CHAPTER III 



THE RIVERINE DISTRICT 



The interior of New South Wales, westward of the Blue 

 Mountains, is a typical Australian country. Hot, desolate, 

 and barren it is, but not waterless. It bears the name 

 Riverine District on account of the great number of rivers 

 which intersect it ; yet a person may perish of thirst in this 

 land of rivulets. The country has been seen in so flooded 

 a state that it was thought unfit for occupation by the 

 squatter. An Australian country too wet for habitation ! 

 A little reflection would have convinced any experienced 

 stockman that this could not be. 



In our strange and anomalous country the changes of 

 climatic conditions are as marvellous as its productions are 

 eccentric. In this Riverine District, twenty or thirty 

 inches of rain may fall in a few days — then not a drop for 

 a twelvemonth or more. The anxious explorer passes 

 through a land which seems to be an interminable marsh 

 blocking his way in all directions ; and in despair he turns 

 back. Next year another explorer finds the reported 

 marsh a dry desert, and he turns back — not because of 

 excess of water, but because he cannot find enough of it to 

 preserve life. One year the land is parched and black 

 and devoid of vegetation, the next it is covered with 

 flourishing grass intermingled with a great variety of 

 beautiful flowers, and swarming with animal life. It 

 depends entirely on the amount of the annual rain-fall. 

 And the squatter who is a meteorologist is the one who is 

 most likely to prosper on these plains. Not that any man 

 can anticipate meteorological conditions with certainty; 



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