
less dells. In short, nothing can exceed the
beauty of the scenery, as the traveller descends
the winding and difficult path that leads down
the mountain to the rich pastures below : here and
there a group of palms shoot upwards towards the
sky; and on either side the forest is so rank with
creepers, ferns, and vines as to be quite impas-
sable. Here we gathered wild raspberries, and
beheld the gigantic stag-horn fern growing from
the trunks of the loftiest trees.”

Amongst the most striking and beautiful of the
wild flowers that adorn the mountain forests of
New South Wales are the * warratah” and the
rock lily. The former is a slender shrub, grow-
ing with a single upright woody stem to a height
of six or eight feet: at the top of which is a
magnificent blossom of a deep crimson colour,
in* shape and size bearing a considerable resem-
blance to a full-blown peony, and distinguishable
for a long distance amidst the sombre-coloured
underwood.

The rock lily is a superb plant, generally
growing on the edge of some rocky precipice,
crowning a lofty ridge of cliffs with its giant
form. The flower-stalk, issuing from a bunch
of long pointed leaves, frequently attains an alti-
tude of thirty feet, bearing at its summit a crown
of scarlet lilies, several feet in circumference.

The gigantic stinging-nettle is abundant in
the Illawarra forests, and is a formidable tree.
120 AUSTRALIA.

It grows to a height of forty or fifty feet, having
large flat leaves. The poisonous fluid secreted
from the foliage is very powerful, particularly in
the younger leaves; and their sting is so virulent
as to produce great suffering, not unattended by
danger: so that where it crowds the forest with
its spreading leaves, at no great elevation from
the ground, it becomes a serious impediment to
the traveller.

During summer, the highest ridges of these
Illawarra mountains are rendered conspicuous
by the blossoms of the flame-tree, which may be
seen like fiery-red patches in the forest, by
vessels passing at a distance of several miles
from the shore.

On the north and north-west coasts of Australia
the explorers in those regions have met with a
most remarkable tree, called the baobab or gouty-
stem tree. The trunks of these trees, resembling
enormous yams, are filled with abundance of
mucilage, not unlike gum tragacanth, forming
a reservoir of aliment calculated for the climate
in which these trees grow. One, measured
during Gregory’s Expedition, proved to be eighty--
five feet in circumference, at two feet from the
ground. At one season of the year the trees are
covered with a bright dense foliage, with a pro-
fusion of large pendulous blossoms; these dis-
appear during the time of rest, when the fruit,
which is edible, and resembles a small gourd, may
be seen hanging in clusters from the naked
branches.
THE PINE AND WOODEN-PEAR TREE. 121

The “bunya-bunya” pine grows to an enor-
mous size in some parts of Queensland, and is
probably the most important of all the Australian
trees that produce an edible fruit or seed. It
yields a cone larger than a man’s head, which
~ contains many scores of seeds, each lapped in a
separate leaf. The *“bunya-bunya” produces its
harvest once in three years, the fruiting season
being the month of February. The blacks are
so fond of these seeds that they travel hundreds of
miles to obtain them, and the feast of the bunya-
bunya” is therefore a great festival with them
for their corroborees, fights, and other ceremo-

, nies.

The noble Moreton Bay pine towers conspi-
cuously above the principal trees in the luxuriant
“ brushes ” or coast-forests of Queensland ; it
grows to a great height, and attracts the eye
by the peculiar arrangement of its foliage. Its
timber is largely used for building purposes.

The Moreton Bay fig, or Indian-rubber tree, de-
lights also in the recesses of the forests, and the
shelter of the mountain glens; where, clothed
with parasitic masses and ferns, it spreads its
giant roots like the Indian banian, and forms a
rich canopy of shining dark-green leaves.

Amongst the anomalies of the Australian vege-
table world are the “ wooden-pear tree” and the
native cherry: the former, which grows near
Sydney, has a seed-vessel in size and aspect like
an ordinary pear, but which consists entirely of
hard wood, enclosing a few flat seeds in the
122 AUSTRALIA.

centre. The ¢ cherry” is a beautiful evergreen
of the cypress family, which bears a small fruit
of a bright-red colour, having the stone outside the
berry.

The white cedar-tree, or Australian lilac, emits
from its pendulous clusters of lilac blossoms a
delightful fragrance: the flowers, however, only
exhale their perfume during the evening, and a
few hours after sundown, being entirely scentless
during the day.

A great variety of beautiful acacias occur in
all parts of Australia, having for the most part
clusters of yellow odoriferous blossoms. The
pendulous acacia, or *“myall” of the blacks, has a
dark-coloured wood, which emits a strong odour
of violets, and retains its powerful fragrance for
many years. Being handsome in appearance as
well as hard, heavy, and sweet-scented, it is much
used by stockmen for whip-handles. The natives
also esteem it for the manufacture of clubs and
“ boomerangs.”

Many of the larger kinds of gum-trees shed
their bark annually, which gives them a naked
and ragged aspect at such times. Some of the
noble red and blue gums attain an elevation of
from fifty to sixty feet before sending out branches,
their trunks measuring frequently as much as
thirty feet in circumference. The gum-trees
yield a hard, enduring timber, which is much
used in all the colonies for fencing and rough
building purposes.

Fine red cedar, which is cut in the brushes
SMALLER NATIVE TREES. 123

of New South Wales and Queensland, is excellent
for cabinet-work, most of the colonial houses
being fitted up with it. There are, besides,
a vast variety of native woods eminently adapted
for manufacturing purposes.

The Banksias are singular-looking trees, some-
what like stunted oaks, bearing cylindrical clus-
ters of blossom, which turn into large seed-cones,
and impart a curious aspect to the branches.

A species of misletoe, with green and red blos-
soms, and bearing berries similar to those in
England, is parasitical in the trees, and is devoted
to the same festive purposes as the more northern
plant.

The ‘ Christmas-bush,” a pretty evergreen shrub,
with masses of pink blossom, is used in New South
Wales instead of holly, as a decoration at Christ
mas.

Amongst the few barely edible fruits indige-
nous to Australia may be mentioned the wild fig,
the native currant, the ‘ monterrey ” (which
resembles a very small apple, and grows on a
creeping plant amongst the sand-hills on the sea-
shore), the ‘“quondong” or wild peach (having
a large round stone, covered with a bright scarlet
pulpy skin), the « geebung,” and the wild grape.

Many of the flowers adorning the sand-scrubs
are remarkable for their beauty ; during the spring
the ground is in many places covered with terres-
trial orchids of singular forms and various colours.

In Western Australia there occurs a species of
pitcher-plant; and the sweet-scented white lily
124 : AUSTRALIA,

and the purple calostemma grow on the banks of
the Murray.

Northern travellers inform us that the ponds
and lagoons in tropical Australia are covered with
blue, pink, and white water-lilies.

The grass-tree is a peculiarly characteristic
feature of the landscape in poor soil, and amongst
barren rocky scenery. It has a rugged trunk or
stem, varying in height from two to ten feet,
at the top of which is a graceful tuft of thin,
grass-like leaves, spreading over on all sides;
whilst out of this springs a long blossom-spike,
not unlike a bulrush.

In the settled districts, where the country has
been much fed over by sheep and cattle, the
indigenous kangaroo-grass entirely disappears,
giving place to a marrow-bladed kind similar to
that seen in England. When the first emigrants
landed their flocks at Port Phillip, the kangaroo-
grass was in many places six feet high, and af-
forded the most luxuriant and nourishing pasture.

Mushrooms are abundant in winter and spring,

especially where the soil has been manured by
cattle and sheep. In some parts of New South
Wales there grows a luminous fungus, that shines
with a bluish-green phosphorescent light, and
imparts a curious appearance to the woods at
certain seasons of the year.

a

to fcr.
 

CHAPTER IX.

DISCOVERIES ON THE COASTS OF AUSTRALIA BY THE
EArLY VOYAGERS.

 

THE “DEVIL'S TOWER,’ IN BASS'S STRAIT.

THE original name given by the Dutch to the
Great South Land, of which they claim to be
the discoverers, was that of ‘Terra Australis.”
It was not until after Tasman’s second voyage that
126 AUSTRALIA.

this appellation was changed to New Hol-
land; but the new name applied only to the
western half of the continent, the eastern portion
being styled New South Wales by the early
British navigators. Capt. Flinders, when speak-
ing of New Holland and New South Wales in a
collective sense, re-adopted the original term,
“Terra Australis,” which has, however, again
become obsolete, though, singularly enough, in
his preface to his “ Voyage to Terra Australis,” he
suggests the very name which is at present
applied to the Australian continent. He says:
¢ Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the
original term, it would have been to convert it
into Australia, as being more agreeable to the ear,
and in assimilation to the names of the other
great portions of the earth.”

There is a curions manuscript chart, now in the
British Museum, bearing date 1542, which has
caused some persons to hold the opinion that a
part of Australia had been visited by Europeans
nearly a hundred years prior to any authentic
accounts we have of its discovery. On this chart *
an extensive country is laid down to the south-
ward of the Moluccas, under the name of Great
Java, “which,” says Flinders, ¢ agrees nearer with
the position and extent of Terra Australis than of
any other land; and the direction given to some
parts of the coast approaches too near to the truth
for the whole to have been marked from conjec-
ture alone. But, combining this with the exagge-
rated extent of Great Java in a southern direction,
EARLY DISCOVERERS, THE DUTCH. 127

and the animals and houses painted upon the
shores, such as have not been anywhere seen in
Terra Australis, it should appear to have been
partly formed from vague information, collected,
probably, by the early Portuguese navigators,
from the eastern nations, and that conjecture has
done the rest. It may, at the same time, be
admitted that a part of the west and north-west
coasts, where the coincidence of form is most
striking, might have been seen by the Portuguese
themselves, before the year 1540, in their voyages
to and from India.”

There is little reason to doubt je that many
portions of the north coast, adjacent to Timor and
New Guinea, were visited by the Malays at an -
early period in their prahus; but the first au-
thenticated discovery of any part of Australia was
made by the Dutch, about the month of March,
1606.

On the 18th of November, 1605, the Dutch
yacht, the ‘“Duyfhen” was despatched from
Bantam, in Dutch India, to explore the islands
of New Guinea, and she sailed along what was
then supposed to be the west side of that country,
as far as 14° south latitude. This was in reality the
north-west coast of Australia, and is thus described
in the account of the voyage by Saris: «This
extensive country was found, for the greatest part,
desert, but in some places inhabited by wild,
cruel, black savages, by whom some of the crew
were murdered. For which reason they could not
learn anything of the land or waters, as had been
128 AUSTRALIA.

desired of them; and from want of provisions, and
other necessaries, they were obliged to leave the
discovery unfinished. The furthest point of the
land in their map was called Cape Keer-weer,”
or Turn-again.

In the same year, Luis Vaes de Torres, a
Spanish navigator, sailed with three vessels from
Callao, in Peru, for the purpose of searching for
a continent which was supposed to be somewhere
to the westward of South America. He discovered
~ the straits which now bear his name, separating
Australia from New Guinea, and passed through
them to the south-west, sailing along 300 leagues
of the coast. In the narrative of his discoveries,
* which Torres himself addressed to the King of
Spain, he says, speaking of these straits, ¢ that all
over them there is an archipelago of islands
without number. Some were very large, and
inhabited by black people, very corpulent, and
naked. Their arms were lances, arrows, and clubs
“of stone, ill-fashioned. We caught in all this land
twenty persons of different nations, that with
them we might be able to give a better account
to your Majesty.”

In 1616, Dirk Hartog, commander of the
Dutch Indiaman the «Endragt,” discovered that
part of the west coast lying between 23° and 26°
south latitude. He anchored in Shark Bay; and
on one of the islands forming the roadstead
there, a plate of tin was found, in 1697, bearing
an inscription to the effect that the land had been
visited by Dirk Hartog, on 25th October, 1616.
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 129

Three years later, the coast south from Shark
Bay was visited by Edel, another Dutch captain,
and that part of the country was named Edel
Land, in honour of its discoverer. The great reef
lying off this coast, known as Houtman’s Abro-
Thos, was discovered at the same time. It was on
this reef that Pelsert lost his ship, the « Batavia,”
in 1629.7;

That portion of the south coast extending from
Cape Leeuwin in an easterly direction along the
great Australian bight, towards Spencer’s Gulf,
was accidentally discovered by the Dutch ship
“Gulde Zeepaard,” in 1627; and called Nuyts’
Land, after Pieter Nuyts, her commander.

In 1642, Captain Abel Jansz Tasman sailed
from Batavia on a voyage of discovery, and fell
in with the south coast of the island that is now
called Tasmania after him, but to which he gave
the name of “ Anthony Van Diemen’s Land,” in
honour, he says, “of the governor-general of
Dutch India, our master, who sent us out to make
discoveries.” He anchored in Frederick Hen-
drik’s Bay, “in a good port, in twenty-two
fathoms ; whitish good holding sand; wherefore
we ought to praise God Aldon

More than a century elapsed after the voyage
of Tasman, before the eastern coast of Australia
was made known. In the year 1770, Captain
James Cook, after visiting Tahiti and New
Zealand, proceeded to explore the eastern shores,
from their southern extremity to Cape York,
visiting Botany Bay and discovering Port Jackson.

I
130 AUSTRALIA.

This voyage of Captain Cook far surpassed in
importance all that had been hitherto accom-
plished. The general plan, however, of the ex-
pedition did not admit of his entering minutely
into the details of all parts of this extensive
seaboard; thus some portions were passed in
the night, many openings were seen and not
examined, and the islands and reefs lying at a
distance from the shore were only indicated.
Cook reaped the harvest of discovery, but the
gleanings remained for Flinders and other more
recent navigators. ‘

In 1777, Captain Cook again visited Australia,
and carried out his discoveries along the coasts of
‘Van Diemen’s Land; and, in the following year,
Captain Phillip arrived in Botany Bay, for the
purpose of establishing the first British colony in
the territory recently discovered by Captain
Cook, and called by him New South Wales.

In December 1797, Mr. George Bass, surgeon of
H. M. S. « Reliance,” left Port Jackson in a whale-
boat, for an expedition to the southward, taking
with him a crew of six men, and six weeks’ pro-
visions. After carefully examining the coast for
two hundred miles, these adventurous voyagers
discovered Twofold Bay, and eventually rounded
Cape Howe, and passed through the strait (Bass’s
Strait) which separates Australia from Tasmania,
thus proving, for the first time, that the southern
land, called Van Diemen by Tasman, was in
reality an island. Pursuing their voyage west-
ward, exposed to great dangers from the stormy
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 131

nature of the seas they had to navigate in their
frail boat, they discovered Western Port, where
"they were detained for thirteen days by bad
weather. The return journey was greatly retarded
by contrary gales; and though Mr. Bass started
with only six weeks’ provisions, he managed, with
the assistance of occasional supplies of petrels,
seals’ flesh, fish, and a few black swans, to prolong
his voyage to eleven weeks, and to return safe
from a daring enterprise, which was crowned with
a degree of success not to have been antidinated
fire such feeble means.

During the time that Mr. Bass was absent on
his whale-boat voyage, Flinders, in the “ Francis”
schooner, examined the islands in Bass’s Strait,
some of which he found covered with vast mul-
titudes of seals and petrels. In the following year
he joined Mr. Bass in a more extensive exploration
of the straits, and discovered the northern coast of
Tasmania, from Port Dalrymple to Cape Grim.
Finally, they sailed entirely round the island,
visiting the various bays and harbours, and re-
turned again to Port Jackson, after an absence of
three months.

In 1799, Captain Flinders, in the sloop ¢ Norfolk,”
sailed along the east coast northward, to explore
and report upon Moreton Bay and Harvey’s Bay,
two large openings seen by Captain Cook, but of
which the entrances only were known. \

It was, however, in July 1801, that Captain
Flinders sailed from Sheerness in command of
H. M. 8S. “Investigator,” on his grand voyage
132 AUSTRALIA.

“for completing the Rvestigntio of the coasts of
Terra Australis.”

On this second voyage, Captain Flinders sighted
the Australian coast at Cape Leeuwin: and King
George's Sound was fixed upon as the best place
in which to anchor, and prepare for the examina-
tion of the south coast. After conducting his
explorations along the great Australian bight,
visiting the various groups of small islands on the
coast, and discovering Coffin’s Bay, it was found
that the coast once more took a northerly direc-
tion, and an ebb tide, from the north-east, was met,
running out of some apparent inland sea. This
was the entrance to Spencer’s Gulf, which, together
with Port Lincoln and Gulf St. Vincent, were
discovered and carefully examined and surveyed
by the captain of the “Investigator.” It was in
the stormy channel between Thistle Island and
the mainland, at the entrance to Spencer’s Gulf,
that Flinders lost a boat’s crew, consisting of two
officers and six men, who had proceeded to the
main to search for an anchoring-place where water
might be procured. Continuing the survey of the
coast to Kangaroo Island, Port Phillip, and Bass’s
Strait, the * Investigator’ reached Sydney har-
bour in July, 1802, to refit; where the French
Commander Baudin had previously arrived, also
on a voyage of discovery.

At this early period of the infant settlement at
Port Jackson, supplies were scarcely to be obtained,
and their price was most exorbitant. Captain
Flinders says: *‘ In purchasing a sea-stock for the
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 133

cabin, I paid 31. per head for sheep weighing from
301b. to 40 1b. when dressed ; pigs were bought at
9d. per pound, weighed alive; geese at 10s. each,
and fowls at 3s.; and Indian corn for the stock
cost bs. a bushel.”

After an examination of the east and north
coasts, on which service Captain Flinders was
engaged for about eighteen months, he sailed for
Timor and the Mauritius; at which latter place
he was detained as a prisoner of war for seven
years; and, owing to this misfortune, his dis-
coveries were not published to the world till
1814.

In 1837, Captain Wickham, and, subsequently,
Mr. Stokes in the “Beagle,” carried out extensive
surveys of the coast in North-West Australia; the
latter discovered a safe inner channel for vessels
passing through Torres’ Strait; and also made a
careful and complete chart of Bass’s Strait, ren-
dering their navigation safe to the mariner.
134 AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTER X.

NEw SovrH WALES.

 

SYDNEY HEADS, LOCKING NORTH.

ThE colony of New South Wales, the oldest of all
the Australian colonies, was first established as a
penal settlement in the beginning of the year 1788;
a fleet of convict vessels, under convoy of a frigate,
cast anchor in Botany Bay on the 20th of January ;
but the locality being found deficient in fresh
NEW SOUTH WALES. 135

water, Captain Phillip, the governor, determined
to examine the adjacent harbours lying to the
northwards. The result was, that they found only
a few miles further along the coast a magnificent
and capacious harbour, capable of affording se- |
curity to the largest fleet during all winds. On
the governor’s return to Botany Bay he gave
directions for the immediate removal of the fleet
to Port Jackson, where, at the head of one of the
deep bays or coves of this indented harbour, he
determined to fix his future seat of government.
“ The spot chosen for this purpose,” says Colonel
Collins, “ was at the head of the cove (now called
Sydney Cove), near a run of fresh water, which
stole silently through a very thick wood, the still-
ness of which was then, for the first time since crea-
tion, interrupted by the sound of the labourer’s
axe.”

New South Wales, before the separation from it
of Victoria and Queensland, occupied the entire
eastern portion of Australia, from the 141st degree
of longitude (which divides. it from South Aus-
tralia) to the shores of the Pacific. Its extent is
‘now, however, much limited, since it has been
deprived of the large territories lying morth and
south ; the former of which was constituted a
separate and independent colony under the title of
Queensland, in December 1859; whilst the latter,
as Victoria, seceded from the parent state in July
1851, and is now, owing to its wonderful gold-fields,
the most wealthy and flourishing colony under the
British crown.
136 AUSTRALIA.

The present boundaries of New South Wales
are, on the east, the Pacific Ocean—on the north
a line from Point Danger, in S. lat. 28° 8’; thence
by the mountain range, westerly, to the great
dividing range ; thence, following the course of the
Macintyre to S. lat. 29°, and along this parallel to
E. long. 141°—which is the western boundary—
and on the south by a line from Cape Howe to the
~ nearest course of the Murray, and thence by the
course of that river to the borders of South Aus-
tralia.

The coast of New South Wales comprises about
700 miles of seaboard, along which are numerous
harbours, bays, and estuaries, which afford a more
or less secure anchorage for vessels. Port Jack-
son is celebrated as being one of the finest harbours
in the world. Twofold Bay, near Cape Howe, at
the south-eastern portion of the colony, is also a
secure haven for shipping, and the harbour of an
important district. Newcastle, at the mouth of the
Hunter River, though at times rather difficult of
access, is, next to Sydney, the most frequented port
on the coast, commanding, as it does, all the coal
trade from the adjacent mines to the neighbouring
colonies, as well as being the place of export for
a vast amount of agricultural produce; the valley
of the Hunter being considered the garden and
- granary of the colony. Broken Bay, a few miles
to the north of Sydney, is at the entrance of the
Hawkesbury River, also an old-established agri-
cultural district, between which and Sydney a
considerable trade is carried on. Port Stephen,
NEW SOUTH WALES: PHYSICAL FEATURES. 137

Jervis Bay, Botany Bay, Port Macquarie, and
Wollongong are the other principal harbours on
the coast.

Most of the rivers form bar harbours, the naviga-
tion into which is difficult, and at times dangerous ;
yet a number of steamers and small coasting
vessels trade to and fro between Sydney and the
Clarence, the Richmond, the Manning, the Shoal-
haven, and other rivers.

In the northern portion of the Australian alps,
the Murrumbidgee takes its rise, flowing westwards
through a level country until it joins the Murray.
The Lachlan, which rises near the Cancbla moun-
tains beyond Bathurst, also takes a westerly direc-
tion, inclining to the south, till it falls into the
Murrumbidgee. The Darling, the longest river in
New South Wales, is fed by the numerous streams
‘of the western watershed of the cordillera, or
dividing range of mountains which intersects the
colony from north to south. This river, after
watering an arid region for several hundred miles,
also falls into the Murray near the South Australian
boundary.

The Tweed, the Clarence, fhe Richmond, the
Manning, the Bellinger, the Macleay, the Shoal-
haven, the Clyde, and the Hunter have their rise
on the eastern slopes of the mountain ranges, and
empty themselves into the Pacific Ocean; whilst
the western rivers all reach the southern ocean by
the one outlet, the mouth of the Murray.

The Hunter is a noble stream, it and its tribu-
taries being navigable for large steamers for a
138 AUSTRALIA.

distance of many miles: it flows through a rich
and fertile district, and the important towns of
Maitland and Newcastle are situated upon its
banks. The Clarence is the largest river in the
northern portion of the colony: it has thirteen
feet water on the bar, and is navigable for vessels
of 300 tons for sixty miles from its mouth.

Of the general aspect of the country a recent
writer observes: ¢ The interior may be called
smountainous or hilly, and is covered with an open
forest, occasionally intersected by brushwood
thickets. On the sea-coast, along which the
great Pacific Ocean rolls its tremendous surge, the
country is bold and rugged ; and for five or six miles
from the coast, it wears in some places a bleak and
barren aspect, presenting a soil composed mainly
of drift sand, scantily covered with stunted trees
and shrubs. But this would give an inadequate
and unfair idea of the whole; for it is the most
chequered country of good and bad land in the
world. In the interior, rich and fertile valleys lie
in the lap of the mountain ranges, such as the Vale
of Clwyd, to the westward of the Blue Mountains ;
and extensive undulating grassy plains, like those
of Maneroo and Liverpool Plains, are approached
through a barren and rocky region. On the coast,
also, the romantic and fertile district of Illawarra
is surrounded by a desolate region of barren hills,
and the rich valley of the Hunter River system of
waters, contrasts with those of the Clarence and
Richmond to the northward. Again, the tropical
aspect of the jungles and mangrove swamps is so
NEW SOUTH WALES: CLIMATE. 139

different from that of the verdant prairies of the
downs, almost destitute of timber, and with few
streams, that the traveller could scarcely imagine
them to be in the same country, within a thousand
miles of each other, and yet they are contiguous.”
The climate along the seaboard of New South
Wales is more equable than that of the interior :
it is less exposed to the influence of the hot winds,
which three or four times every summer blow from
the north-west like a current of air issuing from a-
heated furnace : the winters are also milder, frost
being of rare occurrence; whilst the heats of
summer are tempered by the sea-breeze, which
“sets in regularly every morning during the hot
months, and blows strongly from the north-east till
about sundown, when it is succeeded by a land=
breeze from the mountains.
As the land rises from the ocean the tempera-
ture declines. Sydney may almost be said to have
no winter, so genial and mild is that season there ;
whilst at Bathurst snow falls in its season, and the
cold is often severe. On the highest ranges, heavy
falls of snow take place during winter, which re-
main for a long time on their summits. At Black-
heath, on the Blue Mountains, it is no uncommon
thing to see boys sliding upon the ice, and snow-
balling each other on a July morning, although
only distant from Sydney about seventy miles.

In the northern districts, abutting on Queensland,
the climate partakes of a tropical character, and
the pine-apple and the banana flourish luxuriantly
in the open field; whilst on the Maneroo plains,
140 AUSTRALIA.

situated 2,000 feet above the sea, at the base of
the Australian Alps, which are covered with snow
for a greater portion of the year, the gooseberry,
the raspberry, and the apple flourish in the keen
sharp atmosphere.

Occasional droughts occur throughout the colony
at periods varying from ten to fifteen years: and
periodical floods of a destructive character have
at various times caused a serious loss of life and
property. The climate is on the whole highly
salubrious and agreeable: its dry healing in-
fluence is beneficial in pulmonary consumption.
Hydrophobia is unknown, although dogs abound.
The Asiatic cholera has never yet visited the
colony ; dysentery, however, is prevalent amongst
newly-arrived emigrants. Cases of heart disease
are frequent, and cause the majority of sudden
deaths. Ophthalmia, too, is a common com-
plaint in some parts of the country during the
summer and autumn months. The only epidemic
is the influenza, which at intervals visits the
colony, and is very severe in its effects. Yet, not-
withstanding these facts, the climate of New
South Wales has been pronounced by good au-
thorities to be one of the most healthy and salu-
brious on the face of the globe; a great proportion
of the mortality being owing 0 intemperance and
to accidental deaths.

The agricultural produce of New South Wales
includes all the cereals of Europe, as well as
many which belong to tropical climates. All the
culinary vegetables flourish admirably, and green
NEW SOUTH WALES: POPULATION, ETC. 141

peas are obtainable in Sydney all the year round.
For fruits of every description the colony is justly
famous —peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons, citrons,
grapes, loquats, plums, pomegranates, figs, mul-
berries, and melons attain the highest degree of
perfection in the open air. Tobacco and maize
are extensively cultivated ; and wine of a very
superior quality is made at Camden and on the
Hunter.

The population of the entire colony of New
South Wales, according to the census of 1861,
amounted to 350,553; whilst that of the oly of
Sydney alone numbered 93,202 souls.

The exports from the colony to the United
Kingdom amounted in 1863 to 2,220,149/. : whilst
the imports of British manufactured goods during
the same year were valued at 3,265,830. ; and
those of foreign and colonial produce at 321,228].

Horses are exported to India in great numbers
from New South Wales, as they also are from
South Australia, for the purpose of supplying the
cavalry and artillery there. Cattle grow to a
large size, weighing from thirteen to fourteen
cwts. As a great wool-producing country the
colony has been celebrated from its infancy: as
long ago as the year 1797 Mr. John Macarthur
introduced a small flock of pure Spanish merino
sheep into New South Wales from the Cape: and
it is to his enterprise that Australia owes the
origin of her present great pastoral wealth. Up
to the year 1805 no wool had been exported from
the colonies, and Great Britain was entirely de-
142 AUSTRALIA.

pendent upon Spain for her supplies. In the year
1861, the enormous quantity of sixty-eight mil-
lions three hundred and thirteen thousand nine
hundred and three pounds of wool was received
into British ports from Australia only; the value
of which, at 1s. 7d. per 1b., amounts to the sum of
5,477,1811. sterling.

~ The introduction of the alpaca into New South
Wales from the Bolivian Andes is an event which
has been hailed as a new epoch in the advance-
ment of the colony. In 1858, the indefatigable
Mr. Ledger succeeded, after much opposition on
the part of the South American Government, in
safely landing at Sydney a valuable herd of nearly
300 of these useful animdls. In 1860 the first
export of their wool took place, amounting to
677 lbs.

The coal fields of the Hunter and of Illawarra
promise, at no distant period, to yield results of
which, at present, we can form no conception.
The large fleet of intercolonial steamers are all
supplied with excellent coal, the produce of New
South Wales, which is also used in producing gas
for Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and other Yrs
towns.

The quantity of coal raised in New South
Wales, in the year 1857, amounted in value to
148,158.

The orange-tree was first introduced into New
South Wales from Brazil in 1780.

The country round Sydney, and along the
banks of the Parramatta and Hunter Rivers con-
ORANGERIES IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 143

tains many very extensive orangeries, the produce
of which is a remunerative source of wealth to
the proprietors, from 50. to 1800/. per annum
being realized as the profit of some of these plan-
tations. :

Dr. Bennett thus pleasantly describes the
orangery of Mr. Richard Hill, at Lane Cove, near
Sydney: ¢ After an agreeable drive of about nine
miles we arrived at the orangery. On entering
the grounds the scene was beautiful ; and it is
impossible to describe the effect produced by the
mass of bright-green foliage, studded in all direc-
tions with golden, luscious fruit, and redolent with
the perfume of the flowers. The situation of the
grounds is good, having a north-east aspect, well
sheltered from injurious winds; the land gradu-
ally slopes down to a well-watered creek, and on
the opposite side of this gradually rises again; on
the brows of these sheltered hills, the rows of
orange-trees are planted. At the entrance of the
garden, I remarked some fine lemon-trees, forming
an agreeable contrast, by the lighter green of their
leaves, and the delicate hue of their pendulous
clusters of fruit, with the darker tints of the
orange-trees in their vicinity: the branches of
these fine lemoun-trees were so loaded with ripe
fruit as to require the support of props to prevent
them from breaking down. The fragrance of the
blossoms attracted multitudes of insects, butter-
flies of various bright tints, and innumerable bees,
the latter imbibing the nectar from the flowers
to convey to their hives, which are kept upon the
144 AUSTRALIA.

grounds of this plantation. The air we breathed
was filled with delicious odour, and the trees
around were loaded with ripe and ripening fruit.
Mr. Hill has already, during this season (1858),
gathered and sold for exportation and home eon-
sumption 40,000 dozen of oranges, leaving about
20,000 yet unculled.”

The country is now intersected in all directions
with excellent roads. The mails are conveyed
from Sydney to all the various towns and villages
of the interior with punctuality and despatch.
Four-horse coaches carry on daily communication
“along the northern, western, and southern roads;
whilst the numerous seaports are connected with
the metropolis by means of fast and powerful
steam-boats.

A railway is being constructed between Sydney
and Goulburn, and a great portion of the line is
open to traffic. Another railway is formed be-
tween Newcastle and Maitland, along the valley
of the Hunter; and other lines are in progress to
the north and west.

The electric telegraph connects New South
Wales with Queensland on the one side, and with
Victoria and South Australia on the other.

Steam communication conveying the mails by
the overland route, vid King George's Sound and
Melbourne, is carried on monthly between Great
Britain and Sydney, letters being delivered within
fifty days. :

The colony of New South Wales is divided into
sixty-eight counties, extending along the entire
NEW SOUTH WALES: PORT JACKSON. 145

sea-board, and about 180 miles into the interior :
these are all thoroughly explored and surveyed,
and are more or less densely populated by the
settlers,

The entrance to Port Jackson from the Pacific
Ocean is between two perpendicular cliffs called
the North and the South Heads; and it appears
as if the continuous wall of sandstone rock that
forms this iron-girt coast had been abruptly rent
asunder to form the portals of one of the finest
harbours in the world. The width of the entrance
is nearly two miles, the cliffs on either side, in
height from one to four hundred feet, rising
abruptly from the ocean that foams and lashes
in fury at their base; the waves, during stormy
weather, rushing into the hollow caverns below
with a sound like thunder.

On the summit of the southern cliff stands a
noble lighthouse, built of Sydney stone, which
throws its friendly rays far and wide over the
bosom of the Pacific. Near to it is the flagstaff
and signal station, from whence the arrivals and
departures are telegraphed to Sydney, a distance
of seven miles. The enchanting scenery from the
South Head is thus graphically described by
Judge Terry: “ As on a summer’s eve one stands
upon the well-known heights overhanging Vau-
cluse (whither the citizens of Sydney ‘hie to gulp
their weekly air’), with shrubs and wild flowers
of dazzling hue springing beneath his feet, he
beholds, as he looks seaward, the heaving swell of
the huge billows of the Pacific outside the Heads ;

K
146 AUSTRALIA.

*

then, turning the eye towards Sydney, it rests
upon the tranquil waters of the harbour within,
smooth and motionless as a sheet of molten silver.
Beyond, the spires of the city rise, and a distant
glimpse of the Blue Mountains is obtained. Op-
posite to the spot where the spectator stands, with
an intervening expanse of water about three
miles in breadth, the white sands and cottages
trellised with vines adorning the semicircular
beach of Manly, glow with yellow tints reflected
from the setting sun; the terraced orangeries and
vineyards climbing the hill of Woollahra also
come here finely into view. Often the interest
and effect are heightened by a frigate, or a ship
freighted with emigrants from England, outside
the Heads, approaching the port, and light boats
skimming the surface of the inland lake within.
At such a time, as the sun languishes in the
golden sky it creates, and pours its mild departing
splendours on objects such as these—beantiful in
their separate attractions, wonderful in their com-
bination—it beams upon a panoramic landscape
as vast, varied, and magnificent as any the world
contains.” :

Yet it was just below this spot, beneath the
lighthouse, against the tall frowning cliffs, that
the ship « Dunbar’ was lost on the night of the
20th of August, 1857. She was a fine vessel of
1000 tons belonging to Messrs. Green of Black-
wall, and was endeavouring to enter the harbour
on that awful night, during one of the tremendous
south-east gales that occasionally visit the coast in
PORT JACKSON. 147

the winter months. Not seeing the lights, through
the darkness and the gloom, and-the driving rain,
the ship was dashed to pieces against the cliffs,
and out of 120 souls only one escaped. This was
a young seaman who, as the vessel broke up, was
carried by an enormous wave into a cavern in the
rocks, where he managed to retain his footing,
and to climb higher up the cliff: from which peril-
ous position he was rescued two days afterwards
by ropes from above. Since this sad catastrophe,
a second lighthouse, called the “Hornby Light,”
has been erected lower down, and nearer to the
entrance of the harbour, which it is hoped will
prevent the recurrence of accident for the future.
After entering the Heads, and passing a small
group of rocks called the “Sow and Pigs,” on
which are a light-ship and a beacon, the harbour
appears completely landlocked, and in every direc-
tion the eye rests upon sloping hills scattered
with trees and shrubs to the water’s edge. The
shores are indented by numerous charming little
bays of sylvan beauty—winding up amidst bold
rocky eminences, covered with deep, rich foliage
—where the transparent blue waters murmur
gently upon smooth sandy beaches of dazzling
whiteness. Every promontory or hill side is
studded with picturesque mansions, and hand-
some villas and cottages, which are surrounded
with gardens and shrubberies, and are scattered
about in the most pleasing and artistic manner.
The numerous rocky islands that ornament the
surface of the harbour with their bright evergreen

 
148 AUSTRALIA.

foliage, add much to the beauty of the scene;
whilst stately ships at anchor, here and there, and
the busy traffic of coasting vessels, steamers, and
boats of all kinds tend to add life to the panorama.
Beyond extends Sydney Cove, with the fair city
rising terrace-like from the water, and surmount-
ing the surrounding hills with its wealth of rapidly
increasing stone buildings. The Government
House, a handsome Gothic building, is situated on
a projecting slope ; passing this, and rounding one
of the forts, a busy and animated scene suddenly
opens to view. Ships, many of them the finest in
the world, crowd the cove; and the broad stone
quays are lined with merchantmen receiving the
varied produce of the colony. The city of Sydney,
built almost entirely of the beautiful white stone
that forms its foundation, presents a gay and im-
posing appearance, when seen beneath the pure
bright sunshine of an Australian sky. At one
glance the eye takes in most of the principal strue-
tures. The churches, fortifications, public build-
ings, stores, and dwelling-houses all arrest the
attention of the new-comer by their substantial
and important appearance. On landing, the stranger
is still more astonished at the wonderful progress
of the place. Proceeding along handsome streets,
lighted with gas, having elegant houses, well-
paved footpaths, macadamized roads, and shops
equalling those of many of our first towns in Eng-
land; and seeing the highways traversed by
coaches, omnibuses, cabs, and private equipages,
and thronged with gaily-dressed pedestrians,
SYDNEY. 149

whilst an air of bustle and business pervades the
whole city, he forgets that he is in Australia, and
imagines that he has been suddenly Lrnsporien
Tork to the mother-country.

Sydney itself is separated from the large and
populous suburb of Wooloomooloo by a broad
elevated space called Hyde Park, which is laid out
with fine gravel walks, and planted with orna-
mental trees. This forms the favourite promenade
of the citizens, who resort thither in great num-
bers on summer evenings to enjoy the cool breeze.

