^OFCALIFOff^ ^\WEUNIVEW/^ ^ o %a]AiNn-3WV ^OFCALIFO/?^ ^. o _^UIBRARYQ<^ ^lllBRA^Qr^ ■5c. .:j ^WFlNIVERi-ZA %a3AiNn]\\v^ ^.!/ojnv3Jo^ %0dnvD-jo^ ^ v;j^lOSANCElfj> o '^/5a]AINIl-3WV ^^ILIBRARYQ^ ^OFCAilF0% •^'CAavaani^ ^ ^. vvlOSANCElfx^ o '^Aa3AlNf]-3WV*' ^ILIBRARYQ^. -v^lllBRARYQ/: ^(iiojnvDJo^ ^^lOJIlVDJO^ aweuniver^ \,OFCALIF0ff^ ^&Aavaani^ ^irtE UNIVERi/A. ?- '^/5a]/\INil]V\V" ^OFCAIIF LIBRARYtk, \^t^ )dllV3J0>^ ''^^' S^ %130NVS01^^^ CAUFOMk^ ^ofcalifo/?^ ^clOSANCElfXy> ^c-^ ILi The Commonwealth of Australia FEDERAL HANDBOOK PREPARED IN CONNECTION WITH THE EIGHTY-FOURTH MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE HELD IN AUSTRALIA, AUGUST, 1914. COMPILED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE ASSOCIATION EDITED BY G. H. KNIBBS, C.M.G., F.R.A.S., F.S.S. :: :: AND PUBLISHED BY THE :: COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT By Aulhority ; Albert J. MuIIelt. Government Printer, Mtlbourne. wt^-= -^■11 PREFACE. This Handbook, specially prepared for the use of member's of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Australian Meeting of 1914, contains a series of articles written by persons selected for that purpose by the Federal Council in Australia. These articles set forth matters which, it is believed, will be found of interest, and the data of which are in most cases not readily accessible to general readers abroad, nor even to those in Australia. Much of the material also has not hitherto been published. The issue of the Handbook has been made possible by the generosity of the Federal Government of Australia in undertaking to defray the expense of publication. That Government also has very kindly placed all desired official sources of information in its possession at the disposal of the Editor. The articles were decided upon by the Federal Council in Australia of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in whose name the invitation was made to each of the writers to contribute. Each author is alone responsible for all statements made or opinions expressed in his article. The closing chapter refers to miscellaneous matters worthy of mention which were not coveied by the pi'eceding chapters. Editor. Melbourne, March, 1914. ;:(Jivr57 coisrTEisrTS. PAGE Chapter I. — History of Australia . . . . . . . . i By Ernest Scott, Professor of History ia the University of Melbourne. Chapter II. — The Aboriginals of Australia . . . . . . . . 33 By W. Baldwin Spencer, C.M.G., M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Biology in the University of Melbourne. Chapter III. — -The Physical and General Geography of Australia . . 86 By Griffith Taylor, B.Sc, B.E., B.A., F.G.S., Physiographer in the Com- monwealth Bureau of Meteorology. Chapter IV. — Climate of Australia .. .. .. .. ..122 By H. A. Hunt, F.R.Met.S., Commonwealth Meteorologist. Chapter V.^Australian Vegetation . . . . . . . . . . 163 By J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., Government Botanist, New South Wales. Chapter VI. — The Animal Life of Australia . . . . . . . . 210 By W. A. Haswell, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., Professor of Biology in the University of Sydney. Chapter VII. — -The Geology of the Commonwealth . . . . . , 241 By T. W. Edgeworth DA^^D, C.M.G., D.Sc., F.R.S., Professor of Geology in the University of Sydney ; E. W. Skeats, D.Sc, A.R.C.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the University of Melbourne ; T. S. Hall, M.A., D.Sc, Lecturer in Biology in the Univei-sity of Melbourne ; W. S. Dun, Lecturer in Palaeontology in the Universitj- of Sydney ; and F. Chap- man, A.L.S., Palaeontologist to the National Museum, Melbourne . Chapter VIII. — -Astronomy and Geodesy In Australia . . . . . . 326 By PiETRO Baracchi, F.R.A.S., Government Astronomer of Victoria. Chapter IX. — -The Pastoral and Agricultural Development of Australia 391 By G. A. Sinclair, Agricultural Editor of the Australasian. Chapter X. — Mining Fields of AustraliI . . . . . . . . 410 By E. F. PiTTMAN, A.R.S.M., Government Geologist of New South Wales, and A. Gibb ALiiTLAND, F.G.S., Government Geologist of Western Australia. Chapter XL — Manufactures, Industrial and Commercial Development of Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 By Gerald Lightfoot, M.A., Barrister-at-law, Chapter XII. — Educational Policy and Development . . . . . . 509 By Francis Anderson, M.A., Professor of Logic and Mental Philosophy in the University of Sydney. Chapter XIII. — Political Systems of Australia .. .. .. 546 By W. Harrison Mooee, B.A., LL.D., Professor of Law in the University of Melbourne. Chapter XIV. — Miscellaneous Notes on Australia, its People, and their AcTivrrrES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581 By G. H. Knibbs, C.M.G., F.S.S., F.R.A.S., etc.. Commonwealth Statistician. 0.12154. INDEX TO MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, ETC Map of Australasia Map of New South Wales Map of Victoria Map of Queensland Map of South Australia . . Map of Western Australia Map of Tasmania Map of Northern Teri-itory Aboriginal Types, Customs, etc. Tribal Map of Australia . . Physiographic Features in the Vicinity of Sydney 'J'he Federal Capital Territory The Topography of Melbourne and its Environs Map of Australia, showing Wet Bulb Isotherms Graph of Temperatures of Australian Cities Map of Australia, showing Yearly Temperature Frost Map of Australia . . Rainfall Map of Australia Graph of Rainfall of Australian Cities Map showing Average Rainfall for Wheat-growing Period Graph of Monthly Evaporation at Selected Stations Map of Australia showing Isobars Graph of Monthly Atmospheric Pressure at Principal Cities Relief Map of Australia . . Relief Model of Australia Tectonic Features of Australia Orographical Map of Australia Geological Map of Australia Geological Section of Australia, West to East Geological Section of Australia, North to South Map of New Guinea Geological Section of Papua Railway Systems of Australia Graphs of Total Trade, Exports and Imports of the Common w ealth Chart showing Scheme of PubHc Education in New South Wales text. * Besides the above, there are several small maps, diagrams, etc., inserted in the BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. VISIT TO AUSTRALIA, 1914. Patron. HIS MAJESTY THE KING. OFFICERS: President. Professor William Bateson, M.A., F.R.S. Immediate Past President. Sir Oliver Lodge, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents. His Excellency the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. Their Excellencies the Governors of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania. The Honorable the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth. The Honorable the Premiers of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania. The Right Honorable the Lord Mayors of Sydney and Melbourne. The Right Worshipful the Mayors of Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart. The Chancellors of the Universities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia. General Treasurer. Professor John Perry, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S. General Secretaries. Professor W. A. Herdman, D.Sc, F.R.S. Professor H. H. Turner, D.Sc, D.C.L., F.R.S. Assistant Secretary. 0. J. R. Howarth, M.A., Burlington House, London, W. Chief Clerk and Assistant Treasurer. H. C. StewardsoD, Burlington House, London, W. Federal Council tor the Australian Meeting. President. — The Honorable the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth. Chairman. — Professor Orme Masson, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., F.R.S.E. Secretary. — M. L. Shepherd, Prime Minister's Department, Melbourne. General Organizing Secretary for the Australian Meeting. A. C. D. Rivett, M.A., D.Sc, University of Melbourne, Victoria. Local Ofificers for the Australian Meeting New South Wales. CAaw man.— Professor T. W. Edgeworth David, C.M.G., B.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. Secretary. — J. H. Maiden, F.L.S. Treasurer. — H. G. Chapman, M.D., B.S. Victoria. Chairman. — Professor Orme Masson, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., F.R.S.E. Secretary. — Professor Baldwin Spencer, C.M.G., M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. Treasurer. — Charles Bage, M.A., M.D. Queensland. Chairman. — Professor B. D. Steele, D.Sc. Secretary. — T. E. Jones, B.A. South Australia. C/iaimaw.— Professor E. C. Stirling. C.M.G., M.A., M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S. F.R.C.S. Secretary. — Professor Kerr Grant, M.Sc Treasurer. — Thomas Gill, I.S.O. Western Australia. Chairman. — Hon. Walter Kingsmill, B.A., M.L.C. Secretary. — James S. Battye, B.A., LL.B. (on leave). Acting Secretaries. — Professor W. J. Dakin, D.Sc; W. Catton Grasby, F.L.S. Tasmania Chairman. — Hon. G. H. Butler. Secretary. — Professor T. Thomson Flymi, B.Sc. Sectional Officers. Section A.— Mathematics and Physics. President— VxoiQS.&ov F. T. Trouton, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S. (London). Vice-Presidents.— -:i . H. Jeans, M.A., F.R.S. (Cambridge) ; Professor A. W. Porter, B.Sc, F.R.S. (London). Recorder. — Professor A. S. Eddington, M.A., M.Sc, (Cambridge). Secretaries. — A. 0. Rankine, D.Sc. (London) ; E. Gold, M.A. (London) ; Professor S. B. Maclaren. M.A. (Reading). Local Secretary for Sydney. — Professor J. A. Pollock, D.Sc. Local Secretary for Melbourne.— ^Toiessov T. R. Lyle, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. Section B— Chemistry. Prest(ie«/.— Professor W. J. Pope, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. (Cambridge). Vice-Presidents.— Pvoiessor H. B. Dixon, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. (Manchester) ; F. Clowes, D.Sc, F.I.C. (London). Recorder.— A. Holt, M.A., D.Sc. (Liverpool). Secretary.— 'N. V. Sidgwick, M.A., D.Sc. (Oxford). Local Secretary Jor Sydney. — Professor C. Fawsitt, D.Sc, Ph.D. Local Secretary Jor Melbourne. — D. Avery, M.Sc. Section C- - Geology. President.— 8iv T. H. Holland, K.C.I.E., D.Sc, F.R.S. (Manchester). Vice-Presidents. — Professor W. S. Boulton, D.Sc. (Birmingham) ; Professor J. W. SoUas, ScD., Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. (Oxford). Recorder. — -A. R. Dwerryhouse, D.Sc. (Belfast). Secretary. — Professor S. H. Reynolds, M.A. (Bristol). Local Secretary jor Sydney. — -E. F. Pittman, A.R.S.M. Local Secretary jor Melbourne. — -Professor E. W. Skeats, D.Sc, A.R.C.S,, F.G.S. Section D.— Zoology. President. — Professor Arthur Dendy, D.Sc, F.R.S. (London). Vice-Presidents. -^B.. F. Gadow, Ph.D., F.R.S. (Cambridge) ; Professor E. A. Minchin, Ph.D., F.R.S. (London). Recorder.— Karett Tims, M.A., M.D. (Cambridge). Secretaries. — -R. D. Laurie, M.A. (Liverpool) ; J. H. Ashworth, D.Sc. (Edinburgh). Local Secretary jor Sydney. — -Professor W. A. Haswell, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. Local Secretary jor Melbourne.— T. S. Hall, M.A., D.Sc. Section E — Geography. PrmfZeni.— Sir C. P. Lucas, K.C.B., K.C.M.G. (London). Vice-Presidents.— W. S. Bruce, LL.D., F.R.S.E. (Edinburgh) ; Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., D.Sc. Recorder.— R. Yule Oldham, M.A. (Cambridge). Secretary. — J. McFarlane, M.A. (Manchester). Local Secretary jor Sydney. — -F. Poate. Local Secretary jor Melbourne. — J. A. Leach, D.Sc. Section F.— Economic Science and Statistics. President. — Professor E. C. K. Gonner, M.A. (Liverpool). Vice-President. — Sir Henry Cunynghame, K.C.B. (Folkestone). Recorder. — Professor Kirkaldy, M.A., M.Comm., B.Litt. (Birmingham). Ijocal Secretary jor Sydney. — ^Professor R. F. L'vine. M.A. Local Secretary jor Melbourne.— G. H. Knibbs, C.M.G., F.R.A.S., F.S.S. Section G.— Engineering. President.— Professor E. G. Coker, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E. (London). Vice-Presidents. — Professor Petavel D.Sc, F.R.S. (Manchester) ; Professor George Forbes, M.A., F.R.S., M.List. C.E. (London). Recorder. — Professor G. W. 0. Howe, M.Sc. (London). Secretary. — Professor W. M. Thornton, D.Sc. (Newcastle). Local Secretary jor Sydney. — Professor W. H. Warren, M.Iiist. C.E. Local Secretary jor Melbourne. — Professor H. Payne, M.Inst. C.E., M.LMech.E. Section H.— Anthropology. President. — Sir Everavd im Tliurn, C.B., K.C.M.G. (London). Vice-Presidents. — Sir Richard Temple, Bart., C.I.E.; Henry Balfour, M.A. (Oxford). Recorder. — E. W. Martindell, M.A. (London). Secretary.— B,. R. Marett, M.A., D.Sc. (Oxford). Local Secretary Jar Sydney. —l^roiessov J. T. Wilson, M.B., Ch,M., F.R.S. Local Secretary Jor Melbourne. — -Professor R. J. A. Berry, M.B., F.R.C.S., F.R.S.E. Section I —Physiology. President.^BT. C. J. Martin, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S. (London). Vice-Presidents.— ¥roiessov\Y. D. Halliburton, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. (London) ; Professor C. S. Sherrington, M.A., M.D., D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S. (Oxford). Recorder. — Professor P. T. Herring, M.D. (St. Andrews). Secretary.— 'Pvoiessov T. H. Milroy, M.D., B.Sc, F.R.S.E. (Belfast). Local Secretary Jor Sydney. — -Professor T. P. Anderson Stuart, M.D., Ch.M., LL.D., D.Sc. Local Secretary for Melbourne. — ^Professor W. A. Osborne, M.B., B.Ch., D.Sc. Section K.— Botany. President. — Professor F. 0. Bower, D.Sc, F.R.S. (Glasgow). Vice-Presidents.— Pvoiessor A. C. Seward, M.A., F.R.S. (Cambridge) ; Mis.s E. R. Saunders (Cambridge). Recorder.— C. E. Moss, D.Sc (Cambridge). Secretary. — Miss E. N. Thomas, B.Sc. (London). Local Secretary for Sydney. — Professor A. A. Lawson, D.Sc, F.R.S.E. Local Secretary for Melbourne. — Professor A. J. Ewart, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.L.S. Section L. Educational Science. President. — Professor John Perry, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S. (London). Vice-Presidents. — Professor Henry E. Armstrong, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. (London) ; G. T. Moody, D.Sc. (London). Recorder. — -Professor J. A. Green, M.A. (Sheffield). Secretary. — C. A. Buckmaster, M.A. (London). Local Secretary for Sydney. — P. Board, M.A. Local Secretary for Melbourne. — -J. Smyth, M.A., Ph.D. Section M.— Agriculture. President.— A. D. Hall, M.A., F.R.S. (London). Vice-Presidents. — Profes.sor Wood, M.A. (Cambridge), E. S. Beaven (Cam- bridge). Recorder. — J. Golding, F.LC. (Reading). Secretary. — Alex. Lauder, D.Sc. (Edinburgh). Local Secretary for Sydney. — Professor R. D. Watt, M.A., B.Sc. Local Secretary for Melbourne. — Professor T. Cherry, M.D., M.S. FEDERAL COUNCIL, MARCH 1914. Commonwealth— The Honorable Joseph Cook, M.P., Prime Minister of the Common- wealth of Australia. The Eight Honorable Andrew Fisher, M.P., P.C. The Honorable A. Deakin. J. A. Gilruth, D.V.Sc, M.E.C.V.S., F.E.S.E. Atlee Hunt, C.M.G. H. A. Hunt, F.E. Met. Soc. G. H. Knibbs, C.M.G., F.E.A.S., F.S.S. The Honorable Chas. McDonald, M.P. A. C. D. Eivett, M.A., D.Sc. Professor Baldwin Spencer, C.M.G., M.A., D.Sc, F.E.S. Senator the Honorable H. Turley. Members Ex Officio. President Associated Chambers of Manufactures. President Associated Chambers of Commerce. Chairman Associated Banks. President Commercial Travellers' Association of Australasia. Chief President Australian Natives' Association. Chairman Australian Steam-ship Owners' Federation. New South Wales— The Honorable Thomas Brown, M.P. E. H. Cambage, President Eoyal Society of New South Wales. H. G. Chapman, M.D., B.S. Professor T. W. Edgeworth David, C.M.G., B.A., D.Sc, F.E.S. J. H. Maiden, F.L.S. E. Teece, F.I.A., F.F.A., F.S.S. Victoria— J. W. Barrett, C.M.G., M.D., M.S., F.E.C.S. Professor T. E. Lyle, M.A., D.Sc, F.E.S. J. H. MacFarland, M.A., LL.D. (Vice Chancellor of the University). W. Maloney, L.S.A., M.P. Professor Orme Masson, M.A., D.Sc, F.E.S., F.E.S.E. Professor H. Payne, M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E. C. C. Salmon, L.E.C.P., L.E.C.S., M.P. Queensland— A. H. H. Feez, K.C W. F. Finlayson, M.P. Professor A. J. Gibson, A.M.I.C.E. The Honorable L. E. Groom, M.A., LL.M., M.P. Professor H. J. Priestly, M.A. Professor Bertram D. Steele, D.Sc The Honorable A. H. Whittingham, M.L.C South Australia— W. 0. Ai-chibald, M.P. The Honorable P. McM. Glynn, M.P., K.C. Professor Kerr Grant, M.Sc. H. Angas Parsons, M.H.A. Professor E. C. Stirling, C.M.G., M.A., M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S., F.R.C.S The Right Honorable Sir S. J. Way, Bart., P.C, LL.D. Western Australia— W. Catton Grasby, F.L.S. The Honorable J. M. Powler, M.P. Senator the Honorable Hugh de Largie. Tasmania— L. Atkinson, M.P. Professor T. Thomson Flynn, B.Sc. Senator the Honorable J. J. Long. Fritz Noetling, M.A., Ph.D. New Zealand- Professor H. B. Kirk, M.A. Professor T. H. Laby, B.A. SOUTH AUSTRALIA Statute Miles TASMANIA statute M/Ves NORTHERN TERRITORY 100 zoo St^Zut^ Mi/es CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA. By Ernest Scott, Professor of History in the University of Melbourne. SYNOPSIS. 1. The Name of Australia. 2. Coastal Explokatiox. 3. The Fousdation of Settlement. 4. The Convict System. 5. Inland Exploration. 6. Extension of Colonization. 7. Progress of Settlement. 8. The Gold Discoveries. 9. Constitutional Government. 10. The Achievement of Federation. 11. Bibliography. 1. The Name of Australia. The name Australia was given to the great southern continent by Matthew Flinders, the navigator. Before his time, it was generally called New Holland ; but, as he pointed out, the Dutch had known nothing of the southern and eastern coasts, whilst the name New South Wales, which Cook gave to the eastern portion, could not be applied to the whole country, since Cook had known nothing of the west, north-west, and south. Flinders wanted a convenient name that would describe the entire area which his own researches had demonstrated to be one large island. He was writing his Voyage to Terra Australis while held a prisoner by the French in Ile-de- France (Mauritius), from 1803-1810, and it occurred to him that " Aus- tralia " would be a good, serviceable name. He did not invent the word. De Brosses, in his Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes (Paris, 1756), had coined the word " Australasia " as a name for a division of the globe, and Dalrymple, in the preface to his Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean (London, 1770), suggested "Australia" as a name for the region east of South America. Shaw and Smith, in their Zoology and Botany of New Holland (1793), spoko of " the ontincnt of Australia, Australasia or New Holland," but it is not probable that Flinders had over seen their book. He sought to secure official sanction for the adoption of the name for this continent. He used it repeatedly in his correspondence after 1804, and first employed it publicly in a geo- graphical paper, written in French, and published by Malte-Brun, in the Annales des Voyages (Paris, 1810). But lie was by no means sure that the innovation would be approved. " II reste a savoir," he wrote, " si ce nom sera adopte par des geographes europeens." When he was liberated and returned to England, he endeavoured to bring the name into official use, but Sir Joseph Banks was not favorable, and Arrowsmith, the pub- lisher of Admiralty charts, " did not like the change " because his firm had always employed " New Holland " in their publications. The history of Flinders' explorations, which was semi-official, was therefore issued under the title A Voyage to Terra Australis, and the name Australia was merely suggested in a footnote " as being more agreeable to the ear and an assimi- lation to the names of the other great portions of the earth."* He was to some extent " tongue-tied by authoritv," and the name " New Holland " * .1 Vomine to TfTrit Aunlralix (London, 1«14), Vol. I.; the history of the name is discussed in the writer's lAfe of MaUheio Flinders (Sydney, 1913), chapter 30. 0.12154 2 Federal Handbook. was used in official despatches for 40 years after he had recommended the more convenient designation, though Governor Macquarie, in a despatch of April, 1817, expressed the hope that " Australia " would in future be employed, and Peter Cunningham, the botanist, in his Two Years in New South Wales (1827), referred to " Australia, as we colonials sav."* But Flinders' choice has been abundantly justified, and there is some satis- faction in remembering that the name borne by Australia was given to her by one of the most intrepid and skilful of her maritime explorers, and one who was in the full sense a man of science. 2. Coastal Exploration. There is no sound historical evidence to support the belief that any part of Australia was known to Europeans before the end of the sixteenth century. The Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, and their ships began to employ the Cape route to Calicut and the East Indies after 1498. The Spaniards rounded Cape Horn, crossed the Pacific, and reached the Philippines in 1521. But if either Portuguese or Spanish ships sighted Australia, west or east, before 1606, record of the fact has not yet come to light. Speculation points to the persistence of rumours about a southern Terra Incognita, or Terra Australis, and it may be considered probable that at a period when it was not unusual for a ship to be blown hundreds of miles out of her course, some part of the coast may have been seen. But proffered "proofs" of very early discoveries prove nothing except the existence of a vague sense of what proof is. That the Dutch knew of Australia before the dawn of the seventeenth century is clear. In 1598, Cornelius AVytfliet wrote of Terra Australis as the most southern of all lands, and as separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait. That is definite and true ; but the Dutch writer mentioned no particular ship that had sailed through the strait. We come in contact with an actual navigator who had some part in the stoiv in connexion with the voyage of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in 1606. Quiros, in command of two Spanish ships, discovered the New Hebrides, and thought he had found the great continent which he believed to exist at the southern end of the globe. He called it Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. The first word in the name is supposed to contain a compliment to Philip III. of Spain, who also ruled Austria,t and is not the source whence '' Aus- tralia " is derived. Quiros sailed east for Peru, but his second in command, Luis de Torres, took a western course, and found the strait lying between Papua and the northern extremity of Australia. In the same year the Dutch ship Duyfhen entered the Gulf of Carpentaria, and her captain reported on reaching Java that there was no passage through to the Pacific in that neighbourhood. The Dutch became acquainted with the west coast partly through a series of accidents, partly in consequence of a change of route to the East Indies. Prior to 1611, their customary course after rounding the Cape of Good Hope was north to Madagascar, and then in a direct line east to Java or north-east to India. But it was discovered that by sailing about 3,000 miles due east from the Cape, ships met with favorable winds, and could then run • M. Phillips, A Colonial Autocracy, p. 2. t See Markham, Vryages of Quiros (Hakluyt Society), Vol. I., p. xxx. History op Australia. north to Java, and complete the voyage from Holland in several months less than by taking the route to Madagascar in the first instance. The consequence of this change of route, which was ordered by the directors of the East India Company, was that ships voyaging from the Cape to the East Indies frequently found themselves off a strange, desolate coast, which one captain after another marked down upon his charts, until the whole outline from the Gulf of Car- pentaria to the south-west corner, at Cape Leeuwin, was mapped. The best known of the Dutchmen who stumbled upon the western coast in this manner was Francis Pelsart, whose ship in 1628 ran aground on the Abrollos Reef. In 1642 the Governor of Java, Antony van Diemen, wishing to know more of these southern lands, despatched an experienced navigator, Abel Tasman, with two ships, the Heemskerk and the Zeehan, on a voyage of exploration. Tasman discovered the island which now bears his name, though he did not know that it was an island ; and he called it Van Diemen's Land, " in honour of the Governor-General, our master, who sent us out to make discoveries." The first Englishman to visit Australia was William Dampier, who, first in 1686, on board a buccaneering ship, the Swan, and secondly, in 1699, in com- mand of the Roebuck, sailed along the western and north-western coasts. He was not impressed by what he saw of the country. '' If it were not for that sort of pleasure which results from the discovery even of the barrenest spot upon the globe," he wrote, " this coast of New Holland would not have charmed me much." It was owing to the fact that the Dutch and Dampier always saw Australia from that aspect where it looks most forbidding, that attempts to ascertain the nature of the country, its possibilities of develop ment, and its capabilities for settlement, did not ensue for 190 years after its whereabouts were definitely known. The voyage of James Cook in 1768-70 brought the east coast of Australia for the first time to the knowledge of the English Government. The main object of Cook's Endeavour voyage was not to explore, but to observe a transit of Venus at Tahiti. The observation was made on 3rd June, 1769. After fulfilling the appointed duty, Cook ran down to New Zealand, and sailed round it, thus disposing of a theory entertained before his time that the country formed part of a great antarctic continent. He resolved to return to England by way of the East Indies, and to follow the east coast of New Holland wherever it might lead. The Endeavour sighted the xVus- tralian coast opposite Cape Everard at six in the morning on 20th April, 1770. Cook named the point Cape Hicks, after Lieutenant Hicks, the officer on watch, who was " the first to discover this land." He followed the coast northward, discovered Botany Bay (at first called Stingray Bay) on 29th April, and anchored there. On 6th May, the Endeavour, pursuing her voyage, came abreast of Port Jackson, which was named after Sir George Jackson, one of the Secretaries to the Admiralty. Cook did not enter the harbor, which is now the glory of the largest city in Australia. He completed his northward voyage, cleared the reefs of Torres Strait, and " took possession of the whole eastern coast by the name of New South Wales."* * It has been said that Cook did not originate the name Now South Wabs, and it is true tliat thr: name doRS not a iii)far in his journals. Bladen, the editor of th • Hiatoric.d Rirord of Xeiv South Walcx (f., 170), Ktti'n so far as to say that "the name ai)ii •ar'* to lnv,; ori«iiuvted witli Hawkesworth." ' who edited Cook's voyaKC. But Kitson {Life of Cook. p. ]40| ciU's a letter writti'ii by Cook. 1771 whi^rein he uses the words : "the east coast of New Holland, or what I c.ill New South Wab-i;." Hawkejworth, It would therefore appear, obtained the name from ('ook hinwtlf A 2 Federal Handbook. The exploration of tlie Australian coastline was not completed until after tte Jt5ritish had commenced to colonize the country. In 1797 Surgeon George Bass, of H.M.S. Reliance, obtained from Governor Hunter the use of a whaleboat, a crew of six bluejackets, and provisions for six weeks. With this equipment, he left Port Jackson, voyaged southward, and discovered Westernport (January, 1798). He did not actually demonstrate the existence of a strait separating Australia from Tasmania, but the heavy sea rolling in from the westward gave him " much reason to conclude " that there was a passage through. In October, 1798, Bass, in company with his friend, Lieutenant Matthew Flinders, sailed through the strait in the Norfolk, 2.5 tons, and circumnavigated Tasmania. In 1802 Lieutenant John Murray discovered Port Phillip ; Grant, in the Lady Nelson, sailing from the Cape of Good Hope to Australia, came upon the coast near Cape Banks, and discovered the stretch eastward, round Cape Otway, to the Port Phillip opening ; and Flinders, in the Investigator, thoroughly explored the whole of the south coast from the head of the Great Australian Bight. He discovered Kangaroo Island and St. Vincent's and Spencer's Gulfs. In Encounter Bay he met Le Geogra'phe, Captain Nicholas Baudin, a French exploring ship sent out by the Consular Government, Napoleon having acceded to a request submitted by the Institute of France that a scientific expedition should be despatched to examine the unknown coasts of New Holland, and to collect specimens for the Museum at Paris. Baudin died before his ships returned to France, and the maps published with the history of his voyage affixed the name Terre Napoleon to the whole southern coast from Wilson's Promontory to the head of the Bight. Some writers have attached a political significance to the Terre Napoleon maps, but in the present writer's opinion the name was a mere piece of courtiership, and there is no evidence to show that Napoleon ever designed to acquire territory in Australia, though at a later date (1810) he directed his fleet based upon Mauritius to " take Port Jackson," where much-needed pro- visions could be found.* Flinders circumnavigated the continent in 1803, and after his very re- markable voyages there was no more coastal exploratory work to do in Australia, except to fill in details. 3. The Foundation of Settlement. In 1783, James Matra, who had been a midshipman with Cook, submitted to Lord Sydney a scheme for establishing in New South Wales a colony wherein Great Britain might afiord an asylum to the American loyalists, who had been rendered homeless by the result of the War of Independence. The country, Matra urged, was bound by every tie of honour and gratitude to protect and support those who had risked everything in support of British rule in North America, and should provide a place where they might " repair their broken fortunes and again enjoy their former domestic felicity." The loyalists found homes in Canada, but Lord Sydney recognised that Matra's plan afforded a means of overcoming another difficulty with which the Govern- ment was faced. It had been customary to ship convicts to America, where, * See the writer's Terre SapoUon (London, 1910) History of Australia. especially in the southern States, there was a demand for labour. Contractoi's were willing to undertake to convey convicted persons across the Atlantic. and were able to dispose of them by " assignment " to purchasers, who would often give £8 or £10 for a strong male convict, especially if he were a mechanic. The prisoners were, in fact, sold into servitude. The establish- ment of the United States as an independent country put an end to this trafl&c. At the same time, the English prison system was discreditably bad. Gaols were too few, and too small ; were overcrowded, dirty, and centres of disease. Lord Sydney, discussing Matra's scheme with its author, pointed out that New South Wales appeared to be " a very proper region for the reception of criminals condemned to transportation." Matra accordingly amended his project, drawing up an addendum wherein he argued for the reformatory efficacy of a colony far removed from Great Britain, with a healthy climate, and an abundance of fertile soil, where persons who had been guilty of crimes might work out their own redemption. Sir Joseph Banks, who had been botanist with Cook, and was now (since 1778) President of the Royal Society, gave the scheme his hearty support ; and in 1786 the Govern- ment directed the equipment of a fleet to convey 750 convicts to Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip, a captain in the Navy, was chosen to command the expe- dition, which consisted of the Sirius, a sixth rater, the Supply, tender, six transports, and three store ships. There were about 1,100 people aboard, of whom 208 were marines to guard the convicts. The whole fleet had arrived at Botany Bay by 20th January, 1788, but Phillip was soon convinced that the situation was quite unfit for the purpose. He therefore judged it advisable to examine Port Jackson, which was marked on Cook's chart a few miles to the northward. There he " had the satisfac- tion of finding the finest harbor in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security." Returning to Botany Bay, he ordered the fleet to sail round to Port Jackson, and on the 26th January the flag was unfurled at Sydney Cove, where Phillip had decided to plant his new settlement. While the British vessels were lying at anchor in Botany Bay, two French ships under the command of Laperouse appeared. It has been by some writers surmised that the French navigator was endeavouring to forestall the English in the occupation of Australian soil. One historian puts it that " it is seizure, not discovery, which gives a title by the law of nations, and there is therefore some justification for saying that England won Aus- tralia by six days."* But it is quite certain that Laperouse had no such acquisitive design in view. His longboat had been destroyed, and some of his company were massacred by natives in Samoa. Consequently his strength was so seriously depleted that if he had lost any more men he would have been compelled to beach and destroy one of his ships. Wishing, there- fore, to put together a new longboat, the frame of which he had in the hold, he decided to sail to Botany Bay — knowing its whereabouts from Cook's Chart — where he thought his men would be able to work without interference. The French remained there from 27th January to 15th March, on excellent • Jenks, History of the Auntrulasian Colonies (ISO.'i), p. 30. Sco the present writer's Laperouse (Sydney, 1912). Federal Handbook. terms with tlie British officers who visited them. Phillip was too busy laying the foundation of Sydney to visit Laperouse personally, and the French navi- gator did not enter Port Jackson. The difficulties that Phillip had to encounter during the four years of his governorship were of the most serious kind. The officers quarrelled, the convicts were poor material for pioneering, skilled workmen were few, sup- plies were wholly insufficient, and provision ships were wrecked. Over a thousand more convicts were sent out, and an additional thousand were announced, before there was accommodation for them or food to feed them. The natives gave trouble, and the Home Government failed to appreciate the need for a steady supply of free agricultural and artisan settlers. But Phillip did at length get the colony on its feet, and for the wisely planned and energetically pursued administrative work that he did he is indeed memorable as one of the veritable builders of the British Empire. 4. The Convict System. After the departure of Phillip, the colony was for three years adminis- tered by officers of the New South Wales corps : by Major Grose during 1793 and 1794, and by Captain Paterson during 1795, when Governor Hunter succeeded. PhiJIip had id e a s— Qf__£xten ding development _iij ' means ol free sptj^lpyp pirlerl by the ugp r'f c ^ivict lab our ; but for over twenty years Sydney was little better than a prison compound, walled by mountains and fronted by the sea, wherein felons, political offenders, and many an unfortunate whose punishment was cruelly out of proportion to his offence, were " yarded " together under a discipline enforced by the lavish application of the lash. During the first seventeen years ofset tlement 12,2 2£L persons were jransported, a nd_asJate; g;s'i:8± Qlitli calculated that there were not more than 700 settl ers who had not been se nt, out '' lQFlheix__cou5tryj~^good.'' The prisoners included a considerable number of political prisoners who had been convicted for connexion with the Irish rebellion of 1798, and the Scottish revolution societies of 1793 ; just as at a later date working men concerned with the beginnings of English trade unionism were transported. Du ring the goy ernships ofHunter, King, aii dBligh, from 1796 to 1809, no sprinn.s- affovts were niadp_ jT)_Jridiice free settlem ent, which w as, indeed, at time s rather disco uraged. The study of the historical material relating to these years of dark dawning is often painful and depressing. An atmosphere of hatred, violence, and sus- picion pervaded the colony. • Every Governor was perplexed and hampered, not only by the refractory human material with which he had to work, but by the jealousy of .his officers. King was a high-minded man, but he found no loyal spirit of co-operation among his subordinates. The officers of the New South Wales corps made large profits by trafficking in rum, and the endeavour to suppress the iniquities of the trade provoked resentment, followed, in Governor Bligh's case, by open mutiny. The quarrel between Bligh and John Macarthur, a bold, spirited, and hot- tempered officer, who founded sheep-farming in Australia, was pricked to a crisis in 1807, when the Governor confiscated a still which Macarthur had imported. Bligh, incensed by Macarthur's " inimicability of mind to Govern- ment," had him arrested and put on trial. But Macarthur had a large History of Australia. personal following, and Bligh's arbitrary methods had made him unpopular. Major Johnson, who commanded the military forces, refused to obey his orders, and followed up his act of insubordination by marching his troops to Government Housfe and arresting the Governor. He took this revolu- tionary step (January, 1808) on a requisition signed by Macarthur and about 100 of the inhabitants of Sydney, some of whom, Bligh declared, " are the worst class of life,'-' but who at all events pledged themselves to support Johnson with thei^' fortunes and their lives. Bligh was kept in confinement for a year, the alfai;:s of the colony being administered by Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson, of the Van Diemen's Land settlement, who held a Lieutenant- Governor's commission. The end of this startling incident was that Johnson was tried by court-martial in England, and cashiered ; Macarthur, who went to England, ^was prohibited from returning to New South Wales for eight years ; and Bligh was superseded in the Governorship by Colonel Lachlan Macquarie. Macquarie was hardly less dictatorial than his predecessor had been ; and the long period of his rule is fairly described in the title of the book wherein it is most thoroughly explained, A Colonial Autocracij.^ He was vain, and could be quarrelsome and harsh. But he had a way of getting things done. He was a builder, a colonizer, a statesman, and as his obstinacy was exerted in a progressive direction, he managed to fight through prejudices and hindrances to merited popularity. One principle for w^hich he fought hard was that when a convict had served his period of sentence, and was again a free man, he was entitled " to be considered on a footing with every other man in the colony according to his rank in life and character." He appointed to the commission of the peace a clergyman who had been trans- ported for suspected complicity in the Irish rebellion, and invited to his own table four or five " emancipists " who happened to be men of education and manners. But^this polic e; gave deep^ ffence to many settlers who_.had no black marks against their names, and wTio cq ngid£red_ih.emselves as per- tainin g to a kind of moral ariatocracy^ — Xh c r c scn t^ ment was e specially bitter among the old adherents of Bligh, who from the first had looked askance on his successor, and were not averse from fomenting a quarrel with him. In some instances the Governor's zeal for the liberal treatment of emancipists led him too far, and incurred the disfavour of the Secretary of State ; and he became involved in quarrels with the judicial officers, who would not permit emancipist attorneys to practise before them. But there was so little that was liberal in spirit in these early days of New South Wales that, even when Macquarie's acts were marked by errors of discretion, it is good to recognise the sense of justice that prompted them. The convict system was in full force for just over fifty years. From firsbx to . lasi,— aWu L 1 20rWU£)ni e n and women wei'e transpo rted to Australi a and ] Va n Diemen's Land, of"wlT(5 nT7T"n [KHi, nearly '50,0()() wer e living in the / / country. Half of these were~"~us^i^iH'd "" people ; TTiat is, they were living / \/ upoiTthe properties of free settiei's, to perfoim compulsory labour for them. C The remainder were working for the Government in penal establishments or \ in " road gangs." The inhumane features of the system are exposed in J the report of an English Parliamentary Committee of 1837-8 ; and the}:>/ ■^ Colonial Autocracy, by .Marion I'liillip's. {U>mh>u, lltd'.i.) Federal Handbook. L are described with gaunt realism in a piece of fiction which has a backing of sober fidelity — Marcus Clarke's For the Term of his Natural Life. The Parliamentary Committee recommended that no more convicts should be sent to Australia, and an Order in Council issued in 1840 directed that transportation should cease. But Van Diemen's Land continued to be used for the purpose, with consequences that soon became alarming. The dumping of 3,000 convicts per annum in an island, where the means of coping with the influx were inadequate, brought about a crisis, which British Ministers sought to mitigate by re-instituting transportation to the mainland under another name. The "' conditional pardon system " was devised. Under it, a convicted person who had served a preliminary term in an English prison might be shipped to Australia, where he would be free, subject to the " con- dition " that he did not return to England during the remainder of the term of his sentence. Som_e convicts were sent to Victoria, asjwell,^^ to New South Wa les, under thi s system7'~~-Bttt--a-^vigorous---ainJ''vociferous public opinion had by this time grown up in these colonies. The period had passed when they were content to have the contents of English gaols emptied at their doors. The people of Melbourne, in 1849, organized to resist the incursion; and threatened to prevent by force the landing of the " exiles." An equally strong feeling of resistance manifested itself in Sydney ; and British Ministers were astonished to realize that, in a country originally colonized to carry out a transportation system, the first large question of public policy about which public opinion pronounced itself in emphatic terms was that trans- portation should cease. Governor Fitzroy yielded to the agitation, and the exiles — styled " Pentonvillains," after Pentonville prison wherein they served their probationary period — were sent on to Moreton Bay. Earl Grey, the responsible British Minister, very reluctantly gave way, and shortly afterwards the shipping of convicts to any part of the country except Van Diemen's Land and Western Australia ceased. The former colony was still used as a penal settlement until 1852, and signalized her deliverance (1856) by changing her name to Tasmania. We gtern Australia, b eingurgently inne gd of labou r, gladly r eceived convicts frorn ^lH^*^, '^"d even proteate H against the d iscon- tinuance_ of the supp ly. She continued her policy long after the other Aus- tralian Colonies had freed themselves from what they termed " the convict taint." Her persistence, indeed, provoked much bitter feeling, and threats to boycott Western Australia were made by responsible statesmen in the eastern colonies. There is no doubt that the system did much to establish Western Australia, and her prosperity was well assured when, in 1868, trans- portation was finally discontinued. 5. Inland Exploration. From the earliest period of settlement, the problem of the inland explora- tion of Australia obtruded itself as difficult and dangerous. For a quarter of a century after Sydney was founded, no practicable path was discovered across the mountain barrier that lay in the background. The Blue Moun- tains are not a very lofty range ; they do not rise beyond 4,500 feet ; but their tumbled formation made them a really formidable barricade, and they shut the little community at Port Jackson within an enclosure extending only about 40 miles from the sea. An escaped convict made his way inland History of Australia. during Hunter's governorship, and several explorers endeavoured to find a pass. But-it-was^n ot ti ll^J813_ that Gregory B la,ylaTid^_axir'.n7ppqnipr| by Lawsoii_ajid^— WiiatJUiilJi,--dia£overed a pra cticable track, and opened to occu pation the richly-gra ssed Bathurst Plains. Hardly any portion oTTEe^' g l obe h ft«— presented so sullenly obstinate a face against the explorer as Australia has done ; and there are few countries wherein gloomy predictions concerning the prospects of settlement have been so completely falsified. Immense stretches of territory which to-day are yielding an abundance of wealth to industry were originally condemned as wholly unfit for human habitation. The price of investigation has often been paid in suffering and death ; and Australia is fully conscious of her obligation to a succession of hardy and courageous men who are as truly her heroes as are warriors to other peoples. The first achievement of note in the story, after Blaxland's, is that of John Oxley, who in 1817-8 led two expeditions west and north, and came in touch with the complicated river system that feeds the Murray. Five years later he penetrated Queensland territory as far as Port Curtis, and prp.parpH thp way for the setjjement which has grown i nto the city of &riabane. A very important inland journey was that of Hamilton Hume and William Hovell in 1824. They discovered and crossed the River Murray, the prin- cipal water-course in Australia, continued south, found the Ovens and the Goulburn, traversed a portion of the fertile western h alf of Victoria, and we ^ the fi rst Europea ns to come upo'n Port Phillip fmm tViP la nH war d. Allan Cunningham, the botanist, a protege of Sir Joseph Banks, between 1817 and 1830 made a series of excursions into untra versed areas, discovering a practical pa^s to the Liverpool Plains (1818) and an easy route to the Darling Downs (1828). His botanical work was of the utmost importance, and his explorations won him a place among the most enterprising of Australian pioneers. One of the greatest names in the story is that of Charles Sturt, a captain of the 39th regiment quartered in Sydney during the regime of Governor Darling. On his first journey, in28282:9;_jg_disgQ3^£red the Darfaig River ; and on a seconTl joiiriiey, comnienced in 1829, he took with him the timbers of an old whaleboat, nailed them together on the banks of the Murrum- bidgee, descended the stream to its junction with the Murray, and floated down that great river until, after a voyage of 33 days, he heard " the distant thunder of the great Southern Ocean." He had floated into Lake Alexan- drina, wherein the waters of the Murray disembogue. Severe hardships were endured on the return journey. Sturt's party had consumed their last morsel of food when relief came, and some of his men showed signs of insanity, from incessant toil and privations. Sturt himself was blinded for a time. This journey had more immediate consequences aflecting the colony of South Australia than that of Hume and Hovell had upon the fortunes of Port Phillij:) ; for his reports led to the founding of Adolaj Sturt's genius for exploration led him in 1844 to start fronl^delaiTic to penetrate the interior of the continent. This he did in a summer of excep- tional heat, maintaining a stubborn fight against thirst, hunger, scurvy, a pitiless sun, a blistered dpsort, jind a pelting from blasts of hot fine sand. 10 Federal Handbook. He crossed Cooper's Creek, which he discovered and named, but broke down a few miles beyond it, and was carried back to Adelaide a stricken man. His work cost him his eye-sight, though he lived a quarter of a century after his last expedition. Sturt was described as being " brave as a paladin, gentle as a girl," and his achievements are, most worthily, ever " freshly remembered."* Gippsla nd, the eastern wing of Victoria, was entered from New S outh "W ales in 1839 by Angus McvAliUa n, when searchmg tor cattle pastures ; and in 18:^11— a^-Eolish-_Laa4J—ef--S £ience, iS tr zelecki. accompaniprl hy~± wn stock- raiser s, Macarth ur and Riley, also explored the sa me re gion. It was Strze- leckTwho suggested the use ot the name Gippsland, in compliment to the Governor of New South Wales, and, Australia's loftiest mountain, Kosciusko, bears the name of a Polish hero as a consequence of the travels of this investigator. At about the same period, 1838, Edward John Eyre — a young cattle farmer of 2.5, who was afterwards (186-5) to become Governor of Jamaica, and was unenviably famous in connexion with an insurrection there — indulged a taste for exploring b}^ 'penetrating the unknown country beyond the limits nf_Sfriith AuPitrnlinn p^^ttWnent He found Lake Hindmarsh on one of these excursions. Ambitious to accomplish something memorable. Eyre led an expedition along the shores leading to the Great Australian Bight in 1839, and in 1840 decided to explore the interior of the continent to the north of Adelaide. He followed the line of the Flinders Range to Lake Torrens, and found a stretch of country so impregnated with salt that even rain water became brackish after lying a short while on the ground. After discovering Lake Eyre, the explorer, dissatisfied with his results, travelled down to the coast at Fowlers' Bay, where he established a camp. From this point, he resolved to pursue the coastline as far as King George's Sound, and, as the enterprise was full of peril, ordered his men to return to Adelaide, while he went on alone. But his overseer, Baxter, refused to leave him, and with this companion, and three young blacks, Eyre set out in 1841. He had some sheep and flour for subsistence. The food did not last long, and before it was entirely exhausted, two of the blacks proved treacherous, shot Baxter, and plundered the flour bags. Eyre and his one faithful black servant continued the journey, living on horse-flesh and quenching their thirst with dew collected on a sponge and squeezed into a pot. When at the extremity of endurance they sighted a French whaling ship, the Mississippi ; but after receiving assistance the iron-willed explorer set out again, and reached his goal, King George's Sound, on 7th July, 1841. The explorations of Sturt and Eyre had started from Adelaide. AVe return to the Sydney side to mention those of Thomas Mitchell and Ludwig Leichhardt. Mitchell was the Surveyor-General of New South Wales, and from 1831 had explored the interior from Sydney in search of good country for settlement. Some of his journeys were full of adventure, notably that of 1835, when Richard Cunningham, the brother of Allan Cunningham, was murdered by blacks. Mitchell's most memorable piece of work was his expedition to " Australia Felix," or Victoria, in 1836. He crossed the Murray and traversed the country westward of Hume and Hovell's track * The Life of Charles Start ,by Mrs. Xapier Sturt (1899), is an excellent biography. History of Australia. 11 of twelve years before. To his surprise, on reaching Portland Bay, he found the huts of white men on its shores, for the Hentys of Tasmania had already established a whaling station there, and had become the pioneer settlers of Victoria. Mitchell's last of many journeys was undertaken in 1845, when he set out to explore a route to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He did not succeed in his main object ; but his glowing reports showed the value of the tableland of western Queensland, and had important consequences in stimulatina settlement. Leichhardt was a German man of science who was attracted to the problems pertaining to Australian inland exploration. His first important journey was in 1844, when he travelled from Sydney to Port Essington, on the north coast, arriving there nearly naked, and with rations reduced almost to the last crumb. He and his companions had lived partly on the flesh of flying foxes, and had found water by observing the flight of bronze-wing pigeons towards it. A second expedition was to the far western interior, 1846, and from his third, 1848, he never returned. He aimed at crossing the continent from east to west, from Moreton Bay to the Swan River. He certainly reached the Barcoo, where the letter " L " was found ciit on a tree twenty years later ; but exactly where he perished has never been ascertained. The fate of Ludwig Leichhardt is one of the unsolved mysteries of the history of Australian land exploration, as the fate of George Bass is an unsolved mystery pertaining to one of the country's maritime explorers. A. C. Gregory, who went out in search of Leichhardt, led expeditions in Northern Australia, and crossed the continent south-west to Adelaide in 1858. John Macdouall Stuart, who had been with Sturt in 1844, made impor- tant journeys to the interior in 1858 and 1859, discovering a fertile and well- watered area west of Lake Eyre. His work was so useful that the South Australian Government, to stimulate him or others to further efforts, offered a reward of £2,000 to the first man who should cross the continent from south to north. Stuart started in 1860, and on 22nd April of that year penetrated to the very centre of Australia. He was not now in desert country, but found the area surrounding his Central Mount Stuart to be well-grassed, plentifully watered, and pleasant. But further on he was beaten by thirst, thick scrub, and troublesome aboriginals, and was compelled to return to Adelaide. In 1861 Stuart started again, and turned back ; but in 1862 he made his way right across, and on 24th July " was delighted and gratified to behold the waters of the Indian Ocean in Van Diemen's Gulf." Stuart's journeys were of the greatest value in demonstrating that the interior of Australia was conquerable, and in revealing the excellent pasturage to be found in portions of the country. Contemporary with Stuart's final journey, the sensational and dramatic expedition of Burke and Wills took place. It is perhaps the best remem- bered of all Australian inland explorations, because of the mystery and fatality attaching to it ; though in truth the explorers whose achievements liave already been mentioned, Hume, Mitchell, Sturt, Eyre, and Stuart, did greater things, and faced equally severe hardships, but " won through " by a more perfect bushcraft and finer qualities of leadership. The Burke and Wills expedition was organized in 1858, when a sum of about £10,000 was provided, partly by subscription, partly by the Victorian Parliament, 12 Federal Handbook. for the purpose of promoting an endeavour to cross Australia through the centre, from south to north. The command was entrusted to Richard O'Hara Burke, a police inspector well known to be a brave and intelligent man. The expedition was well equipped, and should have succeeded and returned in safety if Burke had exercised sound judgment. A depot was established at Cooper's Creek, and from that point, in December, 1861, Burke, with Wills and two other men, determined to make a dash for the Gulf of Carpentaria. The party did reach the Flinders River, which flows into the Gulf, and were within two days' journey of the sea, but they were insufficiently provisioned, and had to return to Cooper's Creek. When they reached the depot, after four and a half months' absence, they found that Brahe, the man whom Burke had left in charge, had left just seven hours before. The time he had been instructed to wait had passed, and he had resolved to go to Menindie, on the Darling, where the reserves of the expe- dition were based. He left some provisions in a hole in the ground, and cut the word " Dig " on the bark of a neighbouring tree. When Burke, Wills, and King — the fourth man had died on the journey — staggered into the Cooper's Creek depot, their condition was desperate. They ate the pro- visions they found, and rested a couple of days, debating what course they should pursue. Burke, instead of following in Brahe's tracks, as Wills wanted to do, insisted on making for a cattle station at Mount Hopeless, 150 miles away. It was a fatal resolve. They killed their camels for their flesh, and crept forward on foot. When within 50 miles of Mount Hopeless Burke, not knowing how near he was, gave the order to turn back to Cooper's Creek. The pitiful story of the last days of weary, famished life suflered by the three is as intensely pathetic as anything in the history of exploration. Wills died first, in the hut at Cooper's Creek. Burke and King tried to find the encampment of some blacks who had helped their dead companion some time before. Burke broke down and died by the way ; King lived with the blacks until he was rescued by A. W. Howitt, who had been sent out from Melbourne in charge of a relief expedition. He survived until 1872. The tragedy of Burke and Wills does not end the story of Australian inland exploration, but may be taken to be the last sensational event in it. In Western Australia, the brothers John and Alexander Forrest did brave work. The former, after having in 1869 led an expedition in search of remains of Leichhardt, set off (1870) to examine the country which had been explored by Eyre, along the shores of the Bight. He directed attention to the well-grassed areas lying a few miles from the coast. In 1874 John Forrest traversed the country intervening between Western Australia and the settled portions of South Australia. Alexander Forrest in 1879 explored from the De Guy River, on the north-west shoulder of the continent, across to the Fitzroy, which flows from the Leopold Range to King Sound ; followed the Fitzroy to its source, and then struck north-east to Port Darwin. His enterprise opened up 20,000,000 acres of good country, besides showing the way to the rich Kmiberley Gold-fields. The journeys of Ernest Giles and of Warburton, 1875-6, must be men- tioned ; and it should also be said that the several scientific expeditions of Baldwin Spencer to the interior, though undertaken primarily for purposes History of Australia. 13 of biological research, have been of the utmost value in a wider sense. They have enabled a trained observer to direct attention in a very striking way to aspects of the country not commonly indicated by explorers of the usual type. 6. Extension of Colonization. Where the explorer pointed the way the pioneer colonist followed ; but there was also, for an interesting period, another motive for extending occu- pation beyond the original confines. T ^at -g as-the-^fai'eaL of Frencb-^tyalry. The fierce animosity, generated between England and France as a consequence of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, was not without advantageous results in Australia. It made the governing authorities anxious to establish settlements in unoccupied territory, for fear that the French should plant colonies there. There are no facts to show that the French Government proposed annexing a portion of Australia.* But it was firmly believed that they contemplated such a policy ; and the belief was just as effectual in stimulating expansion as if positive evidence of aggression had been produced. Irnmediate ly afte r_t he depar ture of Eaudin's expedition from Port Ja ck- son, Governor King caused two settl ements to be planted in Tasma nia : at _Kisdon7qn the Derwent, in 1803, and at Port Dalrymple, on the Ta mar, in 1801. The same fear of French occupation led the British Government to send out Lieutej jjit^Calflngl -Collin-^ to cstabliah a colony at Port Phill ip in 1^0 3. ColUns ^unfOrtunately. landed his 300 convicts on the sandv penin- sma which divides the port from the ocean, and, quite naturally , formed an unfavorab le opinlon~or~its suitab ilitv. Consequently, the fir st Port Phillip settlemen t failed, and Collins ' people were removed to t he_perwent. Lieutenant Tuckey, who wrote an account of the experiment, observed, on leaving the port which is now the seat of the great city of Melbourne, " the kangaroo seems to reign undisturbed lord of the soil, a dominion which, by the evacuation of Port Phillip, he is likely to retain for ages." That was 109 years ago. There were other French scares long after Napoleon had ceased from troubling. In 1825, it was rumoured that a French settlement was to be attempted at Westernport. Governor Darling despatched H.M.S. Fly and two brigs conveying troops with instructions to establish themselves. It was found that French ships had called at Westernport, then quite unoccu- pied, but no attempt whatever had been made to found a colony there, and, the fear of rivalry subsiding, the British packed up their apparatus and returned to Sydney. A similar desire to frustrate foreign occupation in W ^tern Austra lia had more enduring consequences. The French were agaiTi sup^'6.^ed to be moving ; and in 1826 Major Lockyer, of the 39th regiment, was sent from Sydney in command of a detac fmient of troops and a party of conv icts to .1 occupy King G eorge's Sound. ~This was the beginning of coloniziition iu the w e.s tern .'>fate ; and evenjwhen a m()n3_d^tminined,_att emp t was made to foliua a sfitlemen t upon the beautiful Swan Riv er, the British Government, •LorflJolin Ilus-i<;ll rucordi^l ( lifc/illnrlioni ami Su'ineKtiom. 1875, p. 20:5) that while lie was Colonial Secretary in the; Milbournr; GoviTnmcnt, 1m:{!)-4I, " A Vntleman attached to the French Govcriimoiit " called upon him and asked how much of Australia was claimed by Great Britain. He replied "the whole," and with that answer his visitor went away 14 Federal Handbook. " being anxious to anticipate any such measure by France," offered land at the rate of one acre for every eighteen pence taken out in cash or goods bv ^J- — immigrants. The fi xst Go\'^en iar-Q£-the- T v esile r n colony was Capt aiir SlirH ng. ^ R J?^. T li u Knnrlinli prmTi £i tpr s of the <^r.] r.,-| Y - "' i mi'il | ] |i i i n ir r n ti n n nf j jTin personsin_tli£--fi-t^ t four years (1829~- 314r' ^^i*^h wiium a fair start wa& m ade, PprTK^hping phnspn as fhp ppntrp The instructions to Governor Phillip, when the first colony was estab- lished at Port Jackson, directed him to occupy Norfolk Island, which lies in the latitude of the Queensland border, about 900 miles from the east coast, to " prevent it being occupied by the subjects of any other European power." Within a month, therefore, of the founding of Sydney, Phillip despatched Lieutenant King with a small party of officers and convicts to form a settle- ment. Two years later, Phillip, confronted by famine conditions, sent nearly 300 convicts to Norfolk Island, and by 1793 there were over a thousand people there. Bi;.i-tli£_establish ment was costly, and when it was determined to colonize Tasmania, the Norfolk Islanders were transferred to the Tamar and__th£_Dej:went. It was again used as a convict establishment at later dates, and has had an exciting and romantic history, compounded of insur- rection, piracy, and shipwreck, as well as of curious phases of more peaceful colonizing. Many of the present inhabitants are descendants of Pitcairn Islanders, whose forefathers were associated with the famous Bounty mutiny. So uth Australia is theon]y_ime_af_Jdie_sixStates of Austral ia tha t had no direct conn"exioii _^IlEl£onvictism. Transportation, indeed, was expressly debarred in the constituting statute. The colony was originally established to carry out a theory. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who spent three years in Newgate for abducting a ward in Chancery, had leisure there to meditate on problems of colonization. Though he had never been in Australia, he published in 1829 a little book directing attention to what he believed to be the defects of the system followed in New South Wales. His Letter from Sydney was so bright and clever that it was generally believed to be the result of observations made and impressions formed on the spot. It attracted all the more attention from the efforts then being exerted to settle Western Australia on a plan promulgated by Thomas Peel. AVakefield's main point was that it was a mistake in policy to grant land in a new colony in large areas on cheap terms, but that it should be sold at " a sufficient price," and the proceeds devoted to bringing out families of settlers. In 1830 the National Colonization Society was founded in London to carry out Wakefield's ideas, andJii_L ^4 Parliament, passp^ l an Act estab lishing t he colony of S outh Aus- tralia. A board of eight commissioners was appointed to manage affairs, ^aKesident Commissioner being on the spot, and his colleagues remaining in London ; but the Crown also ap pointed a Governor, Sir John Hindmarsh. Eight vessels laden with immi grants arrived during 1836 at Kangaroo Island, wSere it" wasathrs ^proposed to locate "the colony. The place was deemed urisutEable, and Colonel Light7~the Surveyor-General, chose a site on the east side of St. Vincent's Gulf where the city of Adelaide has been built. The Wakefield theory did not work ; nor did the system of control. Hindmarsh quarrelled with the Resident Commissioner, and both were recalled. Colonel Gawler, who succeeded, plunged the settlement into History of Australia. 15 financial embarrassments ; and it remained for the third Governor, George Grev (1841-5), to apply good sense and strong statesmanship to the situation, and to place South Australia upon a sound, stable, and progressive footing. Queensland was originally occupied as an ofishoot from Port Jackson. Governor Brisbane desired to relieve the pressure upon Sydney by extending settlement-. Lord Hobrfrt had said twenty years before, " if you continually send thieves to one place it must in time be supersaturated. Sydney now, I think, is completely saturated. We must let it rest and purify for a few years, till it begins to be in a condition again to receive." It had not been allowed to sweeten by rest, and Brisbane had instructed Oxley, the explorer, in 1822 to look for a good place for an overflow-settlement. Oxley cmisidered the shores of Moreton Bay offered an excellent situation ; andJii-l§24r-^e foun dations of the c ity of Brisba ne were laid. Th e Govej - iior inte nded that the new station shoiTld be reserved for offenders who committed crimes after tKanspOrtatioiTT '" Ac?cording "to the nature of the offence are they punished , ' ' he explained. " Those guilty of the leastar e sent to Port Macqua rig (on the west coast of Tasmania )Tthose ^of a "grave xjiatiite t o Moreton Bay^ _aiid-t]iose of the deepest dye t<) Norfolk Island.',' In 1819, when both Victoria and New~Sout"h Wales refused to receive any more "' exiles," they were sent on to Brisbane ; but transportation to this settlement ceased when the rest of eastern Australia was freed from it. The colonization of Victoria arose from totally different causes than those which operated in any other State. It has been shown that Tasmania and Queensland were chosen as fields for the extension of tne convict system, tha t sites in Western and South Australia were sel pptprl tn try the effi cacy of theories, and that a jealous fea r of French occu pation prompted early settlements m Tasmania, Western Australia, and Victoria! The two attempts made toTound colonies in the latter Stat^, in 1805~HTrd 1825, were total failures. When effective occupation did ensue, it occurred in quite a natural way. The explorations of Hume and Hovell, and of Mitchell, demonstrated that immense areas of valuable pasture land lay south of the Murray ; the Henty Brothers from Tasmania in 1836 settled at Portland, brought sheep and cattle with them, and commenced cultivation for the provisioning of their whaling boats ; and the news of the kind of country they had found induced other Tasmanians to follow. The Government did not promote occupation ; enterprising men sought out lands for their own advantage. There was no theoretical schenfie to test ; knowledge of good land and the pursuit of profit furnished the main motives. In May, 1835, John Batman, who had formed an association in Tasmania for the utilization of Port Phillip lands, sailed over and examined the country in the Geelong district. He was well satis- fied with what he saw. He took his boat up the bay, anchored at the mouth of the River Yarra, and set off on foot to explore. On this journey he fell in with aboriginals, and made with their chiefs the famous bargain by which he supposed himself to have purchased about 600,000 acres of land, including the whole of the present site of Melbourne, for a trifling yearly tribute and a present of IWankets, looking-glasses, knives, sci.ssors, and handkerchiefs. The Government naturally declined to ratify a " treaty " so made with savages who had not the faintest notion of what they were doing ; but there is every reason to believe that Batman acted in good faith. Tlio original 1 16 Federal Handbook. document, which is drawn up in what a high authority allows to be " English legal form," and purports to bear the " marks " of the chiefs, is still pre- served, and is one of the curiosities of the history of colonization. Batman had a rival in John Pascoe Fawkner, who came over from Tas- mania in August, 183-5, and whose activity did much to advance the progress of the little colony in its infant years. Earl^n 1836 many more pastoralists came over from Tasmania. In May of thai^^^yeag—there^eTfr~4:??— people livmg dn~t5e" s ite oOTelbourne, 31 of w ho m pet itioned Governor Sir Richard BbuJ^e-tn-senH nv^r^^una gistrate to reg ulatfi_a5airs^ In September, Bourke despatched Captain William Lonsdale to take charge. Batman had chosen the site for a " village " on the banks of the Yarra. Lonsdale confirmed the choice, and in March, 1837, that village received from Bourke, who paid a visit of inspection to it, the name of Melbourne. 7. Progress of Settlement. A thorough study of the history of land settlement in Australia has not yet been made. The student who will some day undertake the task will have to master a bewildering complication of experiments, administrative and legislative, and will have to elucidate a baffling variety of devices, theories, ingenious means of defeating virtuous intentions, and frequent changes of policy to adapt the law to rapid changes in social structure. He will have to begin with a study of the very first principles affecting the rights of the Crown to control the disposition of unoccupied land. The theory that the Crown is the absolute owner of all land is described by an indubitable authority as " the driest of legal fictions, a fiction, moreover, which, unlike most legal fictions, never corresponded with fact."* Yet except for the practical application of this theory as a fundamental principle, the settlement of the colonies could not have been controlled. AVithout it, the first comers would have seized all the good land, and nothing short of revolution could have dispossessed them. " It may seem almost incredible," says the autho- rity cited, " that a question of such magnitude should be settled by the revival of a purely technical and antiquarian fiction." But if such a prin- ciple had not existed, in however shadowy a form, it would have been necessary to create one of the kind. Even as things occurred, many first- comers acquired enormous areas on such easy terms that the expansion of settlement has been hindered. T he earliest settlements ou t of Sydney were established on the Parra- maitta2_Jlaw^esburyj_an^^^t^^ RiVBTs: — Tfeese^wereTounded within the first ten years, when endeavours were being made j;o render Port Jackson self-supporting. The land grants made were comparatively small, and terms were easy both to free men and emancipists. AVhen the Blue Moun- tains were crossed in 1813, and the rich pastures beyond came within the scope of the settlers' enterprise, new problems arose. The prospect seemed boundless. There were millions and millions of acres stretching away to regions as yet unexplored. Governor Macquarie wished to restrain the limits of occupation, and would not make large grants. The British Govern- ment also considered that the dispersal of settlers over enormous stretches of * Jenks, HiHorii of Ihe Australasian Colonies, page 59. History of Australia. 17 country unwise. But the rapid development of the wool industry after Macarthur introduced the Merino sheep and demonstrated the peculiar adaptability of Australia for the production of fine fleeces, impelled men to go far afield, where their flocks could multiply. Hence arose the squatting system. An owner of sheep would set out with his sheep and his drovers, and would " squat " upon an area of unoccupied land, which, being an experienced man, he would choose with skilful discernment. Then he would erect huts, would live there with his assistants, and would endeavour to make a fortune out of wool as rapidly as possible. The early squatters had no title to the land they occupied. They took it because it was available, and it was for the Government to deal with them as it pleased. Legally, by the application of the " legal fiction " above mentioned, they were tres- passers. Actually they were men of courage and enterprise, who made the best use then possible of laud which was lying idle. It remained for Governor Bourke, in 1836, to deal in a practical way with the problem created by extensive squatting. He divided the country which the squatters had occu- pied into pastoral districts, and issued grazing licences to occupiers for low fees. The licences created no ownership, but they gave the squatters security of tenure for defined areas, and for specified periods. It wasGn yprnnr Bnnrkp. , too, who first ( 1832) .adoptedr-the-faeasure o f appropriating pa rt of th e_pro'-'e pdg frnm fho mlo of 1nnd to bring immigrants to Australia fand this policy was in 1810 laid dow n t^ s a snnnrl onr^ hy a Jjtoard- of Co lonia l-^:aiid~ancl Jiimigration Commissioners^ appointed in Lond on to advise the Secretary of State. By this time, the advantages that Aus- tralia ofiere3rTo~agHciiTTurists~were becoming well recognised in Great Britain. The opening up of Port Phillip and the establishment of colonies in Sou th Australia and Western Australia likewise attracted~settlem ent. One pound per acre was stipulated as a common price for the sale of land to settlers. A good number of young men possessed of capital sought avenues for fortune in the new country, and many founded families which to-day are, as Hamlet said of Osric, " spacious in the possession of dirt." Dn^ng thp thirtips and th e early forties, the flow of immigration — amo unting to 10,000 persons per annum to New South Wales alone, in s ome years — effected a great chan ge in the general character of t he cou ntry. A p olicy of assisted immig ration hastened expansion. It was during this perio d that the re__g'TW up thst marked^aversion to the continuation ot convictism which h as alrea dy__b££n pointed out. The grovvtli ot the towns facilitated the consolidation and "wrrpliatic expression of opinion. The new-comers had changed their clime with a view to make homes for themselves and their posterity, and the spirit of nation-makers was within them. The process of parcelling out the land in large areas, principally for sheep- raising, continued till after the decline of the first prodigal gold yield, and the consequent diversion of the energies of some thousands of men from digging. Statesmen were now compelled to find means of settling farmers on smaller blocks. Cultivation on an extended scale became requisite. Hence arose a struggle with the powerful squatting interest which the conditions of pre- vious decades had created. The squatters did not want settlement. Tliey were satisfied with convictism. Indeed, the repre.sentations of the squatters, who needed labour for tlmir runs, were partly responsible for the creation C.i2ir)t IS \mx 18 Federal Handbook. of the " conditional pardon system," for Gladstone, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies when the system was inaugurated, was a partner in a Victorian station property, and was well aware of the opinion of the large land-owners. Some— of— tbaig ^ spoke contemp tu^iisly--QL-ifee--iHrrnigration. " We urgently need labour, and would rather have the pick of the gaols than the refuse of workhouses,'^ said the squatters of Moreton Bay in a document in 1850. The free immigrants were not " the refuse of the workhouses," but they were largely farmers, and the squatters did not approve of the culti- vation of small areas. Eidicule was poured on the very idea of profitable cultivation in parts of the country — the Darling Downs for example — where to-day there are thousands of prosperous settlers. The methods employed to secure room for settlers have been various, and the enactments embodying them are much too complicated for exposi- tion within the limits of an historical summary. They began with the device of " selection before survey," under which a person desiring to settle and cultivate could enter upOn a "run" leased from the Crown by a squatter, mark off an area for himself, erect a dwelling upon it, and make it his own by paying £1 per acre for it by easy instalments. The system produced a crop of evils, and was not very effectual in attaining the object in view. It led, on the one hand^ to the " peacocking " of properties, often not for purposes of genuine occupation, but to induce the squatter to buy out the intruder — that is to say, it conduced to a species of blackmailing ; and, on the other hand, it led to " dummying," squatters arranging with persons acting in collusion with them to select the best parts of a leased run, and so keep out strangers. The Duffy Land Act, passed in Victoria in 1862, though designed to promote settlement, also led to the augmentation rather than the dividing of big estates. In the nineties the land settlement problem became more urgent. Improved methods of dairying, the development of a large butter export trade, the profitable extension of orchard culture, the application of machinery to wheat production — these factors, together with the desire of thousands of native-born farmers' sons to make homes for themselves, and the augmentation of the pressure of demand for land by immigrants, compelled new policies to be inaugurated. Governments, in order to settle a rural population, began to repurchase from owners at high prices large estates which had been acquired from the Crown at low prices. These areas were subdivided and re-sold to farmers on easy terms. A more radical method of attaining the same end was a tax on the unimproved value of land, passed by the Federal Parliament, 1910. The tax, though an important revenue-producing agency, was primarily designed to compel large land-owners either to sell or to put their holdings to the most productive use. One of the beneficent results of Australian settlement, not only to this country, but to the colonization generally, was the devising of a cheap and simple system of land transfer. The Torrens Act was passed by the South Australian Parliament in 1858. Its author, Eobert Torrens, was not a lawyer, and his efforts were discouraged by the profession, whose members clung fondly to the old complicated system which required each transfer of real property to be accompanied by title deeds recapitulating the previous owners. Torrens devised the method of registration of lands in a public office, where History of Australia. 19 the ownership of any piece of property could be determined at a glance. His scheme met with ridicule and strenuous opposition. Experienced lawyers declared it to be unworkable.' But the Real Property Act of Torrens was carried, and he was appointed to superintend its working. It proved to be so safe and successful in South Australia that the other colonies soon adopted it ; and the distinguished French historian of modern colonization, Leroy-Beaulieu, declares that a system of the kind is essential to the well-being of any colony.* Two facts stand out, in connexion with the extension of settlement in recent years. One is the appreciation of the importance of irrigation in Australian development. The second is the discovery of means of profitably utilizing lands which were long considered to be of little or no cultivable value. Vast areas in South Australia and Victoria, once believed to be beyond subjugation by the plough, are now yielding millions of bushels of wheat per annum. American " dry farming " methods have been adapted to Australian conditions with eminently successful results. Only lately have the possibilities of irrigation been appreciated, and the country is hardly more than at the beginning of a new era in this regard. Mr. Deakin, in the late eighties, inaugurated an irrigation policy in Victoria, and it stands to the credit of his statesmanship that he saw, and strove to make his countrymen lealize, the importance of the scientific application of water to the soil. When Mr. Deakin travelled in the irrigated areas of America and India, wrote his Irrigated India, and inaugurated his policy, farmers were not quick to remodel their methods. But a new generation, taught by zealous experts, shows a livelier sense of what is to be gained by the co-operation of the irrigation engineer. 8. The Gold Discoveries. The great era of gold discovery in Australia dates from 1851, but nearly twenty years before that time particles had been found in the neighbourhood of Bathurst. In 1839, Count Strzelecki detected traces of gold amongst decomposed iron ore. and informed Governor Gipps, who was not gratified by the news, thinking that if it became generally known the difficulty of restraining the convict population would be great. But when Strzelecki reached England, his geological specimens and maps were examined by Sir Roderick Murchison, who, in a paper read before the Royal Geological Society, pointed out the resemblance between the mountain region where the Polish count had travelled, and the gold-bearing Ural mountains. Murchison even wrote to the Secretary of State, Earl Grey, predicting that valuable finds of gold would be made in Australia ; but no notice was taken of his letter. In 1848, a man named Smith found a nugget embedded in quartz near Berrima, in the Blue Mountains, but the Government would not follow up the dis- covery, for fear " of agitating the public mind by ordering geological investigations." Just as an analogy with the Urals impelled Sir Roderick Murchison to prophesy, so a resemblance between Australian conditions and those of the Californian gold-fields convinced Edward Hargreaves that gold would be * Leroy-Beaulk'U, /Je/a 6'c;to»'i«rj«ion cluz leu PeujiUii Modenics, II , 5 «), wlicrn particular iittont inn is (l>v.)ted to tho subject. 20 Federal Handbook. found in the Bathurst district of New South Wales. He had been a squatter there, and had gone to California to seek fortune when the news of the gold discoveries came in 1849. He soon convinced himself that the country with which he had been familiar in Australia was so like that which he saw in America that it ought to be similarly auriferous ; and he returned in 1850 to investigate. His reasoning was justified. He washed gravel in the bed of the Summerhill Creek, and found a small nugget at the first trial. Each succeeding dish of earth dug out produced gold. When Hargreaves returned to Sydney and disclosed his news to the Government, the exciting gold-rushes of the fifties commenced, and Australia entered upon a new phase of her history. There was at the same time a belief that gold would be found in rich quantities in Victoria. As early as 18-19., a shepherd youth named Chapman sold 22 ounces in Melbourne. He had found it in a gully in the hills of the western half of the colony, while looking after his sheep. Other bushmen occasionally brought small quantities of gold into the city, and there was a general expectation that important discoveries would be made. When the success of Hargreaves north of the Murray became known in Melbourne, interest in the subject quickened, and a reward was offered to any person who should be the means of making known a gold mine within 200 miles of the city. Valuable finds were made in several parts of the country at about the same time ; but the sensational development — that which was noised all over the world, and attracted thousands of the young and enterprising of all nations — ^was Hiscocks' discovery of gold at Buninyong, Ballarat, in August, 1851. Immediately after, in the same gully, a party of men washed out 4| ounces from the surface earth in two hours, and on the following day obtained 30 ounces. Startling successes of this kind soon became common, and fabulous fortunes seemed to be within the grasp of those who could strike a good patch. The fame of Ballarat became world-wide. Ibsen, writing his poetical play Love's Comedy, in Norway, used the name in an image for vaulting ambition : an end " worth the leaping for " was " a Ballarat bavoad the desert sands." Many fortunes were made ; many startling finds occurred. Dr. Kerr, guided by an aboriginal employe, found a huge block of gold weighing a hundredweight, embedded in a mass of quartz, on the Meroo Creek, in the Bathurst district. It was worth about £4,000. A Melbourne publican found a nugget weighing 7 lbs. while amusing himself by poking about with a pick at Black Hill. A ship's captain and seven sailors who tramped to Ballarat from Melbourne obtained nearly £3,500 worth of gold in three weeks , after which they went back to their ship and sailed in her home to England. In Canadian Gully, Ballarat, sLx nuggets were found in two months weighing in the aggregate about 390 lbs. Of Bendigo, a digger wrote, " You could see the gold shining in the heaps of dirt, and every man sat on his heap all night with a pistol or some weapon in his hand." It was a glittering period ; yet a thoughtful Australian statesman, the late Sir Henry Wrixon, on one occasion ventured the opinion that on the whole the Australian gold-fields had doubtfully been of economic advantage to the country. He argued that the capital and energy put into gold mining had probably exceeded the value of the product, and that the same capital and energy applied to other History op Australia. 21 industries would have yielded a larger return. An historian whose opinions are always well weighed expresses the same view : " It is doubtful whether, on the whole, the gold mining industry was in itself profitable, whether as much money has not been spent, in the aggregate, on winning the gold, as has been made out of the yield."* There is probably much truth in the point ; but, on the other hand, the gold-fields served Australia well in attract- ing to the country many thousands of men in the prime of life, a large pro- portion of whom remained. The political consequences were also, as pointed out below, of very great importance. Much has been written of the wUd life of the diggings, and some of the fiction intended to illustrate it is probably no more highly coloured than is justified by the facts. Stories like Rolf Boldrewood's Miner's Right and Nevermore, by an author who lived through the events whereof he writes, are full of the real atmosphere of a turbulent time. The administrative difficulties were so novel, the influx of population was so large, that authority was not a little bewildered. One serious struggle between law and disorder occurred. There was a threat of riot on the Turon, and an outbreak of bush- ranging originated from the presence of so many ex-convicts amongst so many opportunities for plunder. But the mass of the diggers were orderly, industrious men, whose inclination was to co-operate in maintaining good government. The tactless handling of questions at issue, rather than a lawless disposition on the part of the miners, produced the Eureka Stockade incident. There was nothing unreasonable in the imposition by the Government of Victoria of a tax on the gold produced. The expenses of administration had to be defrayed from some source, and the many thousands of pounds worth of gold being obtained constituted a fund upon which Latrobe, the Lieutenant-Governor, deemed it equitable to levy. But the method chosen was unfortunate, and the means of collection proved to be irritating as a rule, and grossly unjust in many instances. Latrobe would have preferred a tax on gold exported. That would have ensured that only the successful diggers would pay, and that they would be taxed according to their good fortune. But his Legislative Council was not favorable to this mode, and the example of New South Wales was followed, in the imposition (1851) of a licence-fee of 30s. per month on every miner. It was inequitable, because it hit the miner with a poor claim as hard as the man who was obtaining plenty of gold. But it was made an instrument of gross tyranny in operation. A person could be arrested at the instance of an informer, if found upon the diggings without a licence actually in his possession, and the fact that the informer was entitled to one-half the penalty recovered, which might be £.5 for a first offence., conduced to the arrest of wholly innocent persons, who had no direct connexion with mining, and to the constant irritation, and even persecution, of properly licensed men. Moreover, the miners protested that they had no representation in the Legislative Council, and that taxation without representation was un -British. Latrobe, severely harassed by inadequate revenues, proposed to increase the licence-fee to £3 per month, but the outcry was so strong that he desisted. * .Jose, History of Auslralaaia, page 2.'J2. 22 Federal Handbook. In 1853 it was reduced to £1 per month, but the evils of the system of collection were not amended. In 1854 Sir Charles Hotham succeeded to the charge of the Government of Victoria, and the mining population hoped for reform. But they were severely disappointed. Hotham, faced by increasing gold-fields expenditure, and a depleted treasury, assumed a stiff attitude, and ordered the police to prosecute the collection of licence-fees with greater diligence. The extremely harsh conduct of the police, and the gravely •defective administration of justice, aggravated the prevalent discontent. At Ballarat, the intense feeling was brushed up to a crisis by a riot which occurred in October, 1854, about the murder of a miner named Scobie, at an hotel of ill-repute, kept by one Bentley, an ex-convict. The latter was accused of the crime, but was acquitted at the instance of the magistrate, Dewes. There was good reason for suspecting the good faith of Dewes, and public indignation was strong. A public meeting was held, and while it was in progress a detachment of police was sent to protect Bentley's hotel. It was believed that the police intended to disperse the meeting. At once the anger of the crowd, about 8,000 strong, was directed against the very unpopular constabulary. Some stones were thrown, the windows of the hotel were smashed, and finally a fire was set to the building, and it was burnt to the ground. Three men were arrested, and the diggers subscribed bail money for them. Meanwhile a strong agitation against the licence-fees and the police policy was maintained. The movement was connected with that for the release of the alleged rioters and with the insistent demand of " no taxation without representation." The Eeform League which was formed promoted a meeting at which licences were publicly burnt. On 28th November, a military detachment sent up from Melbourne was attacked on the road, when several troopers were wounded and a drummer boy killed. Some of the leaders of the league were foreigners ; many were fire-brands, who talked wildly of upsetting the Government and establishing a republic. They even produced a flag, bearing the device of the Southern Cross on a blue ground, which was to float over the seat of the new order they intended to establish. They constructed a stockade flanking the road to Melbourne, about a mile from Ballarat, intending by its means to block the advance of more troops who were understood to be on their way up. These preparations were rudely shattered by the prompt action of Captain Thomas, of the 40th regiment, who was in command of the military already on the field. On the morning of 3rd December he led an assault upon the stockade, attacking it from the rear with a force of not quite 300 troops and police. In about twenty minutes after his bugle rang out for the assault the " rebellion " was suppressed. An officer was killed, together with four privates, and about a dozen of the storming party were wounded. On the other side, fully 30 were killed, many were wounded, and about 130 prisoners were taken. Only one " rebel " was convicted, and he was the editor of the Ballarat Times, but he was liberated on his own recognisances. A negro was tried for treason and acquitted ; and the Crown did not succeed in securing a conviction in any case. Peter Lalor, one of the ringleaders, afterwards (1880) became Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, and was a conspicuously able and conscientious man. The stockade incident effectually cleared the air, and brought about reforms which enabled gold mining to be History of Australia. 23 conducted henceforth as an ordinary peaceful industry. It forms a dramatic climax to the roaring digging days.* Every State has had its gold rushes, but the opportunities for the making of many fortunes by men with little capital have never been so plentiful as in New South Wales and Victoria in the fifties. In Queensland, the most important discovery was the Mount Morgan mine, which made its purchasers millionaires. It was bought for £640 in 1886, and yielded £4,500,000 in ten years. In Western Australia the Kimberley Gold-field was opened up in 1887, and in the early nineties came the amazing discoveries of the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie district. Large cities sprang up where once had been desert, and an enormous influx of male population completely changed the political complexion of the country. The great silver mines of Broken Hill also made huge fortunes for their proprietors. An example is that of Mr. George McCuUoch, who was a sheep-farmer in the neighbourhood of the hill, which was found to be a mass of ore. He was one of the original owners, and with the great fortune amassed from the mines became a prominent collector of works of art in England. He died in 1908. Scarcely less important than the mines of precious metals have been the copper mines of the Burra (South Australia) and Mount Lyell (Tasmania), and the tin mines of Mount BischofJ. Coal mining, dating from the last years of the eighteenth century in New South Wales, is now extended to Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia. 9. Constitutional Government. It was inevitable that political tendencies in Australia should develop in a democratic direction ; but the particular impetus given to the movement was afTected in an important degree by the character of the population that flocked to the gold-fields in the fifties. Just before the great discoveries were made at Ballarat, Bendigo, on the Turon, and elsewhere, Europe had been saething with political discontent. The Chartist movement in England apparently collapsed in 1848, but the reforms demanded by the Chartists were still advocated by radical thinkers. The Irish evictions of 1847 and Smith O'Brien's " rebellion " of 1848 caused thousands of Irishmen to emi- grate. The French Revolution of 1848, which overturned the Orleans monarchy, was flushed with the socialistic ideas of Louis Blanc. There were rervolutionary outbreaks in Germany, a conference of Liberal leaders at Heidelberg demanded popular reforms, riots in Berlin frightened Frederich William IV., and a Radical party was clamorous in the Vorparlament of Frankfort. There was insurrection and a demand for manhood suffrage in Austria, the ideas of Mazzini evoked a national and democratic movement in Italy, and the same spirit was strongly manifested in Switzerland and Poland. The gold-fields populations of Australia were extraordinarily cosmopolitan ; and, from whatever country the immigrants came, their political opinions were bound to be coloured by the movements of 1848. Many were political refugees ; thousands shared the convictions of the English Chartists. • 'I'he Eureka Stockailc; incident is still rotjardej, especially by those connected witli mining, as a phase in a stnmyle for liberty, and the association of a relative with it is considered a matter of pride. Thus, on 2nd Oitober, ] 91 ;i, we find Si^nator Bakhaj) (Tasmania), In a speech in the Senate (Commonwealth ParlinniPnUiry JJebates, I'Ji:}, p. ITM) making it a proud boast that " I have a claim, by virtue of blood and lineal descent, to speak feelintily in recard to fl'.'htinc for the y \v. .M. itoimcs, m.a.. u.sc PITHECANTHROPI!* ANTHROPOID Fid. 1. by Mr. Holmes, as the result of skull measurements made on a larj; Reports Camb. Expd. to Torres Straits, 1907, p. 258. C 2 36 Federal Handbook. aboriginals.* A certain value is allowed to selected important characters, and the whole results are then worked out mathematically, giving the relative positions of each of the specimens and groups indicated. The diagram is very interesting and yet, despite the results that it shows, there is no doubt at all that the present Australian aboriginal is considerably in advance of the Tasmanian. His weapons are notably superior to those of the latter, and it is quite certain that, if the two races came into contact, the Tasmanian would be exterminated, although as is shown in the chart, the Tasmanian, in skull measurements, is placed above the Australian. Very evidently skull measurements are liable, if taken alone, to give rise to misleading conclusions. The accompanying illustrations (Figs. 2-10) will serve to give a general idea of the physical features of the Australian native at different periods of his life. At birth he is copper coloured, but within a few days he assumes the usual dark chocolate tint characteristic of the adult. In the matter of personal appearance, while conforming generally to what is known as the Australian type, there is considerable variation. The man varies from, approximately, a maximum of 6 ft. 3 in. to a minimum of 5 ft. 2 in. There are, however, very few aboriginals indeed who reach the maximum height indicated. As a general rule, few of them are taller than 5 ft. 8 in. the women vary between 5 ft. 9 in. and 4 ft. 9 in. Their average height is not more than .5 ft. 2 in. The brow ridges are strongly marked, especially in men, and the forehead slopes back. The nose is broad, with the root deep set. In colour, the native is dark chocolate.^brown, not black. The hair in the men varies to a very great extent. It miiy be almost straight, decidedly wavy — its usual feature — or almost, but never really, frizzly. The figures A^dll show this well. The beard also may be well developed or almost absent. In some parts, the elder men pull the hair out on the upper and lower lips, an extreme example of which is met with on Melville Island where, during initiation ceremonies, some of them pull out the whole of their beards. The women very seldom have hair of any length, which is due to the fact that it is periodically cut ; at all events, it is a common feature of drawings and photographs of women from all parts that the hair is never more than a few inches long and, in all the central and northern tribes, it is the duty of a woman to cut her hair and make it into string. In skull measurements the native is dolichocephalic or long b cade a. His hands are decidedly small, the average span being little more than 6 inches. The hole cut for the hand in many of his shields is too small for an ordinary white man to use. Every native is marked by scars, the numl>er and arrangement of which vary much (Fig. 5). It has been stated that these scars indicate either the tribe or the class of the individual. This may be so in some cases, but only very rarely. In all the central and northern tribes, amongst whom they are especially well developed, they have no relation whatever to any tribal, class, or totemic group, with the solitary exception of the Melville Islanders, who may always be recognised by their remarkable series of cicatrices, forming a " herring-bone " pattern. The cuts are made with 'a sharp stone, ashes, or birds' down being rubbed into • I am indebted to Professor Berry for permission to use this chart Aboriginals of Australia. ,37 the wound, which gives rise to a thick, rib-like mass of keloid tissue. They are present on women as well as men and are regarded as ornamental. In some cases, instead of lines there are dots made by searing the skin with the red hot end of a firestick. Various authors have referred to the scars on the women as evidence of harsh treatment. This is not so ; they are self-inflicted. In regard to their manner of life it must be remembered that they are pure nomads, the members of a tribe hunting over the land that has belonged to their ancestors and not encroaching on that of other tribes. There are favorite hunting and camping grounds and here they will stay as long as food and water supplies are abundant, moving on to other places when these become scarce. During the day they are out in the scrub, the men hunting larger game, the women and children in search of smaller animals, grass seed and yams. Attention has often been drawn to their great power of tracking, a faculty which they must cultivate if they are to live. Their evenings are spent in the performance of the ordinary dances called corro- borees, in which, as a general rule, only men perform, while the rest of the camp makes the audience (Figs. 11 and 12). Each corroboree has its own decora- tions and songs and may occupy the evenings of two or three weeks. Apart from this ordinary camp life, there is, however, so far as the men are con- cerned, quite another side which may be spoken of as the ceremonial. It is difficult to say exactly how much time is occupied by this, but in many tribes at least half the life of a man is spent in attendance upon, or taking part in, ceremonies of a sacred nature that only initiated men may witness, and the older a man becomes the more time he spends in this way. Finally it must be remembered that owing to the vast area over which the tribes are scattered and the very different conditions under which they live, some exposed to the often fierce heat and, it may be, droughts of the interior, others living amongst the shady forests of the south-eastern ranges, and others again camped by the side of the rivers and waterpools in the far north, with a constant and plentiful food supply, there are, of necessity, great variations in customs, organization and beliefs. It may be said that, so far as we are now acquainted with them, the different tribes may be regarded as descended from ancestors who all observed certain customs and were regulated by a common social organization. In course of time, as they wandered over the continent and became divided into groups, locally isolated from one another, they developed along different lines ; and yet, amongst much that is divergent, it is, on the whole, surprising how much there is that is similar in their customs, beliefs, and organization. 2. Organization. The first serious attempt to study Australian tribal organization in detail was made by Messrs. Howitt and Fison, who published their results from 1800 onward ; Kamilroi an I, Kurnai may be regarded as having laid the foundation of our knowledge of Australian Anthropology. In this work they demonstrated the existence of (1) two primary exogamous moieties and (2) totemic groups. In the case of the Kamilroi tribe, the organization of a typical Australian tribe was set forth for the first time and it was shown fVOl 5 »>/ 38 Federal Handbook. that the so-called " terms of relationship " were fundamentally group and not individual terms. At a later period Dr. Eoth dealt in detail with the organization of Queensland tribes, Dr. Howitt published his final results in regard to the tribes of south-eastern Australia, the central and northern tribes were dealt with by the late Mr. Gillen and myself, Eev. John Mathew published his results of investigations into two Queensland tribes, and Mrs. D. M. Bates is now publishing the results of her work on Western Australian tribes. As might be expected, there is great variation in regard to the organization of tribes inhabiting different parts of the continent. Speaking generally, we may say that every tribe is divided into two moieties ; this is the fun- damental feature.* Each of these is divided into two classes, and each of these into sub-classes, so that, in what may be regarded as the most highly developed normal tribes, we have two moieties with four sub-classes in each, and further the names applied to corresponding male and female sub-classes differ. This organization governs kinship and as, with its associated terras of relationship, it refers to the whole tribe and to everv member of the tribe, so each individual has a kinship or relationship term that he applies to every member of his own tribe, and not only this, but to members of other tribes if they happen to visit his camp or if he goes to theirs, as may often happen during the performance of important ceremonies. These terms of relationship are quite different from those amongst ourselves and they might better be called group terms. In some, but very few cases, there are terms that are applied to individuals, but these are rarely met with, and it is only by realizing the fact that the group, and not the individual, lies at the basis of the organization of Australian tribes that, not only theii organization, but their habits, customs, and beliefs can be understood. They have no terms corresponding precisely in meaning to our words mother, father, sister, brother, mother-in-law, father-in-law. In the Pitta Pitta tribe, for example, described by Eoth in Queensland, a woman calls her actual mother " umma," but she applies the same name to each membei' of the group of women, any one of whom her father might have married. A man calls his actual wife or wives " nopa," but he applies the same term to each member of the group of women, any one of whom he might lawfully have married, and so on right through the whole series of terms. Not only is this so, but the group relationship shows out strongly during the performance of all their ceremonies and even in camp life. There are, for example, men of a certain group who may lawfully marry women of another group. If the father of one of his eligible wives dies, though the man may never have seen the father or his daughter, it is still his duty to cut himself in the same way as if his actual wife's father had died. So again, if he catches a wallaby, if there be any man in camp whose daughter he might lawfully marry, even if the man has no daughter, he must still present him with food. The affairs of any individual are, at bottom, mainly concerned with the group of which he is a member, the family enters to a slight, but only a very slight, extent. During the very large and by far the most important part of his life when he is associated with his fellow tribesmen, and often tribeswomen also, in • For suggestions with regard to this, cf. John Mathew, " Eaglehawk and Crow," also " Two Repre- sentative (Jueensland Tribes." Aboriginals of Australia. 39 the performance of the multifarious ceremonies that occupy so much of his time and thoughts, it is the group that is all predominant, the family is unrecognised. In order to give some idea of the main features in regard to the organization of the tribes, we will take certain examples which may be regarded as repre- sentative of them, though, of course, only salient points can be noted in such a sketch as this. Taking Australian tribes as a whole, we may divide them into five groups : — (1) Those with two moieties and no class names. In all of these descent is counted in the maternal line. (2) Those in which the moieties are divided into two or four classes or sub-classes and in which descent is counted in the maternal line. (3) Those in which the moieties are each divided into two or four classes or sub-classes and in which descent is counted in the indirect paternal line. (4) Those in which the moieties are each divided into two classes and in which descent is counted in the direct paternal line. (5) Tribes that may probably be regarded as abnormal, inhabiting coastal areas in certain parts, such as Victoria and the Northern Territory, in which, if any class organization were ever present, it has been superseded by some form of local organization. (1) Tribes loith two moieties, but no classes. These are only met with in the interior of the continent, and probably represent the most primitive form of organization, but it must be remembered that, though there are no class names, yet there are groups of individuals, standing in definite relationships to one another, who correspond to the groups of individuals to whom class and sub-class names are given in other tribes. In some cases, the moiety names are Kararu and Matteri, or variants of these ; in others they are Mukwara and Kilpara. Of these tribes we may take the Dieri as an example. A Kararu man marries a Matteri woman and their children are Matteri ; a Matteri man marries a Kararu woman and their children are Kararu. (2) Tribes in which the moieties are divided hito two classes, and descent is counted in the maternal line. We may take two examples of these — (a) the Pitta Pitta, described by Roth, the organization of which is similar to that of many of the Central Queensland tribes. It may be represented thus : — 1 2 3 4 Utaru. Pakuta. Children. Children. Kupuru Wungko KurkiUa Bunburi Bunburi Kurkilla Wungko Kupuru 40 Federal Handbook. The two moieties are Utaru and Pakuta, each of which has two classes. The system is, that men of cohimn 1 marry women of column 2, and their children are shown in column 3. Men of column 2 marry women of column 1, and their children are as shown in column 4. It will be seen that a woman's children belong to her moiety but to the class to which she does not ; in other words, we have direct maternal descent of the moiety and indirect of the class. The second example is the Kamilroi, described by Howitt and Pison, the organization of which is similar to that of many tribes in the interior of New South Wales and Queensland. It agrees fundamentally with the Pitta Pitta, but has distinct names for males and females, thus : — 1 2 3 4 Kupathin. Dilbi. Children. Children. Ipai (Ipatha) Kumbo (Butha) Kubi (Kubitha) Murri (Matha) Murri (Matha) Kumbo (Butha) Kubi (Kubitha) Ipai (Ipatha) Descent is counted in the indirect female line, so far as the class is con- cerned, but, in addition to the ordinary marriage, it is permissible for a man to marry a woman belonging to the same moiety as himself, but to another totemic group. So far as the class name is concerned, the children take the one they would have taken had their mother married the correct man. It may be noted that in all tribes, when an irregular marriage is permitted, the children always take the class appropriate to the normal marriage of the woman. (3) Tribes in which the moieties are divided into two or four classes, and in which descent is counted in the indirect paternal line. These tribes occupy a very large area in the centre and northern parts of the continent, and probably extend right across into Western Australia ; at all events, we know they stretch beyond the far western end of the Macdonnell Eanges, and are met with again in the West. The Arunta, Karriara, and Warramunga may be taken as types. The Arunta organization in the southern part of the tribe is thus : — 1 2 3 4 Moiety 1. Moiety 2. Children. 1 Children. Panunga Bulthara Purula Kumara Bulthara Panunga Kumara 1 Bulthara Aboriginals of Australia. 41 In the southern part of the tribe there are only four class names, but, as a matter of fact, each of these is divided into two groups. If we take for example the Panunga and Purula, two intermarrjing groups, we find that we can arrange them as follows, using the letters « and P' to indicate the two groups : — Panunga « marries Purula <>■, children are Bulthara /?. Panunga ,5 marries Purula ^J', children are Bulthara «. A Panunga « man calls Purula 'i- women Unawa, Panunga /5 men Ifmunna, and Pm"ula i^ women Unkulla. The Unawa women are eligible as wives, the Unkulla are not, under normal conditions. In the northern part of the tribe distinct names are given to the groups which now form what are called eight sub-classes, but, as said before, these are always functionally present. The names and marriage arrangements are as follows, the equivalent groups in the southern part of the tribe being placed in brackets : — Moiety 1. Panunga (Panunga a) Uknaria (Panunga j8) Bulthara (Bulthara a) Appungerta (Bulthara /3) Moiety 2. Children. Purula (Purula a) Ungalla Appungerta (Bulthara /3) Bulthara (Purula j3) Kumara (Bulthara /3) Uknaria (Kumara a) Umbitchana (Panunga /3) Panunga (Kumara /3) (Panunga a) Children. Kumara (Kumara a) Ubitchana (Kumara /3) Purula (Purula a) Ungalla (Purula j6) The organization of the Kaitish, Warramunga, and other tribes in the northern central area, as far as the Katharine River in the north, and east- wards towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, is fundamentally the same with, of course, different names for sub-classes and, in many, distinct names for the corresponding women's classes, giving thus sixteen class names in all, a featiu'e* described also by Mrs. Bates in East Kimberley tribes in Western Australia. Thus, for example, in the Warramunga, the equivalent of the Uknaria, men are called TJunguri, and the women of the same group Namigilli. In some tribes also the moiety names are retained. In the Warramunga, the equiva- lent of moiety 1 in the Arunta is called Uluuru, and that of moiety 2 Kingilli. In the Karriara tribe in Western Australia, as described by Mrs. Bates, the moiety names are lost, four classes are present, and the marriage arrangements are as follows : — 1 2 3 4 Moiety 1. Moiety 2. Children. Children. Banaka Paljari Boorong Kaimera Paljari Banaka Kaimera Boorong It will bo seen that, except for the class names, the ari'angemcut is identical with what is met with in the southern Arunta, and a similar organization is evidently widely spread in We.stern Australia. • Mrs. D. M. Bates. Vol. XIV., 1913. "Social Organization of some Western Australian Trihcs." Report, A.A.A.S. 42 Federal Handbook. (4) Tribes in ivhich the moieties are divided into four classes, and in which descent is counted in the direct paternal line, so far as the class name is concerned. The Mara tribe inliabiting country between the Eoper and Macarthur Kivers may be taken as a type. The arrangement is as follows : — - 1 2 3 4 MUuri. TJmbaua. Children. Children. Murungun a Muningun /3 Mumbali a Mumbali /3 Purdal a Kuial 13 Kuial a Purdal 13 Murungun /3 Murungun a Mumbali /3 Mumbali a Purdal /3 Kuial a Kuial 13 Purdal a There are four classes, but each of these is again divided into two, dis- tinguished by the letters a and ,i. The arrangement has the appearance of being very definitely thought out, and there is further a very definite scheme, by means of which the divisions (Murungun a, ,?, etc.) are made to fit in with the corresponding sub-classes in other tribes with whom the Mara constantly come into contact. (.5) Abnortnal tribes in ivhich class organization has apparently been superseded by some form of local organization. As an example of these, we may take the Kurnai tribe which, many years ago, occupied the mountains in eastern Victoria. It was divided into five groups named after the localities in which they lived. There was no class organization and a man could not marry a woman of his own local group. There were intermarrying local groups, marriage being by elopement. As a second example, we may mention the Kakadu and allied tribes living at the other extremity of the continent on the Coburg Peninsula and Alligator Rivers. They have apparently no class organization and the totem does not regulate marriage. The tribe is divided into local groups and a man of one local group takes a wife from another particular group. There are explicit traditions which purport to explain the origin of this local system. 3. Totem ic Systems and Totem ism. In dealing with Australian tribes the word " totem " has been applied in at least three different senses. (1) The Group totem, that is the material object giving its name to a group of individuals who commonly believe themselves to be descended from it. The name of the totem usually passes by inheritance from generation to generation, sometimes in the maternal, sometimes in the paternal line. (2) The Sex totem, discovered by Dr. Howitt in the Kurnai and Wot- joballuk trbes in Victoria, where it exists side by side with the group totem. The women have one animal, such as the owlet night- jar, associated with them and the man another, such as the bat. This is of rare occurrence. Aboriginals of Australia. 