THE HANDBOOK 
OF 
HORTICULTURE AND VITICULTURE 
OF 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
By A. Dusprissis, M.R.A.C. 
HE awakening of Western Australia as a fruit-producing 
State dates only from the beginning of the gold rush a 
couple of decades ago. It is concurrent with the develop- 
ment of the wonderful gold belt which has since been proved to run 
through it, from the Great Australian Bight, in the South, to Cam- 
bridge Gulf and the tropical Kimberleys, in the North. 
Previous to that epoch, sufficient had been achieved by the 
older colonists to show that Western Australia could produce grapes 
and fruit of great excellence, but the gardens of the State were few 
in number and far apart. Yet, fruit was then more easily procur-* 
able than it has since been, and the requirements of the 50,000 odd 
consumers were liberally satisfied; indeed, fruit was then so cheap 
that no market value was attached to it. It was mostly consumed 
on the spot, and the surplus rotted under the trees, and was not 
worth carting away. In those days consumers were producers 
themselves; long distances and lack of rapid communication mili- 
tated against the marketing of fruit, and methods of picking and 
packing for distant markets were not familiar to fruit-growers, nor 
had they any experience regarding those varieties which, better than 
others, lend themselves to long keeping and travelling. 
With the discovery of gold came the rush of gold-seekers. The 
constant stream of population which then set in soon taxed the 
resources of the farming districts; supplies of all sorts were soon 
exhausted, and all the commodities of life had to be largely im- 
ported. The ever-increasing flow of population continued its course 
to the inland goldfields. 
