Vlll INTEODTJCTIOtf. 



called Batman's Hill, the country was in tlie hands of 

 the savage, and the kangaroo and wild dog roamed 

 through the surrounding bush, then as lonely as any 

 part of Australia. Field sports were, of course, at that 

 day little heeded by the white settlers, whose sole occu- 

 pation was to establish themselves in their new home ; 

 and the wild man, truly the monarch of all he surveyed, 

 held unmolested sway over hunting-grounds, then 

 swarming with every species of Australian game. Tardy, 

 however, was the progress of advancement, and this 

 country might have remained in its state of primitive 

 wildness, had not tidings of the wonderful discovery of 

 the Victorian goldfields reached the Old "World, and 

 thousands of adventurers from every clime flocked to 

 these shores, resolved " to do or die " in the struggle 

 after wealth. Then, indeed, " a change came o'er the 

 spirit of the dream ;" a large and populous city sprang 

 up as by magic in the desert, and some little idea of the 

 rapid rise in value of property here may be gathered 

 from the fact, that, in 1853, land in the town of Mel- 

 bourne sold for 210 per foot frontage, which, a few 

 years previous, might have been bought for 5 per acre. 

 The whole face of this district quickly changed. The 

 woodman's axe was heard in forests which had till then 

 only echoed back the howl of the wild dog, or the shout 

 of the savage. The country became gradually peopled. 

 The cockatoo settler built his log-hut on his small clear- 

 ing, the wild solitude of the bush vanished before the 

 presence of civilized man, and the game was of course 