4-3 (3) The Individual totem, usually acquired by dreaming of some animal- This also is of rare occurrence and w^s first described by Dr. Howitt, but has been recently described by Mrs. Bates as occurring also in some Western Australian tribes. So far as Australia is concerned, it is advisable to restrict the term totem to the first of these and to define it as a material object that (1) gives its name to a group of individuals and (2) the name of which is usually hereditary either in the maternal or paternal line and the term totemism to a system based on the recognition of these two factors. It must be remembered that there are very considerable variations in regard to totemic customs and beliefs in different tribes. We will deal with totemism under three aspects. (1) The Social Aspect, By this is meant the division of the tribe into totem groups, their influence. if any, on marriage and the mode in which each individual becomes associated with any one of them. We have already seen that most tribes are divided into moieties and these into classes. As a general rule, the totemic groups are distributed between the two moieties in such a way that each group is confined to one or other of them. We will take a series of tribes from different parts of the continent as typical of the more important variations in regard to the social aspect. (1) The Dierl. — ^This is representative of tribes in which the moieties are not divided into classes. These moieties are called Kararu and Matteri and the totem groups are divided between them. Kararu has rain, carpet snake, crow, frog, etc. ; Matteri has a cormorant, emu, eagle, hawk, native cat, etc. A Kararu man must marry a Matteri woman and is not restricted in his choice to any one totem group. The children follow the mother's totem. (2) The Kamilroi. — This is representative of a large number of tribes, such as the Whakelbura, occupying a vast area of country sweeping round inland of the coastal ranges, from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north to the River Murrav in the south. The totems are divided between the moieties. There are four classes and of these Ipai-Kumbo and Murri-Kubbo have totems in common. The children take the mother's totem. (3) The Arunta. — This is representative of an important group, including the Arunta, Ilpirra, Unmatjera, and Kaitish tribes. There are four classes or eight sub-classes and the totem groups are not restricted to the moieties. Each group is, however, always more largely represented in one moiety than the other. Marriage between individuals of the same totemic name is not forbidden, but rarely takes place. The country occupied by the Arunta is dotted over with special spots inhabited by the spirits of old totemic ancestors, who enter women and undergo reincarnation. The traditions are very precise in regard to these totemic centres, so that the natives knowing, or thinking they do, where any particular spirit child entered a woman, are able to assign its totem to it. In the Kaitish, the most northern of these tribes, the totemic groups are more nearly divided between the moieties than in the Arunta A man very rarely marries a woman of his own totem 44 Federal Handbook. and there is a strong tendency for the descent of the totem to be in the male line, as is always the case in the class names. Each individual is normally associated with one totem group. (4) The Warramunga. — This is representative of the Warramunga, Tjingilli, and other tribes occupying a large area in the centre and extending across to the Queensland border. The totem groups are strictly divided between the moieties. A man may marry a woman of any totem in the moiety to which he does not belong, provided she belongs to the right class. Strict paternal descent of the totem is nearly, but not quite, the rule, but every child belongs to a totem group in its father's moiety. For example, a black snake man's children are almost always black snake, though rarely one may belong to another totem group such as rain. As the moieties are exogamous, it follows that the totems are the same. (5) The Binbinga. — This is representative of a group of tribes that occupy the country drained by the Macarthur Eiver flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The organization is closely similar to that of the Warramunga, but in these tribes not only are the totem groups divided between the moieties, but the descent of the totem name is strictly in the father's line. (6) There remain certain tribes in which the descent is anomalous, such, for example, as the Kurnai, in the southern coastal district of Victoria, and the Kakadu nation in the far north, occupying the Coburg Peninsula and the the country drained by the Alligator Eivers. These tribes are evidently much modified. They have no class system and marriage is regulated by the existence of local intermarrying groups. In the Kakadu each spirit individual has a double nature, one part enters the woman, one part remains outside. It chooses its own totem and the spirit part that remains outside tells the father the totem name of the child. (2) The Ceremonial Aspect. This side of totemism has probably been very strongly developed through- out the whole of Australia, though it has only been much studied during recent years, when, unfortunately, in the whole of Victoria and New South Wales and in most parts of Queensland, the tribes have become decadent. It is interesting to note that one of the earliest accounts that we have of the natives — that given by Collins in 1804 — evidently describes one of these performances. Speaking generally, it may be said that every totemic group has certain ceremonies associated with it and that these refer to old totemic ancestors. In all tribes they form part of a secret ritual in which only initiated men take part. In most tribes a certain number are shown to the youths during the early stages of initiation, but at a later period he sees many more. In the Arunta, for example, the final stage is concerned with the Engwura and during the performance of this a long series is performed (Figs. 13 and 14). It may extend over a period of three months, during which totemic ceremonies are enacted daily. To start an Engwura, the leader of some totemic group, after consultation with those of others, sends out a messenger called Ilchinkinja, which means " the beckoning hand." He carries a Churinga and passes over the country delivering his message at different camps. Slowly the natives gather together at the chosen place, where a special ceremonial ground has been prepared. The Panunga- Bulthara camp together, and the Purula-Kumara, the division of the tribe Aboriginals of Australia. 45 into two moieties being very marked during the Engwnra. Large numbers of Churinga are brought in and stored on two platforms far from one another. These are associated with the old ancestors and their living representatives and at times the old men call some of the younger ones together, rub the sticks with red ochre and tell the former all about the ancestors. Each ceremony is concerned with an ancestor and is the property of some old man who either performs it himself or invites a younger man to do so. At the close of the Engwura the men have to pass through three fire ordeals. During the first the women throw burning bushes over them ; during the second they have to lie down on bushes placed above red hot faggots and, during the third, they have to kneel for a few moments on a smouldering fire made by the women. Apart from this, the women take no part whatever in the ceremonies, after which are over the men are regarded as " ertwa mura oknira " — very good men. A characteristic feature of these ceremonies, the exact nature of which varies much in different parts of the continent, is that one or more men have their bodies decorated with a design which is especially associated with that ceremony and is usually drawn in coloured bird's down, always fixed on with human blood. Even more elaborate designs may sometimes be drawn on the ground (Figs. 29 end 30). (3) The Magical Aspect. In early days. Grey, who used the Western Australian word Kobong for totem, stated that " A certain mysterious connexion exists between a family and its kobong, so that a member of the family will never kill an animal of the species to which his kobong belongs, should, he find it asleep ; indeed, he always kills it reluctantly, and never without afiording it a chance to escape. This arises from the family belief that some one individual of the species is their nearest friend, to kill whom would be a great crime and carefully to be avoided." This idea of a close association between an individual and his totem is widely spread, but the exact beliefs and customs in regard to them difier very much in different parts. The general idea may be summed up in a remark made to us by a kangaroo man when we had taken his photogi-aph. We were asking him about the matter and he said, pointing to the photograph, " That is Just the same as me, so is a kangaroo." In some tribes there is a feeling of mutual protection between an individual and his totem, but this is not often met with. They are of the same flesh and the belief in the descent from the totemic animal is widespread. In some tribes the individual will not kill his totem ; ])ut in most there is no objection to his doing so and handing it to others to eat. In some he will both kill and e9.t it. The exact nature of the relationship and the way in which the native is influenced by it varies much and, speaking generally, the magical aspect of totemism appears to be largely associated with climatic conditions, so far as they affect the supply of food and water. Three typical examples of ceremonies will serve to show the nature of the magical aspect. In the Urabunna tribe, which counts descent in the female line, the ceremony is called Pitjinta. In a snake group the decorated performer kneels down and extends his arms. The skin on each fore-arm is then pinched up and he pierces it with a pointed bone (Fig. 15). When snakes become plentiful, men who do not belong to the totem group go and bring some in to the old man and say, " Look, here are 46 Federal Handbook. snakes." He smears a little fat over his arms and the bone and then tells the men to eat the rest. The bones are wrapped in the hair of a snake man and put away. In the Arunta, the ceremonies are called Intichiuma and are very suggestive. In that of a grub group the men of the totem, no one else being present, start from camp in the morning in silence, fasting and devoid of arms and ornaments. Each man has a mark characteristic of the totem on his face. They go to a rocky gorge where there is a cave and in this a large stone that represents the adult insect and smaller ones that are its eggs. The former is reverently stroked by all while they chant refrains, the burden of which is an invitation to the insect to come and lay eggs. This over, they return to the camp, near to which a long bough hut has been built, supposed to represent the chrysalis case. Into this they all go and once or twice the leader comes out and shambles round in imitation of the adult insect emerging from its chrysalis. All men and women who do not belong to the group have to lie down with their faces on the ground while the women of the group stand up peering round in all directions and keeping watch over them. Some time later, when the grub is plentiful, every one goes out ; they collect large numbers, return to camp and cook them. The head man sits by himself. First the men who do not belong to the gi'oup and then those who do bring their supplies to him. He eats a little, gives some to a few of the older men and then hands all the rest to those who do not belong to the group, telling them to eat it. The grub men are not absolutely forbidden to eat it but they only do so sparingly. The leader must at this time eat a little, so as to identify himself with it, or else he would not be able to perform the ceremony successfully. In the Kakadu tribe, far in the north, there is a ceremony called Muraian that is evidently of the same nature, though it is not so detailed, owing, doubtless, to the normal abundance of food in this part. The natives have a large number of sacred sticks and stones, each supposed to represent a totemic animal or plant (Fig. 16). They may only be seen by the elder men and, during the ceremony, are grasped in the hands of men who dance round and round a central figure, stretching out the symbolic objects and yelling " Brau, Brau," which means " Give, give." It sounds almost like a command to the totemic object. In Western Australia Mrs. Bates has recorded that, in the East Pilbaru tribe, there are certain special spots, or local totem centres, called Thalu, where ceremonies for the increase of the totemic object are held, in which, unlike most tribes, women and children take some share. The same author describes how in the West Kimberley tribes the totems are " dreamed " by the totemites. When a young man has passed through some stages of his initia- tion, he begins to " dream " the increase of his totem. He dreams he is on his ngargarula booro (that is, the ground on which his father first saw him in a dream when he was a spirit baby). If he be an edible bean man, for example, he dreams he picks up a branch of the bean, chews it and spits it all about. When the time of beans comes round, a plentiful supply will result from the dream. There is no doubt but that in many tribes, and the belief was probably at one time widely spread over Australia, the natives firmly believe that by means of magical ceremonies such as these they can control their food supplies. Aboriginals of Australia. 47 4. Initiation. In all Australian, tribes special cerenaouies of an important nature, which vary much in their details, attend both the initiation of youths to the status of men and that of girls to the status of women. In the case of the youth, initiation is almost universally associated with showing him the " bull- roarer " for the first time. It has different names in different parts — Chm'inga, Tundun, Kunapippi, etc. — but always consists of a thin slab of wood, or, more rarely, stone. It is pierced at one end by a hole, through which the string is passed, and by this means it is whirled round and round, making the noise that is usually supposed by women and children to be the voice of a great spirit that takes the youth away and initiates him. It is very difficult to understand the wide divergence in regard to the actual ceremonies characteristic of different groups of tribes. We have, generally speaking, three main types — (1) the knocking out of an incisor tooth, as amongst the Kurnai in the south-east ; (2) circumcision, followed in many, but by no means all, cases by sub-incision, amongst tribes occupying a vast area in the interior of New South Wales and Queeiisland, the whole of the central area and probably a large part of Western Australia ; (3) special ceremonies amongst groups of tribes such as those on Melville and Bathurst Islands and the Kakadu nation on the Alligator Rivers, amongst whom no mutilation of the bodv other than perhaps the pulling out of hairs takes place. We will briefly describe examples of each of these types. Of the first we will take the Kurnai as being of historic interest, because it was in connexion with it that the first adequate account of initiation was given by the late Dr. Howitt, who then also drew attention, for the first time, to the importance of the bull-roarer. To begin with, a man is sent out with a Tundun to summon distant groups. This may take months. When they come in, ordinary corroborees are held which serve to fill in the time until all have arrived. A ceremonial ground, called Bunan, is prepared by clearing an open space 30 to 50 yards long, and piling earth round it to form a low mound. A path leads away for about 400 yards into the scrub, where a busli house is bu'lt. The serious part of the ceremonies begins by a recently initiated youth walking by a log placed near the Bunan, and saying "A snake, a snake." Other men come up, pretend to be frightened, and then they all run away in single file. At first the women and children gather together in the middle of the Bunan, the men on the outside. The latter then jump over the mound and run round the women shouting out the names of the various contingents that have come in. The women come out and the men go in. The novices are amongst the women and, like them, sit with their backs to the men. On the Bunan the tooth song is sung, after which most of the men go to the bush house where the medicine men show their " joias," or magic stones, to the possession of which they owe their powers. Here, also, there are figures of animals, such as the spiny ant-eater, crow, snakes and especially one of Daramulun, who is regarded as the great father of the tribe. This over, they return to the Bunan, the youths are painted and fillets of grass bound round their foreheads by their mothers' brothers, who take charge of them and instruct them in tribal legends, laws and the power of medicine men, etc. A hot fire is made on the Bunan and tiie novices sit round on the mound each with a woman's digging stick between liis feet, containing the waist 48 Federal Handbook. belt, forehead band and nose bone tbat he will wear when initiated. Behind each boy, covered with boughs, crouches his mother or her sister. Then the bull-roarer sounds, the women run away and the youths are taken to the bush house and covered with boughs. Once more they return to the Bunan and are told of Daramulun. Finally, a man, representing the latter, takes hold of each boy, applies his lower incisor to the left upper of the boy and presses it up. Then the loosened tooth is knocked out with a club and chisel. After this, the boys are shown a special image of Daramulun, instructed in their duties as men and told that the women must know nothing of what they have seen. Finally, they are taken and shown to the women, from whose charge they have now been removed, and then run off into the bush. In the second type, including those of Central Australia and the Queens- land tribes described by Roth, there are a succession of initiation ceremonies taking place at various ages. The Arunta may be taken as a type. We have — (1) the painting of the young boys and throwing them in the air, (2) the ceremony of circumcision, (3) that of sub-incision, and (4) the Engwura. In connexion with the second, the youths are shown the bull-roarer for the first time, the noise made by which the women and children believe to be the voice of Twanyirika, a spirit that takes the boys away, provides them with a new set of insides and makes them into men. In connexion with both (2) and (3), they are shown sacred totemic ceremonies and instructed in the laws, totemic history of the tribe, food restrictions and their duties as men ; they are told tbat they must implicitly obey the old men, must not eat the forbidden foods, but supply other men with them, and on no account must they talk to lubras about what they have seen. Everything is made as impressive as possible and the fact that the main ceremonies take place during the night, or just at daybreak, adds to the feeling of mystery. They have special designs painted on them, may not speak to any one save the old men in charge of them, are given very I'ttle food to eat, and pass through sundry very unpleasant experiences. For example, at various stages during the performance of kangaroo ceremonies, from four to ten men be down on the novice, who is expected to bear everything with stoicism. Finally, the men take about a dozen poles, each 8 feet high. Dry boughs are piled up to make a fire and, amidst the yells of the men, the women rush to their camp while bull-roarers sound all round. The novice is laid on his back and the poles placed above him and lifted up and down on him while the men sing. This over, he is carried, feet foremost, to where a man, kneeling in front of the operator, holds a shield on which he is placed and then, to the weird accompaniment of the bull-roarers, the Lartua song is thundered out and, in a moment or two, the operation is over. The initiated youth, completely dazed, after being embraced in turn by each of the older men who has taken an official part in the ceremony, is handed a bundle of churinga, and told, " Here is Twanyirika, of whom you have heard so much, take them, they are churinga and will help to heal you quickly, guard them well, do not lose them, do not let your mother and sisters see you, obey yom' elder brother, who goes with you, do not eat forbidden food." The final ceremony of Engwura, to which we have referred under the heading of totemism, is not passed through until a man is perhaps 25 or 30 years Aboriginals of Australia. 49 old. It is most impressive and, after a man has passed through it, he is spoken of as " ertwa mura oknira," which means " very good man." As a matter of fact, every man must pass through all the initiation ceremonies, so that, amongst the elder men, there is no one who is not " ertwa mura oknira," but, on the other hand, there are grades of " goodness." Some men take less interest than others in the sacred ceremonies, they are given to chattering, like women and children and are " irkun oknira," that is, light and frivolous. Others take matters seriously and will, as they grow older, become leaders or oknirabata— great teachers. Special status names are applied as follows to the boy, youth and man at the times stated : — (1) Ambaquerka at the time of growing up, (2) Ulpmerka after this and until circumcision, (3) Wurtja during the ceremony, (4) Arakurta after the ceremony and until that of sub-incision, (5) Ertwakurka after this and until the Engwura, (6) Uliara after the latter. As in the Kurnai, so in all tribes, the women take an active part in the opening ceremonies but are rigidly excluded from the essential parts when a bull-roarer is used. There is usually some special ceremony symbolic of the fact that the boy is being withdrawn from the ranks of the women. It is not necessary here to refer to the initiation ceremonies of the women, but such exist in all central tribes and in those described by Roth, and probably, at one time, existed universally. The third type includes various coastal tribes that are evidently much modified. A characteristic group of these inhabits the Coburg Peninsula, the .VUigator River district and the coast as far as Darwin. A still more modified group inhabits Melville and Bathurst Islands. The former have a remarkable series of ceremonies associated with initiation, all of them totemic in character. There is no tooth knocking out nor any mutilation of the body. In the Kakadu, a special ground called " ober " is made, and on this totemic ceremonies are shown to the novices, who are given the usual instructions. Like the Arunta, there are various grades, the last of which is not passed through until a man is old, when he is allowed to take part in the Muraian ceremony, during which various objects symbolic of the totems are used. In the Kakadu there are apparently no bull-roarers shown ; but in the Larakia, at Darwin, they are shown to the young men at one stage, when three or four old men suddenly emerge from the bush and whirl them in front oi the novices. The latter stand in a row, and the old men, coming right up to them, point the bull-roarers at thena, then pull them through their own armpits, and insert them in those of the novices. At other stages the novices are subjected to rough treatment, such even as being kicked and hit hard, and during those unpleasant performances they must not grumble or find fault. On Melville Island, the novices are shown a special yam ceremony, during which all the men, women and children are gathered together in a camp, where ceremonies are performed and the yams cooked and eaten in a special way. The novices are also taken to a water-hole, where those wlio are passing through for the first time have their heads placed in bark baskets and dipped under water, while those who have reached the second stage are cauglit hold of by the arms and legs and pulled violently backwards and forwards through the water. Amongst these tribes girls of corresponding status to the youths aie specially decorated and take ]r.ivt in the coroinonies, C,121i-)4. i> 50 Federal Handbook. and tliere is, at all events, one special ceremony, not as yet understood, tkrough which the older novices must pass. This is possibly the equivalent of the Muraian amongst the Kakadu. All the various types of initiation ceremonies for men agree in certain fundamental points : — (1) They begin at the age of puberty. (2) During the initial ceremonies the women play an important part. (3) During the essential parts the women are typically absent and the youths are shown the bull-roarer, have the secret beliefs explained to them and are instructed in the moral precepts and customs, including food restrictions, that they must henceforth observe under severe penalties. (4) At the close of the first part of the ceremonies, such as that of tooth knocking out or circumcision, a definite performance is enacted, emblematic of the fact that the youths have passed out of the control of the women. (5) The last grade is not passed through until a man is quite mature. 5. Beliefs in Reincarnation and Spirit Children. The belief in reincarnation is very firmly held by all the central tribes from the Urabunna in the south right across the continent to those inhabiting the Coburg Peninsula on the northern coast line. In the Arunta tribe, the natives believe that in the far past times their ancestors, who were endowed with powers much superior to those of their living representatives, wandered across the country. They were divided into groups, kangaroo men and women in one, witchetty grub people in another, emu people in another, and so on. The track followed by each group is well known and, when they halted at various places, some of them went into the gi'ound, their spirit parts remaining above, each of them in company with a churinga. The whole Arunta country is thus dotted over with local centres — one haunted by kangaroo, another by grub spirits, and so on. At the present day it is these spirit children who are continually undergoing reincarnation. Each spirit has associated with it another, called Arumbui'inga, which is its double and always remains outside, living at the old camping ground of the spirit when the latter is reincarnated. Many of the more important of these old ancestors are known by name, and the old men decide the particular one of whom any child is the reincarnation. If the latter be known, the child bears the name of the ancestor. This name, however, is not used in public, it is secret, and known only to the old men of the totemic gi'oup. The individual himself only hears it when he is fully grown, and it is never mentioned except in whispers. When a child is born one or two of the old men actually go out in search of the churinga. Sometimes they find it, sometimes they do not, in which event they make a new one, so that each individual is represented by his churinga in the local storehouse called ertnatulunga. A woman going into the vicinity of one of these places is always liable to be entered by one of the spirit children. Whenever also a native dies, his spirit goes back to its old camping ground and remains there until it chooses to be reincarnated. Aboriginals of Australia. 51 In Queensland, Roth states that the TuUy River blacks believed that children result from one or other of four causes — (1) a woman sits over a fire on which she has roasted a piece of a fish (black bream) that has been given to her by her husband ; (2) she goes out hunting and catches a special bull frog ; (3) some man tells her to have a child ; or (4) she dreams that a child has gone inside her. The Cape Bedford blacks believe that spirit children enter the mother in the form of a curlew, if they be girls, and in that of a snake, if boys. If they hear the curlew whistling at night they say " Hallo, there is a child about." According to the Pennefather natives, a mythic being called Anjea makes children out of swamp mud and puts them in the mothers. He is never seen, but can be heard laughing in the scrub. In the Warramiinga tribe, each totemic group is supposed to have had one great ancestor who wandered over the country, performing ceremonies at different spots, where he left spirit children behind, and it is these who are now born again. So again in the Gnanji tribe there is just the same belief, but, in addition, if a man travels, spirit children from his own place may follow him up and go inside his wife. In the Kadaku tribe on the northern coast, the beliefs are very precise and detailed. There are supposed to have been a limited number of ancestors who deposited spirit children at different places. These have been continually undergoing reincarnation. In these tribes the names of all these people are known, and every individual now bears the name of one of them. When a man dies, his spirit part stays with his bones, after the mourning ceremonies are over, forming what is called a Yalrauru. This gives off a double of itself somewhat like the Arumburinga in the Arunta, but here called Iwaiyu. It is the latter that enters a woman and undergoes reincarnation. Later on again, the original Yalmuru, who watches over the man or woman during his or her lifetime, is supposed to become worn out, so that when the man dies the old Iwaiyii becomes the new Yalmuru, which in course of time produces a new Iwaiyu, and so on, generation after generation. In the Broome district in Western Australia, according to Mrs. Bates, the natives believe that every child must be " dreamed " by its father, and the " dream-baby " is called Ngargarula. If the latter does not appear to the father, and his wife gives birth to a child, the father does not believe that the child belongs to him. If, on the other hand, a man is separated from his wife for a long time, and, while he is away, a Ngargarula comes to him and his wife has a child, he believes this belongs to him, no matter how long a time he may have been separated from his wife. These ideas in regard to reincarnation and the origin of children have now been shown to be very widely spread over Australia and were, doubtless, once held l)y tribes who are now much too decadent to retain beliefs of this nature, which are naturally amongst the first to be discarded when the aboriginal comes into contact with civilization. 6. Beliefs in Superior Beings. All over Australia the natives appear to have beliefs in B(ung.s who are endowed with powers superior to their own. The following is a very brief outline of the summary given by T)r. Howitt in regard to the tril)es of th*? I» 2 52 Federal Handbook. south-eastern part of the continent. In the Narrinyeri Tribe there was A Being called Nurrundere, who was supposed to have made everything ivnd to have instituted their rites and ceremonies. The Wotjoballuk spoke of Bunjil as " our father " and the Kulin people believed that he was an old man with two wives, taught them the arts of life and divided the tribe into intermarrying groups. In the Kurnai, Bunjil was a great Being, all knowledge of whom was confined to the men. The Kamilroi looked on Baiame as the Being who created all things. Amongst the Yuin people Daramulun is sup- posed to have instituted the ceremonies and made the bull-roarer. He lived in the sky, watching the men. His name is only used by the initiated. In parts of Queensland they believe in Kohin who lives in the Milky Way, roams about at night as a warrior, killing all natives he meets, and who is also offended if they do not keep the customs. According to Mr. Mathew, the Kabi and Wakka tribes believed in Beings such as Bind, Jonjari and Dhakkan, who was identified with the rainbow and lived in deep water holes. He could shatter mountains, slaughter natives and was at times malignant. He substituted half-caste for pure-bred children, so he was called warang, that is, wicked. Dr. Howitt sums up the legends and teachings, so far as the south-eastern tribes are concerned, as follows : — " I see, as the embodied idea, a venerable, kindly, headman of a tribe, full of knowledge and tribal wisdom and all powerful in magic, of which he is the source, with virtues, failings and passions, such as the aborigines regard them." In the Central tribes there is everywhere a belief in the former existence of ancestors endowed with powers superior to those of living natives. In addition there are other Beings. The Arunta believe that long ago there were two, called Ungambikula, which means " made out of nothing." They lived in the sky and came down and made men and women and then they turned into lizards. The Arunta also believed in the existence of mischievous spirits, called Oruncha, who are always ready to injure natives, but they have no great spirit such as Baiame. They have a mythical Being called Twanyirika, the equivalent of whom is found in other tribes, who is supposed by the women and children to take the boys away at initiation and provide them with new " insides " and whose voice is heard when the bull-roarer sounds. The men, however, tell the youths that the sound is made by the roarers. There is a belief amongst the Kaitish tribe in a Being called Atnatu. He made himself, the stars are his wives and he has plenty of sons and daughters. Long ago he was angry with his children, so he dropped them down on earth and, with them, everything the natives now have. If he hears the bull-roarers sound he is pleased, but if not he is angry. The Binbinga on the Gulf of Carpentaria believe that there are two malignant spirits c died Mundagadji, anxious to hurt them, and a friendly one, named Ulurkura, who lives in the woods and stops the Mundagadji. Speaking generally it may be said that every tribe has a belief of some kind in Superior Beings ; that, with rare exceptions, the latter are not sup- posed to take any personal interest in the natives or to be pleased or dis- pleased with what they do ; that no appeal for help is ever made to them, and that they have nothing whatever to do with the inculcation of moral precepts. Aboriginals of Australia. 5,^ 7. Magic and Medicine Men. It is difficult to overstate the extraordinary part that, in one way or another, magic plays in a native's life. From the moment that he is born until he dies he lives in an atmosphere of magic. There are two sides to magic, the evil and the good and, of the two, the former bulks more largely in the native mind. Of good magic we have, on the one hand, ceremonies such as those in which, for example, a man of the Yam totem will take one of his yam chm-inga, "sing" it and then deposit it on ground where yams are usually found, with the idea that he can thereby make them grow. On the other, we have magic called into existence to counteract evil magic. In some tribes any man, or even women, may perform evil magic, in others the power is confined to the medicine men, as is also, in all tribes, the exercise of curative magic. First of all, we will deal with the medicine men. There are various ways in which they are made. Sometimes an old medicine man will initiate a young man, but, more often, they are supposed to be made by supernatural beings of some kind and in most, if not all, cases the medicine man has in his body something in the form of small crystals which are the seat of his '" virtues" and can be projected into the body of the patient in whom, as the case may be, they may either cause trouble or counteract evil magic implanted by some other individual. The medicine men also communicate with the spirits and it is they only who can withdraw "' poison bones and sticks." They often fly into the sky during the night, visiting hostile camps, inserting bones and sticks into enemies and sometimes, by means of invisible ropes, can climb up and down between earth and sky. Some even are strong enough to ward ofE evil magic from a whole tribe. At the time of the 1901 comet, a powerful Kaitish medicine man saved the whole tribe from destruction by night after night " singing " the comet's tail, and preventing the spears, of which it was made, from being hurled on to the Kaitish country. The commonest form of evil magic is associated with pointing bones and sticks (Fig. 17). A typical form is described by Roth under the name of Munguni and may be taken as representative of this form of magic in Australia. The instrument used consists of a short pointed bone attached to a string that passes into and through a little hollow receptacle, made of bone or wood, and out at the opposite end which is closed. When in use the receptacle is held in one hand and the bone pointed towards the victim, who may be miles away. A double action takes place, some of the victim's blood is drawn into the receptacle, where it is sealed up and, at the same time, evil magic passes out to the victim. To kill the latter, the receptacle with its contents may be burned, but, just to keep the victim ill, it may be warmed every now and then. He will never recover until it has l)een thoroughly well rinsed out. Another characteristic form is associated with an (jbject called Tchintu. It is only a small lump of resin with two teetli in it, and a long string attached, but by being " sung " the heat of the sun can be drawn into it and then, if it be placed in the tracks of any one, the heat follows the victim up, enters his body and kills him. Some of the most potent forms of magic are associated with hair cut from the l)ndies of the dead. They are used on avenging [jarties (Fig. 17)., 54 Federal Handbook. and both endow the wearer with strength and accuracy of aim and, at the same time, render the victim powerless. Another favomite and wide-spread practice is that of " taking the kidney fat." This is usually done by hostile medicine men. In the Wotjoballuk tribe in Victoria, the latter sneaks on the sleeping victim. He carries a magic bone with a noose attached to it. He may either project the bone into his victim, which action compels him to come out to the medicine man, who then throws him over his shoulder and carries him off, or, if the medicine man happens to be in camp with his victim, he passes the bone under the knees of the latter when he is asleep, round his neck and through the noose, rendering him helpless. In any case, the victim is oblivious of what takes place. The medicine man opens the right side of his victim just below the ribs and abstracts the fat, which may be eaten or rubbed on weapons. The wound is " sung" and the sides . bitten together in such a way that no scar is left. The victim wanders back to camp but soon dies. No medicine man can cure one whose kidney fat has been extracted but he can determine, or even the patient himself may, who is the guilty one. Any medicine man can withdraw bones and objects of magic generally, and is always called in when a patient is ill. It must be remembered that no native believes in illness except as the result of evil magic, and magic from a distance is always potent. A pain is caused by some concrete thing that must be removed from the body and the method of procedure is very much the same in all tribes. The patient lies down, the medicine man comes up and gazes fixedly upon him, as often as not projecting some of his magic crystals into him to act as an antidote. Then, after prolonged sucking and massage, he will, perhaps, but only if he be a very gifted practitioner, withdraw the poison bone or stick whole ; in most cases it is removed bit by bit (Fig. 18). Then, unseen by any one, his magic crystals retm-n to his body. It is difficult to estimate how far the medicine men believe in themselves. They must know that, to a certain extent, they are frauds, though it is wonderful what they can persuade themselves to believe, and the truth probably is that, while each individual knows that he himself cannot do everything that he pretends to, yet he firmly believes that other men can. 8. Ceremonies Associated with Death and Burial. Death is always supposed to be due to evil magic and may be brought about in various ways. Very often a bone, or stick, is sung and pointed in the direction of the victim whom its evil magic then enters. In some tribes a ceremony is performed with the object of catching the double of the man's spirit, without whose friendly guidance he meets with an accident (Fig. 19). Death is always a source of fear to natives, because in many cases it means not only that there is some evil spir't or magic influence at work, but also the spirit of the dead person is hovering about. It is customary to shift camp the moment a death occurs and in all tribes there are special ceremonies that must be carried out. They vary much, and are regarded as of great importance. I will describe the main points of those in the Arunta tribe, and afterwards note important features in those of other tribes. First of all, the deceased's hair is cut off and made into a special girdle, to be subsequently worn by a man who avenges the death Aboriginals of Australia. a < O 1:^ t3 S o C. 12154. 56 Federal Handbook. 5 = 5 3 « Aboriginals of Australia. 57 o 58 Federal Handbook. Aboriginals of Australia. 5*> 60 Federal Handbook. Aboriginals of Australia. 61 S - - t3 < O S . Various Forms of Pointing Bones and Sticks. 6, 7, 8. Necklets containing Hair cut from a dead Man. 9. Bret. A Dead Hand, which vibrates to indicate approaching danger — Kurnai Tribe, 10. Dead Man's Arm Bone, used on Avenging Expedition. 11. Tikovina, worn DURING Fight by the Natives of the Herbert River, Queensland. Aboriginals of Australia. 65 ^r 66 Federal Handbook. ^"^'^.XS ■^ Aboriginals of Australia. 67 68 Federal Handbook. Fig. 21. — Tree Bukiai, : Raking the Boxes erom the Pi.ateor.m- Tribe, Central Australia. -Wakramu.vga Aboriginals of Australia. 69 Fig. 22. — Flaked Knife with Resin and Wood Hafting, and Case Tipped with Inverted Emx: Feathers. \ ^^^ Fig. 23. — Flaked and ('iiii'imh I'icks, Central Australia. 70 Federal Handbook. Fig. 24. — Implements with Cutting Flakes — 1, 2, 3, 4. Gouges ob Adzes. 5, 6. Spear Throwers — Central Australia. Fig. 25. — Ground and Hafted Stone Axes — 1, 2. Warramuxga Trire, Northern Territory. 3, 4. Kakadu Tribe, Northern Territory. . New South Wales. 6. Queensland. Aboriginals of Ai'stralia. 71 Fig. 26. — Grixdi.xg Stone- — Xew South Wales. (This stone has been used for grinding on both sides.) Fio. 27. — SifiELos — 1. West Au.stualia. 2. Cardwell, Queensland. 3. Central Australia. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Interior ok New South Wales. 0121.54. 72 Federal Handbook. Fit:. 28. — Western Australian Shields and Spear Throwers. Aboriginals of Australia. 73 74 Federal Handbook. Aboriginals of Australia. 75 (Fig. 17). It is filled with magic. The body is buried in the ground in a sitting position with the knees doubled up against the chin, the earth being piled up to make a low mound with a depression on one side to allow of ingress and egress of the spirit. The camp is burnt down and in the case of a woman everything is destroyed. No person may mention the deceased's name during the period of mom-ning ; if any one does, the spirit hears, thinks they are not mourning properly and is angry. No elder brother, father, mother, elder sister, father's sister, wife's mother, wife's mother's brother, father's brother, mother's sister, husband's mother, or husband's mother's brother may ever mention the name. In the case of a man, those who might legally be his sons-in-law neither mention the name, attend the funeral, nor take pxrt in the ceremonies, but they must cut their shoulders. The actual widow or widows paint themselves with pipe-clay, and are called Inpirta, which means " the whitened one." To remove the silence ban a widow gathers seed, places it in a vessel, summons the other women and with them goes to the centre of the encampment, where they all sit down and wail. The sons and younger brothers approach, take the vessel in the'r hands, and shout " wah, wah," the widow joining in. The vessel, after being held close to the widow's face, is taken away by the men, who strike their shields on the ground in front of the widow, who may now speak. The ceremony shows that she is about to resume her ordinary life. Later on she will become the wife of one of the younger brothers. At least a year after death the ceremony of Urpmilchima — " trampling the twigs on the grave " — is performed. The widow smears herself over with pipe-clay and, wearing a chaplet made of clusters of small bones that hang down over her face, accompanies the other men and women first to her late husband's camp and then to the grave, which they approach yelling, so as to drive the spirit ahead and into the ground. After much cutting and w.iiling, the chaplet is broken and bur'ed in the grave, by the side of which the widow rubs the pipe-clay off and her mourning is over. The spirit sees that it has been properly mourned for and returns to its ancestral home, where it lives until it undergoes reincarnation. In the Warramunga, the body is placed on a platform of boughs in a tree (Fig. 21). When the bones are clean they are all raked out, the skull is smashed and, with the exception of one arm bone, they are buried in an ant hill. The arm bone is brought into camp and handed over to a mother of the dead person. Finally it is broken in two at the close of a ceremony connected with the totem of the deceased atid buried in the ground. In the Boulia district in Queensland, tlie body is buried in the ground, placed lengthwise on its back. Logs are laid on it, the earth filled in, and a small circular mound, 3 or 4 feet liigh, of logs, earth, stones and leafy branches is built ; the ground around being cleared. The men and women cut them- selves and, on return to camp, plaster their heads over with pipe-clay and paint the upper part of their bodies. In the Mara, Binbinga, and other tribes on the west side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the body is first of all placed in a tree. When clean, the bones are brouglit into camp and placed in a coffin made of a hollow log, ornamented with a design emblematic of the totem of the deceased. This is then 76 Federal Handbook. deposited by the side of a lily pool and is supposed to make the lilies grow. In these, and many other tribes, the flesh of a dead person is eaten ; in most cases, probably by certain relatives. On Melville and Bathurst Islands the body is buried in the ground. At a later period, grave posts, to the number of twelve or more, are erected at intervals of time. The natives gather together and, after dancing round a fire at which they must singe themselves, they rush to the grave, throwing their spears ahead to drive the spirit on and down into the ground. Then they perform dances around the grave posts, in which men, women and children take part, after which the spirit is supposed to remain quiet. In every case there are certain individuals who must paint themselves so as to be prominent, the idea evidently being that the spirit will see them and recognise that it has been properly mourned for. In most cases also the women, such as widows and sisters of the dead man, are not allowed to speak for a certain period after the death. 9. Weapons and Implements. (a) Stone Implements. In 1891, Mr. R. Etheridge published the outline of a classification of stone implements,* and during recent years Mr. A. S. Kenyon has very largely extended the scope of the work.f It is not too much to say that at the present time we can parallel amongst Australian stone weapons all the types known in Europe under the names Chellean, Moustierian, Aurig- nacian, etc. We also have the great advantage that we can still, in some of the far back parts, though very rarely now, see the natives making and using their stone implements. The terms Eolithic, Paleolithic, and Neolithic. do not apply in Australia as indicating either time periods or levels of culture. Natives, not only in different parts of Australia, but in the same part, wil use contemporaneously implements that, if they were found in prehistoric deposits, would be regarded as belonging to different stages of culture. Everything is, in the main, a matter of the material available. If the native lives in quartzite country, he makes chipped or flaked implements, some coarsely manufactured for temporary use, others carefully and often beautifully shaped. If he lives where he can get diorite, then he grinds his tools ; and, if he lives where he can get material suitable both for grindinr; and flaking, then he makes tools which if found " fossil " would be called either Paleolithic or Neolithic ; the rougher ones, indeed, would be called Eolithic or rejected as non-human by those who have never seen a native using a pebble that he has very roughly flaked to serve some temporar^' purpose. When they are in camp, for example, performing their ceremonies, some of which requn-e the cutting of a vein, a man will simply take from the ground any pebble that lies handy, and with another will strike off I'ttle flakes until he secures one with a sharp edge and with this will cut his vein open. If at the present day a European archaeologist were to search amongst the belongings of, say, a Warramunga man in Central Australia, he would, unless prepared for it, be astonished to find that the native possessed, and continually used, a ground stone axe, a flaked or perhaps chipped and flaked * Kenyon and Stirling. Proc. R.S. Vict., 1901, Pt. 2, p. 191. t R. Etheridge, Jr. Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W. Vol. VI., Pt. 3. 1891. p. 157. Aboriginals of Australia. 77 axe or pick, a flaked knife, hafted with resin or with resin and wood, and, at the same time, chipped stones quite as rude as, and indeed indistinguishable from, those of the old Tasmanians. It is this constant mixture of imple- ments, usually regarded as belonging to different levels of culture, that forms the most striking feature of the present stone age in Australia. The nature and form of the implements is not a question of the stage of culture, but depends primarily upon the material available. Without going into detail it may be said that the stone implements of the natives may be divided into three groups. (1) Cutting Implements. (a) Cutting edge produced by flaking or chipping, or both. (6) Cutting edge produced by grinding. These include axes, knives, adzes, and spear heads. On the one hand, they vary in form from the crudest chip or pebble, roughly flaked on one side so as to form an axe, to the delicate, leaf-like, jasper spear heads, indistin- guishable from those made by the most highly cultured Neolithic people in Europe. On the other, they may be roughly chipped pebbles or blocks of stone, just showing the faintest trace of grinding, or they may be beautifully ground and polished with a keen sharp-cutting edge. It is, however, only in very exceptional cases that the whole surface is ground. In some cases they may be held in the hand and show a well marked " finger grip," but in others they may be hafted with the aid of resin and wood in various ways too detailed to describe here (Figs. 22, 23, 21, 25). (2) Grinding Implements. These may take the form of large kerns or mills, the nether stone being formed of a slab of sandstone hollowed out, often on both sides, with con- tinuous grinding until the central crust becomes so thin that it breaks through ; in some cases, as for the purpose of grinding ochre, any flat stone may be used (Fig. 26). (3) Pounding Implements. These take the form of lower stones or pestles, always with a pounding or husking hole, and of upper stones used as hammers. In addition to these main groups we may add another — (4) Miscellaneous. These includes such t)bjects as playing stones, sinkers attached to nets, etc. (b) Weapons and Implements other than Stone Ones. It would be futile to attempt more than the merest sketch of a description of these. They can be seen in the museum collections and attention is drawn here only to certain characteristic implements and features concerned with them. The most characteristic weapon is the boomerang, which does not appear to have been known to the Tasmanians. There are various forms of the implement, some, large and heavy, being used for fighting at close quarters, others for fighting and throwing at game, and others, often called 78 Federal Handbook. play boomerangs, that possess the characteristic feature of returning to a skilled thrower. There is a remarkable resemblance in the general form between a boomerang and the long, thin, curved leaf of many Eucalyptus. The missile always consists of a flattened curved blade, usually flat on one side and slightly convex on the other. The property of returning appears to be associated with a very slight twist, the weapon rotating during its passage through the air. A skilful thrower can make one describe flrst a large circle and then one or two smaller ones before it falls at his feet. It must be remembered, however, that the return boomerang is only met with in very restricted areas in Australia. In many, the curve is a wide open one, but there are all grades between a very slight curve and one in which the blade is divided into two parts almost at right angles to one another. In some cases, one end of a boomerang is fashioned to serve as a handle. Starting with an ordinary round, straight, throwing stick, a series can be traced leading up through a curved throwing stick, circular in section, to one elliptical in section, then on to a throwing stick slightly flattened and so to the ordinary curved boomerang with one side flat, the other slightly convex. From this typical weapon we can branch ofi along three lines, one leading to the highly specialized " return " boomerang, a second to a boomerang with one end slightly enlarged, and so on to the curved club-like missile called " lil-lil" and to the "beaked boomerang," while a third line leads through one of ordinary size, with one end fashioned to form a handle, on to the unwieldy so-called " sword " met with in Queens- land. There are endless varieties of clubs and spears, all made of wood, with, in the case of the latter, barbs or blades of wood, bone, or stone. Most of them have a concavity at the handle end, into wliich fits the knob of a spear- thrower, but both the very light cane ones, with simple sharp wooden points, and the great javelins of the Melville Islanders, are thrown by the hand. The spear-thrower is a very characteristic Australian weapon. It may be only a rounded stick with a knob of resin at one end, 2 or 3 feet long, or it may be leaf-shaped and either flat or decidedly concave, and used for other purposes as well as throwing. The Arunta thrower has a small wooden knob at one end, tied on with sinew, and at the handle end a lump of resin, into which is fixed a sharp, cutting flint. Dm'ing ceremonies, it serves to hold a supply of blood, down and ochre ; at other times it serves as an adze, gouge or chisel. Altogether it forms one of the most useful implements that the native has. Some of the most ingenious and useful implements are wooden troughs or pitchis and baskets that are used for carrying food and water. The former are fashioned out of solid logs cut from gum trees, or, when such is available, from soft wood, such as that of the bean tree. The perfect symmetry and shape of the hardwood troughs and the regularity with which the concave lines, made by the cutting flint, run parallel to one another along the length of the trough is wonderful. The simpler baskets may be made out of palm or pandanus leaves, or sheathing stalks ingeniously folded over. Others are made from sheets of stringybark, stripped from a gum tree during the wet season. Others, again, are made of plaited grass or of string, so closely netted that the bags will hold fluid. The most remarkable baskets Aboriginals of Australia. 71^ are undoubtedly those made from split cane, with the two lower ends pointed and upturned. The symmetry of these, which are only made in Queensland, is extraordinary. Shields vary much (Fig. 27). They may be made of soft or hard wood and the handle carved out of the solid or inserted separately. For the most part they are broad, but, in the south-east of the continent, a narrow one was used to ward off the blows of clubs. The surface of the shield lends itself to decoration. Sometimes this takes the form of incised patterns, but, more often, apart from the concave lines made by the flint, the design is due to pigment. Attention may be drawn to the massive shields with bold design, found only in parts of Queensland. The native is very clever in making string, for which purpose he uses human hair, fur of different animals, shredded leaves, such as those of the pandanus, or bark of different trees. He may simply use one hand to " serve " the material and the other to rub it on his thigh, or he may employ a very simple spindle. So admirably is the string made, that, at a casual glance, it appears just the same as a white man's, but it can be distinguished by the fact that native twine is seldom more than two-ply, while the white man's is seldom less than three. It is used for various purposes, the most important being, perhaps, the making of nets and bags. Some of the larger fishing nets measure 70 feet in length by 7 in width. Clothing and ornament vary very much in different tribes. In the south- east and west of the continent kangaroo skins are used, sewn together and often decorated with coloui'ed patterns on the inside (the fur being on the outside) to form very efficient rugs. In the central and northern parts, the only clothing consists of a more or less efficient apron, usually like a great tassel suspended from a waist girdle. In the very centre it degenerates in size and may, on the men, be more an ornament than a covering. It is remarkable that the central natives have not invented clothing:, because kangaroos are often abundant and the nights in winter are bitterly cold. On Melville and Bathurst Islands the women wear an efficient apron made of paper bark, the men are stark naked. Ornaments in the form of head bands of flattened-out or netted strands of string, tufts of white cockatoo feathers, emu feathers, or waist girdles of gaily coloured parakeet feathers are often worn, and, speaking generally, it may be said that it is the men and not the women who usually decorate themselves. 10. Decorative Art. The decorative art of Australian natives, so far as their weapons and implements are concerned, is gener.illy remarkable for the almost entire absence of design suggested by natural objects. In south-eastern Australia we meet with shields, etc., ornamented with conventionalized animal drawings, but they are so uncommon as to attract attention at once. In his rock and bark drawings the native will depict animals and plants, but, for the most part, the ornamentation of implements and sacred objects alike consists of conventional designs. The Australian aljoriginal appears to have been but little influenced, artistically, by his natural surroundings. Owing to lack of material, he is restricted to a few colours. Red ochre that can be mixed with pipe-clay to produce varying shades, yellow ochre and charcoal are his 80 Federal Handbook. three mainstays. Here and there he may have something like " wad," an oxide of manganese, that gives a pearl-grey colour when powdered. It is very doubtful if blue is ever used by the Australian in his native state, though he soon adopts it in contact with white men. A very striking feature of his decorative art is the use that he makes of down derived either from birds or from the involucral hairs of different plants. He mixes it with red ochre or pipe-clay, never, cm-iously, with yellow. With the aid of such materials he produces simple, bold designs of circles, spirals, and symmetrically curved lines, showing an appreciation of strong contrasts, such as are offered by black or red circles, spiral and curved bands outlined by white dots. So far as the nature of the designs is concerned, we can divide them into tliree series — zoomorphs, phytomorphs, and geometrical. From another point of view, they may be divided into two series — first, what we may call ordinary, and, secondly, sacred designs. We will deal with them under these two aspects. (a) Ordinary Designs. In regard to the method of production of these, there are three well- marked types. (1) Incision hy means of a Sharp Stone, Tooth, Bone, or Shell. The simplest ornamentations have the form of finer or coarser grooviugs that run parallel to the length of implements, such as pitchis, shields, and boomerangs. These do not necessarily give rise to a pattern. In olden days the tribes on the Murray River and in various parts of the coastal districts of New South Wales and Victoria made very elaborate shields with incised designs representing animals. Their spear-throwers were ornamented in the same way. Very characteristic, indeed, is the zig-zag incised pattern on Western Australian shields and spear throwers (Fig. 28). In some cases concentric squares are cut on weapons and corroboree tablets. In some parts of Australia, more especially in New South Wales, trees near to a grave were ornamented on one side or all round, for many feet from the ground, with deeply cut designs, some of which may, perhaps, be totemic in significance. Occasionally incised drawings are made on rocks, as in the case nf the large drawings of animals described by Mr. Etheridge on the coast near Sydney. (2) Burning the Surface with a Fire-stick. This is not a frequent form of ornamentation, and is only used in the case of " pointing sticks." In the central area it is very characteristic of these. It takes the form of a series of spiral lines, circles, notches, or dots. (3) Painting a Surface with Pigment. This is by far the most common method of ornamentation, and may be treated under three heads — (a) drawings on weapons and implements, (b) drawings on human bodies, and (c) drawings on the ground, rocks, and bark. {a) In many cases it is customary to coat almost every weapon with ochre. In some cases, weapons, such as boomerangs, shields, spears, dilly-bags, knives, and fighting clubs have special designs. It would be tedious to go Aboriginals op Australia. 81 Fig. 31. Map of Australia showing approximately the Distribution of THE various Groups of Tribes. Tribes with Maternal Descent and the moiety names Kirara and Matteri or their equivalents. JU^XjI^-^^^^ Tribes with Maternal Descent and the moiety names Mukwarra and Kulpara or their equivalents. Tribes with Maternal Descent and the moiety names Utaru and Pakuta or their equivalents. Tribes with Maternal Descent and the moiety names Utaru and Maieru or their equivalents. Tribes with Maternal Descent and the Kamil£ai organization. Tribes with Maternal Descent and the moiety names Gamutch and Krokiteh. Small group of Tribes with Maternal Descent and moiety names wliich were said to stand for Eaglehawk and Crow. Very little was known of them before they became extinct. Tribes with Paternal Descent and the Southern Arun ta organization. They probably extend right across the centre and over a much larger area of West Australia than indicated. Tribes with Paternal Descent and the Warramunga organization. (It'^cc^^'^^ Tribes with direct Paternal Descent and the Mara organization. The Kulin group of Tribes with Paternal Descent and the two divisions Bunjil and Wang. The Kurnai Tribe with Paternal Descent. The Kakadu group of Tribes with no class orgo,nization. Aboriginals of Australia. 83 into detail and the reader is referred to the works of Etheridge, Roth, Stirling, Spencer and Gillen, Brough Smyth, and others. Attention may. however, be drawn to the zig-zag designs of Western Australia, to the bold decorative schemes on the large Queensland shields, to the carefully drawn designs on Queensland dilly-bags, where conventional designs are sometimes associated with zoomorphs, and also to the very characteristic and effective designs on the spears, throwing sticks, grave posts and, more especially, the large bark baskets of the Melville and Bathurst Islanders. The latter are different from any on the mainland. The various designs indicate considerable variations in artistic skill, but they all show that the native has a very distinct feeling for decorative effect. (b) The drawings on human bodies are done in red and yellow ochre, pipe-clay, charcoal. In some cases the designs are merely what the natives call " play-about," but the more important are associated with the perform- ance of corroborees. In almost all cases these are purely conventional designs of circles and lines that often follow the contoiu- of the body. Each corroboree has its own design (Figs. 11 and 12). (c) The drawings on rocks and bark are some of the most interesting and vary much. They may be zoomorphic, phytomorphic, or purely con- ventional designs, such, for example, as those from Central Australia described by Dr. Stirling, though the first two are more common than the third. In one of the zoomorphic ones, the spectator is supposed to be looking upwards from beneath an emu that is sitting on its eggs ; in others we have drawings of wild dogs, kangaroos, and various animals ; in others, of cycad fronds, while others are purely conventional, consisting of concentric circles of lines and dots. The " red hand," about which so much has been written, has no special significance. It is met with everywhere and is made by placing the hand on a rock or bark surface, and then silhouetting it by means of blowing red ochre on to the rock around it. Sometimes pipe-clay or charcoal is used, in which case we get, respectively, a white or black hand, but in no case, red, white, or black, has it any more significance than the outline of a fern made by a child squirting ink over the leaves. In some* cases, and more especially on the northern coastline, fairly elaborate drawings of animals and mythical objects are made on rocks or sheets of bark. The walls of rock shelters are covered over with often very suggestive, though crude, representations of the animals the natives feed upon — crocodiles, lizards, snakes, fishes, etc. — and sometimes also with quaint drawings of gnomes that inhabit the mangrove swamps and rocky ranges. By far the most elaborate rock paintings, however, are those first described by Grey, and later by Brockman, in the Kimberley district. They are, apparently, made by natives, but, in regaid to the presence of clothes, etc., clearl}^ show outside influence. (b) Sacred Designs. In many cases, at fii'st sight, these are not distinguishable from some of those already described, in fact, so far as conventional drawings such as concentric circles are concerned, as much depends on the location of the drawing as on its nature. In one spot a drawing will be sacred, in another if will not, but, whilst this is so, yet, on the 84 Federal Handbook. whole, the sacred designs are well defined. They are best known in the central and northern tribes, amongst whom they are very well developed. In the Arunta, for example, every totem group has its Ilkinia, or totem design, which the men of the totem group may paint on themselves. In addition to this, right through the tribes, every separate totemic ceremony has a special design painted on the bodies of the performers, consisting of lines of red and white down that often closely cover the whole of the upper half of the body and face and extend upwards on to an elaborate headdress (Fig. 29). In every instance, the down is fixed on the body by blood drawn from the performers. The illustrations will give an idea of what these designs are like. In addition to them, some totemic groups have special designs drawn on rocks at places where churinga are stored and ceremonies performed. No women go there. Others have ground drawings of a very elaborate kind that can be best exemplified by the Wollunqua snake totem in the Warramunga tribe. Two of these will suffice. In one the sandy soil was smoothed down with water to make a firm flat surface, over which a coating of yellow ochre was spread. On this, five series of concentric circles were drawn, representing trees and water holes at the home of the Wollunqua. An 18-ft. long, sinuous band represented the snake itself, and footmarks by the side indicated those of an old man, its mate. The rest of the design consisted of white spots of pipe-clay that entirely surrounded the black bands. The main features were laid down by one old man, who drew the circles and sinuous line, using two of his fingers as a brush, without any mechanical aid. This done, he retired, and the dr^iwing was completed by younger men (Fig. 30). In the other, a mound, 15 feet long and 18 inches high, was made. It was covered with dots of pipe-clay that surrounded and outlined a sinuous band of red ochre along each side, representing the snake. Ground designs similar in signi- ficance, associated with sacred ceremonies, now exist, or once did, amongst many tribes on the eastern coast. Some of the more elaborate designs are those on objects worn or carried by men performing sacred ceremonies.* One such special object may be described, partly because it represents one of the most elaborate, and partly because the significance of its different constituents gives a good idea of one side of the native mind. It is called a Waninga, and is, or was, used in tribes round Lake Eyi'e, such as the Urabunna, and also in the southern Arunta. First of all, it is important to note that a Waninga used in a kangaroo ceremony, for example, represents a kangaroo, while a similar one used in a rain ceremony represents rain and things associated with it. To take a rain one : A strong spear, 10 feet long, forms a central shaft ; at right angles to its length and at a distance of 2 feet from either end, are two sticks, each 3 feet long. Between the two, running parallel to the length of the spear, lines of human hair string are tightly strung. Each line takes a turn round the transverse bar at either end, then slants away to the spear, turns round this and then runs back to the bar, until the whole space between the bars is filled with close set bands of string with a triangular-shaped patch at each end, A band, 1^ inches wide, running round about the same distance within • As colour forms a very important element in these it is impossible to describe them adequately In words. A coloured plate of some of them, now in the National Museum, Melbourne, is given in " Northern Tribes of Central Australia," p. 722. Aboriginals of Australia. 85 the margin, is made of opossum fur string, whitened with pipe-clay, the same width of string on the inside of it being red-ochered. Tufts of the red-barred tail feathers of the black cockatoo are tied to the tip of the spear and the ends of the bars. A number of bands of white down run in parallel lines across the strings. The man carrying the Waninga wears wood- parings on his head, smeared in blood. The red string represents thunder ; the white band, lightning ; the ordinary black string, rain falling ; the white down, clouds. Black cockatoo feathers are used because the call of these birds is always taken as an indication that there is a waterhole near. The red of the feathers and the blood-smeared wood parings represent the masses of dirty brown froth that float on flood waters. This Waninga is used during rain-making ceremonies, and serves not only as a good example of decorative art, but of the exercise of sympathetic magic. 86 Federal Handbook. CHAPTER III. THE PHYSICAL AND GENERAL GEOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIA. By Griffith Taylor, B.Sc, B.E., B.A., F.G.S., Physiographer Commomvealth Bureau of Meteorology* the SYNOPSIS. 1. General Structure. (a) Regional Geography. 2. The Eastern Cordillera. {a) The Queensland Highlands. (b) The South-eastern Highlands IN New South Wales. (c) The Victorian Cordillera and ITS Coast Plains. {d) Tasmania. t?. The Lowland Belt of Australia. 4. The Murray-Darling Lowlands. (a) Cobar-Wagga Peneplain. (b) The Western Plains and the RiVERINA. (c) The Ancient Murray Estuary. 5. The Great Artesian Basin. (a) The Eastern or Pastoral Artesian Basin. (b) The Lake Eyre or Desert Artesian Basin. 6. The South Australian Highlands AND the Associated Trough Faults. 7. The Great Plateau Region. (a) The Tropical Region. i. The Northern Territory Lowlands. ii. The Northern Territory Uplands. iii. The North-west Region. (6) The Central or Desert Table- land. i. The Desert Proper. ii. The MacDonnell Ranges. iii. The Gold-fields Region. (c) The South-west Temperate Region. i. The Eastern Pastoral Belt. ii. The Central Wheat Belt. iii. The South-west Timber Region. 8. Bibliography. 1. — General Structure. Austr.ilia, the smallest continent, lies to the south-east of the chief land- mass of the globe, conveniently known as the Old World. Connected thereto by the partly submerged but high mountain ranges constituting the East Indian Archipelago it offers the strongest contrast to the latter in outline. In place of sporades of long narrow islands Australia presents perhaps the most unbroken outline of all the continents, and is certainly one of the lowest in elevation. Both these features are probably due to one factor — -the presence of a huge dense unmoving block in the earth's crust in the form of the West Australian horst. Against this comparatively low, resistant area the folding forces affecting the earth's crust have again and again advanced the crustal ripples to which most elevated land is due. Nor is it improbable that the massif itself in reaching equilibrium has exerted an outward puckering * By kind permission of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press. University of Oxford, the writer has abridged this account from his article in the forthcoming " O.xford Survey of the British Empire " to be published by that body. Mr. Taylor held the position of Senior Geologist in Captain Scott's Expedition. In the absence of Mr. Griffith Taylor in Englvnd, this chapter has been revised by Mr. D. J. Jlahony M-Sc. F.G.S., Geological Survey of Victoria. Physical and General Geography of Australia. 87 force on the less solid sediments to the east. To this may be attributed the dominating direction of the north and north-west folds which occur in Australia, and which tend to lie in concentric lines about a centre near Cape Leeuwin* (see Plate V. in Chap. VII., The Geology of the Commonwealth). But, on the whole, Australia has been remarkably free from great folding forces in later geological times. Ordinary normal erosion by rivers and wind has been at work and has succeeded in wearing the greater portion of Australia to a uniform height of some 1,000-1,500 feet above sea level. Broadly speaking, there are no large areas of Tertiary deposits in Australia except the ancient Murray estuary. Since Cretaceous times there can have been no very important alterations in the surface of Australia as we know it, though undoubtedly as regards outline it then extended very much further to the south-east and east than at present. In position it is more isolated than any other large land mass excepting Antarctica. Taking as a standard of length the distance from London to Algiers (about 1,000 miles), the journey from Perth to Colombo is more than three times this unit ; and the same huge distance lies between Hong Kong and Thursday Island in the north of Queensland. Indeed, Java is the only large civilized area which is within a thousand miles of any portion of Australia. But Australia itself is a country of vast distances. It is 1,600 miles from Perth to Adelaide, the capital of the next State ; while in New South Wales to reach its third town (Broken Hill) from the capital (Sydney) a railway journey of some 1,400 miles {via Melbourne and Adelaide) is necessary. Australia, including Tasmania, has an area of 2,974,600 square miles approximately; and with the region of Papua (British New Guinea) which is administered by Australia, the total rises to about 3,065,100. The arrangement of the elevated areas in Australia is in close concordance with the structural principles indicated previously. Broadly speaking, Australia consists of three well-defined aiid contrasted areas — an ancient western plateau of 1,000-1,500 feet in height, and two eastern belts. The more central of these is a meridional belt of low-lying, level-bedded deposits (of Mesozoic age chiefly), while the eastern portion is a Cordillera forming a fairly complete bulwark barring out the Pacific Ocean from the central plains. (a) Regional Geography. In Australia the political boundaries are pre-eminently artificial. With the exception of one or two natural lines of demarcation — such as the River Murray — no natural inland features have been utilized. In these cir- cumstances it is felt to be preferable to consider the geography of Aus- tralia in terms of its chief natural regions, not in terms of the various States and Territories. Since the Commonwealth (with its unity of policy) was constituted, the various State railway systems arc gradually being linked across the boundaries. For instance, note the delay in linking the • This aspect of AuMtralian physiography is treated in a masterly fashion by Professor David in liis presidential address to the Royal Society of New South Wales, liUl. This should certainly be consulted. C. 12154. G 88 Federal Handbook. Riverina to Melbourae. These have been hitherto perhaps the chief economic factors in maintaining State differences within the artificial boundaries determined by the Constitution. Although Australia is a continent characterized by the slow change in the nature of its surface, by monotony in the flora and by vast uniform expanses of rolling grass land or more arid steppe, yet the larger States are so extensive that several types of environment occur therein and react each in its own way on the life and industries of the inhabitants. The regions adopted in this account are the following : — A. Eastern Cordillera fringing the Pacific and extending from Cape York to the Victorian Grampians and Tasmania. B. The Murray-Darling Basin, a region chiefly below 1,000 feet, and extending from Bourke to the mouth of the Murray. Murray Dsr/mg Basin South Aust Hiqhlands\, <3ni/ Fautt y^neys f | Great /Irtesian Basin I Great P/aleau fleqion. .TASMANIA Fio. 1. — The Relation between the poUtical and natural divisions in Australia. C. The South Australian Highlands with their associated fault valleys, extending from Broken Hill to Port Lincoln. D. The Great Artesian Basin reaching from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Lake Eyre. E. The Great Plateau Region embracing the western half of the continent. Physical and General Geography of Australia. 89 The political areas are built up as follows : — Queensland. . (670,500 sq. miles) New South Wales, in- cluding Federal Capi- tal Territory (310,372 sq. miles) Victoria (87,884 sq. miles) Tasmania . . (26,215 sq. miles) South Australia (380,070 sq. miles) Western Australia (975,920 sq. miles) Xorthern Territory . (523,620 sq. miles) Papua (90.540 sq. miles) Natural Elements. Lo^vlands. Eastern section of Artesian Basin (D) South-east portion of Artesian Basin (D) ; merging into the Murrav-Darling Basin (B) Southern portion of Murray- Darling Basin (B) Trough-faults to west of high- lands (C). Western portion of Artesian Basin (D) The Gulf country (E) Highlands. Northern section of Cordillera (A) Central section of Cordillera (A) Southern section of Cordillera (A) Isolated portion of Cordillera (A) Highlands of Flinders Range, etc. (C). South-eastern por- tion of Great Plateau Region (E) Wholly comprised in the Great Plateau Region (E) Also provisionally classed with the Great Plateau Region (E) An isolated northern portion of the Cordillera (A) 2. — The Eastern Cordillera. Perhaps the dominant feature on most maps of Australia is the so-called Great Dividing Range. This belt of higliland undoubtedly constitutes the divide between the coastal drainage and that flowing westward to Lake Eyre or the Murray Mouth. But if we examine it all closely it is seen to be in no sense a range, but is for the most part a series of disconnected elements of very diverse origin. In Queensland it is only an important feature where formed of basalt- flows of comparatively late date. Between these it is often a mere warp- ridge but a few hundred feet above the general level. In New South Wales in the north the Great Divide gets on solid gi'ound for 100 miles, for here it runs along the great New England granite massif. But the Liverpool Ranges — quite a late geological formation — deviate it to the west. Here the Divide deteriorates to a mere water parting (at Cassilis) between the Goulburn and Talbragar Rivers, where the cutting action of the Goulburn has driven the Divide far to the west. The " range " is not 2,000 feet high hereabouts. The Divide returns along the southern rim of the Goulburn Valley towards the coast, and then is carried southwards by a series of indefinite ranges, consisting here of basalt flows — there of recent folds ; and again, as at Cooma, with no apparent elevation at all. Hereabouts we notice that Lake George is perched right on the Divide ; while Merigan Creek flows right through the so-called Divide ! Near Cooma it enters on an extraordinary zig-zag path, which points to recent interruptions in the drainage. These zig-zags around the heads of the Snowy and Tambo Rivers are the results of important river captures. Finally, in Victoria, the great area of Pliocene basalt in 90 Federal Handbook. the west of the State has certainly flooded pre-existing lowlands and valleys and converted portions of them into the modern Divide. Lying parallel to the modern Divide, and in the north considerably to the east of it, is another belt of highlands almost coincident with the coastline. These coast ranges are formed of an almost continuous series of granite masses Fig. 2. — The Granite Areas of Eastern Australia, showing the agreement with the ancient pre-uplift divide. The probable arrangement of early Tertiary drainage is indicated. Fig. 3. — The later Volcanics of Aus- tralia, chiefly late Tertiary basalts, showing their association with the present divide. which reach from Tasmania to Cape York. South of Queensland the modern basalt-capped Divide and the granitic masses are mingled to a greater degree. This broad " complex " of highlands of varying origin forms a fairly well- marked belt to which the name Eastern Cordillera is here applied. The following subdivisions of the Eastern Cordillera are convenient :— A. The Queensland Highlands. B. The South-eastern Highlands, in New South AVales. C. The Victorian Cordillera and its Coast Plains. D. Tasmania. (a) The Queensland Highlands. General Physiography. — ^This is a belt of country about 150 miles \vide, extending from Cape York to the New South Wales border. It possesses a fairly homogeneous structure. In the east, along the coast, extends a Physical and General Geography of Australia. 91 belt of ancient granite ranges often pierced by deep gorges whence the coastal streams now reach the sea. Within this bulwark is a belt of later Palaeozoic rocks (Devonian to Permian) which have been cut into by coastal rivers. Overlying these deposits on the west are later sediments of Meso- zoic age. They have been subjected to gentle warping accompanied by volcanic outbursts in Tertiary times. For some 1,200 miles the coast is flanked by the coral reefs of the Great Barrier. Its steep outer margin is some 30 to 75 miles from the coast. Within this wall (where each small living reef represents a battlement) is A- Bascilt ' ," 6r^nite ' '<^,|j; Sunken Coast ^ 2/00 fisthomi [t- SOO Af/Ves - Fig. 4. — ^Section across North Queensland (after Prof. David). an inland sea averaging about 20 fathoms in depth. In these clear tropical waters are found the pearl-shell, turtle, and beche-de-mer, whose collection constitutes industries which centre at Cooktown and Thursday Island. Settlement has not radiated from the capital of the State to such an extent in Queensland as elsewhere in Australia. Mining led to the growth of coast towns such as Cooktown, C;iirns, Townsville, and others in the far north. Short railways were pushed inland to reach the mines. The isolated sheep and cattle stations also made use of the railways, and the pastoral holdings soon increased in number and value. Towns and Industries. — -There are four important railways crossing the Cordillera in Queensland. The most northern line from Cooktown leads inland to the mining fields near Laura. At Cairns the Barron River is cutting back a 600-feet gorge (into the edge of the fault scarp) which heads in the famous Barron Falls. Up this gorge winds the railway to the Chillagoe mines. The country has been found suitable for dairying, and now the railway is prolonged a hundred miles south-west to Charleston, so that it reaches the lower country west of the highlands. Inland from Townsville runs one of the chief Queensland railways. This makes no use of the main river valley, that of the Burdokin, for the latter traverses the coast range through an impassable gorge. The railway originally extended only to Charters Towers near the Upper Burdekin, but now reaches far inland almost to South Australia, and will perhaps link uj) witli the projected transnontinent il line to Port Darwin. Near Booronaan it crosses the Main Divide, which is here barely noticeable thougii to 1 lie north basalt ranges form a striking feature. 92 Federal Handbook. Further south along the coast is the port of Mackay, one of the most important sugar centres in Australia. It is connected by excellent steamer service to the other ports, but no railway yet links it to the capital. Wedged in by the granite range to the west, it has a network of local railways bringing cane to the central mills. Of far greater importance, however, is the area included in the basin of the Fitzrov Eiver, which exhibits the same features of ancient stream capture from the western system as does the Burdekin. Far inland along the Tropic of Capricorn runs the railway from Rock- hampton. It crosses the low divide at Jericho, and at present ends at Longreach. A rich pastoral and mining region is served by this line. To the south-west of Rockhampton lies Mount Morgan (25 miles), one of the best-known gold and copper mines ; and Dawson, destined perhaps to be one of the chief coal-fields of the southern hemisphere, is also in the Fitzroy valley. The same general features as those described for the northern part of Queensland characterise its southern portion. Sugar ports, such as Bunda- berg and Maryborough, also serve as outlets to mining districts such as Gympie and Kilkivan. A very flourishing area of basalt country known as the Darling Downs is devoted chiefly to agriculture. The railway from its chief town (Toowoomba) descends the scarp of the Downs and reaches the coal basin of Ipswich ; thence proceeding down the valley of the Brisbane River it reaches the capital of the State. Although a coast railway is projected from Brisbane for 960 miles north to Cairns, yet at present only the section from Brisbane to Rockhampton is completed. This delay in linking to the capital is directly due to the presence of the granite ranges. Though now forming the coastline and preventing easy communication, these were in Tertiary times flanked on the east by a broad area of piedmont, which has now sunk beneath the Pacific. With this subsidence is correlated the growth of the coral reefs of the Great Barrier. (b) The South=eastern Highlands in New South Wales. General Physiography. — The structure of the highland region of the Mother State diSers somewhat from that of Queensland, and considerably more is known of its physiography, which may be summarized as follows : — ■ There are tliree massifs of Palaeozoic rocks buttressed by granite bosses. In the north is the New England tableland (3,000 feet to 5,000 feet), extending from Queensland to the Liverpool Ranges. Then there is a well-marked broad gap where the divide sinks to 2,000 feet from heights of 4,000 feet north and south. To this gap — due to the erosion of the tributaries of the Hunter in the soft coal measures — the name of the Himter (or Cassilis) geocol has been given.* In the centre of the highland belt is another plateau of about 3,000-4,000 feet elevation extending from the volcanics of the Canobolas (near Orange) to the great Blue Mountain scarp behind Sydney. It is bounded on the south by another broad gap — the Lake George geocol. • Geocol is a word coined to express a col or gap on so large a scale that it influences rainfall, vegetation, and communications. Physical and General Geography of Australia. 93 In the south is a pair of massifs exceeding 7,000 feet in the south-west separated from each other by the long narrow valley of the middle Murrumbidgee. But the most striking feature is the presence of the great coal-measure basin or geosyncline which centres at Sydney and extends north for 200 miles to the Liverpool Eanges, and south for 100 miles to Moruya. Two great beds of payable coal (the Newcastle and Greta seams) extend under a large portion of this area, like two black saucers whose eastern rim has been truncated by the faulted sea coast. /./tCora./ unefer IOOOF!-. . . /ooof^f to zooon ZOOOF!^ to 3000F! oyer 3000 Ft ._ Fig. 5. — Map of the main orographical features in South- Eastern Australia, showing tno five gcocols or breaks in the Cordillera at (1) Cassilia, (2) Lake George, (3) Cooma, (4) Omeo, and (5) Kilmore. The white western area is less than 1,000 ft. in elevation. The effect of this geosyncline on the topography is not, however, so marked as . might have been expected. Not only the coal-measures (of 94 Federal Handbook. Permo-Carboniferous age), but also earlier and later deposits have participated in the far-reacliing coastal movements of Tertiary times. On the whole, we may describe the Cordillera region here as having a gentle slope Sooo'^e/oir Sai Lefe/ Fig. 6. — Section across the south of New South Wales (after David) showing the horst of Kosciusko and the block-faulted peneplain. to the west and an abrupt edge on the east, some 2,000 feet high, which'''has been truncated by coastal subsidences. These, however, occurred so long ago that coastal erosion has gnawed away the sharp faulted edges. .0^ >^ /■' .# ^^ / >tr ji^- rriassic RocMs. Coal Messures Fig. 7.- — Section from the Barrier Range to Sydney (after David) showing the Mt. Brown and Cobar peneplains separated by the alluvials of the Darhng River, and the warped peneplain of the Main Divide with the coal basin lying to the east of it. Moreover, where the rocks are softer— as in the basins of the Clarence and Hunter Rivers, and in the soft marine shales of Illawarra — a comparatively wide coastal plain has resulted from the ordinary processes of erosion. Towns and Industries. — In the north-east the coastal plain, watered by the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed, differs somewhat from the remainder of New South Wales. It is characterized by a " soft-wood brush," a relic of a Malay flora preserved here by suitable temperature and rainfall. Here also is grown all the sugar of the Mother State, for it has been found too cold for the canes south of the Clarence Basin. Grafton, Lismore, and Mur- willurabah are devoted to sugar growing and dairying, and are linked together by an isolated railway system of their own. The New England plateau is a resistant mass of Palaeozoic rocks (uplifted in late Tertiary times) whose eastern boundary appears to be determined largely by a series of grand fault-planes. The streams flowing to the sea cascade several thousand feet into deep narrow gorges, of which those at the head of the Macleay will undoubtedly be renowned beauty-spots in the near future. Pastoral industries and mining form the chief occupa- tions of the people in New England, and here English fruits thrive well. Armidale is the chief town, while Tenterfield and Glen Innes lie further to the north on the railway which runs along the plateau-like divide. Physical and General Geography of Australia. 95 The Hunter geocol, drained by the Goulbiu'n and Hunter Eivers, is marked by a lower rainfall than any other portion of the State east of the Divide. Accompanying this lack of moisture is a prevalence of some of the western flora {gidya trees, etc.), which is unknown elsewhere in the littoral province. The valley is very fertile in its lower portions, and grows great crops of lucerne and maize ; dairying is carried on also, but coal mining is the chief industry of the towns around Newcastle, while the upper portion (the Goulburn Valley) is occupied by sheep stations. The Blue Mountain area is typical of the topography of much of southern New South Wales. In place of steep ranges with broad valleys between, there are here rather broad undulating plateaux dissected by narrow deep gorges and bounded by fault scarps or huge monoclinal folds. The block diagram explains the origin of the wonderful Blue Mountain valleys. The rivers cut down their beds as the monocline rose in their path ; in the upper <%oasins. .lourn. Geol., 1906, XIV., pp. 28-54. ( '.121:14. I 120 Federal Handbook. Andrews (E. C). The New Zealand Sound and Lake Basin, and the Canons of Eastern Australia, in the Bearing on the Theory of the Peneplain. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1906, XXXL, pp. 499-516, pis. 39-41. Corrosion by Gravity Streams with applications of the Ice-flood Hypothesis. Jouni. B. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1909, XLIIL, pp. 204-330. . Geographical Unity of Eastern Australia in Late and Post Tertiary Time, with applications to Biological Problems. .Joiirn. B. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1910, XLIV., pp. 420-479. Erosion and its Significance. .Journ. B. Soc. X. S. Wale-i, 1911, XLV., pp. 116- 1.36. Notes on a Model of New England and the associated Topographical Forms. .Journ. B. Soc. X. S. Wales, 1912, XLV'I., pp. 143-15.5, pi. 3. Beach Formatiorts at Botany Bay. Journ. B. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1912, XLVL, pp. 158-185, pi. 7. Report on the Cobar Copper and Gold-field Part I. — Min. Res., Geol. Survey, N. S. Wales, No. 7. (Svo. Sydney, 1913.) Benson (W. N.). Notes descriptive of a Stereogram of the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia. Trans. B. Soc. S. Austr., pp. 108-111, pis. 20, 21. Danes (J. V.). Physiography of some Limestone Areas in Queensland. Procs. B. Soc. QUand, 1911, XXIIL, pp. 75-83, pis. 1, 2. . On the Physiography of North-Eastern Australia. Procs. B. Bohemian Soc. Sci., 1911, XXIV. David (T. W. E.). An Important Geological Fault at Kurrajong Heights, New South Wales. Journ. B. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1902, XXXVI., pp. 359-370, pis. 16, 17. . . Geoloc^ical Notes on Kosciusko, with special reference to evidences of Glacial Action. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1908, XXXIII. , pp. 657-668, pi. 23. Presidential Address. Notes on some of the Chief Tectonic Lines of Australia. Journ. B. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1911, XLV., pp. 4-60. David (T W. E.) and Halligan (G. H.). Evidence of Recent Submergence of Coast at Nanabeen. Journ. B. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1908, XLIL. pp. 229-237, pLs. 38-39. David (T. W. E.), Pittman (E. F.), and Helms (R.). Geological Notes on Kosciusko, with special reference to evidences of Glacial Action. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, XXVI., 1901, pp. 26-74. Etheridge (R.), David (T. W. E.), and Grimshaw (.J. W.). On the occurrence of a submerged forest with the remains of a Dugong at Shea's Creek, Sydney. Journ. B. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1896, XXX., pp. 158-185, pLs. 8-11. Gregory (.J. W.). Australasia — Staivford's Geography. (8vo. London.) — ■ Some Features in the Geography of North- Western Tasmania. Procs. B. Soc. Vict., 1903, XVI. (U.S.), pp. 176-183, pLs. . ■ The Geography of Victoria. (8vo< Melbourne, 1903.) Hall (T. S.). Victorian HUl and Dale. (8vo. Melbourne, 1909.) Halligan (G. H.). Sand [Movement on the New South Wales Coast. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wale^, 1906, XXXL, pp. 619-640. pLs. 52-53. Harper (L. F.). Notes on the Physiography and Geology of the North-Eastem Water- shed of the Macquarie River. Becords Geol. Survey N. S. Wales, 1909, VIII., pp. 321-334, pis. 52, 53. Hart (T. S.). The Highlands and Main Divide of Western Victoria. Procs. B. Soc. Vict., 1907, X:X. (n.s.), pp. 250-273, pLs. 22-26. ■ ■ On the Country between Melbourne and the Dandenong Creek. Procs. B. Soc. Vict., 1913, XXV., pp. 268-285. Hedley (C.) and Tay (T. G.). Coral Reef of the Great Barrier, Queensland : A Study of their Structure, Life Distribution, and Relation to [Mainland Physiography. Bept. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Science, 1907, XL, pp. 397-413. Howchin (W.). Description of an Old Lake Area in Pekina Creek and its Relation to Recent Geological Changes. Trans. B. Soc. S. Austr., 1909, XXXIIL, pp. 253-261, pis. 17, 18. . The Geography of South Australia. (Svo. Melbourne, 1909.) ■ Notes on Recurrent Transgression of the Sea at Dry Creek. Trans. B. Soc. S. Austr., 1912, XXX\^., pp. 34-39. Jensen (H. L). The Geology of the Glass House Mountains and District. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1903, XXVIII.. pp. 842-875, pis. ■ Geology of the Volcanic Area of the East Moreton and Wide Bay Districts, Queeas- land. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1906, XXXL pp. 73-173. — • Preliminary Note on the Geological Historv of the Warrumbungle Mountains. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, pp. 228-235, pi. 19. Jose (A. W.), Taylor (T. G.), and Woolnough (W. G.). New South Wales : Historical, Physiographical and Economic. (Svo. Christchurch, 1911.) Physical and General Geography of Australia. 121 JuTSON (J. T.). A contribution to the Physical History of the Plenty River and of Anderson's Creek, Warrandyte, Victoria. Procs. R. Soc. Vict., 1910, XXII., pp. 153-171, pk. 31, 32. On the Age and Physiographic Relations of the Older Basalts of Greensborough and Kangaroo Ground, and of Certain Basalts at Bundoora and Ivanhoe. Procs. R. Soc. Vict., 1913, XXVI. (n.s.), pp. 45-56. Marks (E. O.). Notes on Portion of the Burdekin VaUey, with some Queries as to the Universal Applicability of certain Physiographicai Theories. Procs. R. Soc. Q'land., 1913, XXIV., pp. 93-102, pis. 6-8, Murray (R. A. F.). The Geology and Physical Geography of Victoria. (8vo. Mel- bourne, 1887.) Poole (W.). Physiography of North Queensland. Repf. Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1909 [1910], XIL, pp. 316-317. Selwyx (A. C). The Basin of the River Yarra and part of the Northern, North- Eastern. and Eastern Drainage of Westernport Bay. Notes and Procs. Leg. Council Vict., 1855-6, Vol. II. SussMiLCH (C. A.). Notes on the Physiography of the Southern Tableland of New South Wales. Jo2irn. R. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1909, XLIII., pp. 331-354, pis. 9-14. — — - — An Introduction to the Geology of New South Wales. (8vo. Sydney, 1911.) SxTSSMiLCH (C. A.), and Jensen (H. T.). The Geology of the Canobolas Mountains. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. TFaZes, 1909, XXXIV., pp. 157-194, pis. 7-9. Taylor (T. G.). A Cori'elation of Contour, Climate, and Coal. A contribution to the Physiography of New South Wales. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1906, XXXI., pp. 517-529, pLs. 45-48. The Physiography of Eastern Australia. BuUetiti Commonwealth Meteorological Bureau, No. 8, 1911. The Physiography of the i)roposed Federal Territory at Canberra. Comm. Bureau Meteorology, Bull. 6, 1910. (4to. Melbourne, 1910.) Australia : Physiographic and Economic. (8vo. Oxford, 1911.) Taylor (T. G.) and Woolnough (W. G.). A Striking Example of River Capture in the Coastal Districts of New South Wales. Procs. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1906, XXXI., pp. 517-553, pLs. 45-48. Wearne (R. a.) and Woolnough (W. G.). Notes on the Geology of West Moreton, Queensland. Jmrn. R. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1911, XLV., pp. 137-159. 122 Federal Handbook. CHAPTER IV. CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA. Bij H. A. Hunt, F.R.Met.S., Co»i)iionwealth Meteorologist. SYNOPSIS. 1. Introduction. 2. The Seasons. 3. Temperature. 4. Frosts. 5. Rainfall. 6. Normal Monthly Distribution of Rain. 7. Wettest Months. 8. Rainfall during the GRowiNO Period. 9. Snow. 10. Evaporation. 11. Barometric Pressure. 12. Winds. 13. Southerly Bursters. 14. Hurricanes. Wheat- 1. Introduction. Until recent years Australia was regarded by most people as a land especially subject to severe droughts, and by more generous critics as a land of a feast or a famine. Similar misconceptions of the true character of the country have to a greater or less extent been held in the developmental stages in the early histories of most lands, and in the colonization of newly discovered territories. In Australia past failures and losses have been due to a variety of causes ; amongst them may be enumerated a non-appreciation of the absence of natural water-storage, an ignorance of the adaptability of local soils and climate, unsuitable methods of working, a want of knowledge of the existence of an unlimited supply of artesian and sub-artesian waters, inadequate means of transit — -both internal and external— and an uncertain market for products. The staple product upon which Australia has developed is undoubtedly wool, and this item of commerce is still its chief export. We have not to go back many years to the time when the grower of wool was much in the dark as to the value of his crop. The mutton was of very little value to the producer, the demand for such being entirely confined to our own small population. The wool was sent to the home markets entirely at the grower's risk, and the price he obtained for it there was quite problematical. The conditions being such, there was little incentive to make extensive toonetary outlays for the conservation of water and fodder for the preservation of an asset of varying and uncertain value. Consequently when our seasonal dry periods came round (which are un- doubtedly periods of soil rest), disaster was inevitable to a more or less extent. Australia's commercial enterprise is on a very different basis now. With the perfection of refrigerating appliances, the meat markets of the world are open to it. The wool buyers of the world in competition give the highest current prices and relieve the grower of all responsibilities of transport to foreign markets. The squatter knows within narrow limits the value of his crop before it leaves the sheep's back. He therefore makes provision for preserving his stock, and conducts his enterprise on a business footing, in contrast with what was regarded in times gone by as a more or less speculative venture. Climate of Australia. 123 The extension of railways enables the squatter to move his stock from seasonal dry areas to synchronous wet ones. The sinking of artesian and sub- artesian bores and the storage reservoirs, both national and private, have rendered vast areas immune from the more serious effects of droughts in what, formerly, was precarious territory. Finally it may be said that the demand for Australia's w'ool has become such a factor in the world's supply that if the clip is short the growers as a body reap compensation in the enhanced monetary value obtained. This fact was exemplified during the 1911-1912 clip, when a great falling off in quantity took place, as a result of the severest drought known in our climatological history over the greater part of Australian wool-producing areas, yet the value of the wool nearly aggregated that of the previous season, which had been a fairly good one. The vicissitudes of wheat growing tell much the same tale. The sowing of drought-resisting grain, dry farming methods, and scientific manuring have, however, brought the proposition of profitable w^heat growing from the problematical to the actual stage. The output has been steadily growing from year to year, and considering that nearly 500,000 square miles of the continent receive a sufficient average rainfall, i.e., 10 inches and over during the wheat-growing period (April to October), the possibilities of future development in this direction are unlimited. The climatic history and prosperity of the last ten years or so contradict emphatically the preconceived notion that Australia was the particular drought-stricken and precarious area of the earth's surface. The truth of the matter about Australia's rainfall is that — (1) it is generally ample for pastoral and agricultural industries over tw^o-thirds of its area ; (2) different regions have distinct seasonal dry and wet periods , which must be more fully recognised and industrial operations adapted accordingly ; (3) it is subject in part, but never in the whole, to prolonged periods when the rainfall is short of the seasonal average. Australia is not peculiar in this respect. It follows, therefore, that as the so far undeveloped country becomes populated and put to profitable use, the general wealth of the community as a whole will steadily increase. Striking illustrations supporting the above statement have been furnished by both Victoria and New; , South Wales since the beginning of this century. The losses due to shortage of rain in Gippsland during that period were largely mitigated by the returns from the newly-developed Mallee territory, and this wealth, be it said, was derived from a part of the State which was previously regarded as worthless. South-eastern New South Wales, which in earlier times largely comprised the developed portion of the State, sufi'ered its greatest falling off in aggregate rainfall during the same period, and, had it not been for agricultural and pastoral enterpri.se in the west and dairying developments on the north coast, would have experienced the effects of its record drought, instead of attain- ing as it did the zenith of its prosperity. 2. The Seasons. The months of December, .January, and February, constitute stiinnici' ; March, April, and May, autumn ; June, .July, and August, winter ; and September, October, and November, spring. 124 Federal Handbook. January is generally the hottest month and July the coldest, but February is the hottest month in the coastal areas of Victoria and throughout Tasmania ; December the warmest month in Northern Queensland ; November at Port Darwin ; and January and December at Broome. These anomalies in the northern parts of Australia are probably due to the cooling ejSects of the monsoon rains, which seasonally occur there during the late summer months. 3. Temperature. Australia possesses the most pacific and equable climate of all the conti- nents. This is due to its geographical position, the absence of physiographi- cal extremes, and its insularity. Its most northern limit is 11 degrees from the equator, and its southern about 50 from the South Pole, distances suffi- ciently remote from both to temper the severity of heat and cold, to which is added the modifying effects of the intervening oceans. Jf its total area, 1,149,320 square miles are situated north of the tropic, and 1,825,261 square miles to the south of it. Thus it has a wide range of climate. In Queensland, the Northern Territory, and the northern portions of Western Australia, there is an unlimited opening for the growth of tropical products, such as rubber, cotton, sugar, etc. Suitable areas south of the tropic may be found for all temperate classes of vegetation, including fruit. January and February are the two hottest months, the mean temperatures ranging from 80 to 85 degrees over all the northern and central regions, and to 65 degrees and 70 degrees over the southern areas. Owing, however, to the declining angle of the sun's rays and the advent of the seasonal mon- soonal rains, these temperatures rapidly fall, until in July, the coldest month, a mean as high as 75 degrees is experienced only over a very narrow strip of the northern sea coast, that over the southern half being 55 degrees and under. During the hot months of the year the climate on the coast, except in the south, is invariably enervating. Inland, however, life is generally enjoyable, although the thermometer may, in extreme cases, reach as high as 120 degrees in the shade, the dryness of the air and consequent rapid cooling of the skin by evaporation preventing serious discomfort when protected from the direct rays of the sun. Nocturnal radiation, too, as contrasted with that of coastal districts, is very active, so that the nights are invariably cool, and an absence of monotony of temperature tends to a bracing of the system and to good sleep at night. During some seasons parts of the continent are subject to prolonged heat spells, as for example, at Marble Bar, a mining township in the north-west of Western Australia, where the maximum thermometer reached 100 degrees Fah. and over for 64 consecutive days in the year 1902. NuUagine, in the same region, recorded 100 degrees Fah. for 57 days in the year 1900 ; Boulia, in Western Queensland, 53 in 1902 ; Charlotte Waters, in the neighbourhood of Lake Eyre, 25 days in 1893 ; and Charleville, in Central Queensland, 20 days in 1893. Heat of this description is, however, confined to the interior. The figures of the State capitals will serve for confirmation of this point. Perth has only experienced a maximum temperature of 90 degrees and over on 20 consecutive days ; Adelaide, 14 ; Melbourne and Brisbane, 8 ; Sydney, 4 ; and Hobart, 3 ; and it may fairly be assumed that extremes of climate in this respect have practically been reached, as records have been kept Climate op Australia. 125 126 Federal Handbook. Graph showing Mean Konthly Temperatures of Principal Cities in Australia. Note. -Each vertical space represents 2' Fahrenheit or 11° Centigrade. Fig. 2. Climate op Australia. 127 at all the Observatories at these places, with the exception of Perth, for over half-a -century, a period suflS.ciently long for the establishment of temperature normals. The foregoing remarks indicate that shade temperatures alone give only actual temperature as experienced by dry inorganic substances and not the sensible temperature as felt by organic bodies. This difference is due, as already stated, to cooling by the evaporation of moisture from the skin by wind and heat, but more especially by the aetion of wind. In order, there- fore, to gauge the appreciable temperature of a country, it is necessary to use other instruments than the ordinary maximum and minimum thermometers. The principal additional instrument requisitioned for the desired end is the wet bulb thermometer. A number of these have been distributed throughout Australia for the purpose of showing the disposition and trend of the wet bulb isotherms. Although the period over which observations have extended is not long enough to determine definite normals, yet sufficient records have been obtained to fairly establish the influence of this climatic element. At the outset it may be said that in no part of Australia is the wet bulb temperature maintained at a reading sufficiently high to be detrimental to the health and physique of those engaged in outdoor labour. Investigations so far carried out confine the 80-degree Fah. wet bulb isotherm to a very narrow track of country on the north-west coast of Western Australia during the months of December, January, and February. The 70-degree Fah. isotherm only extends to sub-tropical latitudes over comparative small areas in Queensland and Western Australia during the same months and March, while in southern Australia the readings are from 50 degrees to 70 degrees. The accompanying table and graph show the average monthly and annual temperatures at a number of representative centres of the Commonwealth. Broome, Port Darwin, and Thursday Island are the hottest of these, and have an annual average range of 16*6 degrees, 8'3 degrees, and .5*5 degrees respectively. The last-named is undoubtedly the most monotonously warm place of the continent. Of the capital cities Brisbane is the hottest and Hobart the coldest, the others taking order between them as follows : — Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne. The annual average range between the hottest and coldest months is about 20 degrees in all these places. Taking Kalgoorlie and Broken Hill to represent conditions in the interior, we naturally find the extremes are nmch greater — Broken Hill's maximum of 78-4 degrees in January falls to a minimum of 49-2 degrees in July, a range of 29*2 degrees; and Kalgoorlie's 77*5 degrees in January to 50-8 degrees in July, a range of 26 '7 degrees. In sub-tropical areas insolation is more active over the eastern half than over the western during the early summer months, and more active over parts of the western coastal districts during the late summer months. In eastern Australia, too, the temperatures in the sub-tropics are about 1 degree higher than in corresponding latitudes in the west. North of the tropic these conditions are reversed, and between latitudes 17 degrees to 20 degrees the difference in excess is as much as 10 degrees in favour of tlio west coast. 128 Federal Handbook. t^CiOLSt^Ci'-OC-fM— ICO CO o irj o O -o e<5 •j.>nuiyjoe[ ° X o 1- X 1^ ? X 9 J^l rh V 9 3II ip '^^ (N — f -J J- 1- t^ t- X X ■.i.i((ui.iAox; ° -t- X -+ 1~ i^ cp fO S5 >p ^i "?" T' 9 -i Tj( ro 00 '^ X ^: t f V= t- I^ t- X •Jdt[0 4J0 = -j6 X k ^ t-^ ~ X L'7 in o o t- ss X ■+ 3£ rt X c: -rj -t L- S-. -t — ,c .= --c I- X •JjqTUJjdot^ X l^ I- X t" 9 X X 1 )■ -f L- 1- X "M X •+ X ^- iH '-4 -+ ^ C^l t^ -M •jsiiSuv ° i^ 't O ^ ro X 00 n -^ re X ro fM I— i": Lt '^ >^ Lt X co " O t^ r? L-- O — r- ;s -+ 1- L-I -f -t -M X X 52 :* :+ ■^^ I- ~ -^ X -^ -M O w -M -+ S: O re X f X (M ° -+ -I- el re C-. s; ST. ei-fre-i-Lec-t-o-te^-ftsis re 1- -+ XXI- -^ ei ce I- c 1- X 1- I- 1- 1- 1- I- ei -t X — e-3 -t -.c s: — ._. .^ „ .^ .^ -^ I- t- 1- t^ t^ l> X ° cr. •-= i-e -M -t C-. re ce 1- -c — -^ X --c -H e-e o i.e 't xt^t-incoccQO«ceooiet~o»nc-ioicxTt*Tf eq Le o -^ ce ic »o ■* ce — I ue LI s . ■ 30 Apr., 1910 3-40 ,, . . 9 Feb., 1912.. 3-15 Roebourne 3 Apr., 1898.. 11-44 Cherrabun 28 Apr., 1910 2-90 „ 6 Mar., 1900 10-32 „ 29 Apr., 1910 7-78 Tambrev 11-00 Cocos Island 29 Nov., 1903 14-38 » ' 3 Siar., 1903 10-47 2t) Dee., 1907 8-00 Thangoo 17-19 Feb., 24-18 27 Dee., 1907 2 -65 I 1896 8 ,Julv, 1908.. 10-21 >) 28 Dec, 1898 11-15 9 .luly, 1908.. 2-75' >> • • 20 Nov., 1910 7-40 23 July, 1908 2-40 >> • • 21 Nov., 1910 4-56 24 July, 1908 7-oo: Whim Creek 2 Apr., 1898.. 7-08 ,. 2.i .lulV, 1908 3-85 ,, 3 Apr., 1898.. 29 -41 >. 6 Oct.,^ 1910 . . 12-70 ,, 20 Mar., 1899 8-89 Cossack 3 Apr., 1898.. 12-82 21 Mar., 1899 18-17 • > ].') Apr., 1!)(J(» 6-89 ., () Mar., 1900 10-32 ., 10 Apr., 1900 13-23 ;> ■ • 3 Mar., 1903 10-44 Croydon 3 Mar., 1903 12-00 Woocistock 21 Mar., 1913 13-00 De Grey 3 Jan., 1894.. 9-75 Wyndhani 27 Jan., 1890 1 1 -60 Derby . . 29 Dec., 1898 13-09: )> • • 11 Jan., 1903 9-98 ,, 30 Dec, 1898 7-14 ,. 12 Jan., 1903 6-64 Fortescuc 3 May, 1890 23 -36 ' >> 13 Jan., 1903 4-20 Indee . . 22 Mar., 1890 5 -08 , Yeeda . . 28 Dec, 1898 8-42 ,. 23 .Mar., 1890 5 -40 ,, 29 Dec, 1898 6-88 Kfrdifuian- 7 Feb., 1901 . . 12-00 ,, 30 Dec, 1898 6-12 La Grange 20 Dec., 190r> 3-70 138 Federal Handbook. Heavy Eainfalls, South Australia. Name of Town or i 1 Name ot Town or 1 Locality. Locality. Date. o < inches. inches. Arltuaga 1 Mar., 1910 1-02 Port Darwin 7 .Jan., 1897.. 11-67 „ 2 Mar., 1910 1-42 1 „ 26 Dec., 1911 1-42 » • • 3 Mar., 1910 7-77 I 27 Dec., 1911 7-87 •> • • 4 Mar., 1910 1-85 ,» • • 28 Dec, 1911 2-06 5> • ■ .3 Mar., 1910 1-24 Powell's Creek 25 Feb., 1910 2-31 Borroloola U Mar., 1899 14-00 26 Feb., 1910 1-21 Lake Nash 21 Mar., 1901 10-25 27 Feb., 1910 8-19 Pine Creek 8 .Jan.. 1897.. 10-35 Tennant's Creek . . 