AUSTRALASIAN BOTANICAL NOTES 
II. VICTORIA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, AND WEST AUSTRALIA 
Douglas H. Campbell 
(Received for publication July n, 1922) 
Victoria 
Victoria, the smallest of the Australian States except Tasmania, has a 
rather more uniform climate, both as to temperature and rainfall, than most 
of Australia, and in this respect more nearly resembles certain regions of 
the north-temperate zone. Victoria occupies nine degrees of longitude 
and five of latitude, its southernmost point, Wilson’s Promontory, extending 
just beyond the thirty-ninth parallel. In area Victoria is 87,884 square 
miles, a little more than the area of Kansas. The eastern portion, Gipps- 
land, is a continuation of the coastal belt of New South Wales, and to the 
north of this is an elevated region, which is a continuation of the main 
mountain mass of New South Wales. Within Victoria this is known as the 
Victorian Alps. In. the southwest there is an extensive basaltic plain of 
great fertility, one of the most productive regions in the commonwealth. 
The northwest corner of the state is a continuation of the interior plains 
of New South Wales and South Australia, and like them is a region of scanty 
rainfall. 
The heaviest rainfall is in parts of Gippsland, where some stations have 
over sixty inches, and nearly a third of the state has a rainfall exceeding 
thirty inches. 
In these well-watered regions, especially in the mountainous parts of 
Gippsland, there is a heavy forest, mainly Eucalyptus. It is in the Gipps¬ 
land forest that the giant among Australian trees is found. This is Eucalyp¬ 
tus regnans, which is a close rival in height of the Californian Sequoias. 1 
Victoria has proportionally a larger amount of land available for ordi¬ 
nary agriculture than any of the other states, and in consequence is more 
uniformly populated and looks more like the agricultural regions of Europe 
and America. 
Melbourne is in many ways the finest of the Australian cities. Its 
broad, well-kept streets and handsome and substantial public buildings and 
business structures give the impression of a remarkably prosperous com¬ 
munity. 
1 Maiden, in his sketch of the Australian flora (Federal Handbook, p. 204), states that 
the “official size” of the tallest Gippsland tree was 326 feet 1 inch height, and girth 25 feet 
8 inches, six feet from the ground. 
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