TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



239 



largest timber bridge in Australia. The whole of this district is a fine grazing country, 

 and the rearing of cattle for the market was its primitive industry. To this was aild-d 

 timber-cutting, for the cedar, especially on the lower lands, grew luxuriantly. Timber- 

 getters drew their logs .to the water's edge, and floated them in rafts clown the River. 



All the best trees within easy reach of the \\at.-r 

 have now been cleared away ; but as one pursuit 

 decayed a new one arose to take its place. 

 The advent of sugar-growing altered the indus- 

 trial character of the 

 district, and enabled 

 agriculture to replace 

 the earlier pastoral 

 occupation. The rich 

 flats were eagerly 

 taken up for planting 

 purposes as soon as it 

 was found that sugar 

 would grow and that 

 sugar would pay. 

 Thick scrub, which it 

 was not profitable to 

 clear for pastoral uses, 

 disappeared under the 

 woodman's axe, and 

 the rich soil became 

 available for tillage. 

 The population 

 around Casino rapidly 

 increased, and the 

 town has now fifteen 

 hundred inhabitants ; 



it is well supplied with churches, schools and a hospital, while the stores and shops 

 along the broad main street give evident signs of a healthy commercial development. 



At the junction of the north and south arms of the River is the township of 

 Coraki, and at the head of navigation of the northern arm stands Lismore, the port 

 of the Big Scrub and the outlet for a large timber-trade. The timber-getters, forced to 

 go further and further back, have often to cut their own tracks tracks so rough and 

 steep that to bring the cedar down them would to the uninitiated seem impracticable. 

 But bullocks are patient animals ; a long team of them pulling together, guided and 

 urged by a skilful driver, do wonders. Lismore is a town of a thousand people, and 

 fully three thousand find profitable employment in the surrounding district. A fine iron 

 bridge spans the river, and good roads are beginning to stretch out into the country, 

 now being settled by industrious farmers. Down the Richmond, at its southern bend, is 

 the township of \Yooclburn, the centre of a large area of sugar-growing country. 



TIIK RICHMOND AT LISMORK. 



