QUEENSLAND. 



plants selected for their use and beauty, and the sub-tropical position of 

 Brisbane allows the propagation of the vegetable products of almost every 

 zone. The ' bush house ' in these gardens, a huge structure consisting of a 

 rough framework roofed with dried bushes, covers several acres, and is stocked 

 with a most interesting collection of ferns, lycopods, orchids, dracsenas, 

 colans, begonias, &c. There is a public museum, which is well stocked, and 

 its specimens of natural history are well arranged. 



The use of timber for buildings is very general in Brisbane. Pine is 

 abundant on the coast of Queensland, and the easily worked timber is cheap. 

 The climate is very mild, and their weatherboard walls are quite sufficient to 

 keep out the very moderate cold experienced in winter ; almost all the dwelling- 

 houses, and many of the stores in the suburbs, are therefore wooden buildings. 

 The dwelling-houses also are nearly all detached, standing each one in an 

 allotment of its own, so that the residential part of the town straggles over 

 an immense area, stretching out in fragmentary streets for miles from the main 

 city. There are hundreds of neat cottages and trim villas scattered over the 

 low hills and valleys, on the river bank, or nestling under the range of hills 

 which lie to the west of the town. It should be remembered, however, that 

 in the climate of Brisbane the ' verandah is the best room in the house,' and 

 people live as much as possible in the open air ; the family group gathers on 

 the verandah in the evening instead of, as in a colder climate, congregating 

 indoors. 



The extended coast-line of Queensland, and the peculiar position of 

 Brisbane in the extreme south, has prevented it from concentrating the 

 social and commercial life of the colony, as is done by Sydney, Melbourne 

 and Adelaide. It is by far the largest coast town, the centre of government, 

 and its commerce is larger than that of all the remaining ports put together, 

 but these ports are many of them also real capitals and commercial cities. 

 The first important town on the coast going northward is Maryborough, on 

 the banks of the Mary River, a town containing probably 10,000 inhabitants, 

 and the commercial capital of a rich agricultural and mineral district, of 

 somewhat limited extent. Maryborough disputes with Brisbane the possession 

 of the most extensive ironworks in the colony, the demand for sugar and 

 mining machinery having called them into existence. Rockhampton, near the 

 mouth of the Fitzroy, is a town of equal if not greater population than 

 Maryborough, but it is a far finer and better built city. Being the west 

 terminus of the central system of trunk railways, it is essentially a commercial 

 capital, and a busy, thriving place. Agricultural operations are not as yet 

 very extensively carried on in the surrounding district, neither sugar-growing 

 nor general cultivation having at present helped to increase the prosperity of 

 Maryborough, nor is there any successful gold-field in the vicinity, though one 

 phenomenally rich mine, Mount Morgan, is being worked in the neighbour- 

 hood. Rockhampton has grown and prospered by trade, and as it is the outlet 