26 Feb., 1910 1-18 Point Charles .30 Jan., 191,3 4-46 27 Feb., 1910 1-02 » • ■ 31 Jan., 1913 5-60 28 Feb., 1910 9-22 Heavy Rainfalls, Queensland. Name of Town or Locality. Anglesey Ascot Ayr Babinda Beenleigh Bloomsbury Boggo-road June tion Botanic Gardens Brisbane Bowen . . Bowen Park Brisbane Bromby Park (Bowen) Brookfield Buderim Mountain Bulimba (Brisbane) Bundaberg Burketown Bustard Head Caboolture Cairns . . Date. 26 Dec 14 Mar. 20 Sept 25 Mar. 26 .Jan. 17 Mar. 21 .Jan. 14 Mar. 14 Feb. 27 Jan. 10 Jan.. 4 Mar., 9 Jan., 14 Mar 13 Feb. 20 -Jan. 16 Feb. 14 Mar. 21 Jan. 14 Mar. 14 Feb. 20 Jan. 14 Mar. 11 Jan. 9 Mar., 16 Feb. 31 Jan. 15 Jan. 12 Mar. 18 Feb. 30 Jan. 21 Jan. 10 .Jan. 11 Feb. 21 Apr. 1909 , 1908 1890 1891 1896 1912 1887 1908 , 1893 , 1896 , 1901 1906 1908.. , 1908 1893 1894 1893 1908 1887 1908 1893 1894 1908 1898 1898 1893 1893 1891 1903 1888 1893 1887 1898 1889 1889 inches. 18-20 11-34 14-58 10-19 10-50 10-15 11-30 10-40 17-40 10-52 16-62 11-36 11-30 10-42 10-80 14-65 11-11 10 -.38 11 -.50 18-31 11-18 13-28 11-20 14-95 26-20 11-10 10-40 10-15 13-58 14 -.52 10-14 11-85 in -00 10-28 14-74 12-40 Name of Town or Locality. Cairns Caloundra Cape Capricorn Cape Grafton Cardwell Cedar Pocket Central Kin Kin Chiefswood Childers . . Clare Cleveland Coen Collaroy Cooktown Cooran Cooroy Cressbro ik Date. 5 Apr., 9 Jan., 4 Jan., 3 Jan., 11 Feb. 17 Mar. 1 Apr., 2 Apr., 21 Jan. 17 Jan, 5 Mar., 18 Mar. 30 Dec. 2 Jan., 23 Mar 18 Mar. 3 Apr., 7 Apr., 26 Dec. 14 Mar. 6 Mar., 26 Jan. 13 Jan. 2 June, 20 Apr. 1 Apr., 30 Jan. 30 Jan 22 Jan 19 Jan. 1 Apr., 1 Feb., 9 June, 26 Dec. 9 June, 10 Jan. 6 Mar., 16 Feb. 1891.. 1892.. 1909.. 1911.. , 1911 , 1911 1911.. 1911.. , 1887 , 1905 1896 , 1887 , 1889 1890.. , 1890 , 1904 1911.. 1912.. , 1909 , 1898 1898 , 1896 , 1910 , 1910 , 1903 1910.. , 1896 , 1910 , 1903 , 1907 1911.. 1893.. 1893 , 1908 1893 , 1898 1898 , 1893 Climate op Australia. 139 Heavy Rainfalls, Queensland — continued. Name of Town or Dato 1 Name of Town or Datp s 3 O Locality. < Locality. - s < inches. inches. Crohamhurst 31 Jan., 1893 10-78 Goondi Mill (near 25 Jan. 1892 11-10 (Blackall Range) Innisfail) 2 Feb., 1893.. 35-71 » >> 6 Apr., 1894.. 15-69 9 June, 1893 13-31 ., 7 Mar., 1899 10-08 9 Jan., 1898.. 19-55 » 18 Apr. 1899 14-78 6 Mar., 1898 16-01 „ 24 Jan. 1900 13-30 2G Dec. 1909 13-85 .. 6 Jan., 1901.. 10-70 Crow's Nest 2 Aug., 1908 11-171 >» ,, 2 Mar., 1901 10-67 Croydon 29 Jan. 1908 15-00i ,, ,, 29 Dec. 1903 17-83 Cryna (Beaudesert) 21 Jan. 1887 14-00 ,, ,, 17 Mar. , 1904 10-00 Dungeness 16 Mar. 1893 22-17 ,, ,, 21 Mar. , 1910 10-38 19 Jan. 1894 11-84 ». 10 Feb. 1911 17-68 17 Apr. 1894 14-00 „ 31 Mar. , 1911 12-38 Dunira . . 9 Jan., 1898.. 18-45 ,, ,, 1 Apr., 1911.. 13-60 6 Mar., 1898 15-95 ,, 6 Apr., 1912.. 15-55 Eddington (Clon- 23 Jan. , 1891 10-33 Granada (late 27 Jan. . 1891 11-29 curry) Donaldson) Emu Park 31 Jan. , 1893 10-00 ; 8 Jan., 1911.. 13-50 Enoggera Railway U Mar. , 1908 12-14 „ 9 Jan., 1911.. 14-30 Enoggera Reservoir ,, jj 10-98 Gympie 9 Mar., 1901 11-64 Ernest Junction . . „ j^ 13-00 Halifax 5 Feb., 1899.. 15-37 Esk 21 Jan. , 1887 10-70 8 Mar., 1899 11-00 14 Mar. , 1908 11-12 6 Jan., 1901.. 15-68 Fassifern 21 Jan. , 1887 lfl-20 8 Feb., 1901.. 10-50 Flat Top Island . . 22 Dec. , 1909 12-96 ,, 26 Mar. , 1903 10-07 Flora ville 6 Jan., 1897.. 10-79 30 Jan. , 1906 10-41 » 11 Mar. , 1903 12-86 'I 8 Apr., 1912.. 12-75 Flying Fish Point 7 Apr., 1912.. 16-06 Hambledon Mill 7 Jan., 1908.. 11-00 Geraldton (now In- 11 Feb. , 1889 17-13 ' ■'•■i, ' M 13 Jan. , 1909 13-80 nisfail) 1 •■ ■ -.I, ■ 16 Feb. , 1910 11-45 ,, 31 Dec. , 1889 12-45 ' I j', 2 Jan., 1911.. 18-61 25 Jan. , 1892 11-10 " 10 Feb. , 1911 13-97 '„ 6 Apr., 1894.. 16-02 30 Mar , 1911 13-04 3 Mar., 1896 11-42 '' 31 Mar , 1911 14-95 [[ 7 Mar., 1899 10-25 1 Apr., 1911.. 19-62 „ 18 Apr. , 1899 13-20 Harvey Creek 8 Mar., 1899 17-72 ^^ 24 Jan. , 1900 15-22 25 Jan. , 1900 12-53 6 Jan., 1901.. 11-35 !! " 25 Mav , 1901 14-00 29 Dec. , 1903 21-22 ,. 14 Mar , 1903 12-10 „ 17 Mar. , 1904 10 -.35 21 Apr. , 1903 10-10 „ 30 Jan. , 1908 11-76 11 Jan. , 1905 16-96 ,, 14 Jan. , 1909 11-65 28 Jan. , 1906 12-29 „ 11 Feb. , 1911 14-48 ,! 20 Jan. , 1907 10-13 „ 1 Apr., 1911.. 12 '35 8 Jan., 1908.. 10-31 ,. 2 Apr., 1911.. 15-00 30 Jan. , 1908 11-31 „ 3 Apr., 1911.. 11-25 25 Mar , 1908 11-84 „ 7 Apr., 1912.. 20-50 14 Jan. , 1909 14-40 „ 8 Apr., 1912.. 12-15 16 Feb. , 1910 10-90 Gin Gin . . KJ Jan. , imry 13-61 3 Jan., 1911.. 27-75 Gladstone 18 Feb. , 1888 12-37 11 Feb. , 1911 12-88 >> • • 31 Jan. , 1893 14-62 31 Mar , 1911 10-93 jj 4 Feb., 191].. 18-83 1 Apr., 1911.. 13-61 Glass Mountains . . 26 Dec. , 1909 10-48 2 Apr., 1911.. 16-46 Glen Broughton . . 5 Apr., 1894. . 18-50 17 Mar , 1912 10-15 Glen Prairie 18 Apr. , 1904 12-18 Haii^'litnii Valley 2() Jan , 1896 18-10 Gold Creek Reser- 16 Feb. , 1893 11-16 Miilcrcsl (.Moofoo- 2(5 Dec , 1909 13-35 voir lah) ,, ,, 14 Mar. , 1908 12 -.50 llolinwood (Wood- •1 Feb., 1893.. 16-19 Goodna 21 Jan. , 1887 1 1 -00 ford) „ 14 Mar . 1908 11-03 ., 10 .Ian , 1898 12-40 140 Federal Handbook. Heavy Eainfalls, Queensland — continued. Name of Town or Locality. Homebush Howar.l Indooroopilly Ingham Inkerman Inneslioweu (.John tone River) Innisfail Inskip Point Isis Junction Kamerunga (Cairns) Kilkivan Junction Kululu, Mackay Kuranda Lake Nash Landsborough Low Island Lucinda Lytton . . Date. 3 Feb., 21 Mar. 11 Jan., 15 Jan. 14 Mar. 18 Jan., 7 Apr., 6 .Jan., 25 Dec, 21 Sept. 30 Dec, 1898.. , 1898 1901 . 1905 , 1908 1894 1894.. 1901.. 1903 , 1890 1889 7 Apr. 1912 . 8 Ap . 1912 . 13 Mar., 1892 6 Mar., 1898 20 Jan., 1892 23 Feb. (5 Apr., 5 Apr., 5 Mar., 8 Mar., 21 Apr. 2 -Jan., 3 .Jan., 11 Feb. 17 Mar. 1 Apr., 2 Apr., 10 Jan. 11 Jan. 12 Jan. (5 Mar., 20 Apr. 14 Jan. 27 Jan. 28 Jan 3 Jan., 11 Feb 17 Mar. 31 Mar. 1 Apr., 2 Apr., 10 Jan. 20 Mar. 2 Feb., 9 June, 9 Jan., 7 Mar., 26 Dec. 10 Mar. 16 Mar. 31 Mar. 1 Apr., 4 Feb., 17 Feb. 10 Mar. 21 .Jan. 13 Mar. , 1894 1894.. 1895.. 1896 1899 , 1903 1911.. 1911.. , 1911 , 1911 1911.. 1911.. , 1898 , 1901 , 1905 1899 , 1903 , 1909 , 1910 , 1910 1911.. , 1911 , 1911 , 1911 1911.. 1911.. , 1895 . 1901 1893.. 1893 1898.. 1898 , 1909 , 1904 , 1911 , 1911 1911.. 1899.. , 1906 , 1906 , 1887 1892 inches. 12-04 10-26 11-40 19 -55 10-28 12-60 10-10 13-59 12-30 12-93 14-01 20-50 12-15 10-65 13-60 13-61 10-10 14-04 12-31 11-81 10-50 11-75 10-95 10-25 13-07 10-30 14-20 21-00 11-08 11-70 10-94 14-12 14-16 12-37 9-40 9-28 10-72 16-30 15-10 18-60 24-30 28-80 10-25 10-02 15-15 12-80 9-54 10-35 14-00 15-07 10-15 14-70 15-30 11-10 13-35 14-60 12-85 10-60 Name of Town or Locality. Lytton Mackay Sugar Experimen- tal Farm, Mac- kay Macnade Mill (Townsville) Maleny . . Manly Mapleton Mareeba Marlborough Mayne Junction Mein Milton Mirani Mollov Monkira Mooloolah Morningside Mount Crosby Mount Cuthbert Mount Gravatt Mount Perry Mourilyan Mundoolun Mungar Junction Murrarie Musgrave Nambour Date. 16 Feb. 20 Mar. 17 Feb. 15 Feb., 3 F b., 5 Jan., 23 Dec, 12 Mar. 23 Dec, , 1893 , 1898 , 1888 1893 1898.. 1904.. 1909 , 1910 1909 28 Mar., 1891 15 Mar. 18 Jan. 17 Apr. 5 Feb., 6 Jan., 14 Mar. 26 Dec. 14 Mar. 14 Mar, 26 Dec. 4 Feb., 31 Mar. 17 Feb. 29 Jan. 14 Mar. 4 Apr., 14 Mar. 12 Jan. 28 Mar. 16 Mar. 30 Mar. 31 Mar. 1 Apr., 2 Apr., 1 Feb., 13 Mar. 2 Feb., 9 June, 6 Mar., 14 Mar. 14 Mar 18 Jan. 14 Mar. 24 Feb. 14 Jan. 3 Jan., 11 Feb. 1 Apr., 2 Mar., 7 Apr., 21 Jan. 10 Mar. 14 Mar. 6 Apr., 9 Jan., 7 Mar., 27 Dec. , 1893 , 1894 , 1894 1899.. 1901.. , 1908 , 1909 , 1908 ,, 1908 , 1909 1911.. , 1911 , 1888 , 1896 , 1908 1895.. , 1908 , 1901 , 1903 , 1911 , 1911 , 1911 1911.. 1911.. 1906.. , 1892 1893.. 1893 1898 , 1908 . 1908 , 1911 , 1908 , 1887 , 1909 1911.. , 1911 1911 1911.. 1912.. , 1887 , 1901 , 1908 1894.. 1898.. 1898 , 1909 Climate op Australia. 141 Heavy Eainfalls, Queensland — continued. Name of Town or Locality. Date. p o £ < Name of Town or Locality. Date. a 9 1 < inches. inches. Nanango 9 June, 1893 10-00 Tabragalba 21 Jan., 1887 10-00 Nerango 15 June, 1892 12-35 Tallebudgera 14 Mar., 1908 10-80 14 Mar., 1908 10-95 Tambourine Moun- 17 July, 1889 10-91 Netley (Rockhamp- 29 Jan., 1896 11-77 tain ton) Taringa 14 Mar., 1908 11-40 Normantoii 14 Jan., 1905 10-72 Tewantin 10 Jan., 1898 10-51 North Pine 11 Jan., 1887 11-60 „ 30 Mar., 1904 12-30 ,, 16 Feb., 1893 14-97 ., . • 14 Apr., 1904 11-36 Nundah.. 14 Mar., 1908 12-00 The Hollow (Mac- 23 Feb., 1888 15-12 One Mile, Gympie 10 Mar., 1901 11-40 kay) Oxenford 14 Mar., 1908 15-65 >» — Mar., 1891 10-39 Palmwoods 4 Feb., 1893.. 12-30 Thornborough 20 Apr., 1903 18-07 10 Jan , 1898 15-85 Tierawoomba 2 Feb., 1898.. 10-36 M 7 Mar., 1898 13-02 Tooloombah 29 Jan., 1896 11-70 25 Dec, 1909 17-75 Toowong 14 Mar., 1908 11-60 ., 3 Mar,. 1912 10-00 Townsville 24 Jan., 1892 19-20 Peachester 26 Dec, 1909 14-91 28 Dec, 1903 15-00 Pinkenba 14 Mar., 1908 11-63 Victoiia Mill 6 .Jan., 1901.. 16-67 Pittsworth 11 Mar., 1890 14-68 Walkerston 12 Jan., 1905 10-60 Port Douglas 15 Mar., 1887 13-00 Walsh River 12 Jan., 1903 10-22 »> ■ • 12 Feb., 1888 10-00 ,, 1 Apr., 1911.. 13-70 » 20 Jan., 1892 11-50 Woodford 2 Feb., 1893.. 14-93 23 F b., 1894 10-25 ! 10 Jan., 1898 11-40 7 Apr., 1894 10-00 Woodlands (Yep- 10 Jan., 1889 K^ -00 >> 10 Mar., 1904 16-34 poon) » 29 Dec, 1904 10-67 >> 26 Jan, 1890 10-22 11 Jan., 1905 14-68 25 Mar., 1890 14-25 „ 2 Jan., 1911.. 11-64 ", ',', 31 Jan., 1893 23-07 ,. 11 Feb., 1911 11-88 30 Jan., 1896 11-91 7 Mar., 1911 16-10 9 Feb., 1896.. 13-97 ',', 1 AprU, 1911 31 -53 ',', '„ 7 .Jan., 1898.. 14-50 Ravenswood 24 Mar., 1890 17-00 Woodstock 4 Nov.. 1903 10-44 •> 27 .Jan., 1896 10-52 Woogaroo 14 Mar., 1908 11-20 Redcliffe 21 Jan., 1887 14-00 Woombye 26 Dec, 1909 13-42 !> ■ • 16 Feb., 1893 17 -.35 Wynnum 14 Mar., 1908 11-95 »J • • 10 Jan., 1898 10-25 Yandina 1 Feb., 1893.. 20-08 Riverview 14 Mar., 1908 10-12 „ 9 June, 1893 12-70 Rockhamptou 17 Feb., 1888 10-82 »? • • 9 Jan., 1898.. 19-25 )> . . 29 Jan., 1896 10 -.33 » 7 Mar., 1898 13-52 Rosedale 6 Mar., 1898 12-60 28 Doc, 1909 15-80 Sand gate 21 .Jan.. 1887 10-50 Yarrabah 14 Jan., 1909 11-20 „ 16 Feb., 1893 14-03 ,, 3 Jan., 1911.. 11-50 Sherwood 14 Mar., 1908 1 1 -08 ,, 11 Feb., 1911 12-00 Somerset 28 Jan., 1903 12-02 ,, 2 Apr., 1911 30-65 Southport 14 Mar., 1908 1 i -05 Ye|tpoon 31 Jan., 1893 20-05 St. Helena 16 Feb., 1893 1! -20 >, 30 Jan., 1896 11-02 St. Helen.s(Mackay) 24 Feb., 1888 !2-(tli >) • • 8 Jan., 1898.. 18-05 )» ,, 22 Mar., 1898 10-00 .» 8 Apr., 1904.. 10-70 St. Lawrence 17 Feb., 1888 12-10 » 3 l^eb., 1900.. 14-90 »> • * .30 Jan., 1896 15-00 .1 3 Feb., 1911.. 14-92 Sunnybank 14 Mar., 1908 11-40 Zillmere 14 Mar., 1908 11-00 C. 12154. 142 Federal Handbook. Heavy Rainfalls, New South Wales. Name of Town or Locality. Date. B' 1 §• Amount. Name of Town or Locality. Dat«. a o c < inches. Albion Park 8 Feb., 1895.. 10-00 Leconfield 9 Mar., 1893 14-53 Albury . . U Feb., 1898 10-70 Liverpool 23 Feb., 1874 10-39 Alme Dorrigo 22 Jan., 1893 10-27 jMacksviUe* 23 Feb., 1908 10-00 Anthony 28 Mar., 1887 17-14 Madden's Creek . 2 F'b., 1908.. 10-36 >> . . 15 Jan., 1890 13-13 13 Jan., 1911 18-(8 Arnold Grove 28 May, 1889 11-13 Maitland West . 9 Mar., 1893 14-79 >> • ■ 20 Mar., 1892 10-08 Major's Creek 14 Feb., 1898 12-32 Araluen 14 Feb., 1898 10-51 Marrickville 9 Mar., 1913 10-40 )> • • 15 Feb., 1898 13-36 Milton . . 13 Jan., 1911 10-41 Bellawongarah 13 Jan., 1911 10-92 Mittagong 6 Mar., 1893 11-71 Berry ,, ,, 12-05 Morpeth 9 Mar., 1893 21-52 Billa nbil 14 Mar., 1894 12-94 Mount Kembla . 14 Feb., 1898 10-25 Bo'naderry 13 Jan., 1911 13-03 1 ,, 2 Feb., 1908.. 10-27 Bowral . . 6 Mar., 1893 11-94 • 13 Jan., 1911 18-25 Bowraville 22 June, 1898 11-50 Mount Pleasant . 14 Jan., 1911 K -40 Broger'.s Creek 14 Feb., 1898 20-05 Myra. Vale 14 Feb., 1898 10-00 „ 19 July, 1910 12-22 Nambucca Heads 3 Apr., 1905.. 10-62 Broger's Creek 13 Jan., 1911 20-83 Nepean Tunnel . 14 Feb., 1898 12-30 Upper Nethercote 14 Jan., 1911 11-32 Bulli Mountain . . 19 Mar., 1894 10-45 Newcastle 19 Mar., 1871 11-17 » . . 13 Feb., 1898 17-14 >» 9 Mar., 1893 11-14 Burwood 28 May, 1889 11-75 >; 24 Feb., 1908 10-02 Camden . . 11 July, 1904 10-90 NowTa 11 July, 1904 11-50 Camden Haven . . 22 Jan,. 1895 12-23 Nowra T.O. 13 Jan., 1911 13-00 Canley Vale 28 May, 1889 10 -OG Padstow Park 9 Mar., 1913 10-64 ,, 20 Mar., 1892 10-85 Parramatta 28 May, 1889 11-94 Castle Hill 28 May, 1889 13-49 ,. 20 Mar., 1892 11-01 Cockl" Creek 23 Feb., 1908 10-45 Port Macqiiarie . 9 Nov., 1887 10-76 Colombo Lyttleton 5 Mar., 1893 12-17 Port Stephens 9 Feb., 1889.. 10-15 Condong 27 Mar., 1887 18-66 Prospect" 28 May, 1889 12-37 ,, 15 Jan., 1890 11-50 Raymond Terrace 28 Sept., 1903 10-32 CookviUe 1 Apr., 1892.. 11-31 Richmond 28 May, 1889 12-18 Coramba 11 June, 1893 10-83 Roberts >n 14 Feb., 1898 10-00 Cordeaux River . . 26 Feb., 1873 10-98 „ 10 July, 1904 10-50 „ „ 3 Feb., 1890.. 11-51 Robertson P.O. . . 13 Jan., 1911 10-28 )! 9> 14 Feb , 1898 22-58 Rooty Hill 27 May, 1889 11-85 „ „ 31 Aug., 1906 10-31 Rylstone 28 May, 1889 10-26 „ „ 13 Jan., 1911 14-52 Seven Oaks 22 June, 1898 11-06 Cudgen 15 Mar., 1894 10-23 South Head (near 29 Apr., 1841 20-12 Dapto West 14 Fe:.., 1898 12-05 Sydney) » • • 13 Jan., 1911 10-37 j> „ 16 Oct., 1844 20-41 Darkes' Forest . . 8 Feb., 1895.. 11-10 Springwood 7 Mar., 1894 10-55 Dunheved 28 May, 1889 12-40 Stockyard Mount 13 Jan., 1911 11-54 Eden . . 4 May, 1875 10-52 Taree . . 28 Feb., 1892 12-24 Fernmouut 2 Feb., 1890.. 10-36 Terara . . 26 Feb., 1873 12-57 ,, 2 June, 1903 11-29 Tomago . . 9 Mar., 1893 13-76 Goorangoola 9 Mar., 1893 10-34 Tongarra 9 July, 1904.. 11-10 Guy Fawkes 2 June, 1903 11-30 Tongarra Farm . . 14 Feb., 1898 15-12 Helensburgh 13 Jan., 1911 12-20 To warn ba 5 Mar., 1893 20-00 Hercynia 28 Mav, 1889 11-85 Tweed Heads 14 Jan., 1890 10-53 Holy Flat 12 Mar., 1887 12-00 » 14 Mar. 1894 11-40 ,, 28 Feb , 1892 12-24 Trial Bay 9 Mar., 1893 11-13 Jamberoo 14 Feb., 1898 10-92 White Swamp 12 Jan., 1911 10-24 >. 13 Feb., 1911 10-89 W'jUongong 26 Feb., 1873 11-00 Kareela 20 Oct., 1902 11-73 » 5 Apr., 1882.. 10-00 Katoomba 7 Apr., 1913.. 10-50 Woolgoolga 11 June, 1893 10-83 Kembla Heights . . 13 Jan., 1911 17-46 Yellow Rock 14 Feb., 1898 11-69 Kempsey \_ ^.^ . . 10 Mar., 1893 in -34 ! 6" 50 inches fell in 2 hours. Climate of Australia. 143 (M CO ,_i I> CO CO lO O O c lO o X X O O 05 •jeai to c- C5 "-i M Ol o :o lO Ir- c^ o »o ■— 1 CO « O T- 1 1> as ■—1 X ^^ (^^ ^ ,-s o _ o ^^ X 05 o CO X OJ CO X 1- ~« :c „ l^ •^ CO ■>A Ol -M — ' i?4 (N o Tt< vT. ■N Tt- — — IM C: o CO -* cc Q ^ CO Tf Ol Tf ^ cc L-: <:; ir? CO C-. 1- r~ X CO o; o o CO ■ X ■n- l^ zi ~- 7^ ~" o T X Ci X -r r ~ — — o •+ — — Oi ^ 'N S^l — Ol — Ol -^ CO Tf Tf Ol Ol — — o o >-0 -; 3 X LO r^ ■-S -N-, Ol — r^ CO Ol Tf oq oq Tf -f _ ludr ■r. o ro r r c; X T o -* X CO X o r Ci Ol Tf I> Tf o — ' -* -^ -^ o o — ^ — Ol — Ol — O] -^ Tf in ■* Ol CO Ol X o t^ rt oq Tj« t- ■^ »o „ CO X o o r^ Tf t^ .- Tf O CO — I-- r- C- 00 O^ o ■-S »a o o 1—1 ^ X Ci ^H O Tf Ci (N Tf CO •qojBK c • " • • • t— 1 ~ "^ '"' o ^^ ^^ "^ '"' ^^ Tf o lo CO CO lo Tf IC LO ^ _ CO — _, ^ -t -* "+ lO O X Tf O — Tf c^ CO o •^junjqaj X O ro CO ^ l^ •-0 X O CO IM t^ ■* t^ 05 O CC cc CO Ol -^ fC o o o — ' o o '-' -• -^ ^ ^ — -* Tf Tf Tf CO - X I- r- •-S -^ CO X -* C5 I- O ^ lO o .« •-0 ■* i> o CO ,- ,- 1-0 *^ CO I^ 1- CO r- COXOOOJ-^OCOOtN C^l ■Aivnuv£ " • • - • • • • > — < '^ ^ '^ o o •"^ ■"^ "^ ^^ '"' ^ ! c; o cc "* m - .E^ --^ -^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ , ® ^ — ■^ 1^ >'i — 1- 0^1 ^^ C5 Ol o lO cc 01 (t: 1^ Ol o Ol '-. — ' c; '.": c; — ';; Ol Ol IC -t CO CO «^ W o o o o o o o n Q ^ ^ ^ fy ^ Q it O IM '-► ^H c^ X *—t -f CO -t -+ 1^ l^ en ^M -"^ -^ S CO ■M -^ C-J CO CO -+ -t- -* -+ ^ t -* Tf 10 10 1.0 ir- lO. l'^ -f ^ ^ "" "" "" " ^^ "^ '~' '"' ^^ '~~' "^ ■^ ^ ^ ^ V ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ , , , V 1- 1 - 1-. ^ X » c^ ^ * CO 1^ o 1^ Ol 1"* »■* X -f " • < '--' 1.-5 -t '.".' ';. »tw -t ?c — '-0 •-0 Ol Ol Ol »c 1-0 -t Ol Ol ^ • o o o o o o o o o o ^ ^ rt ^ Q ~ — ^ -o I-" GO t- Ol in Tf CO (M (M 1^ If — ■ s ■MCOCOCOCOCOCO-t -t CO CO CO CO (M Ol 1 tfl >. O ^ i: tf ^ s Q a S x o . ■c X 1 0/ 1 5 75 u O 1 o r, !4 -a o Q. £ U 2 tf Q "3 o "2 7" ^ "o o ^ S '^ "r CJ n OiMSL, -< -ti 23 ca o W joK !/} >^ ;?! c: ■•y ^ & ■TT? -t^ -t^ r— «^ 0^ o tx c cS ce _^ O) rn" -fj CO OJ ^ 3 H-l n3 00 -«»' o 3 -j-j C u o ri i) o t« ;-i fi ^ 11 P- "^ c o t: ^ ->^ o m cc rr! t» i=l o ^ 3 o o O 0! o3 _ -M i:l^ > 2 "S - S ^ ■ ^ 152 Federal Handbook. Graph showing Kean Konthly Evaporation at Selected Stations. Note. — Each vertical space represents 1 itjch or 25 '4 millimetres. Fig. 12. Climate of Australia. 153 9. Snow. Perennial snow occurs only over the sheltered crevices in the liighest portions of the Australian Alps, where, however, during the winter months it accumulates to a depth of many feet, and by gradual thawing maintains a constant flow of water to the Murray and Snowy Rivers throughout the year. During the winter period snow can always be expected along the mountain ranges in New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, and occasionally on the Mount Lofty ranges, in South Australia. On rare occasions also it has reached as far north as Toowoomba, in Queensland, latitude 27° 28' S. Over the plain country it has been known to fall as far west as Louth, on the Darling River, over the whole of eastern and southern Victoria, except the immediate coast line. In South Australia it has been recorded over a belt of country lying to the east of Spencer's Gulf, about 200 miles long, running from north to south and 75 miles wide. It has only been noted at one place to the west of the Gulf, viz., at Yardea, near Lake Gardner. In Western Australia it has been recorded on the hills in the extreme south-west, and at a few places on the southern gold-fields. The heaviest snowstorm on record in New South Wales occurred between 3rd and 7th July, 1900, extending from Congewar in the Hunter district to Condobolin and Warrumbungle, in the Australia west. Railway traffic became para- nakhtd portion iho» - , 1 • 1 J • 'fiherr ^novi fios fallen. lyzed, passengers bemg shut up m carriages and unable to reach hotels. In ^* places the snow was 8 feet deep on the rails. At Bathurst, many roofs, verandahs, etc., collapsed under its weight, while telegraph lines were levelled everywhere. In 1901, on 28th July, the most widespread snowstorm occurred over south-eastern Australia, being practically general east of the 145th meridian. Another remarkable storm on the 29th and 30th August, 1905, extended from South Australia through southern Victoria along the highlands of New South Wales to within 30 miles of the Queensland border. On the mainland Sydney and Melbourne are the only two capital cities that possess authenticated records of appreciable snow falls. In Sydney on June .30th. 1836, snow fell for half-an-hour, sufficient being on the ground to enable boys to make snowballs. Melbourne was covered with snow 7 to 12 inches deep on the morning of the 3l3t August, 1849. Another remarkable fall took place on the 7th August, 1899, between 1 and 2 p ra , when snow fell heavily in the Fitzroy Gardens, and snowballing was indulged in at the Scotch College. A light to heavy fall also occurred over the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne between 7 and 8 a.m. on the 25th September, 1905. Flakes of snow were observed in, or close to, Melbourne on 14th July, 1810, 27th Juno. 1845, 26th July. 1882, 28th June, 1900, 18th April, 1910, and 21st June, 1911. 154 Federal Handbook. 10. Evaporation. The problems which inevitably face the engineering work of water conser- vation for the development and expansion of Australia's as yet unused territory demand that the fullest knowledge possible respecting the rate and distribution of evaporation (a climatic element second in importance to rainfall only) should be available. For the purpose of obtaining data on this subject a number of iron jacketed tanks 3 feet in diameter have been distributed to several selected centres. The tops of the tanks are sunk to within an inch of the surface level of the ground. They contain about 130 gallons of water, which is replenished when or before a fall of 6 inches from the top of the tank takes place, in order that the exposed level may be fairly constant and also that the added water may not materially affect the temperature of the main body. Information collected up to the present is not very extensive, nor do the observations in some cases extend over many years, but sufficient has been obtained to approximate roughly the times of equal evaporation and the aggregate annual amounts in different parts of the continent. The results deduced from observations carried out at the capital cities over a great number of years establish the rate and total evaporation taking place over coastal regions south of the tropic. At coastal stations north of the tropic, viz., Rockhampton, Cooktown, Thursday Island, Port Darwin, the annual totals have been computed with Fitgzerald's formula : — E [•014 (V - v) + -0012 (V - v)2] [1 + -GTw^]. Australia Marble Bar, Alice Springs, Boulia, and Broken Hill furnish results for the interior. Those at Broken Hill were undertaken at the Stephen's Creek Reservoir by Mr. Whitehead, the engineer of the silver city, and give the actual loss of water from the extensive artificial lake. It is satisfactory to note that the record from the standard taiik at the Umberumberka site but a few miles away gives only a difference of 3 • 399 inches for the twelve months. It will be seen by reference to the accompanying table and chart that about a third of the continent, almost coincident with that portion having but an average annual rainfall of 10 inches and under, loses from exposed water 100 inches and over per annum. The daily rate of evaporation during the summer months is considerable, more especially inland, where from \ to f of an inch daily is a common occur- rence, and at times up to an inch and over, hence, if it is desired to receive any benefit from showers, any possible means that can be adopted to break the surface soil, and so let the rain through, must be resorted to, even on grazing land. Evaporation Map showiiy amount of emporoHon and Isahnics. Fig. 11. Climate of Australia. 155 •JBaA * * 00 coMi>oocc(Mooaoo!0 05 •C0r0-*0— lC0t-iC0G0C^O5-*^lO < — 1— r-iix>c»a5ot^ ■laquiaoaa M (MOliCOlGOO^iOl^OOOi -lOOO^iMOrOOI>t^OOOO-*(NO • *~'Tt*G5JO(MOOO^OiO-*iOO»OI:^ w o o •jaqraaAO^ toMfMOM-^COSlOOC^OOOfM • ■ • ■jaqo^oQ M OOlOCO5^'*a0l^C0(NC0C0CO-* •wqtaQidag • O O -H (N ^ Tt< fO Tt< CO 05 O O 2lOOo:)05rt(NOCOiOt^CDO • CcOfOfOtNMOOt^COIMC-O-^'COi • 00rOlOI:^C»(MCClC(N-^(M(M-'5'-^»00C0-^-*So^ •qojBH LO 00— cooccr-ooi^OM . lO t- C5 CO Si t^ O CO l^ OO CO O lO lO gCO^CC^lO'J^r-rt'OOOOQOCi'C^ICOCO • ij ^OI:^03eiO'OC3C3CO(M-*COCOTt< !z; •XjBnaqaj 00 LlCOl^COlCt^CCC^I — oo M — O t^»OOCN(MOCOO— — t^CSOO • • • O.J 00 O O S^l t^ (M O lO Tf CC CO CO rt< Q •^CiBnuBf • ociC5(NC5co — — i-*ro;o-^oc5 ^ — 1 CO O t^ tC C5 t^ C; CO t^ lO (M — -^ • ►J a H iz; o JO jaquin^j •■jsboo uiojj ojukjsiq; • — ^ -f -* CO ■ S O o »o u O 00 3 P-i M "^ rft OJ OJ bo ^ ^ L. crt ^1 0. 0) > O crt O i=l m , ^ ^■s aj E o ^ a> ;^ oa 4^ 0. 2 — o %< 4^ M-T C g j3 Oi c3 O ^ bJD C O rO CO P^ r^ Ol IS cj O QJ M-l o CO Pi bO ai i=l 05 bO C4 m i-l Ph o o O) +J > 00 Bj 0) , HI ^ r.d r) o t3 ;3 n fl 03 1-5 o CO o :3 d CO ni HH CM 156 Federal Handbook. 03 4i -73 H d g a < c3 cS -^:S -4^ 73 1-5 0) .s '■+3 d o rJ:3 o N -»^ (U Q > CO 4^ < q O 13 CO c« M CS O CO 1-^ CO O P-i 11 r1 • '-I s S g •d c3 Pi =e ^ o a b '^ S-l d "43 c O c3 <1> s § 4> -1^ a o o " 2 - +3 ^ d o o S3 ■^ {-I w id a 08 ri ^ o ® S « r< 5 <1> -S g So O) P-I ►> cS Oi CO « :;3 .:: ►^ o « .o 5 ►5 o S .. 2 s ^ o « CO 52 ^ S o d R pq Q J O M O Eh o — -gooGoocioioooooooociooooox CCICIOOICIOOOOOOCJOIOOOOOS: o X '^^ « -- ~ ~ r^ — -M -^ r^ l- lo — u- -m i- o -y -M -c r^ 1- -+ — -^ X c: X C-. o — I w X o c-j c — I c t^ t^ c: X t- =-. X X c; X X ao t- ci X C-. cr. X oc -^*;l^";lz.i«jlz.,A- — ^ — J^ — — — ■ ■ CM?! ?i ?J ?i ?i 5i ?i ?i ?i ?^ Ji 5i ?j 55 ?i 55 xc;c:(r:ociX 'o oi c; ci s; C-. c; cr. c; C5 C-- c; c: c; C5 C-. c. o c; c; C S^ I^ •M ~J 5^ ^) C-l M ^ !M (M M -M 5^1 ■>] M « 0-J O OXXOOiXC:OCiC5C>C5XXSJC;0 M X r^ w --S ^ C-': X ojcsoiocit — f'ftN— ) r: r: ^: ry: -t 55 Pf o I; 55 le ft P e) o c; 2 r: X c ?; ^ X '0!35C5OOOOC:OOOOC5OOOOOO0S CCv|(NMrereMierororercMre«JCreMre(N r; r c c. re -.r; e -t re c. — l- i- ei re •- re -rj — •J-; — -t r- -^ X — ei ~ — ' c: o ^ 2 2 t^ 2 2 i "^^ c55 55reS5irererererere55'>5rererere5ee^ IC X o -/ -^ i~ cr: s; t- t^ c: re -t -f o » c; l> O X O c: Oi re e-e — r- — "Nxxioce — rexe^i •roree^ioreioore-^oco — ;sx-+:c(MLex ct-t^ciot--oo3Ci»oc53:3;ooc;o;»xt^ c e^i e^ — t— ~ ==-, ^ - P zA 7^ ^ — — '--T^ — — A — _ = — t-H 297 ^ = — Bnr — 1 — — ! — 1 = -_^ ML ^ ^ ''- -B 5 i=: — — ~ Mi 7»« 301 300 = E III 1 E — — E = ^ E erthIzz zl , — 1 — . Tim = = 1 ' 1 — ^ i;;^ ^ zz -2 te -• !s ^ = ;^ ^ £ = = ^ ■il; -^:^4- 299 ~? 2 -4— -H '— -^ — 5 s z: z: — z: zz ^•^ 7SN 1 1 — ,owi 301 300 ]»3 Newcastle SvbNE ztBolll ■ — — 1 — - * l^_ , 1 , — — i_ ^ 1, — h- — 1 — h-^ - 1 1 J 1 — "4 — ' =; — ; ?=i — t— ZI — ■KK — — zl ^i ::5 ST— — H^ ^ rz -^ ■3^ ^ ^ =*=^ — — — sT '^^Y :?^ ^h- — 1 — ' 1 — \ — tr— , — 1 — i — - , 1 — 1 — 1 —j — 1 — 1 3M 300 »E 296 297 — — \l!OF ^=^4- J 1 1 -1/.. 1 Hj — ' Br('|KFN Hill - IMS / Ol'KII K-S ' .KALGOOfLIE ' — — ^^^5 — — — t--td — -^ -y h- — T "i h- — — -- ~7 ;< — N — — — k 1 — 1 — —^ M- -H^ — / S "Z ' s / s Wl . >. y s V / \ V ^ '>» 1 s 1 TM — — — 1 — , • — 1 — _ , , — 1 ..;. 3M — = Adf Air F^ = — f— h ^Benbigq^ ^4- — — ' — ' — ! — 1 — Ballarat" MS — — — — — -I— u — -- U- — — RTi — — ,^— — ^, ^"^ ; ^ ^^^ ^ V -J Vr- L_ V-A - k^ \— _^ — 1 1 fc 1 299 7<« — ~p — ^ ^ 1 1 S3 — — ] LE_ — 1 ~ -=" p«=: 1 ' XM =: — 1 y y , ^- |— **- ; im — 1 — , J 1 1 , 1 — 1 1 1 V- aoi aoo 299 2M — 1 — i 1 u — 1 — Q , — — H L^ — 1 — 1 IN lLEOURNE Geeidng _ r loPARl IZ = — -t- [-»-» - 1 ... ^ ^ —J — — ~ ^ hs— — — — L L-l — '^j— — Ph =^ x_ K-^ E n h- s^ — ^ -^ = 5r — bsH 1 1 ^ ^^ ^ 1 It' 1 — LL= L 1 1 --- 1 , U 1 Note. —Each vertical space represents '05 of an inch or 126 n^illimeU^8e. Fio. 14. Climate op Australia. 159 12. Winds. The most conspicuous winds of Australia are the south-east trades which blow almost continuously over the northern half of the continent, and the westerly winds, or " roaring forties," which, during the winter months, extend northwards over the whole of the southern areas. Both these winds, however, are strongly deflected by continental or monsoonal influences, so much so that in summing up the average prevailing direction of wind in different parts of Australia, particularly over the southern portions, these two great systems of wind circulation are almost obscured. On the south coastal areas, for example, we find that the average prevail- ing direction has a strong southerly component during the summer months and northerly component during the winter months ; to the north of the continent a strong northerly component during the summer months and southerly during winter months. On the New South Wales coast the mean direction in summer is from the north-east, and in winter from the west. On the Western Australian coast the mean direction during the summer months is from south-west to south-east, and during the winter from north- north-west to north-north-east. Inland the mean direction of wind is largely dominated by the seasonal distribution of pressure, thus, during the winter months, when anticyclones are constantly building up pressure in the interior, there is a decided spiral contra clockwise circulation from the centre toward? the coast line of the continent. During the summer time, owing to the strong convectional action in the interior and consequently lowered pressure, the circulation is reversed and a clockwise spiral circulation obtains from the ocean to the centre of the con- tinent. Minor factors of wind control are occasional cyclones chiefly on the east and north-west coast lines, and tornadoes which may occur in any part of Australia during the summer months, but most frequently over inland areas. These tornadoes generally develop in extensive barometric col areas or over zones where the pressure is uniform and without isobaric control, or in the north-eastern or northern gradients of cyclonic depressions moving across the southern interior of the continent, the gradients again being very slight. They generally travel on a north-north-west to south-south-east course, and at times are so strong as to level strips of country forest and destroy townships. A north-east sea-breeze (black north-easter) is a notable feature of Sydney Harbor weather. It starts to blow about 10 a.m. on bright summer mornings, gradually increasing in force until 3 p.m., when it often reaches a velocity of 30 or 40 miles per hour ; from that hour it gradually moderates, and gener- ally ceases with sundown. The depth of this wind is comparatively slight, and, moreover, it does not ordinarily penetrate inland beyond a distance of 10 to 20 miles. 13. Southerly Bursters. Southerly bursters are a distinctive feature of summer weather on the coast of New South Wales, occurring most frequently between the months of September and Februaiy inclusive, and between the hours of 7 p.m. and mid- night. 160 Federal Handbook. As the name implies, the wind comes suddenly from the southerly quarter, causing a fall in temperature of from 20 to 40 degrees in the 24 hours, the most rapid decline taking place during the first hour of the blow. The mean velocity is about 32 miles per hour, and many of the gusts may reach a rate of 80 miles and over per hour. The blows may last for a few hours only or for several days, the duration being dependent upon the extent of the anti- cyclone to the west. Thunderstorms frequently accompany the bursts, but useful rains only occur when the centres of the high pressure are travelling in high latitudes. The rate of translation of a burster along the coast is about 20 miles per hour, but has no relation to the velocity of the prevailing wind. A mild burster may be translated at a rate of 60 miles per hour from point to point on the coast or may occur simultaneously. On the other hand, a violent burster may be translated from place to place under a rate of 20 miles per hour. The explanation is as follows : — Bursters, while being undoubtedly deflected sea-breezes, occur generally with the passage of the axis of V-shaped depressions backed up by anti- cyclones to the west of them. The change of wind takes place from a northerlv to a southerly component at the moment when the axis happens to coincide with or cross any point, but as the axes of these depressions are constantly varying in their angular relation to the coastline, it follows that the rate of translation must vary accordingly. If the axis takes the same angle as the coastline the burster occurs almost coincidently on all parts of the coast. If the axis is vertical or runs from north-west to south-east, translation is from south to north ; this is the general experience, but it has happened that the bursters have worked down the coast, owing to the axes of the depres- sion on such rare occasions running from a south-west to a north-east direction. Southerly bursters are most frequent during seasons of sporadic rains in the interior, and least frequent during exceptionally rainy seasons in the interior, which is strong evidence that they are a response to intense heat convectional action inland. The average number of visitations in a season is 32, the greatest number, •58, was recorded in the year 1896, and the least, 16, in the year 1890, when vast areas of western New South Wales were under the flood waters of the Darling River. They can always be looked for on hot days, but the most reliable attending indications are, first, the proximity of a V depression or relatively low baro- meters in comparison with those over Victoria. A foggy morning following a hot day is also a sure sign, and the local barometer invariably starts to rise slowly several hours before their advent. With these known facts they now rarely arrive without ample warning being given. They are analogous to the Pamperos of Argentina. The term " Brickfielder " now applied to hot dusty northerly winds on he gold-fields of Victoria was the first name given to southerly bursters in Sydney. They were then called brickfielders because brickfields in the early days were worked to the south of the infant city, and with the arrival of southerlies clouds of dust from these fields were brought to the northern Climate of Australia. 161 end of the town. With the migration of citizens of Sydney to the gold- fields of Victoria half-a-century ago these miners transferred the name to the hot dusty northerlies prevailing there. The Fremantle doctor is the name given to the local sea-breeze at the chief Western Australian port. It is a cool wind from the south-west, generally starting soon after midday during the summer months, and, of course, moderating with the declining sun. The name of " Cock Eye Bob " is the name given to thunder squalls which occur frequently on the north-west coast of Western Australia during the summer months. 14. Hurricanes. The two zones of Australia subject to visitations of hurricanes are the north-west coast of Western Australia and the north coast of Queensland. The hurricanes on the former are known as " willy willies," and are, perhaps, the more violent of the two. The storms occur between the months of November and April inclusive, but more frequently during January and March. They appear to originate in the vicinity of Cambridge Gulf, or even as far east as Darwin. They then start on a parabolic course along the north- west coast line, gradually intensifying until they reach the latitudes of Condon and Cossack, where they generally reach their greatest energy and cause considerable damage to the pearling fleets as well as to property on shore. From this position on the north-west coast they then usually recurve inland, gradually expanding in dimensions, and, travelling through the Murchison and Coolgardie gold-fields, where they precipitate at times torrential rains, finally pass into the Great Bight, thence following the course of the southern depressions. Whim Creek on the north-west coast has frequently received 10 inches of rain from the passage inland of these hurricanes. On 3rd April, 1898, 29 • 41 inches were registered for the 24 hours, together with a fall of 7 ■ 08 on the previous day, a total of 36-49 inches within 48 hours. The isobaric indications are a high-pressure system over sub-tropical areas, and an incipient low on the north-west coast. When local barometers show signs of falling with an easterly wind, conditions are conducive to the development or approach of " willy willies," and precautions should be taken accordingly. A rapid fall with increasing force of wind from the east may be regarded as a definite indication of a heavy blow. The pearl divers affirm that 24 hours' notice is always given of the approach of these storms by a sub-ocean swell, and mariners further say that the sky assumes a pale-green aspect for a day or so before the hurricane arrives. The hurricanes on the north-east coast occur most frequently between January and April, but occasionally they may appear as late as June. I'he embryo stage begins generally in the South Seas in latitude 8° or 10° S.; they follow the same parabolic course as the western hurricanes, and almost invariably strike the coast between 15° and 20° S. latitude, in which zone they exhibit their most violent phases, but they not infrequently first present themselves as far south as Brisbane, travelling thence down the C.1215i L 162 Federal Handbook. east coast as far as Sydney, and finally passing off into the Tasman Sea. The rain from these hurricanes is in all cases very heavy over coastal and highland areas, over which their influence extends. One of these hurricanes struck Port Douglas on 16th March, 1911. Besides the loss of two lives it practically destroyed the township, together with all the meteorological equipment, so that no local rain was recorded, but at South Mosman, 8 miles distant, the total rain registered in 24 hours was 16*10 inches, while during a similar visitation towards the end of the month, over 63 inches fell at the same place in five days, distributed as follows :— 3-44 on 30th ; 9 00 on 31st ; 31 53 on 1st April ; 13 74 on 7th ; and 5-64 on the 3rd. During the fall of the 31-53 inches the following measurements were recorded : — 8 • 28 inches in 7| hours, 9-70 in 3 hours, 3-93 in 2 hours, and 9 62 in 11^ hours. The Admiralty Hydrographic Office, in 1897, published the following remarks and advice concerning tropical hurricanes on the Queensland coast : — Tropical hurricanes on the coast of Queensland may be expected during the summer months, namely, December, January, February, March, and the early part of April. These storms appear to originate between latitudes 8° to 12° S., and between the meridians of 155° E. and 170° W. On reaching the Queensland coast they may strike the land at any point between lati- tudes 12° and 26° — that is, between Cape Grenville and Wide Bay. To the southward of latitude 26° S. these storms break up into heavy gales. If, during the summer months, and the early part of April, a heavy swell sets in from north-east, and there is little or no wind at the time, bad weather is certain, for the sea always is in advance of a cyclone. With the glass steadily falling, heavy rains, and murky sky, winds between south-south- east and east a cyclone may be expected. These storms may extend some distance inland, but their centres do not often pass the coastal ranges, which appear to repel them, and they usually emerge from the coast between Broadsound and Cape Moreton. If the barometer is high over a considerable portion of the coast, the storm will recurve some distance ofi" the land, and the wind will be from south-east to south. If, on the contrary, the barometer is low in front of the storm, it will blow home on the land as far as the coast range, and cause floods. When this happens the first of the gale wiU be southerly, the latter part northerly. The bearing of the storm centre will be at right angles with the waves line. Thus, on a fine day if there is a heavier sea than usual breaking on the beach, and it is coming from the north-east, if the direction remains the same or nearly so, and the barometer is not above 30 inches, the gale will blow home on the land, and the first signs of bad weather will not precede the gale by more than 12 hours, but if the direction of the swell changes to the eastward the storm is recurving, and the body of it will not reach the land. When the swell is from the east the storm centre is past ; when there is anything southing in the line of the swell the storm has passed. No matter how threatening the weather signs may be, if the line of swell comes first from the southward, there will be only an ordinary south polar storm, with a low temperature. Australian Vegetation. 103 CHAPTER V. AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION. By J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., Government Botanist of New South Wales, and Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney. SYNOPSIS. 1. Intbodttctoby ; Area ; the Geocol. 2. Botanical Statistics. 3. Vernacular Navies for Attstbalian Plants. 4. Some Problems of the Pastoral Industry. 12 5 Weed Legislation. 13 6. Ring BARKING. 14 7, Destruction of Forests. 8. Scrub and Brush. 9 Natural Hybrids. 10. Use of the Term " Desert " in Australia. Adaptation to En- vironment. 11. Origin of the Australian Flora. (a) The Original Australian Ele- ment. (6) The Austro-Malayan (includ- ing Papuan) Element. (c) The Antarctic Element (so called). Affinities with the South African Flora. The Australian Flora as a Whole. The Flora of the Indrtdual States — (a) Western Australia. (b) South Australia (including Part of the Northern Territory). (c) Victoria. {d} Tasmania. (e) New South Wales. (/) Queensland. 1. Introductory; Area; the Qeocol. The first impression of Australia is the vastness of its area — it covers about 3 millions (2,974,600) of square miles, the area of the United States being 2,973,890, while that of Europe is 3,860,368 square miles. The population of Europe is approximately 452 millions ; that of Aus- tralia being 4| millions ; while our island continent is infinitely less inter- sected by gulfs, rivers, roads, and other means of communication. It is, therefore, not to be surprised at that much country is imperfectly explored botanically, and generalizations have often to take the place of the statements of fact which are available in older and comparatively densely populated territories. A glance at a map of Australia will show that, with the exception of Tas- mania, the boundaries of the States are almost entirely artificial and not physical ones. If we contemplate the central State, South Australia, its boundaries between Western Australia on the one hand, and Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria on the other, consist entirely of straight lines, while most of the dividing line between New South Wales and Queens- land is similarly artificial. Nevertheless, it is found convenient in practice to register the records of species according to the political divisions, and later on, vague as these records are, and must be, as the interior boundaries are approached, it will be found that they will facilitate the definition of truly scientific botanical areas, on ecological and other lines. Much more attention requires to be paid to the work of defining the range of individual plants, and it would be desirable to see established throughout the continent agencies or outposts in touch with organizations for the record of official or unofficial botanical surveys. 164 Federal Handbook. Australia has been divided by Gregory* into three main divisions. 1. The Western Plateau. — A vast plateau which comprises more than the western half of the continent, formed of very ancient rocks, and which does not appear to have been below sea-level during recent geological times, except in the north-western part. On the north-west and south of the Australia coast, plains skirt the foot of the plateau, containing marine rocks of several distinct periods. Owing to the arid nature of the climate in the interior, the surface of the remains of the plateau is generally level. 2. The Great Plains, extending from the Gulf of Carpentaria across the continent to the Southern Ocean, between the mouth of the Murray and the coast of Western Victoria. 3. The Eastern Highlands which occur between the Great Plains and the eastern coast ; they extend from Cape York Peninsula on the north, to Bass' Straits on the south, and are continued still farther by the island of Tasmania. A smaller highland area joins the western plateau in the vicinity of Spencer's and St. Vincent's Gulfs as far as Lake Torrens, the Flinders' Eange being the highest land. Griffith Taylor has put the classification into a somewhat different form — (a) The Eastern Highlands. (6) Murray-Darling Lowlands. (c) South Australian Highlands and Rifts or the Cambrian Divide. {d) The Great Artesian Basin, (e) The Great Tableland or Plateau Region. The Geocol. — Taylorf has applied the term Geocol to gaps in the Main Divide of Eastern Australia. Thus there are northern, central, and southern highlands or plateaus in New South Wales, which form " land massifs " and which are separated from each other by broad relatively depressed areas (geocols). He has given further particulars in regard to five geocols of south east Australia and their influences on intercommunication. J E. C. Andrews has also worked at the eastern Geocols, which are as follows : — 1. The Ealmore, Victoria, Gap or Geocol is about 1,200 feet above sea-level and a few miles wide. The Melbourne express passes it about 60 miles from Melbourne. 2. The Cooma or Monaro Geocol, New South Wales, (or Australian Rift, as Taylor has it), is about 2,000-2,600-3,000 feet above sea-level, is of fair width, and stretches from Omeo through Bombala to Cooma. 3. The Lake George Geocol, New South Wales, is about 2,000 feet above sea-level. 4. The Cassilis or Hunter Geocol, New South Wales, is about 20-30 miles broad and 1,700 feet above sea-level, and is responsible for the long dry loop extending from Gilgandra almost to Newcastle. New England fi'om the head of the Allyn, the Chichester, and the Paterson, to Cunningham's Gap (2,000 feet), in South Queens- land, presents an excessively rough and high plateau front to the coast. • ' Geography, structural, physical, and comparative," p. 258 and plate XXIX. t Proc. Unn. Soc, N.S.W., XXXI., 517 ; " Australia, physiographic and economic," p. 225. i " Physiog. of Eastern Australia," Bulletin No. 8, Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology. Australian Vegetation. 165 5. Another broad gap occurs near Toowoomba, Queensland, and is traversed by the Brisbane train from Toowoomba to Warwick. Greatest height, 2,000 feet. 6. The Kockhampton-Longreach Railway, Queensland, also traverses a gap about 1,500 feet in height. Its width is not known to the writer. 7. The Cairns-Chillagoe Line, Queensland, rises on to the Kuranda Gap (1,100 feet), which is in the form of a broad valley lying between plateaus on each side. Heights from 4,000-5,000 feet. 8. The Townsville-Charters Towers Railway, Queensland, also passes in a deep wide valley of low height between high ranges. The number of gaps or geocols existent has not yet been determined, but it is desirable to draw attention to their importance in regard to the distribu- tion of plants. The writer has specially worked at the Cassilis geocol in this connexion, and has a considerable list of western New South Wales plants which have used this gap for the purpose of migrating towards the coast. 2. Botanical Statistics. Seven thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven species were described in Bentham's Flora Australiensis. In 1889, at page 8 of his fourth supplement to his Systematic Census of Australian Plants, Mueller gave the number of vascular plants as 8,909 ; genera, 1,394 ; families, 149. Divided into States, he gave — 3,559 South Australia 1,904 Tasmania 1,030 Victoria 1,904 New South Wales 3,260 Queensland . . 3,711 North Australia 1,977 Based on the work of the Government Botanists of the various States, the following estimates of described species may be submitted as approxi- mately true to-day ; if the present activity continues during the next few years the numbers will be much increased. Western Australia South Australia 1,985 Tasmania 1,210 Victoria 2,000 New South Wales 3,600 Queensland . . 4,480 North Australia 2,050 Mueller includes the floras of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, which should be deducted from the total of 8,909 to the extent of about 92 species peculiar to those islands ; we thus have 8,817 as Mueller's real total of Aus- tralian plants irrespective of the numbers of plants found in individual States. 166 Federal Handbook. To this total may be added 1,856, the number of additional species of which the present writer has record since the date of Mueller's Second Census. The number is undoubtedly understated, since this record must be imperfect, in spite of the fact that it is carefully kept. This makes the number of phanerogams and vascular cryptogams recorded for Australia as 10,673. Time has not been available to separate the additions into their various States, nor to add to Mueller's totals of species for the various States, the additions recorded by the writer to the States' localities of those species as given in the Second Census. Of this number (8,909) Mueller stated that 7,501 are endemic, and, of the remaining 1,338, or 15 "1 per cent., there are found in Europe 160; Asia, 1,032; Africa, 515; America, 315; Polynesia, 558; New Zealand, 291. These figures have not been brought up to date. Mueller gave the following families with species as under (all after the plus marks are the writer's) 1. Leguminosae 2. MyrtacesE 3. Proteaceae 4. Compositae 5. Cyperaceae 6. Gramineae 7. Orchideae 8. Epacridaceae 9. Euphorbiaceae 10. Goodeniaceae 11. Filices . . 12. Rutaceae 13. Liliaceae 14. Rubiaceae 15. Sterculiaceae 16. Labiatae 17. Chenopodiaceae (Salsolaceae) 18. Malvaceae 19. Umbelliferae 20. Sapindaceae 21. Amarantaceae Below this there is no great break, the list ending with fourteen families, with, so far, only one species each. It will be observed that these additional numbers of species since described alter the sequence somewhat. Thus the activity of botanists dealing with the Orchideae raises that family above both the Gramineae and the Cyperaceae, its position and that of the Cyperaceae being transposed. Thus Orchidacese now should have fifth place, Cyperaceae seventh. Goodeni- aceae now comes ninth, Filices tenth, Euphorbiaceae eleventh. Sterculiaceae now occupies the fourteenth place, Labiatae fifteenth, Rubiaceae sixteenth, Chenopodiaceae seventeenth, Umbelliferae eighteenth, Sapindaceae nineteenth, Malvaceae twentieth, Amarantaceae twenty-first. 1,084 + 192 = 1,276 (1) 666 + 150 = 816 (2) 599 -f- 68 = 667 (3) 541 + 94 - 635 (4) 379 + 42 = 421 (7) 352 + 81 = 433 (6) 287 + 152 = 439 (5) 275 + 26 = 301 (8) 226 -f- 25 - 251 (11) 219 + 75 = 294 (9) 212 -t- 43 = 255 (10) 190 + 42 = 232 (12) 163 -f- 26 = 189 (13) 127 -1- 20 = 147 (16) 125 + 30 = 155 (14) 125 + 23 = 148 (15) 113 + 33 = 146 (17) 110 -f- 13 = 123 (20) 107 + 38 - 145 (18) 101 -t- 25 = 126 (19) 100 + 19 = 119 (21) Australian Vegetation. 167 Some of the largest genera comprise the following species (in some cases the numbers are approximations, the writer having been unable to critically examine them) : — Acacia, 412 ; Eucalyptus, 230 ; Grevillea, 193 ; Styphelia (in the Muellerian sense), 193 ; Melaleitca, 112 ; Candollea [Stylidium), 112 ; Goodenia, 112 ; Hakea, 107 ; Hibbertia, 104 ; Pultencea, 93 ; EremophUa, 91 ; Schoenus, 77 ; Pimelea, 76 ; Ptilotus, 76 ; Panicum, 75 ; Boronia, 72 ; Eriostemon (in the Muellerian sense), 72 ; Cyperus, 72 ; Aster, 71 ; Helichrysum, 70 ; Sccevola, 68 ; BcBchea, 66 ; Daviesia, 64 ; Cryptandra, 63 ; Drosera, 62 ; Per- soonia, 62 ; Ficus, 62 ; Fimbristylis, 58 ; Haloragis, 56 ; Solanum, 55 ; Helipterum, 53 ; Dodoncea, 51 ; Prostanthera, 50 ; PA?/^ lanthiis, 50 ; Dryandra, 49 ; Banksia, 48 ; Dendrobium, 45 ; Jacksonia, 44 ; Brachycome, 41 ; Bossicea, 41 ; Hibiscus, 39 ; Gastrolobium, 37 ; Lasiopetalum, 35. Approximately 700 species have been recorded in lists of species recorded under States, as common to western and eastern Australia, but because of the vagueness of the State boundaries already referred to, and because of the imperfection of the record, especially as the interior is reached, such statistics are very imperfect, and certainly of limited value unless recorded for definite plant-zones. The genera (taking cognisance only of those represented in the 700 by 4 or more species) include Sida, Abutilon, Dodoncea, Claytonia, Ptilotus, Atriplex, Rhagodia, Kochia, Bassia, Salicornia, Pimelea, Swainsona, Cassia, Acacia, Haloragis, Melaleuca, Eucalyptus, Hydrocotyle, Loranthus, Brachycome, Aster, Helipterum, Helichrysum, Angianthus, Senecio, Goodenia, Eremophila, Myo- porum, Styphelia, Pterostylis, Xerotes, Triglochin, J uncus, Centrolepis, Cyperus, Scirpus, Gahnia, Carex, Panicum, Andropogon, Stipa, Poa, Eragrostis. Few of the genera are confined to country of low rainfall, but the species contained in the 700 and comprised in the above genera are preponderatingly those of country of low rainfall, and it would be interesting to endeavour to ascertain how far west from the South Australian border the species extend into Western Australia, and how far east from the South Australian border the same species extend into Queensland and New South Wales. 3. Vernacular Names for Australian Plants. The person who complains (without qualification) of the confusion of common names applied to Australian plants, sometimes loses sight of the fact that Australia is as large as Em'ope, and that even in Em'ope the appli- cation of vernacular names to plants is often profuse and bewildering. The Briton, Greek, and Scandinavian have different languages of course, but their plant names are (like those of Australians) often uncertain and difficult of mterchange. Our difficulties have arisen partly because the continent only began to be settled about a century and a third ago, and then by a handful of people, very few of whom were educated ; they came to a continent whose flora was unknown, even to botanists, and, as they spread into new areas they gave similar names to trees which appeared to them to be similar, and which, in most cases, have only recently been shown to be different. 168 Federal Handbook. The predominant vegetation (Eucalyptus) has a very similar facies, and it is not to be wondered at that the ordinary citizen has shown no greater knowledge of it than the botanist. Then again the early colonists had a limited vernacvdar, because they could only use comparative terms, and the trouble was that the plants of their native countries were about as unlike those of their new homes as it was possible for them to be. Even the aboriginal owners of the soil were split up into tribes with different languages, and in the comparatively few cases in which they had names for plants at all, these names did not pass current over large areas. In some cases the aboriginal names have been adopted by the white population. Some attempt has been made to standardize the vernaculars for Australian plants, but the chief diificulty arises from the fact that all over the world experience shows that most plant names are restricted to small areas. However, with the spread of education, it is confidently expected that the use of botanical names, at least as to genus, will present fewer difficulties. Of course, it must be borne in mind that the study of natural history has an attraction for only a limited portion of the population, while of the naturalists but few take special interest in plants, and fewer still in their vernacular nomenclature. 4. Some Problems of the Pastoral Industry. Australia is a great pastoral country, and, as in other countries, a small percentage of sheep and cattle is lost every year through their feeding on certain plants. Further investigations are being carried out on this subject, but the following facts may be stated : — 1. Certain forage plants (grasses and others) contain cyanogenetic glucosides. Poisonous results take place at certain seasons of the year (though perhaps not every year), as regards the same plant in a given area. 2. A few plants contain saponins and even more virulent poisons, e.g., certain Leguminosse {Gastrolobium, Isotropis, Oxylohium), particularly in Western Australia. 3. Some succulent plants, e.g., Euphorbia Drummondii.. Boiss, are apparently responsible for many deaths among stock, but it has been shown that the cause of death is hoven, and that only tired and hungry animals, which eat immoderately, are affected by them. 4. Certain Leguminosse (Swainsona) derange the nervous systems of stock eating them ; the animals develop an inordinate appetite for the plants, eventually becoming so-called Pea-eaters, or Indigo-eaters, and absolutely useless to the owner, death finally supervening. The symptoms are analogous to those known as Lathyrism, Nenta, Loco disease, in other parts of the world. The United States, South America, and South Africa have problems of a like nature before them, and the difficulty is not solved when the plant- culprit, be it poisonous or not, is detected. The problem to be solved is how Australian Vegetation. 169 to prevent the deaths of stock by applying either a preventative or an antidote. With large flocks and herds spread over large areas, individual treatment has special practical difficulties of its own. It is a very common and empirical practice to attribute the deaths of stock to poison plants. As a matter of fact, Australia appears to possess singularly few poison plants which are injurious to stock, or which contain active principles which may be utilized as drugs. 5. Weed Legislation. As Australia becomes developed, there is an increasing tendency in all the States to increase local self-government, and coping with weeds becomes usually one of the functions of local bodies. The underlying idea is that local people know what plants are most noxious to them, and the function of the State Governments is indorsement of their recommendations for proscription of specific weeds, subject to power of veto. This affords the necessary Government control, preventing local bodies, which may not have special knowledge, taking action prejudicial to their own interests. The Prickly Pear (Opuntia) is dealt with by special legislation, both in New South Wales and Queensland. What has been stated so far refers to weeds after they have got a footing in Australia. To prevent the entry of undesirable plants into the Commonwealth, the Federal Government in 1908 passed " An Act relating to Quarantine." An Appendix to this Act forbids the entry of plants affected by certain diseases (chiefly caused by fungi), and mostly affecting economic plants. Another Appendix prohibits certain weeds. These weeds have, however, already got a firm hold in the Commonwealth, and some are very widely diffused ; the object is to put difficulties in the way of the importation of known pests into clean areas, leaving the circulation of weed-pests already in the Common- wealth the business of the State Governments. Many of the Australian weeds were introduced into the country in the very first years of settlement. They came from Britain in the packing of goods sent in the first fleet, from Rio de Janeiro, the Cape, and Calcutta, the two former being ports of call on the outward voyage, and the two latter being visited from Sydney for food supplies. Later on a trade in horses with Chilian ports was responsible for the introduction of such pi mts as Xanthium spinosum. As time went by, no restriction of any kind was placed on the introduction of plants, and gradually the varieties of weeds increased to the present for- midable total, and, being let loose on a virgin continent, brought about unexpected results. The importation of enormous fodder supplies during periods of drought has been a prolific source of introduction of weed seeds, not only from various parts of the continent enjoying a good season, but also from beyond seas. All the States contain large areas of unalienated lands, and these are sometimes an Alsatia for weeds, to the prejudice of the adjoining private owner. With the increase of population, this difficulty will largely disappear. Prickly Pear. — Members who visit the valley of the Hunter and north- western New South Wales and Queensland can scarcely avoid seeing the pes^ known as Prickly Pear, for its spread is one of the most remarkable instances 170 Federal Handbook. of plant-aggressiveness known in any part of the world. A form of Opuntia inermis, P. DC, has already devastated these two States to such an extent as to cause both Governments real anxiety, for the efforts of man have not stemmed the rapidity of spread to any considerable extent. In New South Wales there are about 2, -500, 000 acres of pear-infested country, and two years ago a IMinister of the Crown estimated the cost of eradicating the pear in that State to be ten or twelve millions sterling. In Queensland, it is stated that 30,000,000 acres are affected, and further, that the spread is one million acres per year. This never-ending advance of the pest is its most serious feature. What has given pear its chance is the fact that in Australia it has practi- cally a virgin continent in which to spread. It does not attain its best development in the coastal districts, which have a comparatively high rain- fall, and a fairly dense population. In the regions climatically suited to it, there are but few people, and in broken country it gets a practically impreg- nable hold. So tenacious of life is it, and so adapted to its environment, that so far no economical method of destruction has been discovered, and the difficulty of the problem is enormously increased by the fact that the sides and tops of hills, gullies, country fissured and difficult of access, have to be left as breeding-places for the pest. Less than a dozen species of Opuntia have escaped from cultivation and spread to any extent, but all the others put together have not spread a millionth as much as the species designated by the writer as Pest-pear. Prickly Pear was introduced to Australia (the number of species is unknown) from Rio de Janeiro, when Governor Philip touched at that port of his outward voyage in 1789, being brought as food for the cochineal insect he desired to introduce with the object of founding an industry. 0. aurantiaca, GUlies, is a small spiny species with brittle joints, wliich is spreading both in New South Wales and Queensland, and is a pest also. Its brittleness and spininess combine to make it a plant to be dreaded. Under the name of " Jointed Cactus " it is a pest in South Africa. 0. imbricata, P. DC, a cylindrical species with pink flowers, is confined to moderately cool districts in New South Wales ; while 0. Dillenii, P. DC, a formidable species, and Opuntia {Nopalea) dejecta, Salm-Dyck, are confined to Queensland so ter. 0. nigricans, Haw., and 0. monacantha. Haw., coarse spiny species, occur both in New South Wales and Queensland. 0. tomentosa, Salm-Dyck, a tall, dark-looking species covered with a velvety tomentum, is wild in Queensland and northern South Australia, but is not looked upon as a pest. 0. jicus-indica. Mill., the " Barbary Fig," is well acclimatised and yields an edible fruit. There are a few other species of less importance. It is not easy to understand why one species or other of Opuntia has not spread in one of the other States, but such is the fact, 0. monacantha being the only formidable species which is acclimatised in Victoria, South and Western Australia, and only to a very limited extent. The Pest-pear has a partiality for good soil, and is far less formidable in appearance than some of the species just enumerated. It is not tall, for the tall species have distinct and separate stems, while this species has Australian Vegetation. 171 ramifying stems hard to disentangle and get at ; it has comparatively few spines, but what are really feared are its barbed spinules, which are produced abundantly, and cause severe irritation in man and beast. Added to these it has a fatal facility for reproduction, being propagated by birds and stock which eat the seeds, while every joint or portion of one forms a new plant. Eichhornia speciosa, Kunth., the so-called " AVater Hyacinth," originally imported fi'om Europe as an ornamental plant, has shown itself very adapted to Australian conditions, and from northern New South Wales to central Queensland is filling lagoons and clogging water-courses, inflicting very severe damage where fresh water for drinking purposes in lagoons and creeks is especially valuable, to say nothing of the interference it is causing to navi- gation in even moderately large rivers. Some of our worst weeds include Bathurst Burr {XantJdum spinosum, L.), Noogoora Burr {X. strumarium), Sweet Briar [Rosa ruhiginosa, L.), Black- berry {Ruhus jruticosus, L.), Lantana [Lantana Caniara, L.), Prickly Pear (Opimtia spp.), Star Thistle {Centaurea calcitrapa, L.), and other species of Centaurea, Black Thistle {Carduus lanceolatus, L.), Cape Weed [Crypto- stemma calendulaceum, R. Br.), Stinkwort [Inula graveolens, Desf.), Sorrel {Rumex acetosella, L.), Dock (Rumex crispus, L.), and other species. Purple- top (Verbena honariensis, L.), and others, Corn Gromwell [Lithospermum arvense, L.), Yellow Poppy (Argemone mexicana,Jj.), Tree Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca, Grah.), Mallow Weed {Modiola caroliniana, L.), Thorn Apple (Datura stramonium, L.), Nut G-rass (Cyperus roticndus, L.), Wild Oats (Avena fatua, L.). 6. Ringbarking. Visitors to Australia will be interested to see the enormous areas of forest land which have been subjected to the process of ringbarking or girdling. In the utilization of land for arable purposes the trees are usually removed altogether, but over large pastoral areas the lives of the trees have been sacrificed simply in order that the grass may grow ; in many cases not because of the injury caused to the gi'ass by the shade of the canopy, wliich is often small, but because the trees compete with the herbage for the plant food and moisture. Most of the trees being durable hardwoods, they die as they stand, and may expose their gaunt arms and grey trunks for up to half-a-century and even more, littering the pasture until such time as fungi, beetles, and tlie elements combine to reduce them again to mother earth. 7. Destruction of Forests. The deliberate destruction has arisen from two causes — (1) the destruction of trees to convert them into timber ; and (2) the destruction of trees and shrubs in the formation or improvenrent of pastoral and arable land. In (1) the requirements of engineering and mining works, building, fencing, furniture, etc., have to be provided for. Under (2) the burning off has been incessant, but a fair percentage of dead timber has been converted into household fuel in the vicinity of towns. In Western Australia the cutting of green timber for fuel purposes in the vicinity of the gold-fields is, because of the local scarcity of coal, carried out to an extent unknown in eastern 172 Federal Handbook. Australia. Since the removal of all large timber in the vicinity oi the gold- fields areas is complete, data should be obtainable in regard to the rate of growth of many species in definite areas, natural re-afforestation being usually allowed to proceed. In South Australia alone there are large forest planta- tions, this being largely a treeless State. Victoria and New South Wales are doing some planting. The compensating extent of natural re-afforestation is considerable, although sometimes lost sight of. Some species, e.g., Eucalyptus pilularis, Sm., re-afforest rapidly in forest land, and it is believed that the seeds of forest trees, which pass through sheep and cattle, and which are trampled into the soil, are responsible for the conversion of large areas of grass land into forest in the eastern States. The removal of the trees of a forest destroys the plant equilibrium, and interesting changes, which, however, cannot be discussed at this point, take place, particularly in the brush. 8. Scrub and Brush. The term scrub has something of inferiority in its meaning, referring primarily to small or stunted vegetation, whether of trees or shrubs ; in Queensland, it has become applied to the luxuriant vegetation of the jungle. In New South Wales it is applied more generally to the comparatively sparse vegetation of the more sterile areas, such as those of the sandstone and granite. It is also applied to the open forest, in which the species are more gregarious as a rule than those of the brush. The Brush. — The brush corresponds to what in India is called jungle, and consist?! -^f well-watered rich-soil areas, chiefly in the coast belt and coast table- lands of eastern Australia, which support not only rich arboreal vege- tation, but also creepers and climbers of various kinds, and shrubby under- growth. The tree vegetation is of the most varied character {e.g., Meliaceae, Sapindacese, Saxifragacese, Cunoniacese, Lauraceae, Monimiaceae, Coniferse (Podocarpus), Taxacese {Araucaria and Callitris), but rarely includes Euca- lypts. The term brush is almost entirely confined to New South Wales and Queensland ; in New South Wales it is used largely ; in Queensland the term scrub is often substituted. In the brush forests of the northern coastal districts of New South Wales and coastal Queensland generally, the buttress-stem is often seen. Frequently these buttresses are of considerable size ; nearly vertical and quite thin, almost like stalls in a stable. They are commonly seen in Figs (Ficus), and also Yellow Carabeen {Sloanea Woollsii, F. v. M.), Booyong {Tarrietia argyro- dendron, Benth.), Red Cedar {Cedrela Toona), She Beech {Cryptocarya spp.), Marara ( Weinmannia Benthami. F. v. M.), and many others. Sometimes these buttresses extend in fantastic shapes along the ground and, in the case of the Yellow Carabeen, they may be so delicate as to be not more than an inch thick where they enter the ground. They form natural struts to the trees in areas of well-watered good soil and warm temperature, where the competition amongst tree individuals is very keen. Very long trunks run up towards the light and, even with their diminished crowns, the leverage of such long stems renders the buttress essential to the stability of the tree. AUSTRALTAN VEGETATION. 173 Lianes are not unusual in the brushes, being generally the stems of a species of Vitis ; these contain water, and the bushman cuts them into lengths and more siio obtains drinking-water from them. They grow in the warmer coastal brushes, where the rainfall is good ; at the same time, running water may be as much as a few miles away. In moderately dry and very dry country the aborigines, and the white men on occasion, dig up the roots of certain trees, and obtain sufficient drinking water therefrom. The trees usually employed are certain Mallees or dwarf Eucalypts, particularly E. incrassata, Labill., var. dumosa, and E. oleosa, F. v. M., also Hakea leiccoptera, F. v. M. (one of the needle-bushes), Casuarina Decaisneana, F. v. M. (a Desert Oak). 9. Natural Hybrids. Bentham (B. Fl.) wrote that little as we know of the influence of natural hybridism in Europe, it has been still less, if ever, observed in Australia. This statement is not as true to-day, as regards either Europe or Australia, as when it was written, and some observations are now available, particularly in connexion with Eucalyptus. Care must of course be taken that the attribution of natural hybridization is not a too hurried jumping to con- clusions without adequate evidence. The subject demands careful field knowledge, and it would appear that the phenomenon has already been proved, without reasonable doubt, in a number of cases, chiefly Eucalyptus, and attention is briefly drawn to the matter because of its very great importance. 10. Use of the Term "Desert" in Australia. The underlying meaning of this word is absence of vegetation, and classical examples are those of the Sahara of North Africa, and the Gobi desert of Central Asia. In Central Australia there are extensive regions of low or intermittent rainfall, some of moving sandliills and, especially towards the centre and west, of saline depressions, but very much of the country referred to as desert in the old maps is not desert in the strict sense, since it sustains a more or less sparse vegetation, with trees here and there, while immediately after rain innumerable plants spring up, carpeting the country side with individuals of Gramineae, Compositge, {e.g., Helipterum, Helichrysum, etc., wliite, pink, yellow, and even other colours), Salsolaceae, Goodeniacese {e.g., Velleia rosea, S. le M. Moore, and Goodenia spp.), Amarantaceye (purple and pink Ptilotus), Cruciferse, etc. The truly riverless area is chiefly comprised in eastern Western Australia and the southern portion of the Northern Territory, while the Salt-lake system, in which a large number of rivers do not find their way to the coast, but terminate in Lake Eyre, is a considerable area a little east of the centre of the continent. These areas .support a most interesting xerophytic vegetation, and strips throughout the so-called desert are pastoral country, supporting both grass and edible shrubs. It is interesting to note how year by year the " wheat line " in all the mainland States has been pushed into the " desert," and man is getting remunerative crops from regions of low rainfall and light sandy soil which would have been looked upon as chimerical a decade ago. In 174 Federal Handbook. other words, the " desert " land is shrinking year by year, and a factor to aid this shrinkage will be the Port Augusta-Kalgoorlie railway line, which will link Western Australia mth the eastern States. It is not possible, however, that any considerable number of visiting botanists can find time to study our " desert " on the spot, and the subject cannot be dealt with at all fully in this general article. The permanent plants of the arid country are dependent on subterranean water, the catchment and storage of some of these supplies being both very small and purely local. In addition to these local supplies, dependent on the very intermittent rainfall, there are the vast artesian accumulations, the relation of which to the vegetation they support will furnish the student with an interesting subject for investigation. In Western Australia local natural water supplies, very circumscribed in area, are known as " soaks," and frequently form oases around which there is a specially interesting vegetation. Vast areas of Australia have only, as regards the vegetation, two kinds of season, the dry and the rainy. The rainy season may be only a few days in the whole year, or, it may be, as it usually is, intercalated with dry periods. When these showers come, the surface of the ground is changed as if by magic, bright carpets of the small plants already referred to covering the ground with uniformity over large areas ; these quickly mature, develop seeds, and perish, being represented by the seeds alone, until the next period of their life-cycle arrives with a further supply of rain. In many of these regions of small and intermittent rainfall it is obvious that no recorders of rainfall are present, and the only practicable method a student has, is to arrange with some one living in the vicinity to notify him by telegraph of a local rainfall, in order that he may hasten to the spot without delay. Adaptation to Environment. — The adaptation to environment of desert plants in Australia, and particularly those of Western Australia, has been ably dealt with by Mr. S. le M. Moore, and doubtless our visitors will specially examine the characters of xerophilous plants in all parts of the continent conveniently accessible to them. Space only allows the briefest reference to the subject here. Henslow quotes Volkens as stating that certain xerophil- ous plants covered with a resinous substance, which prevents a too energetic transpiration, are peculiar to the Southern Hemisphere. Examples out of very many are Beyeria viscosa, Eucryphia Billardieri (Pinkwood of Tasmania), Dodonaea and Acacia of various species ; the roots of various Gramineae. The young shoots of Angophoras and of the Corymbosse section of Euca- lypts are protected by a covering which contains caoutchouc. The Blanket plants (Lachnostachys) of Western Australia are especially woolly, and so are the allied genera Newcastlia and Dicrastylis. Many Composites and Malvaceous plants are, with many others, very hirsute. These non-conducting coverings hinder the transpiration of moisture. Instances of aphylly are very numerous, and are afforded by such plants as — Native Cherry (Exocarpus), Cypress Pine {CalUtris), She Oaks (Casuarina), Apophyllum anomalum, Tetratheca juncea, Comes- perma of various species, Daviesia alata, Sphcerolobium vimineum, Viminaria denudata, Amperoea spartioides, and many others. Australian Vegetation. 175 There are also many succulent plants belonging to the families Zygo- phylleae, Portulacacese, Ficoidese, Crassulaceae, Salsolacese, Euphorbiaceae {Euphorbia, &c.), Asclepiadacese {D(Bmia, Sarcostemma). Some plants have water-storing cells in stems or in roots, or in both. Notable examples are the Kurrajong {BmcJiy chiton populneus, R. Br.), widely distributed, and the Bottle Tree {B. Delabechii, F. v. M., or Sterculia rupestris, Benth.), found in Queensland, and so called from its ludicrous resemblance to a gigantic lemonade bottle. These are not only water bearing as regards their stems, but also have succulent roots, which are sometimes eaten by the aborigines. In North-western Australia the Gouty Stem [Adansonia Gregorii, F. v. M.) is to be found, a characteristic feature of the landscape, while a second species {A. Hanhuryana, Hochr.) has recently been described. Reference has already been made to the so-called water-bearing trees. II. Origin of the Australian Flora. (a) The Original Australian Element. Wallace observes that South-western Australia is the remnant of the more extensive and more isolated portion of the continent in which the peculiar Australian flora was principally developed. He suggests that the existence there of a very large area of granite (800 miles in length by nearly 500 in maximum width, with detached masses 200 miles to the north and 500 miles to the east), indicates such an extension ; for these granitic masses were certainly once bm*ied under piles of stratified rock, since denuded, and then formed the nucleus of the old Western Australian continent.* He further states that while this rich and peculiar flora was in process of formation, the eastern portion of the continent must either have been widely separated from the western, or had perhaps not yet risen from the ocean. In Cretaceous times and far into the Tertiary, there was no Australian continent in existence, but instead, a crescentic wide belt of sea forming an archipelago, consisting of two main islands to the north, one large island, and some smaller ones to the south, and another to the north-east.f The distribution of land and sea in the Cretaceous period is shown by Jensen, J based on David's maps, and during that period the Rolling Downs formations were laid down. The sea extended from Cape York from south to north of Queensland, extending over most of its area, except in the east, and covering a considerable portion of northern South Australia and north- western New South Wales. This later map differs fi'om Wallace's chiefly as regards his continuous eastern land area (almost the Torresian and Bassian sub-regions of Spencer, see below), and the deflection of Wallace's sea to the north-west. Jensen remarks that the Cretaceous sea was probably connected with the ocean, both to the south and to the north ; thus an aqueous barrier between west and east is understood, which is what Wallace postulated. Speaking of the disappearance of the Cretaceous basin, which caused a migration of the hardy plants {Eucalyptus, Proteacese, etc.), which had developed on the barren soils of Western Australia into eastern parts, where • " Island Life," 2n(l EU., 494. t See Wallace's map at p. 497, op. cil. t I'roc. U.S., Q., xxiii., Fiix. 9. 176 Federal Handbook. they expelled and subdued the Indo-Malaysian type of flora, Jensen* points out that there is evidence that the plants they drove back were largely Lauracefc in the fossil leaves of the older deep leads and the trachytic tuffs of the Warrumbungles of New South Wales. Tate, in 1888,t divided the Australian endemic flora into three types — 1. Euronotian, occupying the coastal area of the north-east and south- east, its internal boundary coinciding with the rainfall limit of 25-50 inches per annum. The type flora of this is dominant in the south and east part of the continent. 2. Autochihonian, a small region restricted to the south-west corner of the continent, its internal boundary also coinciding with the same rainfall limit in this part. 3. Eremian, occupying a large stretch of country, centering in Lake Eyre, but extending right across the continent to the shores of Western Australia and over which the average rainfall is over 10 inches per annum. Besides this endemic flora, what he styles an " immigrant " flora has two constituents — (a) Oriental, dominant in the littoral tracts, but mixed there with typical Australian genera. (b) Andean, restricted for the most part to the highlands of New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, and with this he includes north temperate forms, i.e., species characteristic of north temperate regions. Mr. C. HedleyJ pointed out that the regions suggested by Tate as suitable in the case of plants were not equally suitable in the case of animals. Accept- ing (1) and (2), he suggested that (3) should be di^dded into two, and suggests that for Tasmania, Victoria, and southern New South Wales the name Euronotian should be retained, whilst for the second portion of the division, including Queensland and northern New South Wales, he suggested the name Papuan. Baldwin Spencer (also on zoological grounds) modifies Tate's proposals, suggesting § a high Eyresian sub-region, including the greater part of the continent, with a Torresian (Papuan) sub-region, including Papua, North Australia, and eastern Queensland as far south as the Clarence River (near the Queensland New South Wales boundary), while his Bassian sub-region includes Tasmania, Victoria, and eastern New South Wales. To whatever extent some of Wallace's conclusions in regard to the relations of the Australian flora in the present and past epochs may have been defective, owing to the imperfection of our geological knowledge at the time, (and both Messrs. C. Hedley|| and S. le M. Moore^ have ably criticised them), the point of most importance is, as Professor Baldwin Spencer has pointed out, demonstration of the fact that for a long period of time the east and west parts of the continent were separated from each other by an • Op. cU., p. 189. t Proc. AuDt. Ausn. Adv. Sci., i. 312, &c. j Proc. Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sci., V. 444. § Horn Exped. Rep. Pt. i., 197. II " Loc. cit.'' t " Natural Science," XV., 198 (1899). Australian Vegetation. 177 impenetrable barrier of some description. The original division of the continent into a western and eastern half, the former containing the Autochthonian constituent, is generally admitted, and most authors agree that the separation took place in Cretaceous times. Tate says the Eremian flora was developed in Central Australia in Pliocene times from Autochthonian and Euronotian elements, and was largely modified by Oriental immigrants. Tertiary Flora. — von Ettingshausen recorded Eucalyptus and Metro- sideros in the Eocene beds of Sheppey, England, and Pimelea, Leptomeria, and four genera of Proteacese were recorded by Heer in the IMiocene of vSwitzerland. Fm-ther, Ettingshausen believed he found 55 Australian forms in the Eocene beds of Haring (? Belgium). Hooker wrote to Wallace that he considered these determinations worthless, and Bentham disapproves of similar identifications by Heer and Unger. Indeed it was for some time held that the European Tertiary flora contained Alnus, Betula, Quercus, Sequoia, Acer, Pinus, and other genera peculiar to the Northern Hemisphere, together with Casuarina, Grevillea, Banksia, Dryandra, Leptomeria, Eucalyp- tus, and other genera peculiar to the Southern Hemisphere. Turning to the Antipodes, Ettingshausen* records many European forms in the Tertiary of Australia, but Deane| firmly disputes the accuracy of certain of the determinations, wliile, referring to the European ones, Hemsleyf says that until more conclusive testimony is forthcoming of the former existence of Proteaceee, Eucaljrpti, etc., in Em'ope, we cannot avoid the conviction that they originated in the south. In the opinion of the most experienced botanists in Australia the botanical determinations and deductions built by some palaeo-botanists upon mere leaf impressions are to be regretted. Except in the case of very characteris- tic material, botanists who deal with the existing flora usually ask to be excused from determining a plant on a leaf only. (b) The Austro=Malayan (including Papuan) Element. Bentham§ observes that the predominant portion of om- vegetation appears to be strictly indigenous, and that the great mass of purely Australian species and endemic genera must have originated or been differentiated in Australia, and adds that it never spread far out of it. He also states that the only exceptions observed by him are a few Aus- tralian types {e.g.. Eucalypti, Epacrideae, phyllodineous Acacias, etc.) appear- ing in the Malayan Archipelago, especially Timor, New Guinea, and Borneo, where they have established distinct, though in most cases, nearly repre- sentative species, sometimes, however, preserving absolute identity, and a very few, chiefly annual or herbaceous plants of various Australian genera, found as far as South China, mostly in identical or very closely representative species. But little was known comparatively of the Chinese flora in Ben- tham's time, but thi'ough the publication of Forbes' and Hemsley's Enumera- tion and other works, we are now in a far better position to indicate the pre- cise relationships of the Australian and Chinese floras. The flora of the Malay Archipelago is also now much more readily available to students. And • " Contrib. Tertiary Flora of Aiistraliii," Mem. (Jeul. Snrv., N.S.W., I'al. No. 2. t Pror. Linn. Snc, N.S.W. XX,, (548 H xeq. X <:iiallonj?cr Reports, Botany Vol. I. (Hemsley's Introd., p. 51). § Pref. to B. Fl., VII., p. vi. C. 121 54. M 178 Federal Handbook. here it may be mentioned that there are two aspects of every mutual relation ; we require to accumulate additional data not only in regard to the incursions of the purely Australian element into regions beyond, but also in regard to the " foreign " element into Australia. A bridge carries passengers both ways. In another place Bentham* observes that the principal flora showing an ancient connexion between Australia and other countries is the Indo- Australian. A number of genera whose main station is in tropical Asia extend more or less into tropical or eastern sub-tropical Asia, sometimes in identical, sometimes in more or less difEerentiated species. Those of coastal Queensland have generally an east Asiatic character. A few Ceylonese and Indian types are more specially represented in Arnhem's Land, but scarcely any Indian forms are found westward of that peninsula. The whole of the islands east of Wallace's line, called the Austro-Malayan Region, essentially form part of a former Australian or Pacific continent, although some of them may never have been actually joined to it. These islands of com'se include Celebes, G-ilolo, Ceram, and Papua. A shallow sea (under 100 fathoms) at the present time connects Papua and northern Aus- tralia as far as the " north-west " on the one side, and Queensland on the other. Wallace remarks-j- that when we consider the wonderful dissimilarity of the two (Papuan and Australian) regions in all those physical conditions which were once supposed to determine the forms of life — Australia, with its open plains, stony deserts, dried-up rivers, and changeable temperate climate ; Papua, with its luxuriant forests, uniformly hot, moist, and ever- green — this great similarity in their productions is almost astounding, and unmistakably points to a common origin. In this passage he, however, omits to note the fact that northern Queensland, east of the Divide, may be described in terms precisely similar to those employed by him in regard to Papua. It is not difficult to understand how a migration of plants from Papua to northern Queensland (omitting for the moment reference to other parts of northern Australia further west) can have taken place via the land connexion or the stepping stones of Torres Straits, while the climatic conditions, although a little cooler in northern Queensland, at all events as compared with coastal Papua, are nearly similar in the two land areas. Then acclimatisation comes into play, and plants, having once bridged the gap, progress on their south- ward journey. The Austro-Malayan element is common in the coastal " scrubs " (brushes) of Queensland, and is marked even in the same formations in New South Wales, but the writer is not able to submit a useful statistical account of this element in Australia at the present moment. In 1892 above 2,000 species of Phanerogams were known from Papua. i.e., from the Dutch, English, and German possessions; in 1911, the number of species described must be nearly 3,000, chiefly through botanical activity in the German possessions. Dr. R. Schlechter alone has contributed nearly * Pref. to B. Fl., VII. t " Malay Archipelago," p. 580 (1886). Australian Vegjitation. 179 100 terrestrial orchids, a coasiderable number of wliich are new, the others l)eing Malayan. The whole of Papua is a region of tropical forests only occasionally in- terrupted by savannas, i.e., grassland interspersed by trees. What Wallace says as regards Borneo, that an Orang-utang could cross the island from tree to tree, without putting foot to the ground, pretty well applies to Papua. The chief savannas are at the mouth of the Fly River, and the grasses are chiefly composed of Imperata arundinacea (our Blady Grass), and the genera Anihistiria {Themeda, our Kangaroo Grass), Rotthoellia, Andropogon, Apluda, Pennisetum, etc., all tall grasses ; while the interspersed groups of trees contain to a great extent the genera Eucalyptus {E. tereticornis, Sm., alba, Reinw., clavigera, A. Cunn., terminalis. F. v. M., and perhaps others) and other Myi'tacese, Acacia {A. Simsii, A. Cunn., A. holosericea, A. Cunn, and another), and Proteaceae. The character of the savannas on the Fly River is almost, or quite, identical with the character of York Peninsula, the northernmost point of which is only about 100 miles distant from the mouth of the Fly River, but this is the only part of Papua in which strong affinities to the flora of Australia are shown. It seems strange that the Aus- tralian flora has not taken greater possession of New Guinea, but it would appear that collections show that Australian plants are strangers in Papua, the types of the flora being South Asiatic, Australian plants being very scantily sprinkled in Papua with the single exception of the Fly River savannas. This statement is made with some reservation, on account of the incompleteness of the data. Prof. Warburg remarks that if Papua were connected with Australia through the York Peninsula at one time, which is very probable, it must have been before the time that Eucalyptus became such a prominent feature in the flora of Australia. At the same time. Eucalyptus is common in the savannas of the Fly River. By far the majority of the genera of Papuan plants are those of the Malayan Archipelago, those genera which have the most species in the eastern part of Malaya having the most species in Papua ; but it would be wrong to consider the flora of Papua identical with the flora of Malaya, the number of endemic genera and species being too great. Epiphytic Rhododendrons are common in high elevations in German Papua, connecting the flora with the Himalaya ; a Rhododendron is also found on the highest mountain in Queensland, the Bellenden-Ker Range. Prof. Warburg states that Rhododendrons, mostly beautifully large- flowered species, are common on the Papuan mountain ranges at high elevations, and that there are two Coniferae {Phyllocladus hypophylla and Libocedrus papuana) both closely allied with species he met in mountain regions of Borneo. These genera are also found in New Zealand, the former genus being found in Tasmania also. Several species of Quercus (Oak) are found in high mountain regions in Papua, connecting the flora with the Himalaya ; no Quercus has yet been found in Australia. As far as is known of the floras of Papua, New Zealand, and the Melanesian Islands, endomisni is greatest in Papua, though New Caledonia may be found to equal it when the flora is better known. M 2 180 Federal Handbook. The following genera are recorded from the summit of the Bellenden-Ker (Queensland) Range : — Hibbertia (Dilleniacese) ; Melicope (Rutaceae) ; Leptospermum, Myrtus, Rhodamnia (Myrtacese) ; Pentapanax (Araliaceae) ; Scnevola (Groodeniacese) ; Agapetes (Vacciniacese) ; Trochocarpa, Dracro- phyllum (Epacridese) ; Rhododendron (Ericaceae) ; Orites (Pro- teacese). The only genera of special interest to the student of the Papuan flora are Agapetes and Rhododendron. Agapetes is closely allied to Vaccinium ; it contains about 30 species, chiefly from the southern Himalaya, and a small number from Fiji, Borneo, and Papua ; the two species from Papua have been found at high elevations on the Mount Owen Stanley Range. Rhododendron has been already alluded to. Dracophyllum is so far interesting in that it connects the Bellenden-Ker flora with the Antarctic ; the genus is common in the Antarctic Islands and Tasmania, while one species is found in New South Wales, in Lord Howe Island, in New Zealand, and New Cale- donia, being found chiefly in mountainous regions. It is not found in Papua, as far as the author knows, nor in Malaya and Asia. Bentham* remarks that an exchange has evidently taken place in plants not strictly maritime between north-eastern Australia and New Caledonia and other islands of the South Pacific, but not to any great extent. More Australian types appear to be represented in New Caledonia than New Caledonian ones in Australia. (c) The Antarctic Element (so called). Hooker,| following Forster, used the expression " Antarctic plants of Australia," which are not so called because they really inhabit the country of that name beyond the polar circle, but because, in a botanical point of view, no less in a position relative to the south temperate flora, they repre- sent the Arctic flora. He adds that they might indeed almost be called alpine plants, for many, which are found at the level of the sea in the so-called Antarctic islands, also ascend the mountains of more genial latitudes. BenthamJ then speaks of the connexion of the alpine flora of Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales with the general southern extra-tropical and mountain region, extending through New Zealand to the southern end of the American continent and thence up the Andes. Many of the Australian species of this type are identical with or closely representative of New Zealand ones, and some have a much wider range. He adds that it is probably through this conDexion that a few species belonging to the temperate or cooler floras of the northern hemisphere have evidently, in very remote times, become represented in Australia. Hooker noted the following genera as most characteristic of the Antarc- tic regions : — Colobanthus, Accena, Donatia, Nertera, Forstera, Leptinella (Cotula), Ourisia, Drapetes, Fagus, Oreobolus, Lomatia, Carpha. Hemsley§ discusses the Antarctic flora, and using the plants enumerated by Engler,|| adds very extensively to the list given by Hooker, and makes interesting deductions. * Pref. to B. Fl. VII. t " Introd. Essay to Flora of Tasmania," p. LXXXIX. t Pref. to B. Fl. VII. § " Introd. to Rep. ou lusiUar Floras " (Challnqer Rep. Bot., I. 50). II Versuch einer Entwicklungs geschichte der Pflanzenwelt. Australian Vegetation. 181 The tabular view of the distribution of the Phanerogams of the islands south of New Zealand by T. F. Cheeseman,* together with the notes on the affinities of the flora, are most suggestive. See also valuable botanical con- tributions by Dr. L. Cockayne, E. M. Laing, and D. Petrie in the same work, to which I can only invite the attention of workers in this condensed sketch. These Antarctic representatives are chiefly to be found in Tasmania ; the Tasmanian flora has a surprising number of plants in common with the flora of the Australian Alps of Victoria and New South Wales, but the genera represented in northern New South Wales {e.g., Fagus) and Queensland {e.g., a Dracophyllum on Mt. Bellender-Ker) are much fewer, as are also those of Kangaroo Island and South Australia. 12. Affinities with the South African Flora. The flora of South Africa and Australia have a great many species in common, but hardly any that are confined to the two regions ; all, or nearly all, the species found in South Africa and in Australia are cosmopolitan plants, or plants of a wide geographical distribution, therefore without any value in regard to the development of the flora. Even the genera the two countries have in common are not numerous. Still there are many affinities between them, but the connexion that once probably existed, via the Ant- arctic, must have been separated so long ago that their common ancestors had time to develop into distinct species and genera. For instance : Aus- tralia has 34 genera of Proteacese, mostly endemic, but some are also found in New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Malaya. South Africa has eleven genera, mostly endemic. Not a single genus of Proteacese is common to Aus- tralia and South Africa. Hooker points out that by far the greater number of the known species of Proteaceae and Eestiaceae are confined to these two countries. Of our Australian Restiacese, the genera Restio, Leptocarpus, and Hypolcena are common to both. The enormous time that must have passed since the separation of the two floras by some geological changes is still better expressed by the Epacridese and Ericaceae. The common ancestors of the two families probably lived in both continents, and, as in Proteaceae, the descendants developed along different lines ; for some reason genera with anthers opening in terminal pores (Ericaceae) prevailed in South Africa, and genera with anthers opening in parallel slits prevailed in Australia (Epacrideae). The same characteristic goes through most families, though it is most pronounced in Proteaceae, Epacrideae, and Ericaceae. Benthamf discusses the connexions of the Australian and South African floras from the point of view of Compositae. Setting aside the cosmopolitan genera Senecio and Gnaphaliuin, the following genera are common to the two regions : — Brachycome. . . . 41 Australian, 1 South African sp. Helipterum . 53 12 Helichrysuni . 70 137 Gassinia . 13 1 Athrixia 7 6 Cotula . 8 22 • " Siib-antarctlc IsIandR of New Zealand." oil. Dr. C. Chilton, Vol. 11., Systematic Botany, p. 389. t Journ. Linn. Soc. XIII., .5.'j2. 182 Federal Handbook. Bolus and Woolley-Dod* remark that the following families, characteristic of Australian vegetation, abound most, after Australia, in South Africa, viz., Thymelacete, Hsemodoracese, Droseracese ; and another point of approach is found in the remarkable deficiency in both countries of the widely diffused families Rubiaceae, Lauracese, Aracese. Hooker, who first discussed the subject,")" ofiered the hypothesis of a common origin of the Australian and South West African flora, derived from ancestors inhabiting a vast Antarctic continent of which the greater part has been submerged. He thought Western Australia was connected with the Cape district by land at a time when it was severed fi'om eastern Australia. In this connexion, MoseleyJ asks how it is that marsupials are not found at the Cape, being nevertheless found in the Great Oolite in England ? It would seem necessary almost that they must have been present at the Cape and have died out, unless it is possible that Proteacese and Restiacese are very much older than marsupials, in which case they would have been very old indeed. 13. The Australian Flora as a Whole. Australia has three grand types of flora — the brilliant inflorescences of the dry sandy plains of Western Australia ; the luxurious vegetation of eastern Queensland and New South Wales and the alpine plants of Tas- mania. South Australia, the north-west of Victoria, and the vast western plains of New South Wales and Queensland approximate to the botanical conditions of the western State. Many Tasmanian or allied plants extend to south-eastern Australia generally, viz., most of Victoria and the south- eastern portion of New South Wales, the flora of Victoria being intermediate in character. The rain forests of western Tasmania are unique, and on the mainland are most closely approached by those of the Cape Otway district of Victoria. Bentham remarks that maritime plants, ranging at least from the Mas- carene Islands to those of the Pacific, are also to be found on the Australian coasts, mostly in identical species, with the addition of a few representative ones. The following families are entirely confined to Australia or almost so, e.g., Tremandrese, Stackhousiaceae, CandoUeacese, Goodeniacese, Casuarinacese, Phillhydreae, together with the phyllodineous Acacias, which form an enormous majority of the genus, and Eucalyptus. It is sometimes stated that the Australian flora is of a primitive character, but Moore strongly asserts that this is the result of bias imparted by the zoological data. " In what respect, it may be asked, is the flora of Australia less highly specialized ? Are not most of the great natural orders strong constituents of it — trees, some of them of gigantic size, shrubs, undershrubs, and herbs, parasites and saprophj^tes, climbing and carnivorous species, flowers adapted to profit by the visits of insects, and sometimes provided with a complex mechanism to insure such profit — all these are met with in Australia. In addition, the adaptability to the dry climate is wonderful, and in this respect, taking into account the variety of ways in which the destructive effects of a scorching sun and parched soil are guarded • Trans. South Africa Philos. Soc, XIV., 229. t Op. cU., p. XCII. i " Notes by a Naturalist" (Challenger), Chap. VI Australian Vegetation. 183 ao-ainst, the Australian flora is without a parallel the world over. And if these be not evidences of high specialization, it is difficult to know where one must look for such."* Eeference will first be made to some families of wide Australian distri- bution, each State then being discussed in turn, and its physical features briefly described, ^vith especial reference to the flora, and, finally, such families as are mainly represented in any particular State, will be enumerated under that State. The RuTACE.^ are widely diffused in Australia, extending from the coast to the interior. The family mostly consists of floriferous shrubs, very deco- rative for gardens, and also including a number of trees, belonging to Evodia, Acronychia, and allied genera, chiefly found in the brushes of New South Wales and Queensland. The genus Boronia now consists of 72 species, and 44 of them are Western Australian, most of them being peculiar to that State, New South Wales coming next with 25. Eriostemo)i, as defined by Mueller, includes such genera as Croivea, Phebaliwn, Asterolasia, and Micro- cybe, and most botanists do not follow him in this. In this larger grouping we have a second genus of 72 sjiecies, and no genus of Rutacese is more evenly diffused throughout the continent. The genera Nonatolepis, Chorilcena, Diflolcena are confined to Western Australia, while Brombya, Pagetia, Glycosmis, Murraya, Clausena, have not been found out of Queensland. Acradenia is purely Tasmanian. The STACKHOUSIACE.E form an almost entirely Australian family of herbs usually quite small, and with Stackhousia by far the most important genus. Twenty-two species have been described so far, well distributed throughout the States. Of the Rhamnace^, Alphitonia excelsa, Reiss., is a moderately abundant tree of the brushes of New South Wales and Queensland, with conspicu- ously pale undersides to the leaves and bluish black fruits with reddish-brown seeds embedded in a brown powdery substance, and a remarkable timber of a pale colour which, on exposure to the light, very gradually assumes a rich red tint. The really important genera are two, Pomaderris and Cryp- tandra, the latter including (according to Mueller) the genera Trymalium, Spyridium, and StenantJiemum. Bentham, however, disagrees with such inclusion. Pomaderris is more eastern than western, and the reverse is the case as regards Cryptandra ; the former is especially well developed in Victoria and New South Wales. Sapindace^ are fairly well developed in Australia, and almost every species is endemic. The genus Dodoiian (Hopbushes) occurs in every State, and extends from the coast to the interior. Most of the species are shrubs, and the Pinnatae section comprises many beautiful ones. The genera Atalaya, Aleclryon, Cupaniopsis, &c. {Cupania, Nepheliu7n), are chiefly trees of the coastal brushes of Queensland and New South Wales ; Alalaya hemiglauca, F. v. M., the Whitewood, is an important inland tree. The Legumixos^e stands at the head o£ Australian families, with 1,276 species, and the number is steadily being added to. Tlie family iuchides a very large number of species with ornamental flowers, \vlii(-li make gay the Australian bush. • Spencer Moore, " Suggestions upon the origin of tiie Australian Flora." Nat. Sci. XV., 1899, p. 207. 184 Federal Handbook. In tlie section Papilionace^ the genera Brachysema, Chorizema, Gastro- lohum, Isotropis, Burtonia, Jacksonia, Sphcerolobium, Latrohea, Eutaxia are practically Western Australian, as are mainly so many other genera. The genera Lamprolobiiiin, Tephrosia, Desmocliuni, Cajanus, Rhynchosia, Flemingia, belong to the other side of the continent. Not many trees are included in this section ; one of them is the gorgeous Erythrina vespertilio, Benth., the Batswing Coral, with beautiful crimson flowers and cuneate leaves, and which is found in the warmer parts of the continent. Of the section Csesalpinese the most important genus is Cassia (30 species), for the greater part yellow flowering, and mostly shrubs, an exception being the moderate-sized tree {C. Brewsteri, F. v. M.), which bears trusses of most beautiful colour varying from yellow to orange and red. Most of the species prefer the dry country, only a few being found on the coast. The section Mimoseae is almost entirely taken up with the genus Acacia, by far the largest genus in Australia, 412 species having been described to date. It is divided into two grand sections, the Phyllodiuese, the leaves mostly phyllodinous without leaflets, and the Bipinnatse, with bipinnate leaves. The latter section has under 30 species, about 380 thus falling into the Phyllodineae, which is almost entirely Australian, a few other species belonging to this section occurring in India, Malaysia, and the Pacific Islands. Acacias are universally known in Australia as Wattle, or prefaced by adjectives, such as Silver, Golden, Black, Green ; they also bear such names as Myall, Boree, Mulga, Brigalow, Cooba, Dead Finish, Gidgee, Hickory, Umbrella Bush, Wait-a-while and Yarran, some of which are distinctive for species. The wattle has been adopted as the unofficial floral emblem of Australia ; it is represented on the national coat of arms and on postal notes ; will be on postage stamps, and is used for decorative purposes in a variety of ways. The genus is found in every State, from the coast to the arid interior, in swamps i:,nd on the dry sides of mountains, by the banks of rivers, and on the dry plains. They vary in size from 3 or 4 inches in height; most are shrubs of a few feet, while many are small trees, and some may be trees of great size, i.e., 100 or 1.50 feet. Some are of economic importance for tan-bark or timber. The family Halorrhagide^ is mainly represented by the genus Haloragis, which is chiefly Australian, but a few species are also found in New Zealand, in eastern Asia, in South Africa, and extra-tropical South America. There are 36 Australian species, and Bentham states that one species extends to New Zealand and the island of Juan Fernandez, 2 to New Zealand and eastern Asia, 1 to New Zealand only, the remaining 32 being endemic. They are mostly herbs and small shrubs with not showy flowers. The Myrtace^ come second in point of number of species, 816 having been described so far ; the family includes two very large genera. Eucalyptus, with 230 species, and Melaleuca, with 112. These belong to the tribe Lep- tospermae (capsular, and entirely or chiefly Australian). The tribe Chamse- lauciae has a dry, indehiscent one-seeded fruit, while the third tribe, the Myiteae, has an indehiscent berry or drupe. The vast majority of plants belonging to the family are worthy of cultivation on account of the beauty of their flowers, or of the neatness of the foliage or the shapeliness of the tree or shrub, or for their timber or essential oil. Australian Vegetation. 185 Tribe ChamoBlaucieoB. — It is of course quite impossible to be more than exceedingly brief with such an all-pervading family. Darmnia, Calycothrix (Fringed M}Ttle), Verticordia, and Lhotzhja are almost exclusively Western Australian, though the first two are represented by very numerous individuals which extend to the eastern States. Thryptomene, though predominantly western, is more widely diffused in the other States than the remaining genera. All are shrubs. Chamcelaiccimn uncinatum, Schau., the " Gerald- ton Wax-flower," of Western Australia, is a shrub with large per.sistent pink flowers, and is one of the best shrubs ever introduced into cultivation. Tribe LeptospermoB. — The genus Bceckia is mostly Western Australian, the sections Oxymyrrhine and Babingtonia exclusively so. In New South Wales this genus is much less frequently met with, and particularly so as the Queensland and Victorian borders are approached. Hypocalymrna, Calo- thamnus, and Eremcea are exclusively western, and Beaufortia just extends to the Northern Territory. Agonis is western, with two eastern species. The important genera Leptospermum, Kunzea, and Melaleuca (all called Tea- trees, though often shrubs) are well diffused throughout the Itates, and Callistemon (one of the groups of plants called Bottle-brushes) is mainlv eastern. The genus Eucalyptus will be referred to separately. The important genera Tristania (Brush Box), Syncarpia (Turpentine), Bachhousia are notable if only from the fact that they are exclusively eastern, and mostly denizens of the brushes. The genus Eucalyptus, which comprises about 230 species, comes second only to Acacia in point of number amongst Australian genera, but it is so widespread and so abundant, that it is doubtless the most numerous in individuals of any. It is easily recognised by the operculum of the flower-bud. The vast majority of flowers of Eucalyptus have white or cream-coloured flJaments ; those with very showy crimson or scarlet or yellow filaments are mostly entirely confined to western and tropical Australia. In eastern Australia E. sideroxylon, A. Cunn., an Ironbark, very commonly has indi- vidual trees with pink or crimson filaments, while in a number of species such variation in coloration has also been observed but only rarely. In Western Australia there are E. erytkrocorys, F. v. M., and E. Preissiana, Schauer, with bright yellow filaments, and E. ficifolia, F. v. M., E. macro- carpa, Hook., E. pyriformis, Turcz., E. phoenicea, F. v. M., and a few others have beautiful red filaments, while those of E. miniata, A. Cunn., are orange- coloured. The formation of adventitious shoots or '" suckers," as they are invariably called in Australia, is well known to most people in Europe because of the difference in their appearance and that of the normal foliage. In Australian forests the phenomenon is forced upon the average man to an extent quite unknown in Europe, partly because there is so much primaeval forest, partly because the extensive destruction of forest for arable or pastoral land is a matter of every-day occurrence, and partly because the contrast between sucker-leaves and normal-leaves is, as a very general rule, greater than it is in Europe. These suckers are the curse of the pastoralist, who destroys the trees by ringbarking, to be followed by clearing or not, and who, as a rule, treats every 186 Federal Handbook. species of Eucalyptus (the predominant arboreal vegetation) indiscriminately, and without regard for the season of the year. This empiricism often results in vigorous second growths. Of late years, some attention has been given, by the most intelligent land-owners, to physiological principles, the ringing being done when the tree is in full flush of leaves or in flower. The poisoning of trees by treating the rung surface by arsenic is being experimented upon in different parts of Australia. The barks of Eucalyptus trees vary greatly, but, being so easily seen from a distance, afford a ready diagnostic aid to classification of groups and even determination of species. The variation being so very great, these field observations require care in application. The usual or most elementary kind of bark is the smooth one, called the " Gum," and more or less glaucous, and more or less thick ; we find this bark from the sandy coastal flats to the bleak swamps and mountain areas and away to the arid interior, e.g., White Gum (E. hcBmastoma, Sm.), Eed gum [E. rostrata, Schlecht.). In the interior this is the prevalent kind of bark, with more or less (generally not very much) blackish or hard scaly or flaky-fibrous bark at the butt. Often the roughness is mere bulls' wool. Barks with smooth surfaces {e.g., Grey Gum, E. punctata, DC, E. tereticornis, Sm.), however, exfoliate, usually in patches, and the newly exposed surface later on becomes harder, and exfoliates in its turn. Thus there is constant renewal of the bark of a smooth tree always in progress. In this way the bark grows and provides for the gradually increasing diameter of the stem. In some cases the patches are long and the older bark contains more fibre, with sufiicient tenacity to form long ribbons {e.g., Eibbony Gums, E. viminalis, Labill). These are commonly found in the cooler tablelands of the southern and eastern States, and, when rendered supple by the rain and blown about by a strong wind, they stand out like the arms of a sema- phore. There is also that form of bark which is scaly all over the trunk, a form usually associated with the so-called Bloodwoods, e.g., E. corymbosa, Sm. (heavy red-kino producers), which are usually found in sterile sandstone areas from the coast to the interior. The bark may develop along two directions, one, such as is found in the Stringybark, which has a thick fibrous covering, with the fibres set longi- tudinally ; the other, as in the case of the Box or Apple-bark, in which the fibre may be more compact or felted {e.g., E. hemiphloia, F. v. M., E. Stuartiana, F. v. M.). If the fibrous bark be thinner and looser, it is often termed Peppermint {e.g., E. piperita, Sm., E. amygdalina, Labill.), and here there are transitions on the other hand, to the Ribbony Gums. Then there is a very hard furrowed bark, often black from age, known as Ironbark, the evolution of which Augustus Oldfield many years ago attributed to the longitudinal cracking of the bark accompanied by the matting caused by the discharge of a large amount of astringent exuda- tion. Amongst the types briefly defined there are all sorts of intermediate forms. Nor is the nomenclature of the different kinds of trees uniform ; for example, the term Box, arising primarily from a tough interlocked timber, is often applied to a timber of such a class, irrespective as to whether it has the E. hemiphloia, F. v. M. (the original Australian Box), type of bark. It Australian Vegetation. 187 may have an almost ribbony bark. Very few barks are entirely smooth, and these are inclined to be thick and juicy ; the character of the bark is probably a protective adaption against bush-fires. As the tropics are approached, the tendency of all Eucalypts is to have a smooth bark, or with a little scaly bark at the butt. The timbers as regards colour may be roughly divided into red, brown, and pale. Red timbers may be found both in the interior {e.g., E. rostrata, Schlecht., E. microtheca, F. v. M., E. salmonopMoia, F. v. M.), or in the com- paratively well-watered coastal districts {E. marginata, Sm., E. resinifera, Sm., E. saligna, Sm.) ; but in the dry districts of eastern Western Australia the timber is nearly always cigar-brown in colour. The pale timber {e.g., E. pilularis, Sm., E. niicrocorys, F. v. M., E. gomphocephala, DC.) is mainly found in well-watered districts. Most timbers are more or less interlocked, the Ironbarks affording an extreme case, but a few are fissile, of which the G-ippsland Mountain Ash {E. regnans, F. v. M.) is a type. Mallee is the term formerly employed to denote shrubby Eucalypts with a thickened root-stock from which many stems spring ; the term now often includes species without the thickened root-stock. Marlock is the Western Australian equivalent to Mallee, and includes all gum scrub on a sand-plain. Gum scrub species never (or very exceptionally) attain the dignity of a tree from which timber may be cut. E. rostrata, Schlecht., is probably the most widely diffused of all species. It is moisture-loving, and follows the course of streams, or may be found in depressions in which, on the rare occasions on which rain does fall, it may find its way to the subjacent strata. Tribe MyrtecB. — This group is entirely eastern, and with one solitary exception {Eicgenia Smithii, Poir.. the " Lilly Pilly "), which extends to Victoria, belongs to New South Wales and Queensland, and chiefly to the latter. With hardly an exception, the whole tribe is found in brushes, and the members of it usually go by the name of Myrtles, very much oftener than the remainder of the Myrtaceae. Eugenia is by far the most important genus, and it includes a number of medium-sized or large trees, often planted for ornament, on account of their symmetry, the dainty colouring of their young foliage, the beauty of their abundant fruit, and the neatness of their (usually) white flowers. Myrtus is a beautiful and important genus of shrubs and trees, belonging even more to Queensland than to New South Wales. Rhodomyrtus is of less importance, while the handsome Barring- tonias are mainly tropical. Umbellifer.5; form a valuable constituent of the vegetation of Aus- tralia. Hydrocotyle is tlie largest genus (32 species), and all are endemic but two ; it is widely diffused, but mainly Western Australian. Didiscus (26 species) is exclusively Australian and well diffused throughout the States. Trachymene {Siebera) is practically endemic, and has 30 Australian species, mainly western, but with a noticeable eastern (New South Wales and Queens- land) representation. Xantho.sia is an endemic genus of not specially orna- mental herbs, mainly, but by no means exclusively, occuriing in Western Australia. Arfinotus is also endemic ; New South Wales has 5, Western Australia 4, and Tasmania 3 species. A. Heliantln, Labill.. is the well-known 188 Federal Handbook. " Flannel Flower " of New South Wales, and A. rotundifolia, DC, the " Southern Cross " of Western Australia. The CoMPosiT.