CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Australia by the meridian of 141 east long. ; while 

 on the south and south-east it is bounded by 

 Bass's Strait. Its greatest length from east to ' 

 west is 500 miles, and its greatest breadth from , 

 north to south is 300 miles, the area being 88,198 

 square miles. 



The eastern and central portions are variegated 

 by mountain-ranges and hills, interspersed with 

 plains ; the north and north-west districts, lying 

 between the Murray and the parallel of 37 south 

 lat. are mostly flat and monotonous deserts of 

 sandy or meagre clay-soil, covered with hard rigid j 

 plants and shrubs, interspersed with salt-bushes, | 

 on which, however, sheep thrive. What is called 

 the ' Mallee Scrub,' consisting of dwarf eucalypti, j 

 covers extensive tracts in various parts of the 

 colony. The eastern portion is occupied by the , 

 Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains, a continua- 

 tion of the 'Dividing Range' of New South Wales. 

 The highest peak is 7000 feet It ends in Wilson's 

 Promontory, the southernmost point of the colony, 

 and is continued in a chain of islands to Tas- 

 mania. The loftiest range west of Port Phillip is j 

 the Grampians, about longitude 142 20', reaching, \ 

 in the summit of Mount William, 4500 feet East- ' 

 ward from the Grampians are the Pyrenees (longi- 1 

 tude 143), a granitic range ; and north-north- \ 

 west from Melbourne lie the Mount Macedon and ! 

 Mount Alexander ranges, containing the chief 

 gold-diggings. A great part of the colony is of 

 volcanic origin, and many of the mountains are 

 evident craters. The soil resulting from the de- 

 composition of the lava covers large tracts of great 

 fertility. 



Victoria is much better watered than the adja- 

 cent colonies. The rivers flow either north into 

 the Murray, or south into the ocean, the water- 

 shed or axis of the colony being about 100 miles 

 from the coast. The chief tributaries of the Mur- 

 ray, beginning at the east, are the Mitta Mitta, 

 the Ovens (both auriferous), Broken Creek, Goul- 

 burn (navigable at times for 300 miles), the Cam- 

 paspe, and the Loddon (rising near Mount Alex- 

 ander). These rivers are greatly reduced in the 

 dry season. Three considerable rivers the Avoca, 

 the Avon, and the Wimmera rise in the Pyrenees 

 and Grampians, and flowing northward, terminate 

 in lakes, without outlet, in the Mallee Scrub. The 

 southern rivers are the Snowy River, in the east 

 (longitude 148 300, and several that fall into 

 Lakes King and Wellington, the Yarra Yarra 

 (on which stands Melbourne), the Banvon, the 

 Hopkins, and the Glenelg. A remarkable 

 feature of the colony is the great number of salt- 

 lakes. 



The splendid natural harbour of Port Phillip 

 was discovered in 1802 by Lieutenant Murray, 

 and named after the first governor of New South ! 

 Wales. The permanent settlement was begun in 

 1835 by two associations of colonists from Van 

 Diemen's Land, headed by Batman and Fawkner, 

 the latter of whom encamped on the present site : 

 of Melbourne. In 1851, the district became a 

 separate colony, under a lieutenant-governor ; and 

 in 1855 a new constitution was granted, establish- 

 ing responsible self-government. 



The white population of Victoria in 1836 was 177 ; 

 in 1841, 1 1,738; in 1851, 236,798; in 1861, 540,322 ; 

 while in 1871 it amounted to 731,528 persons, of 

 whom 17,935 were Chinese, and 1330 aborig- . 

 ines. Of the Chinese in the colony, only 36 were 



300 



females. The town population is one-half of that 

 of all Victoria, Melbourne, with her suburbs, con- 

 taining 206,000; Ballarat, 47,201; Sandhurst, 

 21,987 ; and Geelong, 15,026. From 1835 to 1871, 

 I OI 9>553 immigrants arrived in the colony ; and 

 during the same period, 563,277 left it; leaving a 

 balance of 456,276. 



The chief pursuits are those of the squatter, the 

 miner, and the farmer. Till within a few years 

 ago, the squatters, run-holders, or sheep-farmers, 

 were the principal class in Victoria. Renting 

 large tracts of land from the crown, and grazing 

 immense flocks and herds, they succeeded in 

 establishing themselves in the first position in 

 respect of wealth and influence, and when the 

 lands came to be disposed of, they were able to 

 buy up enormous portions. The best runs are in 

 the western districts. Much of the wool-growing 

 land of Victoria now belongs to the squatters by 

 right of purchase. As the squatters threatened to 

 endanger the growth of the colony by their con- 

 tinued absorption of land, the legislature, after 

 many attempts, succeeded in devising, some few 

 years ago, an effective counteracting measure, 

 which is known as the system of ' free selection.' 

 According to this, large sections of land are succes- 

 sively thrown open to the public by the Department 

 of Lands, of which any one who is willing to become 

 a bond-fide settler, and is able to cultivate and im- 

 prove so much a year, and to pay a small rental, 

 which, standing to him as purchase-money, makes 

 the land his own in ten years, may select from 40 

 to 640 acres. This system has succeeded in set- 

 tling a large number of people on the soil. It is 

 administered by a body of land agents, whose 

 business it is to collect the rents, and see that 

 the stipulated improvements are annually made. 

 When the settler is unable to pay the rent, and 

 shews generally that he is unfit to grapple with 

 the difficulties of his situation, as not unfrequently 

 occurs in the case of small selectors, the land 

 reverts to the state, and is resold. On the whole, 

 notwithstanding incidental disadvantages, the plan 

 has succeeded well for all the purposes for which 

 it was introduced. 



For a good many years, gold-mining has been 

 an extensive pursuit in the colony of Victoria. 

 Before gold was discovered in Australia in 1851, 

 Sir R. I. Murchison in Great Britain, and the 

 Rev. W. B. Clarke in the colony, had declared 

 their belief that it must exist, owing to the resem- 

 blance of the geological formation to that of Cali- 

 fornia, and of the gold regions of the Ural in 

 Russia, The gold is found by washing the surface 

 detritus of the water-runs, and 'digging' holes 

 into the strata overlying the so-called pipe-clay. 

 Another source is the quartz-rocks, which com- 

 monly run in reefs, and are crushed by machinery, 

 to extract the gold. A large amount of capital is 

 invested by companies in quartz-reefing specu- 

 lations ; and shares change hands as railway or 

 mining scrip in Great Britain. Large pieces of ore 

 called ' nuggets,' have been occasionally found from 

 20 to 45 pounds-weight. As a settled industry, 

 gold-digging is found to require steady labour, skill, 

 organisation, and capital to render it remuner- 

 ative. On the whole, the yield amounts to about 

 a fair day's wage. In 1871, there were at work in 

 Victoria 58,279 miners, of whom 15,669 were 

 Chinese. The mining operations were carried on 

 over 985 square miles of auriferous ground, the 





