Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia, Complete

C >> Charles Sturt >> Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia, Complete

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34

EXPORT OF WOOL TO ENGLAND.

Since that time the value of New South Wales wool has been constantly on
the increase, and the colony are indebted to Mr. M'Arthur for the
possession of an exportable commodity which has contributed very
materially to its present wealth and importance. Such general attention is
now paid to this interesting branch of rural economy, that the importation
of wool into England from our Australian colonies, amounted, in 1832, to
10,633 bales, or 2,500,000 lbs. It has been sold at as high a price as
10s. per lb.; but the average price of wool of the best flocks vary from
1s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. at the present moment. The number of sheep in New South
Wales alone was calculated in the last census at 536,891 head. The
ordinary profits on this kind of stock may be extracted from the Table
given in the Appendix to the first volume of this work.

WHALE FISHERY.

Among the various speculations undertaken by the merchants of Sydney,
there is not one into which they have entered with so much spirit as in
the South Sea Fishery. The local situation of Port Jackson gives them an
advantage over the English and the American merchants, since the distance
of both these from the field of their gains, must necessarily impede them
greatly; whereas the ships that leave Sydney on a whaling excursion,
arrive without loss of time upon their ground, and return either for fresh
supplies or to repair damages with equal facility. The spirit with which
the colonial youth have engaged in this adventurous and hardy service, is
highly to their credit. The profits arising from it may not be (indeed I
have every reason to think are not) so great as might be supposed, or such
as might reasonably be expected; but the extensive scale on which it is
conducted, speaks equally for the energy and perseverance of the parties
concerned, in the prosecution of their commercial enterprises. It has
enabled them to equip a creditable colonial marine, and given great
importance to their mercantile interests in the mother country.

In the year 1831, the quantity of sperm and black oil, the produce of the
fisheries exported from New South Wales, amounted to 2,307 tons, and was
estimated, together with skins and whalebone, to be worth 107,971 pounds
sterling. The gross amount of all other exports during that year, did not
exceed 107,697 pounds sterling. Of these exports, the following were the
most considerable:

Timber 7,410 pounds
Butter and Cheese 2,376
Mimosa bark 40
Hides 7,333
Horses 7,302
Salt provisions 5,184
Wool 66,112

The above is exclusive of 61,000 pounds value of British manufactures
re-exported to the various ports and islands in the Southern Seas.

OTHER EXPORTS.

In this scale, moreover, tobacco is not mentioned; but that plant is now
raised for the supply of every private establishment, and will assuredly
form an article of export, as soon as its manufacture shall be well
understood. Neither can it be doubted but that the vine and the olive
will, in a short time, be abundantly cultivated; and that a greater
knowledge of the climate and soil of the more northern parts of the
colony, will lead to the introduction of fresh sources of wealth.

GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.

Having taken this hasty review of the commercial interests of the colony,
we may now turn to a brief examination of its internal structure and
principal natural features.

I have already given a cursory sketch of the geographical features of the
whole continent. Of the vast area which its coasts embrace, the east part
alone has been fully explored.

A range of hills runs along the eastern coast, from north to south, which,
in different quarters, vary in their distance from the sea; at one place
approaching it pretty nearly, at another, receding from it to a distance
of forty miles. It is a singular fact, that there is no pass or break in
these mountains, by which any of the rivers of the interior can escape in
an easterly direction. Their spine is unbroken. The consequence is, that
there is a complete division of the eastern and western waters, and that
streams, the heads of which are close to each other, flow away in opposite
directions; the one to pursue a short course to the sea; the other to fall
into a level and depressed interior, the character of which will be
noticed in its proper place.

GREAT PROPORTION OF BAD SOIL.

The proportion of bad soil to that which is good in New South Wales, is
certainly very great: I mean the proportion of inferior soil to such as is
fit for the higher purposes of agriculture. Mr. Dawson, the late
superintendent of the Australian Agricultural Company's possessions, has
observed, as a singular fact, that the best soil generally prevails on the
summits of the hills, more especially where they are at all level. He
accounts for so unusual a circumstance by the fact, that elevated
positions are less subject to the effects of fire or floods than their
valleys or flanks, and attributes the general want of vegetable mould over
the colony chiefly to the ravages of the former element, whereby the
growth of underwood, so favourable in other countries to the formation of
soil, is wholly prevented. Undoubtedly this is a principal cause for the
deficiency in question. There is no part of the world in which fires
create such havoc as in New South Wales and indeed in Australia
generally. The climate, on the one hand, which dries up vegetation, and
the wandering habits of the natives on the other, which induce them to
clear the country before them by conflagration, operate equally against
the growth of timber and underwood.

