CHAPTER X. 



THE MIDLAND DISTRICT. 



In our notes of agricultural areas in the Midland district we 

 shall glance at the country traversed by the Midland railway from 

 Gingin to \Yalkaway, and the remainder of the northerly portion of 

 the South-west Land division, which includes Mullewa, Greenough 

 and Thompson's Flats. On the map the part of the colony which 

 for convenience of reference is being termed in this hand-book the 

 Midland district, includes part of the Swan country, and the whole 

 of the Melbourne and Victoria territory that is deemed to be fit for 

 cultivation purposes. To the eastward of the northern portion of 

 the South-west Land division lie nearly half of the geographical 

 boundaries of the Victoria district, but this eastern half need not be 

 considered in a SETTLER'S GUIDE, because the land is not suitable 

 for settlement, and is the site of the Yalgoo goldfield. The Yalgoo 

 country would be remarkably fertile if it had a certain rainfall, but 

 it is a dry area where a crop could not be counted upon. The land 

 is lightly timbered ; the soil is of the richest chocolate loam ; if it 

 could be watered it would be a magnificent tract for the production 

 of cereals or fruit ; it is undulating enough to secure perfect drainage 

 without being hilly and difficult to work ; in a word, it has every 

 gift of Nature except that of rainfall, which renders all the other 

 gifts useless to the yoeman, and therefore it is outside the pale of 

 further description for our present purpose. To the south of the 

 Midland district, between Gingin and the river flats of the Swan, 

 which formed the subject of the previous chapter, there are about 

 30 miles of country which maybe passed over with the remark that 

 much of it is inferior, and that the good spots are already occupied. 

 By beginning our journey of inspection at Gingin we get fairly into 

 the country for which the Midland railway company furnishes us 

 with a distinctive title and a text for a few necessary words of 

 explanation as to the history of that company, which has had an 

 important bearing upon what those who are most familiar with the 

 locality describe as a retarding influence upon settlement between 

 Gingin and the Irwin river. 



The Midland railway, which is 277 miles long, was constructed 

 on the land grant system by an English company, which in 1886 was 

 granted 12,000 acres of land for each mile of trie railway, or about 

 15,000,000 acres in all. The conditions were that the grants should 

 be selected within 40 miles on either side of the line, the frontage to 

 which was to be equally divided with the Government. Before the 

 line was completed the company found it necessary to borrow 



