20 



could improve and thus turn to profitable account. The 

 gist of his speech was that five acres of which the most is 

 made are better than hundreds that are only partially 

 productive, and Lowlands exemplifies that Mr. Richardson 

 is a man who can not only speak to the purpose, but carry his 

 theories out in a most thorough, workmanlike and practical manner 

 practical in the sense that a satisfactory balance sheet can be 

 produced at the end of the year. For nearly half a century the 

 site of Lowlands remained unimproved in the hands of the 

 Colonization Estates' Company ; it was one of the best of their 

 grants, but the pasture hidden from the sun and light and choked 

 by the trees was sour and watery ; the land looked more like a 

 partly dry morass and was passed over by scores of stock owners, 

 who looked to the north-west and the Murchison for their ranches r 

 while within 35 miles of Perth there was, ready to their hands, an 

 area that, cleared and sown with grasses, would top a beast to the 

 acre. On a smaller scale, perhaps, the rule will be found to apply 

 all through Western Australia, and especially in the south-west, that 

 a superficial examination, a quick discouragement when a piece of 

 land is found to be thickly timbered or badly grassed, may lead to 

 the rejection of a really good location. On the west side of the 

 Serpentine station there is a very eligible block, the owners of 

 which are the members of a company in New South Wales. It is 

 several thousands of acres in extent, and nearly all of it ought to be 

 helping to make up the shortage in the local wheat supply. Nearer 

 the Darling range the good land is in narrow strips. Pushing on 

 to North Dandalup the way is through some thick red gum 

 forests and blackboy growth that the selector would be fortunate 

 to obtain if the country hereabout belonged to the Crown 

 The river at North Dandalup runs throughout the year and inter- 

 sects this estate, and so does the railway for several miles. 

 Creaton, the estate of the Paterson family, was originally part of the 

 grants. The Murray river, the Perth road and the Mandurah road, 

 and also a belt of limestone, cut through Creaton, which embraces 

 12,000 acres, a very large proportion of which has been improved 

 so highly as to be almost outside the pale of the Agricultural Lands 

 Purchase Act, notwithstanding that the legatees are prepared to 

 treat with a purchaser. Pinjarrah is, owing to its fertility, 

 rainfall, and nearness to Perth, with which it is joined by rail, one 

 of the safest districts for new men to get a prosperous foothold. 

 The river tlats of Creaton make splendid wheat paddocks, which 

 have been cropped for many years. There are also some swamp 

 lands upon which pigs are raided without any special attention, until 

 they are wanted for the fattening pen on the approach of the bacon 

 curing >ca>.< >n. Some excellent fruit also comes from the banks of 

 the Murray near the Creaton homestead. 



The frontages to the' Murray about Pinjarrah were among the 

 first blocks to become the holdings of men who had the resources 



