A Village on Darling Downs. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Queensland. 



Size and Configuration — Early Settlement — Brisbane Island and Coast Towns — Gladstone— Roma 

 — gympie — toowoomba — townsville — cooktown — squatting — the cattle station — the sheep 

 Station — The Queensland Forest — The Nettle-tree — Sugar Planting — Polynesian Natives — 

 Stoppage of the Labour Trade— Gold Mining — The Palmer— Silver, Tin, and Copper. 



THE following sketch of the great colony of Queensland is from the pen 

 of Mr. Carl A. Feilberg of Brisbane. 

 In order to form a just idea of Queensland it is necessary to bear in 

 mind the broad divisions of its territory. First, there is the coast country, 

 which is often spoken of as a strip, though in reality it has at some points 

 a depth of over two hundred miles. A glance at the map will show in- 

 numerable rivers finding their way into the sea along the whole east and 

 north coasts of the colony, and it is the country which forms the watersheds 

 of these rivers which is spoken of as the coast. West and south of this 

 bordering tract lies the great central plateau, which is mainly a huge plain, 

 where the surface, which sometimes rises into rolling downs and sometimes 

 spreads out in apparently limitless flats, is only broken by a few ranges of 

 low hills. From this great plateau the whole surface drainage is to the 

 south and south-west, a small portion finding its way into the Darling, but 



