^304 Charles Fenner : 



located here, and a large area is irrigated. The military authori- 

 ties have taken advantage of these level plains for the establish- 

 ment of the Central Flying School near by. Dr. Taylor has pub- 

 lished interesting notes concerning these plains, from the point of 

 view of the aviator, in the Commonwealth Meteorological Bureau 

 reports. 



Other small villages on the plains are : — Little River (Bulban), 

 Melton, Laverton, Toolern Vale, Mount Cotter ill, Anakie, Balliang, 

 Rookbank, Truganina, Tarneit and Exford. Agriculture, with 

 •closer settlement, is taking the place o-f grazing in some areas. 

 The future prosperity of these plains appears to lie in the exten- 

 sion of the irrigation system where possible. 



(ii.) Bacchusi Marsh and Vichiify. — The town of Bacchus Marsh is 

 the chief centre of population in the Werribee basin. It owes 

 its origin Avholly to those geological forces that located and built 

 the Bacchus Marsh basin. Irrigation has been wisely availed of, 

 but has suffered much from the failure of the storage reservoirs 

 in the past. The rich soils of the flats are used for dairying, fruit 

 growing, lucerne growing, and general agriculture. The town is 

 attractive, and is a favourite stopping place for travellers. The 

 scenic beauties and scientific interest of the district attract many 

 visitors. Tlie village of Darley lies to the north, and in addition 

 to the rich soils, the faulting has preserved large deposits of fire- 

 clays, etc. (tertiary), and fair building stones (permo-carboniferous 

 sandstones). Coimadai township is close by, and its valuable 

 limestone deposi^ts (tertiary) are also due to preservation by fault- 

 ing, and later exposure by Pyrete Creek. Communication between 

 •Coimadai and Bacchus Marsh is greatly hampered by the occur- 

 rence between them of the high residual tongue of the Bullengarook 

 basalt flow. A small antimony mine occurs in the Ordovician 

 ranges to the north. Parwan and Rowsley are wholly agricultural 

 rand grazing, though good deposits of clays and building sands occur 

 at Dog Trap Gully, near the latter place, and have been extensively 

 worked. 



(iii.) The BaUan SunJda?id. — The varied rocks of this locality (see 

 Fig. 13) provide good soils — newer and older volcanics, glacial 

 .sandstones, etc. The population is therefore chiefly farmers and 

 •graziers; the newer volcanic plains have but shallow soils in many 

 cases, and are more used for grazing purposes. The town of 

 Ballan itself has grown up chiefly as a centre for the various 

 farming villages around it. Greendale, at the foot of the Green- 

 dale scarp, has Avell-grassed flats, and rounded hills of glacial 