The Domain, at one extremity of which the
Government House is situated, is a beautiful park
of some extent, contiguous to the city, and occu-
pying a promontory which juts out into the har-
bour. The Domain is richly timbered, and laid
out with carriage drives, which command a series
of the most enchanting views of the surrounding
scenery. :

The Botanic Gardens are an attractive feature
in the environs of Sydney, delightfully situated on
the banks of a deep bay: the grounds and flower-
gardens are alike enriched by the united beauties
of nature and art. These gardens cover about
thirty acres of ground, and were laid out by the
government on the first formation of the colony.
The entrance to them from the Domain is through
a delightful avenue of robinias, bamboos, and
other trees, which introduce the visitors to flowers
of all kinds and from every climate. Fine speci-
mens of the Norfolk Island pine-tree are here to
be seen, towering to a height of eighty feet; their
150 AUSTRALIA.

broad lateral branches tapering as they ascend.
with a singular regularity. Palms, bananas,
olives, magnolias, acacias, and custard apples
mingle with roses, jasmines, geraniums, and the
various well-known garden flowers of Europe.

At one end of the garden is an extensive aviary,
in which may be seen specimens, not only of the
brightly-plumaged birds of the country, but also
of the familiar blackbirds, thrushes, finches, and
sparrows of Great Britain.

The weeping willow, although generally consi-
dered to flourish best in damp situations, and on
the banks of rivers, here attains a size and luxu-
riance of foliage almost unequalled. The oak also
thrives well, and many fine trees may be seen in
the gardens and in the plantations around Sydney.

In a secluded part of these gardens is a shady
dell overhung by willows. and beneath their green
canopy is erected a simple obelisk of white marble,
bearing the following inscription: —*“To Allan
Cunningham, the botanist.”

The university, situated on a rising ground at
the western extremity of the city, is a grand and
imposing edifice, and takes rank as the finest
building in the colony : and in close proximity to
it are the affiliated colleges of St. Paul’s and St.
John’s, belonging respectively to the Anglican
and Roman Catholic communions. The university
of Sydney was incorporated by an Act of the
Colonial Legislature, which received the royal
assent on the 9th December, 1851. It is em-
powered to confer degrees in arts, law, and physic;
SYDNEY : UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOLS. 151

and is endowed with an annual income of 5,000L.
In the university of Sydney no religious test is
imposed as a condition of membership, of honour,
or of office. It possesses no theological faculty,
but resembles, in respect of its secular faculties,
‘the universities of Germany, Edinburgh, and
London. The degrees of this university have,
by imperial concession, been placed on an
equality with those of like institutions in Great
Britain. The suffragan colleges of St. Paul and
St. John are founded for the especial tuition and
residence of students belonging to their respective
churches ; each student being entered as a member
of the university, and required to attend the lec-
tures and examinations, for which he will be pre-
pared in college.

The Wesleyans and Presbyterians are using en-

deavours to establish suffragan colleges on a similar
plan, in connection with the university.
+ The Sydney grammar school was founded and
endowed with an annual income of 1,5001., in the
year 1854. It is intended as a connecting link
between the national schools and the university.

There are now upwards of 110 schools scattered
throughout the colony, under the direction and
control of the Board of National Education, besides
a still larger number of private schools and semi-
naries. Sydney possesses, likewise, a flourishing
Mechanics’ School of Arts, a Museum of Natural
History (incorporated in 1853, by an act of the
colonial parliament, and now undergoing extensive
additions which will make it one of the finest
+152 AUSTRALIA.

public institutions in the country), a subscrip-
tion Library, a Mint, an Observatory, a Female
School of Industry, an Infirmary and Dispensary, a
Benevolent Asylum, and various other institutions
connected with religion, science, and literature.
The new Houses of Parliament, now in course of
erection, will, when completed, be one of the
noblest structures in Sydney. The Exchange is
a fine building erected within the last few years,
near the circular quay. The Barracks for the
military at Paddington, and the Gaol at Darling-
hurst, are extensive works of considerable magni-
tude and importance, and are well built of solid
masonry. The numerous churches that adorn the
city are many of them very beautiful ; and from
the belfries of several, the bells may be heard to
peal as merrily as in Old England.

The new Markets are situated in the centre of
the town, and are large commodious erections,
supplied with fountains and every convenience :
that portion devoted to the sale of fruit, dis-
plays during the season a show of which Covent
Garden itself might be proud. The Post Office
and the Custom House are also substantial build-
ings, and many of the banks and private resi-
dences vie with those of English cities. Of the
places of interest in the neighbourhood of Sydney,
Botany Bay, from its associations with the earliest
records of the colony, deserves a passing notice.
It is a large shallow bay full of mud flats and
shoals, having, however, deep water and a good
anchorage near the sea entrance. At the upper
NEW SOUTH WALES: BOTANY BAY. 153

portion of it the waters of George’s and Cook’s
Rivers empty themselves into the bay. It is sur-
rounded by low undulating hills covered with
brushwood and belts of thick forests; and derives
its name from the number of new and singular
plants found there by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr.
Solander, who accompanied Capt. Cook on his
voyage to Terra Australis. i

Botany Bay is situated about eight miles south
of Sydney, from which it is separated by a tract
of flat sandy country, covered with low scrub and
interspersed with reedy swamps. Just inside the
north head at the entrance to the bay there is a
look-out tower, and a pilot station. Near this
spot stands a monument erected by the French to
the ‘memory of the unfortunate La Perouse; and
hard by is the well dug by Captain Cook’s people,
which is shaded from the sun by the overhanging
branches of dark mimosa trees. In the face of the
cliff beyond, a copper tablet is let into the rock,
recording the date of the landing of Captain
Cook’s expedition. These are the “antiquities ”
of the colony, and as such are visited with interest
at times by pleasure parties from the gay city
that adorns the shores of the neighbouring
harbour.

The chief attractions of Botany Bay, however,
are the beautiful gardens of the Sir Joseph Banks
hotel, which contain a fine collection of animals
and birds from various parts of the globe. Ele-
phants, lions, tigers, bears, and leopards may be
studied here by the young Australian, together
154 AUSTRALIA.

with a variety of creatures indigenous to the
colony.

Many of the numerous bays that indent the
harbour of Port Jackson are lovely and romantic
spots, and are the favourite resort of pic-nic par-
ties, being easily accessible from Sydney by means
of boats. Manly Beach, now called Brighton,
is the marine watering-place of the capital, and
although only established during the last few
years, has risen rapidly in the public favour.
It is charmingly situated at the head of North
Harbour, within Port Jackson, on a narrow neck
of land which intervenes between the placid
waters of the landlocked bay, and the broad
expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Small steamers ply
at intervals during the day between Sydney* and
Manly Beach.

The town of Parramatta is, next to Sydney, the
oldest in the colony. It formerly went by the
name of Rose Hill, and some of the earliest farms
were established in its vicinity. It is situated at
the head of the navigation of a salt-water river of
great width and commanding beautiful scenery,
which extends inland from Sydney for about
eighteen miles. It possesses a gaol, a lunatic
asylum, and a tweed manufactory. The houses
are large and old-fashioned, and built mostly of
red brick ; gardens, orangeries, and orchards
abound ; and the whole place has a quiet country
appearance. The population is about 16,000
souls. It is distant from Sydney by water
eighteen miles, and by land fifteen, and can be
NEW SOUTH WALES: ITS CHIEF TOWNS. 155

reached either by rail or steamer. There are
several small islands in the Parramatta River, cne
of which, called Cockatoo Island, is a depdt for
prisoners undergoing penal servitude: from 400
to 500 convicts are usually stationed here, and
are employed in quarrying, stone-cutting, and
other kinds of labour. A large dry dock, for the
use of government vessels, has been constructed
by them at one end of the island. This prison-
rock is guarded, day and night, by sentinels at all
points, and no boats, except those of the police,
are allowed to approach within a certain distance
of its shores.

Further up this salt-water river the scenery
becomes more open and pleasing ; orange groves
and peach orchards diversify the banks; the
former revealing their wealth of golden fruit
from amongst the deep foliage of the trees, and
the latter clothed with a spring mantle of pink
blossom.

Maitland, the capital of the Hunter river
district, is a town of some importance. It is
situated about three miles from Morpeth, at the
head of the navigation of that fine river. It
contains a population of about 16,000 persons,
and is divided into East and West Maitland. It
has railway communication with Newcastle, and
steamers ply daily between Morpeth and Sydney.

Newcastle, at the mouth of the Hunter, is the
shipping port of the surrounding colliery districts.
Its population does not exceed 5,000. The coast
and river scenery in the neighbourhood of New-
156 AUSTRALIA,

castle is beautiful and romantic. Raymond
Terrace, situated on the river midway between
Newcastle and Morpeth, is famous for its vine-
yards, the celebrated Irrawang wine being pro-
duced there.

Windsor, on the Hawkesbury River, and the
neighbouring town of Richmond, are old-esta-
blished places of some importance. They are
distant about twenty-five miles N.W. from Sydney,
in the county of Cumberland, in the midst of a
fine agricultural district, having over 14,000 acres
under cultivation, not including vineyards and
gardens. The population of the district is esti-
mated at 9,000.

The pretty little town of Penrith is situated on
the Nepean, thirty-three miles westward from
Sydney, with which it is now connected by rail.
There are two steam tweed manufactories on the
Nepean river, doing an extensive business; also
two steam flour mills and twe water mills.

Across the Emu Plains, beyond Penrith, rises

"the bold and rugged outline of the Blue Mountains,
over which that monument of convict labour, the
great western road, winds its way through grand
mountain passes, and gloomy forests, till it reaches
the open and fertile plains of Bathurst, on which
the town of that name is situated. Bathurst, since
the discovery of gold in that neighbourhood, has
rapidly risen in importance. It isa neatly-built
town, with a large gaol, a court-house, several
churches, and other public buildings, most of which
are constructed of red brick. It stands on the
NEW SOUTH WALES: ITS CHIEF TOWNS. - 157

banks of the Macquarie, but owing to the absence
of trees, it has a bleak and somewhat uninviting
aspect. The population of the Bathurst district
is 12,000.

Liverpool is a dull, uninteresting place, about
twenty miles S.W. from the metropolis. Camp-
belltown, some thirteen miles further on, is one of
the oldest towns in the colony, and though the
great south road passes through it, and it is con-
nected with. Sydney by railway, it has been in
rather a declining state for some years.

Goulburn, about 125 miles S.W. from Sydney,
is a flourishing town, the centre of an important
pastoral district, which will shortly be brought
into communication with the capital by the ex-
tension of the railway in that direction. Yass is
also a thriving place, further to the westward.

Gundagai is situated on the Murrumbidgee,
where the great southern road crosses that river.
It occupies both banks, and is, in consequence,
divided into North and South Gundagai. It was
first settled in 1840; and in 1852, on the 25th
of June, the whole town was swept away by a
flood. In the dead of the night, the inhabitants
were awakened by the deafening roar of the
torrent which was madly rushing down the low
lands of the Murrumbidgee. The entire valley
became an inland sea, the swollen waters of
which rolled with such fury and impetuosity as
to carry everything before them. The inundated
town disappeared ; of seventy-eight buildings only
seven, riddled and dilapidated, were left standing ;
158 AUSTRALIA.

and out of a population of 250 souls 89 perished.
The work of destruction was.completed in a few
minutes; and then the torrent bore away, through
solitudes, the lifeless bodies of the inhabitants,
mingled with the floating ruins of their houses.

After this dreadful catastrophe the site of the
town was removed, out of the reach of the floods,
to a more elevated position; where it has since
rapidly increased, and at the present time is in
a prosperous and flourishing state. It contains
many large buildings—amongst which are two
steam mills, seven hotels, three stores, and a
commodious school-house, whilst several places of
worship are in course of erection. Gundagai is
244 miles from Sydney, and 126 from Goulburn.
The Tumut and Adelong gold-fields are twenty-
five miles south of Gundagai.

On the 16th of September, 1858, Captain Cadell
ascended the Murrumbidgee from the Murray, and
arrived at Gundagai in his large steam-boat, the
“ Albury :” he thus proved the practical naviga-
tion of the noble Murrumbidgee, opened up the
natural highway of commerce to the heart of this
fertile territory, and brought it within a fortnight’s
reach of Adelaide by the inland waters.

Albury is situated on the right bank of the
Murray, 378 miles from Sydney, and 20C from
Melbourne, in the midst of a highly auriferous
country. Within the last few years, in conse-
quence of the gold-fields, and the steam com-
munication on the river with South Australia,
this place has made considerable progress. The
NEW SOUTH WALES: ITS CHIEF TOWNS. 159

district is scarcely exceeded in fertility and beauty
by any tract of land in Australia. The produc-
tion of wheat and other cereals is rapidly in-
creasing, and now amounts to upwards of 60,000
bushels. Albury is only 700 feet above the sea
level, consequently the climate is very mild.
There are many flourishing vineyards and beau-
tiful gardens, in which tropical plants can be
cultivated.

Mudgee, fifty miles from Bathurst, is the centre
of a large gold district, with a population of
4,200 souls; and Tamworth is a rising town in
the neighbourhood of the Liverpool Plains.

On the coast, about forty miles south from
Sydney, lies the beautiful district of Illawarra,
its verdant meadows and rich pastures stretching
to the sea, and backed by a range of abrupt
mountains, the sloping valleys of which are
clothed with the most luxuriant and gorgeous
vegetation. The port of this district, which is
justly celebrated for its butter and other farm
produce, is the town of Wollongong, delightfully
situated on the sea-coast, and having regular
steam communication with Sydney. The popula-
tion of the district is about 5,000. Kiama and
Shoulhaven lie further to the south, and are
both fertile districts, containing many fine farms
and much cultivated land. Broulee and Moruya
are small ports likely to rise into importance;
and Eden is the township at Twofold Bay.

Grafton, on the Clarence River, is situated in
the northern portion of the colony, and is rapidly
160 AUSTRALIA.

increasing in prosperity and population. The
town already numbers above 2,000 souls, and the
district about 4,000. There are large quantities
of rich alluvial plains, cedar brushes, and swamps,
on the river and its tributaries. Copper and gold
have been found in several places; and on the
Rocky River, a tributary of the Clarence, gold is
being procured in considerable quantities. Nume-
rous coasting vessels visit the Clarence for cargoes
of cedar, and steamers also run between it and
the metropolis.
CHAPTER XL

TASMANIA.

 

HOBART TOWN.

Tasmania, formerly called Van Diemen’s Land,

is a large island lying off the southernmost point

of Australia, from which it is separated by Bass’s

Strait. It is bounded on the east by the Pacific,

on the west by the Indian, and on the south by

the Southern Ocean. In form it is somewhat like
L
162 AUSTRALIA.

a heart, measuring rather more than 200 miles
from north to south, and about 190 from east to
west, with an area of some 24,000 square miles.

This island was first discovered by Abel Jans-
sen Tasman, in 1642, and subsequently received
its name of Van Diemen’s Land in honour of one of
the governors of Dutch India. Since the abolition
of transportation thither by the British Govern-
ment in 1852, its name has been altered to the
more graceful and appropriate one of Tasmania.
After the visit of Tasman, the island was partly
explored by our own great navigator, Captain
Cook, and also by the voyagers Furneaux, D’En-
trecasteaux, and others. It was not, however,
known to be separate from the Australian conti-
nent until Bass, in the year 1798, sailed through
the island-studded strait which bears his name.
For 130 years after the discovery of Tasman the
island remained unvisited; or, if any mariners
touched there, such an event is unrecorded. The
first Englishman who sighted its shores was
Captain Furneaux, in 1773; and subsequently it
was visited by Captain Cook in 1777.

In the year 1803 it was determined by Great
Britain to take possession of this fine island, for
the purpose of making it a penal settlement, and
the British flag was then planted by Lieutenant
Bower (who was commissioned by the then
governor of the already existing penal colony of
New South Wales) on the south-east part of the
island, on the banks of the river Derwent.

At this spot the first settlement was made, and
TASMANIA : DESCRIPTION. 163

the party pitched their tents and formed an en-
campment, which they called ¢Restdown,” now
corrupted into Risdon. Shortly afterwards, when
Colonel Collins, the first lieutenant-governor,
arrived, with about 400 convicts and a guard of
some fifty mariners, the island was formally taken
possession of in the name of King George III.
The site of Hobart Town was then fixed upon;
and in the same year, another penal establishment
was formed at the north of the island, on the banks
of the Tamar, where the town of Launceston now
stands.

The population of Tasmania, at the present
time, is somewhere about 85,000, of which only a
very small proportion (under 3,000) are convicts,
the expiring remnant of the old transportation
system. In the year 1848 the population was
thus classed :—F'ree, 43,692; convicts, 24,188;
military, 2,246; and aboriginal inhabitants, 38.
In December, 1850, this alarming number of
prisoners was reduced to 21,437, of whom 4,421
were females. In 1854 the census returns were
considerably diminished by the great exodus to
the gold fields of Victoria and New South Wales.
They have, however, again recovered, and the
population is now steadily increasing.

The settled portions of Tasmania stretch across
the interior from the north to the south-east coast,
along the banks of the Tamar, the Derwent, and
other rivers. Some portions of the south-western
part of the island are, pwing to the rugged and
impassable nature of the country, not merely un-
164 AUSTRALIA.

settled, but hardly even explored. The search
for gold which has been so vigorously prosecuted
by the inhabitants of late, has, however, made us
acquainted with many wild and romantic districts
hitherto unknown.

The scenery is in many places mountainous and
grand. Lofty ranges, covered with immense
forests of evergreen trees of vast size, occupy the
western parts. Here we have Mount Humboldt,
which has an elevation of 5,520 feet; Dry’s Bluff,
Mount Arrowsmith, and Valentine's Peak, all of
which exceed 4,000 feet in height, the latter being
visible at sea at a distance of sixty miles. In the
eastern ranges, which are less densely wooded,
some lofty mountains also occur, such as Ben
Lomond, which is 5,002 feet; Ben Nevis, 3,910
feet; and the snow-capped Mount Wellington,
which rises close behind Hobart Town to an alti-
tude of 4,200 feet, and forms a picturesque back-
ground to that charming city.

The interior of the country is agreeably diver-
sified with plains and valleys which are clothed
in places with fine timber, and interspersed with
bold isolated mountain peaks. The soil is good,
but owing to the prevalence of the forest, the
labour of clearing has been great, and has con-
siderably retarded the extension of agriculture.
In some instances fine tracts of land, free from
timber and underwood, stretch quite down to the
coast, and many extensive plains, covered with
luxuriant herbage, are to be found in various
parts of the interior.
TASMANIA : STATE OF AGRICULTURE. 165

(Count Strzelecki, in his “ Account of Van Die-
men’s Land,” says: “The agricultural districts
are superior in appearance to those of New South
Wales. The details of farms and farming are
better understood and defined, and the practical
results are such that no country reminds the
traveller so much of the old one. The farms of
the Van Diemen’s Land Company are in a most
advanced state ; the rotation crops and mode of
working the land being truly admirable, and
present, together with the farm buildings and the
residence and gardens of the Company’s chief
agent, an entirely English aspect. The soil of
these farms is of a reddish-brown colour. It is
fine-grained, of moderate cohesion, and friable,
unctuous to the touch, porous, and easily dries up.
It does not crack during drought, neither does it
clog when wet. It is manured, and the principal
crop it produces is wheat, of which forty bushels
to the acre is the average return. The rotation is
two crops of turnips and then a fine crop of
wheat.”

Mr. Mathew also speaks highly of the state of
agriculture in this colony. He says: ¢ There
is a depression along the middle of the island,
between the eastern and western ranges, com-
mencing with the fine harbour, frith, and valley
of the Derwent, on the south-east coast, and
running at first north-west, and then north,
along the valley of the Derwent, which flows
south-east, and then along the valley of the Tamar,
which flows north till it meets the sea, at the
166 AUSTRALIA.

mouth of that river in Bass’s Strait. This de-
pression consists of rich level land. It ig chiefly
in this protected low country, constituting the
double basin of the Derwent and the Tamar, that
‘the cultivation of wheat and potatoes is carried
on; the mountain districts on both sides, of
inferior quality, being more suited for grazing.”

There are several large lakes in the interior,
one of which is said to be many miles in circum-
ference.

The northern coast, from Cape Grim on the
west to Cape Portland on the east, is 160 miles
long, in a straight line. Port Frederick and Port
Dalrymple, formed by the mouth of the Tamar,
are the principal ports on this coast. The east
coast, from Cape Portland to Frederick-Hendrik’s
Bay, is 135 miles long, and has the Bay of Fires,
St. Helens Port, Great Swan Port, Oyster Bay,
and Prosser’s Bay in its range. The south:
eastern coast reaches from Frederick-Hendrik’s
Bay to Whale Head, about sixty miles. In this
space are a greater number of safe anchorages
than are to be found, probably, in any other
country of the same extent on the face of the
globe, there being scarcely a mile along the whole
coast which does not afford a safe and convenient
anchorage. This is partly owing to a large island
called Brune’s Island, which extends along part of
the coast, from 43° 4’ to 43° 30’ south latitude, and
partly to two projecting promontories, called
Tasman’s and Forrestier’s peninsulas, which, ex-
tending some distance from the shore, afford
TASMANIA : RIVERS AND HARBOURS. 167

great protection to vessels. The south coast,
from Whale Head to South-West Cape, is fifty
miles long, in a serpentine line. There are
several bays and inlets on this coast, but the
anchorage is not secure. The west side of the
island, from Cape Grim on the north to South-
West Cape, presents an iron-bound and precipitous
coast line of some 240 miles, only broken by two
large inlets, called Macquarie Bay to the north,
and Port Davey to the south.

The principal rivers are the Derwent and its
tributaries, the Huon, the North and South Tsk,
the Tamar, the Mersey, and the Forth, :

The chief harbours are Storm Bay, leading to
Hobart Town; and Macquarie Bay, on the west
coast.

‘The settled portions of the colony are divided
into fifteen districts. Hobarton, the capital, is in
the district of the same name, on the Derwent,
about twenty miles from its mouth, in lat. 42° 54’
south. It possesses one of the finest harbours in
the world. The river, which here forms a fine
sheet of water, is navigable for ships for three
miles above the town, and continues to afford a
safe passage for vessels of fifty tons, as far as
New Norfolk, twenty miles higher up, where a
ridge of rocks abruptly puts an end to naviga-
tion. :

Hobarton is the capital of the island, and the
seat of government: it is a large, well laid out,
and neatly-built town, standing on the left bank
of the Derwent. It is built on a gently rising
- 168 v AUSTRALIA.

ground, which, gradually ascending, terminates
in an amphitheatre of hills, thickly covered with
trees, and presenting a picturesque and romantic
appearance. These are overlooked by Mount
Wellington, which forms a fine feature in the
scenery when viewed from the town. The es-
tuary of the Derwent is, in fact, a beautiful bay
or arm of the sea, being of considerable width,
and its water salt. The town covers more than
a square mile of ground. The streets are regu-
larly and carefully laid out, and are either mac-
adamized or flagged. Many of the houses are
built of brick or stone, but the greater number
are of wood. The shops are large and handsome.
Most of the houses are detached, villa-fashion, and
each has a plot of ground attached to it. The
public buildings and mercantile establishments
are numerous. The population does not exceed
23,000 souls.

Launceston, the second town in the colony, is
situated at the junction of the North and South
Esk rivers, at the head of the navigable portion
of the Tamar. It lies 124 miles north by west
from Hobart Town, in a fine district. The scenery
on the banks of the Tamar is of a most romantic
description, rather thickly timbered, with com-
fortable-looking dwellings scattered here -and
there, having the land cleared in their vicinity.
Launceston itself is a handsome town, with some
good public buildings, amongst which are a hand-
some church, a Presbyterian chapel, and meeting-
houses of other sects, a court-house, barracks, &c.

;
3
A
]
3
3

 
TASMANIA : CHIEF TOWNS. * 169

There is also an excellent exchange, or reading-
room, well supplied with newspapers; and every-
thing in the town forcibly reminds one of England.
The population scarcely reaches 10,000. Long-
ford, Evandale, and Perth are all improving
towns in the Launceston district.

New Norfolk is a pleasantly-situated little town
on the Derwent, twenty-two miles from Hobart
Town, from which it is accessible by coach and
steamboat.

Richmond, on the Coal River, about twelve
miles north-east from Hobarton, has a population
of 9,000.

Sorrel, another thriving town in the same dis
trict, has some good hotels, a church, parsonage,
and gaol; the surrounding locality of Pittwater
being extremely fertile, and possessing on all
sides rich and highly-cultivated farms.

Oatlands is fifty-one miles from the capital, with
well-built houses, military barracks, a gaol, an
hotel, and several large stores within its bounda-
ries. In the Clyde district, the principal town
is Bothwell, which has a church, a court-house,
and an excellent hotel. Campbelltown and Ross
are also thriving and improving places.

In speaking of Tasmania, Count Strzelecki says :
“The tasteful and comfortable mansions and cot-
tages, surrounded by pleasure-grounds, gardens,
and orchards; the neat villages, and prominently-
placed churches, forming, as it were, the centres
of cultivated districts, divided and subdivided by
hedgerows, clipped or bushed, and through which
170 AUSTRALIA.

admirably-constructed roads wind across the island,
are all objects which forcibly carry back the mind
to similar scenes of beauty in England and Scot-
land.”

The internal communication is by means of
the rivers and roads. An excellent mail-coach
road runs between Launceston and Hobart Town,
having inns situated at a short distance from each
other along its whole extent. There are other
roads in different parts of the island, connecting
the various townships, most of which are the
result of the application of convict labour to the
public works of the colony. The traffic every-
where is considerable, and the variety of vehicles
almost as great as in the mother country. There
are a number of good bridges erected in all parts
over the rivers and mountain streams, which
often become flooded after the heavy winter rains.

The communication with the other Australian
colonies is kept up by steamboats, which frequently
ply from Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide; as
well as by a number of coasting vessels. The
Church of England, under the Bishop of Tasmania,
has sixty-six places of worship, furnishing 16,284
sittings, an attendance of 7,000 persons, and an
ecclesiastical revenue of 14,030{. The Church of
Scotland has thirteen places of worship, affording
3,108 sittings, an attendance of 3,000 persons, and
an income of 3,624l. The Roman Catholics have
three chapels, affording 660 sittings, attendance
1,600, total income 3,750. Besides these there
are Independents, Wesleyans, Baptists, and Jews.
TASMANIA : STATE OF EDUCATION. 171

The schools in connexion with the British and
Foreign School Society are attended by nearly
3,500 pupils, at a cost of 3,0001. per annum. Besides
these, the Queen’s Orphan Schools have an average
attendance of 460 pupils. There is a lunatic asylum,
and several public hospitals. The local govern-
ment pays considerable attention to the education
of the rising generation, no less than twenty-nine
schools being supported by public grants. The
annual official expenditure for educational purposes
exceeds 8,000.

Several newspapers are published at Hobarton
and Launceston ; together with a yearly almanack,
and a Government Gratis at the former place.
The Royal Society of Tasmania issues reports and
papers of a scientific nature, in connexion with the
zoological and physical features of the island.

The exports of Tasmania amount to from 700,0001.
to 800,000l. yearly; whilst the imports may be
roughly estimated at a somewhat similar figure.
Wool, wheat, flour, oil, whalebone, timber, and
bark are the chief exports; furs and leather are
also exported : the latter article is of an excellent
quality, and much esteemed in the neighbouring
colonies, the purest materials for tanning being
abundantly produced on the island.

Several species of whales frequent the coast:
from thirty to forty colonial vessels are employed
in the whale fisheries, which constitute a valuable
source of wealth to the colony.

The climate of Tasmania is pleasant and salu-
brious, and more equable than that of the main
172 AUSTRALIA.

land of Australia. “Its hilly character, its in-
sularity, and its greater proximity to the south
pole,” says Mr. Sydney Smith, ¢ have given ita
climate much resembling the south of England.”
There is, however, a clearness and an elasticity in
the air altogether unknown to the British islands.
It is very healthy, and admirably suited to the
constitutions of persons from the old country, the.
heat not being so intense as that of Australia,
whilst the mornings and evenings are always cool
and agreeable, even during the hottest months of
the year. If the heat is not so great as in Australia,
the cold is more so, and the winter of longer dura-
tion. On the high mountains the snow lies for
several months during the year, whilst in the
valleys and on the plains it seldom remains more
than a few hours. There is a considerable difference
between the climate of Hobarton and that of
Launceston, the former being influenced by the
range of mountains west of the town, and the
neighbourhood of the open Southern Ocean; there,
“heat, cold, rain and sunshine succeed each other
with a rapidity which is rarely observable in any
other part of the globe.” Thunderstorms are less
frequent than they are on the mainland, but the
winds at times blow with terrific violence. The
summer heat averages about 70°; though, at rare
intervals, when a scorching hot wind has extended
from Australia across Bass’s Strait, the ther-
mometer has risen to 100° in Launceston: this
was the case during the celebrated «Black Thurs-
day,” which occurred some years since, when the
TASMANIA : PRODUCTIONS. 173

violence of the hot northerly gale swept over the
entire island.

All the vegetable productions and fruits, as well
as the domestic animals of Great Britain, seem to
thrive admirably in Tasmania. The wheat (of
which large quantities are grown not only for
home consumption but for exportation) is of ex-
cellent quality, and generally weighs from sixty-
two to sixty-four pounds per bushel. Barley, oats,
potatoes, and peas arrive at perfection, but Indian
corn is not cultivated, the climate being too subject
to frosts for it to reach maturity. All English
vegetables do well, and apples, gooseberries,
currants, strawberries, and other hardy fruits
attain a degree of excellence which is not to be
surpassed. The gardens of the settlers display
most of the flowers which are familiar to an
English eye, and which lose none of their fragrance
and beauty by their removal to so distant a soil ;
whilst the native flowers are many of them remark-
able for their curious forms and brilliant colours.

The indigenous woods of Tasmania are ap-
plicable for every purpose of utility and orna-
ment. The blue-gum is well adapted for ship-
building, which is extensively carried on at Ho-
barton and on the banks of the Huon River, from
twenty to thirty vessels being constructed there
annually. The Huon pine is used for all building
and domestic purposes, and is a very superior
wood ; it being valuable for the manufacture of
organ pipes, which yield a more mellow tone than
those made of a looser-grained timber. The musk
174 AUSTRALIA.

wood, the myrtle, the black wood, the cedar, and
the sassafras are all excellent and useful for
cabinet-making and other purposes. All the forest
trees of Tasmania are evergreen, but none of them
yield an edible fruit.

Sandstone and limestone, together with basalt,
are amongst the most prominent of the geological
features of the island; its mineral productions
include gold, copper, iron, lead, manganese, zinc,
salt, slate, and coal.

The extinction of the aboriginal Tasmanian
race has been alluded to in another chapter. The
long and disastrous feuds that existed between the
savages and the white population are at an end.
During the administration of Col. Arthur, in the
year 1829, the murders and outrages committed
by the natives had so exasperated the settlers, that
the whole male population of the colony capable
of bearing arms was called out for the purpose of
driving them on to Tasman’s peninsula. Owing to
the wild and impracticable nature of the country,
this raid, which was termed the ¢ Black war,”
proved an utter failure, and cost the colony 27,0001.
Some time afterwards, an active and intelligent
man, named Robinson, who was well acquainted
with the language and habits of the natives, under-
took, and successfully performed, the singular
task of bringing every black man, woman, and
child peaceably and willingly into Hobarton, from
whence they were shipped to Flinders’ Island, in
Bass’s Strait. He went into the bush unarmed,
and, accompanied by an aboriginal woman, his
TASMANIA : EXTINCTION OF ABORIGINES. 175

sole companion, met the various tribes, and used
such arguments and promises as sufficed at length
to achieve his object, after having occupied many
months in its pursuit. At a ball given at Govern-
ment House at Hobarton, a few months since,
there were present, neatly dressed in evening
costume, one old man—the last male of his race—
and three old women, all who remain of the once
dreaded savages of Tasmania.

Although the animals and birds of Tasmania
bear a considerable resemblance to those of the
neighbouring continent of Australia, yet there are
two animals, peculiar to the island, which are so
remarkable as to demand especial notice. In the
fastnesses of the rock gullies, and amid the im-
penetrable forests, dwells the most formidable and
bloodthirsty of all Australian quadrupeds. This
is a marsupial, or pouched wolf, the Thylacinus,
known by the colonists under the various ap-
pellations of “tiger,” <hysena,” “zebra-wolf,” and
“dog-headed opossum.” Although not sufficiently
powerful to attack man in ordinary cases, it com-
mits sad havoc amongst the flocks of the settlers
in the neighbourhood of the densely-wooded
mountains, from whence it issues forth at night
in search of prey. This creature has somewhat
the aspect of a dog, with short thick legs, and,
when full grown, measures upwards of six feet
from the nose to the tip of its tail. Its colour is
light brown, handsomely marked across the hind
quarters with black bands or stripes.

The other animal referred to as peculiar to
176 AUSTRALIA.

Tasmania, is the Sarcophilus, or “native devil” of
the colonists, which name was bestowed upon it
by the early settlers in consequence of its black
colour and disgusting and unsightly appearance.
In disposition it is untameable and savage in the
extreme, and is not only destructive to the smaller
kangaroos and other native quadrupeds, but assails
the sheepfolds of the farmer and the hen-roosts of
the homestead, whenever an opportunity occurs.
It measures nearly three feet in length, and is
a short, thick-set, ungainly-looking animal, with
a large head, and jaws armed with powerful teeth :
~ it has a short, wabbling gait, and its pace is slow,
when compared with most wild animals. In con-
sequence of the depredations they commit amongst
the flocks, pitfalls and traps are set for them by
the shepherds; and during one winter at a station
near Swan Port, no less than 143 “devils” were
caught in a single pitfall. Like the Thylacinus,
this animal is a carnivorous marsupial.
CHAPTER XII.

WEST AUSTRALIA.

 

KING GEORGE'S SOUND.

Tre colony of West Australia was founded in

1829. It extends from 14° to 35° south latitude, and

from 115° to 130° east longitude; thus occupying

all that vast portion of the continent which lies
M
Cater

178 AUSTRALIA.

west of South Australia, with an approximate area
of 1,019,000 square miles. A great part of this ex-
tensive territory is at present unexplored; the
settled districts (originally known as. the Swan
River Settlement) only extend from about 30° to
35° south, and from the coast to about 120° inland ;
comprising an area of 90,000 square miles. One
half of Western Australia may be considered
within the influence of tropical meteorology, the
other half within the temperate zone.

The Darling Mountains extend from north to
south, nearly the whole length of this province.
Their distance from the coast varies from fifteen
to twenty-five miles, and they rise to an altitude

of from 800 to 2,000 feet. This range passes to the
eastward, inland from Swan River, and meets the

sea at Cape Chatham in 34° 40’ south. There are

“two other ranges nearly parallel with the Darling

Mountains, one of which lies near the coast, is of
inferior altitude, and terminates at Cape Lewin:
the other, the most easterly of the three, is the
highest, and extends south to King George's
Sound. The country between these ranges is
occupied with ravines, bounded here and there
with inaccessible cliffs; and wide valleys termi-
nating in fertile plains, which skirt their entire
length.

Several rivers rise in these mountains, some
flowing to the eastward, and some to the west,
according to the slope of the land on either side.
Most of those having their rise in the Darling
range empty themselves into the Indian Ocean on
»

WEST AUSTRALIA: ITS RIVERS. 179

the western shores of the colony. These rivers,
which near their source are mere mountain tor-
rents, become tame and turgid in the low lands,
and, like most of the minor Australian rivers, are
sometimes overflowing with water, and at other
times almost dry. The principal river is the
Swan, from which the first settlement took its
name. It rises in the central range, and, after
a winding course of over 100 miles, during which
several tributaries augment its waters, it enters
Cockburn’s Sound by an estuary, into which the
Canning also flows from the south. The Collie,
the Preston, and the Blackwood disembogue into
the sea on the west coast, or into Flinders’ Bay ;
the Forth falls into the sea on the south coast,
west of King George's Sound. The Denmark,
Kent, Hay, and Steeman also flow southwards;
whilst King’s River has its embouchure in King
George's Sound. There are, besides, many small
streams or creeks; but the facilities offered for
navigation by the rivers of West Australia are
very few indeed. On the south coast mill-streams
exist in great numbers ; and the supply of water
for domestic purposes appears to be sufficient
within the settled districts.

The principal ports in the settled portion of the
colony are—Doubtful Island Bay, which lies to the
eastward, towards the archipelago of the Recherche,
and affords safe access to the districts in its im-
mediate vicinity — King George’s Sound, at the
most southern extremity of the colony, which
possesses all the requisites for a good harbour,
180. AUSTRALIA.

and is certainly the best and finest in the western
portion of Australia : it is here that the monthly
mail steamers touch, both on their outward and
homeward voyages, conveying the mails from
Great Britain, vié the Red Sea and Ceylon, to
Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and New Zealand—
Parry’s Inlet, Peel’s Inlet, Port D’Entrecasteaux,
Torbay, Collingwood Bay, Flinders’ Bay, and
Swan River. Shark Bay is a very extensive bay,
lying north, beyond the settled districts, which
is occasionally resorted to by whalers: but the
surrounding country is of a peculiarly arid and
desert character, and almost entirely destitute of
water.