CAUSE OF THIS.

But there is another circumstance that appears to have escaped
Mr. Dawson's observation; which is the actual property of the trees
themselves, as to the quantity of vegetable matter they produce in decay.
Being a military man, I cannot be supposed to have devoted much of my time
to agricultural pursuits; but it has been obvious to me, as it must have
been to many others, that in New South Wales, the fall of leaves and the
decay of timber, so far from adding to the richness of its soil, actually
destroy minor vegetation. This fact was brought more home to me in
consequence of its having been my lot to spend some months upon Norfolk
Island, a distant penal settlement attached to the Government of Sydney.
There the abundance of vegetable decay was as remarkable as the want of it
on the Australian Continent. I have frequently sunk up to my knees in a
bed of leaves when walking through its woods; and, often when I placed my
foot on what appeared externally to be the solid trunk of a tree, I have
found it yield to the pressure, in consequence of its decomposition into
absolute rottenness. But such is not the case in New South Wales. There,
no such accumulations of vegetable matter are to be met with; but where
the loftiest tree of the forest falls to the ground, its figure and length
are marked out by the total want of vegetation within a certain distance
of it, and a small elevation of earth, resembling more the refuse or
scoria of burnt bricks than any thing else, is all that ultimately remains
of the immense body which time or accident had prostrated. Thus it would
appear, that it is not less to the character of its woods than to the
ravages of fire that New South Wales owes its general sterility.

CONNECTION BETWEEN THE GEOLOGY AND VEGETATION.

Whilst prosecuting my researches in the interior of the colony, I could
not but be struck with the apparent connection between its geology and
vegetation; so strong, indeed, was this connection, that I had little
difficulty, after a short experience, in judging of the rock that formed
the basis of the country over which I was travelling, from the kind of
tree or herbage that flourished in the soil above it. The eucalyptus
pulv., a species of eucalyptus having a glaucus-coloured leaf, of
dwarfish habits and growing mostly in scrub, betrayed the sandstone
formation, wherever it existed, This was the case in many parts of the
County of Cumberland, in some parts of Wombat Brush, at the two passes on
the great south road, over a great extent of country to the N.W. of Yass
Plains, and at Blackheath on the summit of the Blue Mountains. On the
other hand, those open grassy and park-like tracts, of which so much has
been said, characterise the secondary ranges of granite and porphyry. The
trees most usual on these tracts, were the box, an unnamed species of
eucalyptus, and the grass chiefly of that kind, called the oat or forest
grass, which grows in tufts at considerable distances from each other,
and which generally affords good pasturage. On the richer grounds the
angophora lanceolata, and the eucalyptus mammifera more frequently point
out the quality of the soil on which they grow. The first are abundant on
the alluvial flats of the Nepean, the Hawkesbury and the Hunter; the
latter on the limestone formation of Wellington Valley and in the better
portions of Argyle; whilst the cupressus calytris seems to occupy sandy
ridges with the casuarina. It was impossible that these broad features
should have escaped observation: it was naturally inferred from this, that
the trees of New South Wales are gregarious; and in fact they may, in a
great measure, be considered so. The strong line that occasionally
separates different species, and the sudden manner in which several
species are lost at one point, to re-appear at another more distant,
without any visible cause for the break that has taken place, will furnish
a number of interesting facts in the botany of New South Wales.

