THE TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 289 



cultivation, and although the soil has been worked for many years its yield of cereals 

 is still heavy. Pastoral occupation also holds its place in the district, nearly five hundred 

 thousand sheep and over twenty thousand head of cattle finding pasturage in the fertile 

 lands surrounding the town. Braidwood, another good farming centre, is a few miles 

 to the eastward. It for many years received substantial aid from the gold-fields, of 

 which Araluen was the principal, but it is now, like many other places, suffering through 

 the decreased yields of the precious metal. Araluen is fifteen miles distant, and although 

 now partially deserted, recent discoveries of rich reefs furnish some hope that this 

 portion of the colony will again become prosperous. 



At Goulburn the branch railway comes into the Main Southern Line, which 

 proceeds westward from this point. A little to the north of it lies Crookwell, one of 

 the numerous prolific agricultural districts of the South, but like many other fertile locali- 

 ties, needing a railway to encourage its occupiers, who are now to a great extent 

 hampered by high rates for carriage. Fifteen miles westward from Goulburn is Breadal- 

 bane, nearly two thousand three hundred feet above sea-level, the highest point of the 

 Main Southern Line. The characteristic of the country here is the broad level plain, 

 excellent as pasture-land, but exposed to very keen winds in winter. From this there is 

 a steep decline of over two hundred feet in twelve miles to the Fish River. The soil 

 is poor, and the distance dividing the cultivated patches becomes greater. It is not 

 until the Yass River is in sight, one hundred and eighty-seven miles from the metro- 

 polis, that substantial settlement is apparent. Yass, with a climate more than ordinarily 

 favourable to the grazier, affords pasturage to many horses, cattle and sheep. 



The wide-spread impression that New South Wales is a colony in which the 

 agriculturist of small means cannot proceed far on the high-road to fortune, is to a 

 very great extent dispelled by a journey from Yass to the Murray River. It is perfectly 

 true that the plough has been but slightly used that not one acre of land per head 

 of the population is cultivated ; but it is also plain that there are millions of acres the 

 soil of which would amply repay tillage. Fashion is potent even in the commonplace 

 matter of land-utilization. In the early days of settlement it was the fashion to keep 

 sheep. Shepherds tended small flocks and stock-riders kept watch over herds of cattle. 

 When these men and their relatives became land-owners the work still" moved in the 

 old groove. There was no thought of sending wheat, oats or barley to the coast ; 

 roads were bad ; and farming was much heavier labour than grazing and clipping sheep. 

 But enough was done to prove the great fertility of the soil ; and the alluvial gold- 

 fields, by creating a local market, greatly stimulated the formation of small farms. 

 Thus around Yass many farming-centres were established Burrowa, Binalong, Galong, 

 Rocky Ponds and Murrumburrah are all localities where the plough has done no little 

 service, and the southern half of the main railway line and its branches run through 

 first-class agricultural land. 



Burrowa, north of the main line, thirty-eight miles from Yass, is a town situated in 

 a broad area of cultivated land, while Murrumburrah, a railway township two hundred 

 and thirty miles from Sydney, is also favoured with good soil. It is the point from 

 which a branch line runs northward to join the main western route, which, after passing 

 through Young and Cowra, it strikes at Blayney. Young, a prosperous grazing and 



