84 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



A TRIP TO THE RICHMOND RIVER DISTRICT. 

 Part I. — General and Botanical. 

 By A. Campbell, jun. 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 9th July, 1900.) 

 The Richmond River is situated in the extreme north-east corner 

 of New South Wales, its mouth being not more than 30 miles 

 south of the Tweed, which forms part of the boundary between 

 New South Wales and Queensland. From the Clarence River, 

 which is still further south, to the Tweed is the district known to 

 naturalists as being the southern limit of Australian tropical and 

 semi-tropical vegetation and bird-life. The territory comprising 

 the Clarence, the Richmond, and the Tweed River districts is a 

 coastal region, and is subject to the tropical rainy season, setting 

 in about the end of January. There is no great width of territory, 

 for the Great Dividing Range is less than a hundred miles from 

 the coast. Rivers flowing east, therefore, would be expected to 

 be rapid and with a short course, but it is not so with the three 

 under notice, for they wind about in the rich alluvial flats as 

 broad streams navigable to coasting steamers for many miles of 

 their courses. Notice particularly the Richmond : from the town- 

 ship of Lismore, which is situated inland at the junction of two 

 creeks, the distance to the mouth by following the stream's course 

 is quite 70 miles, whereas by taking the road it is only 22 miles. 

 The two creeks, Wilson's and Leycester, coming in from the 

 north and north-west respectively and uniting at Lismore, form a 

 stream of about 60 yards in width, when it takes the name of the 

 Richmond. 



On the upper reaches of this river are the belts of tropical 

 vegetation known as the " Big Scrub," which extend over to the 

 Macpherson Range. It was during the months of December and 

 January I visited these scrubs, and I have prepared a sketch of 

 my trip in this paper. Leaving Melbourne by steamer on a 

 Saturday afternoon (the 4th December, 1897), I reached Sydney 

 on the Monday evening. The same night I had expected to 

 tranship to a coasting steamer bound northward, but owing to 

 unfavourable weather I found a vessel would not sail until the 

 following Thursday. In the meantime I enjoyed the various 

 sights of Sydney. One morning I went across to Manly and 

 along the back beach to the Quarantine Ground, where I found 

 the local little bird, Origma rubricata, or Rock-Warbler, at home. 

 On the summit of the cliffs and among the heather and out- 

 cropping sandstone rocks quite a number of these birds were 

 twittering sweetly in the morning sun. They are very nimble 

 little creatures, and run along the rocks and through the stunted 

 vegetation with great swiftness. I was fortunate in securing a 

 pair of birds, but could find no traces of nesting operations. 



