118 The Past and Present of the Port of Melbourne, 



a large expenditure in the Yarra will be money thrown away. 

 The Queen's Wharf basin is far from being a credit to us, 

 and it is impossible that merely shortening the river bends 

 can be of much avail whilst we retain the narrow channel of 

 the river, bound in as it is with buildings and wharves, to 

 the obstruction of trade and shipping ; and I submit that it 

 is useless to incur the expense of further deepening the river/ 

 unless we are prepared to widen it to allow room for working 

 the vessels in the river basin. 



The great evil of the past has been that marine works in 

 and about the river have been carried on apparently as 

 matters of temporary expediency, and on no definite or 

 comprehensive plan, by which each portion however small 

 should be part of a complete whole ; and it is with a hope of 

 showing the necessity for the adoption of some systematic 

 plan of works which shall be capable of affording immediate 

 relief for the present, and yet be part of a general system 

 capable of future extension and completion, that I have 

 undertaken this paper. As a physician first makes a diagnosis 

 of his patient's ailment before attempting to cure, so I now 

 endeavour to point out the physical defects under which we 

 have been and are suffering, before suggesting remedial 

 measures; and it is for this reason I have given an epitome of 

 what our river and harbour was twenty years ago, and what 

 it is, pointing out the consequences of what has been accom- 

 plished, and by inference showing what ought to be done now. 



The ports on the western coasts of England are notable 

 examples of the evils experienced by silting up, and perhaps 

 the most remarkable of them is the old Port of Chester, 

 which, owing to the silting up of the estuary of the River 

 Dee, is now but an inland city, its whole sea trade being 

 such as can be carried along an artificial canal. 



Liverpool, with its magnificent estuary of the River 

 Mersey and its noble line of docks, would in a few years 

 become impracticable for large vessels, and be silted 

 up with mud, if it were not for the systematic skill of 

 the engineers in charge in dredging, sluicing, and other 

 means for keeping the port clear of accumulation. 



Under present conditions, Hobson's Bay is rapidly filling 

 up, and of late years the so-called improvements have 

 rapidly accelerated the process, so that if allowed to go on 

 without interruption it cannot be a very remote period 

 before the River Yarra will have to wind a sluggish course 

 through marsh lands to the Heads, as the River Thames- 