The territory, so far as it has yet been occupied
or explored, appears to rest on a granite basis.
The soil near the coasts is sandy and thin ; but,
in the interior, fine agricultural and pastoral tracts
have been discovered. There is not, however, so
much available land as in the other Australian
colonies; and what there is is generally better
adapted for pastoral purposes than for agricul-
ture.

The climate is dry and healthy. The wet
season commences in April, with slight showers,
which continue to increase in number and force
throughout May, June, and July; after which
they begin to decrease, until they cease altogether
in November, when the dry weather begins.
These two seasons, with an intermediate spring
following the conclusion of each, embrace the
circle of the year. The cold season is usually
WEST AUSTRALIA : CLIMATE. 181

called the winter, and the dry season the summer ;
but neither of them has the character of the
corresponding season in Europe. The prevailing
wind at sea off Cape Lewin (the great turning-
point between the south and west coasts) is
westerly throughout the year; but on the coasts,
nearer land, there is, during summer, a regular
daily alternation of land and sea breezes. During
the winter months gales from the north-west and
south-west are frequent, and are usually accom-
panied by heavy falls of rain. In summer the at-
mosphere retains so little moisture that none but
hardy and fibrous plants can withstand the drought;
the atmosphere is then extraordinarily clear, and
the reflection of the sun so great, that the ther-
mometer in the shade, and near the ground, some-
times reaches 105°. The hottest months are
January, February, and March; but the evenings
and mornings are generally cool and pleasant : the
mid-day heats are tempered by a refreshing sea-
breeze from the south-west; and a land-breeze
from the east prevails in the morning. Slight
fogs occasionally hang over the rivers, and a
copious dew falls at night; but, as there are no
extensive marshes, the country is free from ma-
laria and noxious vapours. In the months of
June and August there are sometimes sharp hear-
frosts, and now and then alittle ice; but all traces
of these disappear shortly after sunrise. Hailstones
of very large size fall now and then during thunder-
storms; but snow is unknown. The greater part
of the winter is temperate and fine, and during

!
182 AUSTRALIA.

the rest of the year nothing can be more de-
lightful than the climate generally, and its in-
vigorating influence on the human constitution
renders it very suitable for invalids. The average
mean temperature throughout the year is from
60° to 64°. The seasons have been found hitherto
to return steadily and uniformly; and the agri-
culturist is thus enabled to carry on his opera-
tions with less interruption than in many other
parts of Australia.

Perth is the chief town, and the seat of govern-
ment. It stands on the north bank of the Swan
River, about nine miles inland. It is prettily
situated, and pleasantly surrounded with the
gardens of the inhabitants, which abound in the
ordinary fruits of warm climates.

Freemantle is the principal port of the colony.
It stands at the entrance of the Swan River, on the
south bank, and has long been a place of great
business ‘as a whaling station.

The township of Albany, at DBrincots Royal
Harbour, King George's Sound, is picturesquely
situated on the shores of that splendid harbour;
and since the depot has been established there for
the coaling of the mail steamers, a considerable
impetus has been given to the trade of this
hitherto unimportant village.

The town of Guildford is on the Swan River,
about seven miles eastward from Perth. Fifty
miles further inland stands the town of York.
Banbury is a place of some importance; here
there is a pensioners’ village, and a convict depbt.
o

WEST AUSTRALIA : ITS COLONIZATION. 185

Augusta is a small town on the Blackwood River,
near Cape Lewin; and the other towns, or rather
villages, in the colony are Helmscott, Peeltown,
Busselton, and Kingstown.

The colony of Western Australia was founded
in 1829, it being considered desirable that this
portion of the continent should be occupied by
Great Britain ; and, in consequence of a favourable
report from Captain Stirling, R.N., who surveyed
the coast, several gentlemen in 1828 made pro-
posals to the government of the day for leave to
colonize the southern and western coasts, which
proposals were, however, not agreed to. In the
meantime, the government projected a scheme of
colonization of its own, by which settlers prior to
1838 were to receive forty acres of land for every
3l. they were ready to invest for its improvement ;
and those who took over labourers were to receive
200 acres for every person introduced into the
colony in’ that capacity. A certain number of
acres was also allowed for children. Captain
Stirling was appointed lieutenant-governor, with
a grant of 200,000 acres; and a Mr. Peel, who
was the principal mover in the original idea of
colonizing this part of Australia, received a grant
of 250,000 acres, on condition that he should
take out 400 emigrants. The first party arrived
at the Swan in August 1829, and first settled
themselves on the banks of the Swan and the
(Canning Rivers. Tents were pitched till houses
could be built; but the settlers found the im-
mediate neighbourhood where they had en-
184 AUSTRALIA.

camped to be very unfavourable for colonization,
and the want of labour exposed them to great
inconvenience and expense, for they had to import
almost everything they consumed. The land near
the coast was poor and sandy ; but as some of the
more enterprising of the colonists pushed into the
interior, they found tracts of land of a much
better quality. The gradual introduction of cattle
and sheep enriched the settlers to a certain ex-
tent, but it was years before anything like pros-
perity was given to the new settlement.

West Australia is a convict colony, happily the
only one yet remaining; but even this will soon
cease to be one, for the British Government, at
the earnest petition of the other colonies, has at
last decided on virtually abolishing transporta-
tion to any part of Australia after a period of
three years. The Swan River colony was made a
penal settlement in 1850 at the request of the
inhabitants of Perth, who hoped to be enabled to
improve their farms and public works by the aid
of convict labour. So great a boon was the in-
troduction of convicts considered by the West
Australians, that they adopted a memorial to the
Home Government in 1853 praying that transporta-
tion might not be abolished as regarded their own
colony.

Sandal-wood promises to form a valuable article
of export, being sent to Singapore and China.
There is likewise an available supply of ship-
building timber, which grows quite close to the
sea : it is analogous to Honduras mahogany, is of
WEST AUSTRALIA: PRODUCTIONS. 185

large size, resists the attacks of the teredo or ship-
worm, and is not liable to split or warp ; while, at
the same time, it is more easily worked than
almost any other -Australian wood. It has been
used in the colony for building small vessels, also
for rafters, &e., for houses.

The vine, the fig, and the olive are being culti-
vated in some localities rather extensively. Wool
is the chief article of export, besides small quanti-
ties of timber, whale-oil, and' whalebone ; together
with occasional shipments of sheep, cattle, po-
tatoes, and other produce, to Singapore and the -
Mauritius. Coal of good quality has been traced
in veins of considerable thickness over a large
surface, the cost and difficulty of getting it down
to the ports of shipping being the only draw-
back to its utility.

Up to the year 1851 the colonists were de-
pendent upon shipments of agricultural produce
from the eastern colonies. In that year the
number’ of acres under crop was only 7,298,
arising, in a great measure, from the high price of
labour, and the distressed state of the colony
generally. Since the introduction of convict
labour, many of the agriculturists have succeeded
better, and a larger extent of land has been
brought under cultivation. The extreme dryness
of the climate, together with the devastating bush
fires which, during summer, sweep through the
forest lands, prevents that accumulation of mould
from decayed vegetation which characterizes the
virgin soils of other lands ; hence the average yield
186 ; AUSTRALIA.

of wheat and other crops per acre is considerably
less than in the more favoured colonies of South
Australia and Tasmania. In the year 1859 the
number of horses in the colony amounted only to
8,386. There were at the same period 30,990
horned cattle, and 234,815 sheep.

In 1859 the population, including military and
convicts, was 14,837, of whom 9,522 were males,
and 5,315 females. The revenue amounted to
45,7751., the imports to 128,260L ; while the ex-
ports were only 36,245.

The colony of Western Australia (formerly
included within the diocese of the Bishop of
Adelaide) has now a bishop of its own, created in
1857, and fifteen clergy. There is in Perth also
a Congregational church, a Roman Catholic
church, and a Wesleyan chapel.

The educational institutions consist of the
government colonial schools, under the superin-
tendence of a general board of education, which also
directs the local schools in the various townships.
Parents who are unable to pay can send their
children free of expense; those who can afford it
are required to contribute a trifling sum per week.
The Roman Catholics in Perth have three female
schools, one free, for those of all denominations, a
middle, and an upper establishment, as well as
various schools in other districts. There is also a
mechanics’ institute under the patronage of the
governor.

Although behind the sister colonies in wealth,
population, and general prosperity, there is but
WEST AUSTRALIA : IMPROVING PROSPECTS. 187

little doubt that Western Australia will ere long
make considerable progress. The discovery of
large tracts of fine pasture land at Roebuck Bay in
the northern districts, together with the opening up
of a good country, within the past year, 300 miles
east of York, will give an impetus to sheep
farming ; whilst the extensive and rich deposits
of copper ore at Wanneronooka, Wheal Fortune,
and other mines which are now being worked
with success near Champion Bay, promise to
become a new source of wealth to the western
colony.
188

CHAPTER XIII.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

 

PORT LINCOLN.

Tuis colony was occupied as a British province
on the 27th November, 1836. It is bounded by
Victoria and New South Wales on the east, and
by Western Australia on the west; and although,
at its foundation, the northern limit was fixed by
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : EXPLORATION. 189

the 26th parallel of south latitude, the whole of
the country north of that boundary, extending to
the Indian Ocean, has recently been annexed to
the colony of South Australia by a decree of
the Imperial Government. This immense terri-
tory, therefore, now includes 27° of latitude, and
12° of longitude, its area extending over more
than 750,000 square miles. The annexation of
the northern territory has been granted with a
view to expedite the settlement of the north coast,
opposite Melville Island on the Adelaide River,
and the pastoral occupation of a large portion of
the intervening country, opened up by the recent
explorations of Mr. Stuart.

Although Port Lincoln and other parts of the
coast about Spencer’s Gulf and Kangaroo Island
were discovered by Captain Flinders in H.M.S.
“Investigator” in the year 1802, and the south-
eastern portion, between Encounter Bay and Cape
Northumberland, by the French navigator Baudin
in the “Geographe” about the same time, yet it
was owing to the successful exploration of the
Murray River by Captain Sturt in 1830, that atten-
tion was first turned to the rich and fertile lands
extending to the westward of that great river.
(Captain Sturt and his party descended the Murray
in boats from New South Wales, and traced its
course to its embouchure into Lake Alexandrina.
Owing to his representations of the importance of
the newly-discovered country, and the desirability
of ascertaining whether the lake emptied itself
into the sea, Governor Darling, who was then
190 1. AUSTRALIA.

Governor of New South Wales, instructed Captain
Barker to land at Cape Jervis, explore the eastern
shore of Gulf St. Vincent, and find, if possible, the
outlet of the lake. The party, consisting of seven
persons, landed on the east side of the gulf, and
proceeded inland over a beautiful and fertile
country, never before trodden by civilized man,
till they reached the main range of mountains
called the Mount Lofty range, which they as-
cended, and from thence obtained a most extensive
view of the gulf and the surrounding country on
all sides. Seeing that this mountain chain trended
northwards as far as the eye could reach, they
satisfied themselves that the outlet of the lake
must be towards the south, and accordingly tra-
versed the country in that direction through
fertile valleys clothed with luxuriant grass, and
over occasional barren sandy tracts, till they
reached Encounter Bay, where the lake empties
itself into the sea through a dangerous channel
between hummocks of sand. Captain Barker
gallantly swam across this channel, with a compass,
to ascertain its position from a lofty sand-hill on
the opposite side. He was, however, never seen
afterwards. The unfortunate gentleman was
speared by three natives who were concealed
amongst the bushes, and as he rushed into the
water to escape from them, his body was carried
out to sea by the tide.

The results of the observations of Captain
Sturt, and Captain Barker’s party, together with
the favourable accounts Flinders had given of the
NEW SYSTEM OF COLONIZATION. 191

country about Port Lincoln and Spencer’s and St.
Vincent's Gulfs, induced an influential English
association to select this part of Australia as the
place at which to found a new settlement on cer-
tain principles of colonization, then comparatively
new; but which have since been sanctioned by
the ablest political economists, and the practical
value of which has been fully confirmed by the
success of the colony so founded.

Most of our colonies have been acquired either
by conquest, or as penal settlements, but South
Australia was founded upon a systematic and well-
arranged plan, in order to economise its resources,
and to secure a regular, and, at the same time, a
rapid progress; and it is expressly provided for,
by an Act of the British Parliament, that no
convicts should ever be transported to any place
within its limits.

The system on which the new province was to
be colonized was this :—the land was to be dis-
posed of in moderately sized blocks, at a reason-
able price, and the proceeds to be employed in the
introduction of free emigrant labour; and thus, as
the arrival of population caused a demand for
more land, the sale of that land enabled an addi-
tional supply of population to be introduced, and
so on indefinitely. The conditions of the govern-
ment were that the land should mot be sold
at less than 17 per acre; and the control of the
affairs connected with the working of the scheme
was vested in a body of commissioners approved
of by the Colonial Office. Under these auspices,
192 AUSTRALIA.

the first Governor (Hindmarsh) landed on the
shores of Holdfast Bay in December 1836, and
the colony was formally proclaimed in the pre-
sence of his staff and the emigrants who had
accompanied them. Previously to this, however,
several vessels were despatched by the South
Australian Company from London, and so little
did any one know about this part of Australia at
the commencement of its colonization, that the
Company’s ships went to Nepean Bay in Kangaroo
Island, and the first rights of land selection were
exercised there. The fact of there being a tole-
rably. good harbour, and the exaggerated reports
of the suitability of this barren and densely-
‘wooded island for a settlement, which were pro-
mulgated by whaling captains who had called
there, probably led to this unwise selection. The
town of Kingscote was founded, but in a very
short period the Company’s settlers removed their
establishments to the mainland; and at the
present time the place consists of not more than a
dozen houses, where a few inhabitants dwell in
patriarchal simplicity. After various spots along
the shores of the gulfs had been visited by
Colonel Light, the first surveyor-general, for the
purpose of establishing the site of the future
~ capital, the colonists encamped at Holdfast Bay,
an anchorage a few miles to the south of the
entrance to the present port, and where the
popular watering place of Glenelg now stands.
Finally, the city of Adelaide was established and
laid out, on the banks of the river Torrens, about
AUSTRALIA. 193

four miles from Glenelg, and seven from the Port,
which latter is situated on a broad salt-water river
or arm of the sea on the eastern side of Gulf St.
Vincent.

The Rev. Julian Woods says, in his “ Geologi-
cal Observations”: ¢ There is no country more
interesting in its formations, or more varied in its
mineralogical productions, than South Australia :
lofty mountains, extensive plains, sandy deserts,
and inland seas, are all included in its far-stretch-
ing boundaries: with a climate like that of the
south of Spain, it possesses the scenery of the
Highlands in some places, while in others are
deserts like those of Arabia, and vying with them
for bleakness, aridity, and burning heat. There
are chains of salt lakes which render unprofitable
a larger area than England; there are marshes
and salt swamps more dank, and desolate, and
extensive than any in the United States; there
are rocky precipices, and chasms, and waterfalls to
rival almost the Alps; there are extinct volcanoes
of large dimensions, almost as numerous as those
of Auvergne ; and, finally, there are caves which
exceed in magnitude the Guacharo caverns of
Humboldt, and in stalactites the Antiparos of the
ZAgean Sea.”

The Mount Lofty range is about thirty miles in
length from north to south, the hills gradually
increasing in elevation from either end till they
approach Mount Lofty, which occupies a fairly
central place, and is wooded to its summit. The
majority of the other hills are also clothed with

: N
194 AUSTRALIA.

trees, but some of them are bare and grassy,
while their contour is beautifully broken and
variegated, and full of such lights and shadows
as no painter could do justice to. Towards sun-
set, particularly in spring and autumn, they will
often suddenly assume a brilliant rose or purple
hue, as if every blade and lcaf upon them had
been changed into blooming heather ; and, again,
in other states of the atmosphere they will display
the most charming effects of mist and sunshine ;
and occasionally their apparent distance will be so
reduced that a stranger might suppose they rose
abruptly from the very end of the streets of
Adelaide.

Mr. Angas, in his ¢ Savage Life and Scenes,”
thus describes the scenery of these mountains :
“The situation of Adelaide is pleasing and
picturesque ; it is built on a plateau or table land,
slightly elevated above the surrounding ‘plains
with their park-like scenery, and backed, at the
distance of a few miles, by a range of bold moun-
tains that in their ever-varying tints afford a
succession of delightful pictures throughout the
day. In the early mornings of winter these
mountains may be seen wrapped in mist, with
here and there a peak struggling into the sun-
shine; or, anon, with black and angry clouds
hanging about their summits. During the sultry
heat of a January morning, before the sea-breeze
has set in, they frequently assume a strange milky
appearance, while in the afternoon they become
radiant with mellow tints; but when the un-
BEAUTY OF THE MOUNTAIN SCENERY. +195

clouded sun sets over the opposite gulf, the
mountains are bathed in a violet splendour,
known only to the brilliant climate of Australia.
At the moment the dazzling sun, which has all
day blazed in unclouded glory overhead, touches
the deep blue horizon of the gulf, the whole range
of mountains to the eastward exhibits an effect
more like the result of some chemical fire than
of the ordinary course of nature; sometimes it
appears of a purple or violet hue, at others, the
entire range glows with the most intense rose
colour, This pageantry is, however, but of short
duration ; and it is a most beautiful sight to watch,
from beneath the shade of some vine-trellised
verandah, the changes from violet to purple,
until the mountains stand out after sunset in hard
relief against the still roseate sky, their masses
appearing deeply blue in the clear evening at-
mosphere.”

This range, beginning to rise about four miles
to the eastward of Adelaide, is of vast advantage
to the city, apart from its beauty and picturesque
outline. For miles, the slopes are dotted with
the villas, vineyards, and gardens of the wealthier
citizens ; while a good many people who can
afford the luxury of special summer residences,
have built their homes on the higher summits,
even to within a hundred yards of the top of
Mount Lofty, where they have the advantage of
cool breezes and beautiful views both of sea and
land. Among the Mount Lofty hills, the Onka-
paringa, the Sturt, the Torrens, and the Para,
196 AUSTRALIA.

together with several smaller tributary streams,
take their rise. Here are grown, in the highest
perfection, those English fruits and vegetables
which fail to thrive on the hotter and more arid
soil of the plains. From one of the gorges of the
hills Adelaide derives its abundant supply of
excellent water; and the various shady and pic-
turesque glens and gullies, with their several
romantic waterfalls, afford pleasant retreats for
the numerous pic-nic parties which resort thither
from Adelaide on holiday occasions. The height
of Mount Lofty is 2,412 feet above the level of
the sea. Between the ranges and the Gulf of
St. Vincent are spread the Adelaide Plains,
with the Para and the Gawler Plains stretching
northwards. These are cultivated for miles in
every direction, and produce annually large crops
of wheat, oats, barley, and hay, although at times
the farmers suffer from the effects of hot winds
and want of rain, more than they do in the hills
and in the southern portions of the colony. To
the eastward of these plains, across the range,
is a large tract of hilly country, which extends for
a width of about twenty miles, until it falls away
into the wide belt of plain and scrubby country
that borders the river Murray along a consider-
able portion of its course through South Australia.
Much of this hilly country is thickly wooded with
magnificent timber; and a large part is extremely
fertile, yielding a vast amount of wheat and other
agricultural produce.

Northwards, beyond the Gawler Plains, the
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : AGRICULTURE. 197

agriculturist has already a large hold of the
country along the Light, and the Wakefield, and
towards the great Burra-Burra mines; whilst in
a direction north-east from Adelaide extend those
rich lands of unsurpassed fertility which surround
the picturesque range of the Barossa. Indeed,
nothing can compare in the colony with this
highly cultivated district, which, when first dis-
covered, resembled a vast park clothed with
luxuriant grass, and scattered over here and there
with clumps of gigantic gum-trees. Now it pre-
sents the aspect of countless acres of waving corn,
interspersed with large and thriving villages,
which are surrounded by extensive vineyards,
orchards, and gardens.

Beyond these limits, agriculture has not yet
been attempted on an extensive scale, the country
thence northwards being chiefly occupied by
squatters for pastoral purposes.

To the south, a largely-cultivated agricultural
district extends to the southern seaboard, and em-
braces the greater part of the country included
between the Murray and St. Vincent's Gulf.
Within these limits lie the well-populated and
prosperous neighbourhoods of Morphett Vale,
‘Willunga, Aldinga, Rapid Bay, the Valley of the
Inman, and Encounter Bay. Beyond the Murray,
and the extensive lakes at its mouth, lies the
south-eastern portion of the colony, which extends
as far as Mount Gambier and the Glenelg, to the
Victorian boundary. The greater part of the
land in this district is devoted to pastoral pur-
198 AUSTRALIA.

poses, although in the neighbourhood of Mount
Gambier a considerable quantity of rich land is
under cultivation.

For many years it was imagined that the vast
extent of country lying north of Spencer's Gulf
was barren and worthless; whereas at the present
moment some of the finest northern sheep-runs
occupy territory hundreds of miles beyond it.
The climate, however, of this interior country is
of a most uncertain character. It appears to be
too far inland and too far north to secure with
regularity the winter rains that visit the southern
portions of the colony; while, on the other hand, it
is not far enough north to come within the limits
of the regular summer rains of the tropics. Some-
times in this region they experience droughts of
two or three years’ duration, mitigated only by
scanty dews, or an occasional thunderstorm which
fills the dry watercourses for a few hours. During
the past two or three years rain has been tolerably
abundant again in the ¢ Far North,” as this
district is termed, and, in spite of all its dis
advantages, it is closely occupied, and thickly
stocked with sheep and cattle.

The Flinders Range runs like a backbone through
a great portion of the northern part of the colony,
commencing at Mount Remarkable, near the head
of Spencer’s Gulf, and extending from thence in a
north-east direction. The range itself is generally
high, barren, and precipitous, and in many places
inaccessible to man and beast. Its highest peaks
reach an elevation approaching 4,000 feet; and
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : PHYSICAL FEATURES. 199

rising in an abrupt manner from the adjoining
plains they present a grand and imposing aspect.
To the west of Flinders Range, and between it and
Spencer’s Gulf and Lake Torrens, there is a dead-
level plain, destitute of grass, but largely covered
with ¢salt-bush,” on which sheep fatten admir-
ably; water being obtainable by sinking deep
wells. To the eastward are spread the wide
Willochra Plains, which extend some fifty miles
to the north, when the hilly country again ex-
tends itself in great broken ranges far to the east.
Amongst these ranges are considerable tracts of
available country and some of the best sheep-runs
in the district. This hilly country falls away
into the Great Eastern plains, which extend far
into the interior, and become an arid and desolate
region, without water, connecting themselves with
Sturts’ Desert of red sand.

The great horse-shoe curve of Lake Torrens,
which in early maps of the colony occupied so
much of its northern area, is, in reality, not an
inland sea, as many would suppose, but merely a
district of salt lakes scattered here and there over
_ a low country having a drainage towards Spencer’s
Gulf.

The fine harbour of Port Lincoln is situated
just within the western entrance of Spencer’s
Gulf, and affords a safe and secure anchorage for
vessels of any size. There is a settlement at
Boston Bay, which has regular steam communica-
tion with Adelaide; but owing to the limited
extent of good land beyond it, it has never be-
200 AUSTRALIA.

come a large and thriving township. Kangaroo
Island lies about twelve miles south-east of Cape
Jervis, and forms a sort of natural breakwater at
the mouth of St. Vincent’s Gulf, protecting the
navigation of that large expanse of water, and
the approach to the Port of Adelaide, from the
force of the Southern Ocean. It is rather more than
a hundred miles in length from east to west, and
about forty in breadth. At its north-eastern ex-
tremity is situated Nepean Bay, a well-sheltered
harbour facing the gulf: it was here that the
settlement of Kingscote was founded, but after-
wards abandoned, by the South Australian Com-
pany. By far the greater portion of this large
island is covered with an inhospitable scrub, com-
posed of mallee and prickly acacia, which in
many places is quite impenetrable. The soil is
generally poor, and water is only found in one or
two places. Before the European settlers landed
at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island had been for many
years the resort of whalers and sealers, who there
led a Crusoe-like life without law or restraint;
they hunted the fur-seal along the coast, and the
wallaby through the scrub, and at certain periods
bartered their skins for clothing, powder, tobacco,
rum, and flour, &. These articles were supplied
them at enormous prices by a class of men who
visited the island in small vessels from Hobart
Town, and derived a lucrative profit from trad-
ing in these skins. The sealers went by the
name of “Islanders,” and lived in small huts in
the various bays, especially at a spot called
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: RIVER MURRAY. 201

American River. Occasionally they made excur-
sions in boats across to the main land at Cape
Jervis, where they would surprise the natives,
and carry off their women for wives.

The only river of any importance in South
Australia is the Murray; most of the smaller
rivers, although they become foaming torrents
during the wet season, are nothing more than a
chain of deep waterholes, connected perhaps by
an insignificant rivulet, thmoughout the summer
months. The Murray, on the contrary, is a broad,
deep, noble stream, periodically overflowing its
banks, like the Nile. It rises in the snowy fast-
nesses of the Australian Alps, and after a course
of more than a thousand miles, during which it
receives the waters of the Murrumbidgee, the
Darling, and other rivers, it flows into the large
lakes Alexandrina and Albert, and Srenialye en-
ters the sea at Encounter Bay.

The steam navigation of this river was com-
menced by Captain Cadell, in 1853, and forms an
important era in the ne of colonial progress.
The navigation proceeds upwards as far as the
town of Albury, 378 miles from Sydney, and has
been extended to the stations on the Darling and
the Murrumbidgee. Captain Cadell, in 1858, suc-
ceeded in bringing his large steamer, the
‘“ Albury,” up the Murrumbidgee to Gundagai,
only 240 miles from the capital of New South
Wales. By this means a regular water communi-
cation is kept up with a vast portion of the interior,
where the settlers are so far removed from any sea-
202 AUSTRALIA.

port that land carriage becomes very tedious and
expensive. A large and flourishing trade is now
carried on by the numerous steamers along the
river, taking up supplies and stores to the stations,
and bringing back wool and other produce to the
port of Goolwa, at the mouth of the lake, from
whence it is conveyed by a tramway to Port Elliot,
and shipped thence to Adelaide. This tramway
is now being extended to Victor Harbour, a larger
and more secure anchorage a few miles further
along the coast, which is likely to become a place
of some importance as the seaport of the Murray,
the navigation of the mouth of the river being
frequently unsafe, in consequence of shifting
sandbanks and the heavy surf that rolls in during
south-westerly gales.

The first sight of the Murray, after crossing the
desert scrub that extends between it and Mount
Barker, is thus described by Mr. Angas: * Sud-
denly we came in sight of the river, half a dozen
miles above its junction with the lake. It was
flowing gently beneath us, its deep blue waters
meandering through a vast extent of reeds, the
vivid green of which was truly refreshing to the
eye. Its course was so gentle as to be barely
perceptible : deep, and broad, and smooth as a
glassy mirror, it lowed tranquilly and majestically
onwards to the ocean.”

The hills rising from the valley or basin of the
Murray are in many places clothed with belts of
cypress pine, beyond which on both sides extends
an extensive region of mallee scrub.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: RIVER MURRAY. 203

Higher up the river the scenery is singular
and picturesque. Towering and precipitous cliffs

of yellow fossiliferous sandstone form a basin or
valley about two miles in width, through which
the Murray winds in a series of magnificent
reaches from side to side, having ana-branches
or back-waters here and there, which enclose
long narrow islands covered with stately gum-
trees. At one spot the cliffs descend abruptly
to the water’s edge; at another the river flows
through verdant meadows, shaded by clusters of
gigantic trees, the rich, deep foliage of which
casts a broad shadow on each bank of the stream.
Birds of the most brilliant plumage adorn the
branches : thousands of white cockatoos and gay
parrots keep up a perpetual and noisy chatter,
and the soft cooing of the elegant crested pigeon
is heard from the dark masses of the blue gum-
trees.

The country about the lakes is undulating and
grassy, scattered over with shea-oak and banksia
trees ; whilst the lakes themselves are bordered
with extensive tracts of reeds and bulrushes.

The Coorong is a back-water inlet from the
sea, commencing at the mouth of the Murray
and the lake, and running parallel with the
coast, in a south-east direction, for ninety miles;
being divided from the ocean only by a ridge
of stupendous sand-hills, varying in breadth
from half a mile to two miles. The water is
salt or brackish throughout, and the scenery wild
and desolate in the extreme. It was on this lonely
204 AUSTRALIA.

coast that the passengers and crew of the Maria,”
who had been shipwrecked near Cape Jaffa, were
massacred by the savages some five-and-twenty
years ago. After escaping the dangers of the reef
where the vessel struck, the party—men, women,
and children—toiled along the shore for eighty
miles, in the burning sun, hungry, and thirsty,
and barefoot, subsisting on roots and shellfish,
till they reached the Milmendura tribe. Two
more days’ march, they trusted, would bring them
to the sea mouth of the Murray, where the En-
counter Bay natives had communication with the
whalers; and there they looked for an end to
their sufferings. But these terminated only in
death. The savages stripped them of their few
remaining garments, and deliberately murdered
them as they came up in straggling parties;
knocking out their brains with waddies, or chasing
them with the spear. Many of the bodies were
afterwards discovered buried in the sand, some
pushed into wombat holes, and others were never
found at all. The fingers of some of the ladies
had been cut off with shells to obtain the rings
that adorned them, and in the huts of the natives
were quantities of children’s and other clothing all
stained with blood. Several watches were found
concealed in an incredible number of wrappers,
the savages probably imagining them to be alive,
or possessing powers of sorcery. Sovereigns also
were passed in barter to the Encounter Bay
natives, from whom the whalers obtained them
for shirts and tobacco, which circumstance led to
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: THE MIRAGE. 205

the discovery of the fate of the murdered people.
An armed and mounted party started off from
Adelaide in search of them, scoured the Coorong
in every direction, burnt the native huts to the
ground, and succeeded in capturing two of the
murderers, who were hung on a gibbet among the
sand-hills as a warning to the rest.

The coast-line of South Australia is more in-
dented and uneven than that of any other part of
the continent. From its southern extremity at Cape
Northumberland, in latitude 88° south, it runs up
in a north-westerly direction for 200 miles to
Encounter Bay: then commence the two deep
Gulfs of St. Vincent and Spencer, divided by a
long narrow tongue of land, called Yorke Penin-
sula. Spencer’s Gulf is by far the larger of the
two, and extends northwards nearly to latitude
32° south. To the westward of Spencer’s Gulf
the promontories about Port Lincoln again stretch
to the south, where the sea is studded with rocks
and small islands. Beyond this the coast trends
rapidly to the north-west till it reaches the head
of the Great Australian bight.

During the summer months, the atmosphere of
the plains becomes so heated as frequently to
produce most extraordinary effects of mirage;
lakes of water, to all appearance, in which are
reflected the trees and bushes beyond, glisten in
the distance, and seem to hold out a refreshing
welcome to the thirsty traveller. On advancing
nearer, the phantom lakes seem to dance and
wave about, changing their form, yet mirroring
206 AUSTRALIA.

distinctly every feature of hill and tree above;
now appearing as chains of blue and cooling
ponds, and anon stretching out along the plains
like broad sheets of shining water.

Speaking of this phenomenon, Mr. Lloyd says:
“Seeing a lake, as we thought, about three-quar-
ters of a mile to our right, we galloped towards it,
when, after a sharp canter of a mile and a quarter,
to our great astonishment, instead of coming up to
water, we became suddenly enveloped in a dense
gaseous fluid, floating about our persons with a
light rushing noise, and distinctly perceptible to
the eye. To complete our surprise, ere one mi-
nute had elapsed the fleeting vapour had passed
away to the distance of nearly a hundred yards.
Upon seeing this we came to the conclusion that
we had been in hot pursuit of a flying mirage.”

When the atmosphere becomes thus rarified by
extreme dry heat, most peculiar optical effects are
the result. Occasionally vessels bound up St.
Vincent’s Gulf to Port Adelaide have been ren-
dered visible by the mirage, their shadows being
thrown high up in the air, whilst the vessels
themselves were below the horizon; and in
several cases these spectral vessels have been
reported at the look-out station some days before
the actual vessels made their appearance.

Again, the low shores of Yorke’s Peninsula,
some sixty miles across St. Vincent's Gulf, are,
on ordinary occasions, invisible from the hills
near Adelaide; yet at times the outline of the
whole coast-line has been so raised through the
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : ADELAIDE. 207

medium of the heated air over the gulf, as to
present a splendid view of headlands, cliffs, and
bays, standing out with all the vividuess of reality,
and apparently only a few miles distant.

The city of Adelaide, the capital of South
Australia, stands on an extensive plain, about
six miles from the nearest point of the sea-shore,
and between four and five from the hills.

The city is divided into North and South
Adelaide by the river Torrens, a stream which
rises in the Mount Lofty ranges, flows across the
plains for fourteen or fifteen miles in a westerly
direction, and then either loses itself in the
swamps that lie inside the sand-hills of the gulf,
or forces its way into the head of the salt-water
arm of the sea mear the port, according to the
season and the volume of water that descends
from the hills.

The ground on which South Adelaide stands
rises from the sea so gradually that the gradients
of the streets are nowhere more than sufficient for
drainage purposes. The streets are wide, and
are laid out at right angles to each other:
there are also fine squares of handsome extent,
enclosed, and planted with trees. Four terraces
form the boundaries of South Adelaide, and front
towards the four cardinal points of the compass
from which they take their names. Each of these
terraces looks towards an open, park-like space,
scattered here and there with gum-trees, which
are called the Park-lands, and comprise about
1,940 acres, which are set apart as a reserve for
208 AUSTRALIA.

the recreation of the inhabitants. South Adelaide
covers 700 acres of ground, and is at the present
time pretty well built upon, many of the public
buildings, churches, shops, and warehouses pre-
senting a substantial and imposing appearance.
It is only here and there, however, that capitalists
have raised rows of uniform and contiguous build-
ings. For the most part every man has built on
his own land, according to his own means or taste,
and the consequence is that handsome houses and
shops are often flanked by rickety wooden edifices
that look sadly out of place. King William
Street is a very broad central street, in which
stand many fine public buildings, including the
Government Offices, the Post Office, Banks, Town
Hall, Exchange, &c. Government House is prettily
situated on the river slope looking towards North
Adelaide, along which are many tasteful and ele-
gant buildings, such as the Houses of Parliament,
the Institute, the Hospital, the Lunatic Asylum,
and the Mounted-police Barracks. Below Govern-
ment House a substantial iron bridge spans the
Torrens, and brings us into North Adelaide.
North Adelaide contains 342 acres, and is mostly
occupied with private houses and gardens, the
river and a strip of park-land tastefully planted
dividing the two portions of the city. The po-
sition of North Adelaide is somewhat elevated and
hilly, and the views from it over the Mount Lofty
range, the plains, the gulf, and South Adelaide
are remarkably beautiful. Many of the wealthiest
citizens have chosen this portion of the town for
ADELAIDE. 209

their dwellings, and have built spacious and ele-
gant houses there. The river is crossed by three
carriage-bridges, and by several wooden foot-
bridges in various places. The suburban villages,
especially toward the slopes of the hills, are nu-
merous, and contain many pretty villas and
cottages enclosed in gardens and shrubberies.

Adelaide is well supplied with water from a
source about ten miles from the city, in one of
the gorges of the range, where a weir has been
built across the Torrens, from whence the water is
conducted about three miles to a storage reservoir.
This reservoir has a water area of twenty-six acres,
and when full its greatest depth is forty feet. The
water is conveyed to the city through an eighteen-
inch pipe, from whence branch off upwards of forty-
five miles of street-mains. There have also been
nearly a thousand fire-plugs fixed, and as the service
is constant, and the pressure high, fire-engines have
been superseded. The entire cost of this important
undertaking amounted to nearly 200,000l. Since
the introduction of water into Adelaide, public
baths have been established, adding greatly to the
comfort of the inhabitants in so warm a climate.

Within the last twelve months gas has been
introduced into the city, and the principal streets
and buildings are now lighted with it.

The collegiate school of St. Peter's is a fine
building, situated across the park lands, to the
east of the town. The gaol is an octagonal brick
building near the banks of the river, surrounded
by a garden and vineyard; the average number

0
210 AUSTRALIA.

of prisoners confined within its walls does not
exceed eighty. Fortunately the penal establish-
ments of South Australia are not very extensive,
the only other prison being the Stockade at Dry
Creek, about seven miles from Adelaide, where
some sixty convicts, sentenced to hard labour, are
employed in breaking up the almost inexhaustible
quarries of stone there, for the purpose of metal-
ling the public roads of the colony.

The Botanical Gardens contain about forty
acres of undulating ground, and are very prettily
laid out, at the north-east corner of the town,
their beauty having latterly been much en-
hanced by the introduction of fountains and
ponds, the latter being stocked with various kinds
of waterfowl. There are more than 3,000 species
of plants represented in these gardens, which
contain, besides, a collection of native and other
animals, and are open free to the public daily.

The Mechanics’ Institute is one of the most
tasteful buildings in Adelaide. It was erected at
a cost of 7,000l., and is supported by an annual
grant from the colonial government. It contains
a good library, an embryo museum of art and natu-
ral history, a school of design, and large reading
and lecture rooms. The Adelaide Philosophical
Society and the South Australian Society of Arts
have lately been incorporated with the Institute.

