l62 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



LAVENDER I5AV. 



has done everything possible to veil the sombre 

 aspects of the place, and to alleviate inevitable 

 confinement by surrounding it with a glory of 

 flowers. Steamers go up the River within a short 

 distance of Parramatta, and as far as Ryde the 

 scenery on either side is charming. Two bridges 

 are thrown across one for the road connecting 

 Fivedock with Gladesville, and the other at Con- 

 cord for the Great Northern Railway to Newcastle. 

 Returning to the mouth of Lane Cove the con- 

 spicuous feature in the River, after passing the 

 magazine at Spectacle Island, is Cockatoo Island, 

 the site of one of the earliest prisons in the 



colony. Out of its rocky side a graving-dock was hewn many years ago large enough 

 for the ships of that day ; and here the Galatea was docked. But a still larger one 

 is wanted for the iron-clads of the present time, and accordingly another large excavation 

 has recently been constructed which will accommodate any vessel not more than six 

 hundred feet long. From Cockatoo there is a beautiful view up Iron Cove, over 

 which is a bridge connecting the peninsula of Fivedock with that of Balmain. On the 

 heights of the latter is the large lunatic asylum at Callan Park, built on the pavilion 

 principle, at a- cost of more than a quarter of a million, and capable of receiving six 

 hundred patients. After passing Goat Island, the site of another powder-magazine, the 

 eastern side of the Balmain Peninsula comes into view, and a busy industry makes itself 

 seen and heard. On one of its subsidiary bays are Mort's Dock and Engineering Works, 

 where vessels of all sizes are repaired, and where the clang of hammers and the whirr 

 of machinery make perpetual din. Other industrial establishments have also pitched their 



