Internal Communication. 73 



Apollo Bay ; from thence lies an exposed coast open to the 

 southern ocean. 



In long. 142° 32', at the entrance of the River Merri, Warr- 

 nambool has become a shipping place for the surrounding 

 district ; the holding ground is good, but the anchorage is too 

 exposed to form a harbor until a breakwater is constructed. 

 Port Fairy, a few miles west, is also used as a harbor for the 

 agricultural and pastoral products of that district ; it is protected 

 from the westerly winds by Griffith and Rabbit Islands ; both 

 at Warrnambool and Port Fairy there are landing jetties. The 

 River Moyne runs into the sea here, and is navigable with 

 12 feet of water to the town of Belfast. 



Portland is the most western, and is the oldest settled town 

 in the colony, the Messrs. Henty having established a whaling 

 station at this place antecedent to the first establishment of the 

 colony. Portland has an open roadstead, partially sheltered 

 from the westerly winds, and a jetty whence wool, &c, is 

 shipped to Melbourne. 



From Cape Howe, the eastern extremity of the seaboard of 

 the colony, a line of about 100 miles in length is drawn, nearly 

 W.N.W., crossing the Snowy River to the south-eastern sources 

 of the Murray, which forms the northern boundary of the colony 

 from this point to the 141st meridian. From the sources of 

 the Murray stretch chains of mountains, varying in width and 

 in altitude, but continuing without interruption to the 142nd 

 meridian, which form a backbone to the colony, whence its rivers 

 run to the seaboard on the south, distant on an average about 

 75 miles, and towards the Murray on the north. At first the 

 direction of the Murray is nearly north to the intersection of 

 the meridian of 148° and the parallel of 36°. It then runs 

 nearly west to Echuca on the meridian of 145°, where it receives 

 the Goulburn, its largest Victorian tributary. From this point 

 to the 141st meridian, where it ceases to form the Victorian 

 boundary, its course is towards the north-west. 



The Murray is very variable in depth, according to the 

 season of the year, but during the winter months is navigable 

 from Lake Victoria, in South Australia, to Albury on the 

 147th meridian ; and by this channel the pastoral districts in 

 the north-west of Victoria and the northern gold fields receive 

 from Adelaide part of their supplies of flour. 



The most easterly river in the colony is the Genoa ; the next 

 is the Snowy River in Gipps Land, which takes its rise partly 

 in the dividing range beforementioned and partly in the Alps of 

 New South Wales ; through Victoria its course is nearly north 