The railways in South Australia are govern-
ment undertakings, and there are at present two
locomotive lines at work, having a common ter-
minus near the centre of the city, between North
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. 211

and South Adelaide. One of these, leading from
the port, is about eight miles in length ; the other,
which extends northwards to Gawler and thence
to Kapunda, is fifty-two miles long.

The electric telegraph connects most of the
principal places in the colony with the capital,
from whence communication is established with
Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.

Port Adelaide is situated on a broad salwar.
creek, or arm of the sea, about four miles from its
entrance to the gulf, and eight from the city of
Adelaide. The position of the town is low and
swampy, and the sides of the creek are bounded by
extensive mangrove flats. There are several good
wharves, alongside of which vessels of a thousand
tons can lie in perfect security. There is a bar at
the mouth of the creek, the channel to which is
carefully marked out with buoys and beacons, and
large vessels can only cross at high tide. The
anchorage, however, outside in the gulf is good
and safe, and a light-ship is stationed opposite the
channel.

The Custom House, Court House, and Police -
Station at Port Adelaide constitute an extensive
range of buildings in the Italian style. There
are many large and substantial stores and ware-
houses, steam flour-mills, and a smelting establish-
ment.

Gawler, the second place of importance in the
colony, is a flourishing town about twenty-six
miles north of Adelaide, at the junction of the
North and South Para. It has a population of
212 . AUSTRALIA.

nearly 5,000 souls, and contains many good build-
ings and stores, and a large steam flour and saw
mills, a brewery, and an excellent mechanics’
institute, including a library and museum.
Kapunda, twenty-five miles north of Gawler,
bids fair ere long to become a considerable place.
It owes its origin to the continued success of the
Kapunda copper mine, the extensive works of
which are carried on in close proximity to the
town. The outlay at the mine is from 3,000L to
4,000. per month, nearly all of which sum is put
into circulation in the immediate neighbourhood.
It is a comparatively neat, well-built, and regular
town, with a present population of about 3,000
inhabitants, a large proportion of whom are miners
and their families. The Adelaide railway terminus
is adjoining the town, and the buildings there are
considered the best on the whole line. All the
traffic from the northern part of the colony comes
this way, including that from the Burrd mines,
and the agricultural district of the Upper Light.
The far-famed copper mines, known as the
Burra, are situated about ninety miles from
Adelaide, in a north-easterly direction, and, since
their discovery in 1845, have yielded an enormous
amount of wealth to their proprietors and share-
holders. Asat the Kapunda, an adjacent town has
of necessity sprung up near these mines. The
Burra town is called Kooringa, but with the ex-
ception of a handsome inn, and one or two other
buildings, it is a miserable-looking place. The
surrounding country, destitute of timber, has a
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: GERMAN SETTLERS. 213

most barren aspect. Then the dwellings of the
miners and others are small and ill-constructed,
put down anywhere, without the least attempt
at garden or adornment of any kind. These things,
combined with the dust in summer and the mud
in winter, both consequent upon the great traffic
of ‘drays and waggons laden with ore and fuel,
render the township of Kooringa anything but
an agreeable residence.

Many picturesque villages, surrounded with
gardens and vineyards, are scattered about
the country in all directions. Not the least
interesting of these are several which are in-
habited almost exclusively by German settlers.
~ The first body of these people arrived in the
colony in 1838. Religious persecution was the
primary cause of their emigrating, they belonging
to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Unob-
trusive in their manners, highly industrious, and
of economical habits, the German settlers now
form a very independent and prosperous portion
of the community. By the last census it appears
that there were 8,863 German residents in South
Australia, nearly all of whom were devoted to
agricultural pursuits.

The hottest months in the year are January,
February, and March, when the temperature of
the air on the plains about Adelaide sometimes
exceeds 100° for several days together, at times
rising as high as 115°. Generally on the third
day the hot wind blows with violence from the
north, raising clouds of dust; towards evening it
214 AUSTRALIA.

gradually veers round to west and south-west,
when a cool, delicious sea-breeze sets in, and the
temperature falls about forty degrees. A succes-
sion of cool pleasant weather follows for several
days, until the wind settles in the east, when the
heat recurs, and a sirocco again blows; and so
on, more or less, through the three summer
months. Owing, however, to the extreme dryness
of the air, these extremes of heat are much more
easily endured than many would suppose. Thus
labourers in the hottest weather carry on their
usual out-door avocations without danger; and
long journeys of thirty or fifty miles a day are
performed on horseback, with scarcely any more
inconvenience than that experienced on a very hot
but more humid day in England. It is to the
dryness of the air that the general healthiness of
the climate is attributable. During July, the
coldest month, the mean temperature is 51°. The
months from March to October are most pleasant ;
in fact, nothing can compare with the fine genial
weather experienced for days together, even in
mid-winter. Hoar-frost is general on the plains
in July and August, and ice as thick as a penny-
piece is met with amongst the hills. On one or
two occasions snow has fallen in slight showers.
The heaviest rains, which assume a tropical cha-
racter, occur after a hot north-east wind, drawing
round to the north-west, at which point upwards
of an inch of rain has fallen within the hour, ac-
companied by thunder and lightning. Occa-
sionally the rain is represented by tremendous
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : DIVERSITY OF CLIMATE. 215

hail-storms, which do considerable damage to
the gardens and crops, though they are very
limited in their range. During the winter months.
strong mnorth-westerly winds are frequent, ac-
companied with steady and long-continued rain,
which clears off as the wind gets round to the
south. :

The diversity of climate presented by the hills
and plains, and the geographical position of
various parts of the colony, has been productive
of benefit in several ways. Seasons favourable
for the hills are less so for the plains, and wice
versid, and thus the general agricultural pros-
perity of the colony is more equalised than it
would be if the whole province were of one
character. Another advantage consists in the
fact that the harvest operations are thus spread
over a longer period of time than would other-
wise be the case, so that the labourer’s season
of harvest earnings is more extended, and the
farmers are mot all crying out for hands to-
gether, to gather in their crops at one time. As
the hay harvest precedes the wheat, and the extra
demand for shearing fortunately occurs still
earlier, even those that roam about and take the
chances of the season for employment, are able to
obtain good work at good wages during a large
part of the year.

South Australia is a great wheat-growing
country, and may be fairly termed the granary
of the southern hemisphere. The actual num-
ber of acres under cultivation in 1863 was 494,511,
216 AUSTRALIA.

of which no less than 320,160 acres were under
wheat, the harvest producing 3,841,824 bushels,
or an average of twelve bushels to the acre; four-
fifths of this vast crop being reaped by machine.
The quantity of hay mown during the same year
was 88,985 tons; and 30,0007. worth of fruit alone,
irrespective of dried and preserved fruits, have
_ been exported during the past five years. Dairy
produce and eggs have also yielded a nearly equal
amount.

The cultivation of the vine, and the manufacture
of wine, has of late years become an important
feature in the colony. The quantity shipped last
year was over 20,000 gallons, 450,000" gallons
being consumed in the colony. Upwards of 5,000
acres of vines are already planted, and many of
the wines produced from them are excellent, and
will bear favourable comparison with those of the
south of Europe. Samples of the South Australian
wines received high encomium at the Great
International Exhibition of 1862.

Scarcely any country can excel South Australia
in the quality and variety of its cultivated fruits.
Apples, pears, cherries, plums, apricots, peaches,
figs, walnuts, currants, gooseberries, strawberries,
raspberries, melons, grapes, lemons, citrons, and
loquats all thrive abundantly, and reach the
highest degree of excellence. Indeed, fruit is so
~ cheap and abundant, that within a few miles from
town, it pays better to give the peaches to the
pigs than to gather and cart them for sale.

Squatting—that is to say, sheep and cattle
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : MINERALS. 217

farming on unsold lands rented in large blocks
from the government—has, especially during the
last twelve years, been the most remunerative
pursuit carried on in the colony. The export of
wool in 1862 amounted to 14,500,000 pounds ; and
the number of sheep at that time on the various
runs was 3,431,000. The total number of cattle
in the province is estimated at 260,000, and that
of horses at 57,000, about 500 of which are annually
exported to India for the supply of the cavalry
service there. The quantity of land leased for
depasturage at present amounts to 34,000 square
miles.

The metal which has formed the great source
of the mineral wealth of South Australia up to the
present time has been copper ; and the deposits of
that ore have been found in an abundance almost
as remarkable as that of gold in Victoria. The
great richness of the Burra mines has long rendered
them famous, while the astonishing yields of some
of the mines on the Yorke peninsula makes it
probable that the Burra itself will not be able
eventually to hold its place as the richest of South
Australian mines. In the districts north of
Spencer’s Gulf, also, mineral discoveries of the
highest value have been authenticated, requiring
only facilities for transit, and the introduction of
adequate labour and capital, to make them highly
remunerative.

The Burra mine yields direct employment to
about 1,100 persons, and large smelting works are
established in its vicinity. The produce of this
218 AUSTRALIA.

mine for the first six years amounted to nearly
80,000 tons of copper ore, of a richness surpassing
anything ever before met with in the history of
mining. Although the bulk of these ores had to be
carted over a hundred miles of road to a place of
shipment, and conveyed thence to a market some
14,000 miles distant, a profit was obtained on the
working of the mines, for that period, of no less a
sum than 438,552L., nearly half a million sterling.
The present annual yield of the Burra mine
averages from 10,000 to 13,000 tons, worth to the
colony at least 225,000. per annum. During the
earlier workings of the Burra, the miners and their
families used to dwell in subterranean tenements
which they scooped out in the precipitous sides of
the creek, and they used to make their curious
dwelling caves remarkably comfortable. They
often contained several rooms, fireplaces, good
cedar furniture, and household utensils; whilst
the walls were hung with gaudy pictures, and a
fine collection of malachites and other specimens
of copper ores usually occupied a position on
shelves or in glass cases. These underground
dwellings were in some respects, however, incon-
venient. Strangers walking on the banks of the
creek were liable to tumble into holes which
proved to be the chimneys of the Cornishmen;
and every few years a flood would come down,
and commit such havoc and devastation that these
abodes have latterly fallen into disrepute.

The Kapunda mines, discovered in 1843, are
situated in the county of Light, about fifty-two
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : ITS MINES. 219

miles north north-east of Adelaide. About 350
hands are employed in the various works, exclusive
of a large number of woodcutters, carters, and others
who are completely dependent upon the mines for
their support. Two large thirty-six inch cylinder
steam-engines are in use, the deepest level of the
mine being sixty fathoms below the surface, at
which depth it is kept drained. At the smelting
works there are five ore-reducing furnaces, timber
being used for fuel. The entire quantity of ore
raised from the Kapunda mine, up to the close of
September, 1863, was 40,714 tons; the total value
of which amounted to nearly 600,0001.

The discoveries on the west shores of Yorke
peninsula of vast deposits of copper of exceeding
richness, in May, 1861, turned the attention of
capitalists and speculators to that hitherto little-
known locality. These mines have turned out so
productive as to have entirely changed the face of
that part of the country. Two rapidly-rising
towns—Kadina and Wallaroo—with a population
of about 4,000, and an active and increasing com-
merce, are now established where only little more
than three years since there was nothing but a
solitary sheep station. Apart from the produc-
tiveness of these mines and their proximity to the
sea-shore, that part of Yorke peninsula where they
are situated was singularly unfitted for the sudden
reception of a large population, being a dense and
inhospitable scrub, practically destitute of water.
There was one little spring on the beach at
Wallaroo, which scantily supplied in former years
220 : AUSTRALIA.

the small wants of the adjoining sheep station,
otherwise there was no other fresh water within
twenty miles, all that could be obtained by digging
proving salt. The expedient hit upon to overcome
this drawback was distillation. Large distilleries
were established, at which the salt water from the
mines was purified ; and now, perhaps for the first
time in the records of the world, a population of
some thousands, with all their horses, cattle, and
other domestic animals, drink distilled water. The
price of the water thus distilled is only 2s. 6d. per
hogshead.

Wallaroo Bay is the shipping-place for all the
various mines that have lately been discovered on
the peninsula. A jetty has been constructed
there, and a tramway laid down for several miles
inland, to the neighbouring town of Kadina. The
situation of the port of Wallaroo is pretty, and a
cliff, immediately to the south of what is now the
business part of the town, presents a fine site for
the erection of future terraces of private houses.

About ten miles from Kadina, on the same
peninsula, are the now famous Moonta mines,
which, although but of comparatively recent date,
are of immense promise. As at Wallaroo, there is
no fresh water, and the miners have resort to dis-
tillation for their supply. Within a period of
twenty months, 14,380 tons of very rich ore have
been raised here, of the value of 211,800L. At the
Wallaroo mines the deepest shaft is now down
forty fathoms, and 25,000 tous of ore have been
taken from the various workings since 1861. The
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : EXPORTS, ETC. 221

smelting works there are the largest out of Swansea,
containing twenty-five furnaces, of the most com-
plete description, which turn out about eighty
tons of fine copper a week. Various other mines,
some yielding lead and silver, are scattered over
the colony; but a notice of the most important
is sufficient to convey to the reader some idea of
the great mineral wealth of South Australia.

The aggregate export of South Australian pro-
duce, during the last ten years, has amounted to
thirteen and a half millions, of which the exports of
flour and grain (after supplying the wants of the
colony) amounted to over five millions ; of wool to
over four and a quarter millions; and of minerals,
chiefly copper, to over three millions and a half
sterling; the remaining half million being com-
posed of miscellaneous products, raw and manu-
factured. In 1863 the total value of produce
imported into Great Britain from South Australia
alone was 1,097,795. The population of the
province, according to the government statist, was
estimated, in 1864, to be 145,000 souls.

The South Australian Parliament consists of a
Legislative Council and a House of Assembly.
The former is composed of eighteen members, six
of whom retire every four years, their successors
being then elected for twelve years; nor is the
governor able to dissolve this body. It is elected
by the whole colony voting as one district, and
the qualifications of an elector to the Council are
that he must have a freehold of 50l. value, or a
leasehold of 207. annual value, The House of
222 AUSTRALIA.

Assembly consists of thirty-six members, elected
for three years by seventeen districts, but liable
to dissolution by the governor. These members
are elected by universal suffrage and by ballot.

There is no state church in the colony, and for
some years past the system of granting state aid to
all denominations indiscriminately has been aban-
doned. Each sect has to support its own ministers;
and from the vast number of chapels and places of
worship scattered over the colony, many of the
little villages having two or three, it would appear
that the people of South Australia are not wanting
in zeal and religious fervour. The clergy of the
various sects have, however, often to eke out their
incomes by school-keeping and other means. About
16,0001. per annum is expended by the government
for educational purposes, and a Central Board of
Education conducts the management of some 250
schools distributed throughout the settled districts,
which afford instruction to upwards of 12,000
scholars.

Mr. Edward Wilson, of Melbourne, thus
describes his first impressions of South Australia
on entering the colony from the Victorian side:
“ At the very first step across the boundary
we were met by a remarkable development of
patient and painstaking industry. The same
spirit is perceptible over the whole colony. Its
resources may not bear comparison with those
of some of its neighbours; but, whatever those
resources may be, they are certainly in course of
development in a very intelligent and industrious
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: A BEAUTIFUL VIEW. 223

manner. As soon as you reach Lake Alexandrina,
patches of cultivation, comfortable homesteads,
steam flour mills, and thriving townships appear
on all sides; and you feel that you are in a coun-
try which is being rapidly awakened to the eager
wants of a civilized people. I scarcely can expe-
rience again so delightful a sensation as was pro-
duced by a view suddenly bursting on the sight
upon reaching the brow of a hill above the township
of Willunga—a pretty little hamlet, about half-way
between Goolwa and Adelaide. All day we had
toiled on through a miserably barren country,
with jaded horses and a wrecked vehicle, till both
patience and temper had well-nigh given way.
The dreary gum scrub, the endless alternation of
hill after hill, had been but feebly relieved by
occasional fine prospects and the profusion of
beautiful wild flowers, which, in Australia, usually
appear to select the most uninviting soils for their
homes. But just as the sun sank, the gloomy
scrub seemed suddenly to melt away behind us,
and a scene broke upon the view unlike anything
I have ever beheld since I left England. From
the hill I speak of a tract of country is visible for
miles in every direction—north, west, and south ;
and till it meets the sea, which fills up the back-
ground, it seems one continuous piece of cultiva-
tion. At a distance of thirty miles, the haze of a
large city indicates the site of Adelaide; and
everywhere else the dappled sides of the gentle
hills, the enclosures over miles upon miles of
plain, the hedged gardens, the well-grown or-
224 AUSTRALIA.

chards, and well-appointed homesteads, proclaim
the possession of the land by an industrious and
thrifty yeomanry.”

Consequent upon the discoveries by Mr. Stuart
of a practicable route across the continent from
the settled districts of the colony to the north coast,
the South Australian government have commenced
the establishment of a settlement at Adam Bay,
near the mouth of the Adelaide River, in Arn-
heim’s Land. This locality is not far removed
from the now abandoned depot formed some years
ago by the British authorities at Port Essington,
on the Coburg peninsula. It is situated in the
extreme northern portion of Australia, in about
124° of south latitude.

Mr. Stuart, in the report, says: “I believe the
country from the Roper to the Adelaide Rivers,
and thence to the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria,
to be well adapted for the settlement of a Eu-
ropean population, the climate being in every
respect suitable, and the surrounding country of
excellent quality and great extent. Timber—
stringy-bark, iron-bark, gum, &ec., with bamboo
fifty or sixty feet high on the banks of the river
—is abundant and at convenient distances. The
country is intersected by numerous springs and
watercourses in every direction. If this country
is settled, it will be capable of producing any and
everything; and would be a splendid region for
the cultivation of cotton.” :

By a settlement in this fertile tropical territory,
a vast amount of fresh country will be opened up
EXPLORING PARTY. 225

for the future annual increase of horses, cattle,
and sheep, and for the growth of cotton, indigo,
sugar, and other vegetable productions of the
torrid zone. The new route across will, ere long,
be available for the passage of horses to the best
point for their shipment to India and China, saving
several thousand miles of sea voyage; and the
intermediate squatting stations that will be esta-
blished, will facilitate the construction of a tele-
graph across the continent, bringing the whole of
Australia into speedy communication with Hurope
by way of India.

The first party of volunteers, headed by Capt.
Finniss (who was appointed government resident
at the new settlement) left Port Adelaide in April,
1864, and proceeded by sea, vid Torres Strait, to
their place of destination, which was reached in
about seven weeks. They landed their horses and
cattle in good condition, and proceeded to examine
the country with a view to the selection of a suit-
able site for the future capital. At present the
‘camp is situated at Escape Cliffs, on the shores of
Adam Bay. One of the party of pioneers thus
describes the appearance of the country about the
Adelaide River: * This river,” he says, “is a mag-
nificent one. The width at the entrance is about
a mile, and from that point to about twenty miles
up varies from 300 to 600 yards, and contains
some really splendid reaches. From twenty milesup
to fifty, the river narrows gradually to 170 yards.
The country, for the most part, is low and swampy
towards the seashore, and on each side of the river,

p
226 AUSTRALIA.

but, receding from it inland, it improves the fur-
ther you go back. There it is undulating, the
soil being rich almost to rottenness, and is well
grassed, and interlaced with splendid and perma-
nent creeks. These creeks are lined with high,
umbrageous, and tropical-like trees, and cabbage-
palms, which grow to the height of from seventy
to eighty feet, as straight asa die, without branch-
ing off. They tower above the other trees, and
look exceedingly graceful and pretty. The creeks
all abound with fish, generally about a foot long.
Some fine reaches of water which we saw were
very deep and long-—all running fast, and as clear
ascrystal.” . . . “The climate at this season of the
year (winter) is at once the pleasantest and most
invigorating I ever experienced in my life; the
nights temperate, the mornings cool, with a
bracing wind from the east; whilst the mid-days
are delightfully warm in the sun.” Several other
vessels from Adelaide have followed the first ex-

_ pedition, conveying intending settlers with their
necessary stores and supplies; and a * North Aus-
tralian Company ” has been established in London
for the sale of land. A considerable extent of
land has already been taken up by the South Aus-
tralians, but the ultimate success of the infant
settlement remains to be proved.
CHAPTER XIV.

THE CoLONY OF VICTORIA.

 

GEELONG,

Victoria occupies the south-eastern corner of the
great territory of Australia. It is bounded on the
north by the river Murray, on the south by Bass’s
Strait, on the west by the colony of South Aus-
tralia, and on the east by that of New South
228 AUSTRALIA.

Wales, from which it is separated by a line from
Cape Howe to the sources of the Murray. It
contains an area of about 86,000 square miles, is
about 500 miles in direct length from east to west,
and has an indented coast-line of 600 miles.

The honour of the discovery of the magnificent
inlet of Port Phillip, from which the district took
its name (until it was separated from New South
Wales, and became the colony of Victoria, in
1850), belongs to Lieutenant Murray, who, whilst
engaged in a survey of the south coast, entered
the bay in the month of January, 1802. It was
called ¢ Port Phillip ” after Captain Phillip King,
one of the governors of New South Wales.

Not many weeks subsequent to the discovery

"of this important harbour, it was visited by Captain
Flinders in the ship “Investigator.” He thus
describes it: “On the one hand it is capable of
receiving and sheltering a larger fleet of ships
than ever yet went to sea; whilst on the other,
the entrance on its whole width is scarcely two
miles, and nearly half of it is occupied by the
rocks lying off Point Nepean.”

The other harbours on the coast are Portland
Bay, Port Fairy, Western Port, and Port Albert.

The principal rivers, next to the Murray, are,
the Glenelg, the Yarra-Yarra, the Goulburn, the
Snowy, and the Ovens. There are many smaller
streams, which, during the dry season, appear only
as chains of deep water-holes, but become swollen to
resistless torrents after heavy and continued rain.

The features of the country present every variety
VICTORIA : PHYSICAL FEATURES. 229

of aspect: bold ranges of hills clothed with lofty
timber intersect vast grassy plains, which are
sparingly scattered over with trees. Towards
Gipps Land the scenery becomes wild and very
mountainous; and the southern headlands of Cape
Otway and Wilson’s promontory are covered with
dense and inaccessible forests.

The great chain of the Australian Alps runs
‘through the eastern portion of the colony; they
embrace the most lofty mountains in Australia,
some of the peaks of which, as Mount Kosciusko,
are from 7,000 to 8,000 feet in height, and covered
with snow during the greater portion of the
year. The Grampians and Pyrenees are situated
north-west from Melbourne and Geelong; beyond
these bold ranges the western portion of the
colony becomes more level, and stretches away
in extensive plains, studded with lakes and ex-
tinct craters of volcanoes, towards the great flat
deserts of the mallee scrub, which extend to the
banks of the river Murray.

The climate of Victoria, though colder and
wetter during the winter than that of New South
Wales, or South Australia, is, nevertheless, very
warm occasionally in summer, being exposed to
the hot northerly winds, which blow with great
violence at certain times from the scorched and
arid plains of the interior.

A gentleman many years resident in Victoria
says: “The climate is admirably adapted to the
European constitution. During the midsummer
months, hot northerly winds occasionally visit the
230 AUSTRALIA.

towns and settled districts, and bring with them
fearful and destructive bush fires, accompanied
with clouds of smoke and dust, which have earned
for such days the appellation of ¢ Black Thursday,’
‘Hot Monday,’ &c. As the country becomes
settled and well fed down, most probably such
evils will be considerably remedied. One re-
deeming point, however, in reference to the hot
wind, is, that it is always succeeded, on its ceas-
ing, at about four o'clock, p.m., by a delightfully
cool and refreshing sea-breeze. These great and
rapid changes of temperature occurring in England,
would, no doubt, be injurious to people residing
there, or in similar humid latitudes. A sudden
change from 110° to 69° of Fahrenheit, within the
period of twenty minutes, certainly does not bear
the semblance of salubrity ; nevertheless, it does
not appear to injure the constitutions of the
colonists in the slightest degree.

“The trees and shrubs retain their foliage with-
out change for years, until they are destroyed by
the sweeping fires of the bush, or yield to the
effects of time. The annual amount of rain ex-
ceeds by eight inches the average of England,
but, as it mostly descends in heavier showers, its
beneficial results are more transient. The native
sward, instead of presenting the grateful, soft,
green appearance of the home meadows, wears,
during six months of the year, an aspect describ-
able by no other term than ‘everbrown.” The
aridity of the climate, however, has its compensa-
tions. A peculiar feature of the dry summer heat
VICTORIA : ITS FERTILITY. 231

is that it does not produce lassitude of the physical
or mental energies. Such an unwelcome visitor
as a genuine London fog is seldom, if ever, seen;
neither is there that continuous clouded gloom
which distinguishes the atmosphere of England ;
but, on the contrary, a cheerful sunshine prevails in
these southern latitudes for at least 280 days in the
year. The pure, delicious atmosphere is, moreover,
so remarkably clear, that objects forty miles away
appear to the eye as if but at half that distance.

“The winter, although generally unattended with
snow and ice, is, nevertheless, sufficiently cold to
astonish persons recently arrived from England.
The white frosts are occasionally very severe, and
there is almost as much demand for warm winter
clothing, and as great a quantity of wood and coal
is consumed in Tasmania and Victoria during the
winter season, in proportion, as there is in the
good old country.”

The soil in many places is very fertile, and well
adapted for the growth of wheat and other cereals,
as well as for the culture of the vine, and most
kinds of European fruits and vegetables, which
thrive abundantly in the gardens of the settlers.

The country is open and grassy to a large extent,
so that sheep and cattle farming have always
been favourite and prosperous vocations with men
of capital from the earliest settlement of the
colony ; and at the present time every available
tract of pasture land throughout the entire terri-
tory is occupied with “squatters,” as these Aus-
tralian sheep-farmers are styled.
239 AUSTRALIA.

Notwithstanding the great extent of land de-
voted to the depasturing of stock,‘there is still a
large amount of arable land under cultivation,
upwards of 500,000 acres being under crop at the
present time.

The gold-fields of the colony, which, since their
discovery in 1851, have formed so prominent a
feature in the history of Victoria, will be treated
of more at length in a subsequent chapter.

In the year 1835, Mr. John Batman, in con-
junction with several other persons residing in
Tasmania, got up an association for the purpose of
forming an extensive pastoral establishment at
Port Phillip, on the south coast of Australia.
Mr. Batman undertook an expedition to examine
and report upon the nature and qualifications of
the country ; and the glowing accounts he gave of
the unlimited extent of available land of the finest
description, interspersed with rivers and creeks,
and covered with luxuriant grasses, induced the
promoters of the scheme to decide upon the colo-
nization of Port Phillip, and to form a company
for that purpose. Having gained the goodwill of
the natives, Mr. Batman bargained with them, on
the very hill that now bears his name, and which
stands at the west end of one of the principal
streets of the now great city of Melbourne, for as
much land, including the present site of the city,
as would form a German principality, and all
this for a few blankets and some cheap cutlery.
The association, with the assistance of some New
South Wales blacks, who formed part of their
BATMAN'S EXPEDITION. 233

expedition, completed their transactions with
these simple children of the soil, and at once
commenced landing their flocks, which they
brought across from Launceston in vessels pur-
chased for the purpose.

The success of Mr. Batman’s expedition, spread
throughout the neighbouring colony of Tasmania
by the local press, induced many hardy and indus-
trious farmers to quit their homesteads, and
migrate to these “plains of promise.” Many of
these energetic men, who “took fortune at the
flood,” are now included amongst the wealthiest
and most esteemed inhabitants of Victoria.

Mr. Lloyd says: “The plans of Mr. Batman’s
association, contemplating, as they did, the ac-
quisition by purchase, from a few poor mindless
savages, of an area comprising in all nearly
700,000 acres of fine rich land upon which the
British ensign had already been planted, were
certainly not tenable in a common-sense point of
view ; yet, in the final adjustment of their claims
by the home government, the members of the
association were entitled to most liberal treatment.
To their individual spirit and enterprise we owe
this establishment of the noble colony of Victoria,
many years before it could have been accom-
plished by the governments of New South Wales
or Tasmania ; and, in the adventure, the company
expended upwards of 30007. for the benefit of the
aborigines alone. The Secretary of State for the
Colonies confirmed to its members a remission
order, by virtue. of which 28,000 acres of land,
234 AUSTRALIA,

valued at 11. per acre, were sold to them by the
government at the rate of 15s.; and this was all
their recompense for starting into life the finest
and richest colony in the world.”

In the year 1803, Colonel Collins was de-
spatched by the home government to form a penal
settlement and colony at Port Phillip: this was
done, the party landing and pitching their tents
on the most barren and sandy spot to be found
around this extensive inland sea. The scarcity of
water, and the general sterility of the soil at this
particular spot induced the commandant to re-
linquish the settlement, and it was finally aban-
doned after some six or eight months’ occupation.
During this period four of the convicts managed
to effect their escape from the vigilance of the
authorities, and although three of them were
destroyed by the natives, or otherwise perished,
one man, named Buckley, was spared. Being an
individual of gigantic stature, he had managed to
ingratiate himself with the savages, and became
a chief amongst them, adopting all their manners
and customs. Thirty years afterwards, when
found by some of the parties attached to Mr.
Batman’s expedition, he had forgotten his native
language, and was elaborately greased, red-
ochred, and armed, like the aboriginal warriors
who accompanied him. From the peculiar cir-
cumstances of his case, together with his useful-
ness as a means of communication between his
black friends and his countrymen, Buckley
received a free pardon from the government, and
SIR T. MITCHELL'S EXPEDITION. 235

afterwards became a useful public servant in the
shape of a constable. A few months after the
treaty for the land was concluded with the
natives, the white tents of the settlers began to
be pitched on the banks of the Yarra-Yarra; and
the columns of blue smoke curling up from their
fires amongst the gum-trees, proclaimed that the
colonization of Port Phillip had already com-
menced.

In the following year, Sir Thomas Mitchell,
then Surveyor-General of New South Wales,
undertook an expedition from Bathurst, crossing
the continent in a south-westerly direction, till he
arrived at the Glenelg, a considerable stream,
flowing southwards. This river he navigated in a
canvas boat almost to its mouth, and, after
surveying its outlet, which was found to be im-
practicable for vessels, he proceeded eastwards
towards Portland Bay. On his journey thence,
he was not a little surprised to meet two gentle-
men driving “tandem ” through the beautiful
park-like country, which he imagined had never
before met the gaze of a white man. These gen-
tlemen belonged to a whaling station, which had
been established at the Bay, two years previously,
by some enterprising merchants from Tasmania.

As he progressed further to the east, he
received information that numerous settlers had
already established themselves on the shores of
Port Phillip; and on his return journey to Sydney
he passed through, and explored, that splendid
~ country, to which he gave the name of ¢ Aus-
236 AUSTRALIA,

tralia Felix,” and which now forms a part of the
wealthy and prosperous colony of Victoria.

Although Sir Thomas represented in glowing
terms the value of so fertile a territory to the
colony of New South Wales, the home government
appeared averse to any proposition for colonizing
it, and turned a deaf ear to the reports which
from time to time reached the head of the colonial
office. At length, the arrivals of fresh parties of
adventurers became so numerous that the govern-
ment was reluctantly constrained to adopt the
colony; and in 1837 the whole district was taken
possession of as the property of the British erown.

On the 19th of May, 1837, the site of Melbourne
was fixed upon for the capital of the new settle-
ment, and from that time the tide of population
began to flow rapidly into Port Phillip. The city
of Melbourne shortly began to assume a busy
aspect. Houses of wood and brick superseded
the canvas tents of the first settlers, and the
enterprise of the colonists soon developed itself in
a great variety of ways.

During the years 1848-50, the Commissioners
for Land and Emigration despatched many thou-
sands of useful emigrants to Port Phillip, who
availed themselves of the advantages held out by
the demand for labour. At the same time many
men of capital and skill embarked for the colony,
and by their wealth and knowledge turned the
resources of the young community to the best
account.

The inconvenience of having the seat of govern-
PORT PHILLIP IS RE-NAMED VICTORIA. 237

ment at so great a distance as Sydney, combined
with the fact that the country was sufficiently
large and prosperous to form an independent state,
induced the colonists of Port Phillip to petition for
a separation from New South Wales, which re-
quest was granted by the British Parliament at
the close of the year 1850, and the name of the
colony changed from that of Port Phillip to
“ Victoria.” At this time the population numbered
upwards of 77,000 souls; Melbourne contained
23,000, whilst Geelong, the second town of import-
~ ance, contained upwards of 8,000. The value of
the imports was 1,056,437/., and of the exports
1,422,9091. ; the latter consisting chiefly of wool.
The discovery, in 1851, of the great gold-fields of
Ballarat, Mount Alexander, and Bendigo, gave a
sudden impetus to the wealth and population of
Victoria, which long years of ordinary prosperity
would have failed to effect; and for several
months in the following year of 1852 the yield of
gold in the colony was estimated at not less than
400,000 ounces, or 1,600,000. per month.

Mr. Lloyd says: Let us now compare notes
between the Australia Felix of Sir Thomas Mit-
chell in April of the year 1835, when its rich
pastures, clad with myriads of modest little flowers,

were grazed over only by flocks of the harmless
kangaroo and emeun, and the Victoria of 1858.
Its statistics, in reference to population, stock,
exports and imports, for those years are briefly
enumerated in the following statement :—
238 AUSTRALIA.

«“ CENSUS FOR 1835.

“ Aboriginal population, number not known, but
certainly not numerous.

“White population, Mr. J. Buckley only, from
the year 1803! Sheep, cattle, &c., nil!

“Census for September, 1858, the colony having
been established say, twenty-three years.

« European population :—

 

Males . . . : 308,983
Females : . 5 176,786

- 485,769
Sheep, nearly. . : ; . 4,000,000
Cattle . : . : . 400,000
Horses . . : > v . 184,000

“ Imports and exports for the year 1858 : —

Imports 4 ; : oo fls arn?
Exports . ; : : 12,910,587
Balance against Victoria . £1,007,125

 

“In the year 1860 the population was 540,322;
the imports amounted to 15,092,734l, and the
exports to 12,951,619.

sf Victoria has risen to eminence, as it were, by
enchantment, riches have poured into the laps of
enterprising colonists by the same process. Large
fortunes have, literally speaking, been thrust into
the pockets of numbers, gentle and simple, to the
atter astonishment of themselves and everybody
around them. These have resulted mainly from
the unprecedented rise in the fictitious value of
every description of property. One half-acre allot-
VICTORIA : MELBOURNE. 239

ment in Collins Street, Melbourne, measuring 165
feet frontage by a depth of 145 feet, purchased in
1838 for 2001., was sold, early in 1852, at the rate
of 2001. per foot frontage, and thus realized the
enormous sum of 33,0000, or 66,000]. per acre.
This fact, incredible as it may appear, is, never-
theless, perfectly authentic.”

The city of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria,
has a population of about 130,000 souls. It is
situated on the right or northern bank of the
Yarra-Yarra, at the head of Hobson's Bay, in the
harbour of Port Phillip. Although the river takes
a circuitous course of several miles to the bay, the
distance from Melbourne to the sea in a straight
line is only two miles, an excellent railway con-
necting it with the port of Sandridge, where ships
of the largest tonnage lie alongside the jetties,
whilst those of smaller size only are able to as-
cend the river, and reach the city quays. ;

In form, Melbourne partakes somewhat of a
crescent shape, covering the slopes of two hills,
with a depression in the centre; the river, spanned
by a noble bridge, forming a picturesque fore-
ground ; whilst on all sides its rapidly-increasing
suburbs stretch away for a long distance.

The houses, built of brick and stone, are
very handsome; and the streets are of a width
seldom seen in the older cities of the leading
nations of the world, and well macadamized ;
while handsome flagged pavements render the
traffic for foot passengers agreeable at all seasons
of the year. All the principal streets intersect
240 AUSTRALIA.

each other at right angles, and are a hundred feet
wide.

Many of the public buildings are equal in
importance and design to similar works in the
mother country. The new Houses of Parliament
and the University are amongst the principal
architectural embellishments of the city; whilst
the numerous churches and other places of wor-
ship, together with the substantial stone ware-
houses that line the quays, the stately banks, the
noble public library, the well-built theatres, the
post-office, the town-hall, the custom-house, the
exchange, and the beautiful suburban mansions of
the wealthy citizens, combine to render Mel-
bourne a city of no mean importance. The shops
in the leading thoroughfares are many of them
costly and elegant, rivalling in decoration and
plate-glass those of the best streets of London.
Fountains are introduced in many places; the
streets are well lighted with gas; omnibuses,
carriages, and cars ply to all parts of the suburbs;
and the general aspect of Melbourne is that of a
bustling, populous, and wealthy metropolis.

The city is supplied with water from an im-
mense reservoir, some 1,500 acres in extent, which
receives the waters of the Plenty River, and
several minor streams. This reservoir, which is
called the Yan Yean, is situated twenty-two miles
from Melbourne. The water is conveyed through
iron pipes, and rises to the height of the loftiest
buildings.

The University, which, when completed, will,
MELBOURNE : PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 241

it is estimated, cost upwards of 100,000, is built
in the Elizabethan style, and occupies a com-
‘manding position in North Melbourne. It has
four professors, with an annual endowment of
9,000.. One portion of it contains the museum of
natural history and economic geology, where
may be seen not only a very fine and well-ar-
ranged zoological collection, but a most complete
and interesting series of models and specimens
illustrating the gold mines of the colony, and the
various modes of working for the precious metal.

