THE EFFECTS OF SETTLEMENT AND PASTORAL 
OCCUPATION IN AUSTRALIA UPON THE 
INDIGENOUS VEGETATION. 
By Samvuet Drxovn. 
[Read October 4, 1892. ] 
I propose to consider in this paper the general effect of settle- 
ment in Australia upon the native vegetation, not only by the 
direct results of cultivation in destroying it, but also those pro- 
duced indirectly by the introduction of foreign plants ; and 
finally the effect of grazing upon the indigenous fodder-plants. 
To generalise on these subjects over such an extensive area as 
Australia may seem to be presumptuous in view of its widely- 
different soils and climatic conditions, and though I am fully 
aware that no one can be in a position to compare all the typical 
districts, yet I venture to record the results of my own observa- 
tions in both the settled and unsettled districts of extra-tropical 
Australia, having paid particular attention as a practical grazier 
during the last thirty years to the native growths. 
Settlement in Australia has been largely influenced by legisla- 
ture. The pioneer has usually been the cattle-breeder who, fol- 
lowing the surface-waters, has penetrated under enormous difh- 
culties to the distant interior ; next came the wool-grower, who 
stocked the back country (7.e., back from the rivers), sunk wells 
and tanks, and enclosed large tracts with wire-fences; in the 
districts with regular rainfalls the cultivators of the soil succeeded, 
who now usually combines grazing on a small scale. 
In New South Wales and Victoria the principle of ‘“ Free 
Selection before Survey ” allowed the farmer to select the richest 
and most fertile spots, which became centres for the dissemination 
of foreign plants commonly of little value, in fact, weeds, the 
rankness of growth of which frequently overcame the indigenous 
vegetation, especially the herbaceous. On the exhaustion of the 
soil by cultivation and grazing with cattle in succession, the 
ubiquitous red gums (Hucalyptus rostrata) re-occupied the land, 
and was accompanied in a small degree by various species of 
Acacias (¢.g., A. decurrens, A. pycnantha, &c.), and under their pro- 
tecting shade there reappeared the perennial grasses, such as species 
of Stipa, Danthonia, Panicum, &c. In other districts the worn- 
out farms, being grazed with sheep, are now grassy pasture lands 
and with the exception of the native grasses comparatively few 
species of the indigenous flora remain. 
