108 Physical Features of the Australian Alps. 



the undulating ranges near Omeo from the Omeo Lake basin 

 drainage area. 



Of the 15,300 acres constituting the latter, fully 14,000 

 are now occupied for agricultural purposes. Another open 

 ridge (consisting of a series of cone-shaped hillocks, whose 

 bases merge into the open plains on either side) separates 

 the Omeo Lake area from the Benambra Creek catchment 

 basin, thus dividing the whole of the plains into two portions. 

 From Mount Sisters the Dividing Range is well defined, rising 

 at Mount Tambo, five miles distant, to 4700 feet (the latter a 

 mass of purple conglomerates, resting on sandstone of 

 Devonian age); it depresses somewhat, and again rises 

 towards a rounded granitic peak (Mount Leinster, near the 

 head of the Tambo River). From thence it winds in a general 

 north-easterly direction to Mount Cobberas, the Pilot, and 

 Mount Kosciusko (the culminating point in the range), at an 

 elevation of 7250 feet above sea level. The eastern water- 

 shed of the Mitta Mitta — i.e., of its eastern affluents — com- 

 prises a high, well-defined range, which, starting from a point 

 on the Dividing Range midway between Mounts Tambo 

 and Cobberas (at the extreme northerly source of the Tambo 

 River), proceeds northerly, finding its highest elevation at 

 Mount Gibbo (a coned peak 5704 feet above sea level), and 

 divides the head waters of the Benambra Creek and its tri- 

 butary, Mount Leinster Creek, from the Indi River. From 

 Mount Gibbo a number of watershed lines radiate in a 

 northerly direction; a minor watershed line, forming the 

 northern watershed of the Gibbo River, terminates in a pro- 

 minent peak — Toaks Gibbo — near the Mitta Mitta River. 

 Of the streams forming the eastern aflluents of the 

 Mitta Mitta, the Benambra Creek is the most important, 

 embracing an area of 233 square miles, its upper courses 

 opening out into some fine open upland flats, marsh lands 

 now partially drained, consisting of flats averaging one 

 mile in width, treeless, except on their margins, of which I 

 give sketch. 



The ridiculous reports as to the unexampled severity of 

 the frosts on these fertile uplands has to a certain extent mili- 

 tated against their settlement. However, from the Omeo 

 Plains as a centre, settlement is slowly extending along these 

 upland tracts. Only so far back as 1875 the Omeo Plains 

 were reported to be inhospitable, and unfit for agriculture, 

 owing to climatic causes, although the richness of the soil 

 was admitted ; now they are completely occupied by a 