The Melbourne public library may well be
described, in the words of a ~scent writer, as “a
monument of colonial taste and liberality, richly
stored with the treasures of the learning of all
ages, and open to every one, free of cost or charge
of any kind.” The sum of 26,000. was voted by
the legislature in the year 1853 for the purchase
of books and the erection of a suitable building to
contain them. The design consists of a centre
and two wings, with an elegant Corinthian
portico; this is enclosed by a tastefully laid out
shrubbery, a couple of acres in extent. The works
to be found in this library comprehend every
class of literature, and not a few of the richest
treasures of typographic art that have issued from
the British press.

The Botanical Gardens on the banks of the
Yarra-Yarra are extensive and well laid out, and
contain a very large collection, not only of in-
digenous plants and trees, but of those from
nearly every portion of the globe.

Q
242 AUSTRALIA.

The gardens of the Acclimatization Society are
also in a flourishing condition, and possess a fine
menagerie of animals and birds.

Within half an hour’s pleasant drive from
Melbourne is the fashionable and beautifully-
situated watering-place of St. Kilda, on the shores
of the bay. It is the favourite resort of the
citizens in the summer months; and both this
and the township of Brighton, a short distance
further along the coast, afford excellent facilities
for sea-bathing, boating, and other marine enjoy-
ments. :

A recent writer thus describes Geelong, the
second town of importance in Victoria: * Let us
now turn to the beautifully-situated town of Gee-
long, with its noble and commodious harbour,
capable of containing thousands of ships in safety
equal to that of the London Docks. Geelong also
can boast of its fine stone edifices, public and
private, its wide and well-metalled streets, gas-
lighted shops, and convenient wharfage for large
vessels. A continuous line of railway, from the
grand terminus to the extreme point of the new
government wharf, is now in full operation. Nor
should we omit to make mention of the peculiarly
rich arable and pasture land with which Geelong
is immediately surrounded. Its English-like farms
of the Barrabool and Bellerine Hills, its highly-
cultivated vineyards, and its well-stocked market
gardens, are all upon the richest and most pro-
ductive soil. Neither do the members of its
spirited community show want of energy in cater-

”
VICTORIA : MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. 243

ing for the general progress of Victoria. Im-
portance must necessarily be attached to Geelong,
from the knowledge that the pastures and mines
of its surrounding counties produce a greater
amount of wool, fat stock, and gold than any
other districts of the same extent throughout
Australia. Fronting the noble bay of Corio, and
having the sea within ten miles of the southern
lines, it naturally as far excels Melbourne in
climate as Tasmania does Geelong.”

The distance from Melbourne to Geelong, across
the harbour of Port Phillip, is about thirty-five
miles, and steamers ply daily between the two
places.

Railways now connect most of the leading towns
in Victoria, extending from Melbourne and Gee-

long to Ballarat and other towns of the gold-fields,
and are in course of construction to the river
Murray and towards New South Wales. As the
railway from Sydney to Goulburn is fast pro-
gressing, it is probable that before long the two
great capitals of New South Wales and Victoria
will be united by one grand trunk line.

Telegraphic communication extends from Mel-
bourne westward to Adelaide, and the various
towns of South Australia; eastward throughout
New South Wales to Sydney, and thence north to
Queensland ; and a submarine cable crosses the
sea to Tasmania.

Portland Bay is situated near the western
boundary of the colony, and affords good anchor-
age for vessels, being sheltered from all winds
244 AUSTRALIA.

except the south-east. It was first settled by the
Messrs. Henty, from Tasmania, who established a
farm and a whaling station there. The flourishing
town of Portland now occupies the site of the
operations of these early pioneers, and the country
around is thickly scattered with thriving farms
and comfortable homesteads. The bay .is the
resort of numerous whalers, who call in for sup-
plies.

On the most important gold-fields large towns
have sprung up with marvellous rapidity, in the
course of the last few years. Amongst these are
Ballarat, Castlemaine, and Sandhurst—all large,
busy, and flourishing places, which owe their ex-
istence solely to the gold discoveries. Kyneton,
Kilmore, Maryborough, and the Ovens are also
thriving country towns, and various other town-
ships, too numerous to mention, are scattered over
all parts of the colony.

Speaking of the commerce that characterised
Victoria, and, indeed, Australia generally, prior
to the present absorbing and prominent gold-
mining, Mr. Westgarth says: “We could only
fully appreciate the light-timbered or open grassy
country of Australia, by observing the slow and
toilsome process of removing a North American
forest. Ere one, perhaps, of its innumerable
giants had been cut down, the corresponding
expanse of Australia was quietly occupied with
sheep, which browsed on the natural grass, and
each year yielded up the wealth of their valuable
fleece, without the cost of capital, and almost
VICTORIA : ITS RAPID PROGRESS. 245

without the effort of labour. Ere the whole
forest was swept off, the Australian downs had
perhaps already assumed a new phase. Well-
made roads passed between fields of grain, and the
smoke of towns and villages told of industry and
prosperity to increasing numbers of colonists,
The sheep had disappeared, driven off with ready
step to remoter pastures, equally accessible and
useful to them, although as yet shut to the slower
march of agricultural and city industry. The
wealth derived from the facile export of the wool
had already contributed to social amelioration and
progress, and the labour power that was not re-
quired for the extirpation of a colossal forest had
been free for application in other ways that may
have proved more congenial to comfort and well-
being. These considerations explain the prompt
and rapid development of Australian commerce,
and the marked prosperity of its colonization.
Victoria was a country ready made at nature’s
hand. The squatter or sheep-holder at once used
it, and, as fast as he could breed or import his
stock, he spread them over its 55,000,000 of acres,
of which two-thirds were available to him for
pasture. In 1837 there were about 175,800
pounds of wool exported; in 1850 this quantity
had increased to eighteen millions of pounds
weight, with the additional export of 4,500 tons
of tallow. In the earlier years the young settle-
ment was still importing sheep and cattle from
the two senior colonies to the north and south;
but four years had scarcely elapsed ere the fat
246 AUSTRALIA.

stock of the Port Phillip pastures were already a
promising article of export, and the subject of a
trade whose increase and prosperity were inter-
rupted only by that great event that has latterly
made Australia the world’s object, and introduced
a marked change in this and many other of these
colonies’ earlier commercial and social develop-
ments.”

In concluding this chapter, we quote the words
of Mr. Westgarth, who, writing on the commerce
and finances of Victoria, says: The principal
production of this colony—that most attractive of
all productions, gold—has brought its name con-
spicuously before us. The arrivals of the gold
ships weekly, or still more frequently, already
familiarize us with the curious spectacle of bills
of lading and cargo of the precious metal. The
colonists speak of their annual gold export by the
hundred tons. As much as eight tons weight
have arrived in this country by one vessel ; and the
winds which speed on or detain a few of these
well-freighted ships will sensibly affect the great
money-market of our country. Nothing of this
commerce, or indeed of any other, existed in
Victoria little more than five-and-twenty years
ago. At that time a handful of settlers had just
arrived upon the vacant scene—a scene that is now
pervaded by well-made roads, substantial railways,
and the electric telegraph, planted with between
thirty and forty incorporated towns, and occupied
by more than half a million of colonists. A few huts
were then being erected on the site where has
VICTORIA : ITS RAPID PROGRESS. 247

since arisen the city of Melbourne, with 130,000
people, and having commercial relations with all
parts of the world. The Heads of Port Phillip
present the lively spectacle of a score or two of
ships daily entering for and departing from this
great emporium of * the south. Already there
emanates from the capital a great railway system,
which, penetrating the interior in two main
directions, presents 270 miles of a substantial,
almost extravagant, construction, now on the eve
of completion, at a cost of eight millions sterling.
Melbourne is lighted with gas. A million has
been expended on its broad and well-made streets,
and another million in introducing a supply of
fresh water. These streets are regularly watered
like those of our own large towns, and some of them
are quite as crowded with traffic and passengers
as a London or Manchester thoroughfare. There
is a combination of the utility, convenience,
and enjoyment common to long-established town
life. There is a parliament-house which has been
erected at a cost of 400,000, a public library,
already of colossal dimensions, and several thea-
tres, of which the principal is mot inferior, in
dimensions at least, to the larger of the London
houses. The population swarms forth with ab-
sorbing interest to its annual horse-races; and as
each afternoon draws on, and the impetuous tide
of business subsides, the open grounds of the
suburbs are filled with the colonial youth intent
upon the old English game of cricket. The mail
recently brought us news of 2,000 Melbourne
248 - AUSTRALIA.

Volunteers, who, attended by a great concourse of
spectators, had been for four days campaigning,
after home example, upon the grassy plains to the
westward of the city. In short, there are all the
diversities that usually attend great aggregations
of humanity. Melbourne is not less known at the
Bank of England and the Hall of Commerce for
the gold and the fleece which it sends forth in
such welcome quantity, than it is appreciated at
Cognac for its enormous consumption of brandy.”
249

CHAPTER XV.

(QUEENSLAND.

ni J
27 Tn
vy) an

 

THE erection into a separate and independent
colony, under the name of Queensland, of the
large extent of country lying to the north of
New South Wales, dates only from December,
250 AUSTRALIA.

1859. This colonial territory was previously
known as the Moreton Bay district, and formed
the northern portion of New South Wales, to
which government it belonged.

Moreton Bay, from which the settlement took
its name, is situated in about 27° south latitude,
and was discovered by Captain. Cook in 1770,
being named by him in honour of the Earl of
Moreton, then President of the Royal Society.

It was not, however, until tlie year 1823 that
the river Brisbane, on which the present capital
stands, was discovered, by Mr. Oxley, the sur-
veyor, who had been sent from Sydney by the
government to search for a suitable position for
the establishment of a new penal settlement. This
penal settlement was soon afterwards formed at
Brisbane, some miles up the river of the same
name, which flows into Moreton Bay. Large
buildings for government purposes, such as bar-
racks, hospitals, &c., were erected there; and a
botanical garden was laid out and planted, for the
introduction of tropical trees and fruits into the
colony. In 1842, however, the convict establish-
ment was broken up, and the fine pastoral dis-
tricts of the interior were thrown open to free
settlement. From that period the progress of the
district was most rapid: enterprising squatters
soon established themselves over the country, and
the magnificent extent of the Darling Downs, and
the wide-spreading pastures beyond the coast
range, were shortly occupied by countless flocks
of sheep.
QUEENSLAND : ITS DESCRIPTION. 251

The gradually increasing prosperity of the
northern colonists, and their great distance from
the centre of government at Sydney, induced
them to agitate for a separate administration,
which, after some difficulty and several years’
delay, was at length acceded to them by the
imperial government, and Sir George F. Bowen
was appointed the first governor in 1859.

In 1860 the pastoral settlements had extended
northwards to Broad Sound, in south latitude 22°;
and, at the present time, the newly-explored and
available country around the river Burdekin is
occupied by sheep-runs, and the stations of the
flockholders are now to be found far into the
tropics, within a comparatively short distance
of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Queensland possesses an area of more than
550,000 square miles, comprising an unusually
large proportion of rich and fertile land, which
is well watered, and clothed with luxuriant herb-
age. The interior, westward of the dividing moun-
tain range, consists for the most part of elevated
grassy downs, or table-lands, with a temperate
climate, admirably adapted for sheep. On the
coast, the land is in many places thickly tim-
bered, and dense brushes of tropical vegetation
occur, in which lofty pines mingle with the cedar,
the palm, and the gigantic fig-tree. The low
shores of the bays and estuaries are bordered
with mangrove flats, and the pandanus, or screw-
pine, forms a singular feature in the scenery near
the coast.
252 AUSTRALIA.

Very nearly the whole of the area of this colony
lies within the tropical region, beyond the belt
of uncertain climate further south, with its ex-
tremes of hot and cold winds, of floods and of
droughts. The tropical showers, which save
northern Australia from the desert character of
much of the central and southern interior, extend
over and fertilize Queensland. The annual rain-
fall is double in quantity to that which takes
place to the southward. At Brisbane, in south
latitude 27°, the rainfall in one year amounted to
fifty-five and a half inches, there being 131 days
on which rain occurred.

The climate is healthy, although of a tropical
character, and not being subjected to such sudden
and trying changes of temperature as the more
southern portions of Australia are, has been re-
commended by the medical men of Sydney and -
Melbourne to patients suffering from diseases of
the chest. The mean annual temperature in the
shade at nine A.M. is 68. In January, the hottest
month, it reaches 79°—80° under the same con-
ditions ; whilst in June it is reduced to 55°

The population, according to the last returns
in 1860, amounted to 28,056, of whom 16,817
were males, and 11,239 females. Since that
period. however, it has rapidly increased.

In 1858 the live stock of the colony was esti-
mated at 3,500,000 sheep, 450,000 cattle, and
50,000 horses.

During the year ending 30th September, 1860,
the export of wool amounted to 4,826,500 pounds,
QUEENSLAND : ITS PRODUCTIONS. 253

valued at 422,3197. Tallow to the value of
nearly 35,000/. was also exported during the
same year. The revenue for 1860 was over
178,000L., principally derived frem the proceeds
of land-sales, squatting assessments, and customs
duties. In 1864 the exports of the colony
amounted to 1,247,0007. ; the imports to 2,267,0001. ;
and during the same year no less than 15,000 ounces
of gold have been shipped from Rockhampton.

The cotton-plant thrives admirably in Queens-
land, and the soil is well adapted for furnishing
cotton, especially that of the finest quality, to
any extent that may be required. During the
year 1863 about 2,000 bales were exported from
the colony.

The sugar-cane is also grown with success: in-
deed, the entire range of country along the coast,
between ‘the dividing range and the sea, is pe-
culiarly suited for the cultivation of tea, coffee,
rice, and other tropical productions.

The banana flourishes luxuriantly, and pro-
duces an abundance of fruit; whilst pine-apples
are planted in the open fields and gardens, in
rows, like cabbages, requiring no care whatever
in their culture.

The eastern cordillera, or dividing range, which
separates the affluents of the rivers flowing west
from those which fall into the Pacific Ocean, runs
through Queensland at a distance of from sixty
to eighty miles from the sea: this range has a
general elevation varying between 3,000 and 4,000
feet; but some heights in New England are much
254 AUSTRALIA.

more lofty, and Mount Lindsay, in a spur near
Moreton Bay, rises to 5,700 feet above the sea.
Mount Warning, near the boundary line of New
South Wales, presents an imposing appearance as
seen from vessels passing the coast, with its
sugar-loaf peak towering into the clouds. Imme-
diately on proceeding into the Queensland terri-
tory from the south, the mountains are seen to
assume a peaked and volcanic shape: they are
mostly granitic, and sandstone being less preva-
lent than in the adjoining colony of New South
Wales, the soil is superior.

The country to the southward of Moreton Bay,
for a distance of sixty or seventy miles, is a con-
tinuous forest of pines, some of very large size.
The Moreton Bay pine grows from 100 to 150
feet in height, and yields an excellent timber for
masts and spars. The bunya-bunya pine, the red
cedar, iron-bark, blue gum, box, forest oak, rose
and tulip woods, are all noble trees, which grow
luxuriantly in the rich alluvial brush or flat land
between the mountains and the coast.

Dyewoods and gums abound in great variety ;
honey is an article of commerce; turtle, and
many sorts of excellent fish are numerous in the
bays; and coal has been met with on both sides
of the dividing range of mountains.

Gold has been found in small quantities, but
only until recently to the extent to justify
Queensland being included amongst the gold-pro-
ducing colonies of Australia. In the beginning
of August, 1858, it was reported that a gold-field
EPISODE OF THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 255

had been discovered near the Fitzroy River, which
falls into Keppel Bay in latitude 233°, being the
boundary of the southern tropic. This was the
scene of an episode in the history of the colony
which is thus described by Mr. Westgarth : ¢ The
circumstances connected with the report of this
gold discovery were a remote distance and an
uninhabited locality; two circumstances, be it
remembered, that must render even a rich Aus-
tralian gold-field unprofitable, owing to the un-
certainty, expense, and discomfort attending the
means of existence. - Almost immediately there
commenced an extraordinary rush of people, first
from Sydney, and afterwards from Melbourne
and other parts of Victoria. By the end of Sep-
tember, 5,000 to 6,000 persons had gone to the
new El Dorado. There was, indeed, a gold-field,
a small flat, called Canoona, situated about seventy
miles up the Fitzroy; and, although the spot was
soon worked out, yet the surrounding region gave
indications of being also auriferous. But the
charm was almost instantly dispelled when such
masses came together without any of the usual
provision for settlement. A counter stream of
those returning met those pressing forwartl, and
soon the ship-loads of the latter refused to quit
the vessels until they were taken back to Sydney.
The incident, however, has resulted in the founda-
tion of the township of Rockhampton, situated
thirty miles up the I'itzroy ; while the hope that
Queensland may, like her neighbours, be a gold-
producing colony, has induced the government,
256 AUSTRALIA.

during the first legislative session, to repeal the
export duty on gold, a duty still retained by
New South Wales and Victoria.”

Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, is situated
on the river of the same name, some miles above
its junction with Moreton Bay. It is distant
from Sydney about 640 miles, in a northerly
direction. Few places have risen so rapidly in
importance during the last few years, but this is
not to be wondered at, when it is considered that
it is the port of a most extensive grazing district,
stretching about 400 miles to the west, besides
the area that more immediately surrounds it on
the north and south. The town is divided by the
river, which is a broad and noble stream, into
North and South Brisbane. The situation is
pleasing, and the views from the surrounding hills
are delightful on all sides. There are many good
buildings, both public and private, and the place
is rapidly assuming the appearance of a consider-
able town. The banks of the river are studded
with farms and’ gardens; and the rich vegetation
overhanging the water, clothed with beautiful
creepers in blossom, renders the scenery in ascend-
ing the river, of a picturesque and sylvan cha-
racter. At the entrance to the bay there is a
sand-bar, which at certain states of the tide
precludes the entrance of vessels of large tonnage.
Regular steam communication is carried on once
or twice a week between Brisbane and Sydney.
The population of the electoral district of Bris-
bane is about 8,000.
QUEENSLAND : ITS HARBOURS. 257

The river is navigable as far up as Ipswich,
about fifty miles beyond Brisbane. Ipswich, the
second town of importance in the colony, is the
port, as it were, of the great pastoral districts to
the westward, being at the head of the navigation
of the eastern waters. It is a place of consider-
able trade, and has a population, including the
surrounding district, of about 5,000.

On the western side of the dividing range are
the townships of Drayton and Toowoomba.

About 200 miles north of Moreton Bay is
Wide Bay, a long and sheltered channel of the
sea between Great Sandy Island and the main
land. On the north bank of the Mary River,
which flows into Wide Bay, is situated the port
and town of Maryborough.

North again, another 200 miles or so from
Wide Bay, is Port Curtis, where the township of
Gladstone was established in 1854. Port Curtis is
an excellent and secure harbour, protected from
the sea by Facing Island, which forms a natural
breakwater opposite the town.

A little beyond Gladstone, rounding Cape Ca-
pricorn, the noble Fitzroy River discharges itself
into Keppel Bay. On this river is the rapidly in-
creasing port of Rockhampton, likely to become a
place of considerable trade in consequence of its
facilities for shipping the produce and supplies
of the extensive pastoral country now opened be-
yond it. Large crocodiles are abundant near the
mouth of the Fitzroy; and the country is prolific -
with game and wild fowl of various kinds.

BR
258 AUSTRALIA.

At Broad Sound a township has been laid out;
and another at Port Denison, in latitude 20° south.

The scenery around Moreton Bay is of a pecu-
liar and interesting character, especially at its
northern extremity, where three remarkable and
abrupt mountains rise suddenly above the level
and thickly-timbered country. They were named
by Captain Cook, who first observed them, the
“(lasshouses,” from their resemblance to these
structures. The bay itself is very extensive, ex-
tending from north to south for about seventy
miles : it is protected from the sea by two large
islands, called Moreton Island and Stradbroke
Island. On the former of these is a lighthouse,
and the passage into the bay is round the northern
end of the island. The entrance between the two
islands, called the Middle Channel, is very dan-
gerous, and but seldom attempted since the loss
of the Sydney steamer there some years ago. The
interior of the bay is studded with small islands,
some of which are very picturesque. They gene-
rally have a crown of forest in the centre, around
which is a belt of open grass and flowers; then
comes a border of the pandanus, or screw pine, with
its singular foliage and fruit; and lastly, a fringe of
mangroves, the blossoms of which are covered
with myriads of butterflies, and the roots and
lower branches with oysters, connects the island
with the surrounding water.

The Burdekin, one of the most considerable
streams in north-eastern Australia, was discovered
by Leichardt in 1844. In 1859, Mr. G. E. Dal-
THE RIVER BURDEKIN EXPLORED. 259

rymple made an overland expedition from Brisbane
to examine the country watered by this river, and
.to trace the stream to its mouth. He succeeded
in reaching a position from which he inferred that
it entered the sea at Cape Cleveland and not at
Cape Upstart, as Leichardt supposed. Further
progress was rendered impossible at the time,
owing to the hostility of the natives, who were
very numerous, and who have in that fertile re-
gion a well-favoured appearance as compared with
those of other parts of Australia. A large extent
of country of a promising character, and fitted
alike for pasturage and the growth of cotton,
sugar, and tobacco, was discovered in the valleys
of the Burdekin. An expedition by sea in the
following year was successful in finding the mouth
of the river, which proved to be, as was supposed,
in Cleveland Bay. Unfortunately, however, as is
the case with so many of the Australian rivers,
the mouth was closed by a bar which rendered
navigation impracticable. A little to the south,
however, a harbour was discovered, land-locked,
capacious, and perfectly easy of access. It forms
the inner or western side of Edgcumbe Bay, and
was called Port Denison. It is described as being
three miles in length, by two in breadth, and
twenty-seven feet in depth, and is a valuable dis-
covery for the settlers, who are already pasturing
their flocks in the country watered by the Bur-
dekin.
CHAPTER XVL

PENAL SETTLEMENTS. THE Convict SySTEM. TRANs-
PORTATION.

 

BOTANY BAY, WITH THE MEMORIAL TO La PEROUSE.

THE earliest Australian colonization consisted of
penal settlements, to which were transported the
worst criminals from Great Britain. The distance
FIRST PENAL SETTLEMENT. 261

from the mother country, and the vast unoc-
cupied territory that presented itself in the so-
called “'l'erra Australis,” were inducements to the
government to banish thither such occupants of
its overcrowded prisons and gaols as had been
sentenced to long periods of punishment. New
South Wales, and, shortly afterwards, Van Die-
men’s Land, were the fair and beautiful countries
destined to receive the criminal population of
Britain. On the 13th of May, 1787, a fleet, con-
sisting of eleven sail of ships, including a frigate
and an armed tender, and having on board 565
male and 192 female convicts, with 200 soldiers
and their families, sailed from England to esta-
blish the first penal colony on the eastern shore of
Australia. Botany Bay was proposed for the
place of settlement, but being found unsuitable,
the noble harbour of Port Jackson, ten miles fur-
ther north, was selected for that purpose. Within
this harbour, on the shores of Sydney Cove, the
British ensign was hoisted on 26th January, 1788.
During the first few years the young settlement
progressed favourably, although at times much
suffering was occasioned by a scarcity of supplies.
After dwelling for some time in tents, wooden and
mud houses were erected, and Sydney was founded
by Captain Phillip, the first governor. It is said
that “no founder of a colony ever went about his
duties more judiciously than he did. When it is
considered what description of people he had to
deal with—that they were outcasts from their
native land, banished from amidst their country-
262 AUSTRALIA.

men—it is most surprising how order was enforced,
and how such a Settlement ever came to attain the
position it now occupies.”

Shortly after the establishment of Sydney, Nor-
folk Island was settled, at first with a view to the
cultivation of the flax plant, which had been found
growing there in abundance by Capt. Cook; but
it was afterwards made a convict establishment to
which the most hardened and desperate of the
prisoners were sent. Those who had been again
convicted of crime, and were looked upon as irre-
claimable, were re-transported to Norfolk Island,
where they were worked in heavy irons, and fed on
salt meat and maize bread; and although it is re-
corded that some of them, from time to time, under-
went the extreme punishment of a thousand lashes
each, they were as little reclaimable by the lash
as if so many drops of water had been poured upon
their backs. Judge Terry, in his «Thirty Years’
Residence in New South Wales,” says: ¢* Happily
for humanity, that abomination upon earth, Nor-
folk Island, as it then existed, is no more. From
its disastrous and dread example the English
nation and the nations of the world should take
warning never to incur again the fearful responsi-
bility of herding together a band exclusively of
men the worst outcasts of society, and allowing
them to live under a system from which the
charities of life were excluded, and under which
the lash, the dungeon, and the scaffold were the
only instruments used to reform and reclaim fallen
man.”
NORFOLK ISLAND. eu

Since the abandonment of Norfolk Island as a
penal settlement, it has again been peopled by in-
habitants of a very different character. The mild
and gentle Pitcairn Islanders, the descendants of
the mutineers of the ¢ Bounty,” have within the
last few years been removed from their former
home by the British government, and are now
dwelling in the romantic and picturesque valleys
of that lovely and fertile island.

Judge Terry observes: ¢ Notwithstanding
the terrors of Norfolk Island, and the dreadful
exhibition of crime in our supreme and circuit
courts, it is satisfactory to be enabled to tes-
tify that amongst the thousands transported to
New South Wales many became reformed and
really good men. This reformation was mostly
observable in that class of convicts who were sent
out for offences that did not partake of the charac-
ter of base crime. Xven amongst the more de-
praved, instances of reformation were numerous
and gratifying. Pickpockets and convicts from
the large towns of the United Kingdom, who
from their childhood had been broughtup in igno-
rance, and had led lives of habitual crime, if not
from principle, yet from obvious motives of inte-
rest in the prospect of becoming independent in a
land of abundance, altered their course of conduct
and became industrious members of society.
Being men not devoid of intelligence, they quickly
acquired skill in some industrial pursuit during
their period of service in the employment of
masters to whom they were assigned. The useful
264 AUSTRALIA.

and not difficult arts of sowing and ploughing,
and shepherding and herding cattle, they soon
mastered. Many became rough mechanics and
adepts in putting up a hut and farm buildings and
fences. Some proved excellent stonecutters; many
made hats from the fibre of the cabbage-tree palm ;
in short, they all became acquainted with some
useful art or pursuit by which they could gain an
honest livelihood.” As the existence of fertile
lands in the interior became known, criminals
were allotted as assigned servants and labourers,
without pay, to such of the free emigrants as re-
quired assistance on their farms. In this manner
the early landowners reaped a rich harvest from
the convict labour thus granted them by the
authorities.

For many years the prisoners were employed on
the public works of the colony, in the formation
of roads and bridges, and in the erection of
churches, barracks, gaols, and other buildings.
The great western road over the Blue Mountains,
from Sydney to the agricultural district of
Bathurst, 120 miles in extent, was constructed
wholly by convicts, and is a remarkable achieve-

ment of engineering skill, combined with an

enormous outlay of labour.

The forts, quays, hospitals, and barracks in
Sydney are all works of great magnitude, and
excite the astonishment of the stranger on behold-
ing so vast and wealthy a city at the antipodes.
Whatever may be the defects of the convict system,
it has done all this: the criminals of Great Britain

ae
CESSATION OF TRANSPORTATION. 265

have built a city that has risen to be the metropolis
of the South. Although Sydney and Hobartown
were the head-quarters of the convict settlements
in the two penal colonies of New South Wales and
Tasmania, there were several other establishments
formed for the reception of prisoners, who were
employed on various government works at such
places. The principal of these were Port Macquarie,
Newcastle on the Hunter, and Parramatta, about
fourteen miles from Sydney, where there was a
large factory for female convicts. Moreton Bay,
some 500 miles north, on the east coast of New
South Wales, was also selected as a penal settle-
ment in 1823, and large numbers of prisoners were
at one time located there. In 1842, however, this
fine district was thrown open to free settlement,
and the convict establishment removed. In
Tasmania, Macquarie Harbour, and Port Arthur
were depots where the worst class of criminals
were condemned to the hardest labour.

Since the cessation of transportation to all the
Australian colonies, excepting Western Australia
(which is still a penal settlement), the several
governments retain their own convicts, and employ
them on public works within the limits of their
respective colonies.

The last convict ship arrived in New South
Wales in 1840, and though from the high cost of
free labour an effort was made in 1849 to renew
transportation, that effort was nobly resisted by
the colonists, The discovery of the gold-fields,
soon afterwards, gave an impetus to the progress
266 AUSTRALIA.

of the eastern colonies, so sudden and so remark-
able, that all fear of any fresh arrivals of convicts
from the mother country was at an end. One great
drawback, however, to the safety and comfort of
the vast population attracted to the gold diggings,
was the large influx of expirees, and “ ticket-of-
leave men ” from Tasmania, who managed to reach
the «“ E1 Dorado,” and by whom the greater por-
tion of the robberies and murders that took place
during the earlier days of the gold-fields were
committed.

The chain, the lash, and the slip-knot, so freely
resorted to under the old system of convict dis-
cipline, have since, happily, both at home and
abroad, given place to laws and general treatment
better calculated to imbue the minds of depraved
men with a lively and sincere feeling of regret for
the past, and to create an honest and ardent desire
to regain the good opinion of their friends and the
public generally. During the latter days of trans-
portation to the Australian colonies, the condition
of the convict was considerably improved. Ca-
techists were appointed in many districts, and
religious instruction was more liberally imparted
to the disconsolate prisoner, which tended much
to humanize his heart, and to solace his unhappy
lot. This, combined with an amelioration in the
very severe laws of prison discipline, produced so
marked an improvement, that the desperate and
reckless convict population became, comparatively,
a respectable and well-behaved community.

At one time, in Tasmania, the escaped prisoners
BUSH-RANGING. 267

who had been assigned out as servants to the
settlers, on “ ticket of leave,” and had absconded
from their employers, formed themselves into
gangs of desperate bushrangers, who infested the
woods to spread terror and dismay amongst the
more peaceable members of the community ; and
the undisguised hate that had existed between
many hard masters and their assigned servants,
developed itself in acts of terrible atrocity and
revenge. Thieving and sheep-stealing became so
prevalent as to be regarded as matters of every-
day occurrence; and no traveller in the “bush”
was safe from attack, even in the vicinity of the
towns and settlements. Lonely dwellings and
homesteads were visited in the dead of night by
gangs of armed ruffians with blackened faces, who,
after ransacking the premises, would frequently
ill-treat and even murder their victims.

At Macquarie Harbour, which is situated on the
south-west coast of Tasmania, the most incorrigible
convicts were formerly doomed to work in heavy
chains, securely riveted, and attached to their
ankles by ponderous rings: their occupation con-
sisted in cutting and squaring timber for ship-
building and other purposes, as might be required
by the government. From time to time, to escape
from a life worse even than death, many of these
men made desperate attempts to regain their
liberty, and in some cases were so far successful as
to evade for a while the hand of justice, and reach
the woods, where, however, most of them perished
from starvation. A horrible account of the escape
268 AUSTRALIA. °

of some convicts from Macquarie Harbour, which
happened many years ago, is narrated by a gentle-
man long resident in Tasmania. We are forced to
abridge the dreadful narrative. He says :—
“The hundred miles of country between Mac-
quarie Harbour and the settled districts forms a
considerable part of the island, and is clothed with
one dense mass of heavy timber, and an under-
growth of fern, grass, and tea-tree, musk-plants,
heaths, briars, and innumerable other shrubs,
which are literally so thickly interwoven in some
places as to be perfectly impenetrable. I heard of
but one man in those days who succeeded in reach-
ing the settled districts overland. His name was
Jeffries. He and several other convicts at the
penal settlement escaped the vigilance of their
overseers and guards, and fled to the gloomy re-
cesses of the wild bush. Unarmed, and unprovided
with food, except mouldy scraps of biscuit they
had hoarded from time to time from their allow-
ance, they ventured to brave that long and difficult
journey, inevitably courting death in its most
appalling form. :
¢ In the course of their route they were at length
reduced to the extremity of casting lots for the
immolation of one or other of their famished com-

panions.

* * * * * #* *
In the course of their miserable flight, six of
these wretched men had thus successively suc-
cumbed to their unhappy lot. The two remain-
ing survivors, Jeffries and O’Brien, were men of
HORRIBLE EPISODE OF BUSH-RANGING. 269

tall stature, great physical power, and extraor-
dinary endurance; all this was combined with
determination of character which prompted each
to swear that he would not die a voluntary death
to prolong the existence of his comrade. Thus,
day after day, guided only by the sun, did these
two men prosecute their hopeless journey towards
the civilized districts. Each eyed his partner
with lynx-like pertinacity, ready at any unguarded
moment to play the assassin, and plunge his
knife into the heart of his last miserable brother
in sin. In open daylight they never approached
nearer than twenty yards to each other; and at
night, each kindled his solitary fire, at a distance
from his dreaded companion. Thus did these
two felons keep a perpetual watch upon each
other, until tired nature could no longer resist,
and the slaughter of O’Brien was the result.
Jeffries contrived, soon after, to reach the lone
hut of a sawyer on the borders of the civilized
country, where he actually murdered in cold
blood the sawyer’s wife and child, who were the
only inmates at the time. Seizing upon a gun,
some bread, meat, and such other necessaries as he
could find, he then made off with all speed. His
further career was, fortunately, of but short dura-
tion. A few weeks after the perpetration of the
last crime, he was captured, doubly-chained, and
incarcerated in the condemned cell, and died,
I fear, an impenitent criminal of the deepest
dye. To this day, every old colonist remembers
the hateful name of Jeffries, the ¢ man-eater.” ”
270 AUSTRALIA.

It has already been stated that the colony of
Western Australia was in such a languishing
state that the colonists actually petitioned the
government to constitute it a penal settlement,
so that they might have the benefit of convict
labour. But it was felt by those who had care-
fully considered the matter, that it was an act of
injustice to the neighbouring colonies to continue
to land the criminals of Great Britain on any
portion of the shores of Australia. Great com-
plaints were made, and that justly, by the free
settlers of South Australia and Victoria, that the
convicts who had escaped from Swan River, and
those who had been conditionally pardoned, found
their way to these colonies in such numbers as
greatly to swell their annals of crime; and it
was urged upon the government that they should
abolish transportation entirely, as far as the Aus-
tralian continent was concerned.

The justice of the appeal was admitted ; and in
1865+it was officially notified that “Her Majesty’s
Government had determined to propose to Parlia-
ment, in the ensuing session, measures, which, if
adopted, will in the short period of three years
render it unnecessary any longer to continue trans-
portation to Western Australia.”

It is much to be regretted, that in New South
Wales, although the convict system has been
abolished so many years, bush-ranging is at the
present moment as rife as ever it was in the
most lawless days of the old penal settlements.
Until conditional pardons are restricted to the
AUSTRALIA. 271

colony to which the convicts are transported, the
danger exists that the free colonies will always
be overrun with criminals whose time of service
is unexpired.
CHAPTER XVIL

PASTORAL PrUrsuiTs, AND BusH LIFE IN AUSTRALIA.

 

SHEPHERD'S HUT.

Prior to the discovery of gold, the great source of
wealth to Australia was found in the almost il-
limitablg extent of pasture-land which it pre-
sented to the sheep or cattle farmer, in every
SQUATTERS. 273

direction. No country is better adapted for the
breeding of sheep or the production of fine wool;
and the large sheep and cattle farms, or “stations,”
as they are termed in the colonies, are among the
most important and interesting features of the
bush.* Grazing is called in Australia ‘ squat-
ting ;” and the graziers are known by the singu-
lar appellation of “squatters.” They lease large
tracts of land from the crown, over which they
pasture their sheep or cattle, at a certain sum per
annum, and an annual poll-tax is also imposed of
a small sum per head, on sheep, cattle, and horses.
Some squatters hold from sixty to a hundred
square miles of country for their sheep-runs, and
have as many as £0,000 sheep, besides several
thousand head of cattle, and a great many horses.
Many of those who landed with but slender means
during the earlier days of Victoria and Queens-
land, are now in possession of enormous wealth ;
whilst others, having sold their flocks and the
goodwill of their ‘“runs,” have returned home
with independent fortunes. These regions wete
ready prepared by Nature for the support of
stock; and the squatter at once availed himself
of them. As fast as he could breed or import
his cattle and sheep he spread them over a hun-
dred millions of acres, more than half of which
afforded good and available pasture. In this

* The “bush” is a colonial term signifying those parts of
the country which are remote from towns and villages, and
which are generally occupied for grazing purposes; men en-
gaged in pastoral labour are hence styled “hushmen.”

S
274 AUSTRALIA.

manner the flocks and herds increased to such an
extent, that Australia may at the present time be
fairly regarded as the greatest grazing country
in the world.

