178 Charles Fenner : 



X. Economic Importance of the Phtsioghafhic Features. 

 (i.) Roads and Railways. 

 (ii.) Water Conservation. 

 (iii.) Popidatio7i and Occupations. 



XI. Chronological Kecord of the rHYsitoEAPHY of the Area. 



XII. List of References Quoted in ihis Paper. 



I. — Area dealt with. 



The area dealt with in this paper is that part of Victoria drained 

 by the River Werribee and its tributaries. The country that has 

 been visited and examined includes also the water sheds separating 

 the Werribee from its neighbour rivers on the north, east, and 

 west, and it was found convenient, for the following out of certain 

 features, to further carry the investigations southward to include 

 the You Yangs and Anakies, and the eastern face of the Brisbane 

 ranges. This embraces a total area of nearly 1500 square miles, 

 and is set out on the map shown as Plate XI. 



II. — General Considerations. 



While the W^erribee is one of the smaller rivers of the State, it is 

 in many ways one of the most interesting. The great stretch of 

 plain about the Lower Werribee was the scene of many of the inci- 

 dents of the early dawn of Victorian history. These great plains, 

 known as *' Iramoo," by the aboriginals, were crossed by Flinders 

 (1802), Grimes (1803), Hume and Hovell (1824), and here also some 

 of the first extensive land surveys were carried out by John H. 

 Wedge, the first surveyor of the State. 



In contrast with these early-known volcanic plains, now com- 

 paratively well settled, and crossed by important roads and rail- 

 ways, we have in the northern parts a large unmapped area, an 

 area of steep, thickly-timbered ranges, intersected by a maze of 

 gullies, an area where roads and fences are rarely seen, and where 

 the sole inhabitants are occasional prospectors or sawmillers. 

 These unsettled uplands, consisting of steep, quartz-strewn ranges, 

 form portion of the great general uplifted and dissected peneplain 

 of Victoria. Discussion is entered into as to the probable period 

 when this planation was accomplished, and its relation to other 

 tertiary features — the faulting and the volcanic periods, 



Midway in the area is the green oasis of Bacchus Marsh, with 

 its neighbouring complex geological formations, and its puzzling 



