THE TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



295 



when wool and supplies were often delayed for months on flats or snags, and when 

 heavily-laden barges used occasionally to "turn turtle" and seek repose on the river-bed. 

 Jerilderie, a pastoral town surrounded by immense freehold estates and a few selec- 

 tions, is situated on the Hillabong Creek, sixty-five miles distant by rail from Narran- 

 dera. Sheep-farming on a scientific plan is being con- 

 ducted here, the cultivation paddocks playing an im- 

 portant part. The green crops, some of which are 

 conserved in silos, are produced by pumping water from 



~~ ^^^^^^ 





THE TOWN HALL, DENILIO.UIN. 



the beds of the creeks, where it is upheld 

 by dams, and allowing it to flow over the 

 planted ground. 



There is a break in the railway com- 



\ 



munication between Jerilderie and Denili- 



quin, and travellers who are bound south have to undergo a night's journey of about 

 eighty miles by coach, which crosses the River by a bridge four hundred yards in length. 

 Broacl plains are traversed the world-famed salt-bush country, once remarkably rich in 

 herbage, but now suffering from the evil effects of over-stocking. No pastures could 

 successfully withstand the heavy strain which constant feeding off imposed, and the saline 

 herbage and the best of the natural grasses have almost completely disappeared. Long 

 seasons of drought, too, have injured this ordinarily rich pastoral tract. During the last 

 drought there were immense losses of valuable stock, but late rains have done excellent 

 service, and Riverina is again in full bloom. 



The coach journey is drearily monotonous, but as the sun rises the landscape 

 becomes more varied, glimpses are had of the timber-belts and numerous cultivated 

 patches near the banks of the Edward River, upon which is situated the thriving town 

 of Deniliquin. Here spreads a vineyard, there a corn-field ; grapes abound large, luscious, 

 good as any produced in Australia; for Nature has been bounteous in this locality; 

 though hard and protracted have been the struggles to obtain land. Pastoral lessee has 

 fought selector, and many a fat lawsuit has been the result. Fortunately for all parties 