It was observed both on the Macquarie river and the Morumbidgee, that the
casuarinae ceased at a particular point. On the Macquarie particularly,
these trees which had often excited our admiration from Wellington Valley
downwards, ceased to occupy its banks below the cataract, nor were they
again noticed until we arrived on the banks of the Castlereagh. The
blue-gum trees, again, were never observed to extend beyond the secondary
embankments of the rivers, occupying that ground alone which was subject
to flood and covered with reeds. These trees waved over the marshes of the
Macquarie, but were not observed to the westward of them for many miles;
yet they re-appeared upon the banks of New-Year's Creek as suddenly as
they had disappeared after we left the marshes, and grew along the line
of the Darling to unusual size. But it is remarkable, that, even in the
midst of the marshes, the blue-gum trees were strictly confined to the
immediate flooded spaces on which the reeds prevailed, or to the very beds
of the water-courses. Where the ground was elevated, or out of the reach
of flood, the box (unnamed) alone occupied it; and, though the branches of
these trees might be interwoven together, the one never left its wet and
reedy bed, the other never descended from its more elevated position. The
same singular distinction marked the acacia pendula, when it ceased to
cover the interior plains of light earth, and was succeeded by another
shrub of the same species. It continued to the banks of New-Year's Creek,
a part of which it thickly lined. To the westward of the creek, another
species of acacia was remarked for the first time. Both shrubs, like the
blue-gum and the box, mixed their branches together, but the creek formed
the line of separation between them. The acacia pendula was not afterwards
seen, but that which had taken its place, as it were, was found to cover
large tracts of country and to form extensive brushes. Many other
peculiarities in the vegetation of the interior are noticed in the body
of this work, but I have thought that these more striking ones deserved
to be particularly remarked upon.

GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.

If we strike a line to the N.W. from Sydney to Wellington Valley, we shall
find that little change takes place in the geological features of the
country. The sand-stone of which the first of the barrier ranges is
composed, terminates a little beyond Mount York, and at Cox's River is
succeeded by grey granite. The secondary ranges to the N.W. of Bathurst,
are wholly of that primitive rock; for although there are partial changes
of strata between Bathurst and Moulong Plains, granite is undoubtedly the
rock upon which the whole are based: but at Moulong Plains, a military
station intermediate between Bathurst and Wellington Valley, limestone
appears in the bed of a small clear stream, and with little interruption
continues to some distance below the last-mentioned place. The accidental
discovery of some caves at Moulong Plains, led to the more critical
examination of the whole formation, and cavities of considerable size were
subsequently found in various parts of it, but more particularly in the
neighbourhood of Wellington Valley. The local interest which has of late
years been taken in the prosecution of geological investigations, led many
gentlemen to examine the contents of these caverns; and among the most
forward, Major Mitchell, the Surveyor-General, must justly be considered,
to whose indefatigable perseverance the scientific world is already so
much indebted.

The caves into which I penetrated, did not present anything particular to
my observation; they differed little from caves of a similar description
into which I had penetrated in Europe. Large masses of stalactites hung
from their roofs, and a corresponding formation encrusted their floors.
They comprised various chambers or compartments, the most remote of which
terminated at a deep chasm that was full of water. A close examination of
these caves has led to the discovery of some organic remains, bones of
various animals embedded in a light red soil; but I am not aware that the
remains of any extinct species have been found, or that any fossils have
been met with in the limestone itself. There can, however, be little doubt
but that the same causes operated in depositing these mouldering remains
in the caves of Kirkdale and those of Wellington Valley.

About twenty miles below the junction of the Bell with the Macquarie,
free-stone supersedes the limestone, but as the country falls rapidly from
that point, it soon disappears, and the traveller enters upon a flat
country of successive terraces. A schorl rock, of a blue colour and fine
grain, composed of tourmaline and quartz, forms the bed of the Macquarie
at the Cataract; and, in immediate contact with it, a mass of mica slate
of alternate rose, pink, and white, was observed, which must have been
covered by the waters of the river when Mr. Oxley descended it.

From the Cataract of the Macquarie, a flat extends to the marshes in which
that river exhausts itself. From the midst of this flat Mount Foster and
Mount Harris rise, both of which are porphyritic: but as I have been
particular in describing these heights in their proper place, any minute
notice of them here may be considered unnecessary. We will rather extend
our enquiries to those parts of the colony upon which we shall not be
called upon to remark in the succeeding pages.

