Charles Griffith

“ When labour falls to £10 or £12, and when greater facilities are given for the purchase of land, so as to induce persons to become agricultural farmers, it is most probable that wheat will be raised on cheaper terms by persons who apply themselves wholly to this pursuit than it can be by the squatting stockholders of the present day, and that mills will be established through the country. There are indeed some farmers of this description in the neighbourhood of Geelong and Melbourne; but they are always complaining of bad prices. ”

“ The climate of Port Phillip is one of the circumstances which most favourably distinguish it. In winter the cold is never excessive, though the frost is generally sufficient to freeze the ponds for two or three days in each season. Snow occasionally falls, but this is of more rare occurrence. There is, however, for three or four months a considerable quantity of wet and cold weather. In summer, the heat is for the most part tempered by a cool breeze, and the nights are always cool, except during the prevalence of the hot winds ”

“ Next in importance to the soil of a country is its command of water. And here I am bound to say that, though not absolutely niggard, nature has not been so bountiful as in her gifts of soil and climate. There are in the Port Phillip district, but few rivers which flow all through the year, of which the Murray, with its tributaries, and the Yarra, are the principal. ”

“ One district alone, that reaching from Geelong to Port Fairy, would, if cultivated, yield wheat enough to supply millions of people; and most of the land is ready for the plough, without cutting down a single tree. ”

“ The third division occupies the far greater portion of the country, and includes every variety of woodland scenery from open lawns, with a few single trees, to that which deserves the name of forest, but the whole forming excellent pasture for sheep or cattle. Through districts of this kind are scattered many alluvial flats, some of them of great extent, which belong to the first division. The stringy bark and iron bark ranges, which form the fourth division, are but limited in extent, and are scattered through different parts of the wooded districts. ”

“ The country in the neighbourhood of Melbourne is very picturesque, though without any decidedly prominent features, the scenery being chiefly what is characterized by painters as woodland, and by the writers on this country as open forest. There is a good deal of it which is perfectly clear of timber ”

“ Indeed, as regards climate, the period of these hot winds is the only one that can be really complained of. They are exceedingly disagreeable, particularly to the new-comer, should he be obliged to expose himself. Fortunately, they do not occur more than six or seven times a season, and seldom last longer than a day or two at a time. They are generally succeeded by thunder and rain, accompanied by a strong southerly wind, colonially called a Brickfielder. When the south wind comes up, the change of temperature is very rapid. ”

“ The west end of the town thus occupies a comer of high ground, which rather increases in elevation for about half a mile, as it stretches to the northward. In the other direction, that is, on the river-front, there is an open valley, which, running at right angles with the river, divides the two hills which I have spoken of. Across the valley the town extends, and also up the eastern hill. The principal street, Collin's-street, running from the western limits of the town, in a direction nearly parallel to the river, crosses the valley, and stretches up the eastern hill to its eastern limits. ”

“ It should be remembered, too, that if there were anything in the climate unfavourable to human life or health, it would be likely soon to show itself amongst the number of emigrants who from time to time arrive, and who, from the effects of a long voyage, would be of course peculiarly susceptible of injurious influences. ”

“ TOWN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MELBOURNE—RIVER YARRA—SOIL OF THE COUNTRY IN GENERAL— DIVISION OF IT INTO FOUR QUARTERS—COMMAND OF WATER—CLIMATE—HOT WINDS—SALUBRITY—METEOROLOGICAL TABLES—COMPARISON WITH CLIMATE OF MADEIRA, ROME, ETC.— PRODUCTIONS. It is not until a man has seen the colonies of England that he can duly estimate her strength and resources, or appreciate the untiring energy of her sons, whose bloodless conquests have extended the empire of civilization to the furthest quarters of the globe. ”

“ This absence of permanent water-courses, though far from a desirable feature in the country, is one of the causes which have tended to the rapid development of its resources; there being few spots on the face of the globe where the nature of the surface would have permitted a handful of men to spread themselves as fearlessly, and to occupy such an extent of territory, as they have done in Australia, and which, of course, they could not have done had the deep rivers been more numerous. ”

“ Until very lately the streets were in so bad a state as to be absolutely dangerous, owing to the rain having been suffered to make channels for itself, some of which yawn most fearfully in the middle of the principal streets, and even where this is not the case, they give one in wet weather a lively idea of the condition of the world in its transition state, when it is supposed to have been the abode of the Saurian reptiles. ”

“ There is a natural dam across it at the place where Melbourne is built, which has been rendered more effective by art. This serves to keep the water above it fresh: this water is of excellent quality. Up to this point the tide flows, and the river is navigable for ships of two hundred tons burden; and many of the vessels from Van Dieman's Land, and the steam-boats from Sydney and Geelong, take in and discharge their cargoes at the wharf. ”

“ It should not he forgotten, in connexion with this subject, that though these changes are sudden, and the fall of the thermometer very great, the lowest limit is seldom below sixty degrees, somewhere about summer heat in England—a temperature most conducive to health, and one in which the animal heat is easily supported and the nervous energy suffers no depression; that the heat, though great during the hot winds, is totally unaccompanied by moisture, and that it does not continue long enough to relax the frame. ”

“ They are chiefly valued as affording the best timber for fencing or building. The stringy bark, (which is a variety of the Eucalyptus,) possessing the quality of splitting straight and freely in greater perfection than any other member of the family known in the Port Phillip district, is peculiarly valuable to the settler, who thus obtains his slabs (rough planks) for building, and his posts and rails for fencing, without the trouble and expense of sawing. ”

“ This attempt, humble as it is, has been hailed as the beginning of a better order of things, but the original error, in laying out the streets of so great a width, will always tell disadvantageously against the town, as the expense of forming them into roads, and keeping them in good repair, will always be nearly double what it would have been, had they been of a more moderate width, while in summer the dust is far greater than it would have been, had the surface on which it is formed been smaller. ”

“ Another fact may be taken into consideration, which is probably not without its influence in a country abounding with forests, namely, that none of the trees are deciduous, and that such leaves as do fall seem full of an aromatic vegetable oil, which preserves them from rotting and leaves them to crumble to powder ”