40G AUSTEALASIA. 



Maryborough occupies, 170 miles farther north, a position analogous to that of 

 Brisbane ; it stands on the navigable river Mary, which expands to a broad inlet 

 and reaches the coast through an arm of the sea sheltered on the east side by 

 Great Sandy Island. At Maryborough the river is crossed by a bridge about 

 1,640 feet long. Sugar is chiefly grown by the neighbouring planters, and there 

 are numerous factories in the district. On a southern tributary of the Mary 

 stands the straggling town of Gympie, noted for its gold mines, which were 

 discovered in 1867, and which by 1880 had already yielded a quantity of the 

 precious metal estimated at over £2,000,000. At Burrum, lying to the north, 

 rich coal-fields of excellent quality have been discovered, and productive copper 

 mines have been opened in the north-western district of Mount Perry, which 

 is connected by a railway with the port of Bundaberg, at the mouth of the 

 Burnett. 



Rockhampton, another fluvial port, is the largest town in Queensland next to 

 Brisbane. It occupies a fine position in a fertile district, within view of the 

 wooded cliffs skirting the broad river Fitzroy, which is accessible to large vessels, 

 Rockhampton, which lies in the vicinity of rich gold, silver, and copper mines, 

 stands, like Brisbane, at the terminus of a railway, which penetrates far into the 

 interior in the direction of the central plains, and which ramifies to the right and 

 left towards the mining districts. 



Farther on follow along a deeply indented seaboard the port of Mackay, whence 

 are exported tobaccos, sugar, coffee, and other tropical produce ; Bowen, or Port- 

 Denison, with easier access than any of the other harbours sheltered by the Great 

 Barrier Reef, and TownsviUe, which derives its importance from the gold mines of 

 the Burdekin and its tributaries. Earcnswood and Charters Tourrs are the chief 

 centres of the mining operations, the latter place producing about £250,000 of the 

 precious metal annually. 



On the Pacific Coast the last frequented port is Cooktown, which was founded 

 in 1873 and soon became a flourishing place, thanks to the vicinity of the Palmer 

 River gold-fields. Cooktown is also the chief market and victualling station of the 

 British and German establishments in New Guinea and the Melanesian Islands. 

 The settlement of Somerset, which was founded at the northernmost extremity of 

 York Peninsula in the hope of making it a second Singapore, has remained an 

 obscure village with a bad climate ; but the neighbouring Thursday Islattd is already 

 a much frequented station, which owes its prosperity to its favourable position on 

 the route of vessels traversing Torres Strait. Since 1877 it has also become the 

 centre of the pearl-shell fisheries in these waters. Here over two hundred craft 

 of all sorts with one thoiisand five hundred hands find employment on the pearl, 

 mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, and bêche-de-mer fishing grounds. A central station 

 of the London Missionary Society has been established on Erub or Darnley Island, 

 which lies in the eastern part of the Strait. 



On the slope draining to the Gulf of Carpentaria the two stations of Normantown 

 and Burketown were till recently nothing more than little rural markets for 

 supplying the stock-breeders of the surrounding districts with provisions and 



