QUEENSLAND. 119 



new settlement had been formed on the coast, they sought to open com- 

 munication with it. A pass — known as Cunningham's Gap — was found in 

 1832 through the ranges which form the eastern flanks of the great plateau, 

 and communication was opened with the settlement. Townships were formed. 

 Near the verge of the Darling Downs plateau the seed of what is now the 

 thriving and important town of Toowoomba was sown by the carriers making 

 a halting-place before attempting the toilsome and dangerous descent through 

 the ravines of the thickly wooded range, which then swarmed with bold and 

 hostile savages. Another such halting-place was the spot where travellers, 

 having emerged from the broken country and having passed the great scrubs 

 or jungles at the foot of the hills — now a populated and thriving farming 

 district — first struck the navigable waters of the Bremer, the principal affluent 

 of the Brisbane. At that point the town of Ipswich came into existence, and 

 for many years it rivalled Brisbane in importance, because the goods brought 

 to the capital by sea-going ships were taken in river craft to the former town, 

 which was thus the point of departure for all land carriage. 



Brisbane grew slowly. There was no special attraction to induce people 

 to leave the more populated districts of New South Wales, and bury them- 

 selves in so remote a settlement. There was the fever which attacks settlers 

 in all newly opened settlements, the blacks were dangerous, and that the place 

 was a station for doubly and trebly convicted felons told against it. But the 

 rich Darling Downs came to be regarded as a pastoral paradise, and squatting 

 occupation spread rapidly in the interior, so that its expansion told slowly 

 but surely on the outpost. The convict establishment was in time closed. 

 The plot of ground formerly cultivated by the convicts is now occupied partly 

 by a fine public garden, and partly by the domain surrounding the Governor's 

 residence. 



Brisbane is a fast-growing city, with a population, including the suburbs, 

 of between 50,000 and 60,000, its growth since the census of 1881 having 

 been so rapid that it is not possible to furnish more than an approximate 

 estimate of the number. Originally built on a flat, partly enclosed by an 

 abrupt bend of the river, the town has climbed the bordering ridges, crossed 

 the stream and spread out in all directions. The principal street — Queen 

 Street — runs across the neck of the original river-side ' pocket ; ' at one end 

 it touches the wharves, at the other it meets the winding river at right 

 angles, and the roadway is carried on by a long iron bridge across to the 

 important suburb of South Brisbane. Queen Street, which is the combined 

 Collins and Bourke Streets of Brisbane, promises to be a fine-looking 

 thoroughfare. Already it possesses shops and bank buildings which may 

 challenge comparison with those of any Australian city, and every year the 

 older buildings are giving way to new and more imposing structures. On 

 one side of the thoroughfare the cross-streets lead through the oldest part 

 of the city ; through blocks of buildings where fine warehouses and tumble- 



