BY HOWARD WILLOUGHBY OF 'THE MELBOURNE ARGUS ' WITH A MAP AND ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS, ENGRAVED BY E. WHYMPER AND OTHERS. LONDON THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 56 Paternoster Row and 164 Piccadilly 1886 LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, Limited , STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS....

In one respect this work differs from its predecessors. The companion volumes were written by travellers to the lands which they described, but Australian Pictures are by an Australian resident. Hence, when praise is required, the author has often preferred to quote some traveller of repute rather than to state his own impressions. Thanks have to be given to the Government of Victoria, which kindly placed all its works at the disposal of the author. The official history of the aborigines compile

'Australian Pictures' must necessarily consist of peeps at Australia. It seems presumptuous at first to ask that great island-continent to creep into a single volume. But sketches of parts and bird's-eye views will often reveal more to the stranger than a minute and fatiguing survey of the whole. These pages, though few in number, will, it is hoped, convey to the reader some idea of that vast new world where Saxons and Celts are peacefully building up another Britain. Some of the early errors ab

Dimensions of Australia—Mount Kosciusko—The Murray River System—Wind Laws—The Hot Wind—Intense Heat Periods—The Early Explorers—Sturt's Experience—Blacks and Bush Fires—Droughts—Unexplored Australia. It is not possible to understand Australia without a glance at the physical conditions of the continent. A good angel and a bad, an evil influence and a beneficial, are ever in contention in nature here. From the surrounding sea come cool and grateful clouds; from the heated interior come hot blasts

Australian Democracies—The Federal Movement—Immigration—Current Wages—Cost of Living—Absence of an Established Church—Religion in the Rural Districts—A Typical Service—Sunday Observance—Mission Work—Church Building. The Australian colonies are, one and all, democracies of the most advanced type. Annual Parliaments have been advocated, though at present triennial legislatures are the rule. Payment of members, it should be added, is not adopted by all the states, but the principle seems to be spre

Port Phillip—Early Settlement and Abandonment—The Pioneers Henty, Batman and Fawkner—Size of Victoria—Melbourne—Its Appearance—Public Buildings—Streets—Reserves—Pride of its People—Unearned Increment—Sandhurst—Ballarat—The Capital of the Interior—Geelong—The Western District—View of the Lakes—Portland—The Wheat Plains—Shepperton—The Mallee—Gippsland—Mountain Ranges—School System—Cobb's Coaches—Facts and Figures. It is strange that Victoria should be one of the youngest of the colonies, for Port

Survey of the Colony—Sydney and its Harbour—The Great West—The Blue Mountains—Their Grand Scenery—An Australian Show Place—The Fish River Caves—Dubbo to the Darling—The Great Pastures—The Northern Tableland—The Big Scrub Country—Tropical Vegetation. New South Wales is the mother colony of Australia, and though, after the gold discovery, she was for a time thrown into the shade by the prowess of her former dependency, Victoria, she is making rapid strides to recover; in fact, she may be said to h

Configuration—The Lake Country—Heat in Summer—Fruit—Glenelg—Adelaide—Mount Lofty Range—Parks and Buildings—Mosquito Plain Caves—Camels—The Overland Telegraph Line—Peake Station—The Northern Territory—Early Misfortunes—Present Prospects—Insect Life—Alligators—Buffaloes. South Australia should rather be called Central Australia, for it lies half-way between the western and the eastern seaboard, and the colony runs right through the continent from north to south. It is an enormous tract, 2,000 mile

Size and Configuration—Early Settlement—Brisbane Island and Coast Towns—Gladstone—Roma—Gympie—Toowoomba—Townsville—Cooktown—Squatting—The Cattle Station—The Sheep Station—The Queensland Forest—The Nettle-Tree—Sugar Planting—Polynesian Natives—Stoppage of the Labour Trade—Gold Mining—The Palmer—Silver, Tin, and Copper. The following sketch of the great colony of Queensland is from the pen of Mr. Carl A. Feilberg of Brisbane. In order to form a just idea of Queensland it is necessary to bear in mi

Early Settlement—Mistaken Land System—Convict Labour—The System Abandoned—Poison Plants—Perth—King George's Sound—Climate—Pearls—Prospects. Western Australia, as its name implies, is the tract of country lying upon the western side of the great island continent of the south. A glance at the map shows that the eastern side of the island, and much of the southern, is occupied by the colonies of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, the land in which is taken up by squatters,

A Holiday Resort for Australians—Launceston—The North and South Esk—Mount Bischoff—A Wild District—The Old Main Road—Hobart—The Derwent—Port Arthur—Convicts—Facts and Figures. This island is the smallest of the Australian colonies, and the lover of the picturesque pronounces it to be the fairest of them all. It is a land of mountain and of flood—another Scotland, but with a perennial blue sky and an Italian climate. Now that there is a leisured and a wealthy class in Australia, this wealth of sc

Tragic Stories—Flinders and Bass—Adventures in a Small Boat—Discoveries—Disappearance of Bass—Death of Flinders—Eyre's Journey—Ludwig Leichhardt —Disappearance of his Party—Theory of his Fate—The Kennedy Catastrophe—The Burke and Wills Expedition—Across the Continent—The Deserted Depôt—Slow Death by Starvation—Later Expeditions. The story of Australian exploration is for the most part of a tragic character. Great geographical results have been achieved, but the price has been paid in great sacri

First Encounter with the Blacks—Misunderstandings—Narrative of a Pioneer—Climbing Trees—The Blacks' Defence—Decay of the Race—Weapons—The Northern Tribes—A Northern Encampment—Corroboree—Black Trackers—Burial—Mission Stations. From large portions of the continent the native has now been absolutely swept away. The immigrant who intends to settle in the populated parts of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland, will have no more to do with the natives than he would hav

Marsupials—The 'Tasmanian Devil'—Dingoes—Kangaroo Hunting—The Lyre-Bird—Bower-Bird—The Giant Kingfisher—Emu Hunting—Snakes—The Shark—Alleged Monotony of Vegetation—Tropical Vegetation of Coast—The Giant Gum—The Rostrata—The Mallee Scrub—Flowers and Shrubs. No large carnivorous animals roam over the Australian plains, to endanger the life of man or to destroy his flocks and herds. Australia is the mother country of the meek and mild marsupial, which is found in abundance, varying in size from the

Present meaning of the word 'Squatter'—Cattle-raising—Capital has Confidence in Squatting now—Origin of Merino Sheep-breeding—Management of a Run—Drought—Box-tree Clearings—Modern Enterprise—Sheep-shearing—'Sundowners'—Farming Prospects—Cheap Land—Easy Harvesting—Small Capital—Selection Conditions—Bush Fires—Black Thursday—The Otway Disaster—Lost in the Bush—Missing Children. The terms 'squatter' and 'squatting' are now misleading. They cover a number of different occupations, and perhaps the wo

Numbers are but poor tests of the religious condition and progress of a country, but they have their value, and many of the readers of this volume may find the following facts interesting. It has not been found possible to get the information respecting Queensland and Western Australia. It is quite evident at a glance that there is a large number of trained men who are engaged in the great work of the Gospel, and that their efforts are supported by a very considerable section of the Australian p