^ take the fourth place in the flora of Australia, with 635 species. In the Flora Australiensis, Bentham gave the number at nearly 500, arranged under 88 genera, 39 (of which 18 were then monotypic) being endemic to Australia. I compute that there are at present 101 indigenous genera, 56 of which are endemic, and of these 25 monotypic. The principal genera are Aster, 71 species ; Helichrysum, 70 ; Helipterum, 54: ; Brachycome, 41 ; Calotis, 18 ; Podolepis, 17 ; Angianthus, 25; Gnephosis, 18 ; Senecio, 30. It is not surprising, considering the facility {e.g., by means of pappuses), with which so many species are distributed, that there is less local distribu- tion of Composites than in any other large family. Some species, e.g., Helichrysum, Helipterum, Waitzia, Cephalipterum are cultivated as " Everlastings " ; others, e.g., Aster, Humea, Ammobium, Senecio, Brachycome, are herbs and shrubs capable of adorning the garden ; while some are mere weeds. The GooDENiACE^ are almost entirely Australian. The family contains here 294 species, divided into Goodenia, 112 ; Sccevola, 68 ; Dampiera, 54 ; LeschenauUia, 22 ; Velleia, 19 ; and representatives are to be found nearly all over the continent, Goodenia being most widely diffused. Sccevola is found to a comparatively small extent near the coasts of other continents. The family is remarkable for a cup-shaped or two lipped dilatation at the top, called the indusium, and which encloses the stigma. The colour of the flowers of Goodenia and Velleia are yellow, Sccevola generally purple, Dam- piera blue, and LeschenauUia, the most brilliant blue it is possible to imagine, and because of the profusion of the flowers, a sight of LeschenauUia country in the spring is a memorable recollection. Goodenia is, by majority, Western Australian (48), but there is a strong South Australian element (25), while Victoria has 10 species. Queensland (18) and Northern Australia (21) are even better represented. The genus has 16 species in New South Wales, nor is it absent from Tasmania (6). Sccevola is mainly Western Australian, with a good sprinkling in the other States, and the same may be said of Dampiera. Leschoiaultia is the heritage of the western State, no Western Australian representatives being found in the other States ; two species are found in South Australia, one is found in Northern Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales, and two others in Northern Australia, of which one belongs also to Queensland. The Ericace^ are but poorly represented, three species of Gaidtheria being found in Tasmania, one of which extends to Victoria and New South Wales, while a Pernettya and a Wittsteinia occur in Tasmania and Victoria respectively. A Rhododendron and an Agapetes occur on the summit of Mount Bellenden-Ker, in Queensland. But we have our compensation in the profusion of Epacridace.e, both as regards species (301) and individuals. The two grand divisions into Styphelieae, with indehiscent, usually drupaceous fruit, and the Epacrese, with loculicidally dehiscent capsule, are sharply defined. Taking the genus- Styphelia, it is a question of one large genus (193 species at present) or a number of genera as defined by Robert Brown and others, and approved Australian Vegetation. 189 by Bentham. It is admitted at once that these are species with intermediate characters, but the genera or sub-genera, to which I have referred, have mostly such characteristic facies that it seems regrettable to abandon them. The position is admirably summed up by Bentham in the Flora Australiensis, v., 145, and most field botanists will agree with him. The genus Leucopogon, readily known by its small white flowers with bearded corolla lobes, has 133 species, and it is almost exclusively Australian. Most of the species are Western Australian, New South Wales coming next in order of number, but the genus is represented in all the States. The mono- typic genera Needhamia and Oligarrhena are Western Australian, as are also the small genera Coleanthera and Conostephium, while Melichrus is east Australian. The original genus Styphelia (" Five Corners ") has eleven species, chiefly New South Wales and then Western Australian, while Astroloma is mainly Western Australian, with three species that extend to New South Wales. Space does not permit detailed reference to the remaining genera, except to say that when in fruit many of the shrubs look very beautiful, and that Tasmania is the State in which to see them at their best. Some of the Stypheliese in flower are very pretty. The beauty of the section Epacreae rests mainly in its flowers, and the genus Epacris (30 species) stands out pre-eminent in that respect. The genus is mostly east Australian, New South Wales having 19 species, although those of Tasmania and Victoria are glorious. Then there are the orna- mental genera Andersonia (20 species) and Sphenotoma (6), both peculiar to Western Australia and allied to Sprengelia. The genera Richea (8) and Dracophyllum (4) are herbs or small shrubs with a monocotyledonous aspect, as pointed out by Bentham. They are mostly Tasmanian, and the genus Richea is there known as " Grass-tree." R. Gunnii, Hook., extends to the Australian Alps of Victoria and New South Wales. DracophyUum is smaller (the giant D. Fitzgeraldi, F. v. M., occurs in Lord Howe Island) ; two species are Tasmanian, and New South Wales and Queensland have one each. The SoLANACE^ are chiefly represented in Australia by the genera Solanum (.56 species), Anthocercis, 18 ; while the principal masticatory of the aborigines is Duboisia Hopwoodii, F. v. M., a shrub found only in the interior ; there are three other species, two belonging to the brushes of the east coast. The genus Solanum is best developed in New South Wales and Queensland, but South Australia is well represented, and Western Australia only a little less. Anthocercis is endemic and differs only from Duboisia in having a capsular fruit. The genus is mainly Western Australian, but has many representatives in New South Wales and Victoria. The Myoporace^ form an almost entirely Australian family, the geims Myoporum being represented only to a small extent in the Indian Archi- pelago and the Pacific Islands, and by one species in tropical Africa. One Australian species {M. lenuifolium, G. Forst.) extends to New Caledonia. There are in all fifteen species, and they are well distributed throughout the States, M. platycarpum, R. Br., the " Sugar Tree," which often exudes a saccharine substance, being a well-known tree of the interior. But the glory of the family is the genus Eremophila (including Pholidia), of which there are no less than 91 species. They are mainly Western and 190 Federal Handbook. South Australian, with a very strong New South Wales contingent. From the other States (except Tasmania) they are by no means absent. They are essentially dry country species, and are mostly of an ornamental character, bearing a profusion of flowers, varied and dainty in tint, but the colour is unfortunately lost in drying. They are shrubs varying in size. The Verbenace^ will be found very interesting. The whole of the genera of the Chloanthefe are endemic. Of the other sections the Lantana {L. Camara, L.) is an introduced species, and its aggressiveness has caused great devastation in eastern New South Wales and Queensland. Gmelina has three species, and includes G. Leichhardtii, F. v. M., a beautiful tree of the brushes of New South Wales and Queensland, which yields the especially valuf.ble timber known as " Native Beech." Avicennia officinalis, L., widely distributed in other parts of the world, is known here as "White Mangrove," and encircles the Australian coast ; it is absent from Tasmania. Of the endemic genera, Lachnostachys is confined to Western Australia, and its nine species are more or less densely hairy, which has obtained for them the name of " Blanket Plants." Neivcastlia is also a woolly genus with six Western and five South Australian species. Physopsis and Mallo- phora are closely allied genera, alike woolly and western. Dicrastylis is an allied genus of six Western and five South Australian species, and two have recently been described from Queensland. The most important genus is Chloanthes (including Pityrodia, the amal- gamation of which is not concurred in by all botanists), which now comprise 26 species almost exclusively Western Australian, only one extending to Victoria, 2 to New South Wales, 2 to Queensland, and 4 to northern Aus- tralia. Hemifhora and Denisonia are monotypic, the former from Western and the latter from Northern Australia. Cyanostegia has two species from Western and one from Northern Australia. Of the Labiate, the genera of the well-marked tribe Prostantherete are alone endemic of the five genera which compose it. Prostanthera is by far the most important (.50 species), followed by Hemigenia (including Hemi- andra), 37 ; Microcorys, 16 ; and Westringia, 10. As regards Prostanthera, the preponderance of species (33) is in New South Wales, but there is a strong Victorian and South Australian element, only seven species occurring in Western Australia. With the prevailing colour of the flowers purple or purplish, some of the species are singularly floriferous and beautiful, and would adorn any garden. The lovely P. Sieberi, Benth., of eastern New South Wales, and P. lasianthos, Labill., " Mint Bush," a tall shrub which lines water-courses in most of the States, may be cited. Hemigenia is mainly Western Australian, though New South Wales and Queensland each have two species. Microcorys is Western Australian except as regards one species, which spreads into South Australia. West- ringia is more evenly distributed. Western and South Australia each having 3 species ; Tasmania, 4 ; Queensland, 5 ; Victoria and New South Wales, 6. The family Chenopodiace^ is so widely diffused, and of such high economic importance to pastoralists, that we are apt to look upon it as more Australian than it really is. Some of the principal genera are not endemic in Australia, e.g., Chenopodium, Atriplex, Kochia, but they are richly repre- sented by endemic species, while the number of individuals is legion, "' Salt Australian Vegetation. 191 bush " being tbe cbaracteristic vegetation of enormous areas. While the genera are well distributed throughout the States, thej are indicative of salinity, and are most commonly found in regions of low rainfall or in proximity to the sea. Atriplex is represented by 32 species ; Rhagodia, 13 ; Chenopo- dium, 11 ; Kochia (Cotton-bush), 30 ; Bassia, 37. The genus Philotus {Trichinium) is an extensive and purely Australian genus (76 species) of Amarantace^, usually, but not exclusively, occurring in regions of low rainfall. The flowers are in dense cylindroid spikes, usually pink, purple, or yellowish, and often known as " Silky-heads." The indi- viduals are often gregarious, covering large areas with a bright colouring. The Proteace^ form the third in order of abundance of species in Aus- tralia, having 667 distributed over 34 genera, some of the principal being Grevillea (193), HaJcea (107), Persoonia (62), Dryandra (49), Banhsia (48). Australia is the cliief seat of the family, although it is well represented in South Africa. Every tribe is represented in Australia. The distribution of the species within the States is as follows : — Western Australia is far ahead of any other State with 431 ; then follow in order New South Wales, 137 ; Queensland, 96 ; Victoria, 58 ; South Australia, 41 ; North Australia, 36 ; Tasmania, 23. Very few genera do not occur in Western Australia, while Adenanthos, Simsia, Synaphia, and Dryandra are found there alone ; the monotypic genera Bellendena, Agastachys, and Cenarrhenes are confined to Tasmania ; Symplionema occurs only in New South Wales ; the inonot}^ic genera Roupala, Musgravia, Carnarvonia, Buchinghamia, DarUngia, Cardwellia in Queensland, together with Hollandicea (two species). Hicksbeachia, Helicia, Macadamia, Strangea, Stenocarpus, Emhothrium are confined to the brushes of New South Wales and Queensland. The genera Isopogon. Persoonia, Grevillea, Hakea, Banhsia occur in every State, while Grevillea and Persoonia are the only genera in which any State has more species than Western Australia ; the numbers being Grevillea— New South Wales, 77 ; Western Australia, 70 ; and Persoonia — New South Wales, 32 ; and Western Australia, 25. Lamhertia shows the peculiar distribution of Western Australia, 7 ; and New South Wales, 1. The copious woodiness of the follicle is observed in many genera of Pro- teacese, e.g., Hakea and Xylomelum ; in the latter genus it is so pronounced as to earn for it the name of " Wooden Pear " ; this protection to the seeds is doubtless a protective adaption in view of the frequent burning off which falls to the lot of Proteaceous shrubs. It is only in the brushes of New South Wales and Queensland that the Proteacese attain their largest development, Macadamia ternijolia, F. v. M. (yielding an excellent edible nut) ; Oriies excelsa, R. Br., and Grevillea robusta, A. Cunn. (both '' Silky Oaks ") ; Stenocarpus sinuatus, Endl. (the " Fire- tree ") and *S'. salignus, R. Br. (Red Silky Oak) ; Embothriuni Wickhami, Hill and F. v. M. ; Buckinghamia celsissima, F. v. M., Cardwellia subliniis, F. V. M., and a few others attaining the magnitude of first-class trees. Hundreds of species of Proteace;o are well worthy of cultivation. Amongst the very great number of beautiful shrubs, the gorgeous Telopea speciosissima, R. Br"., or " Waratah," stands pro-eminent. Of the trees, Grevillea robusta, A. Cunn., and Stenocarpus sinuatus, Endl., are, perhaps, oftenest seen in 192 Federal Handbook. gardens, but there is a wonderful and beautiful collection to choose from. Many of the slirubs have charming " cut leaved " foliage, and are worthy of attention for that characteristic alone. Many of the Banksias (" Bottle- brushes ") and Dryandras are delightful plants, often bizarre. In Western Australia some species of Conospermum, e.g., C. sicechadis, Endl., and C. flonhundum, Benth. (Dwarf Smoke Bush), have such a copious tomentose white or greyish inflorescence as to give the appearance of smoking bushes, and in some districts they are in such abundance, to the local exclusion of almost every herbage, as to remind one of a heavy snow-fall, just thawing so as to show a little of the other herbage. The Thymelace^ are almost exclusively represented by the Australian genus Pimelea, of which we have 76 species, fairly well distributed throughout the States, with the exception of the sections Heterolcena and Calyptrostegia (sub section Ccilyptridiuni), which are all confined to Western Australia. They are usually small plants and not particularly ornamental, but some may be classed as such, expecially the showy Queensland P. hcematostachya, F. v. M. The bark of all is fibrous and very tough, and that obtained from the larger species was formerly used by the aborigines for making their little bags. Turning to the Santalace^, Exocarpus includes the "Native Cherry," which has won so much renown through having " the stone outside the fruit," E. cupressiformis, Labill., being the best known. The genus is widely distributed throughout Australia. It is root-parasitic like so many of its congeners, the family in this respect, as well as in floral characters, showing close affinity to the Loranthaceae. Leptomeria (" Native Currant ") and Choretrum are genera of erect leafless shrubs, the former more western and the latter more eastern in its distribution. The genus of most economic importance is Santalum, and includes species which furnish the Sandalwood of India and Polynesia. S. cygnorum, Mq., is the small tree which yields the Sandalwood of Western Australia, which has hitherto defied all attempts at reproduction on a commercial scale. It is in such demand that it is pulled up by the roots wherever seen, and visitors will observe pale- coloured, irregularly-shaped stems of it a few inches in diameter on trucks on the railways and on the wharf at Fremantle, for export to Singapore. The well-known Quandong is Fusanus acuminatus, R. Br. Both genera extend to eastern Australia, but they are essentially plants of low rainfall. The Casuarinace^, universally known as Oaks or She-oaks in Australia, consists of 29 species. Thirteen of them are confined to Western Australia, some are widely diffused, while a few are mostly eastern. Some are shrubs ; in the dry country there are trees of medium size ; in eastern Australia some species become very large. They occur in the desert, in dry rocky country, in saline soils both near the coast and inland, and the largest trees. River Oak (C. Cunninghamiana, Miq.), mark the courses of our eastern rivers. The family Taxace^ has five genera, Podocarpus (Nageia), Pherosphcera, Microcachrys, Dacrydium, and Phyllocladus. This family chiefly occurs in Tasmania, the Australian representatives of the genera Microcachrys, Dacrydium, and Phyllocladus being confined to that State. M. tetragona, Hook, f., is a small creeping wiry shrub, confined to mountain-tops ; D. FranUinii, Hook, f., a tall tree known as the " Huon Pine," found in the Australian Vegetation. 193 south-west, and P. rhomhoidalis, Rich., the " Celery Top Pine," is common on mountains chiefly to the south and west (of Tasmania). The genus PhcBrophcera has two species, both shrubs, P. Hookerianu, Archer, found in Tasmania on the tops of mountains, and P. Fitzgeraldi, F. V. M., in a few localities in the higher parts of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. The genus Podocarpus, called " Damsons " by the boys because of the enlarged succulent peduncle, comprises six species found in Australia, although the genus also occurs in South America and Eastern Asia. Five of our species are endemic, while one extends to Malaya. P. elata, R. Br., is the " She or Brown Pine," a large tree of New South Wales and Queensland, and P. Ladei, Bail., the so-called "Mt. Sturgeon Black Pine," is also a large tree, and occurs in northern Queensland. P. spitmlosa, R. Br., is a bulky shrub of eastern New South Wales, and P. alpina, R. Br., is a straggling appressed shrub found on mountain tops in Tasmania and the Australian Alps. P. Droicyniana, F. v. M., is the only species found in Western Aus- tralia ; it grows in the south-west, and is looked upon as an indication of poor sandy land. It grows in dense clumps 3 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and bears the local name of " Emu-berry." Of the family Pinace^ there are two handsome Kauri Pines, Agathis (Dammara) robusta, C. Moore, and A. Palmerstoni, F. v. M., both peculiar to coastal Queensland. The genus Araucaria has also two fine commercial trees, viz., A. Cunninghamii, Ait., the " Hoop or White Pine," of the brush forests of northern New South Wales and Queensland, and A. Bidwilli, Hook, f ., the " Bunya Bunya," peculiar to southern Queensland, and bearing cones as large as a child's head, which furnish the large seeds used as food by the aborigines. A. excelsa, R. Br., so often seen planted in Australia, is the " Nor- folk Island Pine," and is not indigenous to Australia. Adventitious leaf or branch buds in the form of woody nodules, and which are really abortive branches, are found in the bark of some trees, particularly those of certain Araiicarias. Arthrolaxis is confined to Tasmania, where there are three species found in the western mountains. All are small or medium-sized trees, valued, like all the Pinacese, for their timber. A. cupressoides, D. Don, is the original " King William Pine," a designation now also often given to A. selaginoides, D. Don ; the third species is A. laxifolia, Hook. f.. and all three are sometimes called " Red Pine," because of the colour of the timber. The genus Callitris is the most abundant pine in Australia. It contains fifteen species, and is found from Tasmania to the tropics, and from the sea coast to the arid interior. Sometimes these trees, called " Cypress Pine," are so abundant as to be looked upon as a pest. They are usually beautiful trees, sometimes bright-green, and sometimes glaucous, and the species are largely determined on the shape of the cone. They chiefly occur in New South Wales and Queensland, but are common in Western Australia. Filzroya has two species, one confined to Tasmania, the other to temperate South America. The Tasmaniau species, F. Archeri, Benth. and Hook, f., is a small shrub, and is found on mountain tops in the southern part of the island. C. 121.^4. N 19i Federal Handbook. The Cycadace^ are represented in Australia by three genera, Macro- zamia, Cycas, and Bowenia. The first is by far the most abundant, and is chiefly developed in eastern New South Wales and Queensland, and, to a less extent, in south-western Australia. There are sixteen species, M. spiralis, Miq,, occurring extensively both in southern and northern New South Wales ; a number of forms, M. Fawcetti, heteromera, cylindrica, secunda, flexuosa, all named by C. Moore, were first brought under notice as horticultural varieties, but I look upon them as good species. All are less robust than M. spiralis. M. Perowskiana, I\Iiq., is a taller species, and occurs in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, while M. Moorei, F. v. ^I., of Springsure, Queensland, is a larger species. M. Hopei, W. Hill, of north Queensland, is the largest of all, and is stated to attain a height of 60 feet. M. Miquelli, F. v. M., extends from near Brisbane to Rockhampton, Queens- land, but 31. platyrachis, Bail., M. Paulo-Gulielmi, F. v. M. (an especially graceful species), M. Mountperriensis, Bail., M. Douglasi, Hill and F. v. M., are more restricted in their habitats. M. Macdoniielli, F. v. M., is found in the Macdonnell Ranges of northern South Australia, technically in the Northern Territory, while M. Fraseri, ]\Iiq., and ill. Dyeri, F. v. M., are peculiar to Western Australia. Macrozamias in New South Wales go under the name of " Burrawang." The four species of Cycas are confined to northern Queensland, and our two species of Bowenia, B. spectabilis, Hook., and B. serrulata (Andre), Chamb., have a somewhat similar range. All our Cycads, apart from their very great botanical interest, are of special horticultural value. The interest of the small family Amaryllide^ (26 Australian species) will be in four out of its seven genera, Doryanthes, Crinum, Calostemma, and Eurydes. Of Doryanthes we have two species, D. excelsa, Correa, and D. Palmeri, W. Hill ; both are very large plants, with large sword-shaped leaves and with very tall flowering stems and massive inflorescence. The former is from coastal New South Wales and Queensland ; the latter, which is some- what variable, is confined to southern Queensland. The flowers are crimson in colour. Our Crinums are eleven in number, all found in Queensland, and several extending to northern Australia. One also occurs in New South Wales, as does also a small and beautiful species (C. flaccidum, Herb.), which is found in the interior of all the States except Tasmania. The two species of Calostemma, C. purpureum, R. Br., and C. luteum, Sims, are also from the drier country. Eurydes Cunninghamii, Ait., is found in north coastal New South Wales and coastal Queensland ; E. amhoinensis. Loud., occurs in Queensland and northern Australia, and extends to the Indian Archipelago. The Australian Liliace^ amount to 189 species in 4-5 genera. Only some of the more prominent genera can be taken notice of. Blandfordia known as " Christmas Bells," comprises four species, three of which are found in coastal New South Wales, one extending to Queensland, while one is confined to Tasmania. The flowers are reddish or reddish-brown or yellow, and very ornamental. Thysanotus is the " Fringed Violet," because the flowers are of a violet colour, and fringed at the edges. They are small plants, with grass-like Australian Vegetation. 195 leaves. There are 21 species, of which fourteen are found in Western Aus- tralia. South Australia has six, and Victoria and New South Wales four each. The genu== Xerotes consists of 37 species, rush-like plants, with small flowers usually dull-yellow, dioecious. Xanthorrhoeas are the " grass trees " of eastern Australia, the " Black-boys " of Western Australia, and the " Yuccas " of Kangaroo Island and part of South Australia. They have usually a caudex, showing the charred bases of the grass-like leaves, which form a tuft at the top. Each caudex is surmounted by a spear-like flowering spike. They exude a yellowish or reddish resin which was formerly known as " Gum accroides," and now as " Grass-tree Gum " or " Black-boy Gum." There are 13 species, only 2 being found in Western Australia, while 5 are found in South Australia, including 1, X. Thornioni, Tate, in the Macdonnell Ranges. Two species are found in Tasmania, 3 in Victoria, 4 in Queensland (including the tiny X. pumilio, R. Br., from Port Curtis), and .5 in Xew South Wales. The monotypic genus Kingia {australis, R. Br.) reminds one a good deal of a Xanthorrhcea with a long caudex, but it has several scapes, and the flowers are arranged in a globular terminal head so that it becomes a many- headed grass tree. It is accordingly known as " Drum-head Grass-tree," and because of the silvery appearance of its foliage " Silver-leaf Grass-tree." It is often a conspicuous feature of the landscape from Albany to Perth, Western Australia. Cyperace^ are well developed in Australia, numbering 421 species so far. The cosmopolitan genus Cyperus is strongly developed (72 species) and well diffused in Australia, with predominance in Queensland and New South Wales, but most species are non-endemic. Schwnus is even more largely represented (77 species), and is widely diffused, with, however, a strong Western Australian preponderance. All Australian genera of Cyperacese are more or less common, with the exception of a few of the small ones. Fimbristylis, with its 58 species, is chiefly North Australian and then Queensland. Of the remaining genera the principal, Heleocharis (13), Scirpus (26), Carex (43), are alike well diffused in Australia and in other parts of the world. Scleria (13) is chiefly Queensland and northern Australia, and Lepidosperma (36) and Gahnia (29) are characteristic constituents of the vegetation; the former genus is almost endemic, while species of the latter freely occur in New Zealand. Of Gramine^, 433 species have been described to date, and, as with so many of our families, many additional ones will doubtless be brought under notice. From the economic point of view they are very important, for they are the stand-by of the countless flocks and herds of this continent. It is not possible to do justice to them in a brief sketch, nor is it possible to refer to the rich crop of aliens, purposely or accidentally introduced. There are 78 indigenous genera ; but only fourteen, comparatively small, are endemic. Many of the species are endemic, and, taking them as a whole, the specie's are well diffused throughout the States. Of Pavicum there are 75 species ; they are useful almost without excep- tion. The long trailing Sjntiifex is not to be confused with the " Spinifex " of bushmen, which is the name given to Triodia, mostly dense, hummocky, prickly species of the dry country. Neurnchne is " Miilga Grass," because N 2 196 Federal Handbook. it is often found under Mulga {Acacia aneura, F. v. M.). Of Andropogon we have 27 species, including some of the best fodder plants, such as " Blue Grass," e.g., A. sericeus, R. Br., and its allies. Anthistiria ciliata, L. f., is the well-known " Kangaroo Grass," A. membranacea, Lindl., " Flinders Grass," while A. imberbis, Retz., is called " Bundle Bundle " in Western Australia. Aristida with its characteristic trifid awn, has ten species, and is often called " Wire Grass." The inflorescence of Stipa is sometimes elegantly plumose (particularly S. elegantissima, LabilL), while the hardened tip of the flowering glume enclosing the grain, bores, aided by the twisted awn, into the flesh of animals, and hence they are called " Spear Grasses." Certain species become obnoxious to the pastoralist, but all yield useful feed when young. Only eight species of Danthonia are found, but D. penicillata, F. v. M., the widely diffused " Silver Grass," or " Wallaby Grass," is one of the best of fodder grasses, and D. robusta, F. v. M., a coarse species, is the best fatten- ing grass on the Mount Kosciusko Plateau. Astrebla is a small genus, but its triticoid species are valuable dry-country grasses and are called " Mitchell Grasses." Cynodon dactylon, L. C. Rich., is the " Couch Grass " of coastal New South Wales and Queensland, one of our most valuable grasses for pas- tures and for lawns ; it is identical with the " Doub " of India and the " Bermuda Grass " of the United States. There are thirteen species of Poa, some harsh and some succulent fodder grasses. The introduced P. annua, L., is complementary to Cynodon dactylon, since it takes its place every winter. Eragrostis claims 28 species, some with an ornamental inflorescence, some capable of great drought resistance, even bulbous, and all more or less valuable for sheep. Two species of Bambusa (Bamboo) are found, one in Queensland, and the other in north Australia. Stenotaphrum americanum, Sch., is an American grass acclimatised in the coastal districts, and invariably known as " Buffalo Grass," from the circumstance that, in the very early days, it was fijst observed near Sydney after the visit of an American ship The Buffalo. It is, however, not to be confused with the grass known in America as Bufialo {Bouteloua). The Brazilian Paspalum dilatatum, Poir., and the South African Chloris Gayana, Kunth, have proved themselves valuable fodder grasses for dairy cattle. Ammophila arundinacea. Host., " Marram Grass," has, particularly in southern Victoria, proved an admirable sand stay. 14. The Flora of the Individual States. (a) Western Australia. Western Australia is the largest State of the Commonwealth, practically comprising the western third of it. It contains many varieties of soils, light and sandy prevailing. The south-western portion is the best watered, and here the chief timber-wealth is to be found. The northern portion of the State approaches the tropics, and has many plants in common with the Northern Territory, which adjoins it. It is not remarkable for the height of its mountains, but all of its mountain country is full of interest to the botanist. For example, the Kimberley country is much indented by fiords ; it is also mountainous, consisting of alternating high Australian Vegetation. 197 and lower lying plateaux, the highest country being principally sandstone. In this district we have the Princess May Range, south-east from York Sound, and probably reaching an altitude of over 3,000 feet, while the King Leopold Range, south-east from Collier Bay, although attaining a little less elevation, also promises rich rewards to the botanical investigator. In the Hammersley Range in the north-western district (much of which is mountainous), and between the Fortescue and the Ashburton Rivers, is Mt. Bruce (3,800 feet), reputed to be the highest point in the State. In the south-west district, the important range is the Darling, running nearly due north and south from Yatheroo, in the north, to Point D'Entre- casteaux, on the south coast. This range lies parallel to and from 18-20 miles distant from the western sea-board, and is the most important range in the State by reason of its efiect on the climatic conditions of the most closely settled areas. The highest point, Mt. William, in the Mm-ray district, is 1,700 feet. Stirling Range, 40 miles north-east of Albany, the loftiest range in the southern portion of the State, is perfectly isolated and, rising abruptly from a low-lying coastal plain, is visible for a great distance. Mt. Tulbrunup, over 3,000 feet, is the highest peak, and the whole range is of fascinating interest to the botanist. A large proportion of the south-west and south sea-boards, is of a flat and sandy character, with indications of a recent geological formation, and may be described as a vast forest, principally timbered with Jarrah {Eucalyp- tus marginata, Sm.), Red Gums {E. calophylla, R. Br.), Karri {E. diversicolor, F. V. M.). The Tuart {E. gomphocephala, DC.) is confined to the coastal limestone strip south of Perth, while further north is the beautiful yellow flowered E. erythrocorys, F. v. M. In the south-west, not only is there a very good rainfall, but subterranean water is not far from the surface. The Esperance district on the south coast has an especially rich flora. In the drier parts. Western Australia is remark- able for the number and extent of its salt lakes, which support a true saline flora. They often give the impression of a mirage. Between the 30th parallel of latitude and of the Great Australian Bight, much of the country is of limestone formation, and here there are immense areas of grassland which only wait the discovery of sul:)terranean water to make them amongst the most productive areas of the State. The author is indebted for most of his notes on the physical features to the report of Mr. F. S. Brockman in Eraser's Year-hook of Western Australia. No considerable portion of the interior lying between the 19th and 31st parallels of latitude, and between 121st and 129th ineridians of longitude, is suitable for any class of settlement except in connexion with mineral resources (chiefly gold). This area may be described as a great tableland with an altitude of 1,000-2,000 feet above sea-level, the surface of which con- sists largely of sand-dunes, though in many parts of it there are large areas. of clayey soils. It would be a contradiction of terms to call it desert, for it supports a copious and beautiful flora. Mr. Henry Deane says that the soil of the country from Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia, to Spencer's Gulf, in South Australia, is for the most part 198 Federal Handbook. good, and covered with vegetation consisting of various saltbushes {Atri- plex), blue bush {Kochia, etc.), grass, and other shrubs, mostly edible, and trees of various kinds, such as Mulga {Acacia aneura, F. v. M.), Myall {A. pendula, A. Cunn.), Mallee {Eucalyptus oleosa, uncinata, etc.), and Myoporum, with fi'equent bushes of Sandalwood {Santalum cygnorum, Miq.), and Quan- dong {Fusanus acuminatus, R. Br.). In the western State, one will hear much of the term " sand-plain," and it is wonderful how these light sandy areas, usually devoid of trees, maintain very gardens of flowers. The physical features (mountains chiefly) have been referred to in a little detail, as they are of especial interest to the visiting botanist, who will probably endeavour to explore the Darling Eange, and perhaps the Stirling Range, if he makes an extended stay. Here it may be at once said that Western Australia is the State which will probably have most fascination for him, for its pre-eminence as a botanist's paradise is without question. The work of most of the visitors will, however, on this occasion, be entirely devoted to that truncated portion between the mouth of the Murchison on the west and Esperance on the south coast, while the true south-west, a more truncated area still, covers more ground than most can even skim over. In giving the palm to this area, it may be mentioned that a journey in the express to Kalgoorlie will rapidly give some impression of the beauty and variety of the desert flora, while the alpine floras of Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales, and the rich brush vegetation of eastern New South Wales and Queensland, come only second in botanical interest to the more obvious botanical glories of the western State. The yellow-flowered genus Hibhertia (Dilleniace^) is widely difiused, and contains about 105 species, more than half of which are peculiar to Western Australia. The floriferous and beautiful pink-flowering genus Tetratheca, of the purely Australian family Tremandrace^, is almost entirely confined to Western Australia, the exceptions being the protean and widely difiused T. ericifolia, Sm. (forms of wliich have been described under no less than seven names), and two others. The beautiful genus of shrubs Thomasia (Sterculiace^), with 23 species, is confined to Western Australia, with the exception of T. petalocalyx, which extends as far east as Victoria. The Western Australian Pitcher-plant, Cephalotus follicularis, Labill. (Cephalotace^), in which the radical leaves are converted into pitchers, is peculiar to that State, and is found around Albany, in rich peaty bogs of considerable depth, with the pitchers close to the ground, sheltering under the shadow of long tussocks, say, 3 ft. 6 in. high, of rushes, sedges, Legu- minosse, yellow Sundews, &c. It can hardly be seen except by pulling the tussocks aside. The Droseras (Droserace^), which are covered with glandular hairs which entangle insects, are found in all the States, but Western Australia is especially rich in them, where they form an important and interesting, if frequently a humble, constituent of the vegetation, for in that State are to be found about 45 out of about 62 Australian species, most of which are very rich in individuals. Australian Vegetation. 199 The Caxdolleace.e are practically taken up with the genus Candollea {Stylidium), which, with some difference of opinion as to the limits of a species, has 107 species almost exclusively Australian. It has mostly rosettes of radical leaves, and is remarkable for the elasticity of the column which is formed by the filaments, which are connate with the style. This column is bent back normally, but when touched it suddenly straightens, and hence these plants are known as Trigger Plants. No less than 84 are Western Australian, and the genus is sparingly distributed over the rest of the conti- nent, Queensland and northern Australia being best represented after the western State. Coming to the Loranthace^e, Nuytsia floribunda, R. Br., the gorgeous Tree Mistletoe or Cabbage Tree, is a distinctly wonderful plant. It is a medium-sized tree, which grows on sandy land from King George's Sound to the Murchison, in Western Australia, and the whole of the tree, when in bloom, is one mass of beautiful orange-coloured flowers. It is one of the most gorgeous trees in the world. It is root-parasitic, and hence the very great difficulty of successfully transplanting it. Seedlings are raised without difficulty, but they usually do not attain maturity. The same remarks apply to that allied shrub with sweet-scented flowers, Atkinsonia ligustrina, F. V. M., which is sparingly found in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. The other Mistletoes are chiefly represented by the genus Loranthus, wliich, though not endemic, is so abundant and so conspicuous that visitors cannot fail to observe it. Huge pendant masses will be observed attached to the Eucalypts, whose leaves it somewhat resembles ; other species likewise simulate the leaves of various other trees and shrubs to which they are attached. Nothothixos is parasitic on Loranthus, which contains 26 Aus- tralian species. The H^MODORACE^ are almost exclusively Western Australian, the genus Hwmodorum alone being found out of that State. Of 17 species, 7 belong to Western Australia, 1 is peculiar to Tasmania, 4 to Northern Australia, 2 to New South Wales, and 1 to Queensland, while 2 are found in both New South Wales and Queensland. The genus Conostylis has 38 species ; the flowers are dull yellow, and the individuals very numerous. The greatest interest, however, will be given to the so-called " Kangaroo Paws " {Anigo- zanthus), some of which have very brilliant and bizarre colouring. Ekwen species have been described. The Iridace^ are in Australia practically synonymous with Patersonia (17 species), largely developed in the western State (12 species), while 4 are in Victoria, 3 in New South Wales, and South Australia, Tasmania, and Queensland having 2 each. The conspicuous but delicate perianth is usually bluish or purplish in colour. The Restionace^ are closely allied in habit and inflorescence to the Cyperaceae, and are noteworthy from the great dissimilarity in habit and in- florescence between the males and females of some species. The faniily is almost limited to Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, but our species (rather more than 100) are all endemic. The genera Reslio, Leplocarpus, and HypolcBna are also South African, and Australia has 25, 12, and 7 species respectively. These genera, together with Lepyrodia (15 species) are dif- fused throughout Australia, though they have a strong Western Australian 200 Federal Handbook. element. Loxocarya (9), Lepidobolus (4), and some smaller genera are Western Australian. To here give more than a sketchy account of the flora of Western Aus- tralia is out of the question. It is remarkable for its showy and abundant Leguminosse, for its abundance of endemic beautiful and remarkable Pro- teacese, including the genus Dryandra (allied to Banksia), for the profusion of its Groodeniacese, including the blue Leschenaultias, and so on. Its Eucalyptus flora is most interesting. It is, however, not a land of ferns, the number of species found there being under twenty. (b) South Australia (including part of the Northern Territory). South Australia and the Northern Territory form a slice taken through the middle of Australia from the Indian Ocean to the Southern Ocean, the western boundary being 129° E. longitude. They are separated from each other by the 26° of S. latitude, while on the east the South Australian boundary is 141° E. longitude, and that of the Northern Territory is 138°. South Australia is for the greater part of its area, with the important exception of the south-east, comparatively treeless. The sub-tropical por- tion is for the most part of low elevation, and much of it is sparse open forest and steppes. It is a country of comparatively low rainfall, and the indigenous species are admirably dealt with in Tate's Flora, and the introduced plants in J. M. Black's Naturalized Flora. Australian Steppes {Lake Eyre Basin). — Baldwin Spencer writes,* " There is a vast tract of country comprising the great Lake Eyre Basin, stretching from this eastwards and northwards, into the interior of New South Wales and Queensland, and up to and beyond the Macdonnell Ranges, across which run such intermittent streams as the Cooper, the Warburton, the Macumba, the Finke, and the Todd, dry for the greater part of the year, but every now and then at varying intervals of time swollen with heavy floods, which spread out over wide tracts, and for. a time transform the whole country into a land covered with a luxuriant growth of vegetation. To this part of the continent the name of the ' Australian Steppes ' may be suitably applied." Favenc speaks of the mystery of the Lake Eyre system of drainage, which lies in the final exit of its waters. The lake is a sink for the rivers flowing into it, and is mostly a dry bed, the southern portion alone holding water. In spite of its army of affluents, it is never full nor visibly affected as a whole, and it has no outlet to the ocean. It is estimated that its watershed is over 400,000 square miles. Spencer divides the Steppes into Lower Steppes, Higher Steppes, and Desert Country. Lower Steppes. — From Oodnadatta to Charlotte Waters (here the Northern Territory begins) and the Finke River to the James Range. These include the Cretaceous table-topped hills and tablelands ; these elevated plains slope gradually towards Lake Eyre from an altitude of 1,000 feet above sea-level to 39 feet below sea-level at Lake Eyre. The great Cretaceous formation with its alternating stony or gibber plains, loamy flats, and low-lying terraced hills, is capped with desert sandstone. • Horn Exped. Hep. i. Australian Vegetation. 201 On the loamy flats, and even gibber plains, the most noticeable planf; is Salsola Kali, L., commonly known as the Roly Poly, detaching itself froui the ground, and forming spherical masses perhaps a yard or more in diameter. It is a constant feature of the Cretaceous area. The lines of the water-courses are marked with bolts of gum trees and Acacias, chiefly Eucalyptus rostrata, Schlect., the River Gum ; E. microtheca, F. v. M., the Swamp Gum or Box ; Acacia aneura, F. v. M., the Mulga ; A. cyperophylla, the Red Mulga ; and A. Camhagei, R. T. Baker, the Gidgee. The Higher Steppes comprise the southern part of the James Range and the George Gill and Levi Ranges. These include — (a) The great central group of the Macdonnell Ranges, trending in a nearly east and west direction for a distance of about 400 miles, and with a width varying from 20 to 50 miles, thus covering an area of more than 10,000 square miles. Several peaks are over 4,000 feet high, while the surrounding country is over 2,000 feet. (6) The James, Waterhouse, George Gill, and Levi Ranges. These have a mean combined width, if we include the intervening plains and valleys, of from 60 to 70 miles. The area occiipied by them, therefore, must be more than 1-5,000 square miles. The highest points are situated in the most northern ridge, as in the case of Mt. Gillen, whicli is nearly 3,000 feet above sea- level. There is a gradual decrease in elevation in the ranges from north to south, each range to the south constituting as it were a step in the descent from the Macdonnell Ranges to the plains. On the Higher Steppes are an interesting Cycad and only one {Macro- zamia (Encephalartos) MacDonnelU, F. v. M.), one Palm (Livistona Marice, F. v. M., known in one colony of a hundred individuals only), a Grass Tree {Xanthorrhoe a Thorntoni, Tate), one Epacrid {Leucopogon Mitehelli, Benth.), while there are representatives of the genera Capparis, Hibbertia, Melaleuca, Grevillea, Loranthus, Cassia, Eremophila, and trees up to 40 or .50 feet in height of Acacia salicina, Lindl. ; Eucalyptus oleosa, F. v. M., in the form of a Mallee, and a Bloodwood {E. terminalis, F. v. M.) are also found. Speaking of the saxatile vegetation. Professor Tate, in his report on the botany of the Horn Expedition, says that the number of actual species on the tablelands and high level tracts is absolutely few, but that it was in the gorges of the tablelands and on the basal part of the craggy escarpments and their taluses that a varied flora occurs. What he terms the Larapintine Flora, the flora of the Finke Rivei- and the other districts the Horn Expedition traversed, he classifies as follows : — (1) Exotic species, chiefly oriental. (2) Endemic species of exotic genera. (3) Endemic species of Australian genera. Under (1) he uses the term " exotic " in its derivative sense, for most of the species are ordinarily classed as Australian natives. 202 Federal Handbook. Of the " Australasian " genera, he records the foUowinj?, with five or more species : — Ptilotns (11), Swainsona (7), Cassia (10), phyllodineous Acacias (24), Eucalyptus (10), Loranthus (5), Grevillea (9), Calotis (10), Helipterum (10), Gootlenia (15), Dicrastylis (5), EremopMla (17). The Desert Country. — From the G-eorge Gill Range to Ayers' Rock and Mt. Olga. This is one of the areas which may be fitly termed desert. Ayers' Rock and Mt. Olga. — In addition, to the mountain ranges referred to under " Higher Steppes," there are some isolated mountains. Rising like an enormous waterworn boulder is that remarkable isolated monolith known as Ayers' Rock. It is situated 32 miles S.S.W. of Lake Amadeus. The rock is quite bare, with the exception that a few fig-trees {Ficus platy- poda, A. Cunn.) maintain a precarious footing in the few crevices on its bare sides. Mount Olga, which from a distance presents a most remarkable outline, is 15 miles west of Ayers' Rock. Professor Tate divided intra-tropical South Australia into the Eremian or Desert Flora which occupies the arid region of central Australia, and corresponds with the " salt-bush country " of the pastoralist. This is con- tinuous with much country in eastern Western Australia, and western Queensland and New South Wales. The region is approximately limited by the rainfall line of 10 inches. His second division was the Euronotian Flora, which is dominant in the more humid parts of temperate Australia, excepting the extreme south- west. To speak of the whole interior of Australia as a Desert or Eremian Country is very misleading. Over wide areas, especially across the western half oi the interior, extend sand-hills and flats covered with Mulga scrub {Acacia aneura, F. v. M.) and Porcupine Grass (Triodia), which may be justly described as desert, e.g., some country stretching from the G-eorge Gill Range to Ayers' Rock and Mt. Olga, where no creeks run and uncertain water supplies may be found in rock-holes, but the Australian Steppes country of the interior is by no means desert. Kangaroo Island is the second Australian island in point of size ; it is of an oblong shape about 90 miles by 25, and is situated just off the coast of South Australia. The country is hilly and undulating, the highest eleva- tion being under 1,000 feet. There is but little permanent water on the island, and its vegetation is grouped by Tate as heathy, sylvan, and savannah. The flora is not rich, consisting of less than 400 species of phanerogams and vascular cryptogams. Very few species are endemic. Its flora bears strong affinity to that of the mainland, and is remarkable for the strong Tasmanian element it contains. South Australia, taken as a whole, is not remarkable for the number of its endemic plants ; most of them are in common with the indefinitely-zoned dry areas of the contiguous States. (c) Victoria. Victoria is a State which in its eastern portion (Gippsland) has conditions which strongly resemble those of the southern coastal belt of New South Wales. It is the home of the tallest trees of the Australian continent, Australian Vegetation. 203 probably second only in this respect to those of California. In the south- west we have a basaltic plain which is remarkably fertile. This has scattered forests, and is pastoral and agricultural country. North of these areas are the western and eastern highlands, the latter higher and moister, and both containing rich open forests consisting almost entirely of Eucah-ptus. In the Wimmera, in the north-western portion, we have a region of comparatively low rainfall, similar to much of the South Australian territory adjacent and to the western plains of New South Wales. No State of the Commonwealth has had its flora more fully examined than Victoria, since the late Baron von Mueller was for so many years Govern- ment Botanist of that State ; indeed he took unofficial botanical charge of the whole of Australia. For purposes of botanical-geography he divided the State into five parts, chiefly based on the river systems : — (a) The north-western region, from the sources of the water-courses in the north-west to the Murray River. This is the driest area. (h) The south-west region, from the sources of the water-courses in the south-west, to the coast west of Cape Otway and to the vicinity of the Glenelg River. This includes much rich plains country. (c) The southern region, fi'om the sources of the water-courses in the south to the vicinity of Cape Otway to Port Pliillip (Melbourne district), and to the western boundary of Gippsland. (d) The north-eastern region, from the sources of the water-courses in the north-east to the Hume River, including the Victorian Alps. Here we have the alpine vegetation contiguous to that of New South Wales, and with a strong Tasmanian and Antarctic element. (e) The eastern region, comprising Gippsland, exclusive of the Alps- Tins is an especially well-watered area, and a celebrated forest region, including the habitat of the tallest trees of Australia. The Otway district is a well-known forest region, e.g., for its magnificent Blue Gum {Eucalyptus globulus, Labill.) areas, and for the Beech forests (Fagus CunningJiamii, Hook. f.). Admirable general accounts of the flora of Victoria have been given by C. A. Topp,* G. Weindorfer,-}- and Professor A. J. 'Ewart.f Topp characterizes the prevailing botanical featm'es, first of the shores of Port Pliillip and of the district in its immediate vicinity, then the flora of the fern-tree gullies (in which Victoria is rich), such as may be found in the Dandenong Range and on the Main Divide, running into the Watts' River and other mountain streams, and, thirdly, he gives a brief account of the interesting alpine flora of the north-eastern mountain system, between Omeo and Har- rietville, on the peaks and spurs of Mts. Feathertop, Bogong, and Hotham. Weindorfer divides the State into three, the first and largest of which forms part of the south-eastern Australian forest flora, and is looked upon as an intermediate link between the Antarctic flora and that of the tropical east and north of the continent. The second division is formed by a part of the central Australian desert flora, which penetrates to the north-west corner • Hawlhooh AiMl. Assoc, .iilo. Sci., Melbourne, I'JOO, p. 170. t Victor inn Year-Book, l'.)04, Part i., p. 19. X Vict. ^al. XXV., 7« (1908). 204 Federal Handbook. of the State, constituting tlie " Mallee " (Mueller's north-west region). The third and smallest division is the alpine flora, which is restricted to the highest points of the alpine mountains in the north-eastern corner of the State (Mueller's north-eastern region). Weindorfer's first large division therefore includes the divisions (b), (c), (e) of Mueller. He points out that Victoria's endemic flora is 7*6 per cent. (46 species in all) less than that of the floras of any of the other States, and is to be accounted for by the comparatively regular and heavy rainfall over a large area, and which caused Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, to designate the central portion of it " Australia Felix." The Grampians form what have been termed the natural garden of Victoria, for the flora of this range is alike varied and beautifiil. Ewart's paper is more ecological in character, being written less from the taxonomic side. He deals with the factors which influence a flora, and briefly applies them to Victoria in the form of notes. Thus be touches upon geo- log'cal history, present climate, the effect of settlement on the native flora, and cognate subjects in pregnant paragraphs. Under Eucalyptus regnans, F. v. M., which the author has recommended to be known as " Giant Gum," there is given* a full account of the Giant Trees of Australia, together with a record of the controversies which took place nearly 30 years ago. The tallest trees in Australia, so far proved, are those of Gippsland, Victoria, and are E. regnans, F. v. M. Claimants for this distinction are the giant Karris (E. diversicolor, F. v. M.), of south-western Australia, but the heights assigned to this species require confirmation by surveyors. The " King-trees" of eastern New South Wales, viz., the Black- butts {E. pilularis, Sm.), of the Illawarra, and the Tallow-woods {E. micro- corys, F. v. M.) of the Lansdowne Eiver, may be as bulky (though not so high) as the Gippsland trees, but this requires to be proved. The official size of the tallest Gippsland tree is given as — height, 326 ft. 1 in. ; girth, 25 ft. 7 in., measured 6 feet from ground ; locality, spur of Mt. Baw Baw, 91 miles from Melbomrne. This is enormous, but different fi-om the alleged heights of from 400 to 525 feet foisted on Mueller, and which will probably not be eradicated from the newspapers for another generation. As regards the Calif ornian trees brought into comparison. Prof. Sargent, an eminent authority, may be quoted, and in view of the actual measure- ments that he presents, viz., 340 feet in height for a Redwood and a girth round the trunk of 107 feet for its congener the " Big Tree," an opinion may be expressed that, so far as is known at present, California is the home both of the tallest and of the broadest trees in the world. The difference (under 14 feet) against the Gippsland tree is not large, and it would not be sm-prising if additional investigations should cause this friendly competition between Australia and the United States to end differently. (d) Tasmania. This is by far the smallest of the Australian States, but by reason of its generous rainfall, comparatively high latitude, and great range of elevation, it is a paradise of " antarctic " plants for the botanist. • " Forest Flora of New South Wales," Part XVllI., p. 161. Australian Veoetation. 205 It lias a climate which greatly resembles that of Britain. It is well wooded, not only with Eucalypts, but with Beeches {Fagus Cunninf/hninii, Hook, f.), and with valuable Conifers, Huon Pine {Dacrydiuin Franklinii, Hook, f.), King William Pine {Arthrotaxis selaginoides, Don, and cup lessoides, Don), Celery Top Pine {PhyUocladus rhomboidalis, Rich.), Oys'pi Bay Pine (Callitris rhomboidea, R. Br.), now seriously diminishing. The western portion is a region of high rainfall, and the Beech forests are almost impenetrable. A singular plant is the endemic Anodopetalum biglandulosum, A. Cunn. (Saxifi'agacefe), a tree common in the forests of the south and west, and which grows in a remarkable horizontal position, hence the name " Horizontal Scrub." The flora of Tasmania and its relations are very well known, originally through the classical work of Hooker,* and, later, through an admirable " Flora, "f the work of the present Government Botanist. Hooker refers to the strong east Australian character of the flora, the island having been formerly joined to the mainland, and of the non -Australian element he points out the greater proportion of New Zealand, South American, Antarctic, and even European plants not found on the Australian continent. The strong affinity of the Tasmanian and Australian alpine flora is obvious to any student who examines the two lists, and in most cases the isolation of the two areas has not been continued for a sufficiently long period to bring about any obvious difference in the facies of the plants. The Tasmanian affinities in the Australian floras can be traced, in diminisliing abundance, over distant regions of the mainland. In view of the distribution of the true Beeches {Fagus), it may be noted that there are three species, F. Gnnnii, Hook. f. (Fagacese), a small shrub confined to a few mountain summits in Tasmania, F. Cunninghamii, Hook, f., the so-called Myrtle, a large and beautiful tree found in Tasmania and Vic- toria, and F. Moorei, F. v. M., " Negro-head Beech," also a beautiful tree, occurring on some of the coastal tablelands of central New South Wales, far removed geographically from its congeners. Reference may be made to a suggestive paper by RodwayJ in which he discusses the origin of the flora of his State, e.g., the Tasmanian and Fuegian Fagi, and notes the presence of almost identical parasitic Cyttarias in both countries. (e) New South Wales. New South Wales is a State whose botanical conditions are largely com- parable to those of Queensland. The climatic factors vary from temperate to sub-tropical. She has the rich coastal belt, then the elevated tablelands which fall away to the western plains, which are only barren when no rain falls. Her coastal belt, and gullies running into the ranges and tablelands, produce many " brush " timbers, at the same time supporting various types of open forest, while the western slopes and plains produce valuable small trees acclimatised to regions of low rainfall. * Flora T'tsmnniefe. t The Tasmanian Flora, by Leonard Kodway (I'JO.'i). I Proe. A.A.A.S., xili. 2.50. 206 Federal Handbook. New South Wales joins with Queensland in her brush vegetation ; with Victoria and Tasmania as regards alpine plants ; in her western slopes and wide western plains with Western Australia, and the rest of the continent in a share of the true Australian indigenous flora. Many distinctive New South Wales plants will, theretore, be found referred to under Queensland ; a very brief statement may be made in regard to the endemic flora of the parent State. Endenaism must be usually spoken of with a qualification, for every year are found important additions to the reputed restricted habitats of plants. They include two species of Streptothamus (Flacourtiacese), both climbing plants from the northern rivers, a few bipinnate Acacias, and a few Eucalypts. In the Saxifgrageee is the important genus Ceratopetalum, comprising two handsome coastal trees, the flowers of " Christmas-tree or Bush " {C. gummiferum, Sm.) being especially beautiful ; also Acrophyllum venosum, Benth., a charming shrub of the Blue Mountains. Amongst the Proteaccse are the small genus Symphyonema, the only Lamhertia out of Western Australia, and a number of Grevilleas, the hand- somest of the Telopeas {T. speciosissima, R. Br., the Waratah) ; a few Goodeniacese and Compositae, some Prostantheras, a few Styphelias, Leuco- pogons, and Epacris ; some of the smaller species of Macrozamia, amongst orchids, one or two each of Dendrohium, Sarcochilus, Diuris, Prasophyllum. and Pterostylis. Further, a Hmmodorum (Haemadoracese). In the Liliacese, a couple of Blandfordias, an Allania, a Xerotis, and a Xanthorrhcea. Amongst the Restionacese, a Lepyrodia and a Restio ; and in the Cyperaceee, a very few species of Cyperus, Scirpus, Schoenus, and Gahnia ; also a very few grasses. There are two regions of abundant and large arboreal vegetation, namely, south-western and eastern Australia. Allusion has already been made to Gippsland, and there is also the coastal strip running along New South Wales and Queensland to Cape York. In both the latter States the Great Divide plays an important part in consideration of the distribution of the vegetation, but it is a common error to confuse it with the coastal ranges, or, indeed, to call it a range at all. It is, as Favenc has pointed out, the true edge of the interior plateau. In the south coast district are arborescent Rubiaceae {Coprosma and Canthium), arborescent Compositae {Aster argophyllus, Labill., Bedfordia salicina, DC, etc.). In the north coast, also a branch of the coastal strip, are found arborescent baccate Myrtaceae {Eugenia, &c.), arborescent Proteaceae, Brachychitons, Laporteas, &c., with Diploglottis Cunningliami, Hook, f., Panax elegans, F. V. M., and Archontophoenix Cunningkami (Bangalow), lifting their graceful heads amongst the surrounding vegetation. The coastal strip has or had trees wliich, although not the highest, may be the bulkiest of all Australian trees. Eucalyptus pilularis, Sm., and E. micro- c(trys, F. v. M., already referred to. The Cypress Pine forests of the western plains, and the Ironbark forests from Dubbo and north-eastward, are examples of pure gregarious forest. Australian Vegetation. 207 (f) Queensland. Queensland is a region of rich coastal vine brushes (scrubs), tropical and sub-tropical, with rich basaltic or at least alluvial soils, and ample rain- fall. It contains a marvellous variety of trees, some of them very large, and some of ascertained economic value. Westerly there are broken elevated tablelands with rolling country beyond, much of it covered with open forest, of which Eucahjptus is an important constituent, and then, sloping away to the centre of Australia, are found conditions rarely favorable to tree life. The best general account of the vegetation of Queensland is by Domin.* It is in this State that the Austro-]\Ialayan element is most developed, and it is very important, particularly in the Cape York Peninsula. The Antarctic element is of very much less importance, and chiefly in evidence on the tops of the Bellenden-Ker Range, the highest land in the State. The true endemic flora is seen chiefly in the rolling downs and western plains, also in southern Queensland. The botano-geographical conditions are much the same as those already indicated for New South Wales, an outstanding feature being the greater extent of the rich soil of the coastal districts, together with a higher rainfall and of course a warmer climate, for the territory extends into the tropics. The result is a rich " brush " vegetation, far exceeding that to be found in any other part of Australia, and systematists will not exhaust the treasures for very many years. Mr. F. M. Bailey has already described very many species, and the diffi- culty of botanizing in the brushes is only known to those who have had experience of it. The tall trees grow lofty and near together like cathedral columns, exhibiting their commingled canopies to the sky, and much of the botanical material available is owing to windfalls and the breaking down by animals. Owing to the loftiness and the darkness, one often cannot see either flower or fruit, and if one shoots ofi a twig, it is often not recovered, and, even if obtained, it frequently cannot be matched with the tree which produced it. The tall creepers which run to the tops of the loftiest trees are even more difficult to examine. The numerous ranges and isolated mountains of Queensland afford rich collecting grounds to the botanists, who can be certain of harvests of such plants as orchids, palms, and ferns. To some extent Queensland is the antithesis of Western Australia, but her total of recorded plants already exceeds that of Western Australia. These two States, partly because of their size, have been least botanically explored. Queensland's boundless prairies are rich in natural grasses and forage plants, which render her one of the greatest cattle and sheep-raising countries in the world. Most of the Anoiucese are confined to Queensland (brushes), though five species come as far south as New South Wales and one {Eupomatialaurina, R. Br.) to Victoria. The Meliaceac are another family of trees almost entirely restricted to the brushes of coastal New South Wales and Queensland, the exceptions being confined — (a) to the genus Owenia, the inland " Colane," 0. acidula, F. V. M., extending to South Australia, while 0. reticulata, F. v. M., is the only representative of the family in Western Australia, in which State it is *" Queensland's Plant Associations," /Vw. Hon. -Voc, (^ xxlii.. 57. 208 Federal Handbook. endemic ; (b) to Flindersia maculosa, the " Leopard Wood " of the drier portions of both States. The genus Flindersia, or " Rasp-pod/' is so called because of its usually large, muricate, septicidally-opening capsules, and fifteen species have now been described. Engler proposes to place it with the Rutacese. There is abundance of Dysoxylon, and Cedrela australis, F. V. M., is the well-known " Red Cedar." There are about twenty species of Vitis (Viticeae), all confined to the brushes of Queensland and New South Wales, with the exception that two extend to Victoria, on the south, and one species (F. augustissima, F. v. M.) is peculiar to Western Australia. Some form lianes of great size, and are water yielders ; some have been tried as Phylloxera-resistant stocks, but with no commercial success so far. Very extraordinary are the bladder-like organs of Utricularia (Lenti- bularinese), dainty little plants found in damp sandy land, which are modified leaflets. They have a valve-like arrangement, which enables them to catch minute water animals. There are 24 species, seven of them extending to Asia. Most have been described from Queensland, but they are not rare in New South Wales and Western Australia. Pitcher-plants, Nepenthes (Nepenthacese), in which the blade expands into a pitcher or ascidium, and the prolongation of the midrib into a lid-like process, are practically confined (in Australia) to the Cape York Peninsula. Mr. F. M. Bailey has described no less than ten new species from this district, all believed to be endemic. Only one non-endemic species {N. phyllamphora, Willd.) is recorded from Australia and the Pacific Islands. Amongst parasitic plants the leafless Cassytha of the Lauraceae, which covers shrubs with a tangled mass of twine, will be certainly seen by the visitor. There are also some native Dodders (Cuscuta), but an imported species {C. Epithymum, MmT.) is a serious pest, particularly to lucerne, and is, as a general rule, treated with severity. With the exception of Cassyiha, which occurs more or less all over the States, the Lauracese are tall trees of the coastal brushes, confined to New South Wales and Queensland, particularly the latter, four species extending to Asia. Sixteen species of Cryptocarya and fifteen of Endiandra have been described. Many of the species of Euphorbiaceae are widely difiused, but some genera, particularly those of Tribe Crotoneae, are predominantly eastern, being found in Queensland or extending to New South Wales. The family includes some doubtful poison plants. The genus Ficus (Moraceae) is almost entirely confined to the brushes of eastern Australia, largely preponderating in Queensland, with many species extending northerly into the Northern Territory, two {F. platypoda, A. Cunn., and orbicularis, A. Cunn.) finding their way into the centre of the continent. Southward a number of species are found in New South Wales. Some of the species are hemi-epiph}i;es, completely obliterating even large trees and fences unless controlled. The whole family has the same general distribution in Australia, being fond of moisture, deep soil, and warmth. There are three species of Laportea (Nettle Tree). Turning to the Orchidaceae, of which Australia has 439 species, there are not many Australian orchids which especially attract the orchid grower. Den- drobium bigibbum, Lindl., B. superbiens, Reichb., D. phalcenopsis, Fitzg. Australian Vegetation. 209 (resembling superbiens), and D. undulatum var. Broomfieldi (a handsome north Australian variety with yellow flowers), D. speciosum, Sm., the "Rock Lily," with lemon yellow flowers, and D. falcorostrum, Fitzg., are certainly meritorious. Sarcochilus Fitzgeraldi, F. v. M., is the most beautiful of the genus, and worthy of cultivation. Caladenia Patersoni, R. Br., is reckoned by some to be the most charming of Australian terrestrial orchids. The Epiphytes are most developed in the brush forests of New South Wales and Queensland ; the terrestrial ones are diffused throughout the States. CalantJie veratrifolia, R. Br., with white flowers, Phaius grandifolius, Lour., var. Bernaysi, with yellow flowers, and Spathoglottis Paulinece, with reddish-brown ones, are handsome large terrestrials. Interesting leafless orchids are Galeola cassythioides, A. Cunn., not rare about Sydney ; G. Ledgeri, F. V. M., a very handsome denizen of the brush forests ; and Gastrodia sesa- moides, Lindl. The approximate number of the Australian species is given as follows : — Caladenia, 56 ; Pmsophyllum, 47 ; Deiidrobium, 45 ; Pterostylis (Green- hoods), 40 ; Thelymitra, 30 {T. gmndiflom, Fitzg., with blue flowers is very handsome) ; Diicris, 25 ; Sarcochilus, 24. Orchids are pre-eminently a family to be studied in the fresh state, with a flora available for reference, and justice cannot be done to these beautiful and interesting plants in the brief space available on the present occasion. Palm^. — The Palms of Australia are confined to the brush forests of Eastern Australia, and are mainly found in Queensland. New South Wales has Calamus Muelleri, Wendl. (a " Lawyer Palm "), Ldnospadix monostachyus, Wendl. and Drude (Walking Stick Palm), Archonotophcenix Cunninghamiana, Wendl. and Drude (Bangalow), and Livistona australis, Mart. (Cabbage Palm), the last extending into eastern Victoria, while L. Marice, F. v. M., the only palm of the interior, is found in the Macdonnell Ranges of South Australia. Queensland has six species of Calamus, six of Livistona, two of Bacularia, two of Guluhia, one each of Cdlyptrocalyx, Drymophlaeus, Areca, Cocos (the Coco-nut), Caryota, Licuala, Gorypha, and Borassus. The student of palms will be charmed with Queensland, and he will also find several Pandani and Freycinetias in the same State, only one Pandanus {pedunculatus, R. Br.) extending south down the New South Wales coast. C. 12154. 210 Federal Handbook. CHAPTER VI. THE ANIMAL LIFE OF AUSTRALIA. By W. A. Haswell, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., Professor of Biology in the University of Sydney. SYNOPSIS. 1. Introduction. 4. Reptiles. 2. The Mammals. , 5. Amphibia. (a) The Monotremes. 6. Fresh- Water Fishes. (h) The Marsupials^ 7. Mollusca of the Land and the The Question of Degenera- Fresh-Water. TiON; The Families of Aus- 8. Crustaceans. tralian Marsupials ; Rela- 9. Insects. TiONSHiPS. 10. Scorpions and Spiders. (c) Non-Marsupial Mammals. 11. Centipedes and Millepedes. 3. Birds— 12. Worms, Leeches, etc. Peculiar and Characteristic Fashlies. 1. Introduction. In view of the narrow limits necessarily imposed, I have considered it best not only to restrict the following statements to the animals of the land and fresh water, leaving the marine fauna untouched, but also to leave out of account a number of terrestrial and aquatic groups, which, however important and interesting, are not known to contribute any characteristic features to the Australian fauna. Thus the Protozoa, the Parasitic Worms, the Rotifers, certain orders of Insects and Arachnida, and certain orders of Bu'ds, though quite as extensively developed in this region as in others, are not referred to in the following survey. The features distinguishing the fauna of Australia from that of the other main divisions of the earth's surface are by no means confined to the larger and more conspicuous animals. Many of the lower groups, in spite of the presence throughout most of them of cosmopolitan or widely-distributed forms, have their characteristic Australian facies. 2. The Mammals. It is the Mammals, however, that constitute, on the whole, the most in- teresting part of the Australian fauna — Lateresting not only on account of their peculiarities of structure and mode of life, but also on account of the fact that in their case more than in that of any of the other groups, it is possible through fossil remains to trace their history in past geological periods, and from this, together with their present distribution, to draw deductions of importance regarding changes in the arrangement of the land- surfaces of the globe in the less remote geological periods. The entire Australian mammalian fauna, with the exception of the Dingo or Native Dog, a few Rodents, a number of Bats, including Fruit-eating Bats or Flying Foxes, and in the sea the Seals and Whales and Dugongs, is composed of Marsupials and Monotremes. Animal Life op Australia. 2U (a) The Monotremes. The most primitive of all the orders of Mammals — the Monotremes — are entirely confined to Australia, including Tasmania, and New Guinea. Not only is this the case, but there is no evidence of any members of this primitive group having existed in other parts of the world later than, at the latest, the oldest division (Lower Eocene) of the Tertiary period. It is possible, as held by some, that all the Mammals, remains of which, chiefly in the shape of lower jaws with teeth, have been found in Mesozoic strata in Europe, were near allies of the existing Australian Monotremes. But, be this as it may, there is good evidence from the resemblance in their tooth-structure to the living Ornitho- rhynchus that the small European ilesozoic Mammals known as the Multi- tuherculata were the ancestors of the Australian Monotremes. It is somewhat remarkable that no remains capable of being referred to the Monotremes or their supposed ancestors have up to the present been found in any part of the world but Europe and North America on the one hand, and Australia on the other. Little is known with regard to the structure of the long-extinct Multi- tuberculates, but what is known does not point to any high degree of speciahzation, except in so far as the teeth are concerned. The living Mono- tremes — the Platypus or Duck-bill [Ornithorhynchus) and the Spiny Ant- eater {Echidna) — on the other hand, are extremely specialized, and must differ very widely from their supposed ancestors. Both are very remarkable creatures, and remarkable in very different ways, for, though their relationship in essentials — in the structure of their shoulder-girdle, for example, and in their oviparity with all that goes with it — is indisputable, their divergence in more superficial points is extreme. The resemblances are confined super- ficially to the general shape of the trunk, to the presence of short thick limbs, all provided (except in the Papuan Pro-Echichm) with the full complement of five digits, which are sub-equal and have strong claws, with a horny spur on the inner side of the hind foot, in addition to the elongation of the snout region into a kind of beak. In other respects the differences are very marked. The Platypus is covered with a fine close fur. The upper jaw is not unlike the beak of a Duck in general appearance, and is covered with a hairless, leathery-looking integument, which is developed into a free flap at the base \n front of the eyes. Both fore and hind limbs are short, and each comprises Hve digits connected by a web of skin, but provided with strong claws, so that they are adapted both for swimming and for burrowing. In the male there is a sharp horny spur, provided with a gland, on the inner side of the foot. The tail is long and furry. The Spiny Ant-eater {Echidna), on the other hand, has the upper surface of the body covered with strong pointed spines like those of a Hedgehog, hut larger, with coarse hairs in between. The snout is very narrow and the tail is rudimentary. The digits, which are specially powerful in the fore feet, are not connected by webs. Echidna and Ornithorhynchus are both animals the study of which in their native haunts is difficult. Their habits are nocturnal, and they remain for the most part securely concealed during the day. The food of Echidna under natural conditions consists of ants, for the capture of which its long and narrow tongue is spfcijilly adapted. It possesses no truce of teeth at any 212 Federal Handbook. stage. During the day it is rarely seen in the open, hiding away in holes among rocks or about the roots of trees. If alarmed during its rare wanderings abroad in the day-time it rapidly buries itself by burrowing downwards. The Platypus spends most of its active life in fresh-wate pools and streams, swimming and diving with dexterity, and seeking its food, in the shape of molluscs, insect-larvse, and the like, among the water-weeds, using its beak as a Duck uses its bill for seeking out such objects, which are then stored in cheek-pouches, to be afterwards crushed between the broad horny plates that do duty for teeth in the adult. The Platypus, like Echidna, is hard to find even in districts where it is abundant, since it retires during the day to a burrow excavated in the banks of the stream, and, when in the water, shows very little above the surface. Though the adult Platypus has no teeth, well-developed teeth are formed in the young, and persist for a considerable time. The peculiar structure of these teeth has led to the conclusion, already referred to, that the nearest known relatives of the Monotremes are the extinct Mesozoic and Lower Eocene Multituherculata. OrniiJwrhynchus and Echidna are oviparous. Echidna produces usually only one egg in a season ; this it carries about and iucubates in a temporarily- formed pouch into which the ducts of the mammary glands open, and, after the young Echidna is hatched, it is carried about in the pouch for a considerable time. The Platypus has no pouch, and the two eggs usually produced are deposited in the interior of the burrow, where the young are hatched. Both Platypus and Echidna are still fairly abundant in some parts of the Commonwealth, though the numbers of the former have been reduced owing to the demand for their pelts, which are highly valued. Both are, nominally at least, protected by legislative enactment. Neither can be said to be in any immediate danger of extinction ; and, owing to the disappearance of the aboriginals, formerly their chief enemies, in most districts, the Echidnas are probably rather increasing than diminishing in numbers in some parts. Echidna ranges over all parts of the Continent, Tasmania, and parts of New Guinea. (b) The Marsupials. The Australian region is peculiarly the home of the Marsupials at the present day, and in it, as has been frequently pointed out, owing to their having remained for a long period practically undisturbed by aggression or competition at the hands of the higher orders, they have been able to adapt themselves to a great variety of widely differing modes of life. These adapta- tions have resulted in the evolution of a number of families which show a distinct parallelism to certain of the groups of the Eutheria or higher Mammals. Thus the Kangaroos and Wallabies, herbivorous Mammals with the limbs adapted for swift locomotion on the ground, are the Marsupial parallels of the Deer and other Euminants. The arboreal Phalangers and Koalas may be compared to the arboreal Lemurs and Monkeys. The Flying Pha- langers are comparable to the Flying Squirrels. The Bandicoots, on the one hand, and the Wombats on the other, mimic some of the famiUes of Eodents. The carnivorous Native Cats, Tasmanian Devil, and Thylacine parallel some Animal Life of Australia. 213 of the groups of the true Cartiivora, wliile the Moles among the Insectivora find an analogue among the Marsupials in the Notoryctes or Marsupial Mole of the Australian desert. When we take this high degree of specialization into account, it is difficult to believe that the Marsupials are a degenerate race. Yet some of the zoologists who have given most attention to the subject are of the opinion that the existing members of the order have been derived from ancestors more highly organized than themselves in certain important respects. One part of the evidence on which this view is founded is concerned with the dentition. Germs of three sets of teeth are developed in young Marsupials ; but of these three sets of germs only one gives rise to a set of fully-formed teeth — the teeth of the adult. If the latter are the persistent milk-teeth, as some com- parative anatomists suppose, then one of the sets that remain undeveloped may be regarded as corresponding to the permanent teeth of higher Mammals ; and, should this be correct, then degeneration, as regards the teeth, has certainly taken place in the Marsupials. But the presence of the two abortive sets of tooth-germs does not necessarily point to such a conclusion ; it may very well be interpreted as pointing not to degeneration from higher Mammals, but to progressive development from lower forms in which three, or more, sets of teeth succeeded one another during the life of the animal. Another fact that has been looked upon as favouring the theory of de- generation is the singular one that only one Marsupial, so far as known, — the Bandicoot, Perameles, as discovered by J. P. Hill — has a true or allantoic placenta, such as is universally present, as the organ for the absorption of nutriment by the unborn young, in all higher Mammals without exception. The explanation of this anomaly afforded by a theory of degeneration — viz., that Marsupials in general once possessed a placenta, and that it has become degenerated and lost in all except Perameles is, however, not the only one that might be given. Almost as well might one argue that since among the Lizards one form, viz., Seps, has an allantoic placenta, all the others have previously possessed this structure, but have lost it as a result of degeneration. It is perhaps quite as probable that the placenta has been independently evolved in the Marsupials and in the ancestors of the higher Mammals. A third fact that has been supposed to point to degeneration is that the oldest known extinct Australian Marsupial, Wynyardia, described by Baldwin Spencer from deposits of Eocene age in Tasmania, has a cranial cavity, and presumably possessed a brain, larger in proportion than those of the living forms. The Marsupials are divisible into two main sections or sub-orders — the Diprotodontia and the Polyprotodontia. The Diprotodontia have two large incisor teeth in the lower jaw, and usually six (three on each side) in the upper ; and they all have the second and third toes (usually much smaller than the others) united by a web of skin (syndactylous) ; while the Polypro- todontia, which are carnivorous or insectivorous for the most part, have numerous incisors (four or five pairs) in the upper jaw, and rather fewer in the lower, and, with the exception of the Bandicoots, are not syndactylous. If we leave out of account the doubtful case of the South American Ccenolestes and allied extinct forms from the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia, the Diprotodonts are exclusively Australian at the present time, and there 214 Fedetial "Randbook. is no evidence tliat they ever existed in any other region. There are three families of Diprotodonts — the Kangaroo family {MacropodidcE), the Wombat family {PhascolomyidcB) and the Phalanger family (PhalangeridcE). The first includes, in addition to the Kangaroos, the Tree Kangaroos, the Wallabies, the Rock Wallabies, Hare-Wallabies, and Rat-Kangaroos, ranging in length of head and body from 5 ft. 5 in. in the case of the large Kangaroos, down to 10 inches in the case of the Musk Rat {Hijjjsiprymnodon moschatus). There are at least foyr species of Kangaroos {i.e., of the large species of Macropus) inhabiting chiefly the more central parts of the various States, and two of them also occurring in small numbers in the arid Central Australia. The commonest is the Giant Kangaroo [Macropus gigas) which does not extend to Central Australia, but is found all over the rest of the Continent, except the far north, a variety of the species, now very rare, occurring also in Tasmania. The Wombats {PhascolomyidcB), thick-set in body, short in legs, practi- cally tailless, and clumsy in movement, contrast strongly with the agile and graceful Kangaroos and Wallabies. Their front teeth are very rodent-like, and they have been not inaptly described as resembling Beavers in general appearance without the well-developed tails of the latter animals. The short and very stout limbs are provided with powerful claws, which enable the animal to excavate large burrows in which it usually lies hidden during the day-time. It employs its burrowing powers also in procuring the roots of ferns and other plants which form the staple of its food. The most widelv distributed species is Phascolomys mitchelli, which is found in New Soutli Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. A second species {P. ursinus) is confined to Tasmania and the islands of Bass Strait, while a third (P. latijrons) occurs in South Australia. The family Phalangeridw includes, in addition to the Phalangers, almost universally known as " Opossums " in Australia, the Koala or Native Bear. Of the latter there is only a single species {Phascolarctus cinereus) which is common all over Eastern Australia. It is almost as completely arboreal in its habits as the Sloth, which it resembles also in its slow and deliberate movements. Both hand and foot are prehensile, and the digits are provided with strong curved claws ; the tail is vestigial. The food of the Koala is composed almost exclusively of leaves of Eucalypti. During the day it usually rests asleep in a forked branch. The Phalangers are slighter in the body than the Koala, and have similar prehensile limbs, but are provided with a long tail which is usually prehensile. The commonest species is Trichosurus vidpecula, which is found over all Australia with the exception of the Cape York District. The common Tas- manian Opossum is a somewhat larger variety of the same species with darker and thicker fur. A second species — the Short-eared Opossum — T. caninus — is not so widely distributed, being found in Southern Queensland, New South Wales, parts of Victoria, Tasmania, and the islands of Bass Straits. The Ring-tailed Opossums {Pseudochirus) are similar to the Opossums, but smaller. The Flying Opossums (" Fl}ang Squirrels ") differ from the Opossums in the possession, like the true Flpng Squirrels, of a fold of skin extending on each side of the body from fore limb to hind limb, and forming a parachute enabling the animal to glide through the air fi'om one branch Animal Life of Australia. 215 of a tree to another. Of these the largest is the Greater Flying Opossum (Petauroides volans), which occurs throughout Eastern Australia. The smallest is the Pigmy Flying Opossum {Acrobates pi/gmains), of about the size of a mouse. Also mouse-like in size and general appearance is the Long-snouted Pouched Mouse {Tarsipes rostratus) which is peculiar among the Marsupials in feeding with the aid of its long tongue on the honey of flowers as well as on insects. Tarsipes has only been found in Western Australia. One of the rarest and most interesting of the Australian Pohjprotodonts is the little Banded Ant-eater {Myrmecobius fasciatus) of South and Western Australia. Of the size of a large Rat, the Banded Ant-eater has a slender squirrel-like body, a pointed snout with a long narrow tongue, well-developed claws on the five digits of the fore foot and the four of the hind foot, and a long bushy tail. The coarse, reddish fur of the upper surface is crossed by eight or nine light transverse bands. The teeth are remarkable on account both of their great number — 62 altogether, a larger number than in any other living land Mammal — -and of the close resemblance between them and the teeth of certain of the oldest known fossil Mammals, the remains of which have been found in European Jurassic beds. Though a Marsupial in all other essential respects, Myrmecobius is devoid of the characteristic pouch or marsupium which occurs in all the rest of the Australian members of the order. Of the family Dasyuridce the Native Cats (genus Dasyarus) comprise five species of carnivorous, marten-like, partly terrestrial, partly arboreal Marsupials, the largest of which, the Tiger-cat {Dasyuriis maculatus) is about 3J feet in total length. They have all brownish or yellowish-grey fur with white spots. The most widely-distributed of the Native Cats is Dasyurus viverrinus, which occurs in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. A number of smaller, rat-like or mouse-like forms are also comprised in the family. To the same family are also referred the Tasmanian Devil and the Thyla- cine. The Tasmania Devil {Sarcophilus ursinus), now confined to Tasmania, but formerly — ^probably at a period when Tasmania was a peninsula — living also i;i continental Australia, is a fierce little animal which in general appear- ance, with its thick snout and thick-set body, has been compared to a small Bear. The limbs are like those of the Native Cats, but stronger, with five clawed digits in the fore and four in the hind foot. The fur is black, with sundry patches of white. The Thylacine or Tasmanian Wolf {Thylacinus cynocephalus), like Sarco- philus, is now confined to Tasmania, though formerly occurring on the mainland. Thylacinus is a large dog-like carnivorous Marsupial of a grey colour, with a number of transverse blackish stripes on the hinder part of the body. It is said to find its nearest relatives in certain fossil forms {Fro- thylacinus and others), in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. Both the Devil and the Wolf have been driven back to the very wildest and roughest parts of Tasmania, and are becoming very scarce. The Bandicoot family {Peramelido}) are Polyprotodonts which resemble the Diprotodonts in having the second and third toes of the hind foot syn- dactylous, i.e., united together by a web of skin. They are rabbit-like. 216 Federal Handbook, burrowing, omnivorous, with two or three of the middle digits of the fore foot long and clawed, the others rudimentaiy ; with the first toe (hallux) of the hind foot absent or rudimentary, the second and third slender and united, the fourth the largest, with a large claw, and the fifth smaller ; the tail narrow and sometimes bare like that of a Rat, sometimes scantily haired, sometimes provided with a brush of long hairs. The common Bandicoots belong to the genus Perameles, of which there are six species, the most widely distributed being P. obesula, occurring all over Australia south of the Tropics and in Tasmania. Bandicoots are extremely common in some parts of the country, even in the neighbourhood of large towns. They are not frequently seen, as they hide away dm-ing the day ; but traces of their presence in localities where they abound are usually to be observed in the shape of the numerous shallow burrows which they excavate in search of the roots and the earthworms and grubs which constitute their chief food. The Rabbit Bandicoot {Peragale lagotis) occurs in South and Western Australia and in the Centre. The name is derived from the long ears, which are not unlike those of a rabbit or a hare. Still rarer is the Pig-footed Bandi- coot {ChcBropus castanotis), also with prominent ears and with very slender feet ; it is confined to the far-inland parts of the continent. Of all the Polyprotodonts the most remarkably modified is the little Marsupial Mole [Notoryctes typJilops) of Central Australia. The head and trunk together are about 6 inches long, the head passing into the trunk without definite neck : the trunk is flattened, the surface covered with a soft silky fur. The snout is protected above by a hard horny shield, and the tail, which is short, is enclosed in a hardened integument marked with a number of rings. The eyes are quite vestigial and functionless ; the ear has no pinna. The limbs are short and powerful, with five digits in each, all provided with claws, those of the third and fourth digits of the fore foot being enormously developed. Notoryctes does not seem to form per- manent burrows, but moves along under the surface through loose sand with marvellous speed. Its food consists mainly of ants captured under- ground. The only Marsupials now living outside the Australian region are the Marsupials of America ; and these belong, with only one exception, to a family of Polyprotodonts, the DidelphyidcB, or Opossums, which are not represented in Australia either in the living or the fossil condition. The one exception is a small rat-like animal — Ccenolestes — found in Bolivia and Ecuador. This has some claims to be regarded as a Diprotodont of the same type as the Diprotodonts of Australia : but the resemblances may perhaps be ascribable rather to convergent evolution than to near relationship. The upper teeth of Ccenolestes are Polyprotodont, while the lower are Diprotodont, and the skull does not show special Diprotodont features. There is no syndactylism. The Cretaceous mammalian remains known as Triconodonts and Tri- tuberculates may have been Marsupials ; but the evidence for such a con- clusion is not complete, and, in any case, it is impossible to connect them definitely with any of the living Marsupial families. The only family of recent Marsupials which has a history traceable with any degree of certainty back Animal Life of Australia. 217 to the Mesozoic period is the DidelphyidcB of America. Remains of Marsupials belonging to this family, or of forms regarded on good evidence as having been its precursors, occur in Cretaceous beds in North America. In the Ter- tiary of Europe and of North Amierica the DidelphyidcB were represented by many species scarcely, if at all, to be distinguished from the living genus Didelphys. The European DidelphyidcB ranged from the Eocene through the Oligocene to the beginning of the Miocene, where they completely dis- appeared. In North America they became extinct in the Oligocene — those livmg in that country at the present day bemg evidently comparatively recent immigrr.nts from the south. In South America the Didelphyid stock appears to have been abundantly represented by small forms {Microhiotheridce) in the Miocene of the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia ; but is probably to be traced much further back, to the Upper Cretaceous or lowest Eocene, on the evidence of a single fossil (Proteodidelphys) . In the Santa Cruz beds, in addition to a number of forms of small Mar- supials {Epanorthidce , Abderitidcp, Cccnolestidce), more or less nearly allied to the living Ccenolestes, is a family of Polyprotodonts {Sparassodontidce, including Prothylacinus), which seem to find their nearest allies in the living Tasmanian Thylacine. In Pleistocene times Australia was populated with Marsupials, many of which belonged to genera that still survive, others to extinct genera referable to existing families. Many of both types were of gigantic size, the largest of the extinct genera being Diprotodon, Nototherium, and Thylacoleo. Dipro- todon, the largest Marsupial known, was intermediate in its structure between the Phalangers and Kangaroos. AH these Pleistocene forms were definitely Diprotodont or definitely Polyjjrotodont. Wynyardia, from an older horizon, seems to have resembled the South American Csenolestoids in combining Diprotodont and Polyprotodont features. South America and Australia have thus been, so far as known, the sole centres of Marsupial evolution since the primitive Didelphyid stock became extinct in Europe and North America. And it seems to be clearly established, in view of the relationships between the Marsupial fauna, living and extinct, of South America and that of Australia, that at some period antecedent to the Pliocene, Australia and South America were in much closer connection than they are at the present day. If we leave the case of Thylacinus and the Sparassodonts out of account as at present undetermined, the main body of the evidence seems to point not to any direct derivation of the one fauna trom the other, but rather to their origination in a common centre, the spreading out from this, east and west, of the two sets of primitive forms destined to give rise respectively to the American and to Austialian Marsupial fauna, the eventual complete geographical separation of the two with the disappearance of the centre of origin, their arrival in South America and Australia respectively, and their further evolution there since Miocene times. Whether the primitive forms reached the original, now long submerged, centre of dispersal through South America or through Austialia remains an open question. The absence of Marsupials and Marsupial remains in Asia, and the absence of any trace of Didelphyoid forms in Australian deposits would seem to point rather to the former conclusion. 218 Federal Handbook. (c) Non=MarsupiaI Mammals. The Dingo or Native Dog {Canis dingo) is one of the few indigenous Mammals of Australia that are not Marsupials. The Dingo is a wild dog of about the size of a collie, which ranges all over continental Australia in the less frequented districts, and, hunting singly, or in twos and threes, or small bands of five or six, works much devastation among the flocks and herds and in the poultry runs. The Dingo is frequently reared from puppyhood by the aborigines, but never becomes really tamed or fully domesticated, and, though clever in finding and tracking game of all kinds, is not of much direct vise to its masters. Remains of the Dingo have been found mixed with the bones of extinct Marsupials — Diprotodon, Nototherium, and Tliylacoleo — so that it is an ancient inhabitant of the country — much more ancient than Man, so far as existing evidence shows. It is a remarkable fact that the Dingo does not occur in Tasmania, and never seems to have reached that country, since no remains of it have been found there, though it flourished on the mainland perhaps even at the time when Tasmania was not an island, but a peninsula. The survival of the Thylacine and Sarcophilus in Tasmania is doubtless due to this circumstance, since on the mainland these carnivorous Marsupials became extinct in Pleistocene times. Other non-marsupial Mammals are a number of species of Rats and Mice (genus Mus of the order Rodentia) and other rat-like Rodents. The largest of these is a Water-rat {Hydramys clirysog aster), which reaches a length of some 20 inches. Very curious in their adoption of an attitude and mode of progression similar to those of the Kangaroos and Wallabies are the so- called " Jerboa " Rats. The genus to which these belong (Conilurus) is peculiar to Australia, though other Rodent genera — the original Jer- boas — presenting a parallel modification, are distributed in Asia and Africa. Australia also contains a considerable number of Bats of various kinds (order Chiroptem). The largest of these are the widely-distributed Fruit- eating Bats or Flying Foxes [Pteropodidce), a family which also occurs in Africa and Southern Asia, as well as in Fiji and Samoa. These large Bats, (popularly known as " Flying Foxes " on account of their Fox -like heads and reddish fur), with a spread of wings of about 3 to 5 feet, are capable of swift and prolonged flight, and travel long distances from their diurnal haunts in remote gorges in the mountains to their feeding grounds in districts where fruit is to be obtained. During the day they rest suspended by their claws from branches of trees with the head downwards, congregating together in " camps " or " rookeries " sometimes containing thousands of individuals. At dusk they fly abroad in search of food, and often work great havoc in orchards. Of the Insectivorous Bats some twenty-five species are represented in Australia, a few being forms of wide distribution, while the rest are confined to Australia, and in many cases to particular parts of the Commonwealth. One genus, Rhinonycteris, represented by a single species, seems to be confined to North and North-west Australia. Animal Life of Australia. 219 3. Birds. The Bird fauna of Australia is exceedingly rich both in regard to the total number of species (about 800), the high proportion of endemic forms, and the number of interesting and peculiar groups. Here Alfred Eussell Wallace may be quoted. He writes {Geographical Distribution of Animals, vol. I., p. 391), " The t}^ical Australian region is almost as well defined by its birds as by its mammalia ; but in this case the deficiencies are less con- spicuous, while the peculiar and characteristic families are numerous and important. The most marked deficiency as regards widespread families, is the total absence of Fringillidse (True Finches), Picidse (Woodpeckers), Vulturidfe (Vultures), and Phasianidse* (Pheasants), and among prevalent Oriental groups, Pycnonotidae (Bulbuls), Phyllornithidae (Green Bulbuls), and Megalaemidse (Barbets), are families whose absence is significant." No fewer than five families of birds are to all intents and purposes con- fined to the Australian region ; and a number of others, though not so restricted, are so specially developed in it as to constitute striking features of the fauna. Of the families practically restricted to the region two of the most interesting are those of the Cassowaries {Casuariidce) and Emus {DromceidcB). The Australian Cassowary {Casicarius australis) is confined to Northern Queensland, while the Emu [Drommus novce hollandice) is of wide distribution in continental Australia, but the Tasmanian form {D. diemenensis) became extinct about half-a-century ago. Another species of Emu {D. parvulus) lived on Kangaroo Island, ofi St. Vincent's Gulf, and the bones of yet another {D. minor) have been found on King Island in Bass Strait. Emus have been di'iven back by settlement and cultivation, and have become extirpated in many districts in which they were once abundant. But they are still numerous enough in the plains and open forest country in many parts of the continent, though in order to see them in any abundance it is necessary to travel far back from the more populous centres. This characteristic bird is almost too well known to require description. Though larger than the Cassowary, it is much smaller than the African Ostrich, the full-grown bird reaching a height of about 5 feet. The Emu and the Cassowary both differ from the Ostrich in the possession of three toes instead of only two, and in the absence of the characteristic large plumes on the wings and tail, all the contour-feathers being long, narrow, and forked. The Emus do not possess the prominent helmet-like excrescence present on the head of the Cassowary, and also are devoid of the wattles and brightlv- coloured naked spaces on the neck. Emus go in pairs except after the breediutr season, when a number may congregate together. They feed largely on grasses and herbage, and on roots and fruits. In spring the eggs are laid to the number of as many as forty in a hollow made in the ground or in u loosely-constructed nest. The dark-green eggs are familiar objects in the shops of dealers in curiosities. Another peculiar family of birds almost confined to the Australian ie world, have their head-quarters in Australia. Those gigantic members of the group, the " Kookaburras " or " Laughing Jackasses " {Dacelo gigas and other 224 Federal Handbook. species), range all over Australia, except over the more arid parts of the interior, where there is little bird-life of any kind. Outside Australia they occur only in Southern New Guinea. The common Kookaburra {Dxcelo gigas) extends over Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is one of the largest of the Kingfisher tribe, with a total length of about 17 inches. A second species, Dcicelo leachii, occurs in Queensland and in the Northern Territory ; while a third, D. cervina, inhabits Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and the northern parts of Queensland. Kookaburras are not frequenters of streams like typical Kingfishers, and do not feed on fish. They are to be found in all parts of the bush — ^more especi- ally in the prevailing open forest country — and their food consists of lizards and snakes, small mammals and birds, and large insects, such as cicadas and locusts. Their most remarkable peculiarity is their extraordinary laughing cry, usually uttered in a duet or chorus, especially frequent and noisy at sunrise and sunset. Half-a-dozen Kingfishers of smaller size also occur. The commonest of these, the Sacred Kingfisher {Halcyon sanctus) is to be found all over Australia, and extends to New Guinea, Sumatra, and the New Hebrides. Like the Kookaburras, it is by no means confined to the neighbourhood of water, and it does not dive into water after fish, but feeds on insects and crustaceans, small lizards, and snakes. Some of the other species are typical Kingfishers in appearance and habits, and are seldom to be seen except along the course of streams. The Australian Birds of Prey, though numerous, present few characteristic features. The Australian Harriers, Goshawks, Sparrow Hawks, Eagles, Sea Eagles, Kites, Falcons, Kestrels, Ospreys, and Owls are not, save in small particulars, different from the corresponding birds of other regions, and belong to the same or to nearly related genera. Vultures are not represented. The largest Australian Bird of Prey is the Wedge-tailed Eagle, or " Eagle- hawk " {Aquila or UrocBtus audax), which is rather larger than the European Golden Eagle. This is by no means a rare bird ; in fact, its numbers some- times render it so formidable to the young lambs in pastoral districts that poisoning is resorted to, and large numbers are destroyed. On the other hand, the Wedge-tailed Eagle does a good work in destroying many rabbits. Unlike the Golden Eagle the Wedge-tailed Eagle is by no means averse to feeding on dead animals which are in a well-advanced stage of putridity. 4. Reptiles. Of the Reptiles Australia possesses but a poor fauna so far as the Tor- toises {Chelonia) and Crocodiles {Crocodilia) are concerned, while the Lizards [Lacertilia) and Snakes {Ophidia) are much more numerous. The Tortoises all belong to a family, the Chelydidce, occurring elsewhere only in South America. The genus Chelodina comprises three species in Australia and one in New Guinea. Of the Australian species G. longicollis, the Long-necked Tortoise, inhabits the fresh waters of all the southern part of continental Australia. There are two species of Crocodile, both confined to the Tropics (Northern Queensland). One of these {Crocodilus porosics) which lives in estuaries and readily ventures out to sea, is a widely distributed Indian and Malayan Animal Life of Australia. 225 species, which reaches an immense size in some of the rivers of North Queens- land. The other (C johnstoni), which does not reach a greater length than 6 or 7 feet, is also confined to rivers of the tropical north, but does not go down into salt water. The Lizards of Australia are very numerous, but present few marked characters. Geckos and Skinks, generally distributed in other regions, are represented by a number of genera and species. Of the Skinks one charac- teristic form, which is distributed over the Australian continent, is the Shingle- back or Stump-tailed Lizard {Trachjsaurus riigosus), the only species of a genus which does not occur outside Australia. This was one of the few Australian animals noticed by Dampier in his famous visit to Western Aus- tralia in 1699. Another much commoner member of the Skink family is the large sluggish smooth-scaled Blue-tongue [Tiliqua scincoides). The commonest, small, long-tailed Lizards, with habits like those of the European species of Lacerta, are also members of the Skink family (various species of Lygosoma or Hinulia). Allied to the Skink tribe is a family of snake-like Lizards, the Pygopidce, entirely confined to Australia and Tasmania with, perhaps. New Guinea. They are limbless, or practically limbless, Lizards often mistaken for Snakes, and found in all parts, living in holes in the ground or under stones, and coming out to feed usually in the evenings. The largest of these snake-like forms are about 2 feet long. One of the families of Lizards best represented in the Australian fauna is that of the Agamidce, which contains a number of characteristic forms. One of its most remarkable members is the Frill Lizard {Chlamydosaurus Kingi), of Queensland and northern and north-western Australia. The most striking feature of this Lizard, which grows to 3 feet in length, is the wide frill-like flap of skin on either side of the neck, which the animal erects when alarmed, by means of long rib-like extensions of the hyoid apparatus. The Frill-lizard when pursued runs in a semi-erect position on the hind limbs with the fore limbs clear of the ground ; but soon turns at bay, spreading out the frill to its full extent, and opening its mouth widely, at the same time emitting a peculiar hissing sound which adds to the alarming effect of its attitude. Belonging to the same family are the various species of Amphibolurus or " Dragons," a genus confined to Australia. These are small-scaled Lizards with extremely long narrow tail, and frequently with crests or rows of spines along the back. One of the largest is the widely-distributed Jew Lizard (A. harhatus), which reaches 21 inches in length, and owes its specific name to the possession of a fringe of spines (" beard ") behind the ears and on the lower jaw. A striking ally of these is the Water Dragon {Physignathus lesueuri), which may be 3 feet in length, and has an elongated compressed tail, and a prominent crest along the neck and back. The Water Dragon is very common along the banks of creeks in the whole of Eastern Australia. The genus occurs also in New Guinea and neiglibouiiiig islands, in Siam, and in Cochin China. The most grotesque of all the Agamida) is Moloch horridus of Western Australia, which, with its spiny head and body, has a curious superficial C. 12154. P 226 Federal Handbook. resemblance to the misleadingly-named " Horned Toads " of North America, members of a family of Lizards, the Iguanidae, not represented at all in Aus- tralia. The largest of all the Australian Lizards, and one of the best known and most widely distributed, is Varanus gouldi, the Lace Lizard, often termed " Iguana " or " Goana," which sometimes reaches a length of 5 feet. This Lizard has nothing to do with the true Iguanas, which are an essentially American group ; but belongs to the family of the Monitors (Varanidce), which are of very wide occurrence. It is a long-tailed, long-necked Lizard, blackish brown above, with yellow spots on the body and yellow rings round the tail, yellow below. The Lace Lizard lives much in trees, which it climbs in search of the eggs and nestlings of birds. It frequently raids fowl-runs for the eggs and young chicks. But it will devour any animal, living or dead, that comes in its way. Australia possesses numerous Snakes, some venomous, some non-venomous. Among the venomous kinds none belong to the Viper family, all being members of the Elapine section of the family Colubridce, a group of snakes of wide distribution, occurring not only in Australia, but over Africa, Southern Asia and the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and Central and South America. One of the commonest of these is the Black Snake {Pseudechis porphyriacus), which occurs all over Australia, except in the north and in Tasmania. The Black Snake, which may reach a length of upwards of 6 feet, is commonly found in swampy districts or along the banks of creeks and rivers. It is readily recognised by the red under surface. The Copper- headed Snake {Denisonia superha) (the popular name of which is derived from the colour of the head in the young animal) chiefly frequents swamps in Tasmania, Gippsland, and the Alps of Southern New South Wales. The Tiger Snake {Notechis scutatus), of about the same size as the Black Snake or rather smaller on the average, is also widely distributed on the mainland in comparatively dry country, and occurs also in Tasmania. This, the deadliest of the Australian venomous snakes, derives its popular name from the numerous dark bands crossing the back. The Brown Snake {Diemenia textilis), also very venomous, is also of widespread occurrence. It is uni- formly brown above in the adult condition, whitish below. The so-called Death Adder {Acanthophis antarcticus) is found in sandy localities nearly all over Australia, and occurs also in New Guinea. It is a small thick snake, rarely as much as 3 feet long, with fine mottling of brown, reddish, and yellow on the upper surface, with darker cross bands. The horny spine at the end of the tail, which gives its name to the genus and is often supposed to be of the nature of a sting, is perhaps used as a fulcrum in locomotion. Of the non-venomous snakes the largest by far are the Variegated Pythons {Python variegatus), commonly known as Carpet Snake and Diamond Snake. Of the two varieties of this species the Carpet Snake is the larger, not infrequently reaching a length of 12 feet, while even larger specimens are occasionally met with. Its popular name is derived from the irregular pattern of dark markings on the pale-brownish ground colour of the upper surface. The Diamond variety is darker, almost black, with a yellow spot on each scale and diamond-shaped groups of yellow spots at irregular intervals. The Carpet Snake occurs over Australia generally, but is absent in the south Animal Life op Australia. 227 of Victoria and in Tasmania. The Diamond Snake occurs only in parts of New South Wales and Queensland. The food in both cases consists of the smaller mammals and of birds. Among the other non-venomous snakes are the Fresh-water Snakes {Tropidonotus picturatus) of Eastern Australia, and the Green Tree Snakes, of which there are two species — Dendrophis calligaster, of Northern Queens- land, and the widely distributed D. punctulatus. The harmless little burrowing Blind Snakes of the family TyphlopidcB are numerous. The family is of wide distribution in tropical and semi-tropical countries. 