152 Yarra Floods. 



waters on the one hand, and of the opposing waters of 

 the Bay on the other, neutralized each other, the 

 debritus surged up from the beach, and the silt carried 

 down the Yarra from the lands draining into that river 

 must inevitably be deposited. It would be absurd to doubt 

 that this effect would be produced, especially when we bear 

 in mind that the outlet, formed at the mouth of the Sand- 

 ridge lagoon during the late floods, was silted up in two or 

 three weeks afterwards, although nine feet in depth. Well- 

 known natural laws prove to us, without other evidence, 

 that such an outlet must silt up. The only question that 

 can arise is, as to the probable extent of the deposit and the 

 cost of its removal. I am satisfied that no engineer would 

 attempt to dispute that a deposit would accumulate at the 

 mouth, and I believe that the extent of the deposit would 

 be sufficiently large to render the outlet inefficient for its 

 intended purpose. At any rate the injury that would be 

 inflicted on the jetty of the Hobson's Bay Railway Company 

 and on the Sandridge Town Pier, cannot be overlooked. An 

 outlet at the site referred to could not avoid silting up those 

 works, and the injury done to them could not be easily 

 remedied. The wharfage works, on the opposite shore of the 

 Bay at Williamstown, would likewise receive injury, as they 

 would lose the scouring effect of the present current from 

 the Yarra along the Williamstown shore. They would also 

 be injured by the deposit of silt on that shore which would 

 necessarily follow the conversion of the bight westward of 

 Williamstown and Sandridge into a reservoir of dead water. ' 

 In each of the three projects alluded to, the mouth of the 

 channel must necessarily be exposed to the whole fetch of 

 the bay ; and whatever advantages either may individually 

 possess, it is evident, from the latter circumstance, that the 

 escape of the flood- waters would be seriously retarded by 

 the opposing influence of the waters of the Bay driven up 

 by southerly winds against the northern unprotected shore. 

 This alone is a material objection to the adoption of any 

 canal emptying itself into the bay at either of the sites I 

 have referred to. When we take into consideration the 

 positive evils that would follow the carrying out of either of 

 these schemes, I think sufficient grounds are apparent why 

 neither project should be put in practice. 



The scheme suggested by me, as shown on the map, 

 includes two important features which an enlarged considera- 

 tion of the subject has induced me to regard as essential to 



