"WESTRALIA" AND " WESTRALIANS " 167 



coast rains and storms do not travel very far inland, and 

 have practically no influence on the climate of the interior. 

 I never had an opportunity of measuring the rainfall of 

 the interior, but in the years of my journeys on this side 

 of the continent it was very small, yet I think, from what 

 the colonists said, not below the average. It is not 

 surprising, therefore, that there are no forests here, and 

 that the face of the country is but very scantily covered 

 with verdure. 



Swan River, considered as a district, has the appearance 

 of a long settled country, yet it is not at all like any of 

 the eastern colonies. The country round the townships is 

 fenced off into meadows, which are mostly of moderate 

 size, and the gardens are full of exotic trees, plants, and 

 flowers, and therefore give the traveller no correct notion 

 of the natural characteristics of the land. But though, as 

 in the eastern settlements, English trees and English 

 animals have been brought hither in immense numbers, one 

 never sees such English-like scenery as is quite common 

 on " the other side," as it is colloquially called throughout 

 Western Australia, or in Tasmania and New Zealand. In 

 both the latter countries I have seen spots which, I am 

 sure, would have deceived any suddenly transported 

 Englishman into belief that he was still in his native 

 country. He could not be so deceived in any part of the 

 Swan River district. There is an Australian atmosphere 

 about the whole colony which no amount of foreign 

 importation can dissipate ; moreover there is a distinction 

 between the people of the two sides which is quite 

 marked, insomuch that an " other sider " can immediately 

 recognise a born and bred " Westralian." We are begin- 

 ning, it may be seen, to assume the right of a new people 

 to coin new words. Nobody in the old colonies now 

 speaks of a West-Australian, but it is a regrettable 

 circumstance that there is a growing tendency among the 

 colonists to mention each other in terms which, if not 

 actually coarse and vulgar, are decidedly slangy. 



When this district was first settled it was known as the 

 Swan River Colony, a name that has stuck to it ever since, 