There are usually from 400 to 500 ewes, or
from 600 to 1,000 dry sheep, in a flock, and several
flocks are often folded at the same station. In
the morning, the shepherd drives each flock from
the sheepfold ont upon some portion ¢f the run
for pasture; at sundown the various flocks are
brought back and counted over, being penned
for the night in yards formed of hurdles, and
guarded from the attacks of the wild dogs by the
shepherd, who sleeps in a sort of watch-box close
to the fold, and who is at once aroused by the
barking of his dogs, should any alarm occur. In
the lambing season, which is generally in the
months of May and June, the ewes are usually
withdrawn from the flock and kept separate till the
lambs are strong enough to travel. At shearing,
which occurs in October and November, and is
the busy season of the squatter, the various
flocks are brought in rotation to the home or
head station to be washed and shorn. On large
runs there are usually a number of out-stations,
at each of which is a hut and a sheep-yard : the
former being occupied either by the family of the
shepherd, some member of which cooks his meals
for him, or by a hut-keeper, whose office it is to
cook the provisions and take charge of the hut
in the absence of the shepherd. The fare in these
primitive dwellings in the distant bush consists
DESCRIPTION OF A HOME STATION. 275

invariably of tea, mutton, and ¢ damper,” (a large
flat loaf or cake baked in hot ashes). Tea is uni-
versally drunk at every meal.

The head station, at which the owner or his
superintendent generally resides, is so situated
as to be nearly equidistant from the several out-
stations, to which frequent visits are necessary.
Mr. Heygarth thus describes a home-station in
the interior of New South Wales: The prin-
cipal buildings are generally placed upon a gentle
eminence, slightly removed from the rest, and
consist of the owner's residence, the kitchen,
and the store; the two latter, situated behind the
former, are generally mere huts, built after the
ordinary bush fashion, of wooden slabs, white-
washed on the outside, and roofed with the bark
of trees; the proprietor’s abode has, however,
greater pretensions to comfort and external effect ;
the rough slabs of which it is built, in common
with the other edifices, are concealed by lath and
plaster; this being whitewashed, and “lined” on
the outside so as to resemble a stone structure,
has a more substantial appearance. ‘ Weather-
board ” cottages, which are better and more ex-
pensive, are occasionally constructed ; but though
very common near the capital, and in the more
settled parts of the colony, they are looked
upon as a sort of unnecessary luxury beyond the
boundaries. The roof is covered with shingles,
instead of the more unsightly bark, while a ve-
randah is carried out in front, and frequently
serves, in default of any other external distine-
276 AUSTRALIA.

tion, to point out to a stranger the owner's
abode.

The largest building on the whole establish-
ment is the wool-shed, where the sheep are shorn,
and the wool stowed during the short time it
remains upon the station: it is usmally placed
at some little distance from the owner’s residence,
and is also constructed of wooden slabs, with a
roof of bark, but is much higher and longer
than the other buildings, and somewhat resembles
a large barn: it is floored with narrow slabs of
wood, to protect the fleeces from dirt whilst the
sheep are shorn. The door of the wool-shed
opens upon several low yards, used at shear-
ing-time to separate the sheep, while a higher
fence encloses a larger space beyond, which is
used as a stack-yard for wheat and hay; a wool-
press, and a table on which the fleeces are folded,
constitute the only furniture of the interior.

Still further off an open space is occupied by
the stock-yard, for the reception of the numerous
herds of cattle and horses; and, nearer the house,
is another yard of similar construction, but much
smaller, in which the cows are milked, working
oxen yoked, saddle-horses driven in when they
are wanted, and cattle slaughtered for home con-
sumption ; for this latter purpose it is furnished
with what is usually known as a “gallows.”
which is simply formed by two saplings, about
twenty feet high, forked at the top, on which
is laid a strong cross-piece, to which the carcase
of the animal is pulled up by means of a windlass,
AN OUT-STATION. : 207

fixed outside the yard, and thus it is suspended to
~ cool during the night. The abodes of the working
men, which are merely slab huts of the rudest
description, each containing two rooms or divi-
sions, are scattered here and there, usually in the
background, and complete the picture of the head
station.”

Of the out-stations he says: “There are few
more lonely spots than the majority of these out-
stations ; they are seldom occupied by more than
two or three men—the stock-keeper, who has
charge of the herd, and another man, whose
business it is to cook, fetch water, grind, and
bake, and, in short, keep house. The head sta-
tion, or owner's residence, is perhaps distant a
hundred miles and upwards, and the nearest habi-
tation of any sort is probably some solitary bush-
hut, similarly occupied by a herdsman or shep-
herd, and his helpmate. The settler, though
accustomed to the loss of society himself, is, in
truth, seldom fond of visiting these places more
often then is absolutely necessary for the welfare
of his property: and, on returning to his head
station, so strong is the contrast, that he feels as
if he were restored again to the centre of civiliza-
tion.”

Some of the squatters, however, have erected
handsome residences on their own purchased land,
and fare more sumptuously than might be expected
from their isolated position, and the distance they
are from the towns. Colonel Mundy tells us that
at the residence of a large sheep-farmer on the
278 AUSTRALIA.

Macquarie Plains, 120 miles from Sydney, he
found ‘a well-damasked table for thirty-five or
forty persons; handsome china and plate; ex-
cellent cookery; a profusion of hock, claret, and
champagne; a beautiful dessert of European
fruits—in short, a really capital English dinner.
And this in a district where, within the memory
of hale old men, there was no white inhabitant,
and nothing more eatable than a haunch of kan-
garoo nor more drinkable than a cup of water,
even where Sydney now stands; and, a little
more than a quarter of a century ago, those plains,
to which most of the luxuries of the Old World
now find their way, were not known even to
exist.”

A generous hospitality to strangers is proverbial
throughout those parts of the ** bush” which lie
beyond the more settled districts, where there are
no public-houses or places of accommodation.
The traveller rests for the night, with his horse,
as a matter of course, at any station that may
happen to present itself, and always receives the
best fare and entertainment the place affords.

The chief amusements in the bush are kangaroo
hunting, shooting, riding, and reading. Many of
the better class of settlers have their piano, and
enliven their homes with popular and even
classical music ; many are found who devote their
leisure to reading and various scientific acquire-
ments.

A bush-inn, in those parts of the country where
the stone or brick hotel of the cities or larger
A BUSH INN. 279

towns gives place to the weatherboard cottage or
slab hut, is thus described by a writer long resi-
dent in Australia. He says: “The arrival of a
party of travellers at a bush-inn creates little of
that eagerness to give satisfaction, and anticipate
the stranger’s wants, that is to be met with at
most decent country inns in a land of competition.
The owner of the house is usually civil, but the
tone of his reception is very unlike what we are
used to in the mother country ; and his air is that
of a man who is fully aware of the fact that be-
tween his house and the nearest in any direction
lie not less than perhaps twenty good miles. The
fact is, that the chief source of the profits of a
bush-innkeeper is the custom of the labouring
classes. The taproom is his first consideration,
not the parlour; and he more gladly hails the
arrival of a party of stock-keepers, bullock-drivers,
and men of that stamp, who, he knows, will drink
deep, and give little trouble, than that of a better
class of travellers, who will require more attend-
ance without a proportionate expenditure. The
larder at these places is necessarily on a most
limited scale, owing to that pest of the country,
the blow-fly. Eggs and bacon form a standing
dish at all the country inns in Australia, as being
quickly prepared, and generally preferred to the
“old thing,” as salt beef and damper is con-
temptuously called in bush parlance. If a dainty
traveller should attempt to improve his fare by
ordering poultry, he must be content to feast upon
the same bird which narrowly escaped his horse's
280 AUSTRALIA.

heels as he rode up to the inn, and which he has
probably encountered a second time since his
arrival, as it came rushing into the house, scream-
ing dismally and hotly pursued by the cook.”
The bush-dray is the constant vehicle for the
conveyance of stores and produce to and from
the interior stations, each dray being generally
drawn by a team of from eight to ten oxen.
During these long journeys each dray is intrusted
to the charge of two men, the bullock-driver and
his assistant or “mate.” These men, though they
are usually good customers at the wayside public-
houses, have no need to visit them, as they carry
with them their own supplies, and the necessary
requisites for a journey of several months. The -
life they lead is thoroughly independent. At the
end of their daily stage of from twelve fo sixteen
miles, they draw up towards evening at a little
distance from the road, in a spot where there may
be found water and grass for the cattle. These
are turned loose to feed, and, from the fatigue of
their day’s work, are but little inclined to stray
far before daybreak, by which time the driver is
out on their track, and they are again yoked up
for an early start. This, during the wool season,
is especially necessary, as the great heats of sum-
mer often oblige them to halt during the middle
of the day. When two drays travel in company,
one “mate” is sufficient for both, as his duties
are merely to cook the meals, and take care of the
drays in the morning, whilst the drivers are
absent in search of their bullocks. The men all
“A CATTLE-MUSTER. 281

sleep under the drays at night, when the ends of
the tarpaulin, which are rolled up during the
day, are let down on all sides, and form a protec-
tion from the weather. The appearance of a
number of drays camping together, with their
cooking fires, and unyoked cattle, is a picturesque
sight amidst the monotony of the lonely bush.
The vast herds of cattle that pasture on the ex-
tensive runs of the interior, graze unconfined
throughout the year. With the exception of stock-
yards, into which they are driven at certain
seasons, for the purpose of being branded, or
drafted off for sale, there are no enclosures.
They are looked after by men on horseback,
called stock-keepers, who from time to time skirt
the boundaries of the pasture, and drive in the
cattle by the crack of their ¢ stock-whip,” an
implement of peculiar construction, the handle
being little more than a foot in length, while the
thong, which is made of plaited hide, varies from
twelve to seventeen feet: when used, it makes a
report which may be heard at a very considerable
distance, whilst its powers of flagellation are
truly formidable. The mustering of a large herd
of cattle is an exciting business : preparations are
made in advance, and word sent to the neighbour-
ing stations, as it is the custom for as many as
possible to assist on these occasions. Mr. Heygarth
thus describes the scene of a cattle-muster, He
says: ‘ Operations commence at an early hour, as
soon as the sun has acquired sufficient power to
draw the cattle from the forest toward the water.
282 AUSTRALIA. °

The horsemen separate into parties of two or three
together, and skirt the boundaries of the pasture
on all sides. As they proceed, the cattle make
towards the low grounds, where they are kept
together till the whole party reassemble, and
start off to drive the herd towards the enclo-
sures. As they proceed the scene becomes more
and more animated. From the main body of the
herd, dimly seen through a dense cloud of dust,
a succession of furious animals break off on all
sides, some making back to their “rendezvous,”
(as the spot where the herd issin the habit of
resting is called), and then to their old haunts in
the forest: these are instantly pursued, and hunted
back by the stock-men, who may be seen belabour- -
ing them with their long whips in every direction,
until, galled to desperation by over-driving, and
the severe discipline of the lash, they frequently
turn the tables, and become themselves the pur-
suers. The air meanwhile is filled with the
report of the stock-whip, the barking of dogs, and
the cries and shouts of the men, mingled with the
heavy, tramping sound of many thousand hoofs,
as the herd rushes on towards the enclosures.”
The hunting of the half-wild or bush-horses, bred
on the large grazing districts of the interior of
Australia, affords, perhaps, the finest sport that is
to be found throughout the country. ‘The
animal you are on, accustomed to his work, is
doubly eager when in chase of his own species,
and strains every nerve in the pursuit; while
before you a large body of horses, wild and free,
AN “UP-COUNTRY ”’ STORE. 283

going at a racing pace, up hill and down dale,
with their long matted manes and tails streaming
in the wind, forms a very animated sight.”

We will conclude this chapter by an extract
from that faithful chronicler of Australian bush-
life, Mr. Heygarth, descriptive of an ““ up-country ”
store in the far interior; where the more pre-
tentious and imposing shops that are now super-
seding the primitive stores in the numerous
country villages, are as yet unknown. ¢ The ex-
terior,” he says, “is usually similar to that of an
ordinary slab-building, except that it is somewhat
longer, and of stronger construction. A glance at
the inside shows a rude counter, behind which are
several shelves, running round the whole length
of the building. On these, as well as in all corners,
from the roof to the ground, is collected a mixture
of everything that the pursuits of the country, or
the tastes of its motley population, render saleable.
Slop clothing for the men, Manilla and cabbage-
tree hats, gown prints and perfumery for the
women, coarse silk handkerchiefs, for which there
is a great demand, as they are much used for stock-
whip lashes, saddlery, horseshoes, and shoeing
utensils, sheep shears and butchers’ knives, Epsom
salts and castor oil, are piled up in motley array
above the heavier articles, consisting of chests of
tea, bags of sugar and salt, and kegs of Virginian
and colonial tobacco. The stock, in short, appears
to be formed by a contribution of all the shop-
keepers in Sydney; and there is hardly anything
which the owner of a bush store considers as out
284 AUSTRALIA.

of his line.” Very little coin passes through the
hands of these storekeepers, the “order” system
being found a more convenient method of payment
in the more remote districts. It is usual for a
proprietor of a station to keep an account current
with some merchant in the towns, from whom he
also purchases his annual supplies, and when dis-
charging any debt in the interior, he draws an
“order” upon him for the amount. These orders
pass current in the districts where the signatures
are known, and often remain in circulation a con-
siderable time before they are remitted to the
merchants.
CHAPTER XVIII.

Tur Goro FirLps, AND ErFrecTs oF THE GOLD DISCOVERIES.

 

OPHIR, THE EARLIEST GOLD-FIELD IN AUSTRALIA.

Loxa previous to the actual discovery of gold in
large quantities in Australia, the idea was enter-
tained by geologists and others that the precious
metal did exist in the country. A Scotch shepherd
286 AUSTRALIA.

named M‘Gregor had, from time to time, brought
small parcels of gold into Sydney for sale, but he
- carefully avoided making known the locality from
whence they were obtained, and his secret died
with him. Count Strzelecki, who travelled through
New South Wales on a geological tour, also
indicated the existence of gold in the vale of
Clwydd in 1839; and Mr. Clarke, a clergyman of
the Church of England, and a distinguished geo-
logist, made known the fact that the valley of the
Macquarie was auriferous. From an examination
of specimens of rocks from the Eastern Australian
cordillera— ancient slaty rocks of the Silurian
system—=Sir Roderick Murchison pronounced it as
his opinion that gold would be found on the
western slopes of the dividing range. But it was
not until the return of Mr. Hargraves, an Aus-
tralian settler, who had spent some time at the
Californian® gold diggings, that the existence of
gold in the colony was turned to practical account.
Mr. Hargraves was struck with the resemblance
between the rocks about Bathurst, and those of
the gold-producing country he had recently left.
Having satisfied himself that gold did exist in that
neighbourhood, he communicated with the govern-
ment, and obtained the promise of a liberal reward
in the event of the discovery by him of a payable
gold-field on the crown lands of the colony.* On
the 30th of April, 1851, the fact was announced
that gold had been found in quantity at Lewis's

* For this service Mr. Hargraves afterwards received the
sum of 10,0007. from the New ‘South Wales government. -
DISCOVERY OF THE GOLD-FIELDS. 287

Ponds, and Summerhill Creek, about thirty miles
west from the town of Bathurst.

The truth of this important discovery was con-
firmed by the arrival in Sydney of large parcels of
gold, proving that the metal not only existed but
abounded, in the colony. The government at once
took steps for the introduction of a licensing
system; and accordingly it was fixed by the
Executive at 30s. per month for each license or
permission to dig, and the enforcement of this
regulation was confided to a police force stationed
on the various gold-fields for the purpose.

Soon afterwards gold was found at the Turon,
Meroo, Louisa Creek, and other places in the
western districts; and the discovery of enormous
“nuggets ” of pure gold, of large size, being made
known in the newspapers from day to day—the
“nuggets” themselves being displayed in the
shop windows of Sydney and Bathurst—the excite-
ment amongst all classes of society became tremen-
dous. In a few weeks after Mr. Hargraves first
announced the existence of gold at Summerhill
Creek, 10,0001. worth of gold dust had been raised
there, by the comparatively few diggers who had,
on the earliest information, repaired to the spot,
from Bathurst and other places in the neighbour-
hood. The name of this golden locality was
changed to ¢ Ophir.” The inhabitants of Sydney
flocked in thousands thither, and the great
‘western road across the Blue Mountains was
thronged with lines of waggons and drays, con-
veying stores and tools to the new El Dorado. So
288 AUSTRALIA.

great was the anxiety to get as early upon the
ground as possible, that many went quite unpre-
pared for the work, without implements or pro-
visions of any sort, and a great deal of misery and
privation ensued.

In the month of July following the ¢ Bathurst
Free Press” announced the extraordinary fact that
a hundredweight of gold had been found in one solid
mass at Louisa Creek! A half-civilized black, in
the employment of a Dr. Kerr, was minding one of
his master’s flocks of sheep. Near the projecting
spur of a quartz ridge his attention was arrested
by a glittering substance : raising his tomahawk,
he struck at the rock, and a mass of gold rolled to
his feet. Hastening to inform his master of the
circumstance, the doctor lost no time in repairing
to the spot, and there beheld, to his astonishment
and joy, the finest specimen of the precious metal
the world ever saw. In their haste to secure it,
the whole block was destroyed. It originally
weighed about three hundredweight. The largest
fragment weighed seventy-five pounds, of which
sixty pounds were pure gold; and, all together,
the block yielded one hundred and six pounds weight
of the precious ore.

The lucky black fellow ” was rewarded by Dr.
Kerr with a present of two flocks of sheep, two
saddle-horses, rations, and a team of bullocks ; but,
recollecting the sable friends of his tribe, he joined
them in the bush, when a feast and a corroboree
soon reduced the wealth in sheep of these children
of nature.
IMMENSE EXCITEMENT AT THE DISCOVERY. 289

The people now became mad with excitement,
and every one rushed to participate in the golden
harvest. Whilst the rural population in the dis-
trict were first on the spot, others of all ranks
and grades soon followed. Farms were left un-
tilled, and sheep were shepherded by women or
children. Magistrates, lawyers, government clerks,
and a vast proportion of the male inhabitants,
reckless of the results, hurried to the diggings.
Sailors deserted from their ships in such numbers
that the vessels in Sydney harbour could not
obtain hands to take them to sea, and were obliged
to be laid up there. The ordinary duties of life
were suspended, and the whole state of society’
was disorganized. Many streets were to be found
where hardly a single head of a family remained
at home; and it appeared at one time as though
Sydney was a community composed almost entirely
of the female sex. House rent, when the diggers
rushed back to the towns to spend freely what
they had so quickly earned, rose more than a
hundred per cent. Male servants were not to be
had ; and many families were compelled to give
up housekeeping and go into lodgings. The great
rise in the price of all commodities proved dis-
astrous to persons of small incomes, and the salaries
of all the officers of the government were obliged
to be raised nearly fifty per cent. to keep them
from unavoidable debt and insolvency.

The carriage of goods from Sydney to Bathurst
rose, in ten days, from half a crown to thirty
shillings per hundredweight, and everything else

7
290 AUSTRALIA.

in proportion that was in any way connected with
the gold diggings. Tools, such as picks, shovels,
and tin dishes fetched six times their value.
Canvas for tents was in great demand, and tar-
paulins commanded fabulous prices.

In the beginning of November 1851, the Gover-
nor-General of New South Wales reported the
export of the precious metal for the six months
previous as 79,340 ounces, valued at 2,573,577.
The result of these discoveries influenced, in a
very material degree, the whole political and social
interests of the colony of New South Wales. Its
commerce, population, and importance have been
augmented to a degree which no other means
whatever could have rendered possible.

The news of this unexpected source of wealth
soon spread throughout the neighbouring colonies,
and thousands flocked thither to try their fortunes.
Others, and especially the Victorians, commenced
« prospecting ”’ throughout the quartz and gravel
regions of their own districts, the result of which
was that in the September following the great
gold-field of Ballarat, about eighty miles to the
westward of Melbourne, was occupied; whilst
only a month later, as the colonists flocked from
all quarters to this attractive spot, the earlier
diggers were already swarming off to the newer,
and for the time, still richer, diggings at Mount
Alexander. A few months more, and the yet
greater marvels of Bendigo were revealed. By
the middle of the following year not fewer than
50,000 persons were congregated there, and most
FRESH DISCOVERIES. . 201

extraordinary quantities of gold were obtained at
a few feet only from the surface. During the
spring of 1852 the yield of gold from the diggings
in Victoria alone was estimated at 400,000
ounces, or 1,600,000L. per month.

An armed escort was established by the govern-
ment for the purpose of conveying the gold in
safety to the shipping ports.

The news of these mines of wealth had brought
tens of thousands from the adjacent colonies, espe-
cially from South Australia and Tasmania; and
towards the end of the year their numbers were
largely increased by arrivals from Great Britain,
India, New Zealand, and California. The entire
population of the colony was doubled in less than
twelve months, and the port crowded with ship-
ping from every part of the globe.

It was now an established fact that the colony
of Victoria possessed the richest gold-producing
districts in the whole of Australia; and that
these fields would turn out superior to anything
hitherto known. They exceeded the most san-
guine expectations ; and the suddenly-acquired for-
tunes of many who before were but poor men, liv-
ing from week to week on bare wages, completely
turned the heads of every one. Mr. Just thus
describes the excitement in Melbourne at this
time (1852): ¢ Merchants, lawyers, doctors, and
even clergymen went for a few weeks to try their
luck, roughing it in a tent, with bad water, and
high-priced provisions (flour being then 200. a
ton at the diggings), as well as the risk of disease,
292 AUSTRALIA.

which soon began to show itself in the shape of
dysentery, fever, and rheumatism. But such was
the power of gold, that these risks were braved in
the hope of becoming rich; a hope which, it must
be admitted, did not seem unreasonable, when
the extraordinary success of the great bulk of
diggers became apparent. The quantities of gold
to be seen in the hands of labouring men were
perfectly astounding. It was a common thing to
meet with returned diggers having in their posses-
sion gold to the value of from 50I. to 2000L.,
gathered in a space of time varying from four to
eight weeks, according to the luck of the party.
At Mount Alexander ‘ nuggets ’ as large as a hen’s
egg were frequently procured, and several were
obtained of upwards of ten pounds in weight; but
the bulk of the gold was got in the shape of small
‘nuggets’ from the size of a pin’s head to that of
a hazel nut.

“ At this time the streets of Melbourne presented
a curious aspect, crowded with successful diggers
in all sorts of motley costume. Horses and gigs
drove about in the most furious manner. The
public-houses made enormous fortunes. Buyers
crowded the shops, and purchased the most costly
silks and satins for their wives and sweethearts,
who had never possessed such rich materials
before. The government offices, banks, and
merchants’ establishments were drained of their
clerks. It was no uncommon thing to see a
merchant driving his own cart with goods from
the wharf. Labourers, saucy and hardly to be
CONSEQUENT DEMORALIZATION. 293

had for money, demanded 20s. per day; and
carpenters on the wharfs were getting 40s. to 50s.
per diem, whilst laundresses charged the exorbi- |
tant price of 12s. per dozen for washing even the
smallest articles.

“ With all this excitement, and so many tempta-
tions for the dissolute and idle, the colony pos-
sessed but a very limited police force, and only a
few soldiers. Although at first but few outrages
were committed, convicts and ticket-of-leave men
from Tasmania soon began to find their way to
the rich gold-fields of Victoria; and being too lazy
to work, took to their old habits, and supplied
themselves by plundering their more peaceful
and industrious neighbours. These villains ren-
dered it dangerous for any ome to be off his
guard ; and it soon became necessary greatly to
increase the police force, in order to prevent the
diggers from taking the law into their own hands
for self-defence.”

. The case of the sheep-farmers at this crisis was
particularly trying. They had a large amount
invested in stock, and the desertion of their
servants was a source of the greatest anxiety to
them. The agriculturists were no better off ; the
ground had to be left untilled, and the grain to
remain in the sack, for want of hands to do the
needful work.

But these things gradually righted themselves.
The enormous influx of population caused labour
to be more plentiful ; and in a few years, the very
cause which had proved so disastrous to the
294 AUSTRALIA.

farmer, now yielded him a large profit in the
shape of the high prices he was enabled to obtain
for his produce. Although many of the success-
ful diggers returned either to the neighbouring
colonies or to Europe with the wealth they had
amassed, and there expended it in the purchase of
freehold property, or in some other way turned it
to good account; yet the majority of them squan-
dered their gains in the most reckless manner,
enriching the publicans and the storekeepers,
who made a larger amount of money, and with
more ease, than the fortunate diggers. The
exodus from the thriving agricultural and copper-
mining colony of South Australia, to the Victorian
gold-fields towards the end of 1851, was a remark-
able era in the history of that settlement. Ina
short time upwards of 15,000 individuals left
Adelaide and the country districts by sea and
land. Some parties went overland, a toilsome
journey of 500 miles through bush and swamp;
others took advantage of the sea-passage, for
which every available vessel was engaged, to
‘convey an eager and excited freight of passengers.
For a time, the streets of Adelaide were deserted,
houses were abandoned, rents fell, and property
became unmarketable. At this crisis many of the
successful colonists returned with large quantities
of gold, who, from the straitened condition of
the money-market, were unable to find purchasers
for it. To remedy this state of affairs, which
threatened the colony with ruin, the Chamber of
Commerce, in conjunction with the Adelaide
RESTORATION OF CONFIDENCE. 295

banks, made an urgent application to the govern-
ment to establish an assay office for the purpose of
assaying and converting gold into stamped ingots,
to be exchanged with the banks for their notes.
This wise policy was at once carried out by the
passing of the “Bullion Act,” which restored
credit and confidence throughout the colony.
The establishment of an overland escort alsos
enabled the South Australians to send back their
gold to their families and friends with safety and
ease, and as the full value was allowed at the
assay office of 3l. 11s. per ounce, large quantities
of treasure rapidly poured into the country.
The first overland escort, brought into Adelaide
gold to the value of 185,308. 4s. 6d. Mr. Just
thus faithfully alludes to the case of South
Australia, in which order and prosperity arose
out of seeming general despondency and ruin.
He says: “The Adelaide miner succeeded, in
most cases, beyond his most sanguine expecta-
tions; and as he decidedly preferred South
Australia even to the golden Victoria, he sent his
gains, and eventually returned himself, to invest
them in her fertile lands. He saw also that a
steady and paying market was opened up for his
produce ; and that on his fields he might not only
rear a comfortable home for his family, but that
his produce would amply reward him for all his
labour, and the hardships he had undergone. South
Australia is pre-eminently an agricultural country,
and the wealth poured into it for wheat and flour
during the first years of the gold discovery was
296 AUSTRALIA.

enormous, and far outstripped all the gains of her
most successful *“ gold miners.”

Towards the close of 1852 a gold-field was dis-
covered about twenty miles from Adelaide, at
Echunga, near the Onkaparinga Creek, in the
Mount Barker district, and upwards of a thousand
licences to dig were issued by the government.

«Although the yield was small compared with that
of the rich fields of the neighbouring colonies, yet
many persevering miners realized ‘a fair remune-
ration for their labour during several months, at
a spot called Chapman’s Gully, until the diggings,
owing to their limited extent, became exhausted.

At a later period, the announcement that gold
had been found in Queensland, near the Fitzroy
River, caused a tremendous rush to take place from
Sydney, Brisbane, and other localities. These
much-vaunted diggings, however, proved to be a
failure as far as the yield of gold was concerned ;
although they became beneficial by bringing toge-
ther a considerable population, who, finding it
necessary to turn their labour into some other
channel, opened up one of the finest and most fer-
tile districts in Australia, and established the town
of Rockhampton, now an important and flourishing
port on the Fitzroy River. The Omeo diggings
proved less fortunate in their results. Situated
amongst the bleak and inhospitable slopes of the
Australian Alps, without timber or fuel at hand,
they presented a dreary welcome to the thousands
who madly flocked there but ill provided with
necessaries for withstanding the severities of such
IMMENSE PRODUCE OF THE GOLD FIELDS. 297

a climate. Many perished in the snow; others
died of dysentery or starvation; and but few re-
turned, except the storekeepers, who had reaped a
golden harvest in those alpine regions.

At Braidwood, in the southern portion of New
South Wales, gold has also been found in paying
quantities, and a successful gold-field established
in that locality.

The Ovens,” a large and very rich gold-field,
situated not far from the New South Wales boun-
dary of Victoria, attracted great attention in the
years 1853 and 1854 ; and at that period yielded
on an average from 10,000 to 15,000 ounces
weekly. A considerable portion of the wealth of
the Ovens diggings consists in the black sand or
tin ore, which contains 70 per cent. of pure tin,
and is worth about 40l. per ton.

In February, 1853, great excitement was caused
by the fact that extraordinary masses of gold had
been found at Ballarat. One of these, weighing.
1321b. 8oz., was secured by a party of four working
men, at a depth of sixty-six feet, in the Canadian
Gully. Other nuggets, weighing from 300 to
1,118 ounces, were also obtained, and a vast
influx of population to that district was the
result.

Up to the present time no less a sum than
100,000,0007., in round numbers, has been derived
from the gold-fields of Australia, the effects of which
have beneficially influenced the entire civilized
world. The famous gold-field of Ballarat, now the
site of a large and very populous town, had superfi-
298 AUSTRALIA.

cially no feature to distinguish it from any other
of the numerous forested spurs which descend
from the broken ranges at the foot of the higher
ridges, and which bound the valley of the Leigh
on either side. Gold is to be found, in greater or
less quantities, throughout the whole of the sur-
rounding country, both on the ranges, on the flats,
and in the watercourses. The geological forma-
tion of the country appears to be quartz, iron-
stone, sandstone, and clay slate. The richest de-
posits of gold are found in the small veins of blue
clay which lie immediately above the  bed-rock,”
as it is termed, and which are reached at depths
varying from twelve to fifty or more feet, through
a conglomerate of quartz pebbles and boulders,
gravel, and very hard, burnt-looking ironstone and
clay. The gold is at first roughly sifted out from
the clay and débris sent up in buckets by the
miners working at the bottom of the shaft, by
means of an apparatus termed a “cradle ;” the
residue is afterwards carefully washed in tin dishes,
the superior weight of the metal causing it to
remain behind after all other matter has been
removed by the action of water.

Quartz-crushing is also largely resorted to at
the present time for the purpose of obtaining the
gold from the matrix. The quartz veins and
ridges that intersect the various gold-fields con-
tain a large per-centage of the precious ore, and
thousands of tons of quartz are annually crushed
by means of machinery worked by steam power.

The Rev. Julian Woods thus explains the his.

 
THEORY RESPECTING THE GOLD FIELDS. 299

tory of the gold formations in Victoria: ¢ Gold
veins occur in rocks of the Lower Silurian age,
which cropped out on the former soil of Victoria.
These were decomposed by the action of water in
creeks, or by weathering. The gold thus liberated
became rounded by attrition into ‘nuggets,’ and
deposited in the alluvial soil formed of decom-
posed rock. After these operations, and in no
way connected with them, the land was over-
flowed by lava, and many creeks which were full
of nuggets were thus covered over. Miners are
sometimes much astonished at finding trees and
fragments of pebble, rounded, underneath the
blue stone (basalt) they have penetrated. The
former existence of creeks explains the difficulty.
One of the richest gold-fields, perhaps, in the world
is worked in the bed of an ancient creek thus
covered over. This is the Clunes Mine, at Cres-
wick’s Creek, not far from Ballarat.”

The following description, by an eye-witness, of
the appearance of the gold-fields at an early period
of their existence, will convey a tolerably correct
notion of the aspect of the « diggings” generally.
He says: ¢ Here the diggers live in tents of
all sorts and sizes. They are in parties of from
three to six persons, and many of these parties are
provided with a horse and dray, whilst all have
implements for digging and cooking their food.
The different localities, scattered over an undu-
lating forest region for thirty or forty miles, all
present the same aspect of tents and deep holes,
where the busy population are grubbing, like
300 AUSTRALIA.

worms in the mud, for the yellow dross. All are
eagerly at work during the day—some digging,
some driving soil in carts or barrows to the
water, to be washed in the ‘cradle;’ whilst one
of the party is left to watch the tent and cook the
provisions. After dark, a general discharge of
fire-arms and a howling of dogs take place; for,
dear as powder and shot are at these gold-fields, it
seems a custom amongst the diggers to show that
they are prepared against attack or robbery, which
is of frequent occurrence. The denizens of the
diggings present a grotesque appearance in their
blue and red shirts, with their unshaven beards,
and their clothing besmeared with yellow clay.
In spite, however, of their fierce and unkempt
aspect, they are generally speaking a good-hu-
moured, honourable, and agreeable set of fellows.”

One of the results of the discovery of such ex-
tensive deposits of gold, in various parts of Aus-
tralia, has been a large influx of Chinese immi-
grants, tempted thither by the accounts of the
auriferous wealth of the country. Pouring in by
successive ship-loads, at the ports of Melbourne
and Sydney, and marching into the interior, a
picturesque spectacle, in long lines upon the
highways, they all betook themselves at once to
the gold-fields. At one time there were not less
than 45,000 Chinese in the colony of Victoria
alone ; and to prevent in some degree the inunda~-
tion of the country with pagans, the legislature
imposed a special poll-tax of 10. per head on im-
migrants of this race.
INDIRECT BENEFICIAL RESULTS. 301

“Yet,” says the Rev. J. D. Mereweather, in his
interesting ¢ Diary,” “it is impossible not to recog-
nize, in this great migratory movement of races in
search of gold, the hand of an All-wise Providence
working by secondary causes. Fertile regions lie
unexplored and unoccupied in one quarter of the
globe—overcrowded populations starve in another.
Powerful inducements are required to stimulate
these starving and unquiet masses to traverse a
waste of waters, and occupy regions teeming with
every wealth ; and, under Providence, a powerful
inducement is found. That lump of gold—the
metal which men most covet—found by a poor
black fellow, as it cropped up above the soil near
Bathurst, has entirely changed the destinies of
Australia. But a few years ago, and this wonderful
country was so coolly looked upon at home as a
haven for emigration, that few people availed
themselves even of government free passages, and
the cultivation of the finest land in the world went
on slowly for want of means. Now, large ships,
with crowded living freights, fill the harbours of
Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne. Not many
years ago, the same cause made the fertile, desolate
California to become the drain of the restless
spirits of the over-populated United States sea-
board ; and the result in the two auriferous
countries will ultimately be the same. Enormous
populations will grow up quite unconnected with
the diggings, and apply themselves to commerce,
agriculture, and the arts. Christianity will have
diffused its blessed influence over countries once
302 AUSTRALIA.

inhabited by savage beasts, or the almost equally
savage man; and thus the moral universe will
advance, with slow and solemn steps, to that
glorious consummation prophetically set forth by
Isaiah: ‘The earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
303

CHAPTER XIX.

EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR.

   

= SAN Zi

NORTH AUSTRALIA, NEAR THE VICTORIA RIVER. GOULTZ-STEM TREE.

For nearly a quarter of a century after the first
settlement of Port Jackson as a penal colony by
the British government, the Blue Mountains, which
304 AUSTRALIA.

are visible from the heights around Sydney, formed
an impenetrable barrier to the explorations of the
surveyors, westward. At length, in 1813, Mr.
Evans, whilst conducting a government survey in
that direction, discovered a route through the
dense forests with which they are clothed ; and the
opening up of the fine pastoral lands beyond them,
which are watered by the Macquarie and the
Lachlan, was the result. In 1816, Mr. Oxley, the
surveyor-general of New South Wales, crossing
the Bathurst Plains, followed down the course of
the Lachlan, and discovered an extensive prairie-
like district to the southward. In 1823 he was
sent by the government to make an examination
and survey of Moreton Bay, with a view to the
establishment of a penal settlement there : this he
accomplished ; and, proceeding northwards, he
explored Port Curtis and the Boyne River.
During the following year, Messrs. Hovell and
Hume, two enterprising settlers, who had already
driven their flocks over the mountain ranges to
the new pastures on the Yass Plains, started to-
gether to explore the country to the south-west.
During their journey they passed over an extensive
range of territory watered by the Murrumbidgee
River, and after discovering the Australian Alps,
they pursued their explorations to the western
shores of Port Phillip, thus making known a large
and important extent of country in that direction.
Allan Cunningham, the botanist, who was after-
wards unfortunately lost in the interior, whilst on
an expedition with Sir Thomas Mitchell, made a
EXPLORATIONS. 305

successful exploration, in the year 1825, up the
fertile valley of the Hunter; and in 1827 he
crossed the dividing range, and travelled in a
northerly direction over the beautiful table-land
now known as the Liverpool Plains. Pursuing
his journey a little more to the eastward, he tra-
versed a fine grazing country at an elevation of
1,500 feet above the level of the sea, which he
called New England. Further to the north, he
discovered the verdant prairie-land of the Darling
Downs : proceeding onwards in a northerly direc-
tion he reached the latitude of Moreton Bay.
Here he prosecuted a successful exploration of the
river Brisbane to its source, during the following
year.

In the end of 1828, Captain Sturt travelled
westward from Wellington Valley, along the
banks of the Macquarie, skirting the marshes
which absorb that stream, until he arrived at an
open and verdant country to the north-west. His
further researches were rewarded by the discovery
of that great tributary of the Murray, the Darling.
Having ascertained the course of this important
river, and followed it down as far as 145° 40' east
longitude, he returned, impressed with the idea
that it, as well as all the other western rivers,
flowed into a great inland sea. With a view to
determine this point, and also the outlet of the
waters of the Murrumbidgee, Captain Sturt again
started, in company with Mr. George Macleay, on
a journey of discovery to the westward ; the result
of which was the discovery of the Murray, which

U
306 AUSTRALIA.

river these intrepid explorers descended in boats
to Lake Alexandrina, and thence to its sea-mouth
at Encounter Bay, in South Australia.

