CHAIRMAN’S' ADDRESS. v. 
I have dwelt in detail on this subject, for the purpose of 
showing to what straits the people, then numbering about 
13,000, must have been in while depending on the Tank 
Stream and Blackwattle Swamp, and probably Farm Cove 
streams, and how anxiously they must have been looking 
forward to the completion of Busby’s Bore. 
The diagram shows that the ground water must have 
been very low in 1830, (after the long drought, extending 
probably with occasional relief from short spells of rain 
above the average, from the year 1820), when the tunnel, 
partially completed, began to supply water from the drain- 
age coming from the surrounding rocks through which it 
was pierced. 
In 1835 the colonists residing in Sydney must have been 
in a very bad way, as the diagram shows the curve to be 
drawn down toa very low point. In 1836 relief came by a 
rainfall for the year 22°22 inches above the mean, which 
no doubt, set the Tank Stream running again, and aug- 
mented the supply from the uncompleted tunnel. In June 
1837 the tunnel was finished, thus tapping the Lachlan 
Swamps, and providing what seemed an assured supply of 
pure water. 
Soon after the opening of the tunnel, Professor Smith 
says :— 
“Then commenced a calamitous drought, the severest and most 
general of which we have any record. Contemporary accounts 
represent the Colony as reduced to great straits through the 
destruction of vegetation and live stock. One writer says, ‘No 
words can express the miserable appearance of the country. There 
is neither food for man or beast. God knows what will become 
of us all, if some change does not take place very soon.” 
Professor Smith regrets that he cannot find any record 
of the rainfall at Sydney, or at any other part of the colony 
for the years 1838-9, during which the drought prevailed ; 
