eir 



AUSTRALIA. 



AUSTRALIA. 



islands formerly known, discovered the eastern coast of Australia 

 from Cape Howe to Oape York, which was called by him New South 

 Wale*. After his voyage* many other Englishmen explored these 

 *e** successfully. After the establishment of the English colony in 

 New South Wales those coasts of the continent which till then had 

 not been visited by Europeans were explored. Ban and Flinders 

 discovered in 1798 the strait which separates Van Diemcn's Island 

 from the continent, and the adjacent land of the continent was called 

 Bass Land. In 1800 Grant discovered the coast to the west of Bass 

 Land up to Cape Northumberland: this portion of the continent 

 bean the name of Grant's Land. Flinders after having surveyed 

 Nuyt's Land discovered in 1805 a large extent of coast to the east of 

 it, which after him is called Flinders' Land. Thus nearly all the 

 remaining part of the coast* of continental Australia unseen by tho 

 Dutch were discovered by the English in less than 50 years : only a 

 small portion between Flinders' Land and Grant's Land remained 

 undiscovered, and that was afterwards explored by the French com- 

 mander Captain Baudin in 1805. 



Surface and Ifydroyrapky. The whole of the coast of Australia has 

 been carefully surveyed ; the interior is however still far from being 

 completely known. After the establishment of the English colony at 

 Fort Jackson in 1788 the settlers began to penetrate into the interior, 

 but their progress was soon stopped l.y that mountain range which 

 runs along the coast of New South Wales at no great distance from 

 the ocean. For many years their attempts to cross these mountains 

 were baffled, not so much by their height which is inconsiderable, as 

 by the steep rocks which form the highest summits, and because they 

 probably had never been passed by the natives. At last an attempt 

 made in 1813 succeeded, and during the last forty years the progress 

 of discovery in the interior has been rapid. More than one-fifth of 

 this continent, which is thought to be not much inferior to all Europe 

 in area, has been so far explored that a pretty accurate idea may be 

 formed of its soil and capabilities. We owe this to the attention 

 which the English government, stimulated by the Royal Geogra- 

 phical Society of London, and the governors of the colony have com- 

 monly paid to this object, and to the enterprising activity of a few 

 gentlemen. 



The principal journies of exploration have been those mode by 

 Messrs. Wentworth and Lawson in 1813, Hovell and Hume in 1824, 

 Cunningham in 1827 and 1844, Sturt between 1828 and 1837, 

 Mitchell between 1832 and 1847, Tyers, Strzelecki, and Eyre in 

 1840, Earle 1841, Grey, Landor, and Lefay 1843, the enterprising but 

 unfortunate Leichhardt and Kennedy between 1844 and 1848, and 

 Hoe and Gregory between 1848 and 1850. By the skill and courage 

 of these and numerous other gentlemen a large portion of the interior 

 has been made known, but much remains entirely unexplored, and 

 from the nature of the country may long continue so. Every year 

 however and almost every month some addition is being made to our 

 knowledge of the interior, and the recent extraordinary influx of 

 daring adventurers will necessarily lead to a much more thorough 

 examination of all the readily-accessible portions of the mountain 

 regions, and no doubt eventually to a considerable extension of our 

 knowledge of the general geography of the country : very much 

 important information respecting the interior may be anticipated to 

 accrue from the important expedition about to be made under the 

 direction of M. Ernest Haug. The results of the various journies 

 which have been made into the interior, and the description of tho 

 coast wfll be most conveniently given in our notices of the colonies 

 w SOVTH WALES, VICTORIA, NORTH AUSTRALIA, SOCTH AUS- 

 TRALIA, and WOTCRK AUSTRALIA, into which the island is divided. 

 Here it will be enough to give merely general outline of the geo- 

 graphical character of the country. 



I lately an idea prevailed that the continent of Australia rose 

 on all side* to a considerable elevation at no great distance from the 

 coast, and that the interior was an immense Iwsin, where an extensive 

 lake received all the water flowing down from the elevated ridges 

 surrounding it on all point* of the compass. This was inferred from 

 the navigators who surveyed the coast with accuracy not having 

 been able to discover the outlet of any great river, and it received 

 much support from the discovery of Mr. Oxley that one of the greatest 

 rivers of the interior, the Maoquarie, virtually terminates in swampy 

 marshes. The Leh]*n also appeared to him to terminate in a similar 

 manner. The generalisation a* to the character of the interior was 

 however mad* too hastily. It is not proved that the land generally 

 stein* considerable height at no gnat distance from the shores. 

 The southern coast between Cape Leeuwin and Cane Wiles to tho 

 west of Spencer Gulf, on an extent of coast of nearly 25 degree* of 

 longitude, has few eminences which deserve to be called hills. The 

 country about Spencer Gulf up to Bass Strait and Cape Wilson is 

 more hilly, but even here large tract* of the coast are low and no 

 mountain, are visible. Along the south-eastern and eastern coast, 



wn Cape Wilson in Cape York, tho mountains appear at no great 

 u*tence from the shore, which in many parts is low and in others 

 rooky and mountainou* ; but "n the northern coast again nm- 

 xteosive tract* of low nhorc are found. The western shores however 

 rein many place* high and precipitous, especially to the south of 

 Dirk Hartog*s Inland; and even where they are low a range of 

 appears at no great distance from the sea. The drainage 



of the south-eastern portion of the interior is carried off by tho 

 Murray ; other rivers of the interior are lost in the sands or marshes, 

 and others probably find their way to the sea which washr 

 northern and western shores, though the mouths of no large rivers 

 have been discovered on these coasts. We are still indeed far fn<m 

 being in possession of sufficient data fur forming a general idea of the 

 interior, but the notion of there being a great inland sea or lake is now 

 very generally given up. The centre of the continent no doubt is a 

 sandy desert in all probability the bed of a sea of comparatively 

 recent date ; and there may yet be a salt-lake or a series of salt-lakes 

 discovered in a great depression. 



