302 Charles Fenner: 



Communication within the BaUan sunkland is comparatively 

 easy, and good roads are numerous. An exception occurs at the 

 eastern end, where the agricultural area of Myrniong and Pentland 

 Hills is cut off from the railway by the deep gorge of the Werribee. 

 Their only outlet is via Bacchus Marsh, and this difficulty is a 

 severe handicap to those concerned. 



The uplifted block of the Blackwood and Lerderderg Ranges is 

 almost roadless, although timber-getters and gold-miners had 

 "tracks'^ in various directions. When BlackAvood was a flourish- 

 ing mining field, supplies were brought from Melbourne with diffi- 

 culty; one track much used in those days took advantage of the 

 gentler grade of the Mt. Blackwood lava flow, and then travelled 

 along the ridge shown in Fig. 18, turning down into the valley 

 of the Lerderderg at Blackwood. Another road climbs the scarp- 

 near Greendale, travelling up along the side of a small valley 

 known as Long Gully, and then following the uneven ridge which 

 separates the Back and Dale's Creeks. This is still the chief Avay 

 of reaching Blackwood from the south, and is a very poor road, 

 The best way to reach Blackwood is by a rather good road that 

 winds down into the valley of the upper Lerderderg from the 

 Main Divide, to the north. A short load runs northward across the 

 Greendale Fault line to Blakeville, following mainly the newer- 

 basalt tongue there. The difficulties of communication in this area 

 are illustrated by the fact that one of the surveyed railway routes 

 shown on the map (Plate XL), from Ingliston to Bullarto, was esti- 

 mated to cost £17,568 per mile, more than twice the' average cost 

 of the other projected routes shown. The townships on the 

 Main Divide (Bullarto, Garlick's Lead, etc.), all have their chief 

 or only communications to the northward. The main road 

 that leads into the steeply-enclosed basin of the Parwan valley is of 

 some interest; one would natui'ally expect it to follow the stream,, 

 but the narrow passage through the basalt at the edge of the Rowsley 

 scarp makes that route quite impossible, and the road therefore 

 climbs over the ridge somewhat to the south of that point. At least 

 four other roads lead out of the Parwan valley, but they are prac- 

 tically impossible for ordinary traffic. The effect of the high ridge 

 that now marks the long-reaching Bullengarook basalt flow is seen 

 in the two old railway surveys that crossed that ridge west of 

 Coimadai ; long loops mark the location of the basalt-capped ridge. 

 (Plate XL) The importance of the abundance of basalt (for maca- 

 damizing) in most parts of the area has of course an important 

 bearing on the nature of the roads. This fact is particularly 



