CHAPTER V 



THE RIVER DARLING 



I HAVE rather abruptly closed the account of the animal 

 and plant life of the Riverine district in the last chapter. 

 The fact is that to describe all the living creatures found 

 there would be to enumerate nearly the entire fauna of 

 the continent. But it is to be understood that I consider 

 the Darling River system as part of the Riverine, and the 

 animals mentioned here are found generally in the central 

 plains of New South Wales unless the contrary is expressly 

 noted. 



The Darling is not a Ganges, a Mississippi, or an 

 Amazon, but it is out of all comparison the largest and 

 most important river of Australia. It is at least 2200 

 miles in length, but without a proportionate width and 

 depth ; yet it is navigable when in full stream for small 

 steamers nearly to its source. It bears at least twenty 

 different names, the last three or four hundred miles of 

 its course being often most improperly assigned to the 

 Murray, though Australian geographers as a rule term it 

 the Darling to its embouchure at the sea. The source is 

 in the New England range, a ridge of mountains forming 

 the backbone of what is locally called '* the New England 

 district," but the actual source is not known, and never will 

 be. It is one of many hundred billabungs or collateral 

 streams, which are continually shifting position and vary- 

 ing in number. "Billabung" is the aboriginal name for 

 what in England is termed a " backwater." Billabungs are 

 rarely or never permanent, and sometimes only exist in a 

 district in winter-time. 



42 