This expedition left Sydney on the 3rd of
November, 1829, and proceeded overland with
drays to a point on the Murrumbidgee about 440
miles distant. At this place their two boats, the
planks of which had been brought with them, were
rapidly built and loaded; and the drays, with the
remainder of the party were sent back to the
settled districts of New South Wales.

On the 7th of January, 1830, this little band of
adventurers commenced their voyage down the
Murrumbidgee, which here flowed through a flat,
barren country, between extensive tracts of tall
reeds, beyond which vast plains of polygonum
stretched away. As they proceeded, the river
maintained its character, and raised the hopes of
the party that it would not, like most of the other
interior rivers, lose itself again in the marshes. Its
breadth was 150 to 200 yards, and its reaches were
of noble breadth and splendid appearance. The
junction of the Darling with the Murrumbidgee
is thus described by Captain Sturt: ¢ We next
prepared to examine the entrance of the new river,
and proceeded up it in the boats for some miles,
accompanied by a noisy multitude of natives, who
swarmed along the banks on both sides. This

“river preserved a breadth of one hundred yards, and
a depth of rather more than twelve feet. Its banks
were sloping and grassy, and were overhung by
trees of magnificent size. Indeed, its appearance
EXPLORATION OF THE MURRUMBIDGEE. 307

was so different from the water-worn banks of the
sister stream that the men exclaimed on entering
it that we had got into an English river. Its ap-
pearance certainly almost justified the expression,
for the greenness of its banks was as new to us as
the size of its timber. Its waters, though sweet
were turbid, and had a taste of vegetable decay, as
well as a slight tinge of green.” The name of the
“ Murray ” was given to the principal stream, and
the party continued to descend it, having the
current in their favour, the river still increasing
in size and holding a south-westerly course. After
being in the boats for twenty-two days, they ar-
rived at a spot where the river flowed through
lofty sandstone cliffs, which, rising perpendicu-
larly from the water to a height of 300 feet, pre-
sented a singular appearance. These cliffs were
of a bright-yellow colour, rendered still more
vivid by the sun shining full upon them, and they
contained enormous masses of fossil sea-shells.
The summits of these cliffs were as even as if
they had been built by an architect, and from
their very edge the country back from the stream
was of an uniform level, and was partially com-
posed of grassy plains, and partly clothed with dense
scrub. The river at length suddenly took a sharp
bend to the south, and at the same time changed
in its character. Captain Sturt says of it: “It
now lost its sandy bed and its current together,
and became deep, still, and turbid, with a muddy
bottom. It increased considerably in breadth,
and stretched away before us in magnificent
308 AUSTRALIA.

reaches of from three to six miles in length. The
cliffs under which we passed towered above us,
and the water dashed against their base like the
waves of the sea. They became brighter and
brighter in colour, looking like dead gold in the
sun’s rays. and formed an unbroken wall, in some
places of a mile or two in length. The natives on
their summits showed as small as crows, and the
cockatoos, the eagles, and other birds were as
specks above us; the former making the valley
reverberate with their harsh and discordant
notes. The reader may form some idea of the
height of these cliffs when informed that the king
of the feathered race made them his dwelling-place.
They were continuous on both sides of the river,
but retired, more or less from it, according to the
extent of the alluvial flats. The river held a
serpentine course down the valley through which
it passed, striking the precipices alternately on
each side.” Thirty-three days after their de-
parture from the depdt upon the Murrumbidgee,
they arrived at the grand reservoir of those waters
whose course had previously been involved in
such obscurity. The cliffs had ceased, and the
river, sweeping in broad reaches along a valley
covered with reeds of the brightest green, and
backed with low sandy hills, scattered with
cypress-trees, at length emerged into a vast but
shallow lake. Sailing across this lake, now called
Lake Alexandrina, for a distance of nearly fifty
miles, they reached the shores of the ocean at
Encounter Bay, where they found that the channel
EXPLORATION OF THE DARLING. 309

or outlet of the lake joined the sea. The mouth of
the channel was defended by a double line of
breakers, and a line of unbroken foam extended
from one end of the bay to the other.

The return voyage against the stream was of a
tedious and trying nature. Harassed and at-
tacked by hostile natives on the banks of the
river—worn out with fatigue, and suffering greatly
from want of provisions, they ultimately regained
the place from which they started, in seventy-seven
days, during which they could not have pulled less
than 2,000 miles.

In 1831 Sir Thomas (then Major) Mitchell,
surveyor-general of New South Wales, proceeded
on an expedition to the north-west of the Liver-
pool Plains, in search of a great stream which had
been reported by a captured bushranger to exist
in that direction, and which he called the
Kindur ; but which afterwards turned out to be
the upper branch of the Darling. The energy
and ability of Sir Thomas Mitchell, as displayed
in the conduct of this expedition, induced the
New South Wales government to fit out an ex-
ploring party under his command, on a large
scale, having for its object the thorough survey of
the Darling and its tributaries. Sir Thomas was
ably seconded in his scientific arrangements by
Allan Cunningham, the botanist, who accompanied
him. Not many weeks after the departure of the
expedition, this amiable gentleman was lost in
the interminable wilderness, into which he had
wandered from the party, in search of plants.
310 : : AUSTRALIA.

After a long and energetic search in vain for his
missing companion, Sir Thomas reluctantly pro-
ceeded on his way, tracing the Bogan River down
to its junction with the Darling ; below which he
erected a stockade and depot, which he named
Fort Bourke, and from thence he surveyed the
Darling as far as latitude 23° 24’ south.

In 1836 Sir Thomas Mitchell undertook his
great journey from Bathurst across the continent
in a south-westerly direction, traversing the
regions watered by the Lachlan, the Murrum-
bidgee, and the Murray. Leaving the latter river,
he proceeded across the country watered by the
Wimmera, and discovered the Glenelg River,
which he navigated in a canvas boat down to its
entrance to the sea. = After surveying this part of
the coast, he proceeded eastwards to Portland Bay,
where the Messrs. Henty, from Tasmania, had
already established a whaling station. Here he
found also a considerable farming establishment
belonging to these gentlemen ; and a good garden,
stocked with an abundance of vegetables, already
smiled on the rich shores of Portland Bay. On
his return journey he crossed and explored that
magnificent territory, now the colony of Victoria,
which he designated «Australia Felix,” from its
rich and fertile aspect. The appearance of this
region is thus described in his journal: To
the westward the noble outline of the Gram-
pian Mountains terminated a view extending over
vast open plains fringed with forests and embel-
lished with lakes. To the northward appeared
EXPEDITIONS OF MITCHELL AND OTHERS. 311
other more accessible-looking hills, some being
slightly wooded, others green and open to their
summits, long grassy vales and ridges intervening ;
while to the eastward the open plain extended
as far as the eye could reach. Certainly a land
more favourable for colonization could not be
found. Flocks might be turned out upon its hills,
or the plough at once set a-going in the plains.
No primeval forests required to be first rooted out
here, although there was enough of wood for all
purposes of utility, and adorning the country just
as much as even a painter could wish.” Thirty
years have elapsed since Mitchell saw this glorious
country in all its primeval beauty. In that short
period, with its wealth of flocks and herds, its
gold, and its grain, it has become one of the
richest colonies of Great Britain.

In 1840, Count Strzlecki, the adventurous tra-
veller and geologist, made a toilsome and haras-
sing journey on foot from the Murrumbidgee
River, southwards, through the Australian Alps,
which he successfully explored ; and thence across
Gipp’s Land to Corner Inlet; from whence he pene-
trated through the densest and wildest “scrub”
in Australia, which had hitherto baffled all the
attempts of settlers and surveyors to cross it.

In the year 1837, Captain George Grey and
Lieutenant Lushington embarked on an expedi-
tion, under the auspices of the British govern-
ment, the main objects of which were, ‘to gain
information as to the real state of North-West
Australia, its resources, and the course and direc-
312 AUSTRALIA.

tion of its rivers and mountain ranges; to search
for and record all information regarding the
natural productions of the country, and all details
that might bear upon its capabilities or the re-
verse.” On their arrival at the Cape of Good
Hope in H.M.S. ‘ Beagle,” the leaders of the ex-
pedition, having hired a schooner of 140 tons,
fitted it out for the conveyance of themselves and
party (consisting of twelve persons in all) to
Hanover Bay. After a voyage of about six weeks
across the Indian Ocean, they reached the barren
shores of that part of North-West Australia
which lies in 15° south latitude; and anchored off
Entrance Island on the 29th November, 1837.
The peculiarly rugged and inhospitable features
of this part of the country may be best under-
stood by quoting Captain Grey’s description of it.
He says: “Our view was bounded by lofty cliffs
from 300 to 400 feet high, lightly wooded at
their summits, and broken by wide openings or
chasms, into which ran arms of the sea, forming
gloomy channels of communication with the in-
terior country; whilst on each side of their
entrances the huge cliffs rose like the pillars of
some gigantic portal. In general, the openings
of these rivers from the sea are very narrow,
forming gorges which terminate in extensive
basins, some fifteen or twenty miles inland ; the
levels of these reservoirs are subject to be raised
thirty-seven feet by every tide through their
funnel-like entrances, along which the waters
consequently pour with a velocity of which it is
THE NORTH-WEST COAST DESCRIBED. 313

difficult to form any idea. By such a tide were
we swept along in our boat as we entered Prince
Regent's Inlet by its southern mouth. On each
side of us rose lofty red sandstone cliffs: some-
times quite precipitous, sometimes, from ancient
landslips, shelving gradually down to the water,
and at these points covered with a dense tropical
vegetation. At several such places we landed,
but always found the ascent to the interior so
covered with large loose rocks that it would have
been impossible to have disembarked stores or
stock.” At the head of some of these gloomy
ravines were formed deep cavities or natural basins,
full of clear fresh water, which had been caused
by the cascades during the rainy season; and
these were kept cool, and sheltered from the sun,
by the dense vegetation growing on the sides of
the cliffs, the glen being here so narrow that the
trees nearly met in the centre. This vegetation
is described as being ‘composed chiefly of the
screw pine and wild nutmeg tree, whilst rich
grasses and climbing plants occupy the interval ;
and birds of the most brilliant plumage fill the
air with their cries.”

The schooner was shortly despatched for the
island of Timor, for the purpose of procuring a
number of ponies for the use of the expedition;
and in the mean time a landing had been effected
with some difficulty, and a depot formed for the
head-quarters of the expedition.

Near this landing-place, Captain Grey says,
“as we sat at our dinners, we watched a strange
314 AUSTRALIA.

species of fish. These little animals are provided
with arms, at least with members shaped like
such as far as the elbow, but the lower part re-
sembles a fin; they are amphibious, living equally
well on the mud or in the water; in moving in
the mud they walk, as it were, on their elbows,
and the lower arm or fin then projects like a great
splay foot; but in swimming the whole of this
apparatus is used as a fin. They have also the
property of being able to bury themselves almost
instantaneously in the soft mud when disturbed.
The uncouth gambols and leaps of these anomalous
creatures were very singular.”

Excursions were made from head-quarters to the
south and west. On one of these an encounter
with the natives tcok place, who must, from ap-
pearances, be very numerous in this part of Aus-
tralia. Captain Grey says: * Here were regular
beaten tracks of the natives, as completely path-
ways as those we find in England leading from a
village to a farm-house. Near the sea we also
came upon a complete hill of broken shells, which
it must have taken some centuries to form, for it
covered nearly, if not quite, half an acre of ground,
and in some places was ten feet high. It was
situated near a large bed of cockles, and was evi-
dently formed from the remains of native feasts, as
their fireplaces and the last small heaps of shells
were visible on the summit of the hill.” Captain
King mentions a similar mound or hill of shells as
occurring near Port Essington, which was thirty
feet in diameter and fourteen feet high, and
CAPTAIN GREY WOUNDED BY NATIVES. 315

was supposed by him to be a native burying-
place.

In this part of the country, a remarkable feature
of the scenery was the number of ¢ gouty-stemmed
trees,” a species of Adansonia, somewhat resem-
bling the “ monkey’s bread-fruit tree” of Africa.
The circumference of some of these, at eighteen
inches above the ground, exceeded thirty feet; and
the soft and spongy bark appeared in many places
to be marked with successive rows of notches by
the natives, all but the last row being invariably
scratched out. As these rows were evidently of
different ages, they were supposed to indicate the
number of nuts taken each year from the tree.

After the return of the schooner from Timor and
Rottee (bringing twenty-six of the native ponies
from the latter island), the march south-west for
the Glenelg River, and the interior, was decided
on. After much difficulty in getting the ponies
up the precipitous cliffs to the table-land, the route
was commenced, but the heavy tropical rains set-
ting in, the valleys became flooded, and there being
no food in them for the horses and sheep, many of
these animals perished.

During one of his reconnoitering excursions
from the main camp, Captain Grey was severely
wounded in the hip by a party of natives, who
attacked him and his two companions with their
stone-headed spears.* He narrowly escaped with

* The stone of which these natives form their most deadly

spears is a sort of vitrified lava, resembling in fracture and
appearance coarse green glass,
316 AUSTRALIA.

his life, and the expedition was thus considerably
retarded.

After leaving the barren sandstone plains,
covered with spinifex and stunted bushes, across
which the party had pursued their way for some
time, they descended by a precipitous route into
the fertile plains below, where they entered a
most beautiful region composed of basaltic rocks
and fine alluvial soil, and well watered with
numerous streams. Captain Grey thus describes
this rich volcanic region: “From the summit of
the hills where we stood, we gazed over, for
thirty or forty miles, a low luxuriant country,
broken by conical peaks and rounded hills, which

_were richly grassed to their very summits. The
plains and hills were both thinly wooded, and
curving lines of shady trees marked out the course
of the various streams. Since I have visited this
spot, I have traversed large portions of Austra-
lia, but have seen no land, no scenery equal to it.
We were upon the confines of a great volcanic
district, clothed with tropical vegetation, to
which the Isle of France bears a greater resem-

~ blance than any other part of the world with

which I am acquainted.” After progressing in a
southerly direction, ¢ there suddenly burst upon

the sight a noble river, running through a beauti-
ful country, and, where we saw it, at least three
or four miles across, and studded with numerous
verdant islands.” This river was named the

Glenelg. Its banks were low and marshy, and in

many places covered with such extensive forests
REGION OF GLENELG DESCRIBED. 317

of mangrove-trees, that it was impossible to ap-
proach the main stream. The rise and fall of the
tide here was about twenty feet, and the current
rapid.

Following up the course of the Glenelg, the
river was found to become quite fresh at a spot
where it descends in a series of cascades over the
rocks.

Encountering alternately belts of rich tropical
vegetation, and ridges of sandstone hills, or basaltic
ranges, the party entered a series of extensive
valleys “of so luxuriant a character that those
of them who were not very tall, travelled, as it
were, between two green walls, over which they
could not see; and those green walls were com-
posed of rich grass, which the ponies ate with
avidity. When only a few yards apart they had
to call to one another in order to ascertain their
respective positions; and yet this vegetation was
neither rank nor coarse, but as fine a grass as
ever was seen.”

In this region, which abounded with game,
were discovered a number of caves, containing
very singular drawings made by the natives. In
one cavern, the principal figure was that of a man
ten feet six inches in length, clothed from the
chin downwards in a red garment. Other paint-
ings, in red, yellow, and bright blue occur in
many of the sandstone caves, of heads surrounded
with broad discs, kangaroos, shields, &e.

In latitude 16° south the further progress of the
party was checked by a series of mountain ranges,
318 AUSTRALIA.

with steep precipices of barren sandstone, utterly
inaccessible to horses. After an unsuccessful
attempt to find a pass through these mountains,
the party commenced their return to Hanover
Bay, which they reached by a more direct route
than on the outward journey. They arrived in
safety, with eleven ponies remaining. These
were so exhausted and knocked about that they
were not considered worth shipping again on
board the schooner, but were turned loose into
the bush. The party proceeded from Hanover
Bay, where they found H.M.S. the * Beagle”
engaged on a survey of the coast, and, embarking
in their small vessel, set sail for the Isle of
France, which they reached in safety after a
rapid voyage.

In the beginning of 1839, Captain Grey, with
a party of eleven persons, left Swan River for the
purpose of exploring the country about Shark’s
Bay, and examining the coast in the direction of
North-West Cape.

Three whale-boats having been procured, an
engagement was made with the captain of an
American whaler to convey the party and their
boats to some point north of Shark’s Bay, and
there land them, together with a supply of pro-
_ visions for five months. The place chosen for
their disembarkation was Bernier’s Island, the
most northerly of several small islands lying off
the entrance of Shark’s Bay. At this barren spot,
so unfitted for a depot in every respect, the party
landed ; and here commenced the first of a series
A DISASTROUS EXPEDITION. 319

of disasters which distinguished this most unfor-
tunate journey. Finding that there was not a
drop of fresh water to be obtained, even by dig-
ging, they resolved to leave the island and pro-
ceed to another further south. In so doing one
of their boats was swamped, and knocked to pieces
in the surf, and a quantity of their supplies was
lost. The only water they could procure on this
latter Island of Dorre was collected by suction
from small holes in the rocks, where it had been
left by a recent shower. These islands consist of
limestone containing fossil shells, and are covered
with sand-hills : they do not afford a tree, or
a blade of grass, but only wretched scrubby
bushes.

On Dorre a severe hurricane swept over the
island, which drove their boats on shore, and
damaged them considerably. After repairing
them in the best manner they could, they started
again in an easterly direction for the mainland
across the Bay, where they fortunately met with
a fresh-water lagoon, the whole party being in a
miserable state from thirst.

On the north-east shores of Shark’s Bay, the
channels of what must, during the heavy rains,
become a considerable stream, were followed up
for some distance—the main channel had an ave-
rage breadth of about 270 yards, and the height
of the banks was about sixteen feet. Captain
Grey says: ‘After passing the highest point
reached by the sea, this huge river-bed was
perfectly dry, and looked the most mournful,
320 : AUSTRALIA.

deserted spot imaginable. Occasionally we found
in this bare sandy channel, water-holes of eighteen
or twenty feet in depth, surrounded with tea-
trees and vegetation, and the drift-wood, washed
high up into these trees, sufficiently attested
what rapid currents sometimes sweep along the
now dry channel. Even the water-holes were
nearly all dried up, and in the bottom of these
the natives had scooped their little wells.” The
country in the neighbourhood of this river, which
was named the Gascoyne, is described as being
fertile and grassy, and in the valleys there are
numerous fresh-water lagoons, which rest upon a
red-clay soil that tinges the water of its own
colour, and imparts to it an earthy taste.

A singular instance of the deception caused
by the mirage is thus narrated by Captain Grey :
Landing at the base of some bare sand-hills, about
four hundred feet in height, he ascended to the sum-
mit of the loftiest hill, « from whence,” he says,
“a most splendid sight burst upon my view: to
the westward stretched the boundless sea, lashed
by the wind into white and curling waves; whilst
to the east of me lay a calm, unruffled lake,
studded with little islands. To the north or
north-east, I could, even with a good telescope,
see no limits to this lake, and, with the exception
of the numerous beautiful islands with which it
was studded, I could distinguish nothing like
rising land in that direction.” On descending
the sand-hills, and approaching the supposed
lake, it still presented the same delusive appear-
THE PARTY ARE SHIPWRECKED. 321

ance, and the shadows of the low hills near it,
as well as those of the trees upon them, could be
distinctly traced on its unruffled surface. As the
party advanced, however, the water constantly
retreated before them, and at length appeared to
surround them on all sides, until at last they
found out that they had been deceived by a
mirage, and that the boundless lake was nothing
more than an extensive plain of mud and sand.
On the return of the party from the mainland
to their depbt of stores, which they had landed
and left buried in the sand at Bernier Island, they
found to their dismay that the hurricane had
caused the sea to sweep away nearly the whole
of their stock of supplies. With only about ten
days’ provisions left, it was determined, as the last
resource for the safety of the entire party, to pro-
ceed to sea at once in the two whale boats, and
follow the coast parallel to the shore, so as to
regain the Swan River Settlement. After experi-
encing very severe weather during three days, along
a surf-bound and perilous coast, on which no boat
could land for an extent of 120 miles, they at
length reached the northern extremity of Gan-
theaume Bay. Here want of water compelled them
to attempt a landing ; but in doing so, both their
boats were wrecked, and they themselves narrowly
escaped drowning. In consequence of the loss of
their boats, they had now no alternative but to
endeavour to reach the settled districts of Swan
River, by walking; a distance of at least 350
miles, through an inhospitable and unexplored
X
322 AUSTRALIA.

region, and this, too, with but twenty pounds of
flour, and one pound of salt meat, per man, left.

The sequel is soon told. After seven days’
travelling, several of the party had become so
exhausted that Capt. Grey, together with five of
the strongest men, determined to push on by
forced marches to obtain assistance from Perth, to
be sent on to those that remained in the rear.
At length their sufferings from hunger and thirst
became so terrible, that they must all have
perished had they not met with a small hole of
muddy water, the finding of which is thus
described by Capt. Grey: “ We had thirsted, with
an intense and burning thirst, for three days
and two nights, during the greater part of which
time we had been taking violent exercise under
a fierce sun. To conceive the delight of the men
when they arrived at this little hole of mud,
would be difficult. Each, as he came up and cast
his wearied limbs on the ground beside the hole,
uttered these words, ‘Thank God!’ and then
greedily swallowed a few mouthfuls of the liquid
mud, protesting that it was the most delicious
water he had ever tasted. The men cooked one
spoonful of flour each in the liquid mud from the
pool, and assured me that they found this thick
water very nourishing; the large quantity of mud
it contained in some degree satisfying the cravings
of the stomach.”

Pale, wasted, and weak, they still crawled on-
wards in a straight line for the settlements, having
now been out eighteen days, and without a morsel
CLOSE OF THE EXPEDITION. 323
of food left. Fortunately they fell in with a party
of natives who supplied them with frogs and
fresh-water tortoises, which kept them alive a
little longer, and enabled them to reach the hut
of a settler living farthest north from Perth.
Relief was speedily forwarded to those of the
party who remained behind ; a number of persons
on horseback proceeded to search for them, and at
length they were found straggling along the
beach, in an utterly hopeless condition, having
been three days without water, and their only food
such nourishment as they obtained by chewing a
coarse tushy plant growing on the beach. Ome
valuable life, however, was sacrificed in this disas-
trous journey. Mr. Frederick Smith, a brave and
estimable young gentleman, unable any longer to
hold out, was left behind in a dying state, and his
body was subsequently found under a thick bush
on a sand-hill, lying as though asleep, half enve-
loped in his blanket, seventy-six miles north of
Swan River. He was the most youthful of the
party, being only eighteen years of age, and
therefore less capable than the others of bearing
up against long-continued want and fatigue.
324

CHAPTER XX.

ProGRESS OF EXPLORATION.

 

THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS.

IN the year 1840, public attention in Adelaide
was much engrossed with the subject of an over-
land communication between Southern and West-
LAKE TORRENS. 325

ern Australia. Meetings of the colonists were
held, and subscriptions were entered into for the
organization of a party, to explore the region
between the two colonies. In June of that year,
the arrangements for the expedition having been
completed, it started from Adelaide, under the
command of Mr. E. G. Eyre, a gentleman who
had previously had an extensive experience in
Australian travel. The party consisted of the
leader, with five Europeans, and two aboriginal
youths; together with two drays, thirteen horses,
and about forty sheep ; also stores and supplies for
a period of three months. A depdt being formed
at Mount Arden, beyond the head of Spencer’s
Gulf, Mr. Eyre first proceeded northwards to
examine Lake Torrens, which he struck in several
places, and which he supposed to be the basin of
all the interior drainage of the continent. This
mysterious lake, which has proved so deceptive
to travellers, and appeared under such different
aspects according to the state of the seasons, was
found by Eyre to be very salt, and to present an
appearance of being about fifteen or twenty miles
across, having high land bounding it on the west,
at the spot where he first struck it. At another
point he says, «the lake appeared from twenty-
five to thirty miles across, and embraced a course
of fully 200 miles in its outline.” In one place
he penetrated into the basin of the lake for about
six miles, and found it to consist of stiff mud, coated
with a crust of white salt, which shone in the
sun’s rays with a dazzling brilliancy. Beyond
326 AUSTRALIA.

there was every appearance of a large body of
water, but the horses were unable to advance
further, as they already had sunk almost up to
their bellies in the mud. Mr. Eyre states, how-
ever, * that from the extraordinary and deceptive
appearances caused by mirage and refraction it
was impossible to tell what to make of sensible
objects, or what to believe on the eyidence of
vision, for, upon turning back to retrace our steps
to the eastward, a vast sheet of water appeared to
intervene between us and the shore, whilst the
Mount Deception ranges, which I knew to be at
least thirty-five miles distant, seemed to rise out
of the lake itself, the mock waters of which were
laving their base, and reflecting the inverted
outline of their rugged summits.”

Abandoning further research in a northerly
direction, Mr. Eyre passed to the south-west, and
reached Port Lincoln, from which he started on
his long and disastrous journey, along the coast to
King George's Sound. Before reaching the head
of the great Australian bight, he found it neces-
sary to reduce the number of the party, owing to
the fearful and desert nature of the country.
Those who were to return, together with a portion
of the drays, &c., were sent back to Adelaide in
the government cutter, which had accompanied
them to Fowler's Bay. This was the last place
of refuge where a vessel could anchor for many
hundred miles; and the dangerous nature of the
coast, consisting of precipitous cliffs several hun-
.dred feet. high, with a strong current setting into
DISASTROUS EXPEDITION OF MR. EYRE. 827

the bight, made it hazardous for a vessel to approach
the land at all; it was therefore deemed useless
to proceed with the cutter any further to the
westward. At Fowler’s Bay, Mr. Eyre obtained a
native boy, belonging to King George’s Sound,
whom he took on with him, his overseer and the
two black boys from South Australia completing
the party. Along this inhospitable coast they
travelled onwards, suffering much from want of
water, no break occurring in the interminable
cliffs that offered a barrier to the ocean for
many a weary day’s journey.

Having to reduce the daily allowance of flour
caused the black boys -to grow sulky, and the
dismal prospect before them of having still to |
travel several hundred miles along a desert coast,
before they could reach King George's Sound, did
not increase their good-humour. One night, dark
and stormy, whilst Mr. Eyre was watching the
horses, the overseer was shot by the two Adelaide
black boys, who fled with two guns and what pro-
visions they could obtain, intending probably to
return to Fowler's Bay. Mr. Eyre thus describes
his feelings on this terrible night: “At the dead
hour of night. in the wildest and most inhospitable
wastes of Australia, with the fierce wind and raging
storm in unison with the scene of violence before
me, I was left with a single native, whose fidelity
I could not rely upon, and who, for aught I knew,
might be in league with the other two, who per-
haps were even now lurking about with the view
of taking away my life, as they had that of the
328 AUSTRALIA.

overseer.” Six hundred miles of country had still
to be traversed before he could hope to obtain the
slightest aid or succour. Wrapping up the mur-
dered overseer in his blanket, and leaving him
enshrouded where he fell (one vast unbroken
surface of sheet rock in every direction rendering
it impossible to make a grave), Mr. Eyre and his
black boy travelled slowly and silently onwards.
After forced marches, killing one horse for food,
and then another, and suffering greatly from want
of water, these two wanderers ultimately reached
King George's Sound, where the black boy was
warmly received by his tribe, and rewarded for
his services by a daily supply of rations from the
4government resident at Albany, whilst Mr. Eyre
embarked in a small vessel about to sail for Ade-
laide, where he arrived after an absence of one
year and twenty-six days.
In 1844, Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt, a modest and
unassuming German botanist, who had been for
two years journeying in the interior of the More-
ton Bay district, in search of plants, proposed to
conduct a party overland from Moreton Bay to
Port Essington. The expedition was composed
of seven persons, who from love of enterprise or
~ science had volunteered their services, together
with a negro and two aboriginal natives. They
started from Brisbane towards the end of August,
in light marching order, with seventeen horses and
sixteen head of cattle and pack bullocks, taking
with them 1,200 pounds of flour, and other sup-
plies, sufficient to last for seven months. After a
FATAL EXPEDITION OF LEICHHARDT. 329

most successful journey, during which they fol-
lowed along the beautiful valleys of the Burdekin
and the Lynd, they skirted the shores of the Gulf
of Carpentaria, and eventually arrived in safety
at the military settlement which was at that time
in existence at Port Essington, having performed a
Journey of upwards of 3,000 miles across the
northern portion of the continent, in little more
than four months.

As an acknowledgment of the important ser-
vices Dr. Leichhardt had rendered to geographical
science during this expedition, the government
of New South Wales awarded him a sum of
6001.

Animated by his love of enterprise and dis-
covery, he again started, in 1847, his object now
being to endeavour to cross the continent from
Moreton Bay to Swan River, and to explore the
interior of Australia. This overland journey he
did not expect to be able to accomplish in less than
two years and a half. His party consisted of six
whites and two blacks, together with sixteen mules,
fourteen horses, forty oxen, and two hundred and
seventy goats. :

Eighteen years have now elapsed since the de-

parture of this ill-fated expedition, and from that

time to this Leichhardt has never been heard of,
and no remains of himself, his fellow-explorers,
or his large stock of cattle have been found. As
soon as it was suspected he was lost, an expedi-
tion under Mr. Healey was sent in search of him,
and this party followed his tracks for a distance
330 ; AUSTRALIA.

of 800 miles from Moreton Bay, to a spot where
the natives declared that they had destroyed the
whole of the explorers. This, however, was not
generally believed, though there wete marks of an
encounter at the place shown to Mr. Healey.
However, the search was given up, on account of
the difficulties met with, and it was not until 1858
that another party was organised to search for the
missing explorers. Mr. A. Gregory attempted to
follow up and extend what Mr. Healey had done.
He left Moreton Bay in March, and proceeded at
once to the head of the Barcoo River. He then
passed beyond Healey’s tracks, and at a spot
eighty miles further than the place where the
natives declared that the explorers had been
destroyed, he found a tree marked by the letter
“IL.” This mark was an unmistakable evidence
that Leichhardt had not been killed by the na-
tives, as previously reported. Mr. Gregory, how-
ever, was unable to penetrate into the interior by
the course which he believed the lost explorers
had taken, and he therefore descended the Barcoo
and Cooper's Creek to South Australia. Thus the
fate of Leichhardt still remains as complete a
mystery as it was before.

In 1844 Capt. Sturt started from Adelaide for
the purpose of solving the problem of the interior
of Australia. He wasaccompanied, amongst others,
by John M’Douall Stuart, who has since distin-
guished himself by successfully crossing the con-
tinent from Adelaide to the Indian Ocean. Pass-
ing up the Murray and the Darling, Capt. Sturt
ATTEMPT TO EXPLORE THE INTERIOR. 331

turned northwards up a small tributary called the
Williorara. The water of this stream failing him,
he pushed across a desert country, until he arrived
at a fertile and well-watered ravine, which he
named the Rocky Glen. The party were here
detained for six months, no rain having fallen
during all that time. The heat was so intense
‘“ that every screw in their boxes was drawn, and
all horn handles and combs split into fine laminze.
The lead dropped from their pencils, their finger-
nails became as brittle as glass, and their hair
and the wool on their sheep ceased to grow.
Scurvy attacked them all, and Mr. Poole, the
second in command, perished. In order to avoid
the scorching rays of the sun, they had excavated
an underground chamber to which they retired
during the heat of the day.”

At last the rain came, and the explorers pushed
on some fifty miles further, forming a dep6t, from
which two attempts were made to reach the centre
of the continent. On the first of these Capt. Sturt
started with four of his party, advancing over a
region * which resembled an ocean whose mighty
billows, fifty or sixty feet high, had become sud-
denly hardened into long parallel ridges of solid
sand.” At 200 miles this sandy desert terminated
suddenly, and was succeeded by a stony one,
which continued for thirty miles, and then as sud-
denly ended in a vast plain of dried mud, which
Capt. Sturt describes as “a boundless ploughed
field, on which floods had settled and subsided.”
After penetrating 200 miles beyond the stony
332 : AUSTRALIA.

desert, to within 150 miles of the centre of the
continent, the party were obliged to return, having
suffered dreadful privations and fatigue. A second
exploration from the depot was attended with not
much better success. After seven days’ journey
they discovered a fine creek of fresh water, now
well known as Cooper’s Creek; but after pushing
northwards for 200 miles they were again met by
the stony desert, and the illimitable ranges of red
sand-hills. Reluctantly, the gallant leader re-
turned to Cooper’s Creek, travelling night and
day. On their arrival they were overtaken by a
hot wind or simoom, so violent and terrible, that
had they encountered it in the desert, they would
in all probability have perished. Finally, after
meeting with great hardships along their route,
the party returned in safety to Adelaide, after an
absence of nineteen months.

In 1846, while Leichhardt was absent on his
first and successful journey overland from Moreton
Bay to Port Essington, an expedition for a similar
purpose had been fitted out by the government
under the command of Sir Thomas Mitchell.
Upon hearing, however, of the result of Leich-
ardt’s discoveries, Sir Thomas altered his plans,
and, keeping more to the westward, he came upon
what appeared to be the source of a large river,
flowing in a north-westerly direction, which he
imagined was the upper branch of the Victoria,
discovered by Wickham and Stokes, and flowing
into Cambridge Gulf, on the north-west coast.
After tracing this stream towards Central Aus-
EXPLORATIONS IN THE NORTH. 333

tralia for about 150 miles, Sir Thomas left the
further prosecution of the survey of this river to
his junior officer on the surveying staff, Mr. Ken-
nedy, who eventually found that the supposed
Victoria suddenly made a course to the south-
ward, and became absorbed in the great central
desert.

In the following year Mr. Kennedy was ap-
pointed to explore and survey that part of tropical
Australia lying between Rockingham Bay and Cape
York, on the north-east coast. Owing to the impas-
sable nature of the country from swamps and prickly
scrubs, and the hostility of the numerous native
tribes, this expedition turned out a most unfortu-
nate one. Of the thirteen persons who started
from Rockingham Bay on June 5, 1848, one man
only—Mr. Kennedy's aboriginal servant—reached
Cape York, after a six months’ journey, where he
found a small schooner awaiting the arrival of the
party, lying at anchor in Port Albany, to the cap-
tain of which he communicated the sad tidings of
the fate of his companions,

The exploration of the Victoria River of Stokes and
Wickham, in North-West Australia, was carried
out by Gregory in 1855-6. After a sonth-easterly
bearing in ascending its course, it was found
finally to take a southerly direction; and after
300 miles, its source, or its dry bed, was found
to be in a sterile desert. The lower part of the
river had, however, a considerable volume of
water, and bore promise of being navigable for a
long distance inland; it also, by its winding
334 AUSTRALIA.

course, watered a large area of country, much of
which consisted of good available land. At its
mouth, in Cambridge Gulf, there was a good
harbour with deep water.

In 1858, Gregory also succeeded in tracing
Mitchell's Victoria to quite another termination
from that supposed to belong to it by its sanguine
discoverer. On this occasion Gregory experienced
those uncertainties of climate and country that
are eminently Australian. The verdure that cap-
tivated Mitchell had disappeared, leaving only a
desiccated waste ; and the river itself disappeared
in the arid wastes of the stony desert.

The wealthy colony of Victoria, at an outlay of
somewhere about ten thousand pounds, despatched,
in 1860, an expedition called the Victoria Ex-
ploring Expedition, the object of which was to
cross the continent from south to north, and solve
the problem of the interior.

Magnificent as were the preparations for this
grand scheme, it ultimately terminated in disaster,
through the inexplicable bungling and bad conduct
of some of those taking partin it; and although the
Gulf of Carpentaria was actually reached by four
of the party (three of whom nobly sacrificed their
lives for that object), the whole expedificnin was a
cumbrous and miserable mistake.

The party left Melbourne, amidst the cheers of
the populace, on the 20th of August, 1860. It
consisted of eighteen persons fully equipped, to-
gether with several waggons, a number of pack and
saddle horses, and twenty-seven camels imported
THE VICTORIA EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 335

from India for this special service. Mr. O'Hara
Burke was appointed as leader, with Mr. W. J.
Wills, a young and promising astronomer, as
second in command. After a tedious delay, partly
occasioned by the insubordination of some of the
inferior officers of the expedition, and especially
by the unaccountable conduct of the person who
had the management of the camels, Mr. Burke at
last reached Menindee, on the Darling, where he
got rid of the refractory portion of his staff, and
pushed on to Cooper’s Creek, where he arrived on
the 11th of November, with a reduced party of
six men, besides Mr. Wills and himself, fifteen
horses and sixteen camels. After halting for
about a month at Cooper’s Creek—a chain of water
holes having their banks densely clothed with gum-
trees, in a region of extensive, flat, sandy plains
covered with herbs dried like hay — Mr, Burke
determined to make a dash at once for the Gulf of
Carpentaria. This he was the more anxious to do
as soon as possible, having heard that Stuart was
again out from Adelaide with a lightly equipped
party, whose object was to reach the northern
coast further to the westward. The honour of
being the first to cross the continent was now a
contested race between the two explorers, and the
gallant but impetuous leader left Cooper’s Creek
on the morning of the 16th of December, with
Mr. Wills and two men named King and Gray,
one horse and six camels. The rest of the party
was left behind at the depot at Cooper’s Creek, in
charge of a person named Brahe, who received the
336 AUSTRALIA.

most positive instructions to remain there until
the return of the explorers from the Gulf of
Carpentaria, three or four months being mentioned
as their probable time of absence.