Generally it may be said of the continent that the range* of 

 mountains mentioned as stretching along the south-eastern and eastern 

 coasts, in some places come close down to the shore, but elsewhere 

 permit wide, fertile, and thinly wooded plains, with occasional sandy 

 tract*, to extend between them and the sea. Towards the interior, 

 beyond and nearly parallel with the mountain ranges, are undulating 

 downs of moderate height and great extent, such aa the Darling 

 Downs discovered by Mr. Cunningham, the Fitzroy Downs discovered 

 by Sir T. Mitchell, the Goulburn, Bathurst, Maueero, or Brisbane 

 Downs, and the New England district, with vast fertile plains lying 

 along and between the great rivers. These downs afford tl. 

 sheep runs, the plains the cattle pastures. Farther inland are wide 

 spread marshes and worthless jungle, and enormous barren, arid, and 

 sandy, or stony deserts wholly uninhabitable, and which have hitherto 

 baffled all attempts to explore them. No dense forests have been found ; 

 the densest are those which occur in the Moreton Bay district and in 

 tropical Australia. The trees are almost invariably light of foliage 

 and very marked in character. The herbage is thin ; the grasses are 

 nutritious but generally grow in detached clumps. The river system 

 as far as known is peculiar. Many of the rivers of tho interior are 

 loot in the sands, others are subject to immense overflows so as to 

 convert in the wet season a large portion of the adjacent country into 

 vast swamps, while in the dry season their channels are in many places 

 quite dry and they are converted into a number of scarcely connected 

 lagoons. Few of the rivers which fall into the sea are navigable, all 

 have bars or other encumbrances at their mouths. But except a 

 small tract along the western coast, both to the north and south of 

 Swan lliver, a port of tropical Australia, and the eastern coast, only 

 the south-eastern part of this continent has been thoroughly explored ; 

 and this embraces little more than one-fifth of the whole area, and 

 comprehends chiefly the country to the south of 20 S. lat and to the 

 east of 138 E. long. 



This region is traversed by a range of mountains which begins at 

 the most southern point of Australia, Cape Wilson, and runs generally 

 nearly due north up to 28 S. lat Probably it continues in the same 

 direction or with inconsiderable bends to Cape York, at Endeavour's 

 Strait, but about 25 S. lat., the mountains become much lower, the 

 range there breaking off in what has been called the lofty plateau of 

 Buckland's Table-Land, which overlooks a much lower country in the 

 north. These mountains must not however be regarded as a single 

 ridge, they rather consist of several separate ridges and detached 

 misses, with conxidcrable table-lands ending abruptly towards the 

 sea. Strzelecki estimates the mean height of the watershed of N< w 

 South Wales at 3500 feet. The distance between this mountain range 

 and the shore is not everywhere the same. South of 33 S. lat. it 

 averages between 40 and 60 miles, but at that latitude the range 

 declines somewhat to the west, and continues in this direction to 32, 

 where its distance from tho sea is 140 miles at the sources of the 

 liver Hunter. It then turns suddenly to tho east, and continues in 

 this direction for about 50 miles till it again resumes it former course 

 due north or a point or two to the east, and at a distance of about 80 

 or 100 miles from the shore. The southern range up to 33 is called 

 the Blue Mountains; that portion of it which lies in the direction of 

 west and east bears the name of Liverpool Range ; and that which 

 extends to the north of the Liverpool Range has not yet received any 

 name. This chain divides the rivers which cut the coast from those 

 which traverse the interior of Australia. As far as is yet known the 

 greatest height of this range is near 31 lat., where the mountains 

 rise to 6500 feet and upwards. Tho Worragong Mountains, more 

 commonly called the Australian Al|, whie.h lie between 35 and 37 

 8. lat., have some of their peaks covered with perpetual snow. Mount 

 Wellington, or Kosciusko, within the boundary of New South Wales, 

 is 0510 feet high. A portion of the range to the cost of the 

 Australian Alps is generally called the Dividing Range. That portion 

 of the range which extends to the west of Sydney appears not to rise 

 much above 3000 feet; Mount York, one of its highest summits, 

 attains only 3292 feet The average breadth of this range is above 

 60 miles, and it is difficult to cross as the higher part consists of steep 

 and bare rocks and deep chasms, and contains only a few passe*. 

 In the Liverpool Range the upper part of the ridges is flat, or 

 forms little hills and valleys covered with (inn soil of moderate depth 

 overgrown with gross. A road leads over this range from Sydney to 

 Bathurst 



'III ooantrj ' ' so the I)ivi<ling Range and the sea is rather 

 hilly ; the flats which are generally found along the shore arc in most 

 places of small breadth, though in some few they extend 40 miles 

 inland, and almost to the Dividing Range itself. These flats have 



