CHAPTER XI 



GOLDEN AUSTRALIA 



IN order to understand how Australia was 

 quickened into life as if by niagic, when the 

 golden discoveries of half a century ago were 

 made, it is necessary to visit one of the inland 

 cities called into existence at that period. Of 

 these, the city of Ballarat is perhaps the most 

 famous, and it is certainly one of the most inter- 

 esting illustrations of the transformation effected 

 in fifty years of Australian history. Standing in 

 a broad and fertile valley, this trim and well-built 

 city of forty thousand people to-day bears little 

 resemblance to any preconceived notion one may 

 have formed of a mining town. Its principal 

 street is an avenue two hundred feet wide, with a 

 double row of tall oaks and eucalyptus trees run- 

 ning up its centre. In the very heart of the city is 

 a public square, where white marble statues, that 

 stand unsoiled in the open air, have been set up 

 in honour of Shakespeare, Burns, and Moore. 

 Looking eastward from this square, beyond the 

 outskirts of the city, the land rises to two great 

 volcanic hills, clad from foot to crest in forests of 

 134 



