MITIGATION OF FLOODS IN THE HUNTER RIVER. 109 



finest and most fertile valley I have seen, and I do not 

 think there is any like it in these Colonies." It will be at 

 once admitted that the valley is one of the most valuable 

 heritages New South Wales possesses, and hence the 

 interests at stake in its welfare are of no ordinary magni- 

 tude. The river rises in the Mount Royal Range and in 

 very many parts of its length runs through rich black soil 

 flats, some of them quite small, but in the aggregate 

 amounting to a considerable area. 



The Page River is an important tributary of the Hunter 

 and there is much rich land on its banks. This river has 

 been settled for many years and its banks show much 

 evidence of erosion. Extensive washaways are evident 

 between Muswelibrook and Denman. There are now large 

 reaches in the river both here and in other places, and it 

 is pitiable to see the deep sections of rich land doomed to 

 fall into the river bed and be washed away at every fresh. 

 The Hunter is every year becoming broader and shallower. 

 In seasons of drought such as the present, this is a matter 

 of special consequence, as the waste of water through 

 increased evaporation must be enormous. 



The Goulburn River is the most considerable tributary 

 of the Hunter, which it enters on its right bank, near 

 Denman. It is said that this river brings down a larger 

 body of water than the Hunter at the place of their junc- 

 tion, and hence it is believed by some people that it is this 

 river that causes the greater portion of the mischief at 

 Maitland, etc. The Goulburn River silt is by no means all 

 sandstone, e.g., Bow Creek flows through rich volcanic soil 

 for a large portion of its course. The Wybong Creek shows 

 washaways like the Hunter River creeks ; there appears 

 to be no very serious erosion of the Krui (another tributary 

 of the Goulburn) at present, although the river appears to 

 be widening about Collaroy. 