5. Amphibia. The Amphibian fauna of Australia is characterized by an abundance of Frogs and Toads, and by a somewhat singular absence of the tailed Newts and Salamanders, represented abundantly in other regions, and of the snake- like CseciUans {Gymnophiona, Apoda), which occur in other warm countries. None of the many species of Frogs belong to the genus Rana, to which the common English frog belongs, with the exception of a single species found in the Cape York Peninsula in the extreme north of Queensland — a district which shows many other anomalies in its fauna due to migration from the north. The majority of the Australian Frogs are either Tree-frogs {Hylidce), or belong to a family, the Cystignathidte, which has no European represen- tatives, but contains many South American forms. Thirteen out of the sixteen genera that occur in Australia are peculiar to it. The family Engy- stomatidcB, well represented in America, Africa, Madagascar, India, the Malay Archipelago, and New Guinea, has been recently recorded from the Cape York District. Not only are Frogs very abundant in all the habitable parts of Australia, but they extend also into Central Australia, a region which for long periods is quite rainless. Here Spencer found several species, all similar to those occurring in regions of higher rainfall, but showing in their habits and mode of life a special adaptation to the dry conditions under which they live for the greater part of the year. The frog most commonly seen in most parts of Australia is the web-footed, brilliantly-coloured, green and golden Bell Frog {Hyla aurea), which, though a tree-frog in structure, is rarely found in trees or even bushes, but lives in or about swamps, water-holes, and streams. Equally common in many parts, though not so frequently seen except at the breeding season owing to its nocturnal and burrowing habits, is a cystignathid frog Limnodynastes peronii. Another species of Hyla, the large bright-green Hyla caerulca, is not uncommon in many parts. The largest Australian frog of all is the Barred River Frog {Mixophyes fasciatus), which occurs along rivers and creeks in Eastern Australia. Perhaps the most interesting of the Amphibia are the small cystignathid frogs and toadlets, such as Crinia signijera, Hyperolia marmorata, and others, which are to be found lurking under stones in moist places or in holes and crannies in soil or rock. The most brilliantly-coloured of these, as of all the Australian Amphibia, is the little Notaden hennetti, with its rich pattern of bright yellow, red, green, black, and white. The spawn of Australian frogs is, in most cases, very similar to that of the English frog (Rana temporaria), except that in some forms it is not deposited 228 Federal Handbook. in large masses in water, but is laid in small clumps under stones or tufts of herbage in the neighbourhood of water. The stages of the development are also closely similar to the corresponding stages in Rana temporaria, except that, at least in the common species of Hyla and Limnodynastes , there is a great reduction in the system of external gills. 6. Fresh=Water Fishes. The " Burnett Salmon " {Neoceratodus forsteri) is, from an evolutionary point of view, the most interesting and important of the fresh-water Fishes of Australia. Extremely restricted in its range, it occurs only in the Burnett and Mary Rivers of Queensland. But, though found living in no other part of the world, Neoceratodus is represented by teeth closely similar to those of the living form in Triassic and Jurassic beds of Europe, in the Trias of India, in the " Karoo " (Upper Trias) of South Africa, in the " Cretaceous " of Patagonia, in the Permian of Texas and in the Upper Jurassic of Colorado. The fossil teeth in question were known and had been given the name of Ceratodus long before the living fish was discovered. Ceratodus (or Neocera- todus) is thus an animal of great geological antiquity, and has had in past times a very wide, well-nigh cosmopolitan, geographical range. Though not unlike an ordinary typical fish, such as a salmon, in general shape, Ceratodus is at once seen to present some marked peculiarities. The paired fins are of a peculiar leaf-like shape, and are supported by a limb- skeleton which is unlike that of any other living animal, and has been sup- posed by some comparative anatomists to be the most primitive known form of limb-support. The general surface is covered with large scales, and there is an operculum or gill-cover like that of an ordinary bony fish. But, though Neoceratodus has gills like those of fishes in general, it also has a lung and breathes air ; and its heart and system of blood-vessels are very specially modified in comparison with those of other fishes in connexion with this double mode of respiration. Often popularly confused with the Burnett Salmon (on account perhaps of the same native name being sometimes applied to both) is a very different, but also interesting, Queensland fish, the " Barramunda " {Scleropages leichardti). The chief interest of the Barramunda is connected with the peculiar distribution of the family (the Osteoglossidce) to which it belongs. Of the four living genera of this family Scleropages extends from the rivers of Northern Queensland to Sumatra, Banka, and Borneo : Arapaima (one of the largest of fresh-water fishes) inhabits South America (Brazil, the Guianas) : Osteoglossum has a similar range : while Heterotis is African, inhabiting the Niger, the Nile, the Senegal, and the Gambia. Since, how- ever, fossil representatives have been found from the Eocene both of the United States and of England, the OsteoglossidcB are not exclusively southern forms, but are to be regarded as forming one of the manj' groups which, formerly more widespread, have in recent times become more or less com- pletely restricted to the great southern land-masses. The little fishes commonly called " Minnows," and, when larger, " Native Trout " (species of Galaxias), common in nearly all fresh-water streams in extra-tropical Australia, also belong to a family (the Galaxiidce) with a remarkable distribution. There are only two genera — Galaxias and Animal Life of Australia. 229 Neochanna. Neochanna is a marine fish confined to New Zealand. Of Galaxias, some 22 species occur in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and tlie Auck- land and Chatham Islands : seven species occur in southern South America, Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands : one inhabits the streams of Cape Colony : one {G. attenuatus) is found not only in the southern extremity of South America, with Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, but also in Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Chatham Islands. These facts relating to the distribution of the genus Galaxias in general, and in particular the last- mentioned fact of the occurrence of the same species on opposite sides of the Pacific, have often been adduced as strong evidence in favour of the view that a land connexion existed between South America, Australia, and New Zealand at a not very remote period. But this view has had to be modified since it has been pointed out that, as was stated as long ago as 1872 by Captain F. W. Hutton, G. attenuatus goes down to the sea to spawn, and since it has been found to occur in large numbers in the sea at the Falkland Islands. Moreover, another species, which would seem to be a marine one, has been found at the Chatham Islands in the stomach of a Merganser. A fresh-water fish very common in the rivers of Tasmania, where it is commonly known as the " Cucumber-mullet," and an allied species, the " Grayling," occurring sparingly in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, belong to another family, the Haplochitonidce, forming a link between Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Of the Haplochitoni- dcB, which is an exclusively fresh-water family, there are only two genera — Haplochiton and Prototroctes. The former contains two species occurring in Chili, the southernmost extremity of South America, Tierra del Fuego, and the Falkland Islands, and a third in Tasmania. Prototroctes, including the Cucumber-mullet and Grayling above mentioned, has three species altogether, one in New Zealand, one in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. English Brown Trout and American Rainbow Trout have been introduced into a number of the rivers, and have done very well ; but the only indigenous member of the Trout family (Salmonidce) is a little fish called Smelt {Retro- pinna retropinna), which is widely distributed in Australia, and occurs also in New Zealand. Among other less remarkable Australian fresh-water fishes a number of families are represented. Several members of the Herring family live habitu- ually in the rivers, or ascend them occasionally. Such is the Fresh-water Herring (Potamalosa novcB-hollandice), which occurs plentifully in the Hawkesbury, the Clarence, the Richmond, and other rivers of the east coast. Several fresh-water members of the Catfish family (Siluridce) also occurs and are remarkable, like many allied forms, for the care taken of the eggs. The common fresh-water Catfish {Copidoglanis tandanus), which occurs throughout the far-spreading Murray River system, and is valued for food, belongs to a genus which extends into Asia. Eels {Anguilla reinhardtii) are common in all the eastern waters. Of the members of the Perch-like family Serranidce, the best known is the so-called Murray Cod {Oligorus macquarien-sis), a valuable food-fish which grows to a large size, and is common in the Murray River system, as well as in the Clarence and Richmond. The only Lamprey occurring in Australian rivers is a species of Geotria — a genus that is found also in New Zealand and in ChUi. 230 Federal Handbook. 7. Mollusca of the Land and the Fresh Water. The terrestrial and fresh-water Mollusca* of Australia are numerous and varied. In the dense and moist forests of tropical Queensland the greatest development is obtained. Here the typical Australian genus Ther- sites presents about 50 species, most being large and showy shells, usually banded and globose. In the family Acavidce are included the giants of the fauna. Panda falconeri is an ovate shell about 3^ inches long, while the coils of the flatter Pedinogyra cunninghami are almost 3 inches in diameter. The carnivorous snails are represented by a handsome brown Rhytida, with fine thread-like ribs above and smooth beneath. Approaching Torres Strait the influence of New Guinea appears in Papuina, a genus of arboreal habits. Here, too, the operculate division assume im- portance. To this belong Pupina, a glossy shell with transverse slits to the aperture, living among drifts of dead leaves, and Helicina, a genus of almost world-wide distribution. Among the hills of Central Australia occurs a desert fauna of modified Xanthomelon and Tkersites. Like environment has moulded these to a superficial resemblance to the snail shells in arid regions of Africa or America. Slugs are not abundant, but in Tasmania and Victoria is the small hump- backed Cystopelta petterdi, on the east codbSt Aneitea graeffei, a large cream- coloured slug, with a pink diamond on its back ; and in the Queensland tropics, the prismatic Atopos. Widespread over all the continent are several genera of Endodontidce, small discoidal shells with delicate radiating riblets. The fresh- water mollusca are less peculiar than the terrestrial. Familiar forms which reappear are Sphoerium, Pisidiuyn, Corbicula, Limncea, Planorbis, Ancylus, Bythinia, Vivipara, and Melania. Widespread through every pool and creek is the genus Isidora. At first this was mistaken for Physa, buv is now found to be really related to Planorbis despite its unlike shell. More than 60 species of this very variable genus have been named, but this probably exaggerates the number of forms. About a score of river mussels are referred to Diplodon, a southern genus extending to New Zealand and South America. D. novce-hoUandice, from the coastal streams between Brisbane and Newcastle, has a peculiar ornament of radiating nodules. Tasmania has an interesting series of fluviatile shells. In the lakes occur Ancylastrum, the largest known fresh- water limpet. Another limpet, Gundlachia, whose shell develops a second chamber, is of sporadic occurrence. Some small gasteropods, Petterdiana and Littoriduia, which live in running streams, appear to be of southern origin and akin to South American types. In Solenaia rugatus and Physopsis jukesi, the Northern Territory possesses two exceptionally isolated forms, the fijst of an Asiatic, the second of an African genus. 8. Crustaceans. The largest and most conspicuous of the fresh-water Crustacea of Aus- tralia are the Crayfishes. There are few streams or stationary bodies of fresh water, however small, in extra-tropical regions, that do not contain * Por the following brief account of the Mollusca I am indebted to Mr. Chas. Hedley. Animal Life of Australia. 231 Crayfishes ; and they are found to occur even in arid Central Australia wherever there is a creek bed that occasionally contains running water. By far the most widely-distributed Crayfish in continental Australia is one, the Two-keeled Crayfish {Ghemps hicarinatus), which in general appearance is not very unlike the common European Crayfish {Astacus or Potamohius fiuviatilis or astacus), differing chiefly in the character of the rostrum and the chelae. The Australian form, however, reaches larger dimensions, though in this respect there is a wide difference between specimens from different localities. Cheraps hicarinatus is more especially an inhabitant of dams and waterholes or of pools in the more sluggish streams, and excavates innumerable burrows in the banks, often doing serious damage in this way to mud or clay embankments of storage dams and reservoirs. In clear-running streams the prevailing Crayfish is the common Serrated or Spiny Crayfish {Astacopsis serratus) , with numerous varieties, some of which may prove to be of specific rank. In the larger rivers, such as the Murrum- bidgee and the Murray, these Crayfishes reach a large size, assuming dimen- sions as great as those of the largest of the European Sea-lobsters ; and even in very small creeks specimens of great size are occasionally met with. The Spiny Crayfish, like the two-keeled form, is an active burrower, and is able by taking refuge in deep burrows with a little water at the bottom to survive periods of prolonged drought. In Tasmania the Crayfishes are represented by two species, which are nearly allied to Astacopsis serratus of the mainland. One of these {A.franJc- linii), which occurs in the northern rivers of the island State, is the largest Crayfish known, even exceeding in size the largest of the Spiny Crayfishes of continental Australia. Quite peculiar to Australia is a group of Crayfishes belonging to the genus EngcBus, which do not ordinarily live in streams or pools, but inhabit during the day-time the interior of burrows excavated sometimes along the banks of streams, sometimes merely in swampy ground which may be at some distance from any running stream. These small Crustaceans, with their feeble powers of locomotion and their reduced abdomen, seem to have taken a short step in the direction of the modification undergone by the Hermit-crabs. In Western Australia three species of Crayfishes are known — Chceraps quinque-carinatus, C. tenuimanus, and C. preissii, all very distinct from those of Eastern Australia. The Australian Crayfishes all belong to a family, the Parastacidce, which is exclusively southern in its distribution, taking the place in the south occupied by the family AstacidcB (or Pota)nobiidce) in the north. Their nearest allies are thus not the English Crayfishes, but other members of the ParastacidcB — the Crayfishes of South America (Parastacus), New Zealand (Paranephrops), and Madagascar {Astacoides). Extremely common in creeks, at least in Eastern Australia, are minute transparent shrimp-like Crustaceans, which, so far as they have been examined, have been found to belong to a species, Xiphocaris compressa, originally described from Japan, and since found in Norfolk Island. If we leave Engceus, the Land-crabs, and Phreatoicopsis out of account, the only terrestrial Crustaceans are the Wood-lice and Pill-bugs (Isopoda), 232 Federal Handbook. and the Hoppers (Amphipoda) . The latter {Talitrus sylvaticus) occur from near the sea-level to a high elevation on the Southern Alps. Land-crabs, in the strict sense of the term, are confined in Australia to the far north and the islands of Torres Straits. But River-crabs of the genus Geothelphusa occur far up the Darling River and its tributaries, and were found by the Horn Expedition in waterholes along the creeks in Central Australia. When the creeks and rivers dry up, the River-crabs, like the Crayfishes, burrow into the banks, and by burying themselves in moist clay may escape desiccation. A little fresh-water Lake-crab {Hymenosoma lacustris) occurs in Lake Colac, in Victoria. The same species is found in the North Island of New Zealand, and also in Norfolk Lsland. An order of the higher Crustacea — the Anaspidacea — fossil (marine) representatives of which are known from Permian and Carboniferous strata in Europe and North America, is confined at the present day to Tasmania {Anaspides and Paranaspides) and Victoria {Koonunga). The Anaspids are little Crustaceans of a Shrimp-like appearance, which inhabit fresh-water, the Tasmanian forms occurring only at high elevations (2,000 feet and upwards). Though in many respects resembling the Shrimps and Cra}^shes, the Anaspidacea differ from them in the complete absence of the cephalo- thoracic sliield or carapace, and in the series of plate-like gills attached to the legs. A family of fresh-water Isopoda — the Phreatoicidce — was, until recently, regarded as peculiar to Australia, including Tasmania, and New Zealand. Very recently a species of the type-genus, Phreatiocus, has been found in South Africa. Most of the Australian and Tasmanian forms occur at high eleva- tions. One genus, Pkreatoicopsis, is terrestrial and not aquatic. Of fresh-water Amphipods there are several species of Gammarus occurring both in Victoria and New South Wales ; two species of Chiltonia have been described from Lake Hindmarsh, Victoria, and species of Hyalella and Neoniphargus also occur. While the higher Crustacea (Malacostraca) of Australian fresh-waters contain such a number of interesting characteristic forms — the Crayfishes and Antispidacea in particular — the lower Crustacea (sub-class Entomostraca of the older classification) are not, so far as known, in any way specially remark- able. The giants of the group, the Phyllopods, Apus, Lepidurus, and Triops, occur, under favorable conditions, in enormous numbers in the inland districts. The Brine-shrimp {Artemia) has been found both in New South Wales (neighbourhood of Sydney) and in A^ictoria, and a peculiar Australian genus, BranchineUa, of the same family, is represented by three species occurring in fresh or brackish water in most parts of Australia. The Bivalved Phyllopoda {Limnadidce) occur very abundantly in Australia, and are represented by several genera, including Eulimnadia, Lifnnadopsis, Paralimnadia, and Cyzicus (Estheria). The much smaller Cladocera or " Water Fleas " are represented by species of the cosmopolitan genus Daphnia, also by species of Moina, Macrothrix, Lynceus, and others. The Australian fresh-water Copepoda and Ostracoda have not received so much attention as the Phyllopoda. But, of the former order, species Animal Life op Australia. 233 of the genera Cyclops and Diaptomus have been described, and of the latter a number of species of Cypris, and also species of Candona and Notodromus. 9. Insects. The Insecta of Australia are too vast an assemblage to be dealt with in a brief summary ; but the following are a few leading points : — Among the Orthoptera the Cockroaches {BlattidcB) are represented by both native and introduced forms. Of those which occur habitually in houses, the indigenous Periplaneta australasicB has become largely replaced by the American Periplaneta americana. There are a number of " wild " species, wingless for the most part, and usually of large size, to be found most frequently lurking in crevices in rotten timber and under fallen logs and stones. Most of these when molested discharge a foul-smelling secretion from glands at the end of the abdomen. One of the commonest is Poly- zosteria limbata, a wingless dark-brown Cockroach with yellow lines round the terga. The Mantidce, or " Praying Insects," with their innocent appearance and predaceous habits, form an important element of the Australian insect fauna. The most conspicuous of these are species of the genera Archimantis, Orthodera, and Tenodera, some over 4 inches in length. The PhasmidcB or Leaf- and Stick- Insects are probably more numerous in Australia than in any other region of the earth's surface. The protective mimetic features, which in many cases cause these curiously modified insects to resemble their usual surroundings so closely as to render difficult detection by insect-eating birds or lizards, consist mainly in the form of the body itself being in many cases narrow and elongated so as to resemble the appear- ance of a twig of the plant on which they feed, and in the presence of foliaceous green appendages on the limbs and body, bearing a close resemblance to the leaves. Some of the Australian Phasmidce are the largest of existing insects, with a length of as much as 12 inches. Of the Grasshoppers and Locusts there are many genera and species, some winged, some wingless, some with long feelers, some with short. The term " Locust " is applied to any member of the Grasshopper family that has the peculiarity of occasionally increasing enormously in numbers, so as to give rise to great swarms which move about the country destroying the vegetation as they go. Several of the Australian species swarm in this way and assume for the time the character of " Plague Locusts." One of these is the Lesser Plain Locust (Chortoicetes pusilla), a comparatively small insect about an inch in length. Another is the Larger Plain Locust (C terminifera). A third is the Yellow-winged Grasshopper {Locusta danica), very common everjTvhere, which sometimes causes devastation in Queensland. The most remarkable-looking member of the family is the so-called Mountain Grasshopper {Acridopeza reticulata), which is very unlike a normal Grasshopper in appearance, with its short, rounded, blue, white, and red body, and its peculiar oval concavo-convex elytra. Of the Crickets (Gryllidce) there are a number of species of Field Crickets — sometimes occurring in swarms — and a Mole Cricket {Gryllotaljia coarctata), found practically all over Australia. 234 Federal Handbook. Among the Neuroptera special mention may be made of the Ant-lions {Myrmeleonidoe) and the Dragon-flies {Odonata). The Ant-lions are numerous, most of the described species being referred to the genus Glenurus. G. pul-. chellus is the commonest species along the coast. The largest is G. fundatus, which is found along the coast of Queensland. The Australian Odonata* are as remarkable in their way as most of the animal groups of the same continent. There is a rich autochthonous fauna, chiefly located in the south-western corner, along the eastern coast and ranges, and in Tasmania. A tropical invasion, mainly of LihellulincB, descends along the Queensland coast into New South Wales. The remarkable sub- family Corduliince is represented in Australia by about forty species, roughly one-fifth of the world's total ! Of these, Hemicordulia tau and H. australice, are common nearly everywhere, and the former may possibly be taken in August. The peculiar species of Synthenies must be sought for later in the season, mostly at high elevations. On the Blue Mountains two very archaic species are to be obtained, viz., Petalura gigantea and Austropetalia patricia. The larva of the former tunnels in mud. The latter is very closely allied to a group of Chilian species, and has no other close relatives at all. In August a few common Dragon-flies begin to appear, and the following may be met with : — At Perth, Austrolestes annulosus, A. analis, Xanthagrion erythroneurum, Anax papuensis, and Mschna brevistyla ; the same species at Adelaide ; at Melbourne, the same except A. annulosus, which is replaced by A.cingulatus and A. leda ; at Sydney, the same together with Argiolestes ictero- melas, Austroagrion cyane, Ischnura heterosticta, Ischnura aurora, Austrolestes psyche, Orthetrum caledonicum, Diplacodes hipunctata, and D. kcematodes. Full-fed larvse of most of these species can be easily obtained during August. Termites, or White Ants, as they are popularly called, abound in all parts of Australia, and some of them, such as the little Termes (Coptotermes) lacteus, do much damage to wooden structures. Many of the species build mounds or termitaria of comminuted wood with, in some cases, an investment of clay, constructed usually over an original tree-stump. These, in the case of some of the tropical species, are of great size — as much as 18 feet in height in the case of Eutermes pyrijormis of tropical Queensland. Of the Hymenoptera, one of the families specially developed in Australia is that of the Saw-flies {TenthredinidoB), of which there are a large number, all belonging to genera — Perga, Pterygophorus, and others — peculiar to Aus- tralia. The blackish larvae of Perga are frequently to be seen clinging in great masses to branches of Eucalypti, on the leaves of which they feed. Another largely-represented family is that of the Chalcididce, or Parasitic Wasps, minute forms, most of which deposit their eggs in the eggs, larvae or pupae of other insects, or in the galls produced by Coccids. Of similar habits are the still smaller Proctotrypidce, some of which appear to be of economic value owing to the fact that they are destructive to various scale and other insects injurious to fruit-trees. Also destructive, and on a larger scale, to other forms of insect life, such as caterpillars of moths and butterflies, in which they deposit their eggs, are the Ichneumons (IchneumonidcB), of which there are many in Australia, though comparatively few have been described. * For the information on the Odonata I am indebted to Mr. R. J. Tillyard. ' Animal Life of Australia. 235 The Flower Wasps {Thynnidce), whicli are only represented outside Aus- tralia on the west coast of South America, and, by a few species, in Asia and the Pacific Islands, are very numerous on such flowering shrubs as the Ti- trees {Melaleuca, Leptospermum). About three-fourths of the described species of Thynnidce are Australian. The well-known Mason Wasps {Eumenidce), which are solitary forms with the habit of constructing nests of clay, often on a verandah, or even in the interior of a house, and storing them with caterpillars, are common in all parts of Australia. The true (social) Wasps (Vespidce), which construct nests of a parchment- like material, are represented in Australia by two genera, Ocaria and Polistes, the genus Vespa, though of wide distribution and occurring as near as Java, being absent. Of the true Bees (Apidce) there are a large number, but the genera Apis and Bomhus do not occur. The Carpenter Bees of the genus Lestis, some of which make their nests in the interior of dead flower-stems of grass trees (Xanthorrhoea), are peculiar to Australia. The stingless native Honey- bees of the genus Trigona, which are widely distributed over Australia, con- struct irregular wax combs in cavities in Eucalypts and other trees, and store them with a dark-coloured honey. The Leaf-cutting Bees, which construct the cells of their nests out of pieces cut from the leaves of plants, are repre- sented by a number of species of Megachile — a genus found in most parts of the world. The Ant Family (Formicidce) is represented by an immense number of genera and species. Of these the most characteristic are the large Ants of the genus Myrmecia, commonly known as Bull-dog Ants, which are sometimes as much as an inch or more in length and have a very poisonous sting ; these are confined to Australia. Honey-pot Ants in which, as in a North American and an African species, certain of the workers of the community serve as store-houses for honey, occur in Central Australia. The House-flies which swarm about dwellings in the cities of Australia in summer are identical with the common House-fly of England (Musca domestica), a species almost universal in its distribution. A somewhat smaller fly {Musca vetustissiyna) is the pest fly of the bush. A fly {Stomoxis calcitrans) very like the House-fly, common out of doors and sometimes coming into houses, inflicts a sharp bite when it settles on the skin, and is extremely troublesome to horses and cattle. This, like the House-fly, is of almost world-wide distribution. Of the Blow-flies, the commonest species are Anastellorhina augur, with a brown abdomen having a blue stripe down the centre, and Calliphora villosa, which has the abdomen covered with yellowish or brownish hairs, and a somewhat smaller species of the same genus, C. oceanicB, with a steely-blue abdomen, is also very common. Several of the species of Blow-flies have become very formidable pests, which have assumed the character of a yearly-increasing menace to the pastoral industry, their maggots, bred in the wool of the sheep, producing sores which often eventually cause death. Australia is particularly rich in Gall-gnats {Cecidornyidce), the larvre of most of which burrow in leaves and other parts of plants, producing frequently definite galls or other malformations. 236 Federal Handbook. Over 50 species of Mosquitoes have been recorded from Australia, most of them species of Culex. Several of them are of cosmopolitan range, or have been introduced from other countries. The Mosquitoes commonest in houses are Culex albo-annulatus, C. fatigans, and C. marinus, the last able to breed in salt water. The genus Anopheles, to which belong the Mosquitoes that transmit malarial fever, is represented by several species ; and at least one species occurs of the genus Stegornya — the yellow-fever transmitting genus. Though not so rich in Butterflies as South America, Australia yet holds a high place in that respect among the zoological regions. Thus, while only 68 species occur in Great Britain, a recent catalogue of the Australian species gave a total of 330. The largest and most brilliantly-coloured forms are tropical. Fritillaries, Emperors, Admirals, Blues, Whites, Yellows, Skippers, and Swallow-tails are all well represented. Belenois Java, one of the whites, in some seasons comes down from the interior to the coast in such enormous swarms as to constitute a veritable plague. Of the many families of Moths perhaps two of the most characteristic are the Case-moths and the Cup-moths, the former on account of the peculiar sheath of tough silky material which the larva weaves about itself, with fragments of leaves or sticks woven in, and the latter because of the vase- shaped cocoons of a parchment-like substance in which the eggs are enclosed. Included among the other families are Butterfly Moths [Uraniidoi), Day Moths (Agaristidce), Ringed Moths {Syntomidce), Burnet Moths (ZygcenidcB), Hawk Moths {Sphingidce), Wood Moths [Hepialidce), Tiger Moths (Arctiidce), Brown Tails {Liparidce), Silkworm Moths [Bomhycidce), Loopers (GeometridcB), Cutworm Moths (Noctuidce), Leaf Rollers {Pyralidce), and Bell Moths {ToTtricidce). The Cutworm Moths are of economic importance, owing to the damage frequently done by their larvae (" Plague Caterpillars," " Army Worms ") to crops of all kinds. The Bugong Moth {Agrotis infusa) occasionally appears in enormous swarms in the coastal districts. Of the Coleoptera, or Beetles, some 10,000 Australian species have been described, and, as there are a number of families which have not been fully investigated, there can be no doubt that this seemingly immense multitude falls far short of the total. One of the best developed and most characteristic of the families is that of the Buprestidce, or Jewel Beetles, of which only ten species occur in Great Britain. These large and often brilliantly-coloured metallic Beetles are most abundant on flowering shrubs in the coastal districts of extra-tropical Australia. Stigmodera is the most characteristic genus. It is peculiar to Australia, and some 240 species have been described. The Stigmoderce are large Beetles, some as much as 2| inches in length, of rich and varied metallic colouration. Of the Hemiptera perhaps the most characteristically developed, and certainly the most conspicuous, family is that of the Cicadas (Cicadidce), the chorus of whose shrill cries rings out during summer from ever}^ shrub and tree. Of the many Australian species of Cicadas some — more particularly those inhabiting the coastal districts — are large and handsome insects. Thopha saccata has a reddish-brown body about 2 inches long with a stretch of wings of 5 inches ; it is common in all the southern coastal districts and Animal Life of Australia. 237 along the east coast as far north as Brisbane. The bright green Cyclochila australasice is even commoner in New South Wales ; and a third common form is the Black Cicada, Psaltoda moerens, belonging to a genus peculiar to Australia. Another large Cicada very common in Eastern Australia is Ahricta cxirvicosta, a reddish-brown form, with a silvery down over the surface. Another characteristic family of Hemiptera is the Psyllidce, or " Lerp " insects, the larvae of many of which secrete a shell-like protective covering of lerp scales, or of soft woolly matter, while others produce galls on leaves. Of the Australian Coccids the most remarkable group is the Bmcliyscelince, or Gall-making Coccids, the larvae of which form galls on the twigs and leaves of many native plants. These are practically confined to Australia, the only instance of a Gall-making Coccid occurring elsewhere being a single species found in Mexico. 10. Scorpions and Spiders. Of the Arachnida the Scorpionida, or Scorpions, are not uncommon in Australia ; but none of them are large, and the number of species is small, and all of them belong to three of the six recognised families — the ButhidcB, the Scorpionidce, and the BothriuridcB. Of the last-named family, Cerco- phonius is a genus confined to Australia. The Spiders* of Australia are very numerous, and belong to a great number of families. Reference can be made here to only a few of the most interesting forms. One of the best-represented groups is that of the Trap- door Spiders, of the family Avicularidce, of which upwards of sixty Australian species have already been described. Of the family Hypochilidce, which comprises only three species, one species [Ectatosticta troglodytes) occurs in caves in Tasmania, a second in North America, and a third in China. Of the ArgiopidcB, one of the most interesting and beautiful is Argiope cetherea {A. regalis), which occurs not only all over Australia, but in New Guinea and many of the islands of Torres Straits. This brightly-coloured Spider is popularly known as the " St. Andrew's cross Spider " on account of the cross-shaped stabilimentum which it weaves into the middle of its orbicular web. Also included in the Argiopidce are two widely distributed species, Poeci- lopachys bispinosa and Celcenia excavata, both of which closely resemble the droppings of birds. Another striking member of the same group is Dicrostichus magnijicus, which is a large and brilliantly-coloured Spider with a peculiar branched crest or protuberance on which the eyes are situated. The family ThomisidcB, or " Crab Spiders," comprises a number of in- teresting species, one of which — Saccodomus formivorus — lives in trees and preys on tree-haunting ants. The Salticidce, or " Jumping Spiders," are very numerous, and comprise some remarkable forms, among which may be mentioned the brilliantly coloured Saitis volans and S. splendidus, both of which have an extended lateral flattened abdominal integument which is folded round the spider when at rest and tliiown open when it leaps. * For information on the Spiders I am indebted to Mr. W. J. Rainbow. 238 Federal Handbook. 11. Centipedes and Millepedes. The Australian Myriopoda are extremely numerous, and all, or nearly all, of the known families are represented, though some of the smaller and more obscure groups have not been fully investigated. Of the Diploj)oda the largest and most conspicuous are the Millepedes of the family lulidce — cylindrical, vegetable-feeding Myriopods with numerous segments, each seg- ment bearing two pairs of legs. These are very common about rotten timber, under fallen logs, and under stones, the elongated body coiled up into a spiral when at rest. The family Cambalidce, which in regions outside Australia are chiefly distributed in Polynesia, in India, and Madagascar, is represented in Western Australia by four peculiar genera — Dinocambala, Podykipus, Atelomastix, and Samichus. The PolydesmidoB, also with a cylindrical body, but with comparatively few segments, each with a lobe or keel on its upper surface, is represented by several peculiar genera {Antichiropus and others), and a number of species. The Polyzoniidoe, small worm-like forms with reduced appendages and sucking mouth, has several representatives of the genera Orsilochus and Siphonotus. Of the Chilopoda the Centipedes of the family Scolopendridce comprise the largest of the Myriopods, with flattened bodies and 21 or 23 pairs of legs. Of these, a considerable number of species have been described from all parts of Australia. Among the commoner and more widely-distributed forms are the very variable ScoJopendra morsicans, which is common all over Australia, and is almost cosmopolitan in its range, S. (Rhombocephalus) Iceta, and Ethmostigmus rubripes, the largest of the Australian Centipedes, which occurs also in the South Sea Islands. The Lithobiidce, which are comparatively short, with only fifteen segments, are represented by several genera ; and the greatly elongated many-seg- mented Notophilidce are also represented, though perhaps only by introduced forms. The long-limbed, short-bodied Scutigeridce, which differ from the rest of the Myriopoda in the possession of compound eyes and the presence of air- sacs, are represented by at least one species, AlJotkereua maculata, which not infrequently comes into town houses. The order Symphyla is represented by at least one species of Scutigerella, a small insect-like Myriopod with twelve segments, with a pair of parapodia on each in addition to the legs, and with only one pair of breathing pores, which are situated on the head. Of the aberrant order Pauropoda there is no record. The Onychophora are well represented in Australia by about five species distributed over all the States, with the apparent exception of South Aus- tralia and the Northern Territory ; but they do not seem to be in abundance anywhere. The five described species are referred to the two genera, Ooperi- patus and Peripatoides. 12. Earthworms, Leeches, etc. Of the Earthwonns the family CryptodrilidcB is so specially well repre- sented in Australia that it might be said to have its head-quarters there. Animal Life of Australia. 239 five genera of the family out of a total of about sixteen being peculiar to Australia, or only slightly represented elsewhere. Some of the Crypto- drilids, such as Megascolides, are of gigantic size — up to 5 feet in length. The fresh-water allies of the Earthworms are very numerous, and almost all the families are represented, though only a few have been studied. Enchy- trceids are common both in water and damp earth. Chcetonotus, Dero, Nais, Aeolosoma, and Tuhifex also occur — the last-named present sometimes in enormous numbers in muddy creeks. The Phreodrilidce is the most charac- teristic Australian family. It is represented elsewhere in South America. in Kerguelen, and in New Zealand and South Africa. In Australia there are at least two peculiar genera, Phreodriloides, found in the Blue Lake on Mount Kosciusko, and Astacopsidrilus, two species of which constantly live on the surface of fresh-water Crayfishes. Australia possesses two peculiar genera of Land Leeches — Philcemon, confined to Australia and Tasmania, and Geobdella, to Australia and New Guinea. Of fresh-water Leeches the commonest and the largest is Limnob- della australis, the common Australian Medicinal Leech. Other fresh-water Leeches are species of the widely distributed genera Glossiphonia (or Clepsine) and Herpobdella (or Nephelis), and one each of the genera Dineta and Semi- lageneta, which are peculiar to Australia. Of fresh-water Polyzoa the commonest — abundant in Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia — is the familiar European species Plumatella repens. Plumatella princeps, which has also been found in these three States, is a cosmopolitan form. Another species of the same genus — P. aplinii — which occurs in New South Wales and Victoria, appears to be peculiar to Australia ; and the same holds good of a species of Lophopus — L. lendenfeldi — which has only been found at Parramatta, and of Fredericella australiensis, which occurs abundantly at the Pott's Hill Reservoir, of the Sydney Water Supply. A species of Alctjonella and one of Fredericella have also been found in the neighbourhood of Sydney. Land Planarians are particularly abundant in Australia, though, since the genera represented are all pretty widely distributed in the other zoological regions, they do not present any peculiarly Australian features. The com- monest of them about the towns is an introduced species, Placocephalus kewensis, which also occurs in England, in Germany, and Cape Colony, as well as in Samoa. Of the others, about 50 species have been described, including 35 of Geoplana, 4 of Rhynchodemus, 5 of Artioposthia, and 4 of Platydemus. Very little is known of the allied Fresh-water Triclads, though they are abundant enough — the only described forms being a few Western Australian species of Planaria. And the same has to be said of the fresh-water Rhahdocceles, though superficial descriptions have been published of a few of them, and a still more limited number have been more thoroughly studied. Mention may here be made of an order of Planarian-like Flat-worms, the Temnocephaloidea (usually placed with the Trematodes), since they are specially numerous and varied in Australia. These live on the outer surfaces and sometimes in the branchial cavities of Crayfishes and other fresh- water Crustaceans. Though Temnocephoids occur in other regions (New Zealand, the Malay Archipelago, South America, India, Madagascar), they apparently 240 Federal Handbook. reach their maximum development in Australia as regards numbers and variety. Only one species of Land Nemertine {Geonemertes australis) has so far been found in Australia ; it occurs in Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania. No fresh-water Medusae are known to occur. There seems to be only one species of fresh-water Polype described {Hydra hexactinella or H.oligactis), and only one fresh-water Zoophyte of the colonial type {Cordylophora white- leggei). About ten species of fresh -water Sponges, belonging to seveial genera, have been described. They have been found in all parts, with the exception of the Northern Territory and the northern parts of Queensland and of Western AustraUa. CORRIGENDA. Page 256, line 52, for " Aechm " read " Aeschna " ,, 257, ,, 21, for " Tremanotus " read " Trematonotus " „ 257, ,, 41, for " FenestallidcB " read " Fenestellidce " „ 258, ,, 10, for " RJmchopteris " read " Rhacopteris " „ 262, „ 29, for " trilolites " read " trilobites " „ 266, ,, 32, for " Rhachopteris " read " Rhacopteris " ,, 266, „ 43, for " Streptorhymuhs " read " Streptorhynchus " ,, 270, ,, 45, for " Glossoptris " read " Glossopteris " ,, 275, ,, 41, for " Macrotcenipteris " read " Macrotceniopteris " ,, 275, ,, 43, for " Cladophebis " read " Cladophlebis " ,, 276, „ 26, for " Tremanotus " read " Trematonotus " ,, 277, ,, 9, for " Beyrichia endothyra " read " Beyrichia. Eiulothyra ' „ 277, „ 32, for " Tremanotus " read " Trenuitonotus " „ 277, „ 42, for " Cladophebis " read " Cladophlebis " ,, 282, ,, 10, for '' gregarious " read '" gregarius " ,. 282, ,, 11, for " Archoeomene " read " Archceomoene " „ 282, „ 27, for " Killak " read " Kirrak " ,, 282, „ 37, for " Macrotoeinopteris " read " Macrotoeniopteris " ,, 286, ,, 47, for " Pentrune " read " Penteune " .. 287, ,, 41, for " Meiolonia " read " Meiolania " ,. 291, ,, 31 and 35, for " Oleiwllus " read " Olenellus " ,, 291, „ 34, for " Huenolla " read " Huenella " „ 294, ,, 34, for " Spiriferina dielasnia" read '' Spiriferina, Dielasnui " ,, 294, „ 36, for " senilia " read " senilis " „ 294, ,, 40, for " CyHitui syringothyris " read " Cyrtina, Stjringothyris " „ 295, „ 12, for " Ptycomphaliiia " read " Ptijchomphalina " ,, 295, ,, 39, for " spirifeidae " read " spiriferidse " ,, 296, ,, 9, for " Plagiophyllum " read " Pagiophyllum " ,, 296, ,, 39, for " Cladophebis " read " Cladophlebis " ,, 297, ,, 3, for " Cladophebis " read " Cladophlebis " ,, 297, ,, 21, for " Alithopteris " read " Alethopteris " „ 298, „ 4, for the table as given, read : — McCoy and Chapman. Hall and Pritchard. Tate and Deanant. 5. Pleistocene 4. 3. Upper Pliocene (Chapman) Lower Pleistocene . . 4. 3. Werrikooien (Pleio- cene) Kalimnan (Miocene) Janjukian (Eocene).. Pleistocene (Tate) Pliocene (Dennant) Miocenp r? Oligocene (Tate) -1 Eocene (Tate and Den- 2. 1. Miocene . . Oligocene . . 1. 2 Aldingan (Eocene in part) Balcombian (Eocene) l nant) Eocene in part Eocene Page 298, line 30, for " Carcharodon, Megalodon" read " Carcharodon megalo- don" ,, 301, ,, 24, for " antiauslralia " read " antiaustralis " „ 306, last sentence should come after first sentence on page 30.") ,, 307, line 26, for " osmiridian " read " osmiridium " ., 309, ,, 43, for " molanite-hauy-syenite " read " melanite-hauyn- syenite." C. 121 54. Geology of the Commonwealth. 241 CHAPTER VII. THE GEOLOGY OF THE COMMONWEALTH. By T. W. Edgeworth David, O.M.G., D.Sc, F.R.S., Professor of Geology in the University of Sydney. SYNOPSIS. 1. Introduction. 8. The Australian Cainozoic System, 2. Coastal Physiography. by F. Chapman, A.L.S. 3. PALiEOGEOGRAPHY AND PRESENT Re- 9. Igneous Rocks, by T. W. E. David, LIEF. and E. W. Skeats, D.Sc, A.R.C.S. 4. Stratigraphical Features. 10. Metamorphic Rocks, by T. W. E. 5. Pre-Historic Man. David, and E. W. Skeats, D.Sc, 6. Australian Gr.\ptolites, by T. S. A.R.C.S. HaU, M.A., D.Sc. 11. Papua. 7. Notes on the Paleontology of Australia, by W. S. Dun. 1. Introduction, An observer taking a bird's-eye view of Australia and Tasmania would see the great island continent carpeted nearest the coast with strips of dark-green gum forest on the east, south-east, and north, and again in the south-west of "Western Australia, with an outlying strip upon the Flinders Range, of South Australia. The remainder would present a curious patch- work, partly of the dull green sage bush, salt bush, and other salsolacious herbs of the steppes, the grasses of the savannahs, and the dark-green mulga scrubs, partly of patches of red and brown sands of desert areas dotted with oases which fringe the worn-down stumps of ancient inland mountains. White specks in numbers would be conspicuous in this patchwork of green and red and brown wherever the saline surfaces of dead lakes, or " playas," reflect the sunlight, or where the highlands of New South Wales and Victoria are white with snow, except in late summer. To the south-east the emerald isle of Tasmania, the south coast of South Australia, the south- east coast of Victoria, and in places, the inland uplands of tropical Queensland would appear jewelled with live lakes. To the north the great island of New Guinea would loom large with its alpine ranges whitened with snow ; its mountain uplands, where visible through breaks in the mist, showing verdant grassy slopes encircled by sombre pines and cypress. Lower still would be seen the dense dark-gi'een jungle of the coastal plains. Australia is well known as the home of the eucalypt, and this most charac- teristic tree is in itself an epitome of the climatic conditions of Australia in late geological time. The most primitive types of our eucalypts develop their leaves with the broad surfaces horizontal, pointing to a time when there was no need to take special precautions to conserve moisture. On the othei- liand, in the vast majority of eucalypts, the leaves hang with their broad surface vertical, so as to offer as little evaporating surface as possible to the sun's rays. These eucalypts in their early stages of growth show the atavistic tendency to develop their leaves with the broad surfaces horizontal. C. 1-21.54. Q 242 Federal Handbook. This adaptation of plant to climate in such a way as to enable the plant to resist drought connotes a former better rainfall, and this in turn suggests a former higher relief for the Australian land surface inducing a more abun- dant convectional rain, and thus the eucalypts record the most recent climatic changes of Australia, and prepare us for those evidences of peneplained and downward warped mountain chains with recently uplifted coast lines, which harmonize with its large disintegrated drainage system. This disintegration of the drainage is again in harmony with the shallow wide-bottomed valleys choked with the rock debris, with the vast red soil plains, and with the kunkars, laterites, " pindan, ironstones," and porcellanites, so characteristic of the interior of Australia, as of all countries where the rainfall is scant and the evaporation great. But that these inland areas of low rainfall are not without those blessings of aridity, the rich, plant foods which have accumulated during the sabbatical periods of drought, is proved by the extension inland, through methods of dry farming, of the wheat belt, and the consequent contraction of the central waste areas. Australia, including Tasmania, has an area of 2,974,600 square miles ; it is just a trifle larger than the United States of America, and twenty-five times as large as the United Kingdom. As it extends over 33° of latitude, its climate varies from tropical to cool temperate. 2. Coastal Physiography. A glance at the map (PI. III.) explains some of the chief reasons for the shape of the Australian coast. The chief coastal indent — the Gulf of Carpentaria — is to be correlated with strong tectonic lines, approximating to a meridional direction which determined the position of the northern end of the Cretaceous Basin. The dominant folds in Arnhem Land, on the west side of the Gulf, are parallel to its shore line, the folds in the Palaeozoic rocks of the Cape York Peninsula are approximately meridional, with a very heavy downthrow at the trough of the Little River coal-field. The southern shore of the Gulf seems related to the W.N.W., E.S.E. fold axes which run through the Etheridge and Gilbert gold-fields. The Great Australian Bight again appears to be of tectonic origin, lying between the old fold mountains (recently block-faulted) of the Mount Lofty and Flinders Eanges, near Adelaide, and the vast peneplain of Western Aus- tralia, with its worn-down folds, shaped in plan like an inverted S. (See PL IIL). The two deep indents — Spencer Gulf and St. Vincent Gulf — are clearly " Senkungsf elder," the southern end of the Great Rift Valley which ex- tends by way of Lake Torrens (92 feet above sea level) to Lake Eyre (about 60 feet below sea level). (See Fig. 1.) ^'G 1- Sketch Section, (suggested by works of Walter Howchin) Across the Rift Valley of South Australia ^^^^^ Vertical Scale 10,000 feer to an inch „/^^j^ « ,• ■ Yorke Fteninsula S'vincent PorlLincoln SPENCERS GULF TorKe reninsuM ^^ TEIRTIARY, PEIRMO-CARBONIFEROUS ^^ AND CAMBRIAN ROCKS IN TROUGH FAULT Geology of the Commonwealth. 243 Relief Map ol AUSTRALIA Shewing Trend Lines. Constructed by W.K..M-I>ityre. Based on Maps and Contours by H.e. CRobinson. i'LAlIi i C.l'ilr.-i. Federal Haxdbook. Plate II. Relief Model of Australia and Tasmania, In W. K. .Mclntyro. showing the horst of Tasmania, with its high peaks of diabase sills, to left of the fault trough of Bass Strait, Mt. Kosciusko, 7,300 feet. Is just to the right of the light hand of the two small black shadows on the north side of Bass Strait, at the knotting point between the east and west trend lines of the southern coast of Victoria, and the more of less meridional trend lines of the east coast of Australia. To right of Kosciusko the Hunter Geocol is seen in front of and midway between the sharp peaks of the Warruni- bungle Mountains on the left, and the Nandewar Ranges on the right. Further to the light the dark patch crossing the range represents a narrow tongue of Jurassic sediments joining the large dark area of the main artesian basin to the plain of .Jurassic and Cre- taceous rock, also showing dark, lying along the middle area of the east Australian coast line. Further to the north-east is the steep-to riickland coast of north-eastern Queensland, rising in the Bellenden-ker Range to 5.428 feet. To the left of the main dark patch, showing the Central Artesian Basin, and between it and Tasmania the smaller dark patch indicates the Cainozoic plains of the Darling-Murray Rivers. Beyond the mouth of the Murray River is the long horst of the Mt. Lofty and Flinders Ranges, with Kangaroo Island at the extreme left, and the rift valley of Spencer's Gulf just above it. Above Sjiencer's Gulf is shown a narrow ridge, assumed to be formed of Palaozoie, or older rock, separating the Central Artesian Basin from the crescent-shaped dark area to the left, the Bight coastal plain, occupied by Older Tertiary marine Umestones overlying Cretaceous glauconite sandstones. It is possible that there is a narrow gap in this ridge making the main Cretaceous basin continuous with this coastal siib-artesian basin. To the right of and above the ridge is the sharp peak of Pre-Cambrian rock of Mt. Woodroffe, in the Musgrave Ranges. The rest of the continent, chiefly Pre-Cambrian, is a vast peneplain, from 1,000 to 3,000 feet above sea-level. In the extreme south-west are block-faulted mountains, the Stirling Range, &c. Along the extreme western coast is a narrow coastal plain, scarcely visible on the model, from its present point of view, with the two dark promon- tories of Sharks Bay, near its northern end. Further to the right is the deeply dissected region of Pilbara, much block-faulted. Still further to the right, and immediately above the eastern half of the Tertiary basin of the Great Bight, near the north-west coast, is the depressed area of the Great Desert Ai'tesiau Basin, of Permo- Carboniferous age. Geology of the Commonwealth. 245 Bass Strait, as shown by the geological evidence, is another rift valley crossing the older " grain " of the country, and so is Torres Strait. A positive movement of the strand line by about 200 feet would re-unite Tasmania and Australia, and a positive movement of only about 100 feet would re-unite Australia and Papua. The latter might easily result from a negative movement of the ocean of about the above amount, such as probably occurred towards the culmination of the latest Ice Age, when the sea level in temperate and sub-tropical latitudes was probably 100 feet lower than at present, owing to the locking up of water to form the great ice sheets. The features of. Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste are certainly due to a heavy coastal trough fault just to their east, which in that south-west part of Western Australia has determined for a great distance the trend of the western coast line. (See Fig. 2.) Fig. 2.-- Section across the Great Trough Fault of Western Australia (vertical scale 8,000 feet to an mch) from data suggested by A. Gibb-Maitland, F.G.S. . „ ^ Darlinq Range Fremantle Perth ]^ ^ Indian Ocean ! ^ __ L . ■/^\'"\ Hobson's Bay, or Port Phillip, south of Melbourne, is probably on a meridional rift valley. The Hunter Valley and port of Newcastle are situated on a N-W. to S.E. rift valley. The whole of the Queensland coast coincident with the Great Barrier Reef for 1,200 miles N.N.W. from Rockhampton, owes its trend to powerful downthrows to the east, perhaps compensating for the epeirogenic move- ment of land to the west. The trend of the east and west shores of Tasmania is parallel to axes of folding. It is obvious that the south coast of Australia, as well as the whole of its north and north-west coast, is of an Atlantic type. On the contrary, the south-west coast of Western Australia, the east and west coast of Tasmania, and the north-east coast of Queensland are as regards their trends of a Pacific type. The south-east coast of Australia does not appear to be either wholly Atlantic or wholly Pacific. The term sub-Pacific has been suggested for it. As regards its geological structure, the Australian coast at Fremantle, near Perth, consists of a recent dune rock cemented by lime derived chiefly from remains of mollusca and Lithothamnion. Numbers of artesian wells sunk in this rock near Perth yield copious supplies of artesian water. Cretaceous rocks have been penetrated there at about 1,000 feet below sea-level. Similar calcareous dune rock forms the coast at Cape Northumberland, in South Australia, at Warrnambool, in Western Victoria, and at Sorrento, on the east side of the entrance to Port Phillip, but so far has not been proved to carry artesian water. Q2 246 Federal Handbook. From Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin the coast is fcrmed of recent dunes resting on granite, while towards Albany a deeply indented coast of granite makes its appearance with dunes lodging in the hollows. Further eastwards, near Cape Riche, is a small basin of marine Jurassic rocks, while near Cape Arid, the coast is marked by the Recherche Archipelago mostly formed of ancient crystalline rocks. East of Cape Aiid to Fowler's Bay, in the direction of Eyre's Peninsula, the coast line is formed of nearly per- pendicular cliffs, up to 250 feet in height, with a further gentle rise inland towards the Nullarbor Plains, of about 290 feet. At the base they are formed of white chalky rock with Gryphcea and layers of flints, the whole capped by polyzoal and molluscan limestones. At present the whole of this series is attributed to some time between Eocene and Lower Miocene. At about 900 feet below sea level, at the Madura bore, to the west of Eucla, the Tertiarv limestone rests on a thick series of Cretaceous greensands with a well preserved marine fauna. No rivers exist anywhere along this 500 miles of unbroken coast line, nor indeed along the further eastward extension of the coast for another 500 miles from Fowler's Bay to the head of Spencer's Gulf. As the rocks inland are mostly almost horizontal porous Tertiary limestones, there is no surface run-off of the rain water, but it sinks in swallow-holes to tortuous subterranean tunnels, by which it is discharged at the foot of the sea cliffs, or between tide marks or out at sea, as in the case of the catavothra of Greece. From Fowler's Bay around the headlands of Eyre's Peninsula and lower end of Spencer's Gulf, the coast line is formed partly of Tertiary sediments, partly of pre-Cambrian schists, gneiss and granite. The last-mentioned is well seen in the north and south Nep tunes at the entrance to St. Vincent's Gulf. A plain of erosion along the coast, part of a block faulted peneplain, crosses Yorke's Peninsula to the east side of St. Vincent's Gulf, and extends to the western side of the Mount Lofty Ranges. This coast is formed partly of Post Pliocene flood loams, containing remains of Pallimnarchus pollens, partly of richly fossiliferous Tertiary marine limestones, partly of Permo-Carbo- niferous glacial beds, and partly of the highly folded Cambrian series with their glacial beds. For general interest and variety this part of the coast line is probably unequalled elsewhere in Australia. The strand line has here recently undergone an emergence of 12 feet, and Port Adelaide and Port Wakefield are built on the land thus naturally reclaimed. This evidence of recent 12 feet emergence can be traced around the greater part of Aus- tralia, and is probably due to a eustatic negative movement of the ocean. Kangaroo Island is formed of Cambrian rocks, capped by Tertiaries and basalt at its east end. The Cambrian rocks continue along the coast east of Backstairs Passage to the mouth of the Murray River at Port Elliott. In the reclaiming, as the result of positive movement of the strand line, of the Tertiary basin which extends far inland from this part of the coast, the rivers Murray and Darling have become engrafted. From the mouth of the Murray to Cape Northumberland, the coast line is mostly formed of loose dune sand or consolidated dune sand like that of Cape Northumberland. The dune rock rests either on marine Tertiaries, or on recent allu vials of the Murray basin, or on small inliers of granite. Inland from Cape Northumberland are the recently extinct volcanoes of Mount Schanck, Mount Gambler, etc. From Cape Northumberland to east Geology op the Commonwealth. 247 1 / Xy - Geology of the Commonwealth. 249 of Warrnambool the coast is similar with occasional outcrops of Tertiary- sediments capped by basaltic lava, until the Otway coast is reached. This is formed of freshwater Jurassic strata, in places containing small seams of coal. East of the dune rock of Sorrento, the Victorian coast is formed of Ter- tiary rocks and older basalt ; then of the G-ippsland coal measures in which the claw of a dinosaur and teeth and scales of ceratodus have lately been discovered ; then at Cape Liptrap the cliffs are partly Silurian and partly Ordovician slaty rocks, while at Wilson's Promontory they are of granite. Beyond Corner Inlet there follows to the north-east the long stretch of sands deposited in the slack water between the southerly flowing East Australian current, and the current flowing easterly out of Bass Strait. This sand has engrafted many of the rivers, and formed the Grippsland Lakes. Probably the reclamation has been helped by a positive movement of the strand line. At Gabo Island and Cape Howe granites form a riick-land coast, which continues with the addition of Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian sediments to Moruya and Milton. To the north of Milton, the coast partakes more of the nature of a forland coast and a distinct coastal plain is developed, formed of the sediments of the Permo-Carboniferous and Triassic basins. This continues north for over 200 miles to Port Stephens. In its deeply indented estuaries, harbors, and drowned valleys, such as those of Jervis Bay, Port Hacking, Botany Bay, Port Jackson, Broken Bay, Port Stephens, etc., and in the entire absence of marine Tertiary deposits, this part of the strand line shows evidence of recent negative movement. From Jervis Bay to Wollongong, the strata in the sea-cliffs are rich in Permo-Carboniferous marine fossils, while those of BuUi and the cliffs 100 miles north, extending to Newcastle, show frequent coal seams, and abound especially near Newcastle in Permo-Carboniferous fossil plants. From Port Stephens to near Grafton, the coast is mostly of an indented type, with drowned valleys between hills coming close to the coast, with numerous bar harbors, and with a narrow coastal plain fringing Carboni- ferous, Devonian, and probably Ordovician strata. An outlying part of an immense belt of serpentine, intrusive into Middle Devonian radiolarian rocks, touches the coast at Port Macquarie. From the Clarence River to the Richmond there is a forland coast of Jurassic coal measures, the Clarence basin. A low indented riickland coast, again of Ordovician strata, cherts, tuffa, and quartzites, and capped by alkaline basalts and acid pitchstones stretches from Ballina to near the mouth of the Brisbane River. A for- land coast in part Jurassic, stretches from the Brisbane River to Gladstone. The interesting volcanic rocks, comendites, riebeckite trachytes together with alkaline andesites and basalts form conspicuous domes and sugarloaves a short distance inland from the coast, which is there fringed with dunes, the largest in Australia, up to 800 feet high. At Maryborough and Great Sandy Island marine Cretaceous rocks outcrop with a basin of productive coal (tlie Burrum Basin, the only basin of Cretaceous coal worked within the Com- monwealth) immediately overlying them. Fiom Gladstone to Cape York there is a remarkable coast, chiefly of the riick-land type, with mountain ranges from 2,000 feet up to over 5,000 feet high (Bellcndenker, 5,128 feet) 250 Federal Handbook. coming mostly close to the coast line, and having high islands like Hinchin- brook, which rises to an altitude of 3,560 feet, close inshore. This part of the coast and coastal shelf is so heavily faulted and studded with small islands, which have survived the block faulting, as to deserve Suess' title of " panzer-horst." In places there is a coastal plain, as at the Jurassic (or Cretaceous (?) coal-basin of Broadsound, at Port Mackay, and to north- west and south-east of Townsville North), in others the old rocks, chiefly Carboniferous strata, with Lepidodendron and Phillipsia, or Devonian rocks with massive coral and stromatoporoid limestones, both systems intruded by granites, form bold clifis and headlands. This remarkable part of the coast line is opposite to the Grand Canal of Australia which runs between the Great Barrier Reef and the main land. These high coastal hills are obviously part of the Old Main Divide, its eastern slope with nearly all the easterly flowing rivers being faulted eastwards under the Barrier. This coast terminates in granite capped with the horizontal Upper Cretaceous desert sandstone, which forms Cape York. Throughout this great stretch of coast from Cape Howe to Cape York, a distance of 2,150 miles, marine Tertiary deposits are wholly unknown. From Cape York around the rocks of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the coast is of a low forland type, formed of Desert Sandstone at first then of late Tertiary and Post Tertiary freshwater deposits, with an inner zone of marine Cretaceous rocks. It is thought by some that the main submarine outlet of the Great Arte- sian Basin lies somewhere towards the southern shore of the Gulf of Car- pentaria. On the west side of the Gulf are numerous islands, formed of Permo- Carboniferous rock. A short distance inland from the mouth of the Roper River, the late Cainozoic sediments give place to Cambrian sandstones and limestones, the latter on the Daly River being largely formed of Salterella hardmani. These limestones are many thousands of feet thick, and rest on an older volcanic series. From here around to Darwin, the coast is formed chiefly of Cretaceo-Tertiaryand Permo-Carboniferous rocks, with an occasional low-lying outcrop of older Palaeozoic or Pre-Cambrian rocks. Proofs of recent positive movement of the strand line are everywhere evident except between Arnhem Bay, the English Company's Islands, and Cape Arnhem, where there appears to have been recent negative movement. Elsewhere upraised Post Tertiary muds with echinoderms and craj^h and banks of dead coral are clear proofs of recent positive movement of the strand. One of the most beautiful parts of the whole Australian coast is that at the north-east extremity of Arnhem Land. Tectonic disturbances are present as major faults running N.E. and S.W. These are crossed by minor faults throwing to north-east. At Point Charles lighthouse, near Darwin, rolled specimens of Ammonites and Scaphites occur in great numbers. At Port Darwin the coast is composed of whitish shales and sandstones containing numerous casts of Belem.nites, and in places consisting almost entirely of radiolaria. These were originally deposited at a considerable depth, which suggests a positive movement of this part of the coast of that amount since Upper Cretaceous time, the epoch to which these rocks belong. Geology of the Commonwealth. 251 The remainder of the coast line is described in less detail in Chapter III., by T. Griffith Taylor. Readers are referred to that chapter for an account of the other physiographic features of the Common- wealth. 3. Palaeogeography and Present Relief. Reference to the photograph of the relief model of Australia and Tas- mania (Pis. I. and II.) shows the broad physical features of the Common- wealth, while the orographic map (PI. IV.) gives the actual contour lines, and the tectonic map (PI. III.) the chief trend lines. These maps, together with the sections (Plates VI. and VII.), show that Australia is essentially a vast peneplain. This has been in part abandoned by the ocean, in part warped upward or downward in arches and compensating troughs, and this warping has been accompanied by heavy fractures. The latest of the true fold mountains of Australia dates back to Carboniferous time, for although in the Gympie region of Queensland the Permo-Carboniferous rocks are steeply tilted, they are never closely folded as the Carboniferous rocks often are. Great peneplanation took place in Permo-Carboniferous (Permian) time, followed by a considerable transgression of the sea in a wide belt sweeping inland on either side of Sydney, then swinging northwards through Queens- land at least as far as Townsville. In Triassic and Jurassic time Tasmania with Bass Strait and Southern Victoria were covered by great lakes and swamps, in which the coal measures of that age were formed. Contem poraneously a vast lake stretched from at least as far east as Brisbane mor or less continuously to Lake Eyre, a distance of nearly 1,000 miles. It is not known yet how far this great lake stretched in a meridional direction, but it must have been of the order of at least 500 miles. Gondwana Land was probably still in existence as far as can be judged from the Australian, Indian, New Zealand, South American, and Antarctic evidence. Now in late Jurassic or Post Jurassic time supervened those gigantic intrusions of diabase (dolerite) on a scale perhaps unprecedented in geological history. These intrusions took the form of sills which dominate the whole physical features of Tasmania, the Karroo, Antarctica, and British Guiana. That these intrusions were connected \vith the sinking in of the Gondwana Land and consequent compensating warping up of the sea floor, and probably a further shallowing of the sea floor through submarine extrusions of the dolerite seems highly probable, and it may account for those world-wide transgressions of the oceans in Cretaceous time which Suess considers one of the most conclusive pieces of evidence in favour of the ocean surface at times undergoing an eustatic positive movement. Australia was no exception to the general rule of trausgi'essing epicon tinental seas of vast size in Cretaceous time. During the older Cretaceous (" Rolling Downs ") series, Austi-alia was perhaps severed, so far as the portion of the continent which is still preserved is concerned, by a sea stretch- ing from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Great Australian Bight. The marine fauna of this sea is essentially that of a local Mediterranean. On the other hand, the Cretaceous rocks of the west coast of Western Australia have a cosmopolitan Cretaceous marine fauna closely resembling that of India. 252 Federal Handbook. Thus the old land barrier which united East Australia and India in Permo- Carboniferous (Permian) time does not seem to have been wholly broken down in early Cretaceous time. In Upper Cretaceous time, marine conditions were largely replaced by lacustrine, the lake surfaces with small marine basins here and there covering about one-half of the whole area of Australia. During this period was deposited the so-called Desert Sandstone which at one time probably covered about three-quarters of the whole area of Queensland, one-third that of South Australia, and at least one-fifth of the total area of New South Wales. In early Miocene time a considerable portion of southern and north- western Victoria, part of north-western Tasmania, the extreme south-west corner of New South "Wales, a large area around St. Vincent and Spencer's Gulfs, and a still larger area at the head of the G-reat Australian Bight were submerged. It is important to note that the submergence crept inland as far as the surface of the peneplain at Lake Cowan, near Norseman, in Western Australia. Deposits of marine sponge spicules occur there superimposed on the peneplain. Some marine moUuscan remains have also been found resting on the old peneplain on the shores of Lake Cowan, but unfortunately the geological age of these shells has not yet been determined. The date of the vast peneplain of Western Australia, Northern Territory, and probably that of East Australia as well, depends largely on the determination of the age of these fossils. It has been argued that the Australian and Tasmanian peneplain survived without serious warping into Pliocene time. This provisional conclusion is based on the uniform character of the Pliocene flora as far as the few frag- ments of it preserved allow us to judge. This is thought to be due to the Australian land at this time over large areas being nearly reduced to sea level. That some warping of the peneplain had comnaenced probably as far back as the Oligocene, is proved by the fact that in Victoria the so-called " older basalts," of perhaps Eocene or Oligocene Age, are capped by the Lower Miocene marine beds, and there is evidence to show that Tasmania after being joined to Australia in early Tertiary times, was divided from the mainland by a strait in Middle Tertiary or early Pliocene time, then reunited or nearly reunited in late Pliocene or Pleistocene time, allowing the Tasmanian aborigines, ignorant of the building of sea-going canoes to migrate into Tasmania from the mainland. That the warping of the Aus- tralian and Tasmania peneplain was chiefly Post Miocene is proved by the locally folded and uplifted Lower Miocene beds in the Mount Lofty Ranges, near Adelaide. Also the latest great outburst of volcanic energy in all the States of the Commonwealth (except Northern Territory) took place in Post Miocene time. Moreover the glaciation of the Tasmanian highlands and those of south-east Australia, took place in late Pliocene or Pleistocene time, and these glaciations were almost certainly contemporaneous with accentuated crust warping, though it is not intended to suggest that there was necessarily a causal connexion between the two phenomena, though there possibly may have been. Next the existence of abundant remains of large herds of Pliocene or Pleistocene marsupials, some of elephantine proportions, in what are now low-lying arid regions, with the discovery of remains of the late Pliocene or Pleistocene crocodile Pallimnarchus pollens, 353 354 Geology of the Commonwealth. 255 as far south as the valley of the Torrens, near Adelaide, demands a higher rainfall, warmer climate, and probably higher relief for the interior of Aus- tralia than it at present possesses. Then too, the canyons of the Upper Flinders, of the eastward-flowing New England rivers, like the Macleay, the Hastings, etc., and the canyons of the Blue Mountain rivers, the Shoalhaven River, etc., imply that no very great time has elapsed since the warping, otherwise the valley walls would be flared down and reduced to gentle slopes. All over the highlands of Tasmania, as well as over the Kosciusko plateau, there is evidence of a succession of G-lacial Epochs. These were probably synchronous with the recent maximum glaciation in Antarctica and in South America, possibly with the phases of the Great Ice Age in the Northern Hemisphere. Amongst the newest of the tectonic movements has been the development of the great tensional faults, which have so strongly block faulted the Flinders Range (see fig. 1) and the main Eastern Divide, especially along the Barrier Reef area, where as in the neighbourhood of Cairns, the upper end of the Barron River is left hanging on the upthrow side of the fault block (fig. 3). The fault which bounds the Darling Ranges of "Western Australia (fig. 2) on the west, probably is a development of very late Pleistocene or early Recent time. Fig. 3. — Sections across Queensland. Main Divide M'BaOleFrere 5l58r Cairns Basalt Foundered and rractured East slope of Uie Old Divide E. Holmes Reef Creaf Barrier Reef 4. Stratigraphical Features, (a) The Geological Succession in the Commonwealth of Australia. Group. System. Thickness in Feet. Representative Formations. POST- Tertiary Recent 1,000 1. River alluvium and sand dunes, with iiard calcareous dune rock. Aboriginal kitchen middens. Laterites ("pindan" gravels and nodular ironstone). Nodular tufaceous limestone (" kunkar "). Salt deposits and muds of the " playas." Active crater of Mount Victory in Papua ; recent craters of Mount Garabier (South Australia), Tower Hill, near Warrnambool (Victoria). The Great Barrier Reef of Queensland. ^ maximum thickness of dune rock. 2. Raised beaches, mostly 15 feet above sea around Australian coast. In Papua recent coral rock extciuls up to 2,000 feet above sea- Icvcl. Submerged peat beds about 100 to 200 feet below sea to north of Sydney. 3. Ilelicidce sandstone of Bass Strait Islands, and Ilelicidce limestone to west of Cloncurry, Queensland. 256 Federal Handbook. Stbatigraphical Features — Geological 8xjccessio^— continued . Group. Thirkness in Feet. Representative Formation? POST- Tebtiaby — continued. Pleistocene Tertiary Pliocene 300 Lower Plio- cene or Upper Miocene Miocene 1,000 (?) 1,000 2,000 100 (?) SO to 1,000 Several thou- sands of feet 200 to 1,500(?) Mesozoic Cretaceous — Upper . . Lower 100 to 300 2,000 4. Mammaliferous drift and old lake muds, with remains of Diprotodon, Nototherium thylacoleo, Thylacinus, Sarcophilus, Sus papuensis (in Queensland), together with Pallimnarchus pollens, Megalania prisca, Genyornis, Canis dingo, etc. In pla,ces these deposits may date back to late Pliocene. 5. Glacial deposits of western Tasmania and of the Kosciusko plateau. 6. Basalt sheets of the fissure eruptions in east and sonth-east Australia and Tasmania, Kangaroo Island (South Australia), and Bun- bury (Western Australia). These range from Pliocene through Pleistocene to Recent. Newer " deep leads " of alluvial gold and tin in eastern Australia and Tasmania. 7. Older Marine Pliocene beds of Adelaide. Possibly Launceston Lake beds belong here. Port Moresby radiolarian cherts, etc. 8. Belt of alkaline lavas and tuffs from Coleraine to Springsure, about 1,500 miles. Melilite and nepheline basalts of Tasmania. 9. Ostrea slurti beds of the Lower Murray River. Lithothamnion limestone of HaUett's Cove, Adelaide. 10. Cellepora gambierensi-" limestones passing into chalk with Hints, around the Bight. At Table Cape, Tasmania, the oldest Australian marsupial, Wynyardia bassiana, occurs in this formation. Lepidocyclina occurs in places. Purari lignitic and oil-bearing series, Papua, with abundant Lepidocyclina. 11. Older basalts and tuffs, and the older, "deep leads " of Gippsland (Victoria), New South Wales, and southern Queensland. Much laterite and bauxite is associated with this series. 12. Important brown coal serie.s of Victoria, with fossil plants and hgnites. At Morwell, in Gippsland, these lignites are 888 feet thick. 13. Desert sandstone, mostly of freshwater origin, with thin seams of coal in places, passes downwards into radiolarian shales with belemnites. Ichthyosaurus occurs in the remarkable opal beds in this series. The sandstone is occasionally marine, with Rhynchonella croydonensis. 14. Rolling downs formation, chiefly glauconitic sands and clays, with abundant foraminifera, Maccoyella, Cytherea, Crioceras, Lamna, Belonostomus, Notochelone, Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, ^chna flindersensis, Ammon- ite beds (Scapliites) of Darwin. The Alveolina limestones of New Guinea perhaps may be referred to this horizon. At Mary- borough, Queensland, the Burrum coal seams are interstratified in the marine series. Geology of the Commonwealth. 257 Stratigraphigal Features — Geological Succession — continued. Group. System. Thickness in Feet. Representative Formations. Mesozoic — continued. Jurassic — Upper . . 500 to 1,000 1,000 to 3,000 Triassic 3,000 PAL.a;ozoic . , Permo-Car- bonijerous {Permian) 1,500 2,200 500 to 1,800 6,400 100 to 300 4,800 15. Diabase sills of Tasmania. 16. Sandstones of the great artesian basin, with lignitic coal in places. At Leigh's Creek, south of Lake Eyre, a 47-ft. seam of brown coal in this series. Coal measures of Won- thaggi and Cape Otway Clarence Series, Clifton, Ipswich, Callide, and Broadsound. Quartz-trachyte tuffs of Brisbane. Tceniop- teris daintreei is specially characteristic, and cj^cadaceous forms like Otozamites, Pterophyllum, and Alethopterid sdso abundant. Unio eyrensis numerous. Claw of dinosaur in Victoria, also fossil ceratodus. In Western Australia and Papua marine Jurassic rocks occur with abundant ammon- ites. 17. Productive coal measures of Tasmania. Phyllotheca present, with Thinnfeldia, Ale- thopteris, etc. Hawkesbury series of New South Wales, with abundant fossil fish, and large undescribed labyiinthodonts. Con- tains Beyrichia, abundant Estheria, Tre- manotus (? in situ). Much red and green tuff at base of series. 18. Acid granites of New England. Alkaline series of Port Cygnet, Tasmania, and of Kiama, New South Wales. 19. Upper or Newcastle coal measures, with 35 to 40 feet workable coal. Glossopteris pre- dominates over Gangamopteris. Dadoxylon abundant. The Upper Bowen coal measures of Queensland, and Collie coal- field. Western Australia, probably are on this horizon. Derapsey Series. Barren freshwater strata. Middle coal measures (Tomago or East Mait- land), about 1,800 feet workable coal. Upper Marine Series, mudstones and sand- stones, with abundant Prodtictus brachy- thcerus, Crinoids, " glendonite " pseudo- morphs, occasional glacial erratics in shales, with abundant Fenestallidce. Lower or Greta coal measures, with about 20 feet of workable coal. Gangamopteris predominates over Glossopteris. The Daw- son coal measures probably belong here, in Queensland, and the Mersey coal measures of Tasmania. Lower Marine Series, with Eurydesma cor- datum specially characteristic. Sodic basalts and andosite tuffs are interstratified. The series ends in glacial beds ."JOO foot thick. In Victoria tluire are the Bacciuis Marsh beds, over 2,000 feet thick, with at least four beds of true tillite. At Wynyard, in Tasmania, and Hallott's Cove, near Adelaide, these tiliitos are very well developed. In Victoria and South Australia the tillites rest on beautifully striated pavements. 258 Federal Handbook. Stratigraphical Features — Geological Succession — continued. Group. Thickness in Feet. Representative Formations. Pal^ozoic- continued. (Unconfor- mity.) Carhoni- ferous. 20,000 Devonian — Upper . . Middle. Lower. 10,000 9,000 14,000 Silurian . . (Unconfor- mity.) Ordovician 3,000 to 5,000 9,000(?) The Gympie beds of Queensland are Lower Marine. 20. Sphene-granites of New England. 21. Blue-granites of New England. 22. Star Series of Queensland, with Lepidodendron australe, Aneimites, and Phillipsia. The marine and freshwater beds in New South Wales, with Phillipsia, Productus semi- reticulatus, Lepidodendron australe, L. volk- mannianum, L. veltheimianum, Rhacho- pteris, etc. A thick series of acid, to inter- mediate lavas and tuffs, occur in this system. In Victoria the Mansfield beds and the Grampians sandstones may be included here, together with the felsites and basalts of Mount Wellington, Victoria. 23. Serpentine belt of New England, New South Wales. 24. Spirifera disjuncta quartzites of Mount Lambie, New South Wales, with Lepido- dendron australe. The Archaeopteris sand- stones of Victoria may belong here. Radiolarian cherts, reef limestones, and spUites of Tamworth, New South Wales. Burdekin series of Queensland, with reef limestone up to 7,000 feet thick, an ancestor of the Barrier Reef. Buchan and Bindi limestones of Victoria, with andesites. Devonian rocks of Kimberley, Western Australia. Murrumbidgee series. New South Wales, with Receptaculites and bony-plated fish like Asterolepis, also a thick series of acid to intermediate lavas. In Victoria are the series of acid lavas and tuffs, the Snowy River porphyries. Dacites, quartz- porphy- ries, and granodiorites of this age occur in Victoria. Most of the granites of Tasmania are thought to be Devonian. Devonian rocks occur in Papua. 25. Shales, sandstones, limestones, contemporan- eous tuffs. The type area is Yass, New South Wales. Hausmannia and Encri- nurus, with the corals Rhizophyllum and Mucophyllum and Pentaynerus knightii are characteristic. At the base of series is Halysites in great abundance. At Lilydale in Victoria, Chudleigh in Tasmania, Chil- lagoe in Queensland, limestones of this age are well developed. They are frequently associated with radiolarian cherts. 26. These rocks are either littoral, like the Tempe Downs beds, south of the Macdonnell Range, with Asaphus and Endoceras abundant, or are of the Victorian type, black shales, sand- stones, graptolitic shales, wath some sponge spicules, phosphatic slates, and cherts. They are also developed in New South Wales at TaUong, Mandurama, etc. The rich grapto- lite fauna is described later in this article. Geology of the Commonwealth. 259 Stratigraphical Features — Geological Succession — continued. Group. System. Thickness in Feet. Representative Formations. Pal.s:ozoic — continued, Cambro- Ordovi- cian {?) Cambrian 10,000(?) Pbe- Cambrian (Great Un- conformity.) Algonkian Archaean 27. These rocks consist of the diabases and tuffs, probably spilitic, of Heathcote and other areas in Victoria. Probably the porphy- roid series with breccias, tuffs, etc., of western Tasmania also belong here. 28. This system is chiefly developed in South Australia and Northern Territory. In Nor- thern Territory thick sandstones overlie massive Archceocyathince limestones, perhaps 7,000 feet in thickness, another forerunner of the Barrier Reef. Beneath the richly fossiliferous limestones (Salterella limestones of Northern Territory) is a vast thickness of basalts and basic tuffs. About half-way up in the series in South Australia are tillites up to about 1,000 feet in thickness. 29. The Mosquito Series of the Pilbara gold- field, Western Australia, is a schistose group unconformably underlying the Cambrian(?) NuUagine Series. This in turn rests on an older series, the Warrawoona. Both may be considered Algonkian, as the rocks can be recognised as Sediments. At Kalgoorlie the conglomerates are Algon- kian, as are those of Goat Island, Tasmania, with mica schists and garnet-zoizite- amphibolites ; in the Mount Lofty and Flinders Ranges the rocks of the Houghton magma, so rich in titaniferous iron and diopside, and connected with radium deposits are also probably Algonkian. The Glenelg River schists and ]\Iitta Mitta schists of Victoria may also be Algonkian, as well as most of the mica and quartz schists of Northern Territory. 30. Archaean rocks are widely spread in Western Australia in the Musgrave and Macdonnell Ranges, and at Port Lincoln, in South Aus- tralia, and between Camooweal and Borra- loola, in Northern Territory. The Aguilar Range in Queensland, north of Brisbane, con- taining glaucophane schists may also be Archaean, as well as the main axis of British and German New Guinea. (b) Pre=Cambrian System. The rocks of this age, comprising both Algonkian and Archaean formations, are developed on a particularly grand scale in Western Australia and Central Australia, in fact, about one-third of the whole area of Australia, namely approximately 800,000 square miles, is occupied by this vast crystalline com- plex. Pre-Cambrian rocks are also developed in the Kimberley gold-field of Western Australia, as well as at Darwin, extending from the latter at intervals to Camooweal in Queensland. In New South Wales, they are represented by a belt of Garnetiferous mica-schist with amphibolites and 260 Federal Handbook. gneiss in the Barrier Ranges of the Broken Hill silver-field. They are repre- sented by schists near the Cobar Copper Mines of New South Wales, and Fig 4. Diagrammatic Sections ACROSS CoLUE- Stirling Trough Vertical Scale 8000 Feet to an inch M'Toolbrunup. 3341*^ Collie Coal Reld J. .^Looking WN.W ^ Fault ^ Fa tttV STIRLING RANGE CNElSSlC CRAMITE \ \ by a thick series of crystalline schists in a broad belt of country stretching S.S.E. from Wodonga and Tallangatta, through Omeo and Tongio West in North-east Victoria. Other areas occur in Victoria south of Mount Stavely and in the basin of the G-lenelg River. In Tasmania, a well-marked belt of mica-schist and white saccharoidal quartzite, and a very interesting belt of zoisite-amphibolite, are ascribed to this group. With the exception of the last-mentioned rock, all the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Tasmania appear to have been of sedimentary origin, and should therefore be referred to the Algonkian system. In Western Australia, the group is divisible into two portions, or we may say that two groups are present : Firstly, an older form of gneisses and acidic schists with intrusive granite and pegmatite veins with numerous dykes of diorite, norite, dolerite, etc. Secondly, Algon- kian rocks formed of coarse conglomerates together with, in places, altered volcanic tuffs and amygdaloidal dolerites, the latter evidently being of contemporaneous origin. The principal gold-fields of Western Australia, one of which alone (Kalgoorlie) has produced to date over £100,000,000 worth of gold, are situated in rocks, probably of this group, occupying deeply infolded basins, partly of Pre-Cambrian basic lavas and tuffs, in the older crystalline complex. As shown on the Section, Fig. 4, these Pre-Cambrian rocks have been intensely folded, the trend of the folds being nearly meri- dional, but on the whole ha\'ing the form as shown on the PI. III. of a very open inverted letter " S." One can distinguish at least four of these great gold-bearing basins from east to west in the following order : — Kanowna, Boulder and Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie, and Southern Cross. In the Pilbara district of Western Australia, there is a considerable development of minerals of the rare earths associated with veins of pegmatite traversing Pre-Cam- FiG 5. Sketch roughly diagrammatic from Perth to Kalgoorlie. , ^ Suggested b^obsfcvationsorA Gibb-Maitland.FGS "th DARLING RANGE ^ 1 ■ PENEPLAIN r ^^S^ f/ ,'//' 390miles- brian rocks. For example, associated with tin-stone are found in this region tantalite in sufficient quantity to control the whole of the tantalum market Geology of the Commonwealth. 261 of the world. The mineral gadolinite, associated with well-crystallized monazite, and occasionally the rare radio-active mineral pilbarite, a lead- bearing uranium ore, are also met with within this area. At Mount Painter between the head of Spencer's Gulf and Lake Eyi'e, the Pre-Cambrian rocks comprise remarkably massive deposits with coarse mica-schists, containing an abundance of sapphire. These rocks are traversed by a huge lode con- taining radio-active minerals, such as monazite, torbenite, autunite, etc., together with a considerable amount of fluorspar. This lode has been traced along a continuous outcrop of over a mile, and in places is said to be over 20 yards in width — in places as much as 50 yards. At present the lode is only being prospected. At the Radium Hill, at Olary, on the railway line from Adelaide to Broken Hill, there is a considerable deposit of uranium- bearing titaniferous iron ore. At the surface outcrop this is stained lemon- yellow to orange by carnotite. The ore from this mine is at present being successfully treated at Woolwich, Sydney, and it is expected that it will soon be possible to produce not less than a gramme of radium bromide annually from this mine alone. In the MacDonnell Ranges, associated with the pegmatite dykes are large crystals of muscovite mica, from 1 foot up to 18 inches or more in diameter. Beryls in large crystals, but not of commercial value, occur in the same region. A remarkable rock in the Pre-Cambrian group is that known as the ribbon jasper. This rock, often many hundreds of yards in width, is typically a beautifully banded haematitic quartz rock. It can be traced for hundreds of miles along the gold-bearing belts of Western Australia. From its southern gold-fields, as far north as Kimberley gold-field, wherever reefs of quartz intersect it they are usually gold-bearing. Recent petrological research proves that this ribbon jasper is actually a mylonized quartz-dolerite, subsequently altered by silicification. It is singular that in other places as at Boulder, near Kalgoorlie, a similar mylonized quartz- dolerite has been converted into a graphite schist, probably as the result of long-continued emanations of methane. This gas is still being evolved from the gold telluride-bearing graphite-schists at the Great Boulder Pro- prietary Mine. At Bimbowrie, in South Australia, magnificent crystals of chiastolite, used for jewellery are abundantly developed in the Pre-Cambrian rocks. To the east of the Mount Lofty Ranges, in South Australia, there is a considerable development of andalusite-bearing schists, with which are associated schistose diopside-diorite. The latter rock is very rich in ilmenite, and black sands derived from this ilmenite are plentifully dis- tributed throughout the basalt rocks of the succeeding Cambrian formation. Reference has already been made to the considerable development of Pre- Cambrian rocks in the neighbourhood of the Broken Hill silver mines. No attempt has a.s yet been made to form even a rough approximation of the thickness of the Pre-Cambrians, but it certainly must be very vast. (c) Cambrian System. Rocks of this age are developed on a grand scale in the northern part of Northern Territory, as well as between Lake Eyre and Kangaroo Island, to the south of Adelaide. They are also probably represented by the Nulla- gine series in the Pilbara region. At that gold-field, conglomerates perhaps of Cambrian age overlie quite uncomformably the older schists. These 262 Federal Handbook. conglomerates contain gold and small diamonds, and are the oldest diamond- bearing horizon as yet proved within the Commonwealth. In the Northern Territory, in Arnhem Land, and in the Barclay Tableland, the Cambrian rocks there, largely formed of limestones, have proved invaluable as a source of supply of sub-artesian water. These limestones in the Northern Territory, at the Daly River, as well as at Mount Panton, in the Kimberley gold-field, are rich in the fossil pteropod — Salterella hardmani. Their thickness is cer- tainly several thousands of feet, possibly 7,000 feet. In Arnhem Land and at Eamberley, these limestones overlie thick sheets of basic lavas, apparently contemporaneous in these Cambrian deposits. The two salient points of scientific interest about the system as developed in the Commonwealth are : — First, the development on a grand scale of glacial tillite. It has now been demonstrated that these glacial beds are in places fully 1,000 feet in thickness and extend from the Sturt Gorge, east of Adelaide, at least as far north as Pekina, to the north of Port Augusta, and may extend almost to the tropic of Capricorn, near Lake Eyre. The glacial beds of South Australia cross into New South Wales in the Barrier Ranges, about 20 miles north of Broken Hill. These glacial beds are met with about half-way up in the great thick- ness of Cambrian strata, and are many thousands of feet below the second feature about to be described, namely, the Archaeocyathinae limestones. These rocks are developed on a large scale at Yorke's Peninsula, to the west of Adelaide, as well as near Normanville and the Onkaparinga Valley, whence they extend at least as far north as the Blinninan and Ajax Mines, near Lake Eyre. They contain a rich and exquisitely preserved fossil marine fauna. It may be mentioned that small pieces of similar limestone were discovered by Sir Ernest Shackleton near Mount Darwin, about 360 miles from the South Pole. The Heathcotian Series. Shales and mudstones containing the trilolites Dinesus and Notasaphus, Protospongia and other sponge spicules, brachiopods and railiolaria occur about 3 miles north of Heathcote. These were originally referred to the Cambrian and later to the Ordovician. Recent evidence tends to reinforce their Cambrian age. Immediately underlying these beds to the east, come a mixed series of black cherts, cherty shales, and igneous rocks, principally basic lavas, described as diabases, tufis, and agglomerates, with a few minor dioritic intrusions and a larger intrusive mass of micro-granite. To these rocks the term Heathcotian has been applied, and they have been described as underlying the Dinesus beds with a marked unconformity, and have been referred to the Pre-Ordovician and even to the Pre-Cambrian series. Others have pointed out that there is no evidence of unconformity between them and the overlying Ordovicians, but a gradual passage, and that therefore they cannot be older than Cambrian and may be Cambro-Ordovician in age. Similar rocks, with similar stratigraphical relations, and containing black cherts with Protospongia and radiolaria interbedded with diabases occur to the north-east of Lancefield. Probably the diabases and cherts of Mount Major, near Dookie ; of Mount Stavely, and of the Hummocks, in the west of Victoria, are also referable to the Heathcotian series. Geology op the Commonwealth. 263 In Tasmania, Cambrian rocks of the nature of yellow rusty friable sand- stones and quartzites occur at Caroline Creek, between Railton and Latrobe, as well as on the Humboldt Divide, and in the Florentine Valley. These rocks, which contain well preserved casts of Dikellocephalus, are considered to be of Upper Cambrian age. w. Fig. 6. — Diasrammatic Sections across Victoria. .r /'4 I I I \ I ] ' ' ' i ' ■-, I \' I [Snowy Xirtrt \ Ve3thcoti'3n/C3mbri3n) ^Serpentine ■^50 Milts In Tasmania the Porphyroid Series of schistose quartz-porphyries, felsite tufis and breccias, and spilitic basic rocks, of the Leven Gorge, Dundas, is presumably of Heathcotian, and therefore perhaps of Cambrian (d) Ordovician System. Two well-marked t}'pes, the one littoral, the other probably pelagic, are referred to this system. Shallow water strata of the former type have been described from the Tempe Downs Station and the Levi Range, to the south of the MacDonnell Ranges. These rocks show ripple marks and sun cracks, as well as cubical pseudomorplis in quartzite after rock-salt. Abun- dant well-preserved fossils, of which the commonest forms are Orihis leviensis, Endoceras warburtoni, Asaphus illarensis, are to be found in this neighbour- hood in sandy calcareous shales. The other type of Ordovician rock, the dominant type in fact, consists of black carbonaceous shales and slates, with bands of fine-grained sandstones and quartzites and occasional con- glomerates. They are best developed in Victoria where they are closely folded and strike generally in a N.N.W. direction. They are divided into a lower series, in which the black shales and slates on the whole predominate, and an upper aeries in which sandstones are more prominent, and containing C.12154. 8 264 Federal Handbook. basal conglomerates as at Kerrie, east of Mount Macedou. The lower member has been divided by its graptolite zones into the following divisions from above downward : — Darriwil series, Castlemaine series, Bendigo series, Lancefield series. The most productive gold-fields of Victoria, such as those of Bendigo, Bal- larat, Daylesford, iMaldon, Dunolly, Poseidon, and Steiglitz occur in Lower Ordovician rocks, near intrusions of granodiorite. It has been suggested that the quartz reefs are generally most productive where traversing black shales of the Bendigo series. The Lower Ordovician rocks have so far only been found in Victoria, and with the exception of the Mornington Peninsula, only to the west of a line running north from MelboiU'ne and stretching to the western boundary of the State. The Upper Ordovician rocks are, on the whole, less closely folded than the lower series, are less auriferous, but have a generally similar N.N.W. strike, and occur only to the east of a line running north from Melbourne. Near Melbourne they occur at Diggers Rest, and further north at Kerrie, east of Mount Macedon. Inliers of Upper Ordovician rocks occur near the Woods Point gold-field, and also further east, surrounded by the broad belt of Silurian rocks, while very extensive areas in Eastern Victoria have yielded only Upper Ordovician graptolites. Northwards from Victoria the Upper Ordovician rocks extend into New South Wales, sweeping in a broad belt to the east of Mount Kosciusko, between the Snowy River and Cooma. A belt of the same rock has been identi- fied at Tallong, near Marulan, where it has been shown there is a great uncon- formity between this system and the overlying Silurian system. At Cadia. near Orange, there is a great belt of these rocks containing contemporaneous andesite lava, with large deposits of iron ore. Though extensive, these are not as large by any means as the great ironstone mountain deposits — the ton Knob and the Iron Monarch — to the west of Port Augusta, from which the ore is to be obtained in the near future to supply the large steel works about to be erected at Newcastle. In Tasmania, strata of Ordovician age are represented at the Beaconsfield gold-field, near Launceston. (e) Silurian System. Strata of this age appear to be wholly restricted in the Commonwealth to the eastern portion of Australia and to Tasmania. In Tasmania they are well developed in the neighbourhood of the Mount Lyell Mine, where they contain the trilobite Homalonotus. The strata in Victoria are divided into the Upper orYeringian and the Lower or Melboui'nian series. At Lilydale,in Victoria, there is a well preserved marine fauna in the limestones of that locality. These strata are not so strongly folded as those of the Ordovician System. Perhaps the richest fossil-bearing locality for the Silurians is to be found in the Yass district of New South Wales. The rocks there consist of contemporaneous dacite tufis with sandy shales, olive coloured to yellowish brown shales and numerous beds of limestone. The limestones are built up of a rich coral fauna. In fact, they are obviously old fringing coral reefs. One of the most common and characteristic corals is the mushroom shaped form. Geology of the Commonwealth. 265 Mwophyllum. Penta)nerus is veiy plentiful near the limestones in the middle system. Halysites is very common and characteristic in the lower lime- stones of the system, being so abundant at Spring Creek, near Orange, and at Molong, as to constitute by itself coral reefs. In the upper strata the trilobites Hausrnannia and Encrinurus occur plentifully. The famous Jenolan caves of New South Wales have been hollowed out of limestones rich in Petitamerus. These are capped by massive black cherts, chiefly composed of radiolaria. At the limestone reefs at Wellington, New South Wales, beautifully preserved siliceous sponges allied to Astylospongia may be collected, weathered out of the surface of the limestone. Silurian rocks so far have been identified in Queensland only in the neighbourhood of Chillagoe, where limestones containing Halysites are developed. At the same time it is considered probable that a belt of Silurian extends through Queensland, from the south of Boulia to the extreme north-west, and from 20 miles east of Cloncurry to the western boundary of the State. The Stirling Range, in the south-western portion of Western Australia, has been doubtfully re- ferred to this period. (f) Devonian System. This is the oldest system in the Commonwealth in which definite fossil plants have been discovered, and such give evidence of a great extension of the land surface of Australia in an easterly direction since the close of Pre-Cambrian time. They occur at intervals all the way round from Kim- berley to Cloncurry, the Burdekin basin, the Tamworth area, the region west of the Blue Mountains between Mudgee and Bowenfels, as well as in a parallel strip near Wellington, Spring Creek, near Orange, and Canowindra. They are also represented at the Yalwal gold-field, to the south of the Illa- warra District, as well as on a large scale at Burrinjuck, and also in the Pambula regions. In addition, outlying patches of Devonian rock occur at Cobar, Oxley's Tableland, Gundabooka Mountain, and White Cliffs, beyond Wellington. Southwards they can be traced into Victoria, as the Snowy River porphyries and the Buchan and Bindi limestones and the Tabberabbera shales. No undoubted Devonian rocks have as yet been proved in Tasmania, in South Australia, or in Western Australia south of Kimberley. The system is divisible into three series. The lower is often chiefly volcanic, consisting of banded rhyolites and tuffs. These are asso- ciated with reddish-purple to chocolate coloured shales. In places the volcanic rocks become basic. In the neighbourhood of Burrinjuck and higher up the Murrumbidgee River, near Taemas, there is a splendid develop- ment of folded Lower Devonian limestones. A conspicuous and charac- teristic large fossil in these rocks is the form Receptaculites. Remains of large bony-plated fish, such as Coccosteus and Asterolepis, have been found in these limestones. In Victoria, the Buchan and Bituli limestones occupy eroded hollows in the surface of the Snowy River porphyries. The Gram- pian Range of white, grey, red, and purple sandstones and conglomerates perhaps belongs to the Upper Devonian beds. The conglomerates, sand- stones, and shales of Mansfield, Victoria, are perhaps of Upper Devonian age. In New South Wales, Middle Devonian rocks are well represented in the Tamworth region by massive coralline limestone, in which the curious s 2 266 Federal Handbook. type Sanidophyllum is a dominant form. Associated with the limestones is a vast thickness, about 9,000 feet, of tufaceous cherty shales, with con- cretions of radiolarian limestones. In some of these the radiolaria are exquisitely preserved. Interbedded in the shales are numerous casts of Lepidodendron australe. In Queensland the chief development of Devonian rocks is in the Burdekin basin. There they consist of very massive con- glomerates at the base, passing upwards into coral reef limestones of vast thickness. On the Manning River they are no less than 7,000 feet thick. The most characteristic fossils are Pachypora meridionalis and Stromatoporella. With these are associated fossil plants such as Dicranophyllum, as well as a remarkable undescribed form. Upper Devonian rocks are mostly represented by reddish to grey quartzites, sandstones, and red shales. They are typically developed at Mount Lambie, Mount Walker, and Spring Creek, near Orange, New South Wales. These strata are very rich in Spirifera disjuncta and Rhynchonella pleurodon. Lastly, at Kimberley, in Western Australia, there is a belt of marine Devonian rocks containing a fauna which suggests that it may be of Middle Devonian age. (g) Carboniferous System. With perhaps the exception of a small belt of rocks at Kimberley, which is rumoured to contain Lepidodendron, and the G-rampians sandstones in Western Victoria, which have recently yielded forms of Lingula and fish remains similar to those of the Mansfield rocks, no rocks of this age are known to be developed in Australia, to the west of a line joining Cape York with Melbourne. No trace of Lepidodendron has as yet been found in Tasmania. The genus is widely represented in Queensland, where much of the folded highlands of the north-eastern coast ranges are built up of these rocks. The latest folding to which the earth's crust in Australia has been sub- jected belongs to late Carboniferous time. So far no marked unconformity has been traced between the Devonian and Carboniferous rocks. Rocks of true Carboniferous age in the Commonwealth are characterized by the pre- sence in their lower strata of Lepidodendron volhnannianum, L. veUheimianum and L. dichotomum, and in their upper portion by several species of Rhachop- teris and Aneimites. So far no single example of a Lepidodendron has been found anywhere in the Commonwealth in rocks of so-called Permo-Car- boniferous age. A marine fauna is associated with this system particularly in its lower and middle portions. An important form to distinguish the Carboniferous rocks from the Devonian on the one hand, and the Permo- Carboniferous on the other, is Phillipsia. So far no trace of trilobites has ever been observed in any of the true Permo-Carboniferous rocks. Michelinia and Lithostrotion found in New England are essentially Carboniferous forms which never ascend into the Permo-Carboniferous systems. Less reliance can be placed on the brachiopods, many of which, such as Prodiictus semireticu- latus, Orthis, and Streptorhyncuhs, &c., ascend into the Permo-Carboniferous system. The upper series of the Carboniferous system is characterized by a vast thickness of lavas and tufis, mostly acidic, such as rhyolites and ceratophyi'es associated with hypersthene andesites and hornblende andesites and magne- tite-sandstones. Intrusions of granites and quartz-porphyiies occur on a Geology of the Commonwealth. 267 grand scale in this system, and it may be assumed that the rhyolites and other acid lavas are the volcanic representatives of the granite batholiths. As regards local development, Carboniferous strata formed of reddish shales and sandstones are most typically developed in Victoria, near Mansfield. They there contain Lepidodendron australe with an abundance of fossil fi^h such as Gyracanthides murrayi, Acanthodes australis, Eupleiirogmus cresswelli, Strepsodus decipiens, Ctenodus breviceps, Elonichthys sweeti, E. gibbus. It may be mentioned that it has been proposed to place these beds in the Upper Devonian, the occurrence of Lepidodendron australe, the the most characteristic of our Devonian plants, suggesting this possibility ; but at present the Victorian geologists prefer to class these strata as Lower Carboniferous. The occurrence of Lepidodendron australe in beds of un- doubted Carboniferous age in the Star series of Queensland seems to justify this classification. In New South Wales the Carboniferous system is about 20,000 feet in thickness, and extends in a wide folded belt from Port Stephens northwards into New England, reaching the Queensland border near the Horton River. (h) Permo=Carboniferous (Permian) System. Of all the sedimentary formations developed in the Commonwealth this system is perhaps the most interesting by reason, in the first place, of the wonderful evidence of past ice action ; in the second place, on account of the remarkable development of the Glossopteris and Gangamopteris flora which replaced everywhere within the Commonwealth the Lepidodendron flora of the preceding system ; and, in the third place, this system is specially interesting on account of its marine fauna, which belongs to two sharply differentiated types — the western, allied to the Permo-Carboniferous fauna of India ; and the eastern, a distinct faima unlike, in many respects, any developed in other parts of the world. It is also interesting on account of the fact that probably nowhere else in the world are the strata of the Permo- Carboniferous system of such thickness, or so rich in diversified forms of animal life. It is not proposed to discuss the Palaeontology of this system here, as Mr. W. S. Dun has given a summary of it at the end of this article, and details are given in the handbooks for the various States. In regard to the upward passage from the Carboniferous strata into the Permo-Carboniferous, it may be said that, while there is little evidence of unconformity in some places, in others the unconformity is fairly strongly marked ; as, for example, near Lochinvar in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. At the same time, the unconformity is not nearly as strong as that developed in the British Isles, between the dolomitic breccias of the Permian system, and the Carboniferous rocks. It has already been stated that the Carboniferous strata in the Common- wealth are mostly disposed in fairly close folds. On the other hand, the strata in the Permo-Carboniferous system are either perfectly horizontal or disposed in broad open troughs and arches. Only in the case of the strata at Drake and Undorcliff in Now England and of the Ashford areas in New South Wales, and the Gympie area in Queensland, are the strata of this system highly disturbed near granitic intrusions. 268 Federal Handbook. In regard to tlie term " Permo-Carboniferous," in view of the present state of our knowledge it is somewliat of a misnomer. The term was applied, in the first case, by Messrs. R. L. Jack and R. Etheridge, jun., to certain strata in Queensland, which undoubtedly did unite between themselves forms of life, chiefly marine, partly characteristic of the Carboniferous, partly of the Permian. It is now known that in Queensland these rocks can be sharply divided into two groups, viz. : an older group, in which Lepidodendron and Phillipsia are present ; and a younger group, in which neither of the above fossils ever occur, but which contains a marine fauna distinctly comparable with that of the Hunter River region of New South Wales. In spite of the fact that some of the brachiopods of this Permo-Carboniferous system show aflSnities with those of the Carboniferous, it appears to the writer that there is no longer need for the retention of the term Permo-Carboniferous, but that the strata of this system should be considered to be Permian for the following reasons : — (1) At the very base of the system is a thick and widely developed series of beds of glacial origin, which can be certainly cor- related with the Dwyka beds of South Africa in the Karroo system, also with the Talchir beds in India, as well as with the glacial strata known as the Orleans Conglomerate of the Santa Catharina system of South Brazil and of the Argentine. Now, in South Africa the marine reptile Mesosaurus is found in strata conformably overlying the gracial beds of the Dwyka series, so that, pre- sumably, this reptile was more or less contemporaneous with the Dwyka ice age. Similarly, in Southern Brazil, we meet with remains of Mesosaurus in strata conformably overlying the Orleans conglomerate. Still further north we encounter the well-marked Permian fossil Schizodus, and other marine forms, in shaly strata apparently on the same geological horizon as that containing the above reptile. If, therefore, Mesosaurus, a powerful marine swimmer and therefore a rapid migrator, is really Permian, then the Orleans conglomerate and the Dwyka conglomerate are also of approximately this age. (2) We find that in Russia, in the neighbourhood of Moscow, a flora rich in Glossopteris and Gangamopteris, as shown by Amalitzky, overlies sandstones, marls, &c., which at Brasnoborsk contain Bakewellia ceratopJiaga, Schl., and Schizodus rossicus, Vern. All the above strata in Northern Dwina are considered by Kohen to be referable to the Zechstein. But while the term Permian might probably be substituted with advan- tage for the term Permo-Carboniferous in Eastern Australia, it is doubtful whether it is equally applicable to the so-called Carboniferous rocks of Western Australia, in the Kimberley District In other parts of Western Australia, where so-called Permo-Carboniferous rocks are developed, as at the Gascoyne, Wooramel, and Minilya Rivers, a well-marked glacial horizon the " Lyons conglomerate," underlies the bulk of the so-called Carboniferous strata. There is now little doubt that this glacial horizon is identical with that of Bacchus Marsh, in Victoria, Hallett's Cove, in South Austi'alia, Wynyard, in Tasmania, and Lochinvar, and Kempsey in New South Wales. All the strata above this g]acial horizon might fairly be termed Permo-Carboniferous Geology of the Commonwealth. 