After an arduous journey of six weeks, these
gallant fellows reached the salt water near the
mouth of the Flinders River, in the Gulf of
Carpentaria, and were thus the first to cross the
Australian continent from shore to shore.

The return journey was a disastrous one. Having
accomplished the grand object of the expedition,
the party, on the 13th of February, 1861, turned
their faces southwards, and commenced their long
and toilsome march towards home. The camels
became knocked up, and one after another were
left behind, unable to proceed any further; the
horse, too, was killed and cut up for food.

On the 17th of April poor Gray died. King,
the only survivor of the party, says: ¢ They
were all so weak that it was with difficulty they
could dig a grave sufficiently deep to inter him in.”

On Sunday, April 21st, Burke, Wills, and King,
with the two remaining camels, reached Cooper’s
Creek, at the exact place where the depot party
bad been left under Brahe. There was no one
there! From under, a tree on which had been
marked, « DIG, 21st April, 1861,” a box was ex-
tracted containing some flour, rice, oatmeal and
sugar, and a bottle with the following note :—

. “Depot. Cooper's Creek, April 21st, 1861.

“The depot party of the Victoria Exploring
Expedition leaves this camp to-day to return to
AN APPALLING DISCOVERY. 337

the Darling. I intend to go south-east from Camp
No. 60 to get into our old track near Bulloo. Two
of my companions and myself are quite well; the
third, Patten, has been unable to walk for the
last 18 days, as his leg has been severely hurt
when thrown by one of the horses. No one has
been up here from the Darling. We have six
camels and twelve horses in good condition.

“ WILLIAM BRAHE.”

Thus on the morning of the very day on the
evening of which they arrived joyfully anticipating
succour, the depot was deserted by the man who
ought to have stuck to it till he could hold out no
longer, and the last ray of hope was cut off from
those devoted pioneers who had so nobly and so well
performed their share of the duty. The sequel is
soon told, and a mournful story it is. Unable to
overtake the retreating party in their present
weak condition, they proceeded on slowly, en-
deavouring to reach the settled districts of South
Australia by way of Mount Hopeless. The two
remaining camels were tired out, and they could
not travel faster than four or five miles a day.
The 8th of May found them without camels ; living
on fish, which a friendly tribe of blacks had given
them to eat. The blacks taught them how to make
a sort of coarse bread from the pounded seeds of a
plant growing on the plains, called by them
‘“nardoo.” After the blacks left them, they re-
mained for nearly two months in the wilderness,
growing weaker and weaker, and with no help on

Y
338 AUSTRALIA.

earth. It was at last decided to go up the creek,
and live with the natives, but on arriving at their
huts they were all found to be deserted. King,
the survivor, says: “For some time we were
employed gathering nardoo,” and laying up a
supply. Mr. Wills and I used to collect and carry
home a bag each day, and Mr. Burke generally
pounded sufficient for our dinner during our ab-
sence ; but Mr. Wills found himself getting very
weak, and was shortly unable to go out gathering
‘nardoo’ as before, or even strong enough to
pound it, so that in a few days he became almost
helpless. I still continued gathering, and Mr.
Burke now also began to feel very weak, and said
he could be of very little use in pounding; I had
now to gather and pound for all three of us. Mr.
Burke now proposed that we should again go in
search of the natives, a plan which had been urged
upon us by Mr. Wills, as the only chance of saving
‘him and ourselves as well. Having then pounded
enough to last Mr. Wills for eight days, we placed
water and firewood within his reach and started.
Before leaving, Mr. Wills gave me a letter and his
watch for his father.

“In travelling on the second day, Mr. Burke
complained of great pain in his legs and back.
That night he spoke very little, and next morn-
ing, about eight o’clock, he expired. I remained
a few hours there, but as I saw it was no use
staying longer, I again went up the creek in
search of the natives. I felt very lonely, and
slept in deserted huts belonging to the blacks. In
TOUCHING COMPASSION OF THE NATIVES. 839

one of these huts I found deposited a bag of
¢nardoo,” sufficient to last me a fortnight. 1 re-
mained two days to recover my strength, and then
returned to Mr. Wills. I took back three crows
I had shot, but found him lying dead. I buried
the corpse with sand. As my stock of ‘nardoo’
was getting short, I tracked the natives, and at
last fell in with them down the creek. They
appeared to feel great compassion for me when
they understood I was alone on the creek, and
gave me plenty to eat. From this time they
seemed to look upon me as one of themselves, and
supplied me with fish and ¢nardoo’ regularly;
they were very anxious to know where Mr.
Burke lay, and one day when we were fishing
in the waterholes close by I took them to
the spot. On seeing his remains, the whole
party wept bitterly, and covered them with
bushes.”

By this time (July) much anxiety as to the fate
of the explorers began to manifest itself through-
out the colonies, and various expeditions were set
on foot to go to their relief. Mr. Howitt nobly
volunteered to lead out a party in search of the
missing travellers, and on the 15th of September
he reached Cooper's Creek, and had the satisfaction
of rescuing King, who had ever since been living
with the natives. Mr. Howitt says: “I found
King sitting in a hut which the blacks had built
for him, He presented a melancholy appearance
—wasted to a shadow, and hardly to be distin-
guished as a civilized being but by the remnants
340 AUSTRALIA.

of clothes upon him. He seemed exceedingly
weak, and I found it occasionally difficult to follow
what he said. The natives were all gathered
round, looking with a most gratified and delighted
expression. After suitably interring with Chris-
tian burial the remains of poor Burke and Wills,
‘and distributing a large quantity of presents
amongst the natives, Mr. Howitt’s party returned
to Melbourne, where they were received, along
with King, with the most unbounded enthusiasm
and joy. :

The ¢Melbourne Advertiser’ of Dec. 4th, 1861,
contains the following leading paragraph: «It is
intended to place the sum of 5,000. on the esti-
mates towards the erection of a national monument
to Burke and Wills, and it is believed a like
amount will be raised by public subscription in
various parts of the colony, so that the aggregate
amount will enable us to raise a memorial worthy
of Victoria, and worthy of the heroes whom we
design to honour. This is as it should be. Burke
and Wills achieved a splendid exploit: their lives
were the forfeit of their daring; and we owe it to
their reputation, as well as to our own character,
to preserve a durable record of their great achieve-
ment, and to signalize to after-ages our admiration
of its simple grandeur, and our gratitude to the
brave men who accomplished it. A time will
come when a belt of settlements will connect the
shores of Port Phillip with those of the Gulf of
Carpentaria ; when, on the banks of the Albert or
of the Flinders, a populous city will arise, and
HONOUR TO THE BRAVE HEROES. 341

will constitute the entreptt of our commerce with
the Indies; and when beaten roads will traverse
the interior, and a line of electric telegraph will
bisect the continent. The happy valley of Prince
Rasselas was not more verdant or more fertile than
much of the country passed through by the ex-
plorers, whose loss we deplore; and it is certain
that these beautiful solitudes will be rapidly occu-
pied by the flocks and herds of the squatter. Agri-
cultural settlements will follow ; towns and wvil-
lages be established, and waves of population
overflow and fertilize vast tracts of country which
we have hitherto regarded as a sterile desert.
These events will owe their initiation to the ad-
venturous pioneers who first crossed the continent
from sea to sea. Theirs was the arduous effort;
theirs the courage, endurance, and sustaining
hope; theirs the conflict with danger, and the
great triumph over difficulties; theirs the agony
of a lingering death, and theirs the mournful glory
of a martyr’s crown. - Defrauded, as it were, of
the honours that would have rewarded them had
they lived to receive the congratulations they had
earned, it becomes the melancholy duty of their
fellow-citizens to perpetuate the memory of Burke
and Wills by a monument which shall testify to
their worth and our munificence.”

The explorations ef John M‘Douall Stuart may
fairly be considered as amongst the most important
in the annals of Australian discovery. Unrivalled
as a skilful and practical bushman, he has always
been fortunate in bringing back the members of
342 AUSTRALIA.

his party alive on each of his successive expedi-
tions. In 1858 Mr. Stuart started from Mount
Eyre, to the north-west, of the Lake Torrens basin,
(which is described as being “at one time a vast
inland sea, at another, a dry desert of stones and
baked mud,”) for the purpose of examining the
country in search of sheep-runs between that place
and the west coast of the Port Lincoln district.
On this journey “he accomplished one of the most
arduous feats in all his travels, having, with one
man only, pushed through a long tract of dense
scrub and sand with unusual rapidity, thus saving
his own life and that of his companion.” During
this march the only food they had for three days
was a crow which they had shot and cooked in
the ashes. For upwards of a month they existed
upon two pounds and a half of flour-cake daily ;
and this was afterwards so reduced that Stuart
tells us he had only two meals left to take him
and his companion to Streaky Bay, a distance of a
hundred miles, and that through a country without
water, and described by him as “a dreadful, dismal
desert of heavy sand and spinifex, with mallee
scrub very dense, and scarcely a mouthful for the
horses to eat.”

After two preparatory expeditions northwards
of Lake Torrens, during which Mr. Stuart disco-
vered some good country,-well supplied with
springs, he at length set off, on the 2nd March,
1860, accompanied with only two men and thir-
teen horses, on his long-cherished enterprise of
crossing the interior. Only seven weeks after
MR. STUART PENETRATES THE INTERIOR. 343

leaving his head-quarters at Chambers Creek, in
lat. 294°, the entry in his diary was as follows:
¢ To-day, I find from my observations of the sun,
that I am now camped in the centre of Australia.”
Thus solving the problem that the heart of the
Australian continent, instead of being an inland
sea or an interminable desert, was a fine grassy
country, watered with numerous streams, and
well adapted for pasturage. Proceeding in a
north-easterly direction, they succeeded in reach-
ing a point only 250 miles from the Gulf of Car-
pentaria, when they were driven back by the
hostility of a numerous and formidable tribe of
natives.

During this expedition, a remarkable pillar of
sandstone was discovered in latitude 25° south,
which at a distance “had the appearance of a
locomotive engine with its funnel.” Mr. Stuart
says: “ We proceeded towards the remarkable pil-
lar, through high, heavy sand-hills, covered with
spinifex. It is a pillar of sandstone, standing on a
hill upwards of a hundred feet in height. Frem
the base of the pillar to its top it is about 150 feet,
quite perpendicular ; and it is twenty feet wide by
ten deep, with two small peaks on the top.”
* Naming it «Chambers Pillar,” he goes on to say :
“ To the north and north-east of it are numerous
remarkable hills, which have a very striking effect
in the landscape : they resemble nothing so much
as a number of old castles in ruins, all standing
in the midst of sand-hills.”

On the return of Mr. Stuart and his party to
344 AUSTRALIA.

Adelaide in the October following, bringing the
intelligence that they had penetrated northward
nearly to the 18th degree of south latitude, the
South Australian Parliament voted the sum of
2,500 « for a larger, better armed, and more
perfectly organised party, of which Mr. Stuart
was to be the leader.” The ill-fated Victorian
Expedition, under the command of Messrs. Burke
and Wills, had already left Melbourne; so that,
hastened forward by a spirit of rivalry as to
which of the two expeditions should be the first
to accomplish their common object, Mr. Stuart
was again turning his steps northwards on the
29th of Noveriber, with a party of seven men
and thirty horses.

This second journey was successfully prosecuted
to latitude 17° south, about a hundred miles beyond
their former position, where the party were driven
back by the savages. Here an impediment of
another kind occurred, which effectually stopped
their further progress towards the coast. An im-
penetrable scrub or forest extended before them on
both sides, which, after pushing into it for some
miles, they found so dense that it was impossible
for them to proceed further. ¢ The horses,” says
Stuart, ¢ would not face it ; when forced, they made
a rush through, tearing everything we had on, and
wounding us severely by running against the dead
timber, which was as sharp as a lancet.” No pas-
sage being discoverable, Mr. Stuart determined
to return again, for his provisions were failing and
the horses were in a desperate state, as indeed they
MR. STUART'S GREAT EXPEDITION. 345

were themselves, their clothes being nearly all torn
to pieces by the scrub. The determination to re-
turn, however, was not until their efforts to pene-
trate to the coast had been so strenuous that the
horses were on one occasion a hundred and six
hours without water.

Within a month after the return y of Mr. Stuart
and his party from this second expedition, a third
time he was despatched by the South Australian
government, with a party of ten persons, and a
number of horses, in order to complete, if possible,
the route across the continent, and to find an out-
let through the barrier of scrub which alone had
defeated the success of his previous journey.

This time his efforts were crowned with the
most complete success; a passage was discovered
through the scrub more to the westward of his
former track; and the shores of the Indian
Ocean, or Arafura Sea, were finally reached, after
passing through a beautiful and fertile tropi-
cal region, the latter part of which was watered
by the Adelaide River. On Thursday, 24th July,
1862, the goal was reached, and Stuart and his
brave companions gazed upon the blue Indian
Sea with no ordinary feelings of triumph. They
were unaware, as they crossed the continent, that
Burke and Wills had already reached the salt
swamps of the Gulf of Carpentaria, further to the
eastward. Stuart and his party, however, stood
upon the sea-beach and washed their hands and
faces in the sea-water ; besides which they gathered
marine shells on the shore, which they brought
346 AUSTRALIA.

back with them to Adelaide as an additional proof
of their success. Mr. Stuart thus describes his
proceedings on the day after arriving at the sea.
“I had now an open space cleared, and selecting
one of the tallest trees, stripped it of its lower
branches, and on its highest branch fixed my
flag, the Union Jack. When this was completed,
the party gave three cheers, and then congratulated
me on having completed this great and important
undertaking.” At one foot south of the foot of
the tree is buried, about eight inches below the
ground, an air-tight tin case, in which is a paper
with the following notice :—

“The exploring party, under the command of
John M‘Douall Stuart, arrived at this spot on the
25th day of July, 1862, having crossed the entire
continent of Australia, from the Southern to the
Indian Ocean, passing through the centre. They
left the city of Adelaide on the 26th day of
October, 1861, and the most northern station of
the colony on the 21st day of January, 1862. To
commemorate this happy event, they have raised
this flag bearing his name. All well. God save
the Queen!”

(Here follow the signatures of the party.)

In the beginning of December in the same year,
the party all reached Adelaide in safety, Mr.
Stuart, however, being so worn out by scurvy
and exhaustion, that his life was for some time
despaired of.

For this triumphant service the South Australian
BURKE RELIEF EXPEDITION. 347

government voted the sum of 3,5001. to be paid as
a reward to Mr. Stuart and his party—2,000..
to him as leader of the expedition, and the re-
mainder to be divided amongst the other members
of the party. The Royal Geographical Society
of London also awarded Mr. Stuart its gold
medal and a gold watch, as a token of its appro-
bation of his important services in the cause of
Australian discovery.*

In August, 1861, the South Australian govern-
ment sent out an expedition to search for Burke's
missing party. This was called the “Burke Re-
lief Expedition,” and was under the leadership
of Mr. J. M‘Kinlay, an old and experienced
bushman. The party left Adelaide with horses
and camels; and crossing the so-called Lake
Torrens, which at the period of their visit was
dry, they proceeded in a northerly direction to
a lake called by the natives Kadhiberri, where
the remains of several Europeans, who had evi-
dently been massacred by the blacks, were found.
These were supposed at the time of their dis-
covery to belong to Burke’s party. The natives,
who were very numerous in the vicinity, said
"they had eaten the white men; and it was with
difficulty that Mr. M‘Kinlay’s party escaped from
their attacks. A large number of them surrounded
their camp, and in self-defence they were com-
pelled to fire upon them, when they decamped.

* During the present year, the South Australian parlia-
ment has voted another sum of 1,000 to Mr. Stuart: he also
received a grant of land in 1859.
348 AUSTRALIA.

Soon after this, a party under Mr. Hodgkinson,
who brought up additional supplies from Blanche-
water, were the bearers of intelligence that King,
the survivor of Burke's party, had been rescued
by Howitt; so that the main object of M‘Kinlay’s
journey to Cooper's Creek was rendered useless
for any further purpose of relief. He however
pushed on to Cooper’s Creek; and, after visiting
the graves of Burke and Wills, he made an ex-
ploration of the country north and east, meeting
at that season of the year with plenty of water,
indeed with extensive floods. Finally, traversing
a magnificent region, with fine pasture and good
water, he succeeded in reaching the salt mangrove
swamps within the influence of the tide, at the
head of the Gulf of Carpentaria. He had thus
crossed the continent from south to north, along a
route more easterly than that of Stuart. From the
Gulf of Carpentaria the party made a direct course
for Queensland, and reached the coast near Port
Denison, from whence they returned by sea to
South Australia.
549

CHAPTER XXI.

ON THE FOUNDATION, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT STATE OF
THE CHURCH IN THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

 

ST. JAMES'S CHURCH, SYDNEY.

Tur first fleet of convict vessels set sail for New
South Wales, in 1787. Tt consisted of 10 ships,
conveying 565 male and 192 female convicts,
350 AUSTRALIA.

guarded by more than 200 soldiers. It will hardly
be believed, in these days of missionary zeal and
enterprise, that it was on the point of leaving Eng-
land without a single minister of religion on
board. At the last moment, however, the Rev.
Richard Johnson was, through the intercession of
Bishop Porteus with Sir Joseph Banks, appointed
to accompany it as chaplain. For six years this
one minister of religion laboured unaided amongst
the convicts and mariners who at that time formed
the population of the settlement at Port Jackson.
By God's blessing he was not unsuccessful, for
Collins, the first historian of New South Wales,
writes :—* The early sabbaths of the new com-
munity were not permitted to pass away without
some observance of the ordinances of religion.
Divine service was performed every Sunday when
the weather would permit, at which time the de-
tachment of marines under arms, and the whole
body of the convicts, attended, and were observed
to conduct themselves in general with that re-
spect and attention due to the occasion on which
they were assembled.”

During these first six years, the clergyman had
to carry on divine worship in the open air, sub-
ject to all the inconveniences and interruptions
consequent upon such an arrangement in a change-
able climate: at length he erected a chapel at his
own expense, which was opened for service on the
25th August, 1795.

In 1794 the Rev. Samuel Marsden arrived in
Sydney, and divided with Mr. Johnson the labours
-

BEGINNINGS OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH. 351

of the ministry until the year 1800, when the latter
gentleman quitted the colony, which was thus
again left under the superintendence of one
clergyman for another seven years of its infant
state. The same year the Society for the Propaga-
tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent two
schoolmasters to Port Jackson, and in 1798 ap-
pointed the Rev. C. Haddock as missionary to
Norfolk Island. :

In 1800 a permanent church was erected at
Parramatta by Governor Hunter; and in 1810.
St. Philip’s, the first stone church, was conse-
crated in Sydney, to which George III. gave a
costly communion service. In 1818 the foundation
of the large and handsome church of St. James
was laid.

In February, 1807, Mr. Marsden, leaving the
colony in charge of the Rev. W. Fulton, started
for England, with a view of procuring assistance
in the work of the ministry in New South Wales.
During the two following years the Revs. W.
Cowper and H. Cartwright arrived in the colony,
holding the appointment of assistant chaplains.

On Mr. Marsden’s return, in 1810, the work of
the ministry was divided between the four clergy-
men already named.

In 1817 there were 17,000 souls in the colony :
7000 of them convicts, and five clergymen in charge
of them. No wonder that crime increased, that
transportation was pronounced a failure, either as
a punishment or as a means of reformation.

In 1824 Archdeacon T. H. Scott was appointed
352 AUSTRALIA.

to the spiritual charge of the colony, and the
number of chaplains on the establishment was
increased, first to eight, and subsequently to
fourteen. At this time there were eight churches
and six chapels; seven of the chaplains occupied
parsonage-houses, two, temporary parsonages, four
were allowed a sum equivalent to the rent of a
house, and one resided at the Female Orphan
School, near Parramatta.

In the first royal instructions which appear to
have been given respecting the granting of lands
and the allotment of ground in the new settle-
ment, “provision was made for the church by
allotting, in each township which should be
laid out, 400 acres for the maintenance of a
minister, and half that quantity for the main-
tenance of a schoolmaster:” thus showing that
the interests of religion were not intended to
be overlooked in the new establishment. In the
year 1826, however, a more substantial and ex-
tensive support was set on foot for the church,
by the granting of letters patent from the crown,
for erecting a corporation for the management
of the church and school lands in the colony of
New South Wales; but this charter was after-
wards revoked in 1831, since which period the
Church of England clergy and their establish-
ments have been supported wholly or in part
by grants of money voted annually by the colo-
nial government.

Similar grants were also, in accordance with
a local act passed at that time, made for the sup-
THE FIRST BISHOP OF AUSTRALIA. 353

port of the Roman Catholic and Presbyterian
clergy, out of the public funds of the colony.
Previously to 1836, New South Wales belonged
to the diocese of the Bishop of Calcutta; in that
year the Venerable Archdeacon Broughton, who
had laboured in the colony since 1829, was ap-
pointed the first Bishop of Australia, having
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the several settle-
ments, including those of Tasmania and Swan
River. 3000l. were granted to the Church by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and
10001. by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts, and within a year up-
wards of 13,0001. were collected. From that time
the Church has grown mightily there. Year after
year clergy were sent out by the Propagation
Society.

At the commencement of the year 1839, the
clergymen of the Church of England, doing paro-
chial duty in the colony of New South Wales,
under Bishop Broughton, amounted to thirty-
three. At the same period the number of
Presbyterian clergymen was twenty-three; of
those of the Church of Rome twenty; and of
Wesleyans, Independents, and other sects twelve ;
the total population of the colony, at that time,
being nearly 100,000.

In 1854 the church sustained a severe loss in
the death of the excellent Bishop Broughton: he
was succeeded by Dr. Frederick Barker, whe is
the present Bishop of the diocese of Sydney, and
Metropolitan of Australasia.

Z
354 AUSTRALIA.

In 1847 the northern part of New South
Wales was made a separate see, and Dr. William
Tyrrell was appointed the first Bishop of New-
castle.

St. Andrew’s cathedral, which for many years
has remained unfinished in consequence of want
of funds, has lately been undergoing extensive
improvements, and, when completed, will be one
of the finest edifices in the Australian colonies.

At the present time, the clergy list for the
diocese of Sydney includes, besides the bishop
and the dean, and chaplains, and the two canons
of St. Andrew’s cathedral, no fewer than eighty
clergymen, who are distributed throughout the
towns and country districts of the diocese.

The diocese of Newcastle now numbers besides
its bishop, three canons, twenty-eight priests,
and several deacons; but these are not sufficient
to supply the spiritual wants of so large a
territory, the population of which is rapidly in-
creasing. In connexion with the University of
Sydney is St. Paul’s College, founded by members
of the Church of England, for the especial tuition
and residence of students belonging to the
Church, or whose friends do mot object to their
being taught her doctrine and discipline.

A third diocese has been constituted within
the last two years, to embrace the south-western
portion of New South Wales, and a bishop ap-
pointed under the title of Bishop of Goulburn.
Still more recently, the towns of Grafton and
Armidale, situated in the north of the colony, have
SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. B55

been constituted a separate diocese, to which,
however, as yet, no bishop has been appointed.
Since the separation of the Moreton Bay district
from New South Wales, the city of Brisbane
has been erected into a see, and Dr. E. W. Tuffnell
appointed its bishop.

In Tasmania, the first clergyman arrived in
the year 1803. The archdeaconry of Van
Diemen’s Land was constituted in 1836 ; and in
1842, Dr. F. R. Nixon was appointed as the first
Bishop, and fulfilled the duties of his office until
1864, when he was compelled through severe
illness to resign. The present bishop is Dr.
Bromby, who has a staff of between fifty and
sixty clergymen in the various churches and
country districts throughout the island.

In the year 1847 the diocese of Melbourne was
formed, Bishop Broughton offering to give up
1,000l., a year, the half of his whole income,
for the endowment of this diocese and that of
Newcastle, which was formed at the same time.
The government complied with his desire, so far
as to take from him 5000. a year, and, by adding
an equal sum out of the other funds of the Church
in the colony, it endowed the two dioceses of
Melbourne and Newcastle with 5001. a year each ;
the committee of the Colonial Bishopries’ Fund
undertaking to give each diocese the further sum
of 333l. 6s. 8d. In the case of the diocese of
Melbourne the payment out of the colonial revenue
was afterwards increased by the local government
to 1,000l. a year. From that time the “Bishop
356 AUSTRALIA.

of Australia” assumed the title of “ Metropolitan
Bishop of Sydney.”

After the separation of the Port Phillip district
from New South Wales, and its erection into an
independent colony under the name of Victoria,
a provision was made under the New Constitu-
tion Act for the advancement of religion, and
a sum of 50,000l annually set apart for that
purpose out of the colonial revenue of Victoria.
One half of this sum was for ministers’ stipends,
and the other half towards the erection of churches.
The aid was to be given to the various Christian
bodies, in proportion to their respective numbers
at the last census.

On St. Peter’s Day, 1847, Dr. Charles Perry was
consecrated the first Bishop of Melbourne, and
on the 23rd of January, 1848, he arrived there
and entered on his labours. At this period there
were only three clergymen of the Church of
England employed in the duties of their sacred
calling. Three others accompanied the bishop
from England, another arrived shortly afterwards,
and four were ordained during the year; so that
at the close of 1848, the staff of clergy amounted
to eleven, which number was increased to thirty-
four towards the close of 1854. In the first
eighteen months of his episcopate, Bishop Perry
expended 50007. on clergy and schools, chiefly from
funds supplied by the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel and his own friends in England.
In October 1848 the Archdeaconry of Geelong
was constituted, to which was appointed the Rev.
THE CHURCH IN MELBOURNE. 357

H. B. Macartney, D.D.; and in November 1851,
that of Melbourne, the Rev. T. Hart Davies, M.A.,
being designated to this office. A third arch-
deaconry, that of Portland, was also constituted in
1854, and the Rev. T. H. Braim appointed to fill it.

On the arrival of Bishop Perry in 1848, there
were only two (unfinished) churches in Melbourne,
a small one at Geelong, a small wooden one at
Belfast, and a brick schoolroom used for public
worship at Portland. There was no parsonage at
Melbourne; but there was one at Geelong, and
one at Portland.

In Melbourne, at the time of the discovery of
the gold-fields in 1851, there were the churches
of St. James and St. Peter, capable of holding
about 450 and 700 persons respectively—the
former still remaining unfinished. St. Paul’s
church was also in progress, but not ready for
divine service. Churches, or schoolhouses in
which service was performed, had been erected
at Collingwood, Richmond, St. Kilda, Brighton,
Williamstown, and other suburban places; whilst
at Geelong, on the other side of the bay, a pro-
jected enlargement of the existing church had
been commenced, and the walls of a second
church, intended to hold a thousand persons, were
completed, but the edifice was not roofed in.

The impossibility of obtaining labour, and the
subsequent high prices consequent on the dis-
covery of the gold-fields, put a stop to all works
which were in progress ; and compelled the post-
ponement of such as were in contemplation,
358 AUSTRALIA.

apparently for an indefinite period. The large
sum, however, annually set apart .by Act of
Council in 1853, for the erection of places of
worship and ministers’ dwellings, and towards the
payment of ministers’ stipends, gave an impulse
to voluntary contributions; and this, together with
the great wealth that had been acquired by some
liberal-minded men, has produced effects, such as
no one could have previously anticipated.

Melbourne has now several large and commo-
dious churches, amongst which St. Paul’s, which
will held 1040 persons, is a great ornament as
well as blessing to the city. Geelong also pos-
sesses two fine churches, those of Christ Church
and St. Paul’s; churches and parsonages have
been erected at Castlemaine, Sandhurst, Ballarat,
and other towns on the gold-fields ; and numerous
other places of worship and schoolrooms have
been built in the various townships and villages
throughout the colony.

The census of 1857 gave the religious condition
of Victoria, in a total population of 410,766, as
follows :—Church of England, 175,418; Presby-
terians, 65,935; Wesleyan Methodists, 20,395;
other Protestants, 27,521; Roman Catholics,
77,351; Jews, 2,208; Mohammedans and Pagans,
27,254. Ths census for 1861 shows an increase in
the population of 130,000, the ratio of the various
religious bodies being pretty nearly as before.

In South Australia the Church is not supported
by the State; no portion of the colonial revenue
having been applied for several years to the main-
THE CHURCH IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 359

tenance of religious establishments. The see of
Adelaide was erected in 1847; and Dr. Augustus
Short, of Christchurch, Oxford, was consecrated
first Bishop. By a curious coincidence he landed
at Adelaide on the eleventh anniversary of the
foundation of the colony, Dec. 28, 1847.

The establishment of the Church of England
at the present time consists of the Bishop, the
Dean, and the Archdeacon of Adelaide, four
canons, two of whom are rural deans, and about
thirty clergymen; besides lay catechists and,
missionary chaplains, who hold services at the
outlying stations in various parts of the colony.
Ten of the clergymen are graduates of the
Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin ;
fifteen were ordained in England, and the re-
. mainder in the colony. Only one, the colonial
chaplain, receives any pecuniary aid from govern-
ment; the rest are entirely dependent on vo-
luntary support. The voluntary contributions of
members of the Church throughout the colony
have provided certain trust funds for its benefit.
Besides the Episcopal Endowment Fund of 17,5001.
munificently provided by Miss Burdett Coutts,
there ate the Leigh and Allen Funds, yielding
an annual income of 2,500. A sum of 2,000.
is also invested for the endowment of the dean
and chapter. There is, besides, the property of
the Church of England Endowment Society, the
capital of which promises to be, at the end of
the first seven years, 10,000/, This is intended
for parochial endowment, The only sources ex-
360 AUSTRALIA.

ternal to the diocese from which pecuniary as-
sistance is supplied, are the annual grant of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel of 5001,
in aid of recently-formed cures; and the annual
subscription of the Bishop of St. Asaph of 100.
for endowment.

Considerable sums of money have also been
collected recently towards the erection of several
projected new churches and parsonages.

In the city of Adelaide itself, there are five
churches, with accommodation for nearly 3,000
persons, and three schoolrooms for ‘650 children.
Besides the total of forty-eight churches through-
out the settled districts, others are in course
of erection, or recently completed, at Mount
Gambier, Melrose, Kadina, Wallaroo, and other
places. There is a church at Port Lincoln, and a
clergyman for the district; also one at Robe
Town, Guichen Bay. In addition to the visits of
the resident missionaries, the bishop himself, or
his missionary chaplain, visits from time to time

“the outlying districts in the bush.

In South Australia many attempts have been
made to civilize and educate the aboriginal tribes,
and to bring them under the influence of the
Gospel. The intellect, however, of the wild Aus-
tralian adult appears incapable almost of being
reasoned with, and all efforts to educate or
Christianize the grown-up natives have proved
unsuccessful. In the early days of the colony a
school for native children of both sexes was
established at Walkerville, near Adelaide, and
THE POONINDEE MISSION ;: PORT LINCOLN. 361

the young Australians were found as capable of
education as children of more civilized races; but
no sooner was the grown-up girl or boy in some
measure tamed, instructed, and impressed with the
truths of religion, than the former was claimed as
the affianced wife of some savage in the bush, and
the latter was summoned to his tribe to go through
the initiatory rites by which he was admitted to
the rank of manhood. Thus, no sooner had the
savage parents of the school-children paid their
autumnal visit from the banks of the Murray to
‘Adelaide than a message, secretly conveyed, would
empty the school of the elder girls; or, suddenly,
several of the older boys would disappear, leaving
their clothes behind them by the banks of the
river, or the trees of the park lands.

It became evident, therefore, that unless the
children became isolated from native influences
and associations, no permanent good could ever be
effected. Hence the idea of removing the elder
children to an adult institution at Port Lincoln on
the western side of Spencer's Gulf. This institu- *
tion Archdeacon Hale has succeeded, with the
help of the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, in setting on foot at Poonindee, where he
has devoted himself to the object of converting, if
possible, but at all events of civilizing, the remnant
of the young people left, and saving them from the
ravages of disease and infamy. His plan is to
educate, to employ, and to Christianize them, by
separating them from native pollution and temp-
tations to vice. A native “reserve” has been set
362 AUSTRALIA.

apart by the government at Poonindee on the river
Tod, near the settlement of Port Lincoln, in order
to carry out this system of industrial employment,
where the various duties of farming, cattle-herd-
ing, and agriculture for the young men offer the
best means of training them to the habits and
duties of civilized life. The simple, kind, firm,
Christian earnestness of the archdeacon first gained
the confidence, and afterwards the affections, of
these children of the bush; and the untiring zeal
with which he has laboured amongst them has at
length been crowned with a considerable portion
of success. The following account of a visit to
Poonindee by the Bishop of Adelaide will show
that thus far the institution is an exception to the
list of Australian missionary failures. His lord-
ship says: ¢ The mission now consists of fifty-four
natives comprising eleven married couples; therest
children of either sex, thirteen being from the Port
Lincoln district. The married couples have each
_ their little hut, built of the trunks of the shea-oak
set up in the ground, the interstices being neatly
plastered and whitewashed, and roofed with broad
paling. The other children, in small divisions,
occupy the remaining ones. They have their
meals in common in the general kitchen; the
working party first, then the women and children.
Narrang, one of the elder young men, assisted by
two mates, is steward, butcher, and cook. At
half-past six in the morning, and after sundown,
all assemble at the archdeacon’s cottage for the
reading of Scripture and prayer.. The school-
THE CHURCH IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 363

master, Mr. Haslop, leads the singing of a simple
hymn, and the low soft voices of the natives
make pleasing melody. A plain exposition
follows. After breakfast they go to their several
employments; the cowherds milk, &ec.; some
were engaged in putting up posts and rails for a
stock-yard ; the shepherds were with their flocks;
two assisted the bricklayer, one preparing mortar,
the other laying bricks. At the proper season
they plough, reap, shear, make bricks, burn char-
coal, cut wood ; do, in fact, under the direction of
the overseer, the usual work of a station. Six
hours are the limits of the working day. Shep-
herds, &c., receive 8s. per week and rations;
second class labourers 5s. ; third 3s. 6d., fourth
2s. 6d. The younger children attend school; the
married women wash, sew, and make and mend
the clothes. Such is an outline of the occupation,
education, and religious training adopted at
Poonindee, which, begun with very limited means,
and with no previous instance of success to en-
courage hope, has, nevertheless, through a bless-
ing upon the archdeacon’s patient, quiet zeal,
reached a very promising state of maturity.”

The colony of Western Australia formed a
portion of the diocese of Adelaide up to the year
1€57 ; it was then erected into a separate see, and
Archdeacon Hale, the founder of the Poonindee
mission at Port Lincoln, was appointed the first
bishop, under the designation of Bishop of Perth.
The two venerable Church Societies contributed
50007. towards the endowment of this see.
364 AUSTRALIA.

The first clergyman of the Church of England
who laboured in Western Australia was the Rev.
J. B. Wittenoom, who arrived in the colony in
1829, as colonial chaplain, and performed his
duties until January, 1855, officiating at St.
George’s Church, in Perth.

At the period of Bishop Hale’s appointment,
there were eight chaplains serving the different
districts throughout the colony, under the direc-
tion of Archdeacon Woolaston, of King Georges
Sound. At the present time the number of clergy
has increased to about fifteen. Just previously to
the arrival of Bishop Hale, the colony sustained
the severe loss of Archdeacon Woolaston, who,
after ten years of exemplary labour, died, worn
~ out with fatigue consequent upon his laborious
visitations, and universally beloved and respected
by all classes of the community.

Archdeacon Brown has lately succeeded Dean
Pownall as senior colonial chaplain (the latter
having been appointed to the incumbency of St.
John’s, Hoxton), and divides the diocese with
Archdeacon Thornhill, who is stationed at
Champion Bay.

The Cathedral of St. George, at Perth, erected
about twenty years ago, has recently been enlarged.
It is situated on a commanding and beautiful site,
and forms one of the principal embellishments of
the city.

The most important churches, next to the
cathedral, and which may lay claim to some
pretensions to ecclesiastical architecture, are
THE CHURCH IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 365

those erected at Guildford and Newcastle, whilst
that at the village of Vasse is very picturesque,
and calls to mind one of the rustic churches in the
rural hamlets of the mother-country.

The clergy of the Church of England co-operate
with those of other denominations on the General
Board of Education, and take a leading part in the
management of the government schools, through-
- out the colony.

The bishop has lately interested himself largely
in the establishment of a college in connexion
with the church, for the education of the sons of
the better class of settlers. This college is
founded upon the model of the collegiate school
of St. Peter’s at Adelaide.

At King George’s Sound there is a school for
aboriginal children, originally instituted by
Archdeacon Woolaston, which is now conducted
by Mr. and Mrs. Campfield, to whose untiring
exertions the success of the undertaking is, under
God’s blessing, mainly to be attributed. Many of
the native children who have been educated in
this school have turned out exceedingly well, and
one of the former pupils is at the present time
performing the duties of organist of the church at
Albany.

THY END.
LONDON:
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