growing salmon gum, gimlet wood, and morrell gums, which it costs 

 ^5 per acre to clear. Water has to be obtained from tanks or 

 wells. The Doodlekine area is next passed through on the road 

 to Coolgardie. This area was opened for selection in December, 

 1892, and comprises 40,000 acres about 75 miles from Northam, 142 

 miles from Perth, and is bounded on one side by the railway to 

 Southern Cross. Here sand patches intersect the forest country. 

 About 15 miles further on is the Bainding area, which has been 

 available since December, 1894, and contains 55,000 acres, a larger 

 proportion of which are of the esteemed forest country than is to 

 be found on the Tamin and Doodlekine areas. In all these areas 

 the one drawback is the small rainfall, \vhich steadily diminishes the 

 further east the settler goes. Some statistics may be given to 

 enable the reader to judge of the extent to which the district is 

 threatened with drought, which is occasionally relieved by the 

 occurence of a thunderstorm which does not pass over the moun- 

 tain ranges to the coast. Starting from 1888 the reports of the 

 Government Astronomer show that this would have been an 

 excellent season for w^heat growing, as 100 miles beyond Northam 

 rain amounting in all to about 14 inches fell regularly every month 

 from March to September. The following year was also a good 

 one, so excellent, in fact, that wheat and hay could have been 

 harvested at Southern Cross where, so far, a seed furrow has never 

 been cut. There was also a sufficient rainfall in 1890, but a check 

 occurred in 1891, when the record at Southern Cross was 

 only 5.20 and at Mooranoppin, near Doodlekine, 8.41. In 1891 

 there was more rain along the Yilgarn railway than in the Avon 

 valley, the records being respectively, Northam 14*43, anc ^ Southern 

 Cross 15*10, which was visited by some heavy local thunderstorms. 

 During five weeks from April 17 to May 21, frosts prevailed at 

 Mooranoppin. The 1893 season was the best of which any records 

 have been kept, Mooranoppin registering 14*91, and Southern Cross 

 13-97, while portions of the Avon Valley were flooded. 

 Quellquelling, Meckering, and Greenhills yielded in some 

 paddocks as much as 40 bushels to the acre. The next 

 season was the driest that has been known, Southern 

 Cross getting only 5-11 inches of rain, and Mooranoppin 

 10*28 inches. But even in that year early sown crops in the ea 

 would probably have been worth reaping. 



Some instructive evidence comes from Victoria as to the 

 prospect of establishing permanently prosperous wheat-growing 

 centres in the eastern agricultural areas of Western Australia, having 

 regard to the occurrence of such unfavorable seasons as that of 

 1894, which did not furnish any guide, because at that time culti- 

 vation had not been begun any distance eastward of Northam. 

 Comparisons can to some extent be made with the results 

 achieved in Victoria during 1896, in that year of drought in th( 

 mallee country, which corresponds to the eastern forest lands 



