NEW SOUTH WALES. 243 



venience, delay, and disappointment occur on this route, although upon 

 the whole it facilitates the intercommunication between this district and 

 the city. Woolongong, the port at which the steamer stops, is a small 

 thriving town, and will be the principal one of this district. It has no 

 •natural harbour, but one is now under construction, at the expense of 

 government, by excavating the solid rock (limestone), for the accom- 

 modation of steamers and small vessels : a large number of convicts 

 were at work upon it. The port will never be fully protected until the 

 proposed pier or breakwater is built, for during half the year, the sea 

 makes it dangerous to lie at anchor in the roadstead, notwithstanding 

 the strong moorings which have been laid down. It will also be very 

 difficult to enter the basin in bad weather, until such a breakwater is 

 in existence to protect it. The basin, when completed, will contain 

 about half a dozen vessels. The construction of the breakwater is 

 carried on at the same time as that of the basin, and the stone exca- 

 vated from the one is used in the construction of the other. Both were 

 to have been finished in 1842. 



The district of Illaw r arra is held by a few persons, who have large 

 grants of land. The roads are constructed and kept in order at the 

 expense of the government. When one of the residents was asked 

 whether the road was a public one, he answered, it was a " govern- 

 ment road." 



The convict population, including ticket-of-leave holders, in this 

 district bears a proportion to the free as one to three. Of the remain- 

 ing two-thirds, more than one-half are emancipists and expirees. The 

 proportion of women to men is also about one to three. 



For the hospitable reception given them by Mr. Plunket, the 

 Attorney-General of the colony, our gentlemen are under great obli- 

 gation. He happened to be spending some time at his farm, near 

 Woolongong. This contains about two hundred acres, and is exceed- 

 ingly pretty. The residence of Mr. Plunket is a neat cottage, built 

 after the manner of the settlers, and is well adapted to the country. 

 It is surrounded by the most luxuriant foliage, nearly all of which has 

 a tropical character, and includes palms, cabbage-trees, and several 

 varieties of tree-ferns, all growing to a great height. 



A drive through the woods, accompanied by the ladies of the 

 family, afforded many opportunities of making collections, and getting 

 information. 



Some idea may be formed of the advancement of this district, and 

 the rise in the value of property, from the fact that Mr. Plunket sold 

 his farm for fourteen thousand pounds, which, but two years before, 

 he had bought for seven hundred. 



