THE AUSTRALIAN PASTOR ALIST REGIME 17 



where deficient. Nor is the soil, at first sight, at all 

 alluring. Calumniated by Dampier " the barrenest 

 spot on earth, it was called by Captain Cook " rather 

 barren than fertile," though in parts he found " a deep 

 black mould." " Barren . . . and [that] in a high 

 degree " — " in every respect the most barren country 

 I have ever seen," is the verdict of a great early observer, 

 Sir Joseph Banks, These disparaging statements are 

 very wide of the truth. Between " the rich, turf-clad 

 western plains in the Great Valley of Victoria " in the 

 South and the splendid pastoral country in the far 

 North-East, which Sir Thomas Mitchell declared " was 

 sufficient to supply the whole world with food," there 

 are rich grass-lands and fertile regions of lakes and 

 meadows, from the Darling Downs of Southern Queens- 

 land to the fine pastoral country of Kimberley in North- 

 western Australia, not less opulent in grass than in 

 gold. Nevertheless, the fertile coastal plains, alluvial 

 country and volcanic patches being thrown out, the soil 

 of Australia as a whole is better fitted for pasture than 

 for agriculture. The poverty of the vegetation and the 

 consequent poverty of the soil make it unfit for bearing 

 heavy crops. On this score, too, AustraUa is obviously 

 a predestined pastoral country. 



Even as such it has obvious imperfections. Settlers 

 were to be long — they are still — handicapped by the 

 many eccentricities of Australian rivers. These take 

 their rise in the Dividing Range, it is true, but, instead 

 of thence making their way to the sea, the greater streams 

 flow towards the centre of the Continent. The river- 

 system of Eastern and Southern Australia virtually 

 consists of but one river, which has many different 

 names. Most of the Northern rivers flow into the 

 Darling and most of the Southern into the Murrumbidgee, 

 while both the Darling and the Murrumbidgee blend 

 their waters in the mighty but almost useless volume of 

 the Murray, which a seven-foot craft can hardly navigate 

 at its obstructed mouth. The country is, accordingly, 

 not only ill- watered, and pastoral occupation imperilled j 



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