269 at any rate, if not Permian. In the Kimberley District of Western Aus- tralia, the glacial horizon has not been identified definitely, and perhaps does not exist there, but the fossils are essentially similar to those above the glacial horizon of the Lyons conglomerate, and may therefore provisionally be classed as Permo-Carboniferous and even Permian. While therefore considering that there is much to justify the term " Permian " being substituted for that of " Permo-Carboniferous," the writer proposes to retain temporarily for the purposes of this article the old term " Permo-Carboniferous," chiefly because it has been so widely used, and generally accepted. As regards geographical distribution, rocks of this system are very widely spread throughout the Commonwealth. In Tasmania about one-half of the island, which is rather bigger than Ceylon but smaller than Ireland, is covered with rocks of this age. They commence with an important series of glacial beds, having a total thickness of about 800 feet. Splendid sections of this can be seen between tide marks on the beach to the east of Wynyard. Several striated pavements occur in the tillite, which show that the ice moved from about S.S.W. to N.N.E. An interesting fact which has lately come to light is that there are at least three, perhaps four distinct tillite horizons, and these are separated from one another by strata perhaps representing inter-glacial epochs. Each tillite horizon can be correlated certainly with those of Victoria, and almost certainly with those of South Africa, and these are succeeded by marine strata belonging to the Lower Marine series, over 600 feet thick at this locality. This series is followed by one of the most important coal-bearing horizons in Australia, viz., the Greta series. In Tasmania, however, the series is represented by only a few seams of coal, from 20 inches up to 3| feet in thickness. In places this coal passes into kerosene shale, formed largely of the problematical plant considered to be an alga, Reinschia australis. Above the Greta series is a considerable de- velopment in Tasmania of rocks of the Upper Marine series. In Tasmania the great series of freshwater coal measures developed in New South Wales and Queensland above the Upper Marine series are wanting, and in Tasmaina rocks of Trias-Jura or Jurassic age rest conformably on the topmost Marine beds of the Permo-Carboniferous system. In Victoria there is a wonderful development of glacial beds of the nature of tillites associated with contemporaneous conglomerates and ripple-marked sandstones, together with fine clay shales. The whole series passes upwards into sandstones containing Gaiigamopteris, and is over 2,000 feet in thickness. Hitherto no marine strata nor coal seams have been discovered in Victoria in this system. These glacial beds lie on a surface of low relief, though in places, as at the Werribee Gorge, the tillite fills an old U-shaped valley, perhaps an overdeepened valley. The rocks on which the tillite rests, mostly of Ordovician age, with Post Ordovician granites are very strongly striated and grooved by ice coming from a southerly direction. The sandstone beds between the tillites show strong evidence in places of contemporaneous contortion. As the matrix of the tillite varies with that of the subjacent rock, there can be no doubt that the tillite was formed by an immen.se sheet of land ice, the main mass of which lay to the south. These glacial deposits can be traced at intervals across Victoria, northwards by 270 Federal Handbook. way of Heathcote to Beechworth, close to the southern border of New South Wales, aud fiue striated pavements can be seen at Derrinal, near Heathcote, together with erratics up to 30 tons in weight. Westwards they extend under the level plains of Tertiary rock, having been proved to underlie Nhill. To the south of Adelaide, between that city and the mouth of the Murray River, there are magnificent clifi sections showing the junction of these old glacial beds with the Lower Cambrian strata. Beautiful striated pavements are to be seen in the Inman Valley, Hallett's Cove, etc., which prove that the ice came from a south by east direction. The glacial beds are there, with their associated conglomerates, sandstones, and shales, fully 900 feet in thickness, but so far in South Australia, as in Victoria, no productive coal of this age nor marine fossils have as yet been found. In fact there are considerable patches there of Permo-Carboniferous glacial landscape re- discovered by modern denudation. Still further west, in the south-west corner of Western Australia, there is a small basin, preserved in a deep trough fault, known as the Collie coal-field. This coal-field contains the fossil plant Ga7igamopteris, associated with numerous seams of coal up to over 10 feet in thickness, but the strata are so very porous, that when shafts, bores or tunnels are made in these measures they become veritable artesian wells. The coal itself, contrary to usual experience in strata of this age, is distinctly hydrous. Northwards from Perth the Irwin River region has preserved a small patch of glacial beds immediately underlying richly fossiliferous marine strata including limestones, and conformably overlying brown clay shales. Two seams of coal conformably overlie the marine strata, the main seam 5 feet thick and though not so proved by fossils, presumably of Permo- Carboniferous age. Still further north in Western Australia, the glacial conglomerate has been ti-aced from near the Carnarvon bore at the mouth of the Gascoyne River to the Wooramel River, and almost up to the latitude of North-west Cape. Thus in Western Australia these Permo-Carboniferous glacial beds actually touch the region of the tropics. As evidenced by the nature of the contained boulders, when compared with their nearest parent rocks, it is clear that the ice sheets, which produced this glaciation, moved, on the whole, from the inland plateau westwards or northwards, probably in a north-westerly direction, inasmuch as the glacial boulders become pro- gressively larger the fm'ther south they are traced. These glacial beds are known as the " Lyons conglomerate." So far no striated floor has been dis- covered beneath them. In the Kimberley district of Western Australia there is a considerable development of marine Permo-Carboniferous calcareous sandstones and limestones, and it has been proved that these Carboniferous strata from the Gascoyne River to the Kamberley District contain invaluable supplies of artesian water, though strange to say they are quite wanting in productive coal seams as far as they have yet been tested. Strata of this age extend further east around the Australian coast to the Victoria River. The marine strata at the Victoria River are associated with fresh- water shales containing Glossopteris. This Glossoptris underlies strata which contains Orthotetes and Aulosteges. This formation has been traced across into Arnhem Land (to the north-east of Darwin), and to the islands of the north-east extremity of Arnhem Land. Groote Island is thought to belong to this system. A remarkable feature is that from the Gulf of Carpentaria Geology of the Commonwealth. 271 around to the Irwin Eiver region the whole assemblage of marine Permo- Carboniferous fossils is distinctly of Indian type. S.S.E. of Cape York is a deep indent in the coast line, marking a prolongation of the trough valley in which lies the Permo-Carbonifeious coal-field of the Little Kiver. As the result of heavy downthrows, the strata have been forced into rather sharp zigzag folds, a rare structure in rocks of this age in Australia. Near Towns- ville is a small development of Permo-Carboniferous strata, which there underlie the coastal plain, and extend out to sea beneath the coral reefs of the Great Barrier. Next we reach the classical coal-field of the Bowen River. There evidence of glacial action, in the foim probably of floating ice, is to be found in the shape of numerous small boulders of granite and other rocks foreign to the district embedded in the clay shales of the Permo-Carboniferous system, but nothing approaching a true tillite has ever been observed in this area. Next, on the south, come the extensive and thick coal seams of the Dawson River basin. The thickest seam known in Australia in rocks of this system occurs near Comet, where it is 80 feet thick. Anthracite of excellent quality occurs in a seam 11 feet thick oa the Dawson River, about 30 miles south of Duaringa, but unfortimately the coal-field in that area is much broken up by faults. The Permo-Carboniferous system in this im- portant coal-field can be divided up into the following groups arranged in ascending order : — ('At the base, marine beds such as those of Gympie, with boulders presumably transported by ice. Next, Lower Marine strata followed by a volcanic series. Lower Bowen<| Above this follow sedimentary rocks, with the 11-ft. seam of anthracite already described. This is followed by the marine shell beds of Oakey Creek and St. Marys, in turn capped by the Glossop- teris beds of Oakey Creek and St. Marys. All these strata are grouped together as Lower Bowen. There follows a slight unconformity and above it are developed the marine shell beds of Claremont and Capella. Above these again, and slightly imconformable to them, are the Tolmie's coal measures. The latter are capped by the old auriferous conglomerates of Claremont. The whole of this last series is grouped together as Upper Bowen. No estimate has, as yet, been formed of the available quantity of Permo-Carboniferous coal in Queensland, but it must be very vast, perhaps, approximating to the 100,000,000,000 of tons roughly estimated to be present in the form of exploitable coal in New South Wales. South-east of the Dawson field the Permo-Carboniferous strata are repre- sented by the basal marine beds of the Gympie gold-field. It has been the experience there that wherever the quartz reefs, which traverse these strata, come in contact with the occasionally intercalated beds of black carbonaceous shale, they are payably gold-bearing. The Dawson coal-field, traced in a southerly direction, reaches the borders of New South Wales, near Bonshaw and Ashford. At the latter locality a fine seam of anthracite coal, 27 feet in thickness, is to be seen in tlie left bank of the Severn River. As Gangamop- teris is the only fossil known to occur in association with this seam, it may provisionally be considered to be of Greta age. This field occupies a narrow 272 Federal Handbook. fault trougli. About 100 miles east of this spot at Undercliff, there are beds of graphite associated with intrusive acid granites. These graphite beds are considered to represent intensely metamorphosed coal seams of Permo- Carboniferous age. These graphitic strata are to be connected with marine beds of undoubted Permo-Carboniferous origin as at the gold-field of Drake, where contemporaneous acid and basic lavas are inter-stratified with the lower beds. South from Ashford, the region of Gunnedah is reached, from which the principal coal-field of New South Wales extends without a break for fully 300 miles, as far south as the head of the Clyde River, near Ulladulla. The type district in this field is that of Maitland, in the Hunter Valley. The system is there ushered in, at Lochinvar, by reddish-brown clays with numerous glacial boulders, but hardly deserving of the name of a true tillite. These beds are about 300 feet in thickness. They are followed by nearly 4,800 feet of strata, mostly of marine origin, with an exceptionally rich Permo- Carboniferous fauna. The fossil Eurydesma cordata is especially charac- teristic of these Lower Marine rocks. Its frequent association with coarse conglomerates shows that it was littoral in habit. The fine state of preserva- tion of the marine shells at the classic spot — Harper's Hill — is due to the fact that they were suddenly overwiielmed in showers of contemporaneous vol- canic ash, which has eSectually preserved them to the present day. Large Aviculopectens and vast numbers of polyzoa, belonging to the family of the Fenestellidae also abound, and may possibly have some relation to cold water conditions, just as at the present time one sees the icy seas of the Antarctic swarming in polyzoa and pectens. The Greta coal measures, from 100 to 300 feet thick, which conformably overlie the Lower Marine series, are not relatively rich in fossil plants. It is significant that in these measures Gan- (/amopteris predominates over Glossopteris, whereas in the higher coal mea- sures of this system the reverse is the case. It should here be mentioned that the Gangamopteris has been found as low down as 2,000 feet below the Greta coal measures in the middle of the Lower Marine series. The Greta coal measures usually contain about 20 feet of workable coal, and, excep- tionally as much as 40 feet. The Upper Marine strata, which follow the Greta, attain their maximum thickness yet proved in the Hunter River region, viz., 5,000 to 6,400 feet. About half-way up in the series erratics, certainly of glacial origin, are very numerous in places, occurring usually in groups. Many of these blocks of rock are one to two tons in weight, and appear to have been derived from the region of Mount Lambie, near Rydal or Bathurst, about 200 miles to the south-west. It is significant, probably, of glacial conditions, that we find an almost total absence of reef-forming corals m the Permo-Carboniferous strata. Such corals as do occur are slender types like Zaphrentis and Trachypora. Near the top of the Upper Marine series, as well as on certain horizons lower down, are remarkably large pseudo- morphs known as glendonite. These crystals attain a length of from 2 ins. to 1 foot. They are best seen on the beach between tide marks at Huskisson, Jervis Bay, about 100 miles southerly from Sydney. The shore here presents the appearance of a medieval battlefield, strewn with spear heads and caltrops. They are pseudomorphs after the double sulphate of sodium and calcium, glauberite. As deposits of sodium sulphate are very common and Geology of the Commonwealth. 273 characteristic in Antarctica, these glendonites may have some climatological significance. They have also been found in Tasmania, close to the horizon of the oil shale known as Tasmanite, in part of the Mersey coal-basin. Above the Upper Marine follow the strata of the Middle Coal measures, known as the East Maitland or Tomago measures. These are from 500 to 1,800 feet thick and contain in the aggregate about 40 feet of coal, which, being more friable than that of the Greta, is not so suitable for export, though useful for household, gas, and blacksmith purposes. A total thickness of about 18 feet of coal is worked. In parts of the Hunter River coal-field, there follows a considerable thickness, in places about 2,000 feet thick, of fresh water strata, with abundant plant remains, but devoid of any coal seams of workable thickness. These beds belong to the Dempsey series. Next, above the Dempsey, comes the Newcastle series, 12,000 to 14,000 feet in thickness, with about 120 feet of coal. The thickness of the seams varies from 1 foot up to about 27 feet. The aggregate thickness of workable coal in this series is from 35 to 40 feet. On the shores of Lake Macquarie, at Awaba, as well as at the southern entrance to Lake Macquarie, known as Reid's Mistake, are fossil forests of coniferous trees. At the latter locality it can be seen that the trees sprang directly from the upper portion of a coal seam being actually in position of growth. The lower parts of the stem are of carbon, but upwards they pass into chalcedony, where they have been buried under showers of very fine volcanic tuff. The tuff has evidently broken down branches of the trees, and resin has exuded from the fractures, and is preserved now in the form of black drops in the tuff, the latter being converted into chert. Some of these coniferous trees can be seen to be over 100 feet in length. It may be said that, on the whole, the evidence points to the coal seams in the whole of the Permo-Carboiiiferous system, having formed, for the most part, at the spot where seams are now found. For example, in the under clay, only thin rootlets have been observed. In the clay bands higher up, in the seam numerous specimens of Vertebraria can be frequently seen in position of growth. It is only in the actual roofs of the seams that forest trees like the conifer Dadoxylon have been proved to exist. In places, but rarely, remains of fossil fish, and of labyrinthodonts have been discovered in the coal measures, from those of Greta age up to those of Newcastle age. For example, a small labryrinthodont has been recorded from the Mersey coal measures (Greta horizon) near Railton, and another was found in the kero- sene shale at Airlie, in the western coal-field of New South Wales. Palaeoniscus has been obtained from the marine (probably lower marine) Permo-car- boniferous rocks of Tasmania, and Urosthenes from the Newcastle coal measures of New South Wales. The total amount of exploitable coal in seams not less than 3 feet thick and not more than 4,000 feet in depth in tliese measures in New South Wales, is estimated to be roiiglily about 100,000,000,000 tons. Summary — (1) Ju regard to Palfeogeography the ice which glaciated Tasmania, Victoria and South Austi'alia, came from the south fronx a land probably a local extension southwards into the Southern Ocean, of the Aus- tralian continent. The glaciation of Cambrian time, in Australia, came from the same quarter. In Western Australia, the glaciation is thought to 274 Federal Handbook. have come from tte south-east, from local highlands, near the southern end of Western Australia. In Eastern Australia, the region afiected by the glaciation was a landscape apparently of low relief, but we know nothing of the height of the gathering ground of the ice sheets on the now sunken part of the continent, where the eastern end of Jefirey's Deep shows a depth of 3,000 fathoms. Possibly the great bank recently discovered which lies about 200 miles south of Tasmania, and which rises from great ocean depths to within 500 to 600 fathoms of the surface formed part of a high south- eastern margin to Australia, extending from this bank to Kangaroo Island in Permo-Carboniferous time. This was no doubt in part a gathering ground for the inland ice. In New South Wales, there seem to have been local alpine glaciers. In south-western Western Australia, there seems to have been a local ice sheet. (2) There were at least three interglacial phases in Australia, probably to be correlated with those of Africa. (3) The fauna especially in disappear- ance of Carboniferous reef-forming corals suggests general refrigeration of the seas, while the flora of the coal seams is not inconsistent with that of a climate like that of Macquarie Island. (4) Snow line touched sea level probably near 40 degrees S. latitude in Permo-Carboniferous time, and glaciers came down to sea level at about 34 degrees S. latitude. (5) This may demand a fall of temperature as compared ■^'ith the present of about 10 degrees C. (i) Trias System. Rocks of this age are at present known to be developed chiefly in the Sydney and Blue Mountain areas of New South Wales. In Tasmania, however, the Knocklofty Series, variegated sandstones, 1,000 feet tliiok, which, in the neighbourhood of Hobart, overlie the Penno-Carboniferous strata, have been doubtfully referred to some part of Triassic time. They contain remains of Acrolepis hamiltoni and A. tasmanicus, and bones of, probably, a labyrinthodont. The occurrence in the sandstones of Vertebraria indica, Royle, siiggests affinities with the Permo-Carboniferous system. The Ida Bay Series containing Zeugophyllites and Pecopteris lunensis are perhaps Triassic. In regard to the Fingal Series in the Tasmanian coal- measures, as some doubt exists as to whether they belong to the top of the Trias, or to the base of the Jurassic, they wiU be described later. The Triassic strata of New South Wales extend along the coast from the Cambewarra Ranges in the south to Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, in the north, thence they stretch inland to beyond Gunnedah, on the north- west, and westwards to a little beyond Lithgow. The rocks in this area have been divided, chiefly lithologically, into three stages which, in descending order, are as follows : — Wiannamatta shales. — Thickness about 600 feet. Hawkesbury sandstone. — Thickness about 300 to 1,000 feet. Narrabeen beds.— Thickness about 200 to 2,000 feet. The strata of the Narrabeen Stage are largely tufaceous, but the true tuffs do not constitute more than about one-tenth part of the whole thickness of the Stage. In their lower portion they are mostly grey to greenish-grey sand* stones, with greenish conglomerates and grey-green and reddish to chocolate- coloured shales. Five hundred feet above the Bulli coal seam (the top of GrEOLOGY OP THE COMMONWEALTH. 275 the Permo-Carboniferous System), tufaceous red shales and green tufis contain innumerable small scales of metallic copper, together with microscopic veins of the same metal. These strata are known as the Cupriferous Tuffs. Over 1,000 feet above these tuffs is a second series of green tu£Es and chocolate-red shales. In the latter, at Long Reef, 12 miles north-east of Sydney, beautiful examples occixr of plants resembling Phyllotheca, with their stems of brittle bituminous coal, held together in a delicate filigree-like network of metallic copper. Where the strata have been much weathered, the metallic copper passes into green and blue carbonates. The copper has obviously been derived from the decom- position of the basic tufis. The tuffs are traversed in places by small veins of barytas. The Hawkesbury sandstone, which is typically developed at Sydney and in the Blue Mountains, is chiefly formed of white to yellowish-grey sandstones, very regularly and evenly bedded, diagonal bedding being very conspicious. South of the Hawkesbury River, in the area where this diagonal bedding dips to the north-east, primary graphite is scattered in scales or small pellets through the sandstone. To the north of the Hawkesbury River, the diagonal bedding dips in almost the opposite direction, that is from off the New England tableland, and this part of the formation does not contain graphite. Small garnets are not infrequent in the southern type of the Hawkesbury sandstone. Certain beds in this Stage form a valuable building stone, largely worked in Sydney and suburbs. It weathers, as the result of chemical changes in the iron carbonates, to a pleasing tint of warm sepia. A few bands of dark clay shale are interstiatified with the sandstone. These often show evidence of having been disrupted contemporaneously, the fragments being up-ended so that their lamination planes are now vertical. Meanwhile, neither the sandstones above nor those below show any sign of disturbance. This phenomenon, together with that of contemporaneously contorted current- bedding, has been ascribed to the action of ice ; but other explanations, such as that of undercutting of the clay shales by stream action are possible. These sandstones weather into picturesque shelter caves, as the result of the removal by capillarity of soluble mineral cement from the inner portion of the sandstone and its transference to the exterior. The Wiannamatta Stage is mostly formed of black carbonaceous shales, with at least one seam of coal, which, with clay bands, is about 4 feet thick. At the top of this stage the beds become sandy and calcareous, ending in a calcareous tufaceous rock, 100 feet thick, containing a very interesting foraraini feral and ostracodan fauna. As regards fossil plants, Thinnfeldia odontopteroides is specially charac- teristic and abundant throughout the whole series. Macrotreni'pleris and Phyllotheca are also typical. Sphenopteris is also common, and in places is associated with Alethopleris (Cladophehis), but this last genus is much more characteristic, in Australia, of the Jurassic rocks than of the Triassic. Near the base of the Narrabeen Stage beautifully preserved specimens of Schizo- neura are fairly common, and the genus not only extends downwards into the strata which form the roof over the Bulli coal seam, at the top of the ' Permo-Carboniferous System, but, at the Sydney Harbor collieries shaft at Balmain, Sydney, it has been found associated, in the same bed of clay 276 Federal Handbook. shalfe, with Glossopteris. Schizoneura has never been found in either the Hawkesbury or in the Wiannamatta Stages, but it occurs in Victoria in strata conformably overhang the Gangamopteris sandstones and glacial beds at Bacchus Marsh, to the west of Melbourne. Stems of trees are numerous in the tuS beds near the top of the Stage, as well as forms allied to Baiera. Fossil fruit are plentiful in these beds at Long Reef and Narrabeen, to the north of Sydney. Reference has already been made to the abundance of Phyllotheca, some stems of which are partly encrusted with metallic copper. The lower part of the Narrabeen Stage, for about 500 feet above the top of the Permo-Carboniferous System, is swarming in small black valves of several species of Estheria. Just at the top of the Xarrabeen Stage, or possibly a few feet up into the Hawkesbury Sandstone Stage, is a bed of shale at Gosford, which has proved exceptionally rich in remains of fossil fish, together with remains of small labyi'inthodonts. The principal forms found are PalcBoniscus, Myriolepis, Cleithrolepis, Apateolepis, Dictyopyge, Belonorhynchus, Semionotus, Pristisomus, Pholidophorus, etc. In the Hawkesbury Sandstone Stage a problematical fossil plant, Ottdia prcBterita, occurs sparingly. In the occasional intercalated shale beds Oleandridium has been recorded, while Thinnfeldia odontopteroides is very abundant. The leaves are so well preserved that they are sufficiently coherent and flexible to be lifted off the surface of the shale, and when subsequently examined under the microscope, are seen to have preserved much original structure. At Biloela (Cockatoo Island), near Sydney, a thoracic plate of Masto- donsaurus was found, and also, strange to say, at the same spot, a specimen of Tremanotus. This Silurian genus on a Triassic horizon may represent either a remarkable survival, or it is possible that the fossil may be an erratic in this formation. It is preserved in ironstone, which may have replaced a small fragment of limestone. In the shales of the Wiannamatta series, most of the fossils are either at the base or near the top of the Stage. Just as the Hawkesbmy sandstone usually rests on an eroded surface of Narrabeen beds, so in the case of the junction line of the Wiannamatta shales, with the Hawkesbury sandstone there is in many cases evidence of contemporaneous erosion. A good deal of concretionary clay ironstone has formed in the basal beds of the Wiannamatta shales, and these are mostly fossiliferous. In addition to Thinnfeldia and Phyllotheca, the Cycadopteris scolopendrica has been recorded from these beds. True cycads appear on the whole to be wanting throughout the whole of the Australian Triassic rocks. In the ironstone concretions referred to above, shells of Mollusca are often very abundant, belonging to the genera Unio and Unioiiella. The dwarf character of these shells suggests that the strata containing them were deposited in brackish water. In the brick-pits of Newtown and Enmore, in Sydney, numerous well-preserved specimens of fossil fish have been obtained. These range in size from a few inches up to specimens 6 feet in length. Labyrinthodont remains have been found on this horizon, both at Enmore and at the Gib Rock Tunnel, near Bowi-al. The specimen discovered at the former locality measures about 10 feet in length. Its immense jaws ai*e furnished with three rows of powerful Geology of the Commonwealth. 277 conical teeth. The original specimen, preserved in clay ironstone, has never yet been described. It is now at Brisbane, in the possession of the Government Geologist of Queensland, who also has several as yet undescribed fossil insects, discovered by him in these shales. The Wiannamatta Stage closes with a bed of greenish tufaceous and calcareous sandstone, passing into sandy limestone. This is largely formed of foramipiferal and ostracodan shells. Comment has been made on the fact that, in this horizon of the Wiannamatta Stage, we have a remarkable example of the survival of a Silurian type of ostracod in the genus Beyrichia endothyra ; also on this horizon is an interesting survivor from the carboniferous fauna. On the other hand, the genus Haplophragmium, which also occurs on this horizon, is not known elsewhere to descend so low stratigraphically. The geographical conditions under which the strata of the Hawkesbury series were accumulated appear to be those of a large shallow lake close to the sea, with which possibly there was intermittent communication. The Gangamopteris-Glossopteris Flora of the Permo-Carboniferous Ice Age had, with the exception of Phyllotheca, Sphenopteris, and perhaps Alethopteris, completely disappeared before the earliest strata were deposited in this great lake basin. The eruptions, perhaps of the Kiama-Cambewarra region, or at all events of that zone, were prolonged into Triassic time, as proved by the frequent beds of basic tuff in the Nairabeen Stage. The evidence of ripple-marks and suncracks on many horizons all through the series points obviously to shallow water conditions. The foraminiferal ostracodan sandy limestone and calcareous sandstone at the top of the whole series prove that after a subsidence near the centre of the basin of about 3,500 feet, marine, or at least estuarine, conditions supervened. The flora of these Triassic rocks differs from the Jurassic in the presence in the former of Phyllotheca in vast numbers and of Oleandridium, while the Toeniopteris daintreei and varieties of cycads so common in the Australian Jurassic rocks are wanting in the Trias. Triassic types of Estheria do not ascend into the Jurassic, neither do the labyrinthodonts. Endothyra, Beyrichia, Trenianotus {^), and Palceoniscus all represent Palaeozoic forms of life surviving into Mesozoic time in the Trias of Australia. In reference to the Fingal Series, and other representatives of the upper coal measures of Tasmania, some doubt exists as to whether they are to be classed as Upper Trias, perhaps Rhaetic, or Lower Jurassic. As Tcenio- pteris daintreei {T. spathulata) regarded as a critical form in Australia for differentiating the Jurassic from the Trias has never yet been found in Tasmania, and the genus Phyllotheca is of common occurrence in these Tasmanian coal measures, it is proposed to class them provisionally as Upper Trias, or Passage Beds into the Jurassic propei'. Thinnfeldia odon- topteroides, Alethopteris {Cladophehis denticulata) australis, Tceniopteris tasnianica, T. tnorrisiana, Phyllotheca, and Zeugoj)hyllites {Phoenicopsis, or Podozamites) elongatus are most charactei-istic. Other forms present are Ptilophyllum oligoneurum, Sphenopteris lobi folia, Pterophyllum, Baiera tenuifolia, Ginkgophyllum australe, etc. It may be stated generally that these Fingal coal measures are not as rich in fossil cycadaceous forms as are the true Jurassic rocks of the mainland. These measures, about 1,200 feet in thickness, are formed chiefly of yellow, brown, greenish, and bluish- grey 278 Federal Handbook. sandstones, with coal seams from 4 feet up to 20 feet in thickness. The coal is of fair quality, containing from 1 per cent, up to 4 per cent, of moisture, and from 9 per cent, up to 15 per cent, of ash. (j) Jurassic System. Rocks referable to this period belong to what was probably the greatest lake epoch through which the Australasian continent has passed. The principal lake extended from some point south of Dubbo to at least as far north as the far extremity of the Bunya Bunya Ranges of Queensland to the north-west of Dalby. It is probable that the lake extended still further up to the Cloncurry area. Westwards they stretch more or less continuously to Lake Eyre, and still further westwards to Lake Phillipson. The lake would thus have had a total length of 1,200 miles from east to west, with a width from north to south of 700 to 800 miles. The strata deposited in this lake, or chain of lakes, are the main source of supply of the artesian water in the great artesian basin. They vary in thickness from 300 to 400 feet up to, at Lake Phillipson, about 3,000 feet. Eastwards the basin extends through a narrow neck near Brisbane {vide Plate IIL) to the coast at the mouth of the Brisbane River, and also by a wider passage to the east coast, along the basin of the Clarence River, between Ballina and Woolgoolga. That there is no outlet of conse- quence, if any, for the artesian basin in this direction is proved by the fact that a bore has been put down to a depth of over 3,000 feet at Grafton, and only a feeble trickle of artesian water has been tapped. The same remark applies to the bore at the race-course at Brisbane. As details of this artesian basin are given by Mr. E. F. Pittman in his chapter in this volume, only very brief references will be made to the subject here. The section (Plate VI.) shows somewhat arbitrarily the line of junction between the Jurassic and the Cretaceous rocks, and is to be regarded as provisional only, as, on account of most of the bores being carried out by percussion, the fossils in the strata passed through are usually in such a fragmental state that identifica- tion is often very difficult. The section (Plate VII.) shows the hydraulic grade descending from Charleville as a centre northwards to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and south-westwards to Lake Eyre. This fall in the hydraulic grade is difficult of explanation. The difficulties are obvious from the section, which shows that at its south-western end the basin is apparently blocked by impervious Pre-Cambrian or older Palaeozoic rocks, so that apparently it has no outlet in that direction. Then, too, towards the north, a sill of older rock rises so high above the general floor of the basin that it woiild seem to go far towards checking any important underflow and outflow to the sea in this direction also. The explanation of the fall of the hydraulic grade seawards from Charleville, in Queensland, would seem to be eithor (a) that there are narrow subterranean outlets (which have not yet been tapped in the bores), both in the direction of the Bight and in that of the Gulf of Carpentaria ; or {b) that before the bores were sunk the chief outlet for the artesian water was through those natural artesian wells — the Mound Springs. These are very numerous on the Lower Flinders River in the north, and near Lake Eyre towards the south-west end of the basin. Geology of the Commonwealth. 279 280 Federal Handbook. Geology of the Commonwealth. 281 That springs connected with faults supply part of the artesian water is obvious ; but it is probable that by far the larger proportion has a meteoric origin, being derived from rain falling direct on to the outcrop of the porous beds, or leaking into them from the channels of rivers. This supposition receives some confirmation from the Cainozoic analogue of the artesian basin at Perth, in Western Australia, where the inter- dependence between rainfall and the outflow of artesian water has been distinctly proved ; but the conditions in the Perth artesian basin are not in every respect analogous to those in the central Jurassic basin. For example, in the latter the factor of gas pressure is very important in helping to force the artesian supply to the surface. Over 90 per cent, of the gas concerned in producing this pressure is nitrogen ; gases like CH4, CO2, HgS, etc., are present in far smaller proportion. This nitrogen is almost certainly not of plutonic origin, but is probably derived from the alteration of organic material, such as lignite or coal, by the action of anaerobic bacteria. As, however, the temperature of the artesian water is in some cases up to 204 degrees Fahr., even when the water arrives at the surface, it is difficult to understand how bacteria can live under such conditions. But, so far, the waters from the chief bores which evolve nitrogen have much lower tem- peratures than the above. This interesting problem, as indeed that of the whole physics, chemistry, and geology of the great artesian basin, still awaits solution. The total depth of all the artesian bores of Australia, according to the latest figures available to the writer, is almost exactly 500 miles, and the potential daily yield about 680 millions of gallons. Strata of Jurassic age are also found on the eastern periphery of Australia and in Tasmania, as well as in the coastal regions of Western Australia. In Queensland the principal localties are Ipswich, Clifton, Callide Creek west of Gladstone, Stanwell, and Rosewood west of Rockhampton, and Broadsound to its north. The strata are there from 2,000 to at least 3,000 feet in thickness, and consist of sandstones, conglomerates, and shales, with massive beds of quartz-trachHe tuff at the base of the Series at Brisbane. Basic lavas are present on a higher horizon and contemporaneous trachyte lavas. These are found between Brisbane and the Macpherson Ranges, on the borders of New South Wales and Queensland. The seams of coal in the Queensland Jurassic rocks range from a few feet up to a maximum of 30 feet in thickness. In the Ipswich basin the seams vary from about 6 feet up to 8 or 10 feet in thickness. The principal fossils are Twniopteris daintreei, Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, Alethopteris australis, Sagenopteris, Ptilophyllum, Podozamites Jddstoni, Otozamites, Brachyphyllum, etc. The fossil fauna comprises Estheria mangaliensis, Unio ipsviciensis, Unio eyrensis, while insects are represented by Mesostigmodera typica and several as yet undescribed forms. In the Clarence Basin of northern New South Wales, strata of this age are probably at least 4,000 feet in thickness. They are divided into Upper Middle, and Lower Clarence Stages respectively. The Lower Clarence Stage contains several seams of coal, up to a maximum thickness of al)out 37 feet, but the seams are so full of clay bands that they are not at present worked commercially. The Middle Clarence Stage is a strongly marked horizon of massive diagonal-bedded sandstone. The Upper Clarence consists of clay, C.12154. T 282 Federal Handbook. shales, and clayey sandstones. A rich flora is contained in the Lower Clarence Stage, but it has not yet been described. Tceniopteris daintreei and Thinnfeldia odontopteroides are the most characteristic fossils. A small isolated patch of Jurassic rock also occurs at Talbragan, between Mudgee and Dubbo, in New South Wales. These strata, which rest on an eroded surface of Hawkesbury sandstone, contain the following fossils : — Tceniopteris daintreei, Alethopteris australis, Thinnfeldia falcata, Podoza- mites lanceolatus, and Baiera hidens. Insects were represented by an ancestor of the true locust, the fossil form being described as Cicada lowei. Amongst the fish, which are very numerous, are Leptolepis gregarious, Archceomene rohustus, Coccolepis, etc. In Victoria there are three considerable areas of Jurassic rocks — those of South C4ippsland, the Cape Otway District, and the neighbourhood of Merino, in the west. The strata consist of felspathic sandstones, with abundant fresh frag- mental felspar, perhaps of tufaceous origin, besides shales, mudstones, and seams of coal. The seams are worked commercially in the Cape Paterson District, as at the State-owned colliery at Wonthaggi. The coal is of fairly good quality, and the thickness of the seams varies from 2 to 9 feet. The following are among the most characteristic fossils : — Coniopteris hyineno- phylloides var. australica, Cladophlehis denticulata var. australis, Sphenopteris ampla, Thitinfeldia odontopteroides, T. maccoyi, Tceniopteris spatidata and vars. daintreei and carruthersi, Podozamites harklyi, Ginkgo robusta, Baiera subgracilis, Palissya australis, Brachyphyllwn gippslandicum, TJnio stirlingi. The interesting discovery has been made of a tooth of Ceratodus from Cape Paterson, C. avus. Scales of Ceratodus have also been described from the parLsh of Killak, South Gippsland. Ceratodus has of course been recorded from the Stormberg series of South Africa, as well as from the Trias of Eui-ope. Another recent very interesting discovery has been that of a claw of a dinosaur also in the Cape Paterson beds. In South Australia, to the south of Lake E}Te, there is a small Jurassic coal basin, an outlier of the main Jurassic artesian basin, and preserved in a deep trough fault. This is the Leigh's Creek coal basin. Its strata of sand- stone and carbonaceous shales are over 2,000 feet in thickness, and comprise several seams of coal, one of which is 47 feet in thickness. This coal is a hydrous brown coal. The chief fossils are Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, T. media, Macrotceinopteris wianamaUce, Podozamites lanceolatus, and an immense number of the fossil pelecypod Unio eyrensis. This occiu-red in almost every foot of the core from the bore for coal, from <-he surface to a depth of over 1,500 feet. The only marine equivalents of strata of Jurassic age mthin the Commonwealth are found on the wes^ and south-west coasts of Western Australia. They are chiefly developed in the Northampton District, extending thence by way of the Greenough Eiver to Gingm, about 40 miles north of Perth, in Western Australia. The strata consist of white sandstones, ferruginous sandstones, light-coloured claystones, grits, lime- stones, and shales, with lignites. Their maximum thickness is quite 3,000 feet. In places phosphatic green-coloured patches in the ferruginous sand- stone contain the phosphatic mineral dufrenite. .irtesian water has been struck in this formation at Dongara and at Yardarino ; but after flowing for Geology of the Commonwealth. 283 a few years, the flow has ceased at the former looa,lity through the bore becoming choked, and at the latter through failure of the supply. The following are the most typical fossils in this area : — Otozamites feistmanteli, Zigno, Pagiophyllum {?), Pentacrinus australis, Trigonia nioorei, Teredo found in its own bores in fossil wood, several varieties of Jurassic ammonites, and remains of large enaliosaurians. The second area commences at Cape Riche, and extends to beyond the Phillips River. The strata, in almost horizontal beds, rise to about 700 feet above sea-level. Perfect specimens of fossil sponges are weathered out from some of the caves in this formation. A very important unit in the geology of Tasmania is the huge sills of diabase (granophyric dolerite and enstatite-augite dolerite), often over 500 feet thick, which have been intruded into these coal measures. They are almost certainly Pre-Cainozoic. If they are of the same age as the great dolerite sills of the Karroo System of South Africa, and the Antarctic dolerites, which intrude the Beacon sandstone formation of the Ross Sea Region, they should probably be placed at the top of the Jurassic, and perhaps be connected with the breaking up of Gondwana Land, at the close of Jurassic time. (k) Cretaceous System. This system is divided at present into the Rolling Downs formation below, and the Desert Sandstone above. The lower formation is almost wholly marine, except in the case of the Burrum coal-field of Queensland with the adjacent Frazer Island, or Great Sandy Island, and intermediate islands, which consist partly of fresh-water beds. The Desert Sandstone is mostly of fresh-water origin ; but in places, as at Croydon, in Queensland, it contains in abundance Rhynchonella croydonensis, and at Fanny Bay and adjacent areas at Darwin is represented by a radiolarian shale, and by cherts containing casts of small Belemnites. As regards thickness, the Desert Sandstones vary from about 150 feet up to a maximum of 500 feet, while the Rolling Downs beds are known to be in places about 2,000 feet in thickness, perhaps more. The exact thickness is not always easy to deter- mine, on account of a nearly conformable downward passage from the Rolling Downs beds into the Jurassic strata. The vast extent, about one- third, of the whole area of Australia, formerly covered by the rocks of the Cretaceous system, shows that an enormous transgression of the ocean took place at this time, so as to develop a distinct epicontinental sea over the whole of the east central portion of Australia. Cretaceous rocks are also known to be developed on the north-west side of the Victoria Desert in Western Australia, as well as under the Tertiary limestones of the Nullarbor Plains fronting the Great Australian Bight, as lately proved in the Madura artesian bore. They are also represented by a narrow strip, some thousand feet below sea level, at Perth, as shown by the Clermont Bore as well as by a similar strip extending along the coast from north of Geraldton towards North-west Cape. Mr. W. S. Dun, in his palseontological notes in this article, comments on the fact that the marine fauna from this west coast belt of Western Australia is closely allied to the Pondicherry Cretaceous fauna of India, whereas that of the great artesian basin represents a peculiar type locally developed within this Australian Mediterranean. Lithologically the JDesert Sandstone rocks 284 Federal Handbook. consist mostly of coarse sandstone, passing in the arid regions into quartzite, as well as of very siliceous white shales graduating superficially into porcellanite, and in places containing valuable deposits of precious opal. The latter are associated with remarkable large forms, known to the miners as " pineapples," formed of common opal pseudomorphous after glauberite, together with concretions locally known as buns of barytes. Near Port Mackay, in Queensland, trachytic tufis are said to be associated with the lower beds of the Desert Sandstone. This is the only record of contemporaneous volcanic activity in the whole Cretaceous System in Aus- tralia. Small seams of coal, too thin to be workable, and numerous silicified trees occur in places in this formation. The Rolling Downs strata are mostly friable sandstones rich in foraminifera, and rendered green by glauconite. In addition, at the Burrum coal-field and at Maryborough and Frazer Island, sandstones and shales, with fossil plants and seams of productive coal, are now considered to be of Cretaceous age. The whole series is approximately 3,000 feet thick. The Burrum coal seams, of which about four are of workable thickness — that is,from 3 feet to 4 feet thick — contain coal of a brittle, bright, black, bituminous character, and remarkably free from ash, but too friable for export. The fossil plants recently recorded from this Cretaceous coal-field show that forms like Trichomanites laxum, Thinnfeldia media, and Tcenio- pteris daintreei survived over from Jurassic time. Corbula burrumensis and Rocellaria terrce regince are associated with the Burrum coal measures. This recent discovery of the survival of part of the Australian Jurassic fauna and flora into Cretaceous time is obviously of considerable importance. As regards the fossil fauna in the Rolling Downs beds, well preserved remains of infusoria belonging to the Tintinnoidm associated mth diatoms and radio- laria have been found in fine-grained limestones at Mitchell, on the Maranoa River. The following is a list of specially characteristic fossils : — Fora- minifera, in which the Lituolidae are strongly represented, Purisiphotiia clarkei, Psevdavicula australis, Maccoyella barklyi, Nucula qiiadrata, Cytherea clarkei, Belemnites australis, Crioceras australe, Lamna daviesii, Aspido- rhynchus sp., BelonostomMs sweeti, Notochelone costata. Ichthyosaurus australis, Plesiosaurus macrospondylus, Mschna flindersensis, etc.* The general evidence points to a progressive submergence of the Australian Continent in Cretaceous time leading to an encroachment of the sea south- wards through the direction of the Gulf of Carpentaria across to the Australian Bight. It is just possible that there may have been a narrow neck of land joining east Australia to Western Australia to the south of Lake Eyre. At all events the isolation, when the submergence was at its maximum, of east Australia from "Western Australia, must have been nearly complete. The wide spread of the comparatively thin beds of the Desert Sandstone, mostly of fresh-water origin, indicate that, in Upper Cretaceous time, the Cretaceous seas were retiring from the Continental area, and lacustrine conditions were taking their place everywhere, except locally, as at Croydon and Darwin. It may be added that Melville Island and Bathurst Island, to the north of Darwin, are formed of Cretaceous rocks, apparently of Rolling Downs type, * This insect is probably an .Eschnidium. Mention may here be made of an extraordinary fosai] perhaps allied to .Eschnidium now to be ?een at the Geological and Mining Museum Sydney. It is a well preserved wing in the heart of an immense selenite crystal found at over 600 feet underground m the Mt. Elliott copper mine, near Cloucurry, Queensland. Geology of the Commonwealth. 285 but little is as yet known of their fossil contents. The fact that Lower Cretaceous fossils, especially small specimens of Scaphites, are being con- stantly washed up on the beach at the Point Charles lighthouse, Darwin, shows that Lower Cretaceous rocks underlie the strait which separates Melville Island from the mainland. It may be suggested here, very tentatively, that the vast transgression of the Cretaceous sea was perhaps causally con- nected with two other impoitant geological events, viz.: — Firstly with the sinking in of Gondwana land leading to compensating uplifts of the sea floor, and secondly with the wholesale injection of the vast dolerite sills, which probably further contributed towards shoaling the ocean basins. (I) Cainozoic Era. The classification and correlation of the rocks of the Commonwealth belonging to this era present many difficulties. It is harder in Australia than in Northern Europe to separate the Post Tertiary from the Tertiary rocks, as whereas in Northern Europe glacial deposits, chiefly of Pleistocene time, are widespread, in Australia such glacial evidences are wholly restricted to an area of less than 500 square miles, which has its centre at Mount Kosciusko. Only in Tasmania can evidences of Pleistocene ice action be traced over a large area. Then in regard to the correlation of the Australian Tertiaries with those of Europe, the statement of an Australian palaeontologist still applies ; — " Many attempts have been made to fit the Tertiaries of Southern Australia into the British Procrustean subdivisions, and I do not know that the results are any more satisfactory to the strata than they were to the guests of Procrustes himself." Direct comparison of Australian Tertiary forms with those of Europe may prove faUaceous, unless supplemented by other evideoce, for there is no direct proof of the existence of any highway for migration of marine organisms from the seas of the Southern Hemisphere into the Tethys area in early Tertiary time. Tested by the Lyellian method — the determination of the percentage of recent Mollusca in the series — the Tertiary marine faunas of Australia can be compared with the recent fauna of Australian seas, but it is now clear that some Australian palaeontologists who worked on these lines did not recognise the fact that in many of the older Tertiary deposits of Australia the marine moUuscan fauna is not, as was originally supposed, littoral in habit, but belongs to a moderate depth ; and recent dredging operations have demonstrated the fact that many forms in the older Australian Tertiaries, formerly thought to belong to extinct species, are now living at some depths off the Australian coasts. If one relies for correlation on the evidence of wide-ranging and rapid-moving types, like sharks and whales, it may be noted that GarcJuirodon angustidens and C. megalodon, of the older Australian Tertiaries, are charac- teristically Miocene in the Northern Hemisphere. Then, too, the toothless whales of the Victorian older Tertiaries belong to a group which in the northern hemisphere appears to be chiefly Pliocene. On the whole the tendency of late has been to refer tlie so-called Eocene strata of Southern Australia to some part of Miocene time. Recently it has been proposed to divide the Tertiary rocks of Victoria into three systems, details of which are given in this article. It will be seen that reliance is 286 Fedeeal Handbook. largely placed for purposes of correlation, on various species of Lepidocyclina. Meanwhile the sequence of events in Cainozoic time in Southern Australia and Tasmania, from the ciose of Cretaceous time, may be briefly stated as follows : — 1. Accumulation of plant-bearing strata, developing in places into thick beds of lignite. These plants have been considered to be Eocene, but may be Oligocene or Lower Miocene. A primitive marsupial fauna was probably already in occupation of Tasmania, as a nearly complete skeleton of Wynyardia has been found in the marine strata of No. 3, which conformably tollows No. 2, No. 2 being conformable to No. 1, and all being separated from one another by no gi'eat time interval. Wynyardia bassiana was a generalized form neither distinctly polyprotodont nor distinctly diprotodont. (The original is now in the Hobart Museum.) The older " deep leads " of Eastern Australia belong here. 2. Extensive flows of the so-called " older basalts," and development of basic tuffs passing into laterite and covering the elder deep leads. 3. The Pre-Miocene Bassian landbridge between Tasmania and the main- land became broken down, the old bridge becoming involved m a general submergence, which afiected the whole of the southern shores of Australia. In the Nullarbor Plains area of the Great Australian Bight, strata of white chalky limestones, with flints, and often rich in Gryphaea, were developed over a large area. Similar strata occur at intervals all along the southern shores of Australia. In the Lower Murray area, as well as in Victoria and Tasmania, the polyzoon Cellepora gambierensis is extremely characteristic, and in the ciifis of the Lower Murray forms sub-spherical masses, each of the size of a man's head. These strata attain a thickness of about 80 feet at Table Cape, Tasmania, and on the coastal plains of Southern Australia are usually 200 to 400 feet thick, with a maximum thickness of about 1,000 feet under the Nullarbor Plains. The Purari series and the oil-bearing strata of British New Guinea probably are of this age. 4. The Ostrea sturti beds, which overlie the Cellepora limestones of the Lower Murray, perhaps Upper Miocene. 5. The immense belt of alkaline lavas and tuSs, which extend from Casterton, in Victoria, through Mount Macedon to Clermont and Springsure, in Queensland, perhaps belongs to this horizon. Possibly the nepheline-basanite of Table Cape, the melilite basalt at Sandy Bay, near Hobart, and the nepheline melilite basalt and nepheline eudialyte basalt of Shannon Tier, in Tasmania, were erupted about this time. 6. In British Papua the Port Moresby series probably belongs to the older Pliocene. In Australia Marine Pliocene strata, to a thickness of about 1,000 feet, were deposited in the neighbourhood of Adelaide, as proved by the Croydon bore (2,296 feet deep). In all other areas in Australia and Tasmania, strata of this age are of freshwater or of volcanic origin. Possibly the lake beds of the Launceston Tertiary Basin, 1,000 feet thick, are of Pliocene age, as they contain fossil fruits, such as Spondylostrobus smythii, Plesiocapparis leptocelyphis, Pentrune allporti, etc., fossils more characteristic of the Kalimnan than of either the Janjukian or of the Balcombian age. Geology of the Commonwealth. 287 7. Vast sheets of basalts, proceeding from dyke eruptions, flooded the nearly even surfaces of the east and south-east Australian and Tasmanian peneplains. In South Australia they are represented at Kangaroo Island, and in Western Australia at Bunbury, the Lower Blackwood River, and at Black Point upon the coast. The fact that the flora of this period shows scarcely any trace of differentiation suggests that the land had a low relief. These extensive basaltic outflows appear to date near to the close of Pliocene time. 8. (a) In either very late Pliocene, or early Pleistocene time, the earth's crust, in the Australian and New Guinea region, was subjected to considerable diastrophism. The eastern periphery of Australia, including Tasmania, was warped up to altitudes of over 3,000 feet above the sea. The movement being differential carried an area, sucL as Kosciusko, to a height of 7,000 feet above sea level. In New Guinea the Cretaceous to Pliocene strata underwent intense orogenic movements, mountains being produced up to and over 15,000 feet in height. (6) A glacial age supervened, which had many phases Kosciusko was capped by an ice calotte from its summit to about 5,000 feet above sea level. In Tasmania the glaciation was naturally very heavy on the west coast and western highlands, the modern heavy rainfall, coming from the west, being at that time largely replaced by snowfall. Not only were the Western Tiers of Tasmania and the highlands of the west coast covered with firn-fields and glacier ice, but at the town- ship of Gormanston glacial boulder clays were formed only a few hundred feet above sea level, and on the west side of the Craycroft Range the moraine material descends to within 250 feet of sea level. This glaciation affected, probably synchronously, New Guinea, and it was probably during a phase of this glacial age that the rhododendron migrated from Papua to the Bellenden-Ker Range, of Queensland (over 5,000 feet high), where it has since become isolated through the amelioration of the climate. The phenomena of the maximum glaciation seem to call for a. lowering of temperature of approximately 9 degrees Fahr., as compared with that of the present day. (c) Partly synchronous, if not wholly synchronous, with this Ice Age, or possibly its interglacial phases (if there were any such), was an epoch when the central plains of Australia had a good rainfall, and the present area of internal drainage was only beginning to come into existence. Great herds of herbivores, of much larger size than their nearest modern allies, roamed over what are now the arid legions of the lower steppes of Australia, near Lakes Eyre, Frome, and Callabonna. This fauna comprised Ceratodus, Megalania prisca, Meiolonia, Pallimnarchus pollens, Diprotodon, Nototherium, Macropus, and Sceparnodon, with the probably carnivorous form Thylacoleo, and the carnivorous Thylacinus, Sarcophilus, and Canis dingo, while Sus papuensis found its way southwards from Papua, as far as the Darling Downs, of Queensland. Thus during this Kosciusko epoch Papua was still united to Austi-alia, and the recent discovery of a Nototherium {N. tasmanicum, Scott) at Mowbray Swamp, in the north-western part of Tasmania, taken in con- junction with other evidence, suggests that Tasmania was once more united to Australia by way of the Bassian Bridge. At least one gigantic ancestor 288 Federal Handbook. of the emu Genyornis was associated with this fauna. This bird was pro- bably about 13 feet in height. A fine collection of this fauna is in the Adelaide Museum. {d) Subsidences complementary to the uplift no doubt commenced with the uplift, but became much more pronounced after the uplift ceased. The rift valleys, Torres Strait, Port Curtis, of Cairns, of Cooma, of Bass Strait, Hobart, Port Phillip, St. Vincent and Spencer's Gulfs, and Lake Torrens, and of the west coast of Western Australia gradually developed, together with those many faults traversing the highlands of the warped peneplains of Australia and Tasmania, whose unreduced scarps attest their comparatively recent origin. The recent volcanic craters of Mount Gambler, Tower Hill, etc., may be referred to this epoch. Possibly negritoid man entered Tasmania by way of the Pleistocene Bassian Bridge before its final collapse. Ever since the Kosciusko epoch canyon cutting has been proceeding down to the present day in the elevated peripheral portions of Australia and Tasmania, this process tending to push the divides further inland. Amongst recent formations may be mentioned the dune rock, partly cemented by lime, of Fremantle^, and the south-western coast of Western Aus- tralia, of Cape Northumberland, near the border of South A\xstralia and Vic- toria, and the dune rock of Warrnambool, Sorrento, etc. At Sorrento this dune rock is about 1,000 feet in thickness, and near Perth, in Western Australia, is at least as thick. The heavy silting along the Victorian coast, which has pro- duced the Gippsland Lakes, as well as silting ofi the Maryborough coast, where the dunes are 800 feet high, and the silting between Sharks Bay and North-west Cape, in Western Australia, are all connected with the cusps of slack water formed next the shore, where great ocean currents meet. Mention may also be made here of the sand dunes of the lower steppes of Australia, and of the Victoria Desert. The latter are only superficially formed of loose sand, to a depth of a foot or so, and then the formation passes into a tough calcareous rock. The Transcontinental railway from Perth, by way of Kalgoorlie to Adelaide, will have to be cut through a vast number of these dune ridges, which are from 30 feet up to 80 feet high in places. In the Lake Eyre region the sand dunes again are only superficially loose sand. Inside they are formed of a certain amount of loamy material, especially near the old deltas of Cooper's Creek, and of the Diamantina River. In most parts of Central Australia these dunes derive their sand from the breaking up of the Upper Cretaceous desert sandstone. In addition to the alluvial plains and rivers, mention may be made of the laterites (pindan gravels) of Western Australia, the nodular tufaceous lime- stone (" kunkar ") of South Australia, the saline deposits of the inland plains, and the coastal salinas. Subsidence has evidently been recently in progress at the southern end of Tasmania, and the laige " bank " recently discovered 200 mijes further south, is obviously an immense sunken segment of a once greater Australia. Submergence has also taken place for a great distance along the east coast of Australia. As already stated, this is partly due to the recent melting of ice and snow in Antarctica, bringing about a eustatic positive movement of sea level ; but it cannot be entirely due to this, as the recent submergence is in places of the order Geology of the Commonwealth. 289 of fully 200 feet, and it is doubtful whether the ice of Antarctica, from the great ice age down to the present time, can have affected sea-level to the extent of more than about 100 feet. The so-called raised beach of about 15 feet is so general around Australia, that it is probably due to a recent eustatic negative movement of the sea surface. The 50 feet raised beach near Darwin is probably connected with recent orogenic movements in Papua. These recent movements have caused a local emergence of the coral reefs in south-eastern Papua of 1,000 up to 2,000 feet. The Great Barrier Eeef of Queensland, some 1,200 miles in length, represents, in its uppermost portion, a marvellous area of growing reef The bulk of tbe reef appears to be formed of coral. Earthquake shocks, most frequent in tht. area between the gu fs of South Australia, Bass Strait, and Kosciusko, show that coastal readjustment is still in slow progress in those regions. In New Guinea sharp shocks proceed from near the active volcanic zone, near Mount Victory. Most of the earthquake .shocks which reach the eastern side of Australia emanate from the deep trench to the east of the Tongan and Kermadec Islands. Western Australia is practically free from earthquakes. 5. — Pre=Historic Man. As is well known, the aboriginal inhabitants, now unfortunately extinct, of Tasmania belonged to the negrito and were in a palaeolithic state of civiliza- tion. They had no knowledge of producing a cutting edge on stone by grinding it down on a hone stone, all their instriments being of the rudest possible type, and roughly chipped. Neither had they any knowledge of building canoes of the sea-going t}^e, being satisfied to construct them from the bark of trees stripped off in long sheets, then sewn up at the ends and plugged with clay. In this frail craft they navigated their own rivers and lakes. No trace has been found in Tasmania of aboriginal man considerably antedating the coming of the white man. On the mainland of Australia the aboriginal attained to neolithic stage of civilization as far back as we have any traces of him. Up to the present the following appear to be the only evidences of man in Australia attaining to anything approaching high geological antiquity : — 1. The Tasmanian aborigines probably crossed Bass Strait (as they were ignorant of the art of making sea-going canoes) by an almost continuous, if not continuous, land bridge. 2. On the mainland of Australia there is possible evidence near Warrnam- bool of impressions attributable to human bodies and feet in some of the old cemented sand dunes. Many have doubted the genuineness of these imprints. In New South Wales several stone tomahawks were dug up a few years ago in cutting a canal at Shea's Creek, between Botany Bay and Redfem. These tomahawks were embedded in peat many feet in thickness underlying marine e.stuarine beds at a total deptli of 15 feet below the high water. It may be concluded that the whole of our coast-line has subsided by 15 feet, or else, as the result of the melting of ice and snow in the Antarctic regions, sea level has risen by that amount since the time when the aborigines lost their tomahawks in this swamp. In either case a 290 Federal Handbook. considerable lapse of time, perhaps of tlie order of several tliousands of years, would be needed to account for this change in the relative level of land and sea. 3. Statements have frequently been made that stone tomahawks have been discovered in the deep leads of Victoria. The following, as far as is known, is the only case where the stone tomahawk may possibly be considered as the same age as a deep lead : — Xear Maryborough, Victoria, in 1855, a basalt axe head was found at a depth of 4 feet from the surface in one of the tributaries of the main Bet Bet lead. The main lead is covered by basalt believed to be of Pleistocene age, but, as the tributary lead in which the axe head was found is not covered by basalt, the finding of an axe head at a depth of only 4 feet does not necessarily imply any great antiquity for it. 6. Australian Qraptolites. By T. S. Hall, M.A., D.Sc, Lecturer in Biology in the University of Melbourne. Graptolites are found at innumerable localities in Victoria where Silurian or Ordovician rocks occur, but so far none have been found west of the meridian of Ballarat. The belt of old rocks is continued from eastern Vic- toria along tne inland slopes of the Divide far into New South Wales, and during the last few years have yielded graptolites from a few places. Tas- manian records are vague, but some identifiable forms have been obtained from boulders in the Permo-Carboniferous glacial beds at Wynyard. There are no records from the other States, but Lower Ordovician species have been found in New Zealand. Apparently the whole range of the fauna can be illustrated from Victoria, with perhaps the exception of Devonian and Cambrian forms. We can recognise the following subdivision of the rocks ; — I Upper ! ;Darriwillian L < Lower 1 Bendigonian f'Lancefieldian. Silurian. — Retiolites australis McCoy and two or three species of Diylo- graptidcB and Monograptus, including M. turriculatus, have been found in Victoria, and Monograptus occurs in New South Wales. Ordovician. — It has not been found convenient as yet to recognise the three usual subdivisions accepted in Europe, and we need only consider an upper and lower division. The Upper division is characterised by Dicranograptus, Dicellograptus, Leptograptus, Nemagraptus, Didymograptus, Diplograptus, Climacograptus, Cryptograptus, Glossograptus, Lasiograptus, Retiograptus, and Retiolites. The series is well represented in the eastern part of the State, and passes north into New Soutt Wales, where Lower Ordovician is not as yet known to be represented. A large numbei- of the species are new, but many northern hemisphere forms have been recognised. No detailed stratigraphical work has been done in these rocks. Ordovician J Lower i Castlemanian Geology of the Commonwealth. 291 The Lower division has had more attention given to it, as it is displayed on many of our goldfields. Darriwillian. — No good exposures are known and specific records are few. Dicranograptidae are absent. Tlie following genera are represented : — Didymograptus, Tetragraptus, Loganograptus, Diplograptus, Climacograptus, Trigonograptus, Glossograptus, Lasiograptus, and others not detei-mined. CASTLEMA.NLAN. — The fauna is rich. Didymograptidae are well repre- sented. D. caduceus Salter (= D. gibherulus) is abundant throughout, and passes up. I), hifidus and its allies are found only in the lowest beds, and pass down into the top of the next division. The relative position of these two species is peculiar and well proved in various localities. Bendigonla-N. — The most abundant fossil is Tetragraptus fruticosus. Bryograptus occurs in tlie lowest beds, though it is generally regarded as Cambrian in Europe. Tetragraptus approximatus Nicholson is also found at the base, and is in one locality associated with Lancefieldian forms. It is thus of stratigraphical importance. The Bendigonian faima is rich in species. Lancefieldian. — Bryograptus, several species of Clonograptus and Dictyonema occur. Lithologically similar rocks with the same fauna have been recognised by me from the south-west corner of New Zealand, more than 1,000 miles away. There are several apparent inversions of the European sequence of species, and Euedmann has shown that the Australian sequence is practically that of New York, and both agree in differing slightly from the European. 7. Notes on the Palaeontology of Australia. By W. S. Dun, Lecturer in PalcBontology in the University of Sydney. The general character of the fauna of the Palseozoic of Australia as a whole, is its cosmopolitan nature, no definite Australian fauna being pre- sented until the Per mo-Carboniferous. Cambrian. — Fossiliferous limestones and shales of Cambrian age occur in Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Victoria, and Tasmania. Olenollus beds w'th Salterella occur in the Kimberley District (W.A.). In Yorke's Peninsula (S.A.), Archseocyathinae limestones are well developed, also beds containing Micromitra, Kutorgina, Obolella, Nisusia, Eoorthis, Huenolla, Stenotheca, Ophileta, Salterella, Hyolithes, Dolichometopus, Conocephalites, Olenollus, Microdiscus, Ptychoparia. At Beltana occurs the most important horizon of ArchseocyathiniB so far discovered ; eight genera and thirty-two species have already been descrilied. In the Northern Territory, from Ekeldra, Agnostus, Paradoxides, Micro- discus, and Ptychoparia have been recorded. In Victoria, in north-eastern Gippsland, near Mount Wellington, occur limestones with Plectorthis, Lingalella, Scenella, Agnostus, Ptychoparia, and Grepicephalus. The Heathcotian beds containing Dinesus and Notasaphns may prove to be either Cambrian or Carabro-Ordovician. In Tasmania ArchsoocyathinjB occur and quartzites yielding Dikelocephalus and Concephalites. 292 Federal Handbook. Ordovician. In Central Australia Ordovician limestones contain Endoceras, Orthoceras, Asaphus spp., Ctenodonta, Raphistoma, and Ophileta. In Tasmania the Gordon River limestones with Cyrtodonta, Ctenodonta, Tellinomya, Bellerophon, Helicotoma, Hormotoma, Raphistoma may prove to be of Silurian age. Ordovician brachiopods and trilobites are also found in the Florentine Valley. Silurian. The Silurian of Australia occurs entirely in the eastern States, and is of a true cosmopolitan t}'pe, and the fossiliferous limestones and shales of New South Wales and Victoria may be correlated with the Wenlock and Ludlow in part. There is an abundant molluscan, brachiopod, trilobite, and coelen- terate fauna, the main characteristics being the great variety of Ealysites in New South Wales ; of Tryplasma, Spongophyllum, and Rhizophyllum, and the presence of endemic rugosa such as Mucophyllum, Mictocystis, Arachno- phyUmn, Vepresiphyllum, etc.; Conchidium and Barratidella horizons are well developed in New South Wales. Devonian. Devonian strata occur in Western Australia and the eastern States. In Western Australifi, the Kimberley, Napier Range, and Gascoyne river beds contained a Lower or Middle Devonian fauna — Stromatoporoids, Cyatho- phyllum, Phillipsastrea, tabulate corals, Atrypa reticularis. Certain of the fossils recorded from these beds, however, belong to adjacent Permo-Car- bonifeious areas. In Victoria, in Gippsland, Middle Devonian limestone with Spirifera yassensis and Receptaculites are well developed. Freshwater Upper Devonian or Lower Carboniferous beds contain ArchcBopteris, Sphenopteris, and Cordaites — these beds also occur in southern New South Wales. In New South Wales the Lower Devonians are well developed in the Murrumbidgee District and are characterized by a great development of Receptaculites, one species attaining a diameter of at least a foot. Tabulate corals are abundant. The typical fossils are species of Actinocystis, Diphy- pkyllum, and Spirifera yassensis. The Middle Devonian are developed in the Western Districts, and contain varieties of Spirifera cristata and pterinoid bivalves, etc. The Upper Devonian sediments of New South Wales are of two types, the arenaceous of the Western Districts containing Rhynchonella pleurodon, Spirifera disjuncta, and Lepidodendron, Lepidodondron australe, and that of the New England District composed of coralline limestones, claystones, and cherts. The limestones contain such corals as Favosites, Heliolites, Sanidophyllum, Spongophyllum, Diphyphyllum, and Syringopora — all species distinct from the Silurian and little in common with the Lower Devonian series. The limestones and cherts comprise a great development of interbedded Radiolarian rocks. The upper mudstones contain Lepidodondron australe in abundance. Geology of the Commonwealth. 293 In Queensland the Fanning River and Burdeldn limestones are corralliae and contain abundance of Alveolites, ArcBOpora, Campophylhun. Stringo- cephalus, Atrypa, etc. Carboniferous. Beds of this age occur in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. The Mansfield beds of Victoria, regarded as Lower Carboniferous, contain Lepidodendron australe and fish — Gyracanihides, Acanthodes, Strepsodus, Elonichthys, etc. — it is possible these beds may prove to be in part Upper Devonian. In New South Wales, marine and freshwater Carboniferous beds occur. The marine fauna is of the mountain limestone type, and consists mostly of cosmopolitan types of brachiopoda, Productus semireticulatus, Orthis resupi- nata, Spirifera striata, Phillipsia, Gri-ffithides, and B r achy meto pus. The coral fauna is typical — Zaphrentis, Cyathophyllum, Lithostrotion, Michelinia, etc. Mesoblastus and Tricoelocriuus occur in Queensland. The freshwater beds have a jMiddle Carboniferous facies with Aneimites ovata, Cardiopteris, and Lepidodendron veltheimianum. In Queensland the Star beds, well developed around Rock- hampton, have a fauna very similar tc» that of the New South Wales series. Doubtfid Carboniferous beds containing Lepidodendron occur in Western Australia. A fact of importance in Eastern Australia is that no Carboniferous species extend into the overlying Permo-Carboniferous, and that there is a well- marked unconformity between the two systems. Permo-Carboniferous . Of the Australian Palaeozoic faunas that which attracts most attention is the Marine Permo-Carbonifeious, and the interest is twofold, due in the first place to the change which without doubt in great part effected the glacial phase which occurred at the initiation of sedimentation, and the efiect of land barriers hindering migration between the eastern and western Permo-Carboniferous shores. The Eastern Australian Permo-Carboniferous fauna may be regarded as exhibiting the typical Australian facies, containing as it does the develop- ment of many purely Australian types. The two main divisions of the marine sediments — the Lower and Upper Marine series (separated in typical localities by a freshwater phase — the Greta coal measures) vary little in character in New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania. The principal elements of the fauna are— Foraminifera. — Nubecularia, Pelosina, Uyperammina, Haplophrag- rnium, Lituola, Endothyra, Lagena, Nodosaria, Genilzina, etc., etc. Nubecularia is in great abundance and the arenaceous and sub- arenaceous types preponderate. Horizons occur in both Lower and Upper Marines and in association with the Pokolbin (Lower Marines) horizon, and also in the Wollong (Upper Marine) are glacial beds, indicating the cooling of the water. 294 Federal Handbook. Spongida. — Sponges are rare, tke anchoring spicules of Hyalostelia, Lasiodadia, and certain burrowing sponges {Clio- nolithus) are found in the Lower and Upper Marines of New South Wales. C(elentekata. — One of the noticeable features of the Permo- Carboniferous of eastern Australia is the impoverished Coelenterata fauna, due without doubt to the glacial conditions at the initiation of sedimentation. A few species of Zaphrentoid corals, close to Hinde's genus Plerophjllum, occur showing an extravagant development of stereoplasma. The tabulate Trachypora forms a well-marked zone fossil in the Upper Marines. EcHiNODERMATA. — This phyllum is of particular interest. Blastoids and cystoids are absent ; the Crinoidea are represented by the giant Phialocrinus princeps of the Upper Marines, 4| inches in diameter. Trihrachiocrinus, a dicyclic form with large radianal and " X " plate, three double bianchia and two single — this genus is peculiar to Eastern Australia. A large ArchcBOcidaris and several species of Palasterids {Etheridgeaster, Mo^mster, and Palaeaester) occur in the Lower Marines, one, Etheridgeaster giganteus, having a span of 7 inches. Bryozoa. — The great development of the trepostomatous Stenopora is a characteristic of this period in Eastern Australia. The massive S. crinita forms irregular polyzoaria of from 1 to 2 feet in size. Dendroid and flabellate types are also common and present many species as yet undescribed. The Fenestellidse are also well developed. Fenestella is rare, but such types as Phyllopora, Polypora, and Protoretepora being extremely abundant, and in some cases form distinct limestones in the Lower Marines. Feiiestellid?e are equally developed in the Lower and Upper Marines and in all provinces. Brachiopoda. — This may be regarded as a Martiniopsis fauna. This protean genus is extremely abundant in all suitable sediments. Associated with it are winged SpirifercB, all strongly ridged, Spiri- ferina dielasma, Chonetes, Productus, Strophalosia, Aulosteges, Lingula, and Orbicula. In Queensland, in the Bowen beds, we get as well Derbyia senilia. It must be noted in contradistinction to the Permo-Carboniferous Brachiopod fauna of Western Australia and the Northern Territory that Carboniferous species are entirely absent and that there is an absence of the Orthidse and Leptcena group, Athyris, Cyrtina syringothyris, and Reticularia. Pelecypoda. — It is in this group of the MoUusca that what may bt termed the Pacific facies of the Australian Permo-Carboniferous asserts itself with purely endemic genera as Cleobis, Mceonia, Astartila, Pachydomus, Notomya, Aphanaia, Merismopteria, Clarkia, Beltopecten — a giant form, a transition between Aviculopecten and Pecten-Stutchhuria, an edentulous variant of Pleurophorus. Chceno- nomya (Meek) of the Nebraska-Permian is very characteristic Geology of the Commonwealth. 295 of certain estuarine deposits. The most interesting type is Eury- desma, mainly characteristic of the Lower Marines, noteworthy for its absence from Western AustraUa and its presence in the olive shales of the Himalayas, and the Marine Karoo of German West Africa. The fauna is noteworthy for the preponderance of eden- tulous gaping types. Cosmopolitan genera, such as Nuculana, Scaldia, Cardiomorpha (?), Solecurtus, Aviculopecten, Solenopsis, Modiolopsis also occur. The fauna is evenly distributed along the east coast. Gasteropoda. — There is nothing distinctive in the eastern Gasteropod fauna which includes Platyschisma, Straparollus, and various Pleuro- tomarioids — Keeneia, Ptycomphalina, Mourlonia, and a Naticoid type, together with a patelloid genus and Orthonychia. Pteropoda and CoNULARiDiE. — HyoUthes is common, and a giant Conidaria reaching a length of 20 inches, occurs in the eastern provinces. Cephalopoda are uncommon, Orthoceras and Agathiceras {Gonia- tites) being abundant in the Ravensfield sandstone of New South Wales. The Western Australia Fauna. In Western Australia it has been customary to class certain formations as Carboniferous and certain as Permo-Carboniferous, but there is good reason to believe that the entire series, developed in the Irwin, Gascoyne, Mingenew, Minilya, Lyons River Districts, and Kimberley is more properly Permo-Carboniferous as regards the mingling of the faunas. One of the prominent features of the Eastern AustraUan Permo-Car- boniferous fauna is the absolute absence of any Carboniferous species, whereas in the west, together with Indian species and local varieties, there are Car- boniferous types such as Orthis resupinata, Rhipidomella, Productus semire- ticulatus, Leptcena analoga, Phillipsia, etc. — forms which in Eastern Aus- tralia are confined to the Star beds of Queensland and New South Wales, beds separated from the Permo-Carboniferous of that region by a well-marked unconformity. Taking into consideration the fact that the so-called Permo- Carboniferous sedimentation of both eastern and western Australia was initiated by glacial stages which must be regarded as synchronous, this mingling of faunas in Western Australia points to a direct communication with the Permo-Carboniferous coast line of the Himalayan and Salt Range Region. The fact that certain Producti, Pectinida^, Terebratulidaj, and Spirifeidae of the West have a close resemblance to Eastern Australian types may, perhaps, be regarded as instances of parallel development, rather than of specific identity. The Permo-Carboniferous ol the Nonhern Territory has western affinities. As regards the flora of the Permo-Carboniferoua, nothing need be said other than that a Lower Gondwana flora is preserved in both Western and Eastern Australia. The earlier beds are characterized by Gangamopteroid types, the upper by Glossopteris and PhyUotheca, more especially. 296 Federal Handbook, Mesozoic. The Mesozoic rocks of Australia, fresh water and marine, range from Trias to Cretaceous. The freshwater beds present in all the States are of Trias and Jurassic age, and in Eastern Australia there is good reason to regard the so-called Jurassic (Ipswich) system as being the freshwater series directly succeeded by the Marine Cretaceous. In Western Australia fresh water beds of Jurassic age occur at Mingenew with Otozamites and Plagiophyllum. At Champion Bay Belemnites, Dor- setensia, Stephanoceras, Trigonia, etc., occur. At the Greenough River are Oolites yielding Alectryonia MarsJiii, Ctenostreon pectiniformis, Radula dupli- cata, Trigonia, etc. It is possible that the Gingin chalk is of Cretaceous age. The fauna of the Marine Mesozoic of Western Australia exhibit marked affinities (and identity) with European and Asiatic species. In the Northern Territory, at Point Charles, there is evidence of an abun- dant Cretaceous fauna Aucella, Scaphites, Histrichoceras, etc., dwarfed forms in almost every case, and having Gault affinities. Almost as marked as the difference between the eastern and western Permo-Carboniferous fauna is the lack of community between the Marine Mesozoic fauna of the east and west. Stratigraphical evidence points to the fact that there is a continuity of sedimentation from at latest Jurassic to the end of Cretaceous time, and this has led to an apparent minghng of faunas. The Cretaceous Mediterranean occupied portions of the States of Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia, and is characterized by numerous species peculiar to the region and many endemic genera among the MoUusca. The most typical forms are Maccoyella, Pseudavicula, and Fis- silunula, all endemic types occurring in both Lower and Upper Cretaceous. The cephalopodan fauna is not larger, but is noteworthy for the great size of the Crioceras and Ancyloceras group. Icthyosaurus, PUsiosaurus, and Gimoliosaurus are represented by several species. The nature of the fauna points to the fact that the barrier wliich prevented the mingling of the Eastern and Western Permo-Carboniferoua faunas persisted into late Mesozoic time. The Mesozoic flora of Eastern Australia may be divided into three groups — (1) the Ipswich flora of Queensland, the Clarence basin of New South Wales, the South Gippsland basin of Victoria, and the Lake Eyre basin of South Australia ; (2) the Tasmanian Upper coal measures ; and (3) the Hawkes- bury series of the Sydney-Blue Mountain District. (1) The Ipswich, etc., series. — These beds possess the cosmopolitan Jurassic vegetation with Cladophebis denticulata, various species of Thinnfeldia, Tceniopteris daintreei, Podozamites, Baiera, etc., etc. They occupy the lower portion of the great artesian basin and are succeeded conformably by the Marine Cretaceous shales and sandstones. The rather scanty evidence at present available points to the fact that the sagging of the Mediterranean region was associated in its early stages with lacustrine conditions leading up to an invasion of the sea and marine sedimentation. These conditions on the coastal district ceased at the close of fresh water sedimentation, except in the Maryborough district, Queensland, where both fresh water and marine sedimentation took place Geology of the Commonwealth. 297 (2) The Upper coal measures of Tasmania maybe correlated with the Gipps- land measures of Jurassic age. Tceniopteris daintreei is wanting, but Clado- phebis denticulata is abundant with Thinnfeldia, Phyllotheca, etc. (3) In the Sydney area occurs the Hawkesbury series, made up of the Narrabeen, Hawkesbury, and Wiannamatta Stages. The Narrabeen shales succeed directly after the Upper coal measures (Permo-Carboniferous) with no break in sedimentation, and a mingling of the Glossopteris and Lower Mesozoic flora — Glossopteris and Schizoneura. The Narrabeen, Hawkesbury, and Wiannamatta Stages have a well developed flora with Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, in several varieties, Macro- tcenopteris, Alethopteris, conifers, and Phyllotheca ; there are distinct differences from the flora of the Ipswich Series, which are possibly due to more arid conditions. The Hawkesbury sandstones and Wiannamatta shalea have a well-developed fish fauna — Cleithrolepis, Gosfordia, Semionotus, Dic- tyopyge, Belonorhynchus, etc., together with Labyrinthodonta, Platyceps, Bothriceps, Mastodonsaurus in part of Palseozoic and of Rhsotic affinities. A depauj)erate foraminiferal horizon occurs in the Wiannamatta shales. It is usual to regard these beds of Triassic age in part, possibly slightly older than the Ipswich. At Talbragar, New South Wales, beds with Tceniopteris daintreei, Podoza- mites, Palissya, Alithopteris, contain a distinctive fish fauna — Leptolepis, Coccolepis, Aphnelepis, etc., etc. Tertiary.- — Terrestrial beds containing plant remains occur in the various StateS' — ^the oldest series occur in tlie deep leads which may date back to late Eocene or early Miocene time. The vegetation of these deposits in Eastern Australia bears considerable resemblance to that of the modern " brushes " and afford evidence of more humid conditions. In the late Tertiary and Pleistocene time, the inland plains supported a giant marsupial fauna, together with Eatite h'nds—Diprotodon, Nototherium, members of the Pliascolomidse, Thylacoleo, Macropodidae, Monotremes, such as Proechidna and Ornithorhynchus ; Birds — Dromornis, Genyornis, etc. ; Reptilia — Megalania, Crocodilus, Meiolania, etc. The giant members of this fauna have been found in all the states, but are most abundant in the great central plains of Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia, where their remains are found in old lake basins, mud springs, and river beds. Their destruction was due to great diminution of rainfall which took place in late Pleistocene time. 8. Australian Cainozoic System. By F. Chapman, A.L.S., Palceontologist to the National Museum, Melbourne. The Australian Cainozoic system is remarkable for its great development of Miocene sediments. These are interposed between an important but locally developed Oligocene series below, and a more widely extended Pliocene series above. In Victoria and South Australia, where the Cainozoic system is best developed, the beds can be subdivided into four principal series, for they are really more than stages, as time and further research may show. Local terms to denote these series have been suggested, as C.121.'')4. u 298 Federal Handbook. sliown in the following table, which also gives the probable equivalent to the corresponding European formations, according to the several authors quoted. McCoy and Chapman. Hall and Pritchard. Tate and Dennant. Pleistocene Upper Pliocene man) Lower Pliocene Oligocene (Chap- Werrikooian (PUocene) Kaiimnan (Miocene) Balcombian (Eocene) . . Janjukian (Eocene) Pleistocene (Tate) PUocene (Dennant) Miocene Eocene ? OUgocene (Tate) Eocene (Tate and Den- Miocene Aldingan (Eocene part) ill nant) Eocene in part Balcombian Series. General Characters. — Commencing with the Balcombian, these beds for the most part consist of sands and shelly marls, largely foraminiferal in places, and containing in the shallower deposits a very rich molluscan fauna, together with the remains of fishes, Crustacea, especially ostracoda, polyzoa, echino- derms, gorgonids, corals, sponges, and the foraminifera aforesaid. Inter- calated with the sandy clays and marls are beds of brown coal, which at Altona Bay and Newport, in Victoria, have been proved of considerable thickness. At one bore near Laverton (parish of Truganina, Section VII.), a bed of brown coal was struck at 3-47 feet, having a thickness of 74 feet. A bore at Morwell, in Gippsland, 1,000 feet deep, passed through 888 feet of brown coal. Although the actual age of the latter occurrence has not been proved, it is probably similar to the brown coal of the Port Phillip area. Chief Fossils. — (B. = Balcombian ; J. = Janjukian ; K. — Kaiimnan). Lanina apiculata, Carcharodon, Megalodon, Aturia australis (B. — K.), Ancilla psevdaustralis (B. — K.), Valuta hamiltonensis, Fasciolaria lameUifera, Eburnopsis aukicoessa, Cyprcea ampulkicea, C. eximia (B. and J.), Turbo hamiltonensis, Pecten murrayanus (B. — K.), Barbatia celleporacea (B. — K.), Crassatellites dennanti (B. and J.), Chama lameUifera (B. and J.), Magellania coricensis (B. and J.), Clypeaster gippslandicus (B. — K.), Echinolampas gambierensis (B. and J.), Placotrochus deltoideus (B. — K.), Platytrochus vacuus, Bactronella parvula, Amphistegina lessoni (B.— K, most abundant in J.). Localities. — The number of outcrops and exposures of the Balcombian series is seen to be very limited when the faunas have been carefully examined. The best-known and most accessible localities are Balcombe's Bay, near Mornington and Grice's Creek, near Frankston, both in Port PhiUip. The gash made through superficial beds by the Muddy Creek, near Hamilton, reveals the lowest beds of the district at Clifton Bank, where they are brought Geology of the Commonwealth. 299 up by a slight monoclinal fold in the otherwise nearly horizontal strata. The beds here have their basement in blue clay containing a rich gasteropod fauna, the clay sometimes containing much glauconite and rolled fragments of polyzoa and cetacean remains. The presence of glauconite points to a fairly deep water origin for this bed. This dark clay bed passes rather rapidly into a brownish sandy marl with a rich moUuscan fauna, gradually becoming more polyzoal in character towards the top, where, as recently found at 20 chains up stream in the Muddy Creek, it passes into the pink and yellow polvzoal limestone of true Janjukiau character, and with foramini- fera of a Burdigalian type. The important bore at Sorrento, near the eastern head of Port Phillip, did not at its greatest depth, of 1,693 feet, reach the bottom of the Balcombian Series, which is here between 300 and 400 feet thick, so far as proved. On the other hand, bores at Altona Bay and Williamstown have proved the basement bed as a gritty quartz sand passing up into typical shell marls and blue clays with brown coal. The intercalated terrigenous and estuarine beds of the Balcombian, entitle it to be classed as a fluviomarine series in the areas just named, as much as those beds of similar age in Europe as in the Isle of Wight and Belgian Oligocene ; whilst the North German Oligocene, being largely marine, may be classed with that of the lower beds at Muddy Creek and Sorrento. The Balcombian Series appears to be confined to the State of Victoria. Janjukian Series. General Characters. — This is by far the most important group in the Australian Cainozoic system, and presents some remarkable and variable phases. On the terrestrial side, the leaf-beds with Cinnamomuin, Laurus, and Sterculia probably come within this series, since stratigraphically the Maddingley leaf-beds seem to graduate into the limestones and marls of the Moorabool River area, finding their place in the Janjukian Series. So that in one area alone, the Geelong — Ballarat gulf and valley, we have fairly deep and clear water deposits, terrigenous shell-bearing beds formed closer inshore, and lacustrine accumulations. The Corio Bay, Bairnsdale, and Fyansford fossiliferou.s deposits probably represent the basal part of the Miocene, to the middle of which period I have referred the Janjukian of Torquay and Batesford where, at the former place Spirulirostra occurs, and at the latter, Burdigalian foramiuifera as Lepidocyclina tournoueri and L. tnarginata. In all probaljility. the general polyzoal facies properly belongs to the Middle Miocene. At Bird Rock, Torquay, a magnificent cliff section is exposed, showing a vertical succession of 273 feet. The beds form a dome-shaped anticline, the centre of which is at Bird Rock. Forming the lowest of the .series in this area, they can be traced either way along the shore where they pass up into a polyzoal and echinoid limestone with Heteropora, Selenaria, Cellepora (with large ramose and rod-like zoaria), and with Echinocyamus {ScutelUna) patella. In other localities enormous deposits of both hard and friable limestone are developed, which point to deposition in a rapidly subsiding marine basin at moderate depths, as witnessed by the presence of the larger shelled 300 Federal Handbook. foraminifera. These local foraminiferal deposits, as compared with those in coral reef areas at the present day, seem to indicate any depth between 20 and 60 fathoms, whilst the polyzoal rock must have accumulated at a depth averaging 100 fathoms, as borne out by recent dredgings in the Southern Ocean by the Federal Trawler Endeavour. As was seen from the previous list of Balcombian fossils, many species range throughout the Cainozoic. Other species are pecuUar to that series, but they are very rare. In the Jaujukian Series, however, a great accession to the number of new forms takes place ; although where the argillaceous conditions of the underlying Balcombian have continued, those older species persist into the newer strata. The limestone facies brings in quite a new population, for that condition of deposition was markedly absent from the Balcombian. The rule which governed the maximum development, gene- rally in the Miocene, of certain fossil types in Em'ope, as Clypeaster for example, obtains here, since in one species, C. gippslandicus, the test is of medium- size in the Balcombian, gigantic in the Janjukian at Bairnsdale, and small again in the Kalimnan. Many other examples could be added, as those of Ldnthia and Spondylus. Chief Fossils. — Cetacea — Ziphius geelongensis, Parasqiuilodon wilkinsoni. Fishes — Carcharodon auriculatus, Carcharoides totuserratus. MoUusca — Spiruli- rostra curta (only two other species known, and both from the Miocene, viz., S. bellardii and S. hcernesi), Voluta macroptem, Volutilitkes anticingulatus, Eburnopsis tesselatus, Morio wilsoni, Cyprcea consobrina., C. platyrhyncha, Cerithium pritchardi, Turritella septifraga, Turbo etheridgei, Pleurotomaria tertiaria, Spondylus gcederopoides, Pecten eyrei, Limopsis insolita, Crassatellites oblonga. Brachiopods — Terebratula aldingce, Acantliothyris squamosa. Crustacea — Lepas pritchardi. Vermes — Ditrupa cornea var. wormbetiensis, Serpula ouyenensis. Echinoids — Cidaris australice, Cassidulus australicB, Brissofsis archeri, Eupatagus rotundus. Coral? — Flabellum distitictum, Deltocyathus subviola, Stephanotrochus tatei, Graphularia senescens (J. and K.). Sponges — Ecionema newberyi, Plectroninia halli, Tretocalia pezica. Fora- minifera — Gypsina hoivchini, Rotalia calcar, Amphistegina lessonii, Cyclo- clypeus pustulosus, Lepidocyclina tournoueri, L. tnargitiata. Localities. — In Victoria — Spring Creek Series, Torquay (glauconitic and yellow marls, and polyzoal limestone) ; Waurn Ponds (polyzoal limestone and marls) ; Moorabool River and Batesford [Lepidocyclina and polyzoal lime- stone) ; Curlewis (polyzoal limestone and marls with calcareous sponges) ; Grange Burn, Hamilton (polyzoal Limestone with Lepidocyclina andA7nphis- tegina) ; Fhnders (polyzoal limestone with calcareous sponges) ; Flemington, lower beds (fossihferous ironstone) ; Keilor (foraminiferal Limestone) ; Aire coastal series (marls and lignitic clays) ; Birregurra (grey and yellow marls) ; Bairnsdale {Amphistegina limestone and yellow fossiliferous marls) ; Corio Bay and Fyansford (yellow marls) ; bores in Mallee (white, polyzoal hme- stone and glauconitic marls). In South Austraha — Mount Gambler (white polyzoal limestone) ; Aldinga, lower beds (clays, glauconite marls, and limestones) ; banks of Murray River (polyzoal Umestone) ; Murray desert. Tasmania — Table Cape, near Wynyard, includes Crassatellites bed and overlying Turritella bed. Geology of the Commonwealth. 301. Probably the New Soutb Wales leaf-beds (Dalton and Gunning) belong here. Their flora is largely that of Bacchus Marsh, Narracan, Berwick, Pitfield, Cobungra, Dargo, and Bogong. Kalimnan Series. General Characters. — In the Sorrento bore the Janjukian marls pass in- sensibly upwards into the Kalimnan, without much lithological change ; and by their containing a considerable amount of glauconite, denote that they were formed in moderately deep water. At Beaumaris, however, where these beds are well exposed in the chfi face, the rock is a yellow sandy marl, with numerous shells and sharks' teeth and occasional bands of fossils. The beds at Beaumaris are shallower in character, and evidence of current action is afforded by a nodule bed with numerous fish-teeth and rolled fossils at the base of the series. This nodule bed exactly corresponds in stratigraphical position with that at Muddy Creek and Grange Burn. The Kalimnan series at the latter localities consist of quite shallow water deposits, with Mytiliis, Natica, Nassa, and Barnea ; whilst the thick-shelled Trigonia howitli is further evidence in support of its shallow water origin. By the presence of Scaldicetus and other cetacean remains, the Lower Phocene age of this series as stated originally by McCoy, is substantiated. Chief Fossils. — Cetacea — Scaldicetus tnacgeei, Physetodon haileyi. Fishes — Oxyrhina hastalis, Galeocerdo aduncus, Cestracion cainozoicus, Diodon for- mosus. MoUusca — Ancilla papillata, Valuta fulgetroides, V. masoni, Fustis gippslandicus, Natica cunninghamensis, Eglisia triplicata, Dentalium largi- crescens, Pecten antiaustralia, Perna percrassa, Glycimeris halli, Trigonia margaritacea var. acuticostata, Sunetta gibberula, Macira hamiltonensis. Corals — Tretnatotrochus clarhei, Notophyllia gracilis. Localities. — Upper beds. Muddy Creek ; upper series at Shelf ord ; lower Glenelg Eiver ; Beaumaris ; Gippsland lakes ; bores in Mallee, at 100 to 250 feet ; Sorrento bore, at 585 to 741 feet (circ.) ; upper Murray cliffs ; Adelaide ; Haddon, Vict, (deep leads with plant remains). Werrikooian Series. In Upper Pliocene times the southern part of the continent had risen considerably, and corresponding denudation took place. The country must have supported a rich fauna, largely marsupial, of which we have evidence in Phascolomys pliocenus, of the Dunolly Gold Drift. The type locahty of the Werrikooian is Limestone Creek, Glenelg River, where a rich marine molluscan fauna, with a large percentage of living species is found. The Upper beds of Moorabool Viaduct appear to belong here. Pleistocene. The inland and coastal deposits such as cave floors, volcanic tuffs, and consolidated dunes afford evidence of many extinct and living marsupial genera, among the former being Nototherium, Diprolodon, Procoptodon, and Palorchestes ; while the giant emu — Genyornis — occurs in the Diprotodon swamps of Lake Callabonna, South Australia, and also at Mount Gambler, and in Queensland. Remains of Dromornis, a struthious bird as large as the moa, occurs in the PUocene of Queensland, New South Wales, and South 302 Federal Handbook. Australia. The volcauic tuffs of Tower Hill, Victoria, must be very late Pleistocene, for they overlie beds of marine shells identical in species with those now found living a short distance away on the sea-coast. The physiographicai results of a study of the Cainozoics show that in Oligocene times the land suffered much oscillation, subsidence being sometimes in evidence, at others elevation. The climate was then warm-temperate to sub-tropical. With the Miocene was ushered in a great steady movement of subsidence, as shown by the great limestone series, with only occasional elevation, when the dynamical movements expressed themselves in volcanic outbursts, the older basalt filling up the valleys both inland and coastal, as at Dargo and Flinders respectively. The climate was probably warm-temperate. In the Lower Pliocene or Kalimnan times, elevation re-commenced, and gave rise to the shell-banks and shallow-water marls. The molluscan genera at this time indicate a climate similar to that now enjoyed. In Upper Pliocene and Pleistocene times, there is evidence for the belief that the climate became even colder than now, due probably to uplift, for estuarine sands found in the Mallee borings, perhaps 300 feet above sea level indicate a sub-temperate faimal character. 9. Igneous Rocks. By T. W. Edgeworth David, C.M.G., D.Sc, F.R.S., and Eniest W. Skeats, D.Sc, A.R.C.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the University of Melbourne. Pre-Cambrian. The oldest known volcanic rocks in the Commonwealth are those of the Norseman and other regions of the great gold-bearing belts in the southern part of Western Australia. These are of the nature of amygdaloidal dole- rites associated with contemporaneous tufi. Further north, as at Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie, these volcanic rocks have been altered into hornblende and chlorite schists, commonly spoken of as the " greenstone " schists, and it is in them that most of the payable gold-bearing belts occur. In the Pilbara district, rocks of this type belong to a lower division of the Algonkian group, known as the Warrawoona series. This is followed by a later Algonkian series — the Mosquito series — in which the Pre-Cambrian group terminates in that district. Plutonic rocks are also widely represented in the Pre-Cam- brian group. For example, in Western Australia there are huge belts of granite passing into gneiss and traversed by veins of pegmatite. In places the granite intersects older diorite rocks. In other places, as at Kalgoorlie, serpentine occurs in the same group. The interesting observation has been made, at the Phillips Eiver gold-field, on the south coast of Western Aus- tralia, that the local granite is of a very marked albite type, in fact it is almost devoid of any potash, but relatively high in soda. In the same region a quartz-ceratophyre has been identified, and the interesting question here suggests itself as to whether we may not have representatives of the third great division of igneous rocks — third in relation to the well recognised alkali and calcic types, namely the spilitic suite. From the Blyth Range, a myrme- kite granite has been described, showing gridiron structure of quartz-felspar intergrowth, not original, and like that of similar granites, probably Archaean, in Sweden and Finland. It may be added that in the Phillips River Geology of the Commonwealth. 303 gold-field albite-pegmatite is of common occurrence, in which, coarsely crystalline spodumene is associated with the albite. All these rocks are of Pre-Cambrian age. In reference to its Pre-Cambrian igneous rocks, the State of South Aus- traUa is considered to be a petrographical province, the characteristic feature of which is the high percentage of titanium oxide, and, to a less degree, the abundance of soda. The rock which has given rise to these Pre-Cambrian igneous rocks may be termed the Houghton magma. From it have been produced ilmenite-diopside-diorite, ilmenite-diopside-syenite, ilmenite-sphene- actinolite-pegmatites, and ilmenite-felspar-quartz pegmatites with ilmenite quartz-veins. The rocks of this Houghton magma are traversed by veins of " yatalite," a pegmatite formed of uralitic actinolite (after diopside) albite containing microcUne, titaniferous magnetite, sphene and quartz. The actinolite is in large subidimorphic paramorphs after diopside. Gneissic normal granite pegmatite is associated with the " yatalite." At Olary, a highly- titaniferous uranium-bearing mineral, davidite, occurs in a pegmatite vein, intruding Pre-Cambrian quartzite. In addition there are present in this area epi-granites, diopside-diorites, granodiorites, hornblende-diorites approaching monzonite, mica-diorite, bio- tite-syenite, epi-syenite, and diopside-quartz-syenite with epidote. The most typical rock of this series — the diopside-diorite — is interesting in view of its high content of soda (5 "34 per cent.), and titanium oxide (3 "ll per cent.) The magmatic name is tonalose. In the Pre-Cambrian rocks of Tasmania, it is a singular fact that as far as is at present known, there is an entire absence of any kind of igneous rock whatsoever, with the single exception, perhaps, of the garnet-zoisite-amphi- bolite, which occurs just above Hamilton, on the left bank of the River Forth in the north-west of Tasmania. In Victoria, gneisses intruded by granitic rocks occur near the western border of the State, in the county Dundas, as well as in Gippsland, in north-eastern Victoria. At Broken Hill, on the south-western border of New South Wales, the augen-gneisses are Pre- Cambrian. In the Macdonnell Ranges, augen-gneisses traversed by very coarse pegmatites, with mica crystals in places up to 2 feet or more in diameter, are widely distributed. Large crystals of beryl, and occasionally tinstone, are associated with the pegmatite. These rocks are traversed by micropegmatites, granulitic pyroxene diorites, diorites, gabbros, dolerites, and amphibolites — all are probably Pre-Cambrian. Cambrian. Perhaps the most extensive lava flows as yet recorded from the Common- wealth belong to this system. They are represented at Nullagine, in the Pilbara gold-field, where they occur a short distance above the basal gold- bearing and diamond-bearing conglomerates. They are partly acid rocks, and partly dolerites. In the Kimberley district, there are very large areas covered by what is called the great Antrim plateau basalt. At Mount Panton, this series of basic lavas and tuffs is capped by beds of somewhat phosphatic Salterella limestone. In Northern Territory there is a great series 304: Federal Handbook. of basalts and dacites associated with beds of volcanic tuff and agglomerate, the blocks of which are up to 4 feet in diameter. The thickness and fuU extent of this vast series and its petrological character is as yet almost wholly- unknown, but there is little doubt that it is part of the great Antrim plateau group. In the account of Cambrian rocks, reference has been made to the Heath- cotian series of igneous rocks in Victoria. In the type locality altered basic submarine lavas or diabases predominate and are associated with altered submarine diabase tuffs, schalsteins, agglomerates, and minor diorite intru- sions. Interbedded with the diabases are black cherts, some containing radiolaria and at any rate in part derived by metasomatic alteration of diabase ash, while the diabase is in places silicified to jasper. At Heathcote, these rocks are invaded by micro granite, which may be genetically related to the diabase series. Near Heathcote, the diabase at its margin passes into " selwynite," a green alteration product containing a green chrome-bearing micaceous mineral, chromite, pyroxene, together with corundum. Corundum also occurs with chromite in the serpentine area, near Mount WelUngton in North Gippsland, which is pre-Upper Ordovician, and may be Heathcotian in age. The quarries on Mount William, north of Lancefield, from which the aborigines manufactured tomahawks, occur in a similar diabase with interbedded black cherts and cherty shales, containing protospongia and radiolaria. Similar associations of diabase and cherts occur at Mount Major, near Dookie, and at Mount Stavely, while serpentinous diabase occurs at the Hum- mocks, north of Casterton, in Western Victoria. The whole assemblage of these Heathcotian series is strongly suggestive of a spiUte suite, but chemical analyses of the rocks are not yet available. In Tasmania, probable equiva- lents of the Heathcotian volcanic series of Victoria are developed at North Dundas, Zeehan, the Leven gorge, etc., in the north-west and west of the island. These are known as the porphyroid series, and consist of dynamically altered quartz and felspar porphyries, amygdaloidal diabase (spilite ?), breccias tuffs, and tufaceous slates, together with intrusive syenites and granites. Ordovician. Igneous rocks possibly of this age have been described in South Australia from the Blinman mining field as melaph}Tes, oUvine-diabase, granuhtic- diabase, gabbro-diabase. These are perhaps related to the dykes of amphi- boiite with scapolitised felspar from the New Era mine, near Woodside. In Victoria, if the Heathcotian series is of Cambrian age, there are no known igneous rocks of Ordovician age. Basic agglomerates from Mount Arrowsmith, in New South Wales may also be Ordovician. At the Lynd- huxst gold-field, near Mandurama, in New South Wales, there is an immense development of contemporaneous basic tuff in the Upper Ordovician black cherty graptolitic and radiolarian rocks. In the same state, at Cadia, near Orange, two sheets of andesite lava, 30 feet thick, interbedded in the upper Ordovician graptolite slates give evidence of contemporaneous volcanic activity. They are associated with a deposit of iron ore, estimated to contain about 40,000,000 tons of ore. At Forest Reefs, near Orange, this group of lavas and tuffs attains a great thickness. Geology of the Commonwealth. 305 Silurian. In Victoria no definite evidence of contemporaneous igneous rocks of Silurian age has yet been forthcoming. It is possible that the alkali granites of Victoria, which as far as is known intrude the Ordovician and older rocks but not the Silurian series, may be of Silurian age. Devonian. Lower Devonian. In Victoria there occurs a wonderful development of igneous rocks, which have been referred to this period. It was a time of great earth movement in Victoria, when the older Palaeozoic rocks were much folded, and it is probable that the intrusion and extrusion of igneous magma accompanied the move- ment of folding while the gold deposits appear also to be genetically related to the igneous intrusions and the gold quartz veins filled fissures which resulted from the folding movements or igneous invasions. Volcanic, dyke, and plutonic rocks are abundantly represented. The Volcanic i^oc^-s.— These include the following series : — The Snowy River Porphyries. — These are acid lavas, mostly rhyoUtes and tufis, in places over 2,000 feet in thickness. They were erupted from a chain of volcanoes, perhaps comparable to the Andes, and situated on a probable hue of fissure trending nearly north and south through Eastern Victoria, near and along the Snowy River. Their worn-down stumps are now preserved in mountains like the Cobberas, Wombargo, Mount Hotham, etc., while the granite porphyries of Mount Taylor, Mount Alfred, etc., near Bairnsdale may represent the plugs of some of the volcanoes of this series. Probably of similar age are the rocks of Noyang, on the Tambo River, in Eastern Gippsland. These include intrusive as well as volcanic types, and consist of quartz porphyrites and quartz granophyrites. These rocks show a great preponderance of soda over potash and may be described as ceratophyres and quartz-ceratophyres The Dacite, Quartz-porphyrite Series. — This series is developed in Central Victoria from sporadic centres. Fragmental rocks are scarce, except in the Lilydale district, and no volcanic necks have been located. The rocks consist of thousands of feet of rocks, mainly volcanic, but probably in part intrusive. The chief areas are Mount Macedon, the Dandenong Hills, Healesville, and Warburton. the Cerberean Range, the northern part of the Strathbogies, and near Whitfield, in Delatite. At Mount Macedon, the Dandenongs, Healesville, and Warburton, the rocks consist of hypersthene-biotite dacites, biotite dacites, and quartz-porphyrites. In the Strath- bogies and in Delatite, garnet accompanies the quartz porphyrites, and here they are overlain by Lower Carboniferous sandstones. Probably the most complete sequence occurs near Lilydale, where fragmental rocks are abundant, and the earlier eruptions consisted of alkali dacites or toscanites, with about 7 per cent, of alkalies equally divided between potash and soda, quartz porphyrites followed, and the volcanic activity concluded with the eruption of normal hypersthene biotite dacites. 306 Federal Handbook. Hypabyssal Rocks. — Many of the granites and grano-diorites have marginal apophyses of quartz porphyry, pegmatites, etc., penetrating the invaded sediments. Of more economic importance are the altered tvpes of dykes, some of which carry gold-quartz veins which have proved highlv auriferous. Among these are the propyitised horn- blende porphyrite of Woods Point and Gaffney's Creek, and the sericitic quartz-porphpy of the Diamond Creek mine, near Mel- bourne. The periodotites of Aberfeldy, the cupriferous hornblende amphibolites of the Thomson River, and the horn- blende picrite of Sheep Station creek, near Omeo, may belong to this period. Plutonic Rocks. — ^As stated in the stratigraphical part, the alkali granites, so far as is known, do not penetrate Silurian rocks, and may be of Silurian age, but there are petrographic grounds for associating them with the grano-diorites and adamellites, many of which are Post Silurian, and some of which, possibly all, are Pre-Lower Car- boniferous. The alkali granites, in which orthoclase predominates over plagioclase and potash generally over soda, include the masses of Mount Buffalo, Cape Woolamai, Gabo Island, and certain masses near Geelong, such as the You Yangs, the Dog Rocks, and an area near Ceres. Certain diabases or epidiorites occur at Ceres and the Dog Rocks, which were formerly referred to theHeathcotian, but since they are probably genetically related to the alkali granites of these areas are now included with them in this place. Adamellites are known to occur near Violet Town and Nillahcootie, in north-eastern Victoria ; at Trawool, Ingliston, north of Bacchus Marsh, and at Broadmeadows, near Melbourne. The grano-diorite masses, with which many of the gold-fields appear to be genetically related are represented among other areas by the big mass south of Bendigo, including Harcourt, from which the rock is quarried for building stone, by an area near Pyalong, Bulla, Macedon, south of Mount Dandenong, and south of Warburton. In the three latter areas the grano-diorite is genetically related to the dacites, but is intrusive into them. In New South Wales in the type district for Silurian rocks, that of Yass, dacitic tuffs containing contemporaneous corals and siliceous sponges are developed on a large scale. Individual beds aggregate several hundreds of feet in thickness. They are intruded by sills of porphyrite and granodiorite. Again, at Jenolan Caves, there is a considerable development of basic and intermediate tuffs with lavas, immediately underlying the Pentamenis lime- stone in which the caves are situated. Corals and crinoids are scattered through these tufEs. Most of these Hmestones of Jenolan, Yass, etc., repre- sent old fringing coral reefs, and it is clear that these grew partly over banks of volcanic tuff and lava, The granites of the southern tableland of New South Wales, like that of Cooma, which are Post Ordovician and Pre-Devonian, probably belong here, as do the miarolitic granites of Parkes, which are Post Ordovician, and capped by Devonian rocks. Geology of the Commonwealth. 