129 



The country round Sydney. 

 Arid nature of the soil. 



criTTTH 

 &UU1U 



Ulawarra district. Droughts and Hoods. 

 Rivers of New South Wales. 



three miles and three hundred and seventy-seven 

 yards in length, was finally completed on the 13th 

 day of June, 1816." 



Governor Macquarie has literally put his mark 

 on the town of Sydney, where hardly a single street, 

 square, or public building can be passed, without 

 seeing his name cut in stone. 



The aspect of the country around Sydney is suf- 

 ficient to prove that New South Wales is very 

 different, in its general features, from other parts 

 of the globe. This is chiefly owing to two causes: 

 the aridity of its climate, and the prevalence of 

 sandstone rock. This rock may be readily exa- 

 mined at the Heads of Port Jackson, and on the 

 shores of the many coves that surround this beau- 

 tiful harbour. Its colour is pale yellow or drab, 

 and it lies in beds nearly horizontal and of various 

 thickness, whose upper surface, except where 

 broken by ravines and water- courses, forms a table- 

 land. The average elevation in the neighbourhood 

 of Sydney is from three hundred and fifty to four 

 hundred feet. At this level it extends in gentle 

 undulations to a great distance inland. 



This arid soil yields but a scanty gi'owth of vege- 

 table products, which, consisting of burnt pasture, 

 and thinly-scattered trees and shrubbery, give to 

 the whole region a look of desolation. The grass 

 does not every where conceal the bare rock, and 

 the thin soil supports only a few gum-trees (euca- 

 lypti), and bushes. Throughout the wide plain 

 there is little to relieve the eye, except here and 

 there a small cultivated spot. 



In consequence of this aridity there are many 

 continuous miles of waste lands in New South 

 Wales which by the inhabitants are called " forests." 

 These are very different from what we understand 

 by the term, and consist of gum-trees (eucalypti), 

 so widely scattered that a carriage may be driven 

 rapidly through them without meeting any obstruc- 

 tion, while the foliage of these trees is so thin and 

 apparently so dried up as scarcely to cast a shade. 

 Thus miles may be traversed in these forests with- 

 out impediment. A few marshy spots are occa- 

 sionally seen, covered with thickets of brush ; and 

 in other places there are tracts so dry that even 

 the gum-tree will not grow upon them, and which 

 receive the direct and scorching rays of the 

 sun. 



The most remarkable part of New South Wales 

 is the district of Ulawarra, situated on the coast, 

 about sixty miles to the south of Port Jackson. 

 This is a narrow strip, that seems to be formed by 

 the retreat of the sandstone cliffs from the sea, to 

 a distance which varies from one to ten miles. The 

 cliffs or mountains vary in height from one thou- 

 sand to two thousand feet. This region is ex- 

 tremely fruitful ; its forests are rich with a great 

 variety of foliage, and of creeping plants which 

 twine around the trees. The great size and num- 

 ber of the trees served to remind the gentlemen 

 who visited it, of the vegetation of the tropical 

 islands, luxuriant with tree-ferns, bananas, banyans, 

 &c. This luxuriance is in part owing to a rich 

 and light soil, composed of decomposed basalt and 

 argillaceous sandstone, mixed with vegetable 

 mould, but more to the peculiarity of its climate. 

 The high cliffs which bound it to the west, keep 

 off the scorching winds which reach other parts 

 of the coast from that quarter, and the moisture of 

 the sea-breeze intercepted by them is condensed, 



falling in gentle showers. For this reason, it is 

 not subject to the long and frequent droughts 

 that occur in other parts of New South Wales. 



These droughts are sometimes of such long 

 continuance, that we at one time read of the whole 

 country having been burnt up for want of rain, a 

 famine threatened, and the sheep and cattle perish- 

 ing in immense numbers. 



These have been succeeded by long-continued 

 rains, which have raised the rivers thirty or forty 

 feet, flooded the whole country, deluged the towns 

 and villages, and completely destroyed the crops. 

 Such floods carry with them houses, barns, stacks 

 of grain, &c., drown the cattle, and even the in- 

 habitants are in some cases saved only by being 

 taken from the tops of their houses in boats. 



The year of our visit, 1839, added another in- 

 stance to the list of disasters of the latter kind ; 

 and the published accounts state that twenty thou- 

 sand sheep were lost in the valley of the Hawkes- 

 bury by the floods. Such evils indeed appear to 

 be of frequent occurrence, and the settler in New 

 South Wales has to contend with the elements in 

 an unusual degree. 



Such disasters are equally injurious to the hus- 

 bandman and the wool-grower; for the same cause 

 that destroys the crops, also carries off the stock, 

 so that it is only the large capitalist who can suc- 

 cessfully struggle against or overcome such ad- 

 verse circumstances. It is some recompense for 

 this state of things, that one or two favourable 

 years will completely repay all former losses ; and 

 it is due to the perseverance and industry of the 

 inhabitants of New South Wales to say, that 

 they have already, in spite of the difficulties they 

 have had to encounter-, made it one of the most 

 flourishing colonies on the globe. 



In seasons of drought, the flocks and herds are 

 driven into the interior. The year of our visit 

 (1839) was accounted a wet one, and some parts 

 of the sandstone district which produced good 

 crops of grain * in drier seasons would have been 

 dry to barrenness. 



In such a climate it is not surprising that there 

 are hardly any streams that merit the name of 

 rivers. It is necessary to guard against being 

 misled by the inspection of maps of the country, 

 and forming from them the idea that it is well 

 watered. Such an impression would be erroneous, 

 and yet the maps are not inaccurate ; streams do 

 at times exist in the places where they are laid 

 down on the maps, but for the greater part of 

 every year no more is to be seen than the beds or 

 courses, in which, during the season of floods, or 

 after long-continued rains, absolute torrents of 

 water flow, but which will within the short space 

 of a month again become a string of deep pools. 

 Were it not for this peculiar provision of nature, 

 the country for the greater part of the year would be 

 without water, and, consequently, uninhabitable. 



The principal rivers which are found to the east 

 of the Blue Mountains are, the Hunter, George, 

 Shoalham, and Hawkesbury. None of these streams 

 are navigable further than the tide flows in the 

 estuaries, which sometimes extend twenty or thirty 



* In the diluvial flats along the rivers, the wheat crop is 

 usually about twenty-live bushels to the acre. Forty to 

 forty-five bushels have been obtained, but such crops are 

 very unusual. 