Returning to the coast, we may mark the geological changes in a line to
the S.W. of Sydney; and as my object is to extend the information of my
readers, I shall notice any particular district on either side of the line
I propose to touch upon, which may be worthy of notice. It would appear
that the first decided break in the sandstone formation which penetrates
into the county of Camden, is at Mittagong Range. It is there traversed by
a dike of whinstone, of which that range is wholly composed. The change of
soil and of vegetation are equally remarkable at this place; the one being
a rich, greasy, chocolate-coloured earth, the other partaking greatly of
the intertropical character. In wandering over them, I noticed the wild
fig and the cherry-tree, growing to a much larger size than I had seen
them in any other part of the colony. Upon their branches, the satin bird,
the gangan, and various kinds of pigeons were feeding. Birds unknown to
the eastward of the Blue Mountains, were numerous in the valleys; and
there was an unusual appearance of freshness and moisture in the
vegetation.

These signs of improvement, however, vanish the moment Mittagong range is
crossed, and sand-stone again forms the basis of the country to a
considerable distance beyond Bong-bong. At a small farm called the
Ploughed Ground, it is again traversed by a dike of whinstone, and a rich
but isolated spot is thus passed over. With occasional and partial
interruption, however, the sand-stone formation continues to an abrupt
pass, from which the traveller descends to the county of Argyle. This pass
is extremely abrupt, and is covered with glaucus, the low scrub I have
noticed as common to the sand-stone formation. A small but lively stream,
called Paddy's River, runs at the bottom of this pass, and immediately to
the S.W. of it, an open forest country of granite base extends for many
miles, on which the eucalyptus manifera is prevalent, and which affords
the best grazing tracts in Argyle. At Goulburn Plains, however, a vein of
limestone occurs, which is evidently connected with that forming the
ShoalHaven Gully, which is perhaps the most remarkable geological feature
in the colony of New South Wales. It is a deep chasm of about a quarter of
a mile in breadth, and 1200 feet in depth. The country on either side is
perfectly level, so much so that the traveller approaches almost to its
very brink before he is aware of his being near so singular an abyss. A
small rivulet flows through the Gully, and discharges itself into the sea
at ShoalHaven; but this river is hardly perceptible, from the summit of
the cliffs forming the sides of the Gully, which are of the boldest and
most precipitous character. The ground on the summit is full of caves of
great depth, but there has been a difficulty in examining them, in
consequence of the violent wind that rushes up them, and extinguishes
every torch.

The open and grassy forests of Argyle are terminated by another of those
abrupt sand-stone passes I have just described, and the traveller again
falls considerably from his former level, previously to his entering on
Yass Plains, to which this pass is the only inlet.

From Yass Plains the view to the S. and S.W. is over a lofty and broken
country: mountains with rounded summits, others with towering peaks, and
others again of lengthened form but sharp spine, characterise the various
rocks of which they are composed. The ranges decline rapidly from east to
west, and while on the one hand the country has all the appearance of
increasing height, on the other it sinks to a dead level; nor on the
distant horizon to the N. W. is there a hill or an inequality to be seen.

From Yass Plains to the very commencement of the level interior, every
range I crossed presented a new rock-formation; serpentine quartz in
huge white masses, granite, chlorite, micaceous schist, sandstone,
chalcedony, quartz, and red jasper, and conglomerate rocks.

It was however, out of my power, in so hurried a journey as that which I
performed down the banks of the Morumbidgee River, to examine with the
accuracy I could have wished, either the immediate connection between
these rocks or their gradual change from the one to the other. I was
content to ascertain their actual succession, and to note the general
outlines of the ranges; but the defect of vision under which I labour,
prevents me from laying them before the public.

CHARACTER OF THE SOIL CONNECTED WITH GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.

From what has been advanced, however, it will appear that the physical
structure of the southern parts of the colony is as varied, as that of the
western interior is monotonous, and we may now pursue our original
observations on the soil of the colony with greater confidence.

In endeavouring to account for the poverty of the soil in New South Wales,
and in attributing it in a great degree to the causes already mentioned,
it appears necessary to estimate more specifically the influence which the
geological formation of a country exercises on its soil, and how much the
quality of the latter partakes of the character of the rock on which it
reposes. And although I find it extremely difficult to explain myself as
I should wish to do, in the critical discussion on which I have thus
entered, yet as it is material to the elucidation of an important subject
in the body of the work, I feel it incumbent on me to proceed to the best
of my ability.

