THE TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



231 





lead, it emerges into the valley of the Page River, at the head of which stands 

 Murrurundi, so called by the aborigines, the term signifying "a great camping-ground." 

 The River, flowing through the town, divides it into two parts. Murrurundi, at the foot 

 of the hills, is over fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. It is the last town 

 on the Great Northern Railway before the line crosses the Liverpool Range the 

 boundary of the Northern District proper. A fine wooden bridge affords communication 

 with the important village of Haydonton. 



Tin: NORTHKRN DISTRICT. 



At this point begins the great railway-work of surmounting the bold front of the 

 Liverpool Range. Beyond Murrurundi the line, sweeping with a rising gradient round 

 the face of the enclosing hills, pierces the mountain with a tunnel over five hundred 

 yards in length. On emerging a new kind of country is disclosed a great squatting 



area, a vast tract with marvellous resources 

 as yet undeveloped. Its virgin harvest, and 

 little more, has thus far been reaped. It 

 is the country of the Liverpool Plains, the 

 " Cobbon Comleroy" of the natives, ten 

 million acres of rich 

 volcanic soil sloping 

 away from the coastal 

 range towards the 

 Darling River. 



The first station 

 of an) importance after 

 entering this Northern 

 1 )istrict is O u i ri nil i. 

 situated on the (Jui- 

 rindi Creek, a little 

 village of some three 

 h u n d r e d inhabitants. 

 But though itself in- 

 significant, it is sur- 

 rounded by a splen- 

 didly fertile country- 

 capable of producing 

 in a propitious year a 

 h u n d r e d t h o u s a n d 



bushels of various kinds of grain; this area supports also numerous (locks of sheep and 

 herds of cattle. To the east, in an almost direct line, are Nundle, Hanging Rock and 

 Dungowan ; to the west, a line of villages ending with Warkton and Coonabarabran. 



A few miles beyond Quirindi is the station of \Verris's Creek, from which branches 

 off in a north-westerly direction a line through rich level country. The greater part of 

 the journey is along the edge of a treeless plain, twenty-four miles in breadth. Here 



TIIK I'M F.I. KIYF.k AT 



TAM WORTH. 



