PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



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had dwindled down to a stream of salL water; and, years 

 afterwards, Sturt's account of his enforced residence at Mount 

 Poole for nearly a year, stamped these western lands of New 

 South Wales as absolute desert. North of Adelaide, there is 

 a large area of salt pans and marshes, which seemed to be 

 always in the path of exolorers from the south, and most dis- 

 couraging accounts wer S sent in regarding the desolation of 

 the north lands. 



Nothing could be more depressing than to travel through 

 the mallee country of Victoria and New South Wales in mid- 

 summer ; and even as recently as 1862, Tenison- Woods, in 

 his "Geological Observations in South Australia," was only 

 voicing the general opinion, when he said the Mallee Lands 

 were worthless for settlement. Nevertheless, within less than 

 twenty-five years, large areas are producing rich crops of 

 wheat and fruit. In Victoria, in particular, they have been 

 greatly developed under the Mallee Pastoral Leases Act of 

 1883. It is estimated that the area of Mallee Land in Vic- 

 toria is about 12,000,000 acres; and that from 20 to 25 per 

 cent, of this consists of open plains, and country timbered 

 with pine, belar, bull-oak, and other scrub-trees. About 

 1,150,000 acres are under cultivation; and, in a second re- 

 port, it was stated that, in spite of the dry season, the wheat- 

 crops were much better in the Mallee than on the clay soils. 



Twenty-five years ago, the wheat-farmers declared that 

 cultivation could not be carried out on the red soil lands of 

 the central area of New South Wales, and that ruin stared 

 anyone in the face, who attempted cropping in the west ; yet 

 every year sees the wheat belt extending, and with improved 

 methods of treatment and modern appliances, good returns 

 are being obtained. 



I would, in my address, try to point out some of the great 

 changes that have been wrought by the advent of the white 

 man with his domestic animals, in the displacement of the 

 aboriginal population and the original fauna of this great 

 continent, in a hundred years of civilisation. 



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