I have said that the soil of a country depends much upon its geological
formation. This appears to be particularly the case in those parts of the
colony with which I am acquainted, or those lying between the parallels of
30 degrees and 35 degrees south. Sandstone, porphyry, and granite,
succeed each other from the coast to a very considerable distance into the
interior, on a N. W. line. The light ferruginous dust that is distributed
over the county of Cumberland, and which annoys the traveller by its
extreme minuteness, to the eastward of the Blue Mountains, is as different
from the coarse gravelly soil on the secondary ranges to the westward of
them, as the barren scrubs and thickly-wooded tracts of the former
district are to the grassy and open forests of the latter.

As soon as I began to descend to the westward it became necessary to pay
strict and earnest attention to the features of the country through which
I passed, in order to determine more accurately the different appearances
which, as I was led to expect, the rivers would assume. In the course of
my examination I found, first, that the broken country through which I
travelled, was generally covered with a loose, coarse, and sandy soil;
and, secondly, that the ranges were wholly deficient in that peat
formation which fills the valleys, or covers the flat summits of the hills
or mountains, in the northern hemisphere. The peculiar property of this
formation is to retain water like a sponge; and to this property the
regular and constant flow of the rivers descending from such hills, may,
in a great measure, be attributed. In New South Wales on the contrary, the
rains that fall upon the mountains drain rapidly through a coarse and
superficial soil, and pour down their sides without a moment's
interruption. The consequence is that on such occasions the rivers are
subject to great and sudden rises, whereas they have scarcely water enough
to support a current in ordinary seasons. At one time the traveller will
find it impracticable to cross them: at another he may do so with ease;
and only from the remains of debris in the branches of the trees high
above, can he judge of the furious torrent they must occasionally
contain.

This seeming deviation on the part of Nature from her usual laws will no
longer appear such, if we consider its results for a moment. The very
floods which swell the rivers to overflowing, are followed by the most
beneficent effects; and, rude and violent as the means are by which she
accomplishes her purpose, they form, no doubt, a part of that process by
which she preserves the balance of good and evil. Vast quantities of the
best soil have been thus washed down from the mountains to accumulate in
more accessible places. From frequent depositions, a great extent of
country along the banks of every river and creek has risen high above the
influence of the floods, and constitutes the richest tracts in the colony.
The alluvial flats of the Nepean, the Hawkesbury, and the Hunter, are
striking instances of the truth of these observations; to which the plains
of O'Connell and Bathurst must be added. The only good soil upon the two
latter, is in the immediate neighbourhood of the Macquarie River: but,
even close to its banks, the depositions are of little depth, lying on a
coarse gravelly soil, the decomposition of the nearer ranges. The former
is found to diminish in thickness, according to the concavity of the
valley through which the Macquarie flows, and at length becomes mixed with
the coarser soil. This deposit is alone fit for agricultural purposes;
but it does not necessarily follow that the distant country is unavailable
since it is admitted, that the best grazing tracts are upon the secondary
ranges of granite and porphyry. These ranges generally have the appearance
of open forest, and are covered with several kinds of grasses, among which
the long oat-grass is the most abundant.

COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND.

If we except the valley of the Nepean, the banks of the South Creek, the
Pennant Hills near Parramatta, and a few other places, the general soil of
the county of Cumberland, is of the poorest description. It is superficial
in most places, resting either upon a cold clay, or upon sandstone; and
is, as I have already remarked, a ferruginous compound of the finest dust.
Yet there are many places upon its surface, (hollows for instance,) in
which vegetable decay has accumulated, or valleys, into which it has been
washed, that are well adapted for the usual purposes of agriculture, and
would, if the country was more generally cleared, be found to exist to a
much greater extent than is at present imagined. I have frequently
observed the isolated patches of better land, when wandering through the
woods, both on the Parramatta River, and at a greater distance from the
coast. And I cannot but think, that it would be highly advantageous to
those who possess large properties in the County of Cumberland to let
Portions of them. The concentration of people round their capital,
promotes more than anything else the prosperity of a colony, by creating
a reciprocal demand for the produce both of the country and the town,
since the one would necessarily stimulate the energy of the farmer, as the
other would rouse the enterprise of the merchant. The consideration,
however, of such a subject is foreign to my present purpose.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34