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Much of Sydney is built upon sand-dunes, and the following newspaper extracts 
of little more than half a century ago, in regard to what is now a densely-populated part 
of Sydney, are very interesting. As population increases, of course an overwhelming 
number of people become concerned in dealing with the nuisance in cities, but prob- 
lems exist where population is sparse. 
October 4, 1854 The Sand Drifts. " At Strawberry Hills, the damage done to property by the 
drifting sand is one of great hardship to the local residents. In some cases so much so that the houses were 
completely buried in the sand, and on account of the drifts up to the very chimneys. An owner of a tenement 
in that locality had adopted a singular expedient. In order to keep his well of water clear, he had fixed a 
cask upon the well mouth. But the sand gained ground, and he topped the cask with another, and so on, 
until now he has a dip of 15 feet of casks. The people who continued to live on the spot did so only by 
dint of most energetic exertions to beat back the sand-drifts, some of them using sheepskins to stay its 
progress. Many of the unfortunate persons were completely surrounded by mountains of sand. The 
Government ought to bring down a measure to arrest the progress of these drifts, which, if permitted to 
accumulate as at present, would probably at no distant period overwhelm the city." Mr. H. Parkes (the 
late Sir Henry), in the Legislative Council. 
The motion of Mr. Parkes in the Legislative Council yesterday, asserting that immediate steps are 
required to be taken by the Government to prevent the sand-drifts at Strawberry Hills and other places 
from destroying more property, was passed. Mr. Parkes, in his remarks on the subject, stated that these 
sand-hills had now grown so extended as to become alarming. Some of the houses had been almost entirely 
buried, nothing but the last row or two of bricks and the chimneys being above the ground. 16/12/55. 
3. The sand-drift problem a Forestry rather than an Engineering Question. 
In New South Wales, works for the treatment of sand-drifts are carried out by 
engineers. In all other countries with which I am acquainted, they are looked upon as 
the legitimate work of the forester, and hence the planting work is given a prominence 
that it has never received with us, so far. In France, the work was expressly trans- 
ferred from the Director-General of " Fonts et Chaussees," in 1862, to the Forestry 
Department ; in the United States the work is in the hands of the Department of Agri- 
culture. Engineers should, if necessary, be temporarily or permanently attached to a 
Forest Department for special duties. Although the coastal sand-dune works in France 
are best known, those in England, Holland, Germany, the United States, and Canada 
are very important. 
4. The Stages in the Reclamation of a Sand-dune. 
Sand-dune reclamation consists of various stages : 
(a) Cutting off the further supply of sand from the ocean. 
(6) [Incidental discussion of the treatment of sand-dunes as carried on at 
Port Fairy and Williamstown (Victoria)]. 
(c) Fixing the sand by means of vegetation. 
(d) Maintenance of such vegetation. 
The sand is, of course, primarily brought from the sea by the action of winds and 
waves. The deposit on the beach is dried, and is then blown by the prevailing winds, 
forming dunes. Our most violent gales, in the Sydney district, come from the south- 
east. Let us consider the above points in detail. 
