26o .H'STRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



land was tilled, and tin- basis of a permanent prosperity was laid. Mining, too, was 

 n-smm-d. and auriferous -round that had been hastily scratched in the first instance was 

 more thoroughly examined and systematically worked. Several gold-bearing reefs yielding 

 large and continuous returns were opened. At Lucknow some excellent mining machinery 

 i-, employed. Rock-drills are worked by compressed air, and the free gold is treated in 

 the usual way ; but the more complex ores of antimony, silver, lead and gold are sent 

 to Germany for treatment by a special process. 



Somh-wrst from Orange run some of the head-waters of the Lachlan River, which 

 rise in the Canoblas, traversing in their course the old mining districts of Canowindra 

 anil Cargo, and several fertile agricultural areas. A good coach-road runs to Forbes, 

 which is situated eighty-four miles distant on the Lachlan River, and along this route 

 a railway line has been surveyed. The land on either side is capable of supporting a 

 large number of settlers, the climate is good, and the soil, except in the broad patches 

 of mineral country, exceptionally rich. Forbes was the scene of one of the successful 

 Australian gold-rushes. Diggers from the older fields of Young and Grenfell hastened 

 thither; life for a time was wild and impetuous; miners worked with the excitement of 

 gamblers, and the human vultures that crowd around successful diggers to ease them of 

 their cash fared well. Hut when the alluvial ground \vas worked out the excitement all 

 pa-.>rd away ; the wild life has gone, and the steadier existence of farmers and squatters 

 has succeeded. For a time there was some doubt whether the soil, rich as it was, 

 \\ould grow wheat ; but all doubts on that point have long been settled. With an 

 average rain-fall wheat yields from twenty to thirty bushels an acre, and oats from 

 forty to sixty ; potatoes and maize thrive well, and both soil and climate seem specially 

 suited to tobacco. Forbes, as the centre of this rich district, is already a considerable 

 town. It is built on moderately elevated land on the northern bank of the River, which 

 winds along the edge of a broad and fertile flat. This is occasionally submerged ; 

 indeed in times of high-flood the Lachlan spreads above and below the town miles wide, 

 filling biUabongs and ana-branches innumerable, and storing w r ater for dry seasons. Any 

 damage done by these floods is abundantly compensated by the wealth they leave behind 

 them. Rich flats are on either side of the River, and the country in the rear yields 

 excellent pasture. Some of the largest sheep-stations in the colony lie between Forbes, 

 Condobolin and Booligal farther down stream Burrawang Station, about twenty-five 

 miles distant, having a freehold of about two hundred and fifty thousand acres, and 

 shearing in favourable seasons about two hundred thousand sheep. A railway line has 

 been surveyed from Forbes to Wilcannia, on the River Darling, the central township 

 from which roads go north-west and south-west, through a dry but pastoral district, to 

 the gold and silver bearing country of the Barrier Ranges. 



Twenty-two miles north-west of Forbes is Parkes, a sister town with a very similar 

 origin and history first a camping-place in the old pastoral days, then invaded by a 

 " rush " of gold-diggers, and finally a township with a settled population depending 

 chiefly on mining and agriculture. The town will shortly be accessible by railway, as 

 an Act has been passed for a line from Molong through Parkes to Forbes. Cudal, 

 nearer to the Western Line, is another prosperous and pleasantly-situated village ; it 

 is twenty-eight miles from Orange, and in the district of Molong. All these western 



