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to Quelquelling is about 20 miles on the road to Goomalling, and the 

 route runs through an agricultural country all occupied by tanners 

 in small locations, and is one of the best, if not the best, area of 

 agricultural land in the colony. It is just about the same sort of 

 land as that at Greenhills, the only difference being that the line 

 runs from York for some distance through large freehold 

 properties, whereas the line from Northam runs through the 

 land in the hands of small owners." The surveyor who is plotting 

 out the Goomalling agricultural area, writes to the Lands department 

 as follows in describing the country : " I have ridden over a large 

 area of the country. I think you will be pleased to learn that I 

 anticipate being able to forward a design for cutting up about 10,000 

 acres within a radius of six miles of reserve 1092, and having its 

 extreme alignment about 15 miles east of Goomalling. Eighty per 

 cent, of this land will be really first-class forest country, and a 

 portion of the remainder very good. I have also examined the 

 country 10 miles south from Goomalling, where two or three 

 thousand acres of good forest country can be obtained. The 

 Goomalling territory, free as it is from the water difficulty, needs 

 no further encomium. Land is also available for selection near the 

 Clackliue railway station, which is the junction of the Great Southern 

 and Yilgarn lines. The country in this locality is very hilly and 

 more suited to the vigneron and orchardist than the yeoman. As a 

 grape-growing district this section cannot be surpassed, the ironstone 

 gravel of the slopes of the Darling range providing all the requisites 

 for the flourishing vineyards of Mr. Edward Keane, Mr. Quinlan, 

 M.L.A., (Cooringa), Messrs. Bull and Stevens, and others of smaller 

 size, within the radius of a few miles. Those readers who are 

 interested in this subject are referred to the chapters on the soils of 

 Western Australia, and on vine and fruit culture, that appear in other 

 portions of this volume. 



Although this chapter has been entitled " Northam, Meckering, 

 and Goomalling districts " very little has been said of Northam 

 proper, for the reason that the land in its immediate vicinity is in 

 private hands. In a treatise dealing with the great producing 

 entrepots of the colony Northam would have had a foremost place, 

 for in the extensive area it has under cultivation, the modern 

 methods of its cultivators, their progressive spirit and enterprise, 

 and the quantity and value of their yields, it would be hard to find 

 an example of greater achievements, not alone in the western colony, 

 but in any other part of Australia. But this book is intended to 

 furnish counsel to those who are desirous of establishing themselves 

 in what, it is to be hoped, will prove a career of content, usefulness, 

 and expansion, upon Crown lands; and therefore places like Northam 

 which are in the possession of those who were in the van of settle- 

 ment, obtain only passing, but appreciative, notice, as belonging to 

 the sphere of realisation, rather than to the domain of the founder 

 of new centres, and the beginner at work that still remains to be done. 