307 Middle Devonian. In the Buchaii series of Victoria there is a considerable development of felsite lavas called felsitic tufis and breccias, which pass upwards into the Buchan limestone series. These vary from 750 up to 1,000 feet in thickness. Diabases and andesites also occur. In New South Wales, in radiolarian rocks of this age, there is a great thickness of tuff now proved to be of spilitic origin, like the piUow-lava of the British Isles. These Tamworth rocks also contain basic spilites. The whole series, including some marine beds of coral reef hmestone, is estimated to be about 9,000 feet in thickness. Upper Devonian. In Victoria, at Mount Wellington, a great thickness, up to 2,000 feet, of acid lavas, rhyolites, and quartz-porphyrites, extend north-westward towards Mansfield. These lavas are proved to be probably Upper Devonian by the presence of the fossil Lepidodendron australe. Melaphyres, quite subordinate in importance to the rhyolites, are also met with in this series. In New South Wales, rhyolites and basalts of this age occur at Yalwal. Devonian Plutonic. In Tasmania large masses of serpentine and granite were intruded, perhaps in Devonian time. The serpentine is generally a peripheral mantle of serpentinised gabbroid and ultrabasic rocks surrounding the granite masses on the west coast. Occasionally between the granite and serpentine is an aureole of actinolitic rock. There is the clearest evidence that the ultra-basic rock consolidated before the granite. This granite, unlike that of the porphyroid series, is uncrushed. This granite is mostly tin-bearing. A remarkable feature about the serpentine is that it not only contains nickel and osmiridian, but, at Dundas, has tin ores associated with it. Carboniferous. In Victoria, the granodiorites and granodiorite-porphyrites of Mount WiUiam, in the Grampians, have recently been shown to be intrusions into the Grampians sandstones. In addition, sills, dykes, and possibly lava flows of quartz porphyry occur in the sandstone. These igneous rocks there are post Lower Carboniferous in age, and include the youngest series of plutonic rocks known in Victoria. Possibly the quartz-porphyries of Grangeburn, near Hamilton, and other localities in Western Victoria, may belong to the same period of intrusion. In New South Wales there is a wonderful development of lavas and tufl's, all through this massive system which aggregates at least 20,000 feet in thick- ness. Its upper portion is formed very largely of rhyolite lavas and coarse acid tuffs, passing in places into hypersthene andesite. Immense sills of quartz-porphyry intersect this bedded series. Beds of arkose-like tuffs of great thickness, which at first sight appear to be granite but which are really acid tuffs, contribute considerably to the thickness of the system. It would appear that acid eruptions were in ])r()gress on a very grand scale in New South Wales during this period. Mount Spiriby, the highest point of Mount 308 Federal Handbook. Capoompeta in New England, is formed of rhyolite of this age. The andesites and rhyolites of the Drake gold-field are possibly Carboniferous, but may belong to the base of the Permo-Carboniferous system. In Queensland, lavas of the nature of amygdaloidal dolerites and agglomerates, in places containing metallic copper and carbonate of copper in the steam holes, are interstratified with sedimentary rocks at Mount Toussaint, in the Bowen coal-field. Plutonic. In New England, the immense belt of serpentine which stretches in a nearly continuous belt for fully 150 miles from Bingara to Nundle, is either of very late Devonian, or of Carboniferous age, and forms a mantle curving sympathetically with the huge intrusive batholiths and sills of granite of the New England tableland. On the eastern margins of the New England granites are large outlying masses of serpentine, on the Manning, Hastings, and Clarence Rivers. There is clear evidence here, as in Tasmania, that the granite has consolidated within a discontinuous ring of serpentine. In New England, there are three varieties of granite belonging perhaps to this period, the oldest being a bluish-grey biotite-hornblende-pyroxene granite-porphyry. This occurs perhaps as a huge sill : it was followed by widespread intrusions of sphene granite, full of dark, basic segregations. This in turn was intruded, probably in Permo-Carboniferous time, by an acid granite, containing up to 80 per cent, of SiOg. The silica percentage in this group ranges from about 65 to 80. Most of the granites of Queensland may belong to this period. Permo-Carboniferous (Permian). Plutonic and Hypabyssal. The intrusion of the acid granites, as already stated, had taken place in Permo-Carboniferous time. Possibly some of the Queensland tin-bearing granites belong to this age, as well as the diorite dykes which have intruded the Lower Permo-Carboniferous rocks of the Gympie gold-field, also in Queens- land. Volcanic. In New South Wales, the great coal basin which separates the New England massif from the Bathurst-Monaro massif was the scene of eruptions of lavas and tufis in Permo-Carboniferous time. At Harper's Hill, 7 miles west of West Maitland, coarse andesite tufis and agglomerates are interstratified in the Lower Marine Series, and hyperstheneandesite, as well as natrolite basalt with datolite are intercalated in the upper part of this series below the horizon of the Greta coal measures. An important group of alkaline eruptives occurs in the Cambewarra- Kiama districts, to the south of Sydney. This is partly contemporaneous with the top of the Upper Marine Series (shells of Cleobis grandis and Chenomya occurring abundantly in the basal tuffs, and partly with the Bulli coal measures. The series of lavas and tuffs, about 1,000 feet thick, shows the following sequence, the oldest being mentioned first : — orthoclase-basalts, or latites, the total alkalies ranging up to over 9 per cent., of which from 2 per cent, to nearly 5 per cent, are potash. These lavas range in composition Geolo&y of the Commonwealth. 309 from shoshonose to mouzonose, having points of resemblance to the rocks of the Yellowstone region, United States of America, the trachydolerites in part, and also being comparable with the "Ciminites" and " Vulsinites " of Italy. These earlier eruptions of alkaline, not very basic rocks, were asso- ciated with sills of monzonite, and possibly as the result of progressive dif- ferentiation) produced later, perhaps in Triassic time, peralkaline rocks like nepheline-syenite and tinguaite, as sills (the alkalies being 10 per cent, to 15 per cent.) on the one hand, and monchiquite dykes (alkalies under 4 per cent.) on the other. Both these types intrude the Permo-Carboniferous and Triassic rocks, and may be related to the Mittagong Post-Triassic Series, to be described later. Still later basalts were erupted of a much less alkaline type. At Mur- rurundi, in New South Wales, there were extensive eruptions of basic tuff and lavas near the horizon probably of the Newcastle coal measures, the latter containing much chert formed by the alteration of powdered felspar and volcanic glass. Triassic. Volcanic. — In New South Wales there is a considerable development of more or less fine volcanic tuff in the lower division of the Trias, known as the Narrabeen stage. These tufis are distinctly basic in character, and like the lavas of the Permo-Carboniferous, contain metallic copper. Through re- distribution in water the tuffs have passed into the characteristic chocolate shale, so well seen at Long Reef and Narrabeen, etc., to the north of Manly. Jurassic. At Brisbane there is a considerable development of coarse rhyolite tufi, in the heart of the city itself, as at the Leichhardt quarries. Fossil trees completely carbonized are found embedded in the tufi. The tufis are followed by basic lavas. It is as yet uncertain whether the Brisbane tufis belong to the Trias or to the Jura system. To the south of Brisbane, in the direction of Mount Flinders and the Macpherson Ranges, trachytes are interbedded in the Jurassic rocks and are associated with TcBniopteris daintreei. In Victoria, the Jurassic rocks were penetrated in a bore to a depth of over 3,000 feet, 60 miles easterly from Melbourne. The Jurassic strata, chiefly felspathic sandstones, are uniform in character over the state and have been shown to contain abundant fragments of undecomposed felspar, presumably of tufaceous origin. The source of all this tuff has not yet been discovered. Jurassic (?) (possibly Triassic). Tasmania. — Rocks of foyaitic magma are represented by the Port Cygnet series. These rocks are considered to be perhaps of Lower Mesozoic age. At Regatta Point, Port Cygnet, the following occur : — Augite syenite, poor in quartz ; nepheline syenite, essexite, jacupirangite facies of nepheliiie syenite, melanite-hauy-syenite porphyry, garnet-bearing mica solvsbergitc, tinguaite, garnet tinguaite porphyry, ncphelinite, etc. These rocks are all strongly intrusive into the Permo-Carboniferous series, but their relations to the Jurassic sedimentary rocks and to the diabase have not yet been clearly demonstrated. 310 Federal Handbook. Hypahyssal. — The close of Jurassic time was marked by one of the most wonderful manifestations of eruptive force of which we have evidence any- where in the Commonwealth. The vast sills of dolerite, partly hiinne- diabase, that is an enstatite-augite diabase, partly konga-diabase, the latter containing normal pyroxene and granophyric intergrowths, probably may be referred here. These rocks have disrupted the Jurassic strata of Tasmania on a grand scale, and as individual sills are in some cases fully 500 feet in thickness and of immense lateral extent, portions of the Jurassic sandstones overlying them must have floated on this heavy magma like icebergs in a polar sea. As already suggested, these intrusions may have accompanied the breaking in of the big land bridges of Gondwana Land, which formerly joined Australia to India, South Africa, South America, and Antarctica. Cretaceous. — No volcanic rocks of this age are known anvwhere in the Commonwealth, with perhaps the single exception of the so-called Desert sandstones, like those of Port Mackay, in Queensland. It has been stated that part of these sandstones is built up of trachytic tuff. Caixozoic. A great variety of volcanic rocks belong to this era, especially in Eastern Australia and Tasmania. In lower Cainozoic time there were extensive out- flows of basalts and eruptions of basic tuff. These are spoken of by the Vic- torian geologists as the older basalts. Probably the older basalts of New South Wales, and perhaps Queensland belong to this series. It is doubtful whether the series is represented either in South Australia, Tasmania, or Western Australia. In Victoria, where they have been most fully described they are developed at Melbourne itself at Royal Park, Essendon, Broad- meadows, and Keilor, where they occur underneath the lower Cainozoic fos- siliferous sediments. They occur also near Geelong, as at Curlewis, at French Island and Phillip Island. At Cape Schanck, a bore penetrated them for over 800 feet, while at Flinders another bore was discontinued after passing through no less than 1,300 ft. of older basalt. They are widespread in south- east Gippsland, as at Buln Buln, Leongatha, Neerim, Mirboo, etc., while in north Gippsland they cap the plateau sometimes at elevations of 5,000 feet as at Mount Feathertop and Dargo high plains. Their chemical composi- tion, so far as is known is normal, but occasionally crystals of anorthoclase are present. In texture, they range from tachylyte to coarse dolerites and their decomposition provides rich soils. In the fresh state they are quarried in places for road metal. Although in part apparently sub-marine, they do not, as far as is yet observed show affinities with the spilites. In New South Wales, there is a considerable development of older basalts overlying leaf beds first considered to be of Eocene age, though later there have been adduced strong reasons for considering that these leaf beds may be of somewhat newer age. They are typically developed in the New England district of New South Wales, where for the most part they consist of reddish decomposed amygdaloidal basic lavas, passing in places into dense columnar basalts. Frequently these New England lavas are capped by beds of laterite passing into bauxite and in places into pisolitic iron ore. These laterites mostly represent basalt tuffs. Geology of the Commonwealth. 311 Middle Cainozoic. This is a most remarkable group of volcanic rocks which, in eastern Aus- tralia and Tasmania, is distinctly of alkali characters. Rocks of this age and character extend at intervals from Casterton and Coleraine in western Victoria, through Mount Macedon and Omeo. In New South Wales they are met at Bowral, the Canobolas, Warrumbungle Mountains, Nandewar Ranges, the MacPherson Ranges. In Queensland they trend through Mount Flinders, the Fassifern districts. East Moreton, Wide Bay, the Glass House mountains. Mount Larcombe, Yeppoon to Clermont and Springsure, in North Queens- land. The total distance over which they have been traced is over 1,200 miles. Victoria. — In the Western District anorthoclase-aegirine-trachytes occur in a number of areas, including the neighbourhood of Carapook, Coleraine, Mount Koroite, Koolomert, and " the Giant Rock," at Wotong Vale. The hills of Adam and Eve, near Coleraine consist of anorthoclase olivine basalt traversed by a trachyte dyke, but at Mount Koroite and at Koolomert, the basic lavas appear to rest upon the trachytes. The Mount Macedon alkali province in Central Victoria has been more closely studied than any similar area in Australia. Fragmental rocks are practically absent and the lava flows and intrusives were poured out over or intruded into a Palaeozoic complex of Ordovician sediments, and Devonian dacites and grano-diorites. The sequence from below upwards appears to be as follows :■ — ^Anorthoclase aegirine trachyte, volcanic plugs or mamelons of solvsbergite, anorthoclase basalt and two new rock types, macedonite and woodendite, followed by anorthoclase-olivine trachyte, olivine anorthoclase trachyte and limburgite, the volcanic history of the area terminating with the pouring out of calcic newer basalts of probably Pleistocene age. The new types, macedonite and woodendite, present similarities to the orthoclase basalts, and closer resemblance to the mugearites. They contain alkali felspars associated with biotite and olivine, and have a high content of phos- phorus and titanium. Possibly the monchiquite dykes which come up the axes of the anticlines in the mining fields of Bendigo and Castlemaine, etc., may be genetically related to these alkali rocks. In north-eastern Victoria alkali rocks probably of similar age to those of Mount Macedon, occur near Mansfield, Omeo, and Mount Leinster, in Beiiambra. About 15 miles north-east from Mansfield, in the Tolmie highlands, Gallows Hill has recently been shown to consist of a volcanic hill with lava flows of nepheline phonolite. At Barwite, east of Mansfield, a similar nepheline phonolite appears to occur as a dyke, but its field relations have not yet been studied. At Frenchman's Hill, just north of Omeo, a volcanic hill with central core of solvsbergite has on its flanks flows of anorthoclase trachyte, and a more or less radial sy.stem of dykes, including pi^gmatites, quartz veins, bostonites, diabase, trachytes, and nepheline phonolite. They have been described as of Paltoozoic age, but are almost certainly Cainozoic. The phono- lites of Omeo, Gallows Hill, and Barwite are the only ones as yet known in Victoria. 312 Federal Handbook. In Benambra at Mount Leinster, another volcanic hill includes solvsbergites anorthoclase trachytes, and interesting dyke rocks, some allied to variolite,' and as in the case of Frenchman's Hill, this series has been regarded as of Palaeozoic age, but is probably Oainozoic. In the Mittagong-Bowral district of New South Wales, there is an impor- tant suite of eruptive alkaline rocks, all of which are intrusive into the Triassic sediments. They are chiefly developed at Glib Rock, and Mount Jellore respectively, 2,830 feet, and 2,734 feet high, both of which represent pro- bably the denuded plugs of old volcanoes or dome eruptions, probably the latter. The sequence has been as follows : the oldest rocks being mentioned first : — ■ 1. Alkaline rocks of intermediate composition — -{a) Syenite, allied to bostonite, magmatic name boxanolose, containing iduorspar and occasional hydro-carbons, in addition to orthoclase, arfvedsonite aegirine, magnetite and ilmenite ; (6) iEgirine-arfvedsonite-quartz trachytes. The total alkalies in the above two rocks range from 10 per cent, to 12 per cent. 2. Basic sub-alkaline rocks, with 46 per cent. SiOz, total alkalies about 5 per cent. These rocks are essexites, with primary analcite . 3. Basic rocks — ■ (a) Basalts and dolerites, SiOg, 43 per cent., alkalies 3 per cent. (b) Picrites SiOo, 40 per cent, alkalies 2 per cent. Next on the western side of the Blue Mountains there lies a series of very perfect laccolites in the form of dome -shaped hills, like Mount Stormy and others, which are formed largely of nepheline, aegirine, a little anorthoclase, and a considerable amount of analcite. These have been described as syenitic tinguaites. Still further west, in the locality of the Canobolas, near Orange, there is a great development of alkaline lavas and tufis, extending in a general northerly direction to the Warrumbungle Mountains, between Dubbo and Coonabarabran, and thence trending in a north by east direction into the Nandewar Ranges. From thence at intervals, the alkaline volcanic belt can be traced further into the McPherson Ranges dividing Queensland from New South Wales, through the Mount Flinders and Fassifern districts to East Moreton and Wide Bay ; thence the belt trends northerly through the Glass House Mountains, near Maryborough. Still further north it has been identified at Mount Larcombe to the south of Rockhampton, as well as in the hills at Yeppoon, to the north-east of Rockhampton. Though this immense belt has been proved to extend in a north and south direction for a distance of about 800 miles, the belt is characterized physiographically by a number of dome-shaped or cylindrical hills, in many cases over 4,000 feet high, and very abrupt, marking the sites of old volcanic necks. In the Warrumbungle Mountains, at Wantialable Creek, the alkaline trachytic tufis are inter- stratified with diatomaceous earths, the latter containing fossil leaves. These tufis are formed of snow white, often perfect, crystals, of anorthoclase- f elspar. The frequent association of diatom aceous earth with these volcanic rocks suggests a causal connexion. Meteoric waters, \vith their temperature raised through contact with heated volcanic rocks, and therefore capable of dissolving a relatively large amount of silica, together with the water of hot springs, probably favour the development locally of the diatoms. The Geology of the Commonwealth. 313 usual sequence seems to have been first, leucocratic trachytes (sometimes preceded by rhyolites) commencing with riebeckite arfvedsonite comendites passing upwards into pantellarites, followed by solvsbergites, phonolitic trachytes, and melanocratic trachytes. These are followed by alkaline andesites, and these in turn by basalts, either olivine basalts or olivine fayalite-melilite basalts. The sequence in most cases has been from acid to basic. These volcanic rocks are associated ^^■ith intrusive hvpabyssal rocks of the nature of porphyrite, tonalite monzonite, soda andesite, etc. The whole group shows Eastern Australia to be an alkaline and titanium-rich petro- graphical province. The raelilite fayalite basalts and tufis (aluoites), which break through the konga-diabase at One-Tree Point, Hobart, and the melilite-eudialite basalts of Shannon Tier, and the nepheline basanites of Table Cape, Tasmania, are perhaps to be grouped here. Their occurrence recalls that of the alnoites which have intruded the diabase of South Africa. Perhaps to the closing phases of these alkaline eruptions belong the leucite lavas of Byrock, Capitan, Harden, and Lake Cudjellico, the essexites of Prospect, near Parramatta, the nepheline basalts of Capertee, Mount Royal, etc., in New South Wales, the nepheline basalts of Mount Beardmore, and the leucite-basalts of the Normanby Reefs in the Cooktown district in Queensland. It is possible, however, that the above lavas are Newer Cainozoic. Newer Catnozoic to Recent Newer Basalts. These rocks form physiographically very extensive plains, stretching from Mount G-ambier in South Australia, through the western district of Victoria to Melbourne, in several places, as in the Loddon Valley, running long distances to the north of the main divide. These basalt plains are diversified by hundreds of small volcanic cones or " puys," in various stages of preservation or dissection, and probably the most recent cone is the com- pound one of Tower Hill, west of Warrnambool. Much of the lava forming the plains probably proceeded from fissures now concealed beneath the lava flows. In places shallow broad depressions of the lava surface have led to the formation of extensive lakes over these plains, while in places the present streams have trenched deep and son\etimos wide valleys through them. The rocks are mainly normal calcic olivine basalts, but in places, as at Ballarat and Melbourne, occasionally contain a few crystals of anorthoclase, while analcite has been recorded from a coarse type of olivine-augite dolerite or essexite, occurring as boulders in the tuffs at the base of the volcanic series at Lake Bullenmerri, near Camperdown. The eruptions appear to be con- nected with extensive movements of subsidence and of faulting which affected Victoria at intervals from post Pliocene to recent times, and in some places the sequence of rocks was first tuffs, then lava flows, while the later volcanic cones, many with perfectly pr(!served craters, consist mainly of scoria and tuffs. The texture of the basalts varies from coarse dolerites, through finer varieties to the glassy form — tachylyte, such as is found at the Lai Lai Falls and the Merri Creek, near Melbourne. The; rock is extensively quarried as a building stone, and constitutes tlie road metal of M(>lbourne C.12154. X 314 Federal Handbook. and many other localities. These newer basalts in Victoria frequently sealed up old river valleys, the deep leads which contained rich deposits of gold-bearing sands and gravels, as at Ballarat, Ararat, and the Loddon Valley. In South Australia, Mount Gambler, Mount Reid, Mount Leah, etc., represent recent olivine basalt cones and craters. The basalt flows of Kan- garoo Island probably belong here, as may those of Buubury, in the south- eastern part of Western Australia. Probably most of the basalts of Northern Tasmania, including at Sheffield the tachylytic variety, belong here. In New South Wales, the newer basalts are widely distributed and in places form the cappings of deep leads. Basalts are abundant in the New England district, and on the border of Queensland occur at Tweed Heads. In Queens- land, there are some nearly perfect craters, enclosing crater lakes, pr,eserved on the flanks of the Bellenden-Ker Ranges. From their perfect state of preservation, it is probable that they too belong to a late stage of newer basalt series. , In Papua, basalts and agglomerates, some 3,000 feet in thickness, overlie a peneplain cut out of the highly-folded Pliocene Port Moresby beds. Mount Victory, in British Papua, over 6,000 feet high, is the only lava producing volcano at present known within the territory of the Commonwealth. This has not yet been explored. 10. Metamorphic Rocks. By Prof. T. W. Edgeworth David, C.M.G., D.Sc, F.R.S., and Prof. Ernest W. Skeats, D.Sc, A.R.C.S., F.G.S. Contact Metamorphism. — Apart from the normal developments of hornfels, andalusite mica schist, cordierite mica rocks, etc., where granitic rocks have invaded shales, rocks such as garnet-rock, wollastonite rock, epidote rock occur at the contact, chiefly between acid eruptives and limestones, and ophicalcites where the latter have been intruded by ultrabasic pyroxene rocks belonging to the peridototes or picrites. Contact metamorphic rocks of special interest occur at the Mount Bischofi tin mine in the north-west part of Tasmania. There a quartz-porphyry, which has broken through slaty rocks, probably of Ordovician age, has had the whole of its felspar converted by pneumatolysis into fibrous radial topaz (pycnite). The rock at the same time has been tourmalinised, ^vith a development in places in a massive form of tourmaline veins and irregular lumps, of the dark-green ferriferous variety zeuxite. An interesting type of contact alteration is produced by the in- trusion of granodiorite into dacite, near Selby, in the Dandenong hills, at Warburton, and Mount Macedon, in Victoria. The dacite becomes slightly schistose. Hj^ersthene is converted into secondary biotite, ilmenite reacting with felspar forms fringes of secondary biotite, the ground mass is re -crystal- lized on a larger scale and some secondary blue tourmaline is developed. Near Selby, local development of crystalline biotite gneisses from the hypers- thene dacite occur near the granodiorite contact. In this case it is possible that dynamic metamorphism reinforced the contact effects. Adinoles have been recorded amongst the cherts in the Ileathcotian series of Victoria, but the analysis suggests that they do not vary much from the normal cherts in Geology of the Commonwealth. " 316 spite of the fact that their association with albite-diabase flows, schalsteins, tufis, and radiolarian rocks suggests a local development of the spilite suite, with which adinolcs are often associated. Bynamic Metmnorfhism- — -Under this heading may be included the phyllites and the crystalline schists. Phyllites. — -Argillaceous sediments altered to phyllites occur in the districts of Kosciusko J Cooma, and Cobar, in New South Wales, and in Victoria are represented near Yackandandah, and in several other localities in the meta- morphic belt of north-eastern Victoria, and in Dundas in western Victoria. The precise age of many of these rocks is undetermined, but some have been referred to the Pre -Cambrian Series. Crystalline Schists. — -Very little work has as yet been done in the way of classifying these rocks on the principles of Grubenmann. There is here an enormous field for research, more than a third of Australia, including large parts of Western and South Australia, western New South Wales, and areas in western and eastern Victoria, and a large portion of Tasmania being formed of these rocks. Rocks of Grubenmann's upper, middle, and lower (deep) zone are well represented. Typical of the upper zones are chloritoid schist, talc schist, chlorite schist, talc schist, the schistose amphibolites and serpentinized areas of the Broken Hall area in New South Wales, the epidiorite, the glauco- phane rock and glaucophane-epidote rock, albite-chlorite-sillimanite schist of Leahy's Creek, in the D'Aguilar Range area, north of Brisbane, in Queens- land ; the sericitic quartzites, magnetitic quartzite, conglomerates, talcose slates, and epi-magnetite slates of Northern Territory, the Algonkian (?) quartz-schists of Tasmania, and crushed quartzite conglomerates of Goat Island, near Ulverstone, in Tasmania, muscovite scliists, quartz schists, chlorite schists of the Mount Lofty to Murray Bridge region to the east of Adelaide, chlorite, ampliibolite graphite schists, siliceous mylonites (ribbon jasper), and crush conglomerates of felspar porphyry of Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia. Amongst rocks which characterize the middle zone are the staurolite gneisses, staurolite mica schists, zoisite schists, and tremolite schists of the Broken Hill area, the tremolite schists, actinolite schists, muscovite -biotite schists, andalusite schists, and " paringite "* schists of the Mount Lofty to Murray Bridge area, the muscovite and biotite schists of western and north- eastern Victoria ; the muscovite -biotite schists, garnet-zoisite amphibolite rock of Forth River, Tasmania ; cyanite-rutile granulite, epidote-actinolite topaz schist, anthophyllite schist from D'Aguilar Range area, Queensland. Possibly to this middle group may be referred the remarkable sapphire schists of Mount Painter. At Mount Painter, 300 miles north-west of Broken Hill, there occurs a rock formed of corundum, often as sapphire, cordierite sillim^uiite, pleonaste, magnetite, and abundant apatite, monazite and tourmaline. These schists are traversed by a)i immense lode containing radio-active minerals such as autunite, torbernite, monazite radio-active fluorspar, etc. To the lowest or middle zone may belong the epidote-cordierite-chlorite * A moderately coarse friable silvery muscovite-biotitc schist with very wavy lamination, and with very prominent "knots" or "eyes" of impure andalusite, which may be upwards of an inch in diameter. X 2 316 ' Federal Handbook. schist, the oyanite-rutile granulite, the granulitic mica schist, and the musco- vite granulite of the D'Aguilar Range area, and the muscovite-sillimanite chiastolite schist, with andalusite schist, of the Mount Lofty to Murray Bridge area. The following types, perhaps belonging to the deepest zone, have been identified in Australia : — Kata-biotite orthoclase gneisses, sillimanite gneiss, garnet-sillimauite schist, cordierite-granulite, scapolite-gneiss and plagioclase pyroxene rocks, from the Broken Hill area, and scapolite-amphibolite rocks and amphibolites, with sphene and vesuvianites from the Mount Lofty Ranges, to east of Mount Lofty. The sillimanite schists and gneisses near Tallangatta, and elsewhere in north-eastern Victoria, may belong here. The following metamorphic rocks seem of special interest : — (1) The mylonized granophyric quartz- dole rites of Western Australia, passing at one end of the series by introduction of silica and for- mation of haematite into red ribbon jaspers and haematite schists, and at the other end, as the result of the introduction of plutonic carbon, as methane, etc., passing into graphite schists, as at the Great Boulder mine at Boulder, adjacent to Kalgoorlie, where methane is still being given off in the deep levels of the mine, at 2,000 feet below the surface. The ribbon jaspers and haematite schists can be traced for fully a thousand miles, at intervals from the extreme south to the extreme north of AVestern Australia. Where quartz reefs traverse these metamorphosed mylonized rocks they are generally gold-bearing. (2) The remarkable belt of sapphire schists adjacent to the great ra,dium-bearing lode of Mount Painter. (3) The glaucophane schists of Mount Mee in the D'Aguilar Range area of Queensland, to the north of Brisbane. (4) The important belt of the Broken Hill area, with its sillimanite gneiss, scapolite gneiss, pyroxene -am phibole rocks, etc., charac- teristic of Grubenmann's deepest zone. (5) The wonderful chiastolite belt of Bimbowrie to the west of Broken Hill. These chiastolites, often 5 to 6 inches in length, and over an inch in diameter, have in some cases suffered paramorphism, and pass into aggregates of pinite, with occasional grains of corundum. The important " paringite " belt of Mount Lofty may also belong to this horizon. 1 1. Papua. New Guinea, 1,500 miles long, with an extreme width of 380 miles, and an area of 306,000 square miles, is one of the biggest islands in the world. Apart from Polar regions, perhaps, no portion of the world has been so little explored, and yet it probably yields to no other part in scientific interest. If it were possible to travel from the coast inland in a bee line for from 30 to 100 miles,* one could pass from the dense, steaming, tropical atmosphere of the lowlands, with its rattan-tangled jungles and bright scarlet creepers to the bracing air of the open forest glades, where the pink rhododendron forms a * So dense is the growth of the jungle that it took the Goodenough-Rawling expedition no less than five weelis to travel inland five miles. Geology op the Commonwealth. 317 318 Federal Handbook. Geology of the Commonwealth. 319 11 V, }J H a .2; ? c <»3 o ■8 tj ., peg I ^^ II £ ^ -J: «, H 5 _?'» S, 5 ^ ^ .6 ^5 V3 'w §§^ c >>, > » ^ N "CD ^ S5 ^ 1^ ^ .2^^ >o a ^ «! 1^ 5 S •o <3 t^ ^ (i if '« 1 1 --, ^ ^'i Q ^ ^ §^ ueijQu/ej-auj- fscy //e ^iqeqoj^ 320 Federal Handbook. glowing fringe to the sombre mantle of pine and cypress which clothes the higher slopes. In British New G-uinea, one may climb above the tree line to the Alpine grasses and flowers, and extinct glacial lakes of the great horst, where, even in midsummer, in early morning the grass and wild strawberries are white with frost, and all the shallow pools are crusted with ice. Higher still, bare peaks and pinnacles of dark schists pierce the clouds. Among their sharp serrated ridges and spurs the mountain torrents gather for their leap down steep ravines into the valleys far below. In Dutch New Guinea there are even perennial snows and glaciers in the Nassau and Orange Ranges, the latter reached in 1905 by Dr. Lorentz and his comrades. The association in New G-uinea of Dendrolagus and Prcechidna with the cloven-footed Sus papuensis, of eucalyptus and casuurina with the oak and rhododendron, are typical of that commingling of Indo-Malayan with Aus- tralian forms which makes New Guinea so happy a hunting ground for the botanist and zoologist. The aborigines, including the pygmies, with their primitive pile dwellings recall the lake dwellers of Europe, and present a most fascinating study for the anthropologist. Geologically as well as biologically New Guinea shows a commingling of Oriental with Australian elements. Papua tectonically and palfeontologically is an oriental element in the Australian region. It is part of the Himalayan- Burmese arc, prolonged through the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Timor.* It is specially linked up with the Burmese arc by the great oil belt lately found in Dutch New Guinea and British New Guinea. The limestones, so rich in Orhitoides (Lepidocyclina), recently discovered at Bootless Inlet, to the east of Port Moresby, are probably of Lower Miocene age, and appear to be close to the horizon of the Papuan oil belt. Its trend lines are contiauous with those of the Malay Peninsula ; and the direction and age of the folding, extending as it does into late Pliocene time, agree with those of the Burmese arc. In Australia, on the other hand, the latest strong orogenic movements, though prolonged in places into the Lower Permo-Carboniferous age, ceased for the most part in Carboniferous time. The trend of the main folds in New Guinea is in a west to east direction from the Charles Louis Range and Mount Leonard Darwin to the north-west end of the Finisterre Mountains. Thence the trend is nearly south-east, to near Mount Suckling, and thence to the Louisiade Archipelago east-south-east. A probable virgation of the main trend line is indicated by the great promontory of New Guinea, opposite New Pomerania, and by the long axis of that island. This strongly marked Burmese trend line is crossed by minor trend lines, subordinate folds and faults, more or less meridional, coming from Australia. These manifest themselves where the strong faults at the north-east end of Axnhem Land, running north by east, pass over into Frederick Henry Island, and also in the faults and small cross folds inland from the Gulf of Papua, in the neighbourhood of Port Moresby, and at Ware (Teste) Island, etc. On the Purari River there is evidence of minor overthrust faults with the over- thrusting coming from west-south-west, as well as of the dominant north-west to south-east trend lines. On the whole, evidence up to the present suggests that the overfolding of New Guinea has been directed in the western half of • The Timor trend line marljs a N.E. trend of the arc of new folded rocks bending away from its E.W. direction owing to the resistance set up by the great crystalline massif of Darwin and Arnhem Landj whose trend lines are directed to the N.W. or N. Geology of the Commonwealth. 321 the island from north to south, and in the eastern half, from north-east to south-west. In other words. New G-uinea has been overfolded towards Australia. The physiographic geology of New Guinea is unique. The backbone of New Guinea appears to be a horst mostly part of an old peneplain. This, from the south-east extremity of the island as far as to, and including, the Finisterre mountains is formed of crystalline scliists and gneisses, probably Pre-Cambrian. At some spot, not yet explored, to west of the Finisterre mountains, and between them and Mount Wilhelmina Peak (15,420 feet), the divide is formed of Cretaceous Alveolina limestone. Further west, and south of Carstensz Top and Mount Leonard Darwin, Rawlings has described perhaps the most stupendous precipice known anywhere in the world, recalling the fractures of the lunar Apennines. He estimates its height at 10,500 feet, and considers that it is of tectonic origin. The precipice faces the south, and is no doubt evidence of a powerful inthrow in that direction. Possibly folding has contributed to this gigantic displacement, but to what extent, if at all, is not at present known, but from the evidence further east, on the Purari Eiver, it may be inferred that the disturbance is in part, at any rate, due to folding. On the northern slopes of Moimt Suckling, at an altitude of 8,000 feet, an immense sheer clifE of quartz schist faces the north-east, and perhaps indicates a downthrow in that direction. The nearly uniform height of the main Divide in the eastern part of the island, rising to from 11,000 to 13,000 feet above sea level, as well as the profile of the ranges, strongly suggests an old peneplain, which has been block-faulted and subsequently deeply dissected- Tliis peneplain has been carved partly out of Pre-Cambrian schists, partly out of Devonian, Upper Oolitic and Cretaceous rocks. As the Cretaceous transgression probably covered nearly the whole of the island, the peneplain composed partly of steeply dipping Cretaceous rocks must obviously be Post Cretaceous, though it is possible that the schist portion of the peneplain belongs to a Pre-Cretaceous peneplain re-discovered in Post Cretaceous time. The coastal region and foot hills inland from the Gulf of Papua for a distance of 50 or 60 miles belongs to a second peneplain, carved out of Miocene to Pliocene estuarine and marine strata. The Miocene transgression was far less extensive than the Cretaceous, and the Pliocene less extensive than the Miocene. Even the Pliocene beds (Port Moresby beds) have been intensely folded, and these folded rocks have, subsequently been reduced to the level of this second peneplain. This lower peneplain has been covered in Post Pliocene time partly Avith basalitc and andesitic tuffs and lavas to a depth of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet. A recent transgression has carried horizontally bedded coral reefs over the top of some of the Post Tertiary volcanic rocks, while in other places the coral rock rests directly on the Pliocene beds. These recent coral-reef limestones are now found up to altitud(!S of 1,000 feet, and exceptionally up to 2,000 feet, above sea level, on the south-castsido of Papua. This proves that a negative movement of the strand line of the ordiu' of 1,000 to 2,000 feet took place in south-eastern New Guinea in recent geological time. 322 Federal Handbook. This recent emergence of the land has been the cause of modern canyon cutting like that of the canyon of the Laloki Eiver, near Port Moresby. Another alternative explanation of the physiographic geology is that the whole country fi-om sea to sea, up to the top of the divide, belongs to one and the same peneplain, which has been heavily block-faulted in late Pliocene or even Pleistocene time. Against this interpretation may be adduced the facts — (1) that so far no rocks newer than Cretaceous have been encountered in the region of the divide or anywhere above a level of about 4,000 feet. (2) The main divide portion of the peneplain is so deeply dissected that Post Pliocene time alone may not have sufficed for the work. Probably connected with the lines of block faulting was the manifestation of volcanic energy, which produced basaltic lavas and tufis like those of Mount Favenc, and built the volcanic cones and craters respectively of Mount Dayman, 9,305 feet, and of the active volcano, Mount Victory, about 6,000 feet high — the only lava producing volcano within the Commonwealth — as well as the cones of the solfataric volcanoes of the D'Entrecasteaux Group such as that of Dobu, etc. The sharp shocks of earthquake occasionally experienced in British Papua obviously have relation to crustal readjustments connected with the volcanic zones, or movements along fault planes. That New Guinea was not exempt from the great Ice Age of Pleistocene and in part Recent time, which affected south-eastern Australia at Mount Kosciusko, the highlands of Tasmania, and the cordilleras of New Zealand, Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego, is proved by the evidences of past glacial action observed by Dr. Lorentz, below Wilhelmina Peak, extending downwards to at least 13,200 feet, where glacial lakes with striated rock surfaces were observed. The numerous small lakes and tarns on Mount Albert Edward and Mount Victoria, both of which are over 13,000 feet high, make it nearly certain that these peaks were also at one time glaciated. One of the latest phases in the evolution of the Papuan landscape has been the reclamation of shallow portions of the continental shelf by river deltas. This is specially to be noticed in the Gulf of Papua, where vast amounts of silt are washed into the sea annually by the Fly, Kikori, and other rivers. The sequence and character of the formations represented are shown on the diagrammatic section. This section shows that there is a large area in Central Papua as yet mostly unexplored.* Little is as yet known of the crystalline schists and gneisses, which form the backbone of most of the island, beyond the fact that quartz mica-schists, talc schists, and chlorite schists are represented. These are intruded in places by granites, diorites, and gabbros. Gold-bearing quartz-reefs are associated with these intrusive rocks, and copper deposits are developed • Not only is the geological structure unknown, but even the zoology has been only very partially studied, as is evident from the following facts : — It has been recorded by Mr. C. G. W. Monckton that near the lakes of Mount Albert Edward he observed, at over 12,000 feet above sea level, footprints of an unknown animal with cloven hoof, the footprints measuring about four inches by four and a half inches — the imprints were quite unlike those of the Sus papuetisis. He adds that the description given by the natives of the creature that leaves these footprints suggests an animal like the hog-deer {Sus babirussa) of the Indian islands. Geology of the Commonwealth. 323 in connexion witli the gabbros. So far tbe existence of Devonian rock has been proved only on the Tauri river, to the east of Piirari river, and 29 miles from the coast. The Upper Oolites are represented by calcareous shales, 75 miles up the Strickland river, above its confluence with the Fly river. These contain Stephanoceras blagdeni, S. lamellosum, and an ammonite, of A. lingulalus, from the White Jura, together with an Aucella or Inoceramus. The Cretaceous strata, mostly dark-green calcareous and glauconitic (?) sandstones and limestones, contain Alveolina, Orbitolites {Flosculinella Schu.) Inoceramus, Gryphcea, Modiola, Aviculopecten, Profocardium, Cidaris, Belem- nites, etc. The oil belt, without doubt a continuation of the Burmese oil belt, is part of a vast delta or estuarine deposit, consisting of freshwater beds alternating with marine limestones. The limestone of Bootless Inlet to the east of Port Moresby, formed chiefly of beautiful shells of Orhitoides {Lepidocyclina), probably belongs to the oil belt. In places the Miocene limestones are formed chiefly of Globigerina, like the well-known Globigerina limestone of Noumea. Some of the friable sandstones are extremely rich in mollusca, of which 32 genera have been identified by Mr. W. S. Dun and Mr. C. Hedley, the latter being of the opinion that the greater proportion are species new to science. Seams of brown coal occur at intervals, the thickest seam so far proved being 2 feet 9 inches. The brown coals from British Papua have approximately the following composition : — Hygroscopic moisture . . . . 13 per cent, to 21 per cent. 37 „ „ 42 34 „ „ 41 3 „ „ 9 3 „ „ 2 Volatile hydrocarbon . . Fixed carbon . . Ash Sulphur The whole series has been strongly folded along E.S.E. to W.N.W. lines or north-west to south-east lines, crossed by north and south lines. The oil is associated with anticlinal arches in a bluish-grey mudstone and clayey sandstone, in which it occurs as yellowish-brown globules. This is found in the neighbourhood of the Vailala and Purari Rivers, a short dis- tance above their mouths, to the west of Port Moresby. Crude petroleum oil collected by Mr. J. E. Carne, F.G.S., was analysed by Mr. J. C. H. Mingaye, F.C.S., with the f()lk)wing results : — p. in 100 parts. Sp Gr. Petroleum spirit below 150° C . . Nil Burning oils distilled below 300° C. . . . . 20-8 0*9283 Intermediate and lubricating oils willi solid 74 '2 0*9733 hydrocarbons Coke .. .. .. .. .. 5*0 100 324 Federal Handbook. Grains per gallon. p. in 100 parts. 842-60 12-038 424-62 6-066 Nil Nil That the petroleum spirit had evaporated from these superficial strata as the result of weathering is proved by the fact that light volatile oils have lately been obtained in a bore 300 feet deep on the west side of the Vailala River near its mouth. The water associated with the rock oil was found to have the following composition : — Total solid matter (dried at 220° F.) Chlorine as chlorides Sulphur trioxide as sulphates The solid matter was chiefly sodium chloride with some sodium carbonate, magnesium carbonates, silica, etc. Calcium carbonate, 9-64 grains per gallon; magnesium carbonate, 1*60 grains per gallon; silica, 1-80 grains per gallon. A strong reaction was obtained for the presence of iodine and boric acid in the water. It is thought possible that this iodine water may later prove of value for the extraction of iodine from it, like that of Golnosk Soerabaia Island, Java. Port Moresby Beds. — These strata, radiolarian in places, and marked by large onion-like concretions of chalcedony up to several feet in diameter, are as strongly folded, mostly overfolded, as are the lower Cambrian rocks of the Mount Lofty Range, near Adelaide, and yet these Port Moresby beds are probably not older than Pliocene. Thus the orogenic movements which have produced the cordillera of Papua must have been acute down to as late in geological time as the Pliocene period. Post Pliocene. — These are largely composed of volcanic rocks. The volcanic rocks of this age in British Papua have as yet been very little studied. They are known to consist of hornblende andesites and basalts. In the island of Misima (St. Aigan) are thin flows of trachyte. The Papuan lavas appear to belong to two volcanic zones as shown on the section, in which the Aird Hills (about 200 miles north-west from Port Moresby) belong to the southern zone facing Torres Strait and the Arafura Sea, and the other parallel and adjacent to the northern coast of British Papua. The great extinct crater of the unexplored volcano. Dayman, 9,305 feet high, belongs to the northern belt, as does Mount Victory, 6,000 feet high, which still produces lava. That incandescent lava is present in the crater of Mount Victory is proved by the fact that Mr. A. Gibb Maitland observed on two occasions that the steam clouds hovering over that mountain were seen, after nightfall, to be brilliantly illuminated. Mount Victory, as far as is known, is the only lava-producing volcano in the territory of the Commonwealth. It has never been geologically examined. The small island of Dobu (Goulvain) in the D'Enti-ecasteaux Group is a volcanic cone, from which steam is still emitted. This is also situated on the northern volcanic belt. In regard to the broad tectonic features of Papua it may be suggested, very tentatively, that the mainland of Australia has functioned as a " forland massif," Torres Strait, the G-ulf of Carpentaria, the Arafura Sea, and the deep Mesozoic and Tertiary basins, with their thick strata as a senkungsfeld. Possibly the crystalline schists forming a great part Geology of the Commonwealth. 325 of the backbone of the island have played the part of an inner, or " riick-land massif," which has helped to roll up the Mesozoic and Tertiary sediments. The chief fracture zones, on which the present active volcanoes of Mount Victory and Dobu are situated, appear to lie on the inner limb of the fold region, just the portions which have been put in tension as the result of the southerly creep of the Papuan area towards Australia.* The latest crust movements have caused an emergence of the land to the amount of 1,000 feet on the northern coast, and over 2,000 feet on the southern coast in Post Pliocene time. * If this interpretation is correct their situation would be analogous to that of the Vesuvian volcanic zone in regard to the folds of the Apennines, the lavas of Hungary in reference to the folds of the Carpathians, the lavas of the Great Basin region of the United States of America in regard to the folds of the Roclcies and Sierra Nevada, etc. 326 Federal Handbook. CHAPTER VIII. ASTRONOMY AND GEODESY IN AUSTRALIA. By Pietro Baracchi, F.R.A.S., Government Astronomer of Victoria. SYNOPSIS. 1. Astronomy. astronomicaii woek Attstralia — • DONE IN {a) By Navigators, Surveyors AND Explorers, for Geo- graphical PUEPOSES. (b) By the Permanent Govern MENT Observatories. (c) By Amateur Astronomers. (d) By Australian Expeditions ON Special Astronomical Occasions. (e) For the Determination of Australian Longitudes. Geodesy. (a) Trigonometrical Surveys of High Precision. (6) Pendulum Observations. Appendix A. — List of References. Appendix B. — Some Astronomical Papers by Australians. 1. ASTRONOMY. (a) Astronomical work done by Navigators, Surveyors, etc., for Geographical Purposes. Sir Thomas Brisbane laid the foundation of Australian astronomy in 1821, but the record of astronomical observations made on Australian soil commences half a century earlier ; as is well known, Captain Cook was selected by the British Admiralty, chiefly for his astronomical qualifications, " to conduct his famous expedition to the islands of the Pacific for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus of 1769, which he successfully accomplished at Otaheite, after which he discovered and visited several islands in the Pacific, and eventually re -discovered New Zealand on the 6th October, 1769, and observed the transit of Mercury on 9th November, at a place on the north-east coast, now called Mercury Bay, and sailing north, on 31st March, 1770, he discovered New Holland, landed at Botany Bay, and (on 22nd August, 1770) took possession of the eastern coast of Australia in the name of Great Britain" (1). * In regard to longitudes obtained by lunar distances. Cook wrote " This method of finding the longitude at sea can be depended upon to within half a degree, ^\^lich is a degree of accuracy more than sufficient for all nautical purposes." From Captain Cook's astronomical observations made on Australian soil in 1770 was derived the first value on record of the longitude of Fort Macquarie, Sydney, viz., 151° 11' 32" east of Greenwich, which is almost identical with that determined by Flinders 33 years after (151° 11' 49"), Captain John Hunter and Lieutenant Bradley determined the longitude of Port Jackson by a series of lunar distances, observed between 14th jMarch and 28th April, 1788 (Hunter's Historical Journal, pp. 87-88). On 17th August, 1788 " we began at this time to take equal altitudes for ascertaining the exact rate of the time keeper." A list of the authorities referred to in these pages is givea in Appendix A. Astronomy and Geodesy. 327 In June, 1792, Captain Hunter, in a letter to the Admiralty said " The advantage of being able to ascertain the ship's place in longitude by obser- vations of the moon will be ever satisfactory, but more particularly through so vast a tract of sea, in which the error of the log may considerably accumulate." (2) The " first fleet," commanded by Captain Phillip, which brought out from Great Britain the colonists who formed the first permanent settle- ment upon the Australian continent, arrived at Port Jackson in 1788. Colonel Collins tells us, " Among the buildings that were undertaken shortly after our arrival must be mentioned an observatory, which was marked out on the western point of the cove, to receive the astronomical instruments which had been sent out by the Board of Longitude, for the purpose of observing the comet which was expected to be seen about the end of this year (1788). The construction of this building was placed under the direc- tion of Lieutenant Dawes, of the Marines who, having made this branch of science his peculiar study, was appointed by the Board of Longitude to make astronomical observations in this country." The locality where this observatory is built is known as Dawes Point, and the structure is still there, though not used for astronomical purposes. This may be regarded as the first substantial observatory erected in Australia purely in the interests of astronomy. The expected comet, however, was not seen, and nothing is known about Dawes' astronomical work at this Observatory, except the determination of its geographic il co-ordinates, which are latitude 33° 52' 30" S., longitude 151° 19' 30". A transit instrument was sent to him by Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, in 1791. In regard to this comet, Russell wrote (G) " The comet, for which all these preparations were made, was that which had been observed in 1532 and 1661, and which was generally expected to return about the end of 1788 or the beginning of 1789. It was one of the twenty-four which Dr. Halley had used in his celebrated investigations, in which he proved that comets were subject to the then law of gravitation, and like all other astro- nomical bodies, revolved about some centre. In 1776, Maskelyne pointed out that this comet would be affected by the major planets, and that for the investigation of this important matter, it was very desirable that it should be observed in the southern hemisphere where it would first be visible ; hence the establishment of the Dawes Point Observatory." In one of the papers by Captain P. P. King (2) is given, amongst the longitude results of several navigators, the value of the longitude found by Admiral Don Jose D'Espinosa while at Sydney on the Corbetas Descubierta y Atrevida. This value reduced to Fort Macquarie, is shown as lOh. 4m. 51.91s., which is within a fraction of a second of time of the latest accepted value, and is very probably nearer to tlie true value than that found by any other navigator. For more than 30 years after Dawes' watches for the comet, the astro- nomical record rests entirely on navigators and explorers. It was during this period that French expeditions were moving about in Australian watiu's, while surveys of tlie coast and explorations iidand were being conducted by such nautical men as Bass, Flinders, Murray, and 328 Federal Handbook. King, and tlie first explorers inland — Gregory, Blaxland, Evans, Oxley, Cunningham, Frazer, Hum.e, and others. Skilled astronomical observers, and even accomplislied astronomers were to be found among these explorers, and the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars were, no doubt, closely watched and employed by them for the determination of their geographical positions. Flinders, who first circumnavigated Australia in 1801 on the Investigator, was indeed an enthusiastic and most accurate observer of the heavenly bodies. It was he who trained Sir John Franklin, then a midshipman on the Investigator, in astronomical work. John Crossley, of Greenwich Obser- vatory, was appointed by the Admiralty as the astronomer of the expedition, but left the ship at the Cape of Good Hope, to return home invalided, and Flinders wrote to the authorities offering to undertake the astronomical work himself, with the help of his brother Lieutenant Sam W. Flinders, but the Admiralty sent out to him another astronomer — Inman — who accompanied Flinders during the latter part of the voyage (3). Inman, on his return to England, became Professor of Astronomy, at the Royal Naval College of Portsmouth. The amount of Flinders' limar observations is remarkable, both for its fine quality and its large quantity. His value of the longitude of Fort Macquarie (Sydney), "151° IT 49"" east of Greenwich, is probably within one mile of the true value which, considering the instruniental limitations and the inaccuracy of the limar tables in his day, may well be accepted as a result of the highest accuracy attainable at the time. In his Voyage to Terra Australia, are given the geographical co-ordinates of many places on the south coast of Australia (Vol. I., 1814), App., page 259. (2) Lieutenant (afterwards Admiral) P. P. King, son of Governor King, arrived at Port Jackson in September, 1817. He had been sent by the British Government to complete the surveys of the coast of New South "Wales, which, then, extended from South Cape in Tasmania, latitude 43° 39' S. to Cape York, 10° 37' S. He made four voyages, extending over four years, from 1817 to 1822, during which he determined the longitude and latitude of a large number of points on the coast. The results of the survey were published in his work A Narrative of a Survey of the Inter-tropical and Western Coasts of Australia (2 Vols., 8vo., London, 1847). From 1826 to 1830 he was in command of two ships — Adventure and Beagle — conducting surveys on the southern coasts of South America. Shortly after, he retired from active service and settled in New South Wales, where for the rest of his life he continued to devote himself to scientific work, " during his residence at Dunhered, from 1832 to 1839, and at Tahlee, Port Stephens, to 1848, kept his observatory in full work with the transit and other instru- ments" (2). The results of his astronomical work are contained in two papers which were printed " at his own private printing press, apparently for private distribution, a copy of each of which is in the possession of his family." and in another paper, containing the first five years observations at Tahlee, which was published in the Tasmanian Journal, No. 6, a copy of which is Astronomy and Geodesy. 329 in the Sydney Observatory, with the remainder of the observations in MSS. In one of the two papers first mentioned are recorded " the observed transits of the moon and m.oon culminating stars over the meridian of Tahlee, Port Stephens, New South Wales, from 184:3 to 1849, and the resulting longitudes from them. Also observations of eclipses of the sun and occultations of the fixed stars by the moon at the same place." The derived longitude of the station is lOh. 8m. lis. " The second paper gives a description of the instruments in the obser- vatory and the observations for determining the latitude of Tahlee, 1841 to 1848. These observations were made with an altazimuth. Nearly 300 separate star observations for latitude are recorded, from which the latitude 32° 40' 17" 74" is derived. Also a list of about one thousand places for which the geographical co-ordinates are given." Admiral King published in addition eight papers in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, " Four refer to comets, amongst others the great comet of 1843 ; one to an occultation of Jupiter and his Satellites ; another to a lunar eclipse ; another to a transit of Mercury ; and the last to a solar eclipse" (2). Sir James Ross' antarctic expedition arrived at Hobart (Tasmania), in August, 1840, in the ships Erebus and Terror. Sir John Franklin was then Grovernor of that Colony. A vigorous campaign for the acquisition of data in regard to the magnetic conditions of the globe was in course at the time, under the influence of Gauss and Sabine, and Sir James Ross established a magnetic station at Hobart, and also an astronomical observatory, where a transit instrument, an altazimuth, and astronomical clocks were permanently mounted. This station was placed in charge of Lieutenant Kay. Although terrestrial magnetism was the principal object, astronomical observations were syste- matically made and continued till 1854. An elaborate investigation of the difierence of longitude between Hobart and Port Macquarie (Sydney), Parramatta, and Cape of Good Hope, is in- cluded in the work of this observatory. (b) Astronomical Work done in Australia by the Permanent Government Observatories. The Parramatta Observatory, though originally a private establishment, became the property of the New South Wales Government, and is for this reason placed under this heading. The Parramatta Observatory. In 1821, Major-General Sir Thomas Macdougall Brisbane was appointed Governor of the colony of New South Wales. Throughout his career as a soldier he had always been devoted to astronomy, and as the southern heavens offered him almost a virgin field for exploration, he urged the British Government to supply him with means for establishing an observatory in the country he was being sent to govern, but having failed, he undertook to oarry out the idea at his own cost. Accordingly he purchased instruments, books, and appliances, cngiiged two assistants, and immediately after their arrival in the colony, in November, 330 Federal Handbook. 1821, a site was selected in close vicinity to his official residence at Parramatta, upon which a suitable building was quickly erected for the installation of the instruments, and by the following April the Parramatta Observatory was already in full working order. The assistants were Carl Rumker, an accomplished astronomer who later became Director of the Hamburg Observatory, and James Dunlop, whose great natural abilities, especially mechanical, rendered his services particu- larly valuable in a place where no skilled instrument makers were available. The instruments (4) " were a transit instrument by Troughton, of 3f-inch aperture and 64-inch focal length ; a 2-foot mural circle, with tele- scope of the same length, by the same maker; a 16-inch repeating circle, by Reichenbach ; a 46-inch achromatic telescope, with equatorial motion and wire micrometer, by Banks ; a clock, by Hardy, set to sidereal time ; and another, by Breguet, showing mean time." Also two other clocks, by Grimaldi and Barraud ; a box chronometer, by Dent ; and a pocket chronometer. The programme of the Parramatta Observatory was principally the determination " of the position of stars down to the eighth magnitude, between the zenith of the observatory and the South Pole "(4). The regular series of observations was commenced on 2nd May, 1822. At first. Sir Thomas Brisbane and his two assistants worked together har- moniously and mth great assiduity, but on 16th June, 1823, Rumker left the observatory, and from that date till December, 182-5, the greater part of the observations were made by Dunlop. In December, 1825, Sir Thomas Brisbane returned to England, and Dunlop followed him towards the end of the following year, after having continued the work at Parramatta Observatory till 2nd March, 1826, and completed a series of observations of 621 nebulae and clusters, at his private house, with a reflecting telescope, 9 inches aperture and 9-feet focal length (2) made by himself (5), and a catalogue of 253 double and triple stars which he observed during the same period (5). The records of the observations made at Parramatta with the transit instrument and the mural circle, from 2nd May, 1822, to 2nd March, 1826, were placed in the hands of Mr. Richardson, of the G-reenwich Observatory, in 1830 " by order of the Honorable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, who directed him to reduce the observations and construct a catalogue of the positions of the stars " the result being the well-known Parramatta Catalogue of 7,385 Stars for the Epoch 1825, published in 1835. The re-discovery of Encke's comet at its first predicted return may be justly regarded as one of the brilliant records in the history of the Parramatta Observatory. The comet was re-discovered by Rumker on 2nd June, 1822. After the departure of Sir Thomas Brisbane, the observatory was taken over by the Colonial Government, on payment of the full cost of its equip- ment, to the owner, and placed in charge of Rumker, who became the official astronomer, and resumed work in May, 1826, after having, on 15th July, 1824, discovered a new comet — I 1824 — wliich bears his name (10). He made many observations for latitude and longitude, and observations of the moon, the planets, and comets. The results are published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1829, Part III., and in the Memoirs of the R.A.S., Vol. III. ; also in Vol. I. of the Monthly Notices. Astronomy axd Geodesy. 331 At the end of the year 1828, he went to Europe, and some time after became Director of the Hambxirg Observatory. The Parramatta Observatory remained inoperative for nearly three years. In 1831, Dunlop returned to Australia, and was appointed Superintendent of the Parramatta Observatory, which position he held till 1847. Most of the work done by Dunlop during this period still remains un- published. It is contained in eight books MSS., which were transferred to the present Sydney Observatory (2). (7) On 30th September, 1833, Dunlop discovered a comet, and on the 19th of March, 1831, he independently discovered another, which had been first seen by Gambart, at Marseilles, twelve days before (8). The observations of these comets are published in Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 8, page 251 et seq. The Catalogue of 629 Southern Nebulae and Clusters, observed by Dunlop, in 1828, with a 9-inch reflecting telescope of his own make, as previously mentioned, was presented to the Royal Society, and printed in the Transactions of 1828, pp. 113 and 152, and the Catalogue of 253 Double Stars, observed in the same vear, was published in the Memoirs of the R.A.S., Vol. III. After Dunlop's resignation, the observatory was dismantled, the instru- ments packed and stored, and Australia remained without an astronomical observatory for several years. In 1880, when the building which had once been the Parramatta Observatory was reduced to ruin, fast disappearing, the Government was induced to erect a permanent monument to indicate the site of the observatory. Exactly in the position occupied by the transit instrument, a marble obelisk now stands, with the following inscription : — " An Astronomical Observatory was founded here ^lay 2nd, 1822, by Sir Thomas Macdougall Brisbane, K.C.B., F.R.S., Governor of New South Wales" (6). The geographical co-ordinates of this historical point, assigned to it by Rumker, are Latitude 33° 48' 50-68", Longitude 101° 4' 6-25" Although the admitted imperfections of Sir Thomas Brisbane's astrono- mical equipment, and his desire to accumulate data from direct observation at very high speed must be recognised as the concurring causes which pre- vented a degree of accuracy equal to modern needs to be attained in the Parramatta Catalogue — which represents the main results of Sir Thomas Brisbane's enterprise — thus reducing to some extent the value of the work done by him and his assistants, we must nevertheless regard that enterprise with profound admiration and look upon the obelisk now standing on the spot where Sir Thomas Brisbane, Rumker, and Dunlop observed the stars crossing the meridian of Parramatta, as the monument raised by an appreciative generation to commemorate the foundation of Australian astronomy. The founder of the Parramatta Observatory and its successive directors were indeed held in liigh estimation in England. The Royal Astronomical Society presented its gold medal to Sir Thomas Brisbane and James Dunlop on 8th February, 1828, and to Carl Rumker on 10th February, 1854. C.121.')4. V 332 Federal Handbook. The Sydney Observatory. Tliis observatory is situated on one of the headlands projecting into the Harbor, on the western side of Sydney Cove, less than half a mile from Dawes Point, where Lieutenant Dawes erected the first Australian observa- tory, in the year 1788. The locality is now called Flagstafi Hill. Through the persistent recommendations of Sir William Denison, Governor of New South Wales, soon after his arrival in Australia, on 20th January, 1855 (6), the Colonial Grovernment voted a sum of £7,000 for the erection of an observatory in Sydney, and made provisions for the salary of an astronomer and a computer. The Reverend W. Scott, M.A., was selected by the Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy, to fill the position of first director of the proposed Sydney Observatory. The first duty of Mr. Scott after his arrival was, as he relates himself, " to fix on a site for the proposed observatory. For purely astronomical purposes I should have preferred a position further inland, but as it appeared desirable for various reasons that the observatory should be in the immediate neighbourhood of Sydney, I could find no spot more suitable than that recommended by the Governor on which the observatory now stands." The building was commenced in May, 1857 and was so far advanced as to admit of meridian observations being made in June, 1858." The first astronomical equipment of the Sydney Observatory consisted of the instruments purchased by the Government from Sir Thomas Brisbane. In addition, a complete time-ball apparatus was installed. By means of this apparatus the ball on the tower was automatically dropped, at fii'st at the instant of local noon, and later at the instant of 1 p.m. It was chiefly the practical value of this service which gave the Government sufiicient inducement to establish the observatory and, at the same time, imposed the essential conditions in the selection of the site. The work of the observatory was confined in the first instance to the approximate determination of the sidereal and thence the mean time by a number of nightly observations of clock stars (9). The transit circle by Jones, with which Dunlop had in his later years made a few observations at Parramatta, had been sent to England to be remodelled and improved by Troughton, and did not arrive back till December, 1858. This instrument has an object glass of 3| inches aperture and 62 inches focal length. Its circle is 42 inches in diameter, divided to every 5 ' and read by four microscopes 90° apart. It was completely set up and ready for use in June, 1859. Mr. Scott complains that this instrument was not entirely satis- factory. He says (9), " The instrumental errors are such that although the circle may be regarded for some purposes as an useful instrument yet it cannot be classed amongst instruments of the highest order." (6) " It was a fortunate circumstance that just then, in October, 1858, the great comet of Donati, one of the finest in the century appeared in our southern sky," for it served the purpose of drawing the attention of the authorities to the want of a suitable instrument at the Official Observatory for the observations of the comet and of obtaining from Parliament a sum Astronomy and Geodesy. 333. of £800 witli wliich an achromatic telescope, 7j-incli apertm-e and 124 inches focal length, made by the celebrated firm of Merz and Sod. of Munich, was piirchased, which was mounted and ready for use in June, 1861. IVIr. Scott remained in office for four years, and resigned his position on 30th September, 1862. The astronomical work done at the Sydney Observatory in Mr. Scott's time was fully published by him in the four official volumes issued for the years 1859, 1860, 1861, and 1862. These contain the results of upward of 6,600 meridian observations in both co-ordinates, about 100 transits of the moon and moon culminating stars, a large number of observations of zenith stars for latitude, and some observation of comets. The 7j-inch Merz equatorial was at his disposal only fifteen months, dm'ing which some attention was given to double stars. Mr. Scott published some of his other astronomical work in the Monthly Notices of the R.A.S., Vols. 19, 20, 21, and 22, as follows : — Observations of the Solar Eclipse of the Sun, 11th January, 1861; Comet III., 1860; Comet II., 1861; Encke's II., 1862; Transit of Mercury N 4, 1861. The instrumental faults never permitted i\Ii". Scott to assign to his meridian observations a degree of accuracy equal to that of the best observatories. "It must therefore be borne in mind" he tells us "that determination of right ascension with the Sydney transit circle are liable to errors varying from 3 '3 to - 4 '2 seconds of arc, or 0*22 to - 0*28 seconds of time for a equatorial star." " An examination of the North Polar distances leads to a very similar result" (9), From September, 1862 to January, 1864, the Observatory was in charge of Mr. Hem-y Russell, B.A., who had joined the Observatory as Mr. Scott's assistant in 1859. Mr. Russell confined his astronomical duties to the time service and to the observation of transits of the moon and moon culminating stars. He also made a series of micrometric measurements for the comparison of Mars with neighbouring stars, at the opposition of 1862. This series, however, was not published (6). Mr. Greorge Robert Smalley, B.A., succeeded Mr. Scott as the second Director of the Sydney Observatory, in 1864, being selected by the Astro- nomer Royal — Sir George Airy — at the request of the colonial authorities. It seems that the imperfection of the meridian instruments as reported by Mr. Scott discouraged Mr. Smalley from undertaking any serious and systematic work with them, and he resolved to employ them only for the ordinary requirements of the time service. He devoted the rest of his time to magnetic and meteorological investigations and to the initiation of a trigonometrical survey of the colony, which was then urgently required. Eventually the Government intrusted him with that work, and opera- tions were commenced in due course for the measurement of a base line at the south end of Lake George. Difficulties and delays were encountered in these operations and the worry " told seriously on Mr. Smalley's health, and during the latter part of 1869 and all 1870 till his death in July of that year, he was not able to do much of the work which he had determined to carry out" (6). S34 Federal Handbook. The only astronomical work done during these years, in addition to the observation of clock stars, were some observations of Comet I., 1864, made by Mr. Smalley with the Merz 7J-inch equatorial, and published in the Monthly Notices of the R.A.S., Vol. 25, p. 171 ; and observations of Comet I., 1865, and of Encke's Comet at its return in 1865, which were published in Monthly Notices, Vol. 26, p. 63- Mr. Eussell succeeded Smalley as third Director of the Sydney Observatory and Government Astronomer of the colony of New South Wales. " Having had a share in all the work done with the meridian circle, and knowing its imperfections, he determined to confine the observations with it to those required for time and longitude, and at once urged the necessity for a new meridian instrument" (6). The approaching transit of Venus gave him the opportunity of obtaining the s}rmpathy of the Government for the acquisition of more instruments. The astronomical operations which figure more prominently in the history of the Sydney Observatory during the first seven years of Russell's regime are the preparations made for observing the total eclipse of the sun in December, 1871, in the extreme north of Australia, and the transit of Venus in 1874, of which a brief account will be given in another part of this article. To the ordinary routine of observations of clock stars were added observations of the transit of the moon and moon culminating stars for longitude, and the observations of Herschel's Cape Catalogue of Double Stars. A remarkable feature of this period is the increase of instrumental power which Russell, by continuous effort and determination, succeeded in securing for his observatory. In 1872, with the assistance of the Royal Society of New South Wales, he obtained from the Government a sum of £1,000 for instruments, the greater part of which he used in procuring an achromatic object glass, 11.4 inches aperture, and 12| feet focal length, by Schroeder, of Hamburg, for which he designed and had constructed in the colony under his supervision an equa- torial mounting provided with all the requisites of a modern instrument. This instrument was installed in 1874. In the same year the necessity having arisen for the determination of star positions with the greatest possible accuracy to serve the purposes of the trigonometrical survey of the colony of New South Wales then in course a sum of £1,000 was granted by the Government for the purchase of a high-class transit circle for the observatory ; Mr. Russell ordered the instru- ment from the firm of Troughton and Simms, and procured also a large eighteen-prism spectroscope, by Hilger, and other apparatus. The new transit circle has an object glass of 6 inches clear aperture and 85 inches focal length. It has two circles graduated to every 5' read by four microscopes ; regular observations with it were commenced in February, 1877. The instrument was employed for observations of stars required in the operations of the trigonometrical survey, and of other stars near the zenith, of which it was intended to make a special catalogue. Astronomy and Geodesy. 335 " In fact, since 1870, the observatory has been entirely refurnished with instruments of the most modern and perfect forms, and, although they are not equal in size to some of the giant telescopes which have been recently erected in Europe at enormous cost, they are quite equal in quality to those in the best European observatories, as is proved by the observations now made with them." Thus Russell wrote in 1882 (6). An important series of meridian observations of Mars at its opposition in 1877 and comparison stars had been obtained by Russell with the new transit circle " for the purpose of determining the solar parallax. A long series of observations was made which, combined with obser- vations made at Washington, gave 8 "885 inches as the value of the solar parallax " (6). The results of the work done with the transit circle up to the end of the year 1881 are published in two volumes, " Sydney Observatory — Astronomical results for the years 1877-78 and 1879-1881." These results were used by A. Stichtenoth to form a catalogue of 1,543 stars for the epoch 1880, published in Veroffentlichungen des Koniglichen Astronomischen Rechen-Instituts zu Berlin, No. 20. The results of observations on double stars are published in a separate volume, Sydney Observatory — Double Star Results, 1871-1881. In the first volume of astronomical results is shown a summary of the observations of transits of the moon and moon culminating stars made by Russell in the years 1863, 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874, fi>om which is derived the value of the longitude of Sydney (according to Russell), lOh, im. 50 "Sis., which was adopted till 1883. During the eight years after 1881, the same routine of meridian observa- tions and observations of double stars were continued. The double-star work of the years 1882-1889 was published in Memoirs R.A.S., Vol. 50. In 1887 j\Ir. Russell went to Europe to attend the Astrophotographic Congress at Paris, and on behalf of his Grovernment and the Government of the colony of Victoria, pledged the Sydney and Melbourne Observatories to undertake a share in the astrophotographic programme which was decided upon by that Congress. The part of the sky allotted to Sydney ranged from 57° to 61:° of south declination, and that of the Melbourne Observatory from declination -65° to the South Pole. Russell obtained his photographic object glass from Steinheil, of Munich, and had the mounting, with all requisite accessories, made in the colony on his own design, and under his personal supervision. He had a circular wooden observatory detached from the main building, built for the special purpose of housing this astrophotographic telescope. The mounting of the astrograph was ready in 1890, but the object glass did not arrive till later. Russell, in the meantime, mounted a Dallmeyer portrait lens 32 inches focal length and 6 inches aperture, and, fi.-dng this star camera to the tube of the astrograph, employed it in taking a scries of highly successful photographs of the Milky Way. These photographs, seventeen in number, accompanied by a description of each, form an album which was published in 1890. 336 Federal Handbook. The installation of the new object-glass was completed in 1891, and the work reached the end of the preliminary experimental stage in 1892, from which time it proceeded regularly in succeeding years till 1898. In 1889 powerful street lamps and electric lights were placed in the vicinity of the Observatory, the effect of which was to interfere so seriously with the work of the astrograph that it became necessary to remove the instrument to some better locality. Accordingly, the Government, having granted a piece of land for this purpose at Pennant Hill, some 11| miles to the north-west of Sydney, and 615 feet above sea-level, a suitable building was erected, and the instrument installed there in 1899, where the astrophotographic work has since been carried out by Mr. Short, as a branch of the Sydney Observatory. For the last 22 years the determination of the places of reference stars to be employed for the reduction of the plates of the Photograpliic Catalogue, and actual photographing of the regions comprised in the Sydney zones, constituted the greater part, if not the whole, of the astronomical programme of the Sydney Observatory, the results of which have not yet appeared. During this long period observations of double stars were continued, the results of which have been published in various lists in the A.N., Nos. 31.54, 3240, 3303, 3369, 3423. Many other observations of an occasional character were made, and other astronomical duties performed, which come within the scope of a national observatory, but it would be impracticable to give here a detailed account of them. Russell, who died in 1907, may be regarded as one of the principal factors in the advancement of Australian astronomy during the last half century. In estimating the value of his work, it must be remembered that by far the greater part of his energies were expended on the development of Australian meteorology. He was the inventor of no less than 23 instruments, and the contributor of some 130 papers to various scientific societies. He was made F.R.A.S. in 1871, F.R.S. in 1886, C.M.Gr. in 1891, also, in the same year, Vice-Chancellor of the Sydney University, where he graduated in 1858, and President of the R. S. of New South Wales for some years. After Russell's death, Mr. Alfred Henry Lenehan was appointed Govern- ment Astronomer. Under him the astronomical work of the Observatory was a continuation of the routine programme of previous years, which he was bound to accept and to advance as speedily as he could, under the adminis- trative difficulties of the time, till completion might be reached. He died on 2nd May, 1908 ; and till August, 1912, Mr. W. E. Raymond remained in temporary charge of the institution. In August, 1912, Mr. W. E. Cooke, M.A., formerly Director of the Perth Observatory, was appointed Government Astronomer of New South Wales, and Professor of Astronomy in the Sydney University. In his report to the R.A.S., M.N., February, 1913, No. 4, Vol. LXXIII., we read — " Owdng to the rapid growth of Sydney, the present site of the Observatory has become unfit, and the instruments are not suited for the exacting requirements of modern astronomy. It has therefore been determined to Astronomy and Geodesy. 337 move the entire institution to a new site, and to provide some new instruments and remount others. In particular, a new meridian instrument of modern design, suitable for fundamental work of the liighest precision, will be provided in accordance with the recommendation of the Paris Astrographic Congress of April, 1909. " Meanwhile the routine work has been almost stopped for the present, and preparations for the reorganization have been commenced." The Williamstown Observatory. E. L. J. Ellery was appointed, in 1853, by the Government of the Colony of Victoria to establish a small observatory at Williamstown, chiefly for the purpose of determining time and supplying a daily time signal for the service of ship masters. On taking up his position, Ellery found the following preliminary arrange- ments already made : — A time ball apparatus already installed on a tower at Point Gelli- brand, with the requisite apparatus and machinery for hoisting and dropping the ball. Some astronomical instruments, including a transit instrument on order in England. A site for the Observatory selected. A sum of £2,800 voted by Parliament for the erection of a suitable building. Under these conditions he set to work in a wooden hut, using a sextant and a chronometer, and the first time signal was issued in August, 1853. Such was the beginning of the Williamstown Observatory. The geographical position of the place had been determined some years previously by Captain Stokes, of H.M.S. Beagle, his values being — Latitude 37° 52' 52" S. Longitude 9h. 39m. 42s. E. In 1854, the instruments on order in England arrived. They were a 25-inch transit instrument and a high-class astronomical clock, by Frodsham. A more ambitious transit instrument, which had been ordered from the firm of Troughton and Simms, arrived in 1855. This was an excellent instrument, with an object glass of 3J inches clear aperture and 45 inches focal length. In 1858, the geodetic survey of the colony was decided upon, and placed in charge of the astronomer. The proposed scheme was to divide the country for purposes of land settlement by meridians and parallels, the primary lines being first located at distances of 1°. The Observatory having by this time acquired national importance, on account of its public duties in connexion with the geodetic survey and time service, the Legislature passed a resolution on 8th December, 1859, according to which a Board of Visitors to the Observatory was appointed by the Governor in Council on 30th January, 1860, the Governor (Sir Henry Barkly) becoming himself chairman of the first Board. A new circle arrived in August, 1861. It was constructed by Trough- \o\\ and Simms. Its object glass has a clear aperture of 5 inches and a focal length of 72 inches. The circle is of gun metal, 4 feet in diameter, divided 338 Federal Handbook. to every 5 minutes, and read by four microscopes attached to one of the two stone piers which support the instrument. Observations with this instrument commenced in October, 1861. A new clock, also by Frodsham, had arrived a year before, and still more instruments were acquired in this and in the following year. These were a chronographic apparatus, by Siemens and Halske, of Berlin ; an Airy zenith sector ; and an achromatic telescope, equatorially mounted. This latter instrument, by Troughton and Simms, has an object glass of 4^ inches clear apertm'e and a focal length of .5 feet ; with it a valuable series of observations of Mars at its opposition of 1862 was obtained for determining the parallax of the sun in connexion with other observatories. In 1853 the site occupied by the Williamstown Observatory seemed quite suitable for an observatory, but the rapid growth of the community, the construction of a railway terminus and large railway workshops near it, had in 1862 rendered its position unfavorable, in consequence of which it was decided to remove it to Melbourne. Since 1857, there had been in existence a meteorological and magnetical observatory, which was established and conducted by Professor George Neumayer. This observatory was situated at Flagstafi Hill, at the west end of the city of Melbourne. In 1863, Professor Neumayer, having decided to leave Australia, it was arranged that bis observatory should be amalgamated with the new Astronomical Observatory. The building for the new Observatory was commenced in 1861 and com- pleted in 1863. In June of that year the Williamstown Observatory was dismantled, and " the whole of the instruments and appliances removed to the new building now known as the Melbourne Observatory " (11). The results of the work done at the Williamstown Observatory are pub- lished in the volume entitled — Melbourne Observatory. Astronomical Results. 1861-62-63. This volume contains the Williamstown catalogue of 546 Stars for the epoch 1860, which at the time it appeared received warm appreciation from European and American astronomers. Also a series of right ascensions and north polar distances of the moon, extending from January, 1861, to 7th October, 1862, upon which rested the longitude of the Williamstown Observatory ; and finally, the series of observations of Mars and comparison stars during the opposition of the planet of 1862. The Melbourne Observatory. This Observatory is situated at a distance of 4 miles north-east from the site of the old Williamstown Observatory, and about 1 mile south- east fi-om the centre of the city of Melbourne, within an enclosure of 4J acres of land permanently reserved for observatory purposes in the Domain Park. In addition to the main building, which provided ample accommodation for the astronomical instruments of the Williamstown Observatory, special structures were erected for the magnetic and meteorological instru- ments which were taken over from Professor Neumayer's Flagstaff Hill Observatory. Astronomy and Geodesy. 339 The Melbourne Observatory was ready to commence work at the end. of June. 1863, its astronomical equipment consisting of the instmments removed from the former Observator}' at Williamstown. for nearly three years the work consisted almost entirely of meridian observations of the fixed stars which were employed in the operations of the geodetic surveys then in course in Australia and South America. A catalogue of these stars was prepared each year and printed in due course. In 1862 the Royal Astronomical Society initiated a movement for carry- ing out by British effort a southern durchmusterung on the same basis and the same scale as that which Argelander was conducting for the northern hemisphere. The idea was to obtain the co-operation of the three southern observatories — Madras, Cape of Grood Hope, and Melbourne. The Melbourne Observatory offered to join in the work, and was eventually allotted the zone from 60 degrees to 80 degrees of south declination. The undertaking involved the determination of the positions of all the stars comprised in this southern belt down to the tenth order of magnitude. This work was commenced on 11th April, 1866, and continued for about six years, when it had perforce to be discontinued. Its results comprise the mean places for the epoch 1875 of 48,672 stars down to the 9th, and in many instances the 10th order of magnitude, in the zone from 65 degrees to 69 degrees of south declination. These places are rouglily arranged in the MS. in order of right ascension, the right ascensions being given to the nearest tenth of a second of time, and the north polar distances to the nearest second of arc, showing that the work aimed at a somewhat higher accuracy than that of other works of this class, such as Argelander zones or the C.P.D. With very little labour the work can be arranged and prepared for printing if means be provided for the purpose. In the year 1850 a memorial was presented to Lord Russell, the object of which was a request to Her Majesty's Grovernment to establish " a powerful reflecting telescope (not less than 3-feet apertm'e) in some fitting part of Her Majesty's Dominions, and for the appointment of an observer charged with the duty of emplopng it in a review of the nebulae of the southern hemisphere." The opportunity of enhancing the importance of the Observatory by the acquisition of a great reflecting telescope was quickly recognised by the Board of Visitors, and His Excellency the Governor (Sir Henry Barkly) was requested to obtain " an expression of opinion from scientific men in England as to the importance of the results to be expected from it, the most suitable construction of telescope for the purpose, both as to the optical part and the mounting, its probable cost, and the time requisite for its completion." " An application was made through the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Royal Society of London for their opinion, and the President and Council of that body, after a very full consideration and a long correspondence with the most eminent practical astronomers of the day, recommended — (a) That the telescope be a reflector, with an aperture of not less than 4 feet ; (6) That the large mirror be of speculum metal ; (c) That the tube be constructed of open work and of metal " (12). 340 Federal Handbook. The instrument was completed in 1868 and was sent to Australia, reaching Melbourne in November of that year ; it was ready for work by the end of June, 1869, and the observations commenced in August of the same year. Grubb's 4-feet reflector has, since its installation, been styled " The Great Melbourne Telescope." An admirable description of it by the late Dr. T. Romney Robinson, D.D., F.R.S., appears in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1869, page 127 (13). The telescope itself is of the Cassegrainian type, and is mounted equa- torially in a somewhat similar form to the Sisson ; " its declination axis being placed between the upper and lower pivots of the polar axis, which run in large bearings, supported by two distinct massive stone pillars rising from a solid bed of masonry. The R.A. circle clamps and slow motion apparatus are between the declination axis and the lower pivot. The decli- nation circle is fixed to the bearings of the declination axis on the side of the polar axis, opposite to that of the telescope " (13). The dimensions of the optical parts are as follow : — ^Aperture of primary speculum, 48 inches ; focal length of primary speculum, 360 inches ; aperture of secondary speculum, 8 inches ; focal length of secondary speculum, 74.7 inches; equivalent focal length, 1,994 inches. There are two large 4-feet mirrors, each mounted in its cell ready for attachment to the telescope, floating on a complicated support of 48 cups and balls connected to the ends of arms which form a series of triangular levers, and upon hanging rings around its circumference. These mirrors have a central circular opening of 8 inches in diameter to admit the passage of the cone of rays from the convex secondary mirror to the ocular. The mirrors, both primary and secondary, are of speculum metal. The tube of the telescope consists of three portions. The lower, or " eye end " poi-tion consists of the cell carrying the large speculum ; the central portion is a cylinder of ijoiler plate, about 93 inches long, to which is at- tached the declination axis by means of a massive cast-iron cradle and strong iron bands embracing the cylinder. The speculum cell fits to the end of this cylinder on turned surfaces, and is held to it by three strong screw-bolts. The upper portion of the telescope tube is made of open steel lattice- work, about 20J feet long, fixed by turned flanges to the boiler plate cylinder by bolts and nuts. The secondary mirror, in its cell, is mounted in the centre of the lattice tube, about 300 inches from the surface of the primary speculum and 39 inches within the object end of the tube, and means are provided to enable the observer while at the eye end to alter this distance for focussing. The polar axis is 123 inches long, and its two pivots are 12 inches in diameter. The declination axis has a diameter of 22 inches at the bearing near to the telescope, and 9| inches at the counterpoise end. The circles are divided on silver bands, and have a diameter of 30 inches. The driving clock is governed by a double conical pendulum of the well- known " Grubb " form. The direct driving weight is 260 lbs., and the total weight of the moving parts is approximately 18,000 lbs. The instrument is provided with an achromatic telescope finder, 4 inches aperture, seven negative or Huygenian eye pieces ranging in power from Astronomy and Geodesy 341 234 to 1,000, a parallel wire micrometer, a spectroscope, and a camera for photographing telescopic images at the focus of the primary mirror, the secondary mirror being removed when the camera is used. In 1910, a Voigtlander portrait lens of 6 inches aperture and 40 inches focal length, for which a metallic mounting was made at the Observatory, was attached to this telescope. The great Melbourne telescope was for many years after 1869 employed in the revision of the nebulae and clusters which were observed by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope in the years 1834-38, and the results obtained are as satisfactory as the committee of the Royal Society of London, on whose recommendation, supervision, and approval the 4-feet Cassegrain was constructed, could have expected. Most of Sir John Heischel's southern nebulae have been examined, and many hundreds of drawings of these objects, with notes and micrometric measurements, exist at present in the observer's note books and registers ; but there has been no opportunity since 1891 of arranging this material for publication. In 1871, an expedition to the extreme north of Australia was organized for the observation of the total eclipse of the sun in December of that year, in which the Melbourne Observatory took part. This expedition is referred to in another division of this paper. In 1874, the occasion of the transit of Veiius, which occurred in that year, gave Ellery the opportunity to add to his observatory equipment a photoheliograph, by Dallmeyer, with object glass 4 inches aperture and 60 inches focal length ; an achromatic telescope, 8 inches aperture, 110 inches focal length, by Troughton and Simms, mounted equatorially and provided with all requisites for micrometric measurements and work of the highest precision ; also another equatorial telescope, 4J inches aperture and 60 inches focal length, by Cooke and Sons, of York. The preparations for observing the transit of Venus included the dis- mantling of the east transit telescope of 6j-inch aperture, with which the Melbourne zones had been observed till 1872. For this telescope an equa- torial mounting was constructed at the Observatory, and the instrument has since been used for expeditions as a portable equatorial. Two new barrel chronographs were also constructed at the Observatory. After the transit of Venus, it became a part of the daily routine to take a photograph of the sun in the forenoon, which was done on all available opportunities for more than 20 years. In the time which elapsed between the two transits of Voiuis of 1871 and 1882, the routine astronomic;al work of the Observatory did not suffer any marked changes or interruptions. Stellar photography was tried with the great telescope, l)ut unsuccessful 1 v. It was not found practicable to guide the telescope steadily eiu)ugh during exposure. Pliotographs of the moon with the great telescope, which only required an exposure varying from 1 scfoiid to 3 seconds (with wet plates) were, however, successful, and they were even considered at tho time amongst the best that had ever been obtained. The photographs of the m()f)n obtained at the focus of the primary mirror were 31- inches in diameter. 342 Federal Handbook. The pictures of the sun obtained with the photoheliograph were 4 inches in diameter. One thousand seven hundred and twelve of these pictures on glass were sent to the Greenwich Observatory and the Solar Physics Committee in England, for measurement and tabulation (14). The preparations for the transit of Venus of 1882 and the observations of that astronomical event in this State will be dealt with under another heading. The determination of the difierence of longitude between Port Darwin and Singapore, and between Port Darwin and the Australian observatories, which were undertaken in 1883, will also be dealt with separately. In the year 1883, a " Central Bureau for the Telegraphic Exchange of Astronomical Information " was established at Kiel. It was arranged among the principal Observatories that all urgent astronomical intelligence and discoveries should be communicated to the Central Bureau at Kiel, which would at once transmit the news to various secondary centres to be established for the purpose in every part of the world, and thence to all astronomers concerned. The Melbourne Observatory was requested to act as the secondary centre for Australia, and it has since been its duty to com- municate to the other Observatories of Australasia any astronomical news cabled from Kiel, and to receive announcements of astronomical discoveries or other important astronomical intelligence from any part of Australasia for telegraphic transmission to the Central Bureau at Kiel. Until August, 1884, all meridian observations were made with the 5-inch transit circle, and the results were published in seven volumes, the first of which contained the work done at Williamstown as already mentioned. The six subsequent volumes contain all the separate results from each obser- vation and the annual Catalogues of concluded Right Ascensions and North Polar distances for each year. The first general Catalogue for the Epoch 1860, containing the positions of 546 stars, is that printed in Volume I. A second general Catalogue for the Epoch 1870 was prepared and printed in 1874. This contains the positions of 1,227 stars. A third general Catalogue for the Epoch 1880, containing 1,211 star places was published in 1889. In May, 1884, a larger transit circle arrived from England, constructed by Troughton and Simms, and is of somewhat similar dimensions and design to those constructed by the same firm for the Observatories of Cambridge, England, and Harvard College, United States of America. Its object glass has an aperture of 8 inches and a focal length of 108 inches. Its two circles are 3 feet in diameter, being divided to every 5 feet, and each read by four microscopes. The two circles are at opposite ends of the axis, which is 52 inches in length, and has pivots 4J inches in diameter. The pivot bearings rest on two short iron pillars, which stand on massive stone piers. The reading microscopes are carried on gun metal circles attached to the short iron pillars. From August, 1884, to the present time all meridian observations have been made almost exclasively with this instrument. During the period 1884-1891, the astronomical work of the Observatory was similar in character to that of preceding years. Astronomy and Geodesy. 343 The meridian observations made with, the new transit circle comprised the usual clock stars, a special list of circumpolar stars, which were assiduously- observed year after year, stars employed for comparison with comets, stars selected by Dr. Auwers for the formation of a " fundamental Catalogue of Southern Stars," and others in connexion with the reduction of the Melbourne zones and transit of Venus observations ; also a list of stars required by the Bureau des Longitudes for insertion in the Connaissance des Temps, and another list of stars used by Dr. Gill in some of his heliometer work. The observations of the southern nebulae with the great telescope, and observations made with the smaller equatorials, comprising extended series of observations of all the comets which were visible from Melbourne, and a preliminary spectroscopic survey of the southern stars brighter than the 5th magnitude, form the bulk of the extrameridional work of this period. It has been stated in a previous page that the share allotted to the Mel- bourne Observatory in the Astrophotographic Programme, which was agreed upon at the Paris Congress of 1887, covered the south polar area of the heavens limited by the 65th parallel of south declination. Some description of the instrument required for this work has been already given. The one for this Observatory arrived in Melbourne at the end of December, 1890. It was constructed by Sir Howard Grubb, of Dublin, and is similar in all respects to those constructed by the same makers for the same purpose for the Observatories of Greenwich and Cape of Good Hope. It consists of a double telescope, movuited equatorially on a massive cast-iron stand in what is known as the G-erman model. The two telescopes are roughly of the same length, but of different aperture. The larger, which is employed for photographing, has an object glass of 13 inches aperture and 135 J inches focal length, and is corrected for spherical and chromatic aberration for rays close to Fraunliofer's spectral line G. The smaller telescope is used for guiding the instrument by visual obser- vation during exposure. Its object glass is 10.1 inches aperture and 130 inches focal length. The driving clock is ^vithin the stand, and is controlled electrically by a seconds pendulum, the driving being corrected automatically by a system of difEerential wheels devised by the maker. In September, 1892, a financial depression necessitated a policy of retrenchment, and for some years the work of the Observatory was hampered by the inability of tlie Government to adequately support it. The year before the astronomical work of the Observatory had to be i-educed to a minimuui Ellery wrote in his report of 2nd September, 1891 — " The work of the year is clearly before us. The Melbourne portion of the photographic charting of the heavens, with its collateral work, will use up nearly a,Il our a vailabh^ working power. The meridian work will largely monopolize the Meridian Observing and Computing Staff, while obtaining photographs, developing, and otherwise dealing with the plates will take up the whole attention of two or three members of the staff both night and day. I propose, therefore, to confine the astronomical work, for the present at least, to the routine meridian observations, coupled with tlie observations for guide stars, and to the special photographic woi-k with the astrograph, undertaking only such occasional extra luoridiiin work as may from time to time demand attention." 344 Federal Handbook. In 1895 the astronomical strength of the Observatory was further very greatly reduced by the retirement of Ellery in June of that year. During his tenure of office he had raised the institution from very humble beginnings to the rank of a " First Order " Observatory. We were left, a band of four, to carry out the meridian and the astro- photographic work. This band remained the same till 31st December, 1907, after which date a fundamental change took place and a new epoch commenced for the Melbourne Observatory. The Annual Catalogues of Stars, observed with the 8-inch transit circle from August, 1884, to 31st December, 1912, were regularly constructed and completely prepared for publication, but have not yet been printed. Those of the years 1884-1893 were used for the compilation of the Third Melbourne General Catalogue for the epoch 1890 ; the work, which contains 3,100 stars, will very shortly be ready for issue. The Annual Catalogues from 1894 to 1912 contain, in addition to the standard clock and azimuth stars and some 134 zodiacal stars which were observed at the request of the Cape Observatory, all the stars which are employed as standard reference stars for the reduction of the Melbourne plates of the photographic catalogue. With these annual catalogues, up to the year 1910, a special catalogue of 6,680 standard reference stars for the epoch 1900, all observed at least three times, has been prepared. The total number of stars of this class required for the full reduction of the Melbourne plates is about 9,160, and 2,480 stars are therefore still required to complete the Melbourne share of the astrophotographic catalogue. Of this number, 636 stars have been observed three times, 379 twice, and 496 once, while 969 stars still remain to be observed three times. It is estimated that these observations will be completed by the end of 1914, after which an additional catalogue for the epoch 1910 will be prepared. The series of Melbourne catalogue plates has been completed. A series of chart plates, with single exposures of one hour, covering singly the whole area around the South Pole down to the 65th parallel of south declination, has also been completed. In this series the centres of the plates were set at the even degrees of declination. Another series of chart plates, with three exposures of thirty minutes each, the three images forming a small equilateral triangle Avith sides of 8 inches has been advanced to the extent of 431 single regions out of 584 regions comprised in the full Melbourne area. The centres of these triple exposure plates were set at the odd degrees of declination from the 65th parallel to the Pole. For the measurement of the catalogue plates, an arrangement was made in 1898, by which both the Sydney and Melbourne plates were to be measured at the Melbourne Observatory, at the joint expense of the Governments of New South Wales and Victoria ; a Measuring Bureau was created and the necessary stafi trained at the Melbourne Observatory for the purpose. The regular measurements commenced in 1900, but a satisfactory rate of progress was not reached till 1901. The computation of plate constants for the Melbourne regions and the tabulation of rectilinear co-ordinates for publication are now in course of preparation, and a first volume , containing the zones — 65 and — 66, is ready for press. Astronomy and Geodesy. 345 The total number of stars in this catalogue is over 300,000, and will occupy eight quarto volumes of about 300 pages each. On the 1st December, 1908, the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia took over, and assumed control of, the meteorological services of the various States uniting them under a single Commonwealth Department of Meteorology, and thus the Australian Observatories were freed from a burden which had for a quarter of a century retarded the advancement of Australian Astronomy. Since the middle of the year 1908 to the present date, the principal parts of the working routine programme of the Melbourne Observatory have still remained the same as those of previous years, namely, meridian observations and astrophotographic operations. The meridian observations have been made generally upon the reference Stars of the Photographic Catalogue, Southern Stars in Auwers' Fundamental Catalogue, Stars selected for investigation of refraction, personal, and magni- tude equation, Clock and Azimuth Stars. The object of the astrophotographic operations has been to advance a second series of catalogue plates and the series of chart plates with triple exposure. The progress made in the reduction of these observations and in the preparation of results for publication has already been stated. The record of other classes of astronomical observations and investigations undertaken during the period is as follows : — A series of 100 photographs and measurements of position of Comet C (1908) Moorhouse ; thirteen photo- graphs and some 300 comparisons with stars of Halley's Comet ; observations of Comet Borelly {1911e), Gale (1912a), Tuttle (1912&), Faye-Cerully (1910e), Kiess (19116); observations of Variable Stars of long period, south of declination -30; investigation of the Eeseaux Melbourne No. 6 and Melbourne N 23 ; investigation of the division errors of the 8-inch transit circle. The Adelaide Observatory. In 1855, the late Sir Charles (then Mr.) Todd was appointed in Eiigland Superintendent of Telegraphs and Astronomical Observer for the Colony of South Australia. It does not appear that any astronomical work had been done in South Australia, except for geographical purposes, before Todd's arrival nor for twelve years after it. In 1867 the transit instrument of 32--inches aperture and 15 inches focal length, which had been originally employed at the Williamstown Observatory, was traiLsferred to Adelaide on loan from the Victorian Government, and for the purpose of making meridian observations in connexion with longitude operations required for establishing the position of the eastern boundary of the Colony. It was not until 1874, however, that a suitable Observatory and some astronomical equipment were provided by the South Australian Government for its astrouoTuer. The prescMit Adi^laide Observa- tory was erected in that year. The astronomical instruments cojnprised, at first, an astronomical clock by Frodsham, the 3^-inches transit instrument borrowed from the Victorian Government, and an equatorially-mounted telescope by Cooke and 346 Federal Handbook. Son, 8-inclies aperture, and nearly 10 feet focal length, provided with all the requisite accessories of a first-class instrument. The last-named instrument was employed for the observations of the phenomena of Jupiter's satellites, for the study of surface detail of this planet, and for comets. Meridian observations were made only for determining local time, a time ball placed on a tower at the Semaphore, 9 miles distant, being dropped automatically from the Observatory at 1 p.m. daily. The first time signal was given on 2nd August, 1875. In 1880 a transit circle by Troughton and Simms, with object glass 6-inch clear aperture, and 85 inches focal length, was obtained, being similar in design to the transit circle of the Sydney Observatory, except that the two divided circles at the opposite ends of the axis are larger, their diameter being 30 inches. " The first work undertaken was the observation of stars in Weisse's Catalogue, between 0° and 4° south declination, the intention being to include all stars down to the 10th Magnitude, between 0° and 15° south, a work which would have occupied several years. Exclusive of clock and azimuth stars, we had 4,072 observations in R.A., and 4,099 in N.P.D. of stars in the belt (0-4) referred to, by July, 1892" (15). This work was then suspended, Todd's attention having been called to the discordance in the observations of N.P.D. in the South and North Hemis- phere. Observations were made, for latitude, of 297 stars near the zenith of Adelaide, 118 stars from 1st to 4th magnitude whose zenith distance ranged up to 30 degrees north and south, observed either during day or night ; and 127 circumpolar stars so selected that five or six were observed above and as many below the pole, the same stars being observed in the reverse order after an interval of six months. Later the zenith distances of 300 stars at all altitudes were observed in the years 1893 and 1894. These were selected from the Greenwich ten-year catalogue 1880. 180 circumpolar stars were observed for latitude in 1894 and 1895, in addition to a small list of 23 stars, of which several bisections were made at the same transit and the Nadir taken before and after every observation, and another list of 53 stars arranged in three groups — one of stars near the zenith, one of stars about 40° south, and one of stars about 40° north of the zenith. This latter list was observed at the same time at the Observatories of Melbourne and Sydney by arrangement. For some years after 1897 the astronomical work of the Observatory consisted mainly of meridian observations for time, and occasional observa- tions of comets and of Jupiter's satellites. The publications of this Observatory have been mainly meteorological, consisting of annual volumes, dating from 1876 to 1907 inclusive. Various astronomical memoranda, such as observations of Jupiter's surface markings, satellite phenomena, eclipses of the sun and moon, etc., are included as appendices to these volumes, and some miscellaneous papers have been printed in the Monthly Notices of the R.AS. and in Proceedings of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. ASTBONOMY AND GeODESY. 