66 



AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



The ports of this district are Warnambool and Belfast and Portland, 

 and near the two first-named places is land of an exceptional richness that 

 has gone far to make the locality wealthy. Here the potatoes of the 

 continent are grown. Warnambool and Belfast supply the Melbourne, the 

 Sydney, the Brisbane, and the Adelaide markets. There is no successful 

 competition, for nowhere do quantity and quality go so well together. A 



The UrrER Goulbourn, Victoria. 



maximum yield of twenty and thirty tons per acre has been obtained. The 

 land has been sold at ^80 per acre. One landowner lets 1200 acres at 

 £$ 10s. per acre per annum. These are the 'top' prices, but they establish 

 the fact that the volcanic formation of the Western District gives patches 

 with a marvellous producing power. A small estate in Australia Felix — for 

 it was this region which Mitchell so named — is a large fortune. 



