25 
The route from this point to Rosedale and thence to 
Sale is not of an interesting character. 
All the lands from Traralgon to Rosedale have been 
taken up, and from Rosedale to Sale the road is hounded 
on each side by lands purchased from the Crown. 
The River La Trobe, from Traralgon to Lake Wellington, 
is bordered by extensive morasses, varying in width from 
half a mile to two miles, the aggregate area of which, up 
to the junction of the La Trobe and Thomson, cannot be 
less than 26,240 acres. These morasses arc still in the 
possession of the Crown. Though they could be. drained, 
so as in ordinary seasons to be valuable as pasture lands, 
they could not be cultivated with the certainty that the 
crops would he reaped. They are in all seasons liable to 
inundation. 
In what manner such lands should be dealt with has 
from time to time engaged the attention of the Govern¬ 
ment ; and in October 1865 a board was appointed to 
examine and report on these and other swamps in the 
colony, with the view of ascertaining how far and in what 
way they could be made productive. 
From Sale to the River Avon, both on the north and 
the south, all the land has been alienated. 
The soils of the tract lying between the La Trobe and 
the Avon, and those on the borders of the Macallister 
and Thomson, for a distance of sixteen miles from the 
point at which they fall into the La Trobe, are rich as 
compared with the soils covering rocks of the same age 
on the east and the west. This is due mainly to the 
character of the rocks whence the detritus and debris 
forming the soils have been derived, but in some measure 
also to the form of the basins of those rivers in their 
lower parts. Vast quantities of mud were spread over 
