..... The country round Sydney. ,. Cl l t"Pii ur i r cc< tllawarw district.— Drought* anil lloodi. 



1 - u Arid natuic of the nil. « L W SU L 1 " <* ALtib, Ri , ert of Ncw Wales. 



tluve nitlcs and three hundred and seventy-seven 

 vnrdsiu length, was finally completed on the 13U.1 

 day of June, |81C." 



Governor Macquarie has literally put his mark 

 on the town of Sydney, where hardly a single street, 

 square, or puhlic building can be passed, without 

 iseeing his name cut in stone. 



The aspect of the country around Sydney is suf- 

 ficient to prove that New South Wales is very 

 different, in its general feature*, from other parts 

 of the globe. This is chiefly owing to two causes: 

 the aridity of its climate, and the prevalence of 

 Bandstone rock. This rock may be readily exa- 

 mined at the Heads of J'ort Jackson, and on the 

 shores of the many coves that surround this beau- 

 tiful harbour. Its colour is pale yellow or dmh, 

 and it lies in beds nearly horizontal and of various 

 thickness, whose upper surface, except where 

 broken by ravines and water-courses, forms a table- 

 land. The average elevation in the neighbourhood 

 of Sydney is from three hundred and fifty to four 

 htm tired "feet. At this level it extends in gentle 

 undulations to a great distance inland. 



This arid soil yields but a scanty growth of vege- 

 table products, which, consisting of burnt pasture, 

 and thinly-scattered trees and shrubbery, give to 

 the whole" region a look of desolation. The grass 

 does not every where conceal the bare rock, and 

 Ike thin soil supports only & few gum-trees (euca- 

 lypti), and bushes. Throughout the wide plain 

 there is little to relieve the eye, except here and 

 there a small cultivated spot. 



In consequence of this aridity there are many 

 continuous miles of waste lands in New South 

 Wales which by the iuhabitan ts arc called •« forests." 

 These are very different from what we understand 

 by the term, imd consist of gum-trees (eucalypti), 

 so widely scattered that a carriage may be driven 

 rapidly through them with nut meeting any obstruc- 

 tion, while the foliage of these trees is so thin and 

 apparently so dried up as scarcely to cast a shade. 

 Thus miles may be traversed in these forests with- 

 out impediment. A few marshy spots are occa- 

 sionally seen, covered with thickets of briJHh ; and 

 in other places there are tracts so dry that even 

 the gum-tree will not grow upon them, and which 

 receive the direct and scorching rays of the 

 sun. 



The most remarkable part of New South Wales 

 is the distri.-t of lllawarra, situated on the coast, 

 about sixty miles to the south of Port Jackson, 

 This is a narrow strip, that seems to be formed by 

 the retreat of the sandstone cliffs from the sea, to 

 a distance which varies from one to ten miles. The 

 cliffs or mountains vary in height from one thou- 

 sand to two thousand feet. This region is ex- 

 tremely fruitful ; its forests are rich with a great 

 variety of foliage, and of creeping plants which 

 twine around the trees. The great size ami num- 

 ber of the trees served to remind the gentlemen 

 who visited it, uf the vegetation of the tropical 

 islands, luxuriant with tree-ferns, bananas, banyans, 

 &c. This luxuriance is in part owing to a rich 

 and light soil, composed of decomposed basalt ami 

 argillaceous sandstone, mixed with vegetable 

 mould, but more to the peculiarity of its climate. 

 The high cliffs which bouud it to the west, keep 

 off the scorching wiuds wluch reach other parts 

 of the coast from that quarter, and the moisture of 

 the sea-breeze intercepted by them is condensed, 



fulling in gentle showers. For this reason, jt is 

 Hot subject to tht? long and frequent droughts 

 that occur in oilier pnrts of New South Wales. 



These droughts are sometimes of such long 

 continuance, that wc at one time read of the whole 

 country having been burnt up for want of rain, a 

 famine threatened, and the sheep and cattle i«;ri»h- 

 ing in immense mini hers. 



These have been succeeded by loug-continued 

 rains, svhieli have raised lb- rivers thirty or forty 

 feet, flooded the whole country, deluged the towns 

 and villages, and completely destroyed ihe crops. 

 Such floods carry with llu-m houses, barns, stacks 

 of grain, A.e., drown the cattle, and even the in- 

 habitants are in some cases saved only by being 

 taken from ihe tops of their houses in boats. 



The year of our visit, WW!), added another in- 

 stance to the list of disasters of the latter kind ; 

 and the published accounts state that twenty thou- 

 sand sheep were lost in the valley of the Hawkes- 

 bury by the floods. Such evils "indeed appear to 

 be of frequent occurrence, and the settler in New 

 South Wales has to contend with the elements in 

 an unusual degree. 



Such disasters arc equally injurious to the hus- 

 bandman and the wool-grower; tor ihe same cause 

 that destroys the crops, also carries olf the stock, 

 so that it is only the large capitalist who can suc- 

 cessfully struggle against or overcome such ad- 

 verse circumstances. It is some recompense for 

 this state of things, that one or two favourable 

 years will completely repay all former losses ; and 

 it is due to the perseverance and industry of the 

 inhabitants of New Suuth Wales to say, that 

 they have already, in spite of the dilhculties they 

 hav,- had to encounter, made it one of the most 

 flourishing colouu s on the globe. 



In MV.M:tis of dr-ai^lit. the Hocks and herds are 

 driven into the interior. The year of our visit 

 (lUIVj) was accounted a wet one, and some parts 

 of the Bandstone district which produced good 

 crops of grain • in drier seasons would have been 

 dry to barrenness. 



In such a climate it is not surprising that there 

 are hardly any streams that merit the name of 

 rivers, ft is necessary to guard against being 

 misled by tin; inspection of maps of the country, 

 and forming from them the idea that it is well 

 watered. Such an impression would bo erroneous, 

 and yet the maps are not inaccurate ; streams do 

 at times exist in the places where they are laid 

 | down on the maps, but for the greater part of 

 every year no more is to be seen than the beds or 

 courses, in which, during the season of Ho.i.Js, or 

 after long-continued rains, absolute torreuts of 

 water flow, but which will within the short i-paee 

 of a month again become a string of deep pools. 

 Were it not for this peculiar provision of nature, 

 the country for the greater part of the year would be 

 without water, and, consequently, uninhabitable. 



The principal rivers which are found lo the east 

 of the Blue Mountains are, the Hunter, George, 

 Shoalliam, and Hawkcsbury. None of these streams 

 are navigable further tluui the tide flows in the 

 estuaries, which sometimes extend twenty or lliirty 



• In the diluvial flat* aionp the rivers, the wheat crop i* 

 usually about twenty-five huhhels to the acre, l-'orty to 

 forty-live bushela hare been obtained, but men cxopi or* 

 | very unusual. 



