5 2 RosENHAiN,/^ T/iuusuud AHlcs OH Riucr Murray . [y^]^ 



ici. Nat. 

 XXXIV. 



Wales side, owned by the Barham Sawmilling Co. On account 

 of the river being very low for many months jireviously, a 

 fairly large stock of timber had accumulated, and they esti- 

 mated there were about 1,000,000 superficial feet of timber 

 stacked there. The manager told me that timber was 

 becoming very scarce, and it hardly pays now to do the cutting. 

 The nearest trees that can be felled are about ten miles from 

 the mill, and it takes the men all their time to take the bullock 

 teams out and bring the logs in to the mills. The Government 

 supervision is very thorough. The minimum measurements 

 are : — The tree must have a girth of 8 feet 6 inches 20 feet 

 from the ground — anything less than that must not be felled ; 

 there is a fine if trees are cut less than these measurements. 

 The price the mill-owners have to pay the Government is 15s. 

 per 1,000 super, feet in the log. It costs 8s. 6d. per 1,000 super, 

 feet for felling the tree, and 25s. per 1,000 super, feet for hauling 

 the log to the mills. We stayed at Barham overnight, and 

 got a start early the next morning. The water at Barham 

 was within three inches of overflowing the banks. It was 

 steadily rising, and when I questioned some of the residents 

 whether they were not afraid of being flooded out during the 

 night they were quite unconcerned, and were not afraid of 

 anything of that sort happening, as it would mean a tremendous 

 volume of water to raise the level over the banks ; but when 

 once over the banks there was very little hope of the settlers 

 escaping l)cing washed out. At one small settlement a little 

 further up the river, which we passed coming along, the water 

 was just coming over the banks, and the inhabitants wc-re 

 busily jHitting up a moimd about 12 inches high along the 

 banks and around the buildings. This seems to be very 

 effective in keeping the water off. 



Our next stop was at Koondrook, about ten miles further 

 down. This is a township on the Victorian side, and there 

 are fairly large irrigation works here. On the opposite side of 

 the river is ]-5arham. A very fine lift-bridge crosses the Murray 

 at this point ; but with this bridge, as with a lot of buildings 

 made by the Government, there is no provision made for any 

 abnormal rise in the river, the result being that, in order to 

 pa-ss under this lift-bridge, we had to jmt on a lot of extra 

 cargo to lower the steamer, take down the funnel, and take 

 off the top railing, and it was then by the merest scrape and 

 squeeze that we managed to successfully get under, and this 

 was not accomplished until we had made several vmsuccessful 

 attem])ts. This lift-bridge, as well as one further down the 

 river, seems to have; been made for barges, and not for 

 passenger steamers. When passing imd'^r this bridge I counted 

 nineteen vSwallow.v' nests. Leaving Barham, we next passed 