347 The unpublished work comprises all the meridian observations made with the transit circle since the beginning in 1889, and the physical observa- tions and drawings of Jupiter, of which a large series was obtained in the years 1884 to 1894, together with a set of over 200 drawings, made during the same period, and arranged for publication on an orthographic projection. Sir Charles Todd retired in December, 1906, and was succeeded by R. F. Griffith, who was appointed Acting Government Meteorologist on 1st January, 1907. He resigned his position at the end of that year to join the newly-created Department of Meteorology under the Commonwealth Government, and Mr. G. F. Dodwell, B.A., was then placed in charge of the Observatory. On 1st June, 1909, Mr. Dodwell was appointed Government Astronomer of South Australia. The present programme of astronomical work at the Adelaide Observatory is as follows : (a) Time determinations ; (6) Observations of reference stars of Sydney Astrographic Zones ; (c) Field latitude and longitude deter- mination ; {d) (Seismology) variables, double stars, and miscellaneous obser- vations with the 8-inch Cooke equatorial. The observations of variables and double stars have now been com menced by certain members of the local Astronomical Society, the equatorial telescope of the Observatory being used for this purpose. Negotiations are in progress concerning a proposal to undertake latitude variation work in conjunction with the La Plata Observatory. The instruments of this Observatory at the present day are those which formed the equipment of the Observatory since 1889, namely, the 6-inch transit circle and the 8-inch equatorial, the additions being only a portable universal instrument, chronometers and other minor apparatus. The Adelaide Observatory is supported by the South Australian Govern- ment and administered as a branch of the State Department of Education. The Perth Observatory, Western Australia. This Observatory started its career in 1896 as an astronomical and meteorological institution administered as a branch of the Colonial Secretary's Department, Mr. W. E. Cooke, M.A., being appointed Director. It is situated upon Mt. Eliza — a sand hill some 200 feet above sea level, rising from the western boundary of and overlooking the city of Perth — and commands an almost uninterrupted view of the horizon on all sides (16). Its geographical position is — Latitude, 31° .57' 10-27" South ; Longitude, 7h. 43m. 21-74 east. The climate of the locality is considered very favorable for astronomical work, except in February and Maich, and in the winter montlis, when observ- ing is more frequently interfered with by smoke, cloud or rain. In the first few years of its existence the Observatory was gi-adually pro- vided with the following instruments, namely: — An 8-inch reflecting telescope intended for use with a coelostat ; a transit circle, by Troughtou and Simms, with object glass 6-inch aperture and 71 inches focal length, with two divided circles 30 inches in diameter ; a twin astrographic instrument, by Sir Howard Grubb, of the standard pattern and size employed by the observatories co-operating in the international astrophotogrH])hic programme ; two machines for the measurement of astrophotogra]>hic plates, similar to C.121.")4. z 348 Federal Handbook. those employed at Greenwich and Oxford; a 12-ineh reflecting telescope; a barrel chronograph, with Grubb's " mouse " control ; an astronomical clock, by Victor KuUberg, regulated to sidereal time ; a mean-time clock ; and two chronometers, a 5-inch theodolite, and minor observatory apparatus, accessories, and appliances. For some years the astronomical work of the Perth Observatory was confined mostly to meridian observations for local time, for the investigation of instrumental errors of the transit circle and for the accurate determination of its geographical position. In the year 1900 the Government of Western Australia was invited to carry out the astrophotographic programme originally assigned by the Paris Congress of 1887 to the Observatory of Eio Janerio, which, however, had not been able to start the work. The invitation was accepted, and the photographing of the zones comprised between the parallels of .31 degrees and 41 degrees of south declination was undertaken by the Perth Observatory. This circumstance established the nature of the work upon which the transit circle and the astrograph were to be utilized from that time to the present. The transit circle was to be devoted to the observation of reference stars within the Perth photographic zones, and the astrograph to obtain the requisite photographs of these zones. This work commenced in 1901. At first, owing to the meteorological duties of the Observatory, progress was slow, but from the end of 1907, when meteorology became a Federal concern, the work advanced vigorously, as shown by the extensive publication of its results. The character of the task undertaken by observatories participating in the international astrophotographic programme has been previously de- scribed here in connexion with the Sydney Observatory, and it will be sufficient to remark that the Perth zones, ranging from -31° to -41°, contain 1,376 regions to be photographed, and that about 10,000 reference stars, distributed within these zones at the rate of three stars per square degree, whose positions had to be accurately determined by transit circle observa- tions, were necessary, according to Mr. Cooke, for the preparation of his photographic catalogue. To these two classes of work the Perth Observatory has practically devoted the whole of its energies and resources, and is still continuing on the same lines towards the completion of its allotted share. The entire area covered by the Perth zones has been photographed, the whole series containing 1,376 plates, but Cooke found it desirable to obtain another series, in the taking of which improved methods were introduced, which gave greater uniformity in the results ; 662 plates of the second series have been obtained and passed as satisfactory. Three hundred and three plates of the first series, and 294 plates of the second series, have been measured. In 1907, Professor Dyson, then Astronomer Royal for Scotland, offered to assist in the measurement of the Perth plates. His offer was gratefully accepted. The first plates sent to Ediiiburgh were those of zone - 40 degrees. At present some 400 plates have been measured there and are practically completed (16). Astronomy and Geodesy. 349 It is stated by the present Acting Director that the series of plates com- prising the Perth section of the photograpliic catalogue will be completed, in two or three years. Xone of the plates of the chart series have as yet been taken. In the transit circle observations of the reference stars, Cooke adopted the zone method first introduced by Professor Kustner, of the Bonn Observa- tory in the observation of his zone stars. The observed positions depend on three steps, namely . — 1. A fundamental catalogue of a small number of stars. For the present purpose Auwer's Fundamental Catalog fur Zonenheohach- tungen am Sudhimmel has been used. This contains, on an average, about tkree or four stars per hour between the limits of -31° and -41° declination. 2. A catalogue of secondary standards, containing three or four stars per hour for every zone of two degrees between the above limits. The positions of these stars depend entirely upon those of the fundamental catalogue, and about ten observations of each star were taken. This catalogue has been published as the first volume of Perth observations, under the title of A Catalogue of 420 Standard Stars, etc. 3. The stars of this catalogue form the basis for the determination of positions of the reference stars, of which four catalogues were published, in 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911. The places of 7,561 stars for the epoch 1900 are contained in these cata- logues. The plan of advancing all the various phases of the photographic catalogue as rapidly as possible, by measuring the plates soon after they have been taken, and regulating the transit circle observations according to the require- ments of the computers for determining plate constants, and thence the final preparation of manuscript for the printer, enabled Cooke to commence the publication of his section of the work in 1911. Vol. I. of the Astrographic Catalogue, 1900, Perth section -31° to -41°, and three other volumes bearing the same title, were issued in 1911 and 1912. In these are registered the rectilinear co-ordinates of 60,481 stars, in the aggregate, resulting from the measurement of 160 plates, which cover a belt round the heavens two degrees wide between 31 degrees and 33 degrees of south declination. The present director estimates that the whole share of the Perth Observa- tory in the international astrophotographic work will be fully published by the end of the year 1918, so far as the catalogue series is concerned. The Qovernment Observatory of Brisbane, Queensland. The Astronomical Observatory at Brisbane may be said to have been established in the year 1879, when, subsequent to the death of Captain O'Reilly, a gentleman who had a private observatory at his home in South Brisbane, the Government of Queensland purchased his entire outfit, and removed the building to its present location on Wickham Terrace. The adopted geographical po.sition is — Latitude, 27° 28' "00" south; Longitude, lOh. 12m. 6' 40s. east. 350 Federal Handbook. The various surveyors-general have successively controlled the Observa- tory programme of work. This has primarily been governed by the require- ments of the Survey Department, and was an integral part of the operations of the trigonometrical survey during its existence. The taking of observations for time and the supervision of its distribution per medium of private lines, time ball, etc., is the only work now performed, and none other is projected under present conditions. The astronomical equipment is as follows : — (1) A portable transit instrument, by Troughton and Simms, of 30 inches focal length, and 2| inches object glass. This instrument has been in use for about 30 years. (2) A sidereal clock, by Cochrane, of Brisbane, with Eiefler's pendulum, and seconds contact for transmitting clock beats electrically. (3) Combination chronograph and Morse telegraph instrument, with relay, etc., for recording transits, transmitting and receiving time signals. (4) A mean time clock, by Kullberg, of London, with seconds and hours contacts, also with electro-magnetic attachment for cor- recting small errors without touching the clock. (5) Sidereal and mean time chronometers. (6) Time-ball apparatus. For a few years after the establishment of this Observatory the observa- tions for time were made by the late Sir Augustus C. Gregory, a versatile and ingenious scientist and famous explorer, who having then retired from his position of Surveyor- General of Queensland, took up the work as a hobby and for this purpose constructed with his own hands a chronograph, relay, and all the apparatus necessary for electrically recording the observations, including the seconds contact in the sidereal clock. Tasmania. In conjunction with the chief meteorological station of this State, a Government observatory was established at Hobart on a very modest scale (reduced indeed to a minimum as an astronomical institution) for the purpose of determining local time and supplying the public and the shipping at Hobart with a daily time signal. The astronomical equipment consisted of a small transit instrument and a time keeper, neither of these being of high class workmanship. Owing to complaints made by the Admiralty, in regard to the occasional uncertainty of the time given by the Hobart Observatory, the Government of Tasmania arranged with the Victorian Government for the daily trans- mission of a time signal at 1 p.m. fi-om the Melbourne Observatory, which has been used since 1911 for dropping the time ball at Hobart, and is repeated to other places in that State. Thus the State of Tasmania is at present without official astronomy. (c) Amateur Astronomy. The astronomical work considered under this heading is that which has been produced by Australians for the love of it and not for pay. nor as a discharge of official functions. Astronomy and Geodesy. 351 In the popuJar mind, amateur efforts are frequently associated with the idea of inferiority, but the persons who will be referred to in this division of Australian Astronomy need not fear that the adjective " amateur " is given to them with any intention on my part of underrating their abilities as astronomers or of placing them and their work in a class below that of officialdom. The name of John Tebbutt will be found amongst them. They are, therefore, in good company, and may well be proud of it. The astronomical work done by Mr. John Tebbutt at his own observatorv, Windsor, New South Wales, claims for him first place on the list of private citizens in Australia who have cultivated astronomy for its own sake. His first contribution to the store of observed astronomical phenomena dates from 1854. His fame amongst astronomers the world over dates from his discovery of the G-reat Comet of 1861. His title to the full recogni- tion of valuable service rendered for the credit of Australia and the advance- ment of astronomical science is based on a lifetime of assiduous and diligent observations of great accuracy and importance, extending over a period of more than half a century. Mr. Tebbutt is now an old man and has prac- tically closed his career as an astronomer, and it seems just to remind Aus- tralians that they should lose no opportunity to honour this veteran observer and to show an adequate appreciation of his merits. Mr. Tebbutt, in his History and Description of the Windsor Observatory, written in 1887 (17), and in his later work, Astronomical Memoirs, written in 1908 (18), gives a full account of the Windsor Observatory and of the work done by him, from which the information contained in the following notes has been drawn, not infrequently in his own words. Mr. John Tebbutt' s ObservatorYj Windsor, New South Wales. (18) " At the eastern extremity of the municipal town of Windsor, lies the Peninsular Estate, a tract containing about 250 acres of the richest alluvial land. It is so called because it is nearly surrounded by the courses of the Hawkesbury Kiver and its tributary, the South Creek, at their con- fluence. On a hill situated a little south-west of the middle of the estate, and whose summit is about 50 feet above the mean tide level," stands the residence of Mr. Tebbutt and his observatory, whose geographical position is — Latitude 33° 36' 30" 8 south ; Longitude lOh. 3m. 20s. 51 east. Tebbutt's work begins in 1854. He was then 20 years of age. His equipment from 1854 to 1861 consisted of a sextant, artificial horizon, and a " common but excellent eight-day pendulum clock," and a telescope, If inches aperture. He chiefly employed these instruments for self training and " providing gratuitous information of a popular character for the daily newspapers." To these instruments were added a refracting telescope, by Jones, of 3J inches aperture and 48 inches focal length, in Noven\ber, 1861 ; and an excellent eight-day half-second box chronometer by Parkinson and Frodsham, in April, 1864. At the close of 1863, a small observatory was erected on the western side of his residence. It consisted of a small wooden building, comprising a transit room and a prime vertical room. An octagonal tower, rising from the centre of the building, served to accommodate the refracting telescope, which he himself mounted in 1864 " according to the 352 Federal Handbook. Sisson or old Englisli method." In the same year he installed also a transit instrument with object glass of 2-1 inches aperture, and 20 inches focal length, made for him by Tornaghi of Sydney. The local mean time was determined with this instrument for many years. All extrameridional observations were made with the .3J-inch telescope till 1872. This was provided with two ring micrometers made by Tornaghi, and eyepieces ranging in magnifying power from .30 to 120. In 1874, he acquired an equatorial by Cooke and Son, of York, -with object glass of 4:J inches aperture and 70 inches focal length, mounted according to Fraunhofer method. In the same year a circular wooden building, 12 feet in diameter, was erected close to the observatory for the installation of this equatorial. " In 1879 a substantial observatory of brick was erected on the south- west side of the old buildings," and the equatorial, together with a new transit instrument by Cooke and Son, were permanently mounted on solid masonrv piers within the new building. The object glass of the transit instrument has a clear aperture of 3 inches and a focal length of 35 inches. Another fine chronometer by John Poole was acquired in 1882. Finally, in 1887, to the equipment of Mr. Tebbutt's observatory was added a fine equatorial 8 inches aperture and 115 inches focal length, mounted on the Fraunhofer or German plan, and provided with all the usual requisites of a first-class instrument. It was made in 1882 by Grubb, of Dublin. In the annual reports of his operations, of which he gives a methodical and faithful account from 1864 to 1907, it is shown that his astronomical activities were chiefly directed towards the comets and lunar occultations of stars, but he contributed also, throughout his career, to the study of the phenomena of Jupiter's satellites, the variability of special stars, such as 7] Argus, E, Carinae, and others, and later, with his larger telescope, devoted much energy to micrometric comparisons of the major and minor planets with neighbouring stars and the observation of the more interesting southern binary stars. His record of work on comets is remarkable. He began with the discovery of the Great Comet of 1861, which caused a sensation, not only on account of its brilliancy, but also because the earth passed through its tail. He observed the return of the celebrated Encke's comet in the following year, and on six other apparitions in the years 1865, 1875, 1878, 1888, 1894, and 1898, and on three or four occasions he was the first to detect it. In 1881 he discovered another comet, which became a fine object as it passed into the Northern Hemisphere, and is specially distinguished by being the first comet of which a satisfactory photograph was obtained and whose spectrum was satisfactorily studied. Schaeberle's Comet 1881 V. was independently discovered by Tebbutt. More than 40 other comets, mostly strangers to our system, were observed by Mr. Tebbutt, and followed night after night from the earliest opportunity to the last degree of visibility, determining for each a series of accurate posi- tions, which were employed by him or by other astronomers for the compu- tation of the orbits of these bodies. These observations often extended over several weeks — sometimes months. The comet discovered in America Astronomy and Geodesy. 353 by Brooks, in 1892, was kept under observation at Windsor on 62 nights ; the Coddington Pauly Comet of 1898, for 103 nights ; and Halley's Comet, on 21 nights — from December, 1909 to July, 1910. In 1912 he made micro- metric measures of Gale's Comet on nine nights. From 1862 to 1906 he published 35 papers on Comets in the Monthly Notices of the R.A.S. ; 73 papery in the A.N. ; 18 in the Observatory ; 5 in the B.A.A.; 2 in Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Neiv South Wales. Such is Mr. Tebbutt's share of Australia's contribution to cometary astronomy. Next in order on the initial programme of the Windsor Observatory come the Lunar Occultations of Stars. Systematic observations of this class were commenced in 1864 and were continued till 1904, and form part of the regular work of every year of this period, ^vith very few exceptions. Between the years 1896 and 1900, 435 occultations were observed. This will give some idea of Mr. Tebbutt's activity in this branch. His results of these observations have been widely utilized by astronomers in investigations of longitudes by absolute methods. Tebbutt's results of occultations observed in the years 1864-1870 were in 1896 employed by Dr. Hugo Clemens, in a determination of the longitude of the Windsor Observatory, and formed the material for an inaugural dis- sertation entitled Bestimmung der Ldnge von Windsor, New South Wales, etc. Similar results obtained from observations of the years 1873-1876 were iLsed by Dr. Auwers in conjunction with those observed at Melbourne in 1874 and 1875, for the purpose of obtaining a fundamental meridian for Australia by absolute methods. The longitude of Windsor, derived from Tebbutt's observations has the following values, viz. : — Clemens, by observations of occultations, 1864-1870 — lOh. .3m. 21 ■25s. Auwers, by observations of occultations, 1873-1876 — lOh. 3m. 20* 60s. By telegraphic methods — lOh. 3m. 19- 87s. The third item which forms a considerable part of the regular work of the Windsor Observatory, is the systematic observation of the phenomena of Jupiter's satellites. Records of this work are found in (at least) 25 different years. " The Windsor observations of jovian eclipses from 1894 to 1899 were employed by Professor J. A. C. Oudemans, of Utrecht, in 1906, in his investi- gation on the mutual occultations and eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter in 1908." The record of Mr. Tebbutt's work on variable stars consists chiefly of systematic observations of the well-known southern variables rj Argus and R. Carinae. 7] Argus was kept under observation every year from 1864 to 1876, and from 1880 to 1890, in which last year, according to Mr. Tebbutt, no further change was detected in its lustre. R. Carinae was also regularly observed in each year from 1880 to 1890, and also in 1895 and succeeding years till 1898. During the period 1880-1890, ten maxima were recorded. This series has proved very valuable in the investigation of the secular inequalities of the star. 354 Federal Handbook. The Windsor observations of double stars commenced in 1880. After 1887, when the larger instrument (the G-rubb 8-inch refractor) was used, special attention was directed to the interesting southern binaries — a Cen- tauri, y Centauri, and y Corona Australis, and to difficult southern pairs. A large amount of other astronomical observations of a miscellaneous character must be credited to Mr. Tebbutt. Among these the more note- worthy are the transit of Venus of 1874, which was successfully observed at Windsor, and several transits of Mercury. Many Lunar and Solar eclipses were observed by him, and his comparisons of the major planets and a score of the minor planets with neighbouring stars are very valuable. In 1855, Mr. Francis Abbott, another enthusiastic amateur, was entering the field of observational astronomy in Tasmania. He erected a small observatory at Hobart, and provided it with a portable transit instrument of 24 inches focal length by Varley, and an achromatic telescope of 3J inches aperture by Cooke and Son, and commenced observations for local time and observations on comets and variable stars. Later he improved his equipment by procuring a larger transit instrument by Dallmeyer, and an excellent telescope of 4^ inches aperture and 5 feet focal length by Dallmeyer, equatorially mounted. These he imported in 1862. A Dollond, 7-feet equatorial came into use soon after. He was provided with a micrometer, a spectroscope, a standard clock, and a chronometer, and batteries of eye pieces ranging in power from 25 to 450. He appears to have continued time determinations, for the benefit of himself and of the community, for a number of years, and his observations on comets and on the variable star t] Argus are very numerous. From 1861 to 1874 he contributed about thirteen papers to Monthly Notices, which included observations of Comets 1861 II., 1862 II., and 1865 I., this last comet having been discovered by him one day before Moesta discovered it at Santiago (19) (20). Observations of the transit of Mercury of 12th November, 1861 and 4th November, 1868, and many observations of the variable star 7^ Argus. Criticisms on these latter observations by Herschel, Airy, Lassell, Proctor, and others are published in Monthly Notices, Vol. 31 and 32. He also contributed some twenty papers to the Proceedings of the R.S. of Tasmania in the years 1863-1874. Mr. Abbott died in February, 1883. Tebbutt and Abbott are the earliest systematic observers in the history of amateur astronomy in Australia. In this place the name of Ludwig Becker may be recorded as the observer who produced valuable drawings of the Donati Comet, 1858, which he made by means of an equatorial, forming part of the equipment of Neumayer's Magnetic Observatory, at Flagstaff Hill, Melbourne. These fine drawings are published in the Transactions of the Philosophical Institute (afterwards the Royal Society) of Victoria, Vol. 4, 1859. The transit of Venus of 1874 gave the opportunity to several amateur observers in various parts of Australia to bring their work into public notice. Among these appear the names of T. D. Smeaton, F. C. Singleton, and Astronomy and Geodesy. 355 A. W. Dobbie. The first two observed the transit at Adeh\ide, with small equatorials of 3| and 3 inches aperture, and the third, with an 8|-inch reflector. Memoirs R.A.S., Vol. 47, 1882-3. Mr. Dobbie, although his astronomical work was of an occasional character, for many years maintained a keen interest in astronomy. He was one of the observing members of the Mars section of the British Astronomical Association, and constructed his own reflecting telescopes. He completed one 18 inches aperture in 1905. Two well-known observers who commenced astronomical work in the early seventies are the late Mr. W. J. MacDounell and Mr. G. D. Hirst. Mr. MacDonnell was residing at Port Macquarie in 1871. He had an observatory there equipped with a 6-inch achromatic equatorial by Grubb, of Dublin, with which he made observations for a few years. Later he moved to Sydney, where, up to the time of his death, on 22nd September, 1910, he assiduously continued his astronomical observations with a 4|-inch achro- matic telescope by Parkes, of Binningham, an excellent instrument, equa- torially mounted and driven by clock work. He observed the transit of Venus of 1874, as a member of one of the official parties stationed at Eden, under the Eev. Mr. Scott, once Director of the Sydney Observatory. He was one of the observers of the Jupiter section of the British Astronomical Association up to the time of his death, and contributed several papers and notes to the Journal and Memoirs of that association, on Jupiter, on Halley's Comet, occultations and other subjects of a more general astro- nomical interest. Mr. G. D. Hirst, of Sydney, is noted for his remarkable skill in astronomical drawings. He has been a member of the observing sections of Jupiter and Mars of the British Astronomical Association, and several of his beautiful draAvings of these planets have been reproduced in the Memoirs of the Association. The Director of the Mars observing section — M. Antoniadi, referring in one of his reports to the work of Mr. Hirst, says " The drawings of Mr. Hirst are coloured and represent the general appearance of the Planet (Mars) more faithfully than any others received during the apparition." (1905) Memoirs B.A.A., Vol. XVII., Part II. Mr. Hirst used an achromatic telescope by Cooke, equatorially mounted, object glass 4|-inch aperture. His work extends over a period of 40 years, and includes, in addition to studies of surface detail of Jupiter and Mars at several oppositions, observa- tions of comets and double stars, the results of which, or of most of them, have been published in the Journal and Memoirs of the B.A.A. and in the Journal and Proceedings of the R-S- of New South Wales, to which societies he has contributed also various papers and notes on other subjects. Among the private citizH CO s P oa O a w o EH fl P^ O t3 O K « O > H W H |i< O 1-3 H P O l-H s » w w t ^o Tj< ^ lO IC 00 eq t-c-rtcococoMJ^ (MT^OOOOC-TtCJOSlClSJCSOiO-OOOCDCOOOO-H ^oc;c:cr. oc5C:S5c:=50 0;C5c;ocsoc50iCiOc; • oCoci>l:^tr-Xt^t^t:^t^t>r^t>t^t^l>I>l>r^t^t^c-t~ ci o c; o C5 c: c: c; ci c; c: c; c: c: c; o o o c; C5 C5 o c. c: ■* ui ~5 ro « ;= 00 (M o o O c^ -t 1- r~ 1- >-- ~: o -* :s M -H i.o o U5 CO O C5 C t^ — C: -M C: c: X O r: X c: 00 ^o IN lo c; o Tfi o oi c. o c; C5 ci t^ — — — t~ •-: --o -J o -^ — O c: C5 . o O c; o o ci s; S5 -. C-. C-. =^ -. c: C-. s: C5 c: • XXt^t^ XXt^t^GCt^t-t^t^t-t^t^l-t-t^t-I^t- a c. c-. a c: c: c; c; c: cr. c. s: o C5 cr. c: Ci c: r; THooio a t^-HXc:o3:-oo «o;ooo-^cq^cic5oa500050 o >< ^g„^_^^^ ^^^^^^g^^^^^^^^ C5 X C3 : : : : : :::::. :^ 9 s o ^ gta ^:2-3^§5-ol§1^- -ro o COCOXMC:-^tM— i~:i>-HU-OSOCOt-OOOOOTl(r- C^lOClClXTfOOClCiOOlCSt-O-.OOO^COCOO-teO -HOOC505OOOC5C5050i0iC;CSC:S>05ClC20105C5O ooooi>t^t^xooi>i>t^i>t^t^t-i:^r-t-ir-c-t>i>r-t^i> C!0305C5a5C5OOC2C505C503C2C3C5C;OS:e53;C3C505 S a sqMOcoi>oo«®c£iocot^t^eocococococofOcocoooo a ~— OO lO r^ IM ^ IM C<) -*TjCOlO c* s V OO t- O 35 (N C5 00 C5 00 X 00 00 coco CilO»OOiO»0'-^^^^rt^-H-H— lO oooooooooooooooooooooooo 0(M"*^COI>'*'*Tj('*Tlt-I>l>'*'#-*TtiTjHrtOiOOOiaiCioi-Oi--5 0— 1 t-xc:5C5cooc505C5C5c:5 35o;oi>t>i>i>t^t^t-i>0^ •s fO — ^OC5COC505C5C5C:C-. C5-HP-H-H — — -H-H-H — 00I> 3 cocoioiowicTjHTf-^TtH^-^-^ooioioioioi-oicioiMio Im oooooooooooooooooooooooo "S (McooO'fe^t-r-t-t-t-t-t-cocococococoeococot-^ S lOT) ■'■§ 1 oo-< QMS (ff WfiH 384 Federal Handbook. The values in the table are from Bericht iiber die relativen Messungen der Schwerkraft mit Pendelapparaten in der Zeit von 1808 bis 1909 E. Borrasa Verhandlungen 16ten allgemeinen Conferenz der internationalen Erdmessung. In the table " 5' " is the observed value reduced to the Potsdam system. Writing . Part I. (Melbourne. 1885.) (14) Royal Observatory Greenwich ; Photo- heliograph Results, 1874-1885. (Edinburgh. 1907.) (15) South Australia. Report on the Post Office, Telegraph, and Observatory Depart- ments, by Charles Todd, C.M.G., F.R.A.S., Adelaide, 1896, p. 194. (16) Private Communication from H. B. Curlewis. Esq., Acting Government Astronomer of Western Australia. (17) John Tebbutt. History and Description of Mr. Tebbutt's Observatory, Windsor, New South Wales. (Sydney. 1887.) (18) John Tebbutt. Astronomical Memoirs (Sydney. 1908.) (19) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 25, p. 197. (20) Astronomische Nachrichten. Vol. 64, p. 109. (21) Observations of the Transit of Venus, 9th December, 1874, made at Stations in New South Wales. (H. C. Russell.) Sydney. 1892.) (22) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 44, p. 310. (23) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 20, p. 77. (24) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 27, p. 299. (25) Astronomical and Meteorological Observations made at the Sydney Observatory in the year 1860 by W. Scott, M.A. (Sydney. 1861.) (26) R. L. J, Ellery, C. Todd, and H. C. Russell. Report on the Telegraphic Determina- tion of Australian Longitudes via Singapore, Banjoewangie, and Port Darwin. (Melbourne. 1886.) (27) Victoria. Third Report of the Board of Visitors to the Observatory, with the Annual Report of the Government Astronomer. (Melbourne. 1863.) (28) South Australia. Observatory and Telegraphs. Annual Report by Charles Todd, Esq. 1867. (Adelaide. 1868.) (29) Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. Vol. 12, p. 225. (30) Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. Vol. 14, p. 20. (31) Astronomische Nachrichten, Nos. 2635-2636 (Dr. Auwers). (32) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 48. (33) W. E. Cooke. Report on the Latitude and Longitude of the Perth Observatory. Western Australia. . (Official Report to the Under-Secretary. 21st September, 1899.) (34) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 62, p. 286. (35) Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Vol. 14. Melbourne Meeting, 1913. Section A. P. Baracchi, Australian Longitudes. (36) Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Vol. 6. Brisbane Meeting, 1895. Section A. P. Baracchi — On the most Probable Value and Error of Austialian Longitudes, including that of the Boundary Lines of South Australia with Victoria and New South Wales. (37) Veroffentlichun dos Konigl. Preuszis-hcn Geodatischcn Institutes. Neue Folge, No. 15. (38) Astronomische Nachrichten. No. 3993-94. Albrecht. (39) Dr. Otto Klotz. Transpacific Longitudes b('tween Canada and Australia and Now Zealand executed during the years ! 903- 1 904. (Ap]jundix 3. Report of tlio Chief Astronomer of Canada for 1905). (Ottawa. 1907.) (40) Australasian Association for the Advancement of Si.ictice. Vol. 7. Sydney Meeting, 1898. Section A, p. 176. T. K. Furbor — The Trigonometrical Survey of New South Wales, with mention of Similar Surveys in other Colonies. (41) Commonwealth of Australia. Department of Homo Affairs. Conference of the Director of Commonwealth Lands and Surveys, the Surveyor-General and the Government Astronomer f)f New Zealand, and the Surveyors-General of the States of the Commonwealth of Australia. Melbourne, 20th to 25th May, 1912. (Melbourne. 1912.) 386 Federal Handbook. (4) APPENDIX B. SOME ASTRONOinCAL PAPERS PUBLISHED BY AUSTRALIANS. Notation. for " Astronomical Rejrister." Astr. Reg. J.R.S. N.S.W. M.N. R.A.S. . . J.B.A.A. Trans. R.S. S.A. Ap. J. P. & Prcs. R.S. Tas. for " Journal of the Royal Society of New South Wales." for " MontUy Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society." for " Journal of the British Astronomical Association." for " Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia." for " Astrophysical Journal." for " Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tas- New South Wales. W. J. MacDonnell, F.R.A.S. (1871). Notes from the Southern Hemisphere . . Astr. Reg. . . Vol. 9, p. 145 B.A.C. 5554: . . . . . . . . ,. . . . . Vol. 10, p. 18 Transit of Mercury, 1878 . . . . . . „ . . . . Vol. 16, p. 207 Notes on the Observatories in the United J.R.S. N.S.W. . . Vol. 12, p. 229 States On Star-discs and the Separating Power of ,, . . . . Vol. 12, p. 241 Telescopes Observations of the Transit of Mercury, M.N. R.A.S. . . Vol. 51, p. 560 10th May, 1891 Note on a Dark Transit of Jupiter's I Vth J.B.A.A... .. Vol. 7, p. 401 Satellite The Fifth Star in the Trapezium . . . . ,. . . . . Vol. 13, p. 28 The Recent Sun-spots (October, 1903) .. ,. .. .. Vol. 14, p. 121 Addi'ess on retiring from the Presidentship of ,, . . . . Vol. 15, p. 80 the N.S.W. Branch, B.A.A. Occultation of Saturn, 27th October, 1906 .. Vol. 17, p. 136 On the use of Screens for the Reduction of ,. . . . . Vol. 18, p. 44 Glare and improvement of Definition of Telescopes Jupiter's third Satellite . . . . . . -. . . . . Vol. 19, p. 356 Comet 1908 c. .. .. .. .. V^ol. 19, p. 352 Occultation of Venus by the Moon, 19th ,. .. .. VoL 20, p. 152 November, 1909 HaUey's Comet . . . . . . . . „ .. Vol. 20, p. 200 Galileo GaUlei . . . . . . . . „ . . . . Vol. 20, pp. 258, 485 Marius y. Galileo .. .. .. „ .. .. Vol. 21, p. 32 0. D. Hirst, F.R.A.S. (1876.) Some Notes on Jupiter during his opposition. . J.R.S. N.S.W. . . Vol. 10, p. 83 Remarks accompanying Drawings of Mars M.N. R.A.S. . . Vol. 38, p. 58 (1877) Notes on Jupiter during his opposition . . J.R.S. N.S.W. . . Vol. 12, p. 238 Remarks on the Colours of Jupiter's Belts ,, . . . . Vol. 14, p. 77 and some Changes observed thereon during the opposition of 1880 Notes on Mr. Cobham's Paper on " Astro- J.B.A.A. . . Vol. 15, p. 104 nomical Drawing " Presidential Address, N.S.W. Branch, B.A.A., J.B.A.A. . . . . Vol. 16, p. 95 1905 Note on a Centauri . . . . . . ,, . . . . Vol. 17, pp. 34, 35 Some Remarks on " Wiring " Astronomical ,, . . . . Vol. 18, p. 40 Instruments Measures of some Southern Double Stars . . ,, . . . . Vol. 18, p. 174 Note on p Eridani . . . . . . ,, . . . . Vol. 19, p. 141 Southern Double Star Measures . . . . M.N. R.A.S. . . Vol. 70, pp. 474, 644 Astronomy and Geodesy. 387 Appendix B. — Some Astronomical Papers — continued. New South Wales — continued. F. K. McDonall. (1895.) An Appliance for the Direct Comparison of J.B.A.A... Star Colours Note on apparent Umbral Protusion of Sun- ,, spots Note on Aleteors, 10th and 12th August, 1895 ,, Note on Solar Phenomenon . . . . ,, Meteors, 1896 . . Daylight Occultation of Antares, 13th Sep- ,, tember, 1896 The Zodiacal Light, 1896 . . Peculiar Atmospheric Phenomenon . . ,, The Umbral Protusion of Sun-spots . . ,, Dr. A. M. Alegginson. (1895.) On a Class in Elementary Astronomy . . J.B.A.A. Comet, 1901. I. . . . . . . ,, . . Rev. Thos. Roseby, M.A., LL.D., F.R.A.S. Elliptical Orbit Elements of Comet 1894 6 M N. R.A.S. (Gale) Structure of the Stellar Universe ; an Address J.B.A.A. . . Star- Depths ; a Lecture . . The Mystery of a Cnicis Galileo Galilei The Jovian Occultation (13th August, 1911) Astronomy in Australia . . Comet Problems The Romance of Modern Astronomy The Nebular Origin of Comets On Dark IMeteors T. W. Graven, Junr. (1898.) . . J.B.A.A. . . F. J. BayUon. (1899.) . . J.B.A.A. The Zodiacal Light and Gegenschein A. B. Cobham. (1902.) Some Southern Stars possibly Variable . . J.B.A.A A new Feature on Jupiter Visibility of the Satelhtea of Saturn Astronomical Drawing Dark Transit of Titan W. Morton Syhes. (1905.) The Zodiacal Light and the Gegenschein .. J.B.A.A.., Dr. R. D. Givin. (1905.) Naked-eye Observations of Sun-spots . . J.B.A.A. . Jupiter . . . . . . . . ,, Sun-spots . . . . . . ,, Occultation of Saturn, 27th October, 1906, „ observed at Sydney Saturn . . . . . . . . . . ,, Note on one of the Perplexities which Confront ,, the Amateur Observer Comet 1908 c . . Occultation of Venus, as observed at Sydney, ,, N.S.W., 17th November, 1909 Notes on Satum, 1909 Vol. 5, p. 517 Vol. 6, p. 29 Vol. 6, p. 29 Vol. 6, p. 390 Vol. 6, p. 451 495, 496 Vol. 7, p. 15 Vol. 7, p. 144 Vol. 7, p. 145 Vol. 7, p. 458 Vol. 5, p. 405 Vol. 11, p. 353 (1896.) Vol. 56, p. 329 Vol. 9, p. 202 Vol. 10, p. 396 Vol. 20, p. 34 Vol. 20. p. 488 Vol. 22, p. 31 Vol. 22, p. 321 Vol. 23, p. 31 Vol. 23, p. 335 Vol. 23, p. 391 Vol. 9, pp. 56, 75 Vol. 10, p. 260 Vol. 12, p. 365 Vol. 13, p. 26 Vol. 13, p. 195 Vol. 15, p. 102 Vol. 18, p. 131 Vol. 15, p. 376 Vol. 16, pp.62, 159 Vol. 16, p. 139 Vol. 16, pp. 312, .367 Vol. 17, p. 135 Vol. 18, p. 175 Vol, 19, p. 34 Vol. 19, p. 351 Vol. 20, p. 160 Vol. 20, p. 153 388 Federal Handbook. Appendix B. — Some Asteonomical Papers — continued. New South Wales — continued. E. W. Esdaile. (1906.) Occultation of Saturn, 27th October, 1906 . . J.B.A.A.. . . . Vol. 17, p. 136 Crepescular Rays . . . . . . „ • • ■ • Vol. 21, p. 391 K. H. Beattie, F.R.A.S. (1906.) Occultation of Saturn, 27th October, 1906 . . J.B.A.A. . . . . Vol. 17, p. 133 Occultation of o Tauri (January, 190*^) . . ,, • • • • Vol. 18, p. 291 The Mutual Occultation of Jupiter's Satellites ,. . . . . Vol. 19, p. 3-5 Occultation of Venus by the Moon, 19th „ . . . . Vol. 20, p. 151 November, 1909 Daylight Occultation of t Sagittarii . . ,, . . . . Vol. 21, p. 113 Halley's Comet . . . . . . • • „ • • . - • Vol. 21, p. 269 Total Eclipse of the Sun, 28th April, 1911 . . ,, . . . . Vol. 21, p. 392 The Jovian Occultation, 13th August, 1911 . . ., . . . . Vol. 22, p. 30 The Atmosphere in Observation Work .. ,, .. .. Vol. 22, p. 33 Saturn's Rincjs .. .. .. .. ,, ■• •• Vol. 22, p. 47 Visibility of Mercury .. .. .. ■• •• •• Vol. 22, p. 49 Some Measures of Southern Doubles . . ,. . . . . Vol. 22, p. 149 Some Thoughts on Stellar Impact . . . . ,. . . - . Vol. 22, p. 378 Lacaille 7194— A rapid Binary .. .. Vol. 23, p. 34 The Parabolic Comets — of our System, or from ,, . . . . Vol. 23, p. 343 Beyond ? T. Ranken. (1906.) The Structure of Comets . . . . . . J.B.A.A. . . . . Vol. 16, p. 306 G. II. Uoskins. (1907.) Observations of Mars with a 12-in. Reflector J.B.A.A. . . . , Vol. 18, p. 34 P. Chauleur. (1907.) Dark Transit of Titan . . . . . . J.B.A.A. . . . . Vol. 18, p. 172 ./. L. Adams. (1908.) Daniel's Comet 1907 rn. (1897.) (Title only.) The New Astronomy . . Tran.s. R.S. S.A. . . Vol. 22, p. 265 -S'. B. H. Manning. (1907.) Jupiter without hi?. Moons — Mars .. .. J.B.A.A... .. Vol. 18, p. 131 The Cluster about Kappa CrucLs .. .. ,. .. .. Vol. 19, pp. 29,179 Notes on Comet 1908 c .. .. .. ., .. .. Vol. 20, p. 39 Queensland. J . P. Thompson. TheTransit of Mercury, 11th November, 1894 M.N. R.A.S. .. Vol. 55, p. 316 — Egress Tasmania. F. Abbott, F.R.A.,S. (1861.) The Variability of // Argus and its Surround- M.N. R.A.S. . . Vol. 21, p. 230 ing Nebula . . Vol. 24, p. 2 .. Vol. 25, p. 192 , „ ,, „ . . Vol. 28, p. 200 .. Vol. 31, pp. 226, 230. 231 .. Vol. 32, p. 61 P. & Prcs. R.S. Tas. 1863, June „ .. .. 1865, p. 21 „ „ .. 1868, p. 14 390 Federal Handbook. Appendix B. — Some Astronomical Papers — continued. Tasmania — continued. F. Abbott, F.R.A.S. (1661.)— continued. The Variability of tj Aigus and its Surround- P & Pros. R.S. Tas. ing Nebula „ „ „ ,, Astr. Reg, Observations of Comet II.[ 1861, at'Hobart M.n'.'r.A.S. Town On the Transit of Mercury, November, 1861 ,, observed at Hobart Town" Observations of Comet II., 1862 . . . . „ On the Cluster Kappa Gruois (3435 H) Lao P. & Prcs. R.S. Tas. 1110 (Neb.) Means which have been adopted for Ascer- ,, ,, taining the Velocity of Light and the Sun's Distance, with especial reference to the forthcoming Transit of Venus over the Sun's Disc in 1874 and 1882 Observations of the Occultations of Jupiter and ,, ,, his Satellites by the Moon, 24th April, 1864 Notes on the Aurora Australis, Sth June, 1864 Observations of Comet I., 186.5 Time Signals Notes on Atmospheric Meteors The Simultaneous Disappearance of Jupiter's Four Moons, with some Notes upon the Laws that Govern their Motions Spectrum Analysis and its Application to Science Observations on the Transit of Mercury, November, 1868 The Sun and its Office in the Universe The Transit of Venus Additional Corrected Elements for the Transit of Venus 9th December, 1874 A. B. Bigrjs. Observations of Comets Pons-Brooks and Ross Spectroscopic Observations of Comet Pouo,, January-February, 1884 Spectroscopic Observations of the Twilight Glows, Februaiy-March, 1884 Lunar Eclipse of 30th and 31st March, 1885. . The Occultation of Jupiter Is Jupiter Self-luminous ? The Comets of Febniary, 1880, and January, 1887 On the Star " Alpha Centauri " Observations of Comet a 1888 (Sawerthal) made at Launceston, Tasmania A new Dark-field Micrometer for Double Star Measurement (Diagrams) Observations of Comet of July and August, 1880, taken at Launceston Recent Measures of " a Centauri " The Possibilities of the Telescope . . Total Eclipse of the Moon, 24th May, 1891 . . The Transit of Mercury, May, 1891 Remarks on Sir Robert Ball's Paper (read at the Hobart Meeting of the Australasian Science Association) entitled " The Astro- nomical Explanation of a Glacial Period." M.N. R.A.S. P. & Prcs. R.S. Tas. M.N. R.A.S. P. & Prcs. R.S. Tas. (1884.) M.N. R.A.S. P. & Prcs. R.S. Tas. M.N. R.A.S. P. & Prcs. R.S. Tas. 1870, p. 21 1871, pp. 17, 6^ 1872, p. 27 Vol. 7, p. 14 Vol. 11, p. 221 Vol. 21, p. 260 Vol. 22, p. 235 Vol. 23, p. 31 Vol. 23, p. 32 1864, p. 3 1864, p. 20 1864, p. 53 1864, p. 54 Vol. 25, p. 197 1865, p. 21 1865, p. 109 1866, p. 105 1867, p. 24 1868, p. 41 Vol. 29, p. 195 1869, p. 9 1870, p. 62 187.3, D. 11 1874, p. 37 Vol. 45, p. 116 1884, p. 200 1884, p. 202 1885, p. 309 1886, p. 31 1886. p. 33 1887, p. 38 1887, p. 79 Vol. 48, pp. 348, 376 1889, p. 98 1889, p. 105 1889, p. 106 1891, p. 18 1891, p. 44 1891, p. 46 1892, p. 21 Pastobal and Agricultural Development of Australia. 391 THE PASTORAL AND CHAPTER IX. AGRICULTURAL AUSTRALIA. DEVELOPMENT OF By G. A. Sinclair, Agricultural Editor of the ''Australasian " Melbourne. SYNOPSIS. 1. SHEEP-FARillNG. (a) Mebinos. lb) Beitish Bbebds. Agbicxjxttjbe — continued. (e) Root Ceops. (/) Sugab. 2. Cattle. 5. Viticitlttjee. 3. D.UBYIKG. 6. FeTTIT - GEO WIJTG. 4. Agricultfee. 7. Irrigation and Aetesian Watee (a) Gkain Ceops. 8. Laboue Conditions. (6) Ltjceene Hay. 9. AGRICtTLTURAL EDUCATION. (c) Tobacco. 10. Land Tenuee. (d) Ensilage. 11. FOBESTRy. In the above title the word pastoral naturally comes before agricultural, inasmuch as the first serious efiorts towards developing Australia's natural resources were in the direction of grazing, and, moreover, the island continent is world-famous for its wool, while in butter and frozen meat, important industries have been established and a rapidly increasing export trade has been built up with the older continents. 1. Sheep=Farming. (a) Merinos. The " romance of the wool trade," as far as the establishment of the merino in Australia goes, has often been told, and requires little recapitulation here. It is curious to notice, however, that the first merinos which were landed in Sydney came from South Africa ; while, for some seasons past, buyers have come fi-om that country to Australia to purchase stock of the best strains, which are almost as well-known in South Africa to-day as they are in Australia. It was, no doubt, a fortunate circumstance that the sale of these sheep was coincident with the sailing of a vessel for Australia, but it must be remembered that for some time previous, the early settlers of New South Wales had had the improvement of their flocks in mind, and to the care and skill exercised by them and their successors, aided by excellent pastures, the pre-eminent position at the present time of the Australian merino and its wool is undoubtedly due. There is a great difierence between the merino of to-day and the animal which landed here in 1797. At Camden Park, in New South Wales, the descendants of the original flock have been kept pure and free from admix- ture, but they are in every way inferior to the best modern flocks. In breeding merinos up to their present state of excellence, a skill and science have been shown which are unrivalled in the history of stock breeding. The expert classer is a scientist to whom the theory of Mendel is as familiar as the drafting yard where his skill is displayed. To see him at work, select- ing the sire to build up or maintain the qualities of the flock, whether in constitution or in wool, is a revelation, not only in sound judgment, but in quick decision. To show the skill of breeders, may be instanced the 392 Federal Handbook. craze of a few years back for " wrinkly " sheep, when Tasraanian flocks in compliance with the demand, developed the deep folds. It has been said that " Vermont " blood was used to secure the result, but though in a few isolated instances this may have occurred through " get-rich-quick " desires, it is certain that, in the best flocks, no such importation was used. When the tide set the other way, the wrinkles were ironed out as quickly as they had been introduced, and at the last Campbell Town Show (Tasmania) — one of the foremost in " merino " importance in Australia — the characteristics were plain body, splendidly clothed, with wool of long staple and good quality. In a season like the present (1913) it is impossible to write in any way but enthusiastically concerning merinos. Possibly never in the annals of the breed have the sheep in the various States looked better than at present, and the prospects for good wool prices are excellent. This is emphasised by the sale of two rams at prices only once before exceeded, namely, in 1883, when two brothers, bidding against each other without knowing it, sent up the price of a ram from 300 guineas to 3,150 guineas. This year two rams have fetched 1,700 and 1,600 guineas respectively, while prices of 500 guineas and over are not uncommon. Of those who, by their forethought, energy, and perseverance, laid the foundations of this great industry, the list is long and honorable. Each State had its pioneers who in those early years braved the dangers of marauding natives, disease, and drought, some to win success, and to found those flocks the names of which are to-day household words in the sheep- breeding industry, others, less fortunate, to fall by the way, broken by bad seasons and pests. To show the importance of the industry built up by these men and their successors it is only necessary to mention that the total export of wool for 1807 was 245 lbs., while for 1911-12 it was 1,967,818 bales ; and for 1912-13, 1,696,146 bales. The wool sales, too, have undergone a considerable change of venue of late years. Formerly all the clips were sold in London, and the prices realized were quoted in detail in The Australasian, the columns of which were eagerly scanned each week for the results of the home and neighbouring consignments. To-day the buyers fi-om England, France, Germany, United States, and in fact all manufacturing countries, attend the sales in Sydney, Melboiu"ne, and Geelong, and bid against one another for the choicest clips, whose brands they know as well as do the station-owners. Where local agents act for European firms, they find it necessary to visit their principals every few years to keep in touch with the manufacturing changes. The unsatisfactory methods and the discomforts of the old London sales have disappeared. Now, in a well-lighted room, hundreds of buyers for firms of world-wide fame compete by fractional bids for the wool in thousands of bales, samples of which have been opened and subjected to minute inspec- tion previously. The honour of gaining top price for wool in any season is highly prized among breeders, and does not always fall to well-known flocks. Thus, last season, for Victorian-sold clips, a comparatively small farmer of the Wimmera country in the north-west gained the coveted position, obtaining 19:Jd. per lb. Pastoral and Agricultural Development op Australia. 393 for merino fleece, a figure which will give some idea of prices realized at the present day. This is not peculiar to Victoria, for, in New South Wales, a farmer with an area of under 500 acres secured the top price of ITjd. per lb. This shows that small farmers may engage in the calling with profit ; and when, in course of time, the large holdings of Victoria and the Riverina are subdivided, the merino of high quality need not necessarily disappear, provided that the small breeders have procured their sheep, in the first instance, from the fixed strains of well-known flocks. To show how the larger breeders fare, it may be mentioned that out of a clip of 306 bales including locks, etc., 114 bales realized 16|d. per lb. or over. For super, lambs' wool another clip obtained 23M. per lb. Again, for his 1910 clip, a South Australian breeder showed the following figures : — 18,12-5 grown sheep cut an average of 13 lbs. 7f ozs. of wool each ; 6,701 lambs cut an average of 4 lbs. 3| ozs. each ; 24,826 sheep and lambs cut 781 bales of wool, which averaged £12 2s. 5d. per bale ; average price per lb. for all sheep and lambs' wool, 8|d. ; average money yield per head for grown sheep, 9s. 6d. gross. The Commonwealth Statistician shows that for the year ending 30th June, 1912, the percentage of wool exported from the various States was — New South Wales, 44-4 per cent. ; Victoria, 27-8 per cent. ; Queens- land, 14-3 per cent.; South Australia, 8-8 per cent.; Western Australia, 3-8 percent.; Tasmania, 0-9 per cent. It is possible that the advance of agriculture and of the frozen meat trade may cause a decline in wool production in future ; but, on the other hand, it is more than likely that the centre and north of the Commonwealth will afford a haven for the large flocks, while the southern States will breed the pure sheep necessary to maintain the quality of the wool. (b) British Breeds. While merinos hold the pride of place, it must not be supposed that our early efforts were confined to that breed. Merinos were found to be unsuited to the coastal districts, and Lincolns and Leicesters were early introductions, to be followed later by Shropshires, Southdowns, Hampshires, Border Leicesters, Romney Marsh, and others. But, while merino men soon dropped importations of Rambouillet, Negretti, and other strains, finding they could breed better, the mother country has been drawn on for *' British " breeds until within recent years. Even now occasional importa- tions are made of Romney Marsh sheep, the most recently fashionable ; but, sooner or later, after starting with the best British blood as a foundation in each breed, it is found that the conditions in AustraUa are so congenial that further importations are unnecessary. Before leaving the subject of wool, it may be pointed out that the improve- ments in manufacturing, by which so much more use can be made of the coarser kinds, have given a greater impetus to crossing the merino with Lincoln, Leicester, and other breeds. The crossbreds, too, fit in with farming operations better, as they can be used with greater advantage for keeping the fallow clean ; and, last of all, but not least, the meat export trade has made the rearing of fat lambs so profitable that the high quality merino flocks 394 Federal Handbook. of the Riverina and the western district of Victoria are being slowly pushed out north and west, until there is some reason to fear that these districts, probably unequalled for the quality of their wool, will be lost to the industry. The term crossbred is applied on the mainland at any rate to the progeny produced by crossing merino ewes with Lincoln rams ; and it is interesting to compare the prices realized for wool of this character in an ordinary year. These are some of the prices for the season of 1911 : — Comeback fleece, Green Hills, 15d. per lb. ; comeback lambs, MooUne, 15d. ; crossbred fleece, North Station, lUd. ; Eanonynie, 14d. ; Green Hills, 14Jd. In the previous season Green Hills for 340 bales comeback wool averaged nearly 13|d., 37 bales reaching 15d. While considerable skill has been shown in breeding for the frozen meat trade, much still remains to be done, and it would no doubt benefit the industry if lambs were sold according to quality of carcass and not solely by weight. At the present time, breeding for fat lambs is not conducted on very definite lines. The difficulty is that the Australian cannot help regarding the sheep as primarily a wool producer. To him, the very raison d'etre of the sheep is its wool, and he thinks it advisable, in case of the lambs not selling as fats, to have them well-woolled as a compensation. Even after introducing Shropshires, breeders immediately set to work to improve the wool, and succeeded to a remarkable extent, but not, it is feared, without detriment to the frame. The consensus of opinion now is that for those districts where early lambs are most easily raised big-framed crossbred or comeback ewes should be used and put with rams of Shropshire, Southdown, or similar breeds. Opinions differ as to whether the Lincoln cross or Leicester or Border Leicester, or even Romney Marsh cross, is best to use. Some pin their faith to these breeds crossed with the merino, without using any Down sheep ; but for early lambs, according to the figures of several years, the crossbred-Shrop- shire lamb invariably tops the market. In support of this statement may be quoted the prices for three years of a northern district crop of lambs. These were lis. 9d., 12s. 3d., and 13s. 6d. per head at the nearest railway station, and were bought for freezing. They were not picked sheep, but represented the whole season's drop from a little under 1,000 ewes. Another breeder, in a later district, obtained 19s, per head for four months* old lambs. In both instances crossbred ewes were put to Shropshire rams. As the ewes in the first case mentioned cost very little more than the price realized by the lambs, it can be seen what profit there is in the industry, particularly when fodder crops are grown as a safeguard against dry autumns. The market is a good one and ever expanding. The opening of the North American and European ports promises a further demand for this product, and, by studying the quality of the meat required, there is every prospect of Australia capturing the bulk of the trade. One of the most recent moves in connexion with this industry is the estab- lishment of inland freezing works in the centre of that important lamb- raising district, the Wimmera. The object is to slaughter on the spot, thus reducing freight, and at the same time avoiding the wasting of flesh which occurs during the rail journey to the seaboard (estimated at about 5 lbs. per head for lambs). So far this enterprise, which is co-operative, has been very Pastoral axd Agricultural Development of Australia. 395 successful ; but it remains yet to be seen whether labour troubles, which have wrecked several New South Wales inland works, will hamper this. A similar movement is on foot in the Goulburn Valley ; and, no doubt, others will follow if these prove successful. A great incentive will be given to the fat-lamb export trade by the opening up of additional routes to the seaboard in the eastern States. Portland, for instance, in south-west Victoria, when connected by rail through the VVimmera to New South Wales, will be the port of shipment for products from a vast territory. Again, the linking up, now being carried out, of the Riverina railways with those of the Goulburn Valley, will tap additional large areas. In New South Wales and Queensland, new territories are being brought rapidly into communication with the ports ; and the trade may safely be said to be as yet in its infancy. The growth of this trade up to the present may be learned from the following export statistics : — Season 1904-5, mutton, 550,112 carcasses; lamb, 702,898; season 1911-12, mutton, 2,076,208 carcasses; lamb, 1,477,131. This latter season was not marked by a particularly large exportation and was exceeded in that respect by the seasons for 1909-10, and 1910-11, 2,296,980 carcasses of mutton and 1,685,985 carcasses of lamb having been exported to various countries in the latter year. The adaptability of the crossbred to Australian conditions has led to the founding of strains, which may now be said to be fixed in type, and combine good quality fleeces with good mutton frames. Of these Australian breeds are the Carrsdales and Ideals, which cut a valuable fleece, and are admirable for procuring freezer lambs when crossed with the Down breeds. Of late years a New Zealand breed, the Corriedale, has gained a footing on the mainland, and promises to become popular. 2. Cattle. The rearing of beef cattle in Australia has not kept pace with the sheep industry, and may be said to be now confined, on extensive lines at any rate, to Queensland, Central Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Ter- ritory. The breeding of Shorthorns and Herefords, for which the western district of Victoria was once famed, has now been, to a large extent, aban- doned for dairying. There are, however, in the southern States a number of pure herds of these breeds, and of a high-class character. The bulls and cows imported in the early days as a nucleus, were of the best Bates and Booth blood obtainable ; and the sums paid for them astonished English breeders of the day. Thus, £2,500 was paid for Oxford Cherry Duke (32016), while his calves of between eight and twelve months averaged £458 17s. A big price paid in Australia was £1,732 10s. for Earl of Geneva, in February, 1875, wliile in 1878 2,450 guineas was given for 24th Duke of Derrimut. As much as £27,000 has been paid for a lu-rd of 37 head, but the prices paid at the present time are nruch more modest. Thus at the last Sydney Royal Show sale the highest figures obtained were under 300 guineas. At the same time a considerable trade is spi'ingiiig up in frozen beef, which, in consideration of the fact that the world's consumption has increased in far greater measure than the supply, will probably become greater, and lead to better utilization of the Northern Territory lands. In the season 1904-5, C. 12154. 2c 396 Federal Handbook. 101,662 quarters of beef left Australia for other lands, principally for South Africa, while in 1911-12, the quantity exported was 648,313 quarters. Compar- ing it with that obtained by other exporting countries, the price realized is usually a little below that of New Zealand beef, which is fattened on artificial grasses and has but a short way to travel to the port, and a little above that of Argentine beef. Queensland provides the greater part of this trade. The southern States will probably, in the future, raise pure stock to keep up the character of the northern herds. 3. Dairying. Mention has been made of the detrimental influence dairying has had on the raising of fat cattle in the southern States ; but nevertheless the industry has brought great wealth and prosperity to the Commonwealth. In 1911, the total production of butter in the Commonwealth was 211,577,745 lbs. ; of cheese, 15,886,712 lbs. ; of milk, 5,947,269,640 lbs. ; of condensed milk, 22,983,707 lbs. ; and of bacon and ham 53,264,652 lbs. The value of exported butter alone was £4,637,-362. As an idea of the relative values of the exported products it is interesting to note that, in the same yeai, wool totalled £26,071,193 ; frozen mutton and lamb, £1,633,622 ; frozen beef, £1,102,132. Victoria led the way in developing the dairying industry ; and of the early buttermakers and teachers, the name of David Wilson stands pre-eminent. In the eighties and early nineties, the separator was winning its way into prominence, co-operative butter factories were springing up all over the land, and the quality of the product was improving in a wonderful degree. When the financial depression occurred after the collapse of the land-boom, butter- making was on a firm foundation and the quick recovery from that de- pression was, in a great measure, due to this industry. When it was seen what great profit there was in dairying, the large land- owners in the western district of Victoria cut up their properties into small holdings, and let these to small farmers for dairying on shares. The main features of this system are that the landlord provides land, buildings, stock, machinery, etc. ; the tenant furnishes labour, and the landlord takes two-thirds of the butter-fat returns, the receipts from pigs being equally divided between the parties. So successful were most of these small farmers that they now own their own farms, having paid from £40 to £80 or even £100 per acre. The soil is wonderfully rich, and the climate suitable, rye grass and clover growing luxuriantly, while lucerne and maize provide ample fodder for the autumn and winter without any irrigation. Good roads, too, are easily made and kept up. Gippsland is another dairying province with all the favorable natural conditions, but bad roads greatly hamper her progress. Steps are however now being taken to improve them. For a time the dairying industry made great headway in the northern districts where land was cheaper, and means of communication good ; but, after the great drought of 1902, and with the improved prices for grain, wool, and sheep, many reverted to the old farming methods. At the present time, dairying is flourishing in Northern Victoria only on irrigated lands, or where the rainfall is ample, as in the King River Valley. Pastoral and Aoricultural Development op Australia. 397 In New South Wales the dairying districts are the South Coast and the northern rivers ; and great progress has been made, the output of that State being at present not far behind that of Victoria. In Queensland the industry is increasing rapidly, the rich Darling Downs being now a huge dairying province. Queensland's output is about one- third that of Victoria. One cannot fail to realize how much the rural pro- ducer owes to scientists whose researches in refrigeration have enabled perish- able products to be manufactured in hot climates and conveyed on long voyages to the marts of the world. At the present time the export trade in butter is at a critical stage. The cheapness and excellence of home separators, and the saving of haulage by their use, led to their almost universal adoption about ten years ago. A number of factories stood out against their use, recognising the effect which the irregular ripening of the cream would have on the quality of the butter, but, one by one, they were forced to fall in line. The consequence has been the disappearance of most of that superfine article for which the best factories were famous. There is no doubt about the deterioration. It is proved by comparing the prices at present obtained for Australian butter and that of our two great competitors, Denmark and New Zealand, with the prices realized a few years ago. There is no need for this deterioration. The only things necessary are cleanly conditions and the delivery of cream to the factory at frequent intervals. The high prices received in Europe, in the season 1911-12, for butter of any kind, did immense harm to the industry in Australia, as it engendered a carelessness, which the sharp lesson of falling prices is now correcting. The authorities in the various States are now endeavouring to improve the quality of the output by legislation, the direction taken being that of compulsory grading of cream, with the licensing of factory managers. This, it is believed, will prevent cream rejected at one factory being accepted at another. The Commonwealth had previously endeavoured to control the industry by compulsory grading of butter at the ports ; but, through a flaw in the Act, this supervision was summarily stopped by action at law, though quite 80 per cent, of the butter sent away from Victoria is still voluntarily graded. The competition of margarine is shutting second-class butter out of the Eng- lish market, and strenuous efforts are now necessary to prevent any but first-class butter leaving our shores. In another direction, too, there is great room for improvement, and that is in the return per cow per annum. Taking Victoria as the leading dairying State, the average annual return per cow is under £7 ; while, if labour, rental, value of land, etc., be taken into consideration, the cost of keeping a cow amounts to £6 10s. per annum. As many herds are returning £14, £15, and even £20 and upwards per cow per annum, there is evidently great room for improvement in the average herd. Efforts are being made to improve matters in New South "Wales by the encouragement of milk-testing and weighing societies, and in Victoria by the issue of certificates to cows giving standard returns in pure herds, which have submitted to official tests. Indifferent milkers will thus be culled out, and only milking strains on both sides used for breeding. 2c2 398 ■ Federal Handbook. As to the cattle employed in dairying, all the recognised breeds are well represented in Australia. The Jersey may be said to be the favorite with butter makers at preseiit, though the old-time Ayrshire, bred from the best strains imported years ago, is slowly working its way back to favour, as it is found that by culling judiciously, not only quantity but a high butter- fat test is obtained. Importations of high-priced Jerseys of milking strains are still constantly made. Guernseys, too, have admirers, while a number of the Shorthorn breeders have developed milking strains in their herds, which compare favorably with any other breeds. In New South Wales is a breed — the Illawarra — which is the favorite in some wide districts, and is practically a milking type in which Shorthorn predominates. In Tasmania some years ago the Alderney was well represented. Throughout the Common- wealth the present tendency is, whatever breed is used, to look for milking strains on both sides ; and the increase of butter-fat per head, combined with care in manufacture, will put the Australian dairyman in the position to sell a better product more cheaply, and, aided by good pastures and fine climate, to still make a handsome profit. The best dairymen make ample provision for feeding their cows during autumn and winter, either with green fodder crops, hay, or ensilage, or with all three ; oats, wheat, or lucerne is used for the hay, and maize or mixed crops for ensilage. The use of the silo is spreading slowly all through the country. Not only does the progressive dairyman now regard it as a necessary equipment, but even sheep breeders are storing away surplus feed for future needs. A great feature in connexion with dairying is the development it has caused of co-operative principles amongst farmers generally. Starting with co-operative butter factories, the movement has spread to the handling of farm products of all kinds, and the purchase of machinery, bags, seed, etc. The latest phase in this development is the establishment of bacon-curing factories in New South Wales and Victoria. Pig breeding has always been considered a necessary and usually a profitable adjunct to dairying ; but a couple of seasons ago pigs were unsaleable. To remedy this, co-operative works were started for the curing and exportation of surplus pork, so that no trouble may be anticipated in the future. It should be noticed that, besides butter, cheese and condensed milk are manufactured in considerable quantities in the Commonwealth, while powdered milk is also on the market. The one great drawback to the dairying industry is the difficulty in procuring labour. This has led to the employment of milking machines, which, where reasonable care and cleanliness are employed, are proving entirely satisfactory. Many of those in use are of Australian manufacture. Dairying on shares seems one of the most satisfactory methods of profitably employing suitable laud, especially to families with small capital arriving from overseas. In one instance, two young Englishmen (Londoners) have each been making £180 a year with a Gippsland dairv-farmer. In another case, a Scotch farmer and his family have a steady income of £400 per annum. Their small capital remains untouched and is added to from Pastoral and Agricultural Development of Australia. 399 year to year, while in the meantime they are gaining experience of Australian conditions. It has been stated that one large landowner in a very fertile district guarantees a man and family £500 per annum. 4. Agriculture. (a) Grain Crops. Possibly to the outside superficial observer Australia appears a land of sheep stations alternating with wheat-fields. It will be found, however, on closer observation, that where cUmatic conditions permit it, mixed farming on lines closely approximating those found profitable in the older countries, has been carried on for many years. The districts where this form of agri- culture is so successful were settled by the yeomen from Great Britain, thoroughly trained farmers, whose descendants to-day are among the most skilful tillers of the soil. In common with other lands, Australia has made great strides in agri- culture, particularly in the wheat-growing areas, during the last decade, owing to the better methods of cultivation employed and to the increased use of artificial manures. The present methods of cultivation, the chief feature of which is the almost universal bare fallow before a crop, are the result of experience ; but for their knowledge of the value of manures, farmers are indebted to the instruction given and experiments carried out by officers in the Agricultural Departments of the various States. The early wheat farmers, most of whom were old-time gold diggers who selected land when the alluvial fields became worked out, had a hard fight before their success was assured. Land could be selected for £1 per acre, the payments being spread over long terms of years ; but the cost of clearing, fencing, buildings, and implements soon exhausted the selectors' capital and earnings, and advances could not be secured until a Crown lease was issued, which was not done for several years after selection. Their wheat had to be carted long distances — ■ often 50 miles or more — to the nearest railway station, and labour of any kind was dear. It is not to be wondered at then, that, as a rule, they were content to crop the same piece of ground for several years and only turn their attention to another block when the first showed signs of exhaustion. With better facilities for marketing produce, and with more money for purchasing implements, improved methods have been followed, and to-day the wheat- growing areas promise to retain their fertility for many years to come. The general cropping practice is as follows : in the springtime — July and August — -the land for the next year's crop is ploughed to a depth which de- pends on the character of the soil, about 7 inches being the rule in the Riverina, the Goulburn Valley, and South Australia, and from 3 to 4 inches in the Wim- mera and other heavy clay loams. It is then harrowed and worked down fine with a cultivator or scarifier, and after every shower the harrows are put over the fallow to form a mulch, and arrest loss of moisture through evaporation. This, briefly, is the Australian " dry farming " system, evolved by her practical farmers. Sheep also are used to keep the fallow clean, their droppings helping to supply organic matter, and since the rise of the frozen meat trade, cropping and sheep-raising go hand-in-hand. On some 400 Federal Handbook. light soils, whicli, if worked fine, set like cement with, heavy rain, the land is left in the rough after ploughing, and only sheep are used to keep it clean. After the first autumn rains, which are anxiously looked for by the beginning of April, the weeds which have sprung up are turned under, the land is harrowed and the seed is sown with a drill, from 50 to 60 lbs. of seed and 50 to 80 lbs. of superphosphates being used per acre. After drilling, the seed is covered by harrowing, and occasionally the land is rolled to consolidate the soil. Many farmers make a practice of feeding down their crops to make the plants stool out better, while at the same time providing feed for the ewes and lambs. Rains may usually be expected in June, July, and August, but the critical period for the crops is in October and early November. Rain falling or withheld about that time makes or mars the yield. Hay cutting, which means cutting wheat or oats with reaper and binder, takes place in November, and the earliest varieties of wheat are ready for harvesting in December. Not many grain crops are cut and threshed ; but it is sound far min g to use this method with oats, as less grain is lost and the straw is invaluable on the farm. In harvesting her grain, Australia has her own peculiar machine to use — the stripper-^ which, with its improvement the harvester — has enabled her growers to contend with scarcity of labour and comparatively low yields. It is common knowledge that the Australian stripper origi- nated in South Australia in 1845, the invention of J. Ridley, but it is not so well known what struggles and difficulties the early mechamcs had before they brought the harvester to its present state of perfection. In 1879 the South Australian G-overnment gave a great incentive to inventors by offering a prize of £4,000 for a satisfactory machine. This attracted, besides local men, competitors from Victoria, and even from far CaUfornia. No machine was awarded the first prize, but £250 was divided among four of the competitors as an encouragement. Then, for some years, interest in this subject languished, and public encouragement ceased. In 1883, however, a description appeared in The Australasian of a machine that was working in California. Both State and public interest were again aroused, prizes were offered to successful inventors by the Victorian Government, and fi-om that time improvements have gradually been made in the construction and efficiency of the macliines. The difference between Australian methods and those of other lands may be briefly set out. The reaper and binder cuts and binds the crop into sheaves, to be threshed later by a thresliing machine ; the stripper gathers the stalks into a comb, the heads are stripped off by beaters, and the grain threshed from the heads by winnowers at some later date ; the harvester strips off the heads, as with the stripper, but does the threshing at the same time, and delivers the cleaned grain into a hopper or into bags ; and the header of California cuts, threshes, and cleans the crop at one operation, but to win the short-strawed grain, takes in a lot of lengthy straw, as it cuts everything above the level of the knife, Uke a reaper and binder. This machine takes from 24 to 30 mule? to draw it, and is cumbersome. While the Common- wealth possesses a variety of good strippers and harvesters, it is an axiom of implement manufacturers never to rest content with the present machine, but ever to aim at improvement. The aims which machinery firms Pastoral and Agricultural Development of Australia. 401 have had before them are : — Cutting a larger area in a given time ; the lessen- ing of the draught ; prevention of grain shelling ; harvesting " lodged " and dirty crops ; an early, late, and damp weather worker, which will not drag out the plants by the roots ; at the same time a machine which will turn out as good a sample of grain as the best of the present harvesters. The reaper-thresher, the latest improvement, saems to have gone a long way towards reaching this goal. A large amount of work has been done in breeding wheats which are resistant of diseases ; strong in the straw and hard, to stand up against the hot winds which break down or thresh out weaker varieties ; prolific and yielding grain of high quality. The first systematic movement towards improvement of wheats was made by Victoria, where, in 1890, a conference of experts from various States was held to devise means for fighting " rust " in wheat, which had caused serious losses in all the States during preceding years. Other conferences followed, until eventually it was recognised that this was only one of many problems confronting the wheat-grower. It was through these conferences that other States learned of the research work which William Farrer had been carrying on since 1882 in New South Wales, and his example stimulated others to carry on cross-breeding and selection on parallel lines. In " Federation " he produced a wheat which is familiar to every farmer in Australia, and which has increased the yields of the mainland States by many thousands of bushels. " Federation " possesses in a strong degree the qualities of prolificacy, shortness and strength of straw, and power of holding its grain. The trend of experiments now is to produce wheat of high milling qualities, which will raise the value of Australian flour in the home market, though at the present time our wheats from their whiteness are used chiefly to blend with the yellower wheats of other lands. For many years now, there have been scattered through the States a number of men who have devoted their lives to the breeding of wheat and to the study of plant disease. Their labours, undertaken from a love of science and with no hope of monetary gain, should still further assure the success of this industry, and eventually bring Australia to the front rank as a wheat producing country. Farmers show a commendable care in the seed which they sow, generally using cleaned and graded grain, while they watch carefully the work of tJie different experiment stations, and eagerly buy any new varieties of promise. In the three eastern wheat-growing States of the mainland, well-equipped experiment stations are carrying on fine work, as axe also a number of private investigators. To return to cropping methods, farmers are working steadily towards a rotation of crops which will maintain the land in good heart. It is recog- nised that the system of bare fallowing must eventually exhaust the soil. The old rotation has been bare fallow, wheat, bare fallow ; or bare fallow, wheat, oats ; or bare fallow, wheat, oats, pasture — the long stubble left by the stripper being burnt off when one crop follows another ; or if, after wheat, the land is left in pasture, the straw is worked back into the ground by the stock. While burning off the stubble is wasteful of humus, it serves to clean the ground of insect pests and weeds. Oats should follow wheat as often as possible to prevent the attacks of the disease " take-all," even when a fallow 402 Federal Handbook. intervenes. But oats are not as widely grown as wheat, because the local market is soon supplied, and the export trade is not large. The necessity for providing a fodder crop for sheep has led to rape being sown in the autumn on the stubble, the sheep droppings, roots, and stalks, when turned under, helping to replenish the soil. Far-seeing farmers have recognised that a leguminous crop is necessary, and peas are now sown, being generally used as a fodder crop, and the residue being turned under for green manure. The rotation most likely to be adopted in the near future, at any rate wherever a 15-in. rainfall can be depended upon, is bare fallow, wheat, oats, rape ; or bare fallow, wheat, oats, peas. The difficulty in adopting a regular rotation is that oats and fodder crops cannot be grown as profitably as wheat. One of the most striking features about wheat-growing of late years is the extension of the safe areas westward in New South Wales, by the adoption of fallowing, systematic working of paddocks to check weed growth, and the use of artificial manures. It is difficult to state the average yields of cereals to convey definite information, because they differ so much with locality and with seasons. In Tasmania, .50 or 60 bushels to the acre are not uncommon ; while on the mainland, anything over 30 bushels is a good return. In the Mallee districts of Victoria and South Australia, with a limited rainfall, lighter yields are usually experienced ; but the cheapness of the land, which is easily cleared for the plough by rolling down and burning off the scrub and then ploughing with stump-jump ploughs, enables wheat- growing to be profitably carried on. These lands and the subdivided sheep country of New South Wales ofi^er perhaps the best prospects for mixed farm- ing in the eastern States. The best Mallee land is obtainable at £1 per acre on extended terms, which in South Australia are extremely liberal, as for four years no instalments are payable, and for the next two years the interest due is at a very low rate. Contrast this with the price of mixed-farming land in the older districts, where from £6 to £8 per acre is common, while in picked districts £12 to £15 per acre was realized a couple of years ago, though those prices have since declined. In all the States, land selection can be made on reasonable terms ; and in Queensland and Western Australia, fi'ee grants are made to overseas sett'ers. Some idea of the importance of wheat-growing to the Commonwealth may be grasped by noticing that for the 1911-12 season, nearly 72 mil ion bushels of wheat were produced, the returns for 1910-11 being over 95 million bushels, and for 1909-10 nearly 90i million bushels. The average yields for those seasons in the same order were 9-6, 12 -9, and 13-7 bushels ; and for 10 years, which include the great drought of 1902-3, the average is 10-48 bushels per acre. A burning question with wheat-growers at the present day is the handling of the harvest from fields to sea-board. A few years ago legislation com- pelled the use of three-bushel bags instead of four-bushel. These bags, are carted to the station as soon as harvest is over, the results being that the goods platforms are loaded in a few weeks to their full carrying capacity, the overflow being stacked in the station yard, there to remain, possibly for months, before the railways can deal with them. This means considerable Pastoral and Agricultural Development of Australia. 403- loss from mice, and, in some years, from rain as platforms and yards are quite unprotected from the weather. The fact that new bags must be purchased every year, is also a considerable tax on the producer. For these reasons handling in bulk has the strong support of all country people, and a definite movement in this direction seems about to be made. A Royal Commission in Victoria has just reported in favour of bulk-handling, and New South Wales has brought an engineer from the United States to devise a workable scheme for that State, and other States are also studying the best means for dealing with the situation. The output of oats depends to a considerable extent on the prices ruling for the previous season. Oats were very cheap for years, and many ceased to gi'ow them. The production has varied during the last eight years from 9 million bushels to 16 million bushels, and the average over the whole- period is 20J bushels per acre. The Algerian oat is the principal variety grown. Oats are grown largely for hay ; and in some districts wheat and oats mixed are sown for this purpose. Victoria produces nearly three times the quantity of oats grown by any other State, Tasmania coming second, with New South Wales and South Australia about equal. Tasmania has the highest average— 30 bushels per acre. With barley, the difference in price between a bright sample and a dis- coloured one is so great that the crop is not grown to any very large extent,, the highest production during ten years having been 2| million bushels in 1908-9, and the average for ten years, 18-83 bushels per acre. Victoria, and South Australia are the largest producers, though Tasmania has again the highest average — 24 bushels per acre. Maize-growing for grain is very successfully carried on in the northern rivers district of New South Wales, in Gippsland (Victoria) and in Queensland. Victoria can claim some of the highest yields in the world, returns of over 100 bushels per acre being by no means uncommon. A great drawback to the industry is the want of communication. The rivers are usually un-navigable on account of sand bars at their mouths, and in many cases- the maize is marketed " on the hoof " by using it as pig feed. As a fodder crop, maize is one of the most common, yielding a great bulk of material in the coastal districts, under the natural rainfall, and inland, under irrigation. Not much attention has been given by the Agricultural Departments of the States to the selection of maize seed, or the breeding of varieties to suit varying local conditions. Most of the leading American varieties are grown, and considerable enterprise has been shown by private individuals in raising pure seed. Both in point of acreage under crop and total production, New South Wales usually holds pride of place, though Queensland is very nearly equal, while Victoria comes a long way behind. In yield per acre, on the other hand, Victoria is a long way ahead, having, for ten years, produced an average of 55 bushels per acre, the highest during that period being in 1903-4, when 76| bushels per acre was the amount recorded. The average for the whole Commonwealth for the ten years from 1902 to 1912 is 26 "84 bushels per acre. The production of hay in the Commonwealth is intimately associated with the cultivation of cereals, as the great bulk of this fodder is composed of wheat or oats. Formerly, Victoria exported a large quantity to New South Wales 404 Federal Handbook. and Queensland, but, the former State now grows sufficient for its own requirements, except in times of drought. As a rule, the farmer cuts his crop for hay or keeps it for grain, whichever promises to bring in the larger gain ; but, in the cooler districts, cereals are often sown for hay alone, and a mixture of wheat and oats often being used for the purpose. In these dis- tricts special hay wheats are sown, but Algerian oats are employed every- where. The colour, smell, and amount of grain in the head are factors in determining the value of hay, the yields of which in the hay districts are from 2 to 3 tons per acre in good years. In the wheat districts, 2 tons per acre is a good hay crop, and the average for the Commonwealth for ten years is only 1^ tons per acre. Victoria has a production of a little over one million tons to her credit for 1911-12. In the early days, hay was made from the natural pasture grasses, but these are now seldom used for this purpose. (b; Lucerne Hay. With the expansion of dairying, and, especially since the irrigation settle- ments in the various States have been founded, lucerne is largely used for maldng into hay. The usual and most sound practice is to grow enough of this fodder to supply the needs of the farm ; but, during a dry period in the autumn of 1912, a demand sprang up for this article, and many sold off their stock in order to grow hay. The next season being a good one, lucerne hay was practically unsaleable. A number of sheep-owners in the Eiverina, taught by the experience of past dry years, make immense stacks of lucerne hay from irrigated paddocks, which are kept in reserve for periods of scarcity. From four to six cuttings of lucerne per season can be counted on from irrigated land, and in districts where a good rainfall is assured, the yield at each cutting varies from 1 to 2 tons per acre. The best seed is grown in the Commonwealth and comes from the Hunter River district, in New South Wales, but a fair quantity is imported. Sowing is done in either spring or autumn, but the former is considered a better time, since a clean seed-bed can then be more certainly assured. (c) Tobacco. Of the States New South Wales now grows the greatest amount of tobacco, the industry in Victoria being confined mainly to Chinese, many of whom are working on shares with white land-owners. The rich alluvial flats are found very suitable for producing the finest leaf. About 1 ,500 acres are under culti- vation in New South Wales, about half this amount in Queensland, and one- third in Victoria. The average yield for the Commonwealth is about 7f cwt. per acre. Though a payable enough crop, the incessant labour requu-ed in a land where labour is dear and scarce, has led to many abandoning it. (d) Ensilage. One cannot leave the subject of cropping without further reference to ensi- lage, a fodder which should especially appeal to Australian farmers, since the conditions lend themselves so readily to the preservation of fodder in this form, and at the same time deinand conservation of supplies for the safety of the stock. It is essentially a land of bounteous seasons and of dry ones. In the good years thousands of tons of fodder go to waste. In the dry seasons. Pastoral and Agricultural Development of Australia. 405 thousands of cattle and sheep die, not so much from want of fodder, for often dry feed is available, but through impaction, which a succulent fodder hke ensilage would prevent. Unfortunately, statistics show that the quantity of ensilage made each year is not increasing, thus proving that the farming community still fail as a class to appreciate the true value of this form of stock food. Provident farmers adopt the practice of sowing in the early autumn a mixed fodder crop of rye, peas, vetches, and barley. This is cut in the spring, which prevents the weeds going to seed. The silos are constructed above ground and the material is first chaffed, and then elevated or forced up into the silo by means of a blower. To consolidate the green fodder, it is trodden down during the filling process, particularly round the edges ; and, as a rule, unless it is to be used at once, is covered with straw-chafi or bags and weighted. Where a surplus amount of spring grass is available, it is occasionally converted into ensilage, being put straight into the silo, without chaffing. Later in the year, about October, summer fodder crops are sown — maize, sorghum, millet, etc., and these are converted into ensilage in the autumn. (e) Root Crops. The two main root crops are potatoes and onions, though turnips, mangolds, etc., are grown in the cool districts. Victoria is the largest pro- ducer of potatoes, heading the list both in area under crop and in output. New South Wales comes next in point of area, but is closely pushed by Tas- mania in output with half the area under crop. For many years, Tasmania supplied all the States except Victoria with most of their tubers ; but the ravages of potato-blight reduced the output, and induced farmers to under- take a systematic rotation instead of exhausting their land with the one crop. Victorian crops also suffered severely from this disease, but, by spraying and resting the ground, this trouble has been overcome. When the blight was rampant, a number of growers dropped out, and, in consequence, in 1912, potatoes were at famine prices. Those who had continued growing them, having clean, good crops, the result of assiduous work, received handsome rewards. Rich potato land sells at £100 or more per acre, and the rental often reaches from £4 to £6 per acre. When prices have exceeded £10 per ton, cases have been reported where the purchase money has been recouped in one season. After a scarcity, every farmer with a good piece of land in a suitable locality puts in potatoes, with the consequence that, in the following season, prices are hardly payable. As an instance, the price last year, was for months not lower than £12 per ton, reaching much higher for a short time, whereas this year, the choicest varieties can be purchased for £4. A definite rotation, in these districts, will not only correct this great irregularity of prices, but also eradicate diseases and maintain the fertility of the soil. The production for the Commonwealth for 1911-12 was 391,489 tons, a considerable decrease from the yield of 1906-7, when it was 507,153 tons. Tasmania was responsible for a deficit of no less than 120,000 tons. The total yields in 1911-12 were— Victoria, 119,092 tons ; New South Wales, 75,040 tons ; Tasmania, 62,164 tons. The averages for the principal States for ten seasons are — Tasmania, 3 '94 tons per acre; Victoria, 2 '8 tons; South 406 Federal Handbook. Australia, 2-7 tons; New South Wales, 2-35 tons; Western Australia has an average of 3 tons per acre, but her highest annual production is only a little over 9,000 tons. In onions, the production of Victoria only is worth mentioning. Her largest output was in 1910-11, when 37,484 tons were grown, with an average of a little over 6 tons per acre. Like potatoes, onions fluctuate very much in price ; and while, in some years, the cost price of the land can be earned in one season, in others they have been a drug in the market. Last year prices were £17 and over per ton, whereas this year £6 is a usual figure. As the average yield for ten years is over 5 tons per acre, some idea may be gathered of the returns ; but it must be remembered that the work of preparing the ground and keeping the crop clean is very expensive, while the crop is a delicate one to handle. (f) Sugar. Queensland and New South Wales are the only States which grow sugar- cane, the former producing about 90 per cent, of the total. For 1911-12 the output for Queensland was 1,. 534,4.51 tons of cane, with an average of 16 tons per acre, wluch is very nearly the average for the last ten years. New South Wales has an average of 22 • 64 tons per acre for the same period. It is difficult for any one not a resident of sugar-cane districts to under- stand the situation of the industry. Formerly, the work was carried on by black labour recruited from the islands under strict Government super- vision. The " White Australia " policy disposed of this system, and as a consequence, the proportion of sugar produced by coloured labour declined from 68 per cent, of the total for 1902-3 to 6 per cent, in 1911-12. As a recompense to the growers, the Commonwealth Grovernment passed a Sugar Bounty Act, giving a bounty on all cane of a certain quality produced by wliite labour. In 1912, however, two Acts were passed, one abolishing the bounty and the other repealing the Sugar Excise Act, under which an excise duty of £4 per ton on manufactured sugar had been collected. These Acts did not, however, come into force till the following year (1913). It was stated at the time that the Queensland G-overnment intended to take over the matter, and to deal with the question of wages and conditions of labour. In Victoria, the manufacture of beet sugar is carried on ; but the industry is in anything but a flourishing condition, owing to the difficulty in getting a sufficient quantity of land under this crop to justify the working of the machinery. In 1911-12, there were in Victoria 752 acres sown with sugar-beet, which yielded 3,974 tons, or a little over 5 tons per acre. Some years ago, the Government of the day built a sugar-beet factory at Maffra, in Gippsland, equipped it with most expensive machinery, and obtained experts from Germany to superintend the manufacture. Owing to the lack of support on the part of growers, it was closed down for years, and re-opened again in 1910. At this time, land which had been resumed by the State for closer settlement purposes was disposed of with a proviso that a certain number of acres should be devoted to the growth of sugar beets. The constant labour required to keep the crops clean has rendered this branch of farming, to put it mildly, less remunerative than many others ; and growers are Pastoral and Agricultural Development of Australia. 407 endeavouring to have the compulsory area reduced. There is also a bounty on beet sugar, the amount being 6s. per ton on beet giving 10 per cent of sugar. During 1911-12, bounty was paid on 7,481 tons. 5. Viticulture. The cultivation of the vine was commenced at an early date of Common- wealth history by foreigners who had emigrated from the wine-making countries of Europe. They found the climate even more suitable than their own for certain classes of wine, and the soil as fertile. From these men, others procured cuttings or rooted vines and embarked in the industry, wine making being carried on principally. With rude appliances and without anv of the necessary scientific knowledge, they produced a lot of rough, coarse wine, so that " Australian wine " was a by-word in the Colonies. A few vignerons in Victoria and South Australia, however, having more capital and experience, succeeded in making wine of fair quality. This gradually improved, and a great impetus was given to the industry in Vic- toria in the nineties by the voting of a bonus, in instalments, for every acre planted. This induced a number of farmers and novices who were not at all suited for it to undertake the work. As a consequence, a great quantity of inferior and almost unmarketable wine was produced, so that when the bonuses ceased, the greater number of these inexperienced growers retired, the remainder struggling on, until, a few years later, the appearance of phylloxera compelled them also to abandon the industry. During this time those with large capital sunk in the trade and making good wine, were pushing their way into the English market, aiming ever at making a wine for export and not for home consmnption. Aided by the disappearance of the bulk of coarse, inferior wines, an export trade of con- siderable dimensions has eventually sprung up, mainly in full-bodied, dry red wines, which are used for blending. It is contended that these err on the side of strength, and lack the velvety smoothness which should characterize a first-quality product. However that may be, young wine can now be sold at a higher price than could the matured article a few years ago. A promising wine, at twelve months, will bring 2s. per gallon, and small growers are making a good profit at this price, as yields of from 300 to 500 gallons per acre can be secured. This, briefly, has been the experience in Victoria. In South Australia, the market has been steadier, and the quality more uniformly good, because there has not been, at any time, a great rush into the industry by men unfitted for the work. In New South Wales, the experience has been somewhat similar to that of Victoria, on a smaller scale. The output of wine for the Commonwealth is about 5 million gallons, of which South Australia supplies about 3 million, Victoria, 1 million, New South Wales, 800,000, and Western Australia, 150,000 gallons. The spread of phylloxera in Victoria and New South Wales, while it accelerated the retirement of incompetent growers, has nevertheless inflicted serious damage on the industry, and vigorous efforts are being made to combat it. A number of stations for growing resistant vines have been established by the State Governments, and cuttings or grafted lootlings are distributed to gi-owers at merely the cost of production. 408 Federal Handbook. The raisin and currant industry may be said to have started with the establishment of the irrigation settlements at Mildura (Victoria) and Een- mark (South Australia), on the Murray Eiver. In the early nineties, the product began to make itself felt on the market, which, from its superiority over the imported article in cleanliness and flavour, it soon captured. There was a danger then that prices would fall below a profitable margin ; but co-operation of the growers prevented this by determining to export the surplus after the home market had been supplied. This has been done for some years now, and comfortable incomes are realized from small blocks planted with vines. The total production of the Commonwealth in raisins and currants was in 1911-12, 234,898 cwt., of which Victoria manufactured 149,713 cwt. and South Australia 81,346 cwt. All five mainland States raise table grapes, principally for Commonwealth consumption. Latterly, Western Australia has been making shipments of fresh grapes to England, and with a satisfactory measure of success. In the eastern States, the varieties most suitable for this purpose, such as Ohanez, Purple Cornichon, Flame Tokay, have been planted and are now coming into bearing, so that an extension of the export trade may be looked for. 6. Fruit=growing. When we remember to what extent this industry depends on the export trade, Tasmania undoubtedly deserves the highest credit for her enterprise in building up a great export trade in apples. Practically unaided by State assistance in any form, the apple-growers of the island State despatched trial shipments, and paid the expenses of growers to watch the cargo during the voyage and to supervise its distribution in London. Contrast these tentative shipments in the eighties with the apple season to-day, during which a dozen or more large ocean steamers leave the port of Hobart alone, with fruit (mainly apples) for cargo, two or three boats being occasionally berthed alongside the wharves at the same time. The shipment last season from Hobart comprised 465,193 cases for the United Kingdom; 15,625 for Germany; 1,649 for Sweden and Denmark; and 49,720 for South America ; or 522,188 cases in all, as against 807,510 for the previous season. Victoria despatches only about half this quantity ; but the industry is a growing one in all the States. The excellent machinery now manufactured for refrigerating purposes has rendered the shipment of such soft fruits as pears a success ; and with the extension of markets to other British ports than London, and to Europe, Canada, and other parts of the world, the industry may be regarded as only in its infancy. It is claimed that, by pre cooling, any variety of fruit may be carried with safety, and, certainly, the results of the experimental shipments of pre-cooled fruit seem to justify the statement. At the present time efforts are being made to secure better arrangements with the shipping companies ; and it is hoped as the result of the inquiries of a Commonwealth Royal Commission, that the export trade will be placed on a more satisfactory footing in every way. Pastoral and Agricultural Development op Australia. 409 The small fruits do remarkably well in the cooler districts of the southern States, and particularly in Tasmania ; but, as these do not lend themselves to exportation, the trade is limited. 7. Irrigation and Artesian Water. The name of Mildura, in North-western Victoria, naturally associates itself in the mind with the earliest efforts of irrigation in settlements. Indi- vidual irrigation had been carried on previously, but little had been heard publicly of the suitability of the Australian soil, climate, and rivers for extensive watering until Messrs. Chafiey Bros, obtained a concession from the Victorian Government and started work on the Murray River in 1884. From 1887 to 1895 the management was carried on by Messrs. ChaSey Bros. Co. Ltd., when it was taken over by the First IMildura Irrigation Trust. Though the settlement passed through many hard times in its early years, those who survived are now in a very prosperous position. Various difficulties were at first met with — salt in the soil, inexperience in the suitable varieties of trees and \dnes, insufficient pumping power, etc. ; but, one by one, these difficulties were overcome. The main industries now are — currants, raisins, prunes, and other dried fruits. Some idea of the prosperity of this, the largest irrigation settlement in the Commonwealth, may be gathered from the fact that in 1911 (Census) there were over 6,000 inhabitants and over 12,000 acres under cultivation. Renmark, also on the Murray, but in South Australia, was established a little later than Mildura. Its development was conducted more slowly ; and it, therefore, reaped a certain amount of benefit from the experience of the other settlement. Renmark has a population of 2,000, with 5,20u acres under cultivation, and an average production of about £100,000 per annum- As the result of an irrigation campaign, conducted by Mr. Alfred Deakin, who had visited India and America in search of information, various water trusts were established in the northern areas of Victoria in the late eighties and early nineties, many of them, however, only for watering stock. The largest of these, in the Goulburn Valley, also included a fruit-growing settle- ment at Ardmona, while a large extent of country was taken up to irrigate lucerne for fattening stock. Eventually the State wiped off most of the indebtedness of these trusts ; and, as the water was supplied very cheaply, prosperity in these areas became general. A new impetus was given to irrigation in Victoria during the early years of this century. In 1906, all State waterworks were vested in the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission of three members, and this Commission eventually took over the duties of the whole Water Supply Department, and, at a later date, the control of irrigation lands, which previously were vested in the Closer Settlement Board. This Board has done good work in concentrating the settlers on all new areas, and so lessening the cost of supplying water. Under the Closer Settlement Act a number of irrigable estates were bought up from private owners, subdivided, and settled mainly from over- seas, though Australians have also taken up some of the blocks. 410 Federal Handbook. Where sufi&cient capital was available, and the settlers were hard-working, good progress has been made, and there is reasonable prospect of success. On blocks of 50 acres and upwards, dairying is carried on by means of lucerne and fodder crops, while, at the same time, small areas are planted with fruit trees, the dairying operations bringing in ready money during the time that the fruit trees are coming into bearing. As with all colonies of this nature, a good deal of tribidation will be ex- perienced before the settlers "make good." One great drawback is the absence ■of markets in which to dispose of small products, such as vegetables, tomatoes, etc. ; but, when once the orchards are in bearing, with the ever-extending overseas markets, and the knowledge gained from the experience of the pio- neers in the fruit industry, a comfortable living should be made off these small areas. It is calculated that without taking into consideration waterworks con- structed for the supply of cities and towns, the various works vested in the Commission have a capital debit to the State of over £4,000,000. At the present time, a project is on foot for the construction of a storage reservoir near the source of the River Goulburn, which, if undertaken, will be perhaps the largest in the world. It is estimated that it will have a storage capacity of 60,000 million cubic feet, and some conception of its size may be obtained by comparing it with the Assouan Dam in Egypt, which holds 35,840 million feet. New" South Wales has constructed a large dam (Burrinjuck), across the ■channel of the Murrumbidgee River, with an estimated capacity of 33,630 million cubic feet of water, to be stored from the winter rains. The water will be run down the Murrumbidgee for 200 miles to the Berembed Weir, from which it will be carried by gravitation to the irrigation settlements. It will command 200,000 acres of first class land and 360,000 acres of second class land, which is estimated to support eventually 50,000 people. At present a number of settlers are on blocks, but have only just commenced operations. When the " Murray Waters " question is settled between the States of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, far more use will be made of the great waterway for irrigation purposes. One cannot leave the subject of water supply in connexion with agricul- ture without some reference to the artesian supplies which have rendered so much of the interior country habitable and possible for stock raising. The artesian area has a width of about 900 miles in the latitude of Brisbane, stretching from Toowoomba to the overland telegraph Une. Bourke marks in a general way its southern limit, and in the north it runs to the Gulf of Car- pentaria, stretching from Cape York to west of the Gregory River. A ■strip of the coast line in Western Australia is also recognised as artesian. Large sums of money have been spent by the Governments of most of the States in boring on stock routes, while a considerable amount of bores have been put down by private enterprise. The water obtained is chiefly used for stock, being too highly charged with carbonate of soda for irrigation purposes, though, to a limited extent, it is used for this purpose also. The yearly extension of the boundary of artesian water is adding more and more " safe " territory to the list. There are nearly 3,000 Pastoral and Agricultural Development of Australia. 411 bores in existence, both private and public. The deepest bore is over 5,000 feet ; and the largest supply is from one in Queensland, which gives about 4i^ million gallons per day. In the north-west of Victoria and in South Australia is a sub-artesian supply, the M^ater from which has only reached the surface in three bores ; but, in others, it comes within 80 feet and is pumped up for use. This sim- plifies the settlement of the Mallee districts, which are rapidly being converted into wheat-growing areas. Water is obtained from wells in most of the dis- tricts bordering on the Murray Kiver, even for 20 to 30 miles back from the frontage. These are from 80 feet to 100 feet deep, and the water which is often slightly brackish is pumped to the surface by windmills. 8. Labour Conditions. Labour conditions cannot be regarded as quite satisfactory ; but there is much to be said on both sides. Skilled labour is practically unpro- curable, because a capable man can soon save enough to begin farming on Ms own account, and invariably does so, every inducement being offered in the shape of cheap land on extended terms, share-farming, etc. The consequence is that at harvest-time, the only labour available is not thoroughly efficient, though the demand is great and the pay high. In the dairying districts, there is constant scarcity of milkers ; and many are reducing their herds to the number which can be handled by their own family with milking machines, or else letting part of their farms to " share " men. In cropping, the niimber of acres put in by each farmer is likely to be reduced, particularly as this will enable more sheep to be carried, and a better system of rotation pursued. Larger implements and teams are also being used to curtail the employment of labour. The policy of irrigation, however, now being carried out by the various G-overnments should have the effect of relieving the situation to a certain extent, provided that the right class of immigrant is secured. Many of the small selectors will gladly put in a few weeks at harvesting or shearing, during the clearing of their own land. A few acres of land, with a cottage, a cow, pigs, and fowls, possibly a certain amount of crop on shares, with a security of tenure, should prove a good investment of capital for land-seekers; and should suit those who prefer the advantages of civilization to " roughing it " on a selection of their own. The position at the present time is as follows : — The Labourers Union has drawn up a " log " of prices and hours of labour for every branch of the great producing industry, and demands its acceptance by farmers, who would be agreeable in many instances, to the rates demanded, if they could obtain efficient workmen. The fixed hours they regard as impracticable. Even should these schedules become law, through the Arbitration Court, it will be necessary to compel every farmer to carry on his business in the same manner as at present, before the working class will materially benefit, and the question is raised wliether the industries requiring the most labour will be curtailed in favour of branches like grazing, in which very little labour is required. The pastoral industry, about twelve months ago, emerged from a pro- tracted suit before the Arbitration Court, whereby all conditions of labour and living are fixed. C.12{.H. '^ i> 412 Federal Handbook. It has been said that little has been done by farmers as a body to make the conditions of living such as will induce labourers to remain for any length of time. The food is invariably good and plentiful, and often partaken with the farmer's family; but the "men's hut" with its bunks, for which the occupants must find the bedding, still represents the only shelter for labour. On some farms, in the newer districts, conditions are worse, and men are left to find sleeping accommodation during harvest in chafi house or machinery shed. Farmers themselves, having "roughed it" as selectors in their early years, do not give sufficient attention to this point, and have not realized that conditions are altered. Pastoralists, on the other hand, provide ample and good accommodation for shearers ; and the schedule determined by the Arbitration Court sets forth in precise terms the amount of sleeping and living space necessary for each man. • 9. Agricultural Education. In some respects, the Commonwealth can point the way to the world in her system of agricultural education. For instance, there is an agitation in Great Britain just now to make the work at their institutions more practical, so that students shall take part in every farm operation. This has been a fundamental principle in Australia from the beginning. Colleges have been established in all the States, except Western Australia and Tasmania, and in the latter State one is in process of foundation. With the exception of Victoria, where they are under the control of a Council of Agricultural Education, the colleges are directly under the different departments of Agriculture, and are financed by State grants and their sale of produce. The fees are small at all the colleges, varying from £20 to £35 per annum, so that the sons of men in every class of society can take advantage of the education offered. The object in view is to turn out young men who will go on the land ; and the curriculum is drawn up with this purpose. The methods adopted vary to some extent at the several colleges, but, in general, class-days and work-days alternate, the whole body of students being divided into two classes, one of which is working and the other in class on the same day. The farm work is apportioned according to the standing of the student, senior students being in charge of teams — ploughing, sowing, or harvesting, or at blacksmith's work, carpentry, shearing, separating, etc., according to the season of the year, junior students are occupied with milking, hoeing, carting, stablework, fencing, and the hundred and one odd pieces of work to be found on a farm. The work-list is usually changed each week, so that each student gets a fair share of the work. The class work embraces instruc- tion in agricultural chemistry, soil physics, farm engineering, botany, entomology, geology, and farm accounts, as well as the subjects pertaining to an ordinary commercial education. From the distribution of the farm work, it can be gathered that great advantages are attached to limiting the number of students, so that each may gain that knowledge which only practice can give. The course varies from two to three years, and the ages of students range from fifteen years upwards, the average being about eighteen. