FASCINE WORK IN N.S.W. XXI. 
ten years back; but the principle of using fascines of a bushy 
nature, to bind clay or soil together, has been availed of in many 
and various instances, either for rough mining dams, or to form 
mattrasses upon which roads or light tram lines might be carried 
across swampy ground. 
Indeed the first fascine work with which the author was con- 
nected, was the construction of a temporary dam of fascines and 
untempered clay, at a breakaway in the town dam (on western 
end) at Parramatta about 1880; and owing to the force of the 
water, the river being in flood at the time, it can safely be asserted 
that only through the use of fascines, for binding the clay, and 
easing off the power of the stream, the work of repair to the main 
dam would have been much more expensive than was actually 
the case. 
Fascine work was introduced when Mr. E. O. Moriarty was _ 
head of the Harbours and Rivers Department, but the greater 
portion was carried out under the Engineer-in-Chief, Mr. C. W. 
Darley. 
The credit of the introduction of this class of work into New 
South Wales is due to Mr. Alfred Williams, M.Inst.c.E., under 
whom the author had considerable experience, and as Mr. Williams 
had the advantage of employing this description of river bank 
protection in England, at the river Severn ; where the range of 
tide is considerably more than our six feet, he saw to what advan_ 
tage such work could be put, in the proper alignment of our rivers 
with their unsightly, useless, and muddy Mangrove flats ; where 
the use of stone embankments would prove too costly to allow of 
the work being undertaken ; especially in such places were soft 
bottoms are met with, as the entrance to the Long Cove Canal at 
Leichhardt. . 
Two notable descriptions of fascine work, have been constructed 
under the supervision of officers in the Public Works Department, 
and these the author will designate as “ Fascine Embankments ” 
and ‘“ Fascine Wall.” 
