420 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



however, at noontide and at the close of the afternoon, for then the dock-yard, railway 

 work-shops and the factories discharge a stream of artisans homeward bound for the 

 mid-day or the evening meal, as the case may be, and the streets are resonant with the 



confused noise of rapid feet. 



The Williamstown Railway 

 being connected at its Mel- 

 bourne terminus with the North- 

 Eastern, Northern, North-West- 

 ern and Western Lines, a very 

 large proportion of the wool 

 and wheat exported from the 

 colony finds its way hither for 

 shipment to Europe ; so that 

 at the close of the harvest and 

 of the shearing seasons in the 

 agricultural and pastoral dis- 

 tricts, when upwards of a mil- 

 lion centals of wheat and more 

 than fifty million pounds' weight 

 of wool have to be dispatched 

 to British or foreign ports, the 

 two principal piers, of which 

 there are five, are full of stir 

 and movement. The business 

 portion of the town fronts the 

 harbour, and along the strand 

 to the northward many hand- 

 some private residences, envi- 

 roned with shrubberies, follow 

 the shore-line as far as Green- 

 wich, a rising suburb situated 

 at the entrance of the Yarra. 



On the south side of the peninsula covered by Williamstown, and bisected by the 

 railway which sends out two branches, the one terminating at the end of the Break- 

 water Pier and the other at the extremity of the Railway Pier is an esplanade with 

 a public park, a recreation-ground and an extensive champ de Mars, permanently set 

 apart for rifle-ranges and military exercises. 



Nothing can be more unprepossessing, not to say repulsive, than the approach to 

 Melbourne by the River Yarra. Up to the point at which it receives the waters of 

 the Saltwater River the estuary gradually contracts ; and here the stream is abruptly 

 deflected to the east. It is so narrow that there is barely room for two vessels to 

 pass each other, and the River, polluted by the drainage and sewage of the city and 

 of half a dozen suburbs, is as offensive to the eye as to the sense of smell ; while 

 the malodorousness of the atmosphere is aggravated by the fumes from various noxious 



THE ALFRED GRAVING DOCK. 



