424 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



Portarlington, Belfast and VYarrnambool, as well as of some of those which at holiday 

 seasons are laid on to make excursions round the Bay. 



On the opposite bank of the River, the visitor, following it up from the end of the 

 wharf on that side, will observe that a large basin has been excavated so as to double 

 the width of the water-way at this point. Here timber-laden vessels a/e discharging their 

 cargoes, and several acres of land in the rear are covered with symmetrical stacks of sawn 

 and grooved pine, representing the spoil of many a devastated forest in Norway, Oregon 

 and British Columbia. Adjoining is a large area of what was waste swamp-land not 

 many years ago, but is now swarming with the foundries and workshops of coppersmiths 

 and ships' plumbers, engineers and boiler-makers and ship-builders ; with wire and 

 nail works, cpal-yards, sail-lofts and saw-mills ; and the whole neighbourhood resounds 

 with the clang of hammers, the whir of machinery, the panting of steam-engines, the 

 whiz of belting as it flies round the swiftly-revolving wheels, and with the hissing of the 

 circular saws as their sharp teeth plough their way through logs of red-gum and jarrah, 

 and scatter a shower of dust, like so much spray, around them. Two dry-docks open 

 out of the South Wharf above the basin, and between them lies the platform reserved 

 for vessels unloading lime. Beyond the entrance to the second dock is the landing-stage 

 of the steam ferry. The Adelaide steamers are berthed above it, and during the vintage 

 season hillocks of cases containing grapes cumber the wharf. Then comes a large 

 steamer about to take its departure for New Zealand, with luggage and cargo being 

 rapidly hoisted on board, and passengers and their friends hurrying down in all manner 

 of vehicles, public and private. Farther on lies the huge iron dredger of the Harbour 

 Trust in close proximity to the ponderous steam-derrick, armed with such vast yet docile 

 power, that a child's hand can call into active exercise latent forces equivalent to the 

 aggregate strength of a herd of elephants. The wharf of the Tasmanian Steam 

 Navigation Company, and that occupied by the Belfast and Koroit steamers, fill up the 

 interval between the derrick and the Queen's Bridge. The point of junction between the 

 Queen's Wharf and the city is the south-west portion of Flinders Street. This is, in 

 fact, the river-side street, though lying back from it at a varying distance in consequence of 

 the windings of the Yarra. At the Queen's Wharf there is an open space fully three 

 chains wide between the River and the street, forming a roomy mercantile piazza, and 

 giving superabundant space for any number of vehicles, and occasionally for stacking goods. 



THE CITY. 



From the deck of a steamer of the Tasmanian, Adelaide or Sydney lines as it 

 nears its moorings alongside one of the wharves below the Queen's Bridge the aspect of 

 Flinders Street West is animated and busy, and on landing on the wharf all the activity 

 of Melbourne bursts upon the visitor in a moment. The street is here broad enough 

 for the requirements of a large traffic conducted by ordinary vehicles, and for a double 

 tram-way, in addition to a line of rails connecting the two railway termini, upon which 

 converge the whole of the lines in Victoria ; and, from morning till night there is a 

 continual passing to and fro of lorries, drags, carts, cabs and timber-wains, with now 

 and then a lengthy goods-train cautiously moving through the crowded thoroughfare. 

 \\ ood and coal yards, and places covered with stacks of malt-tanks, line the extremity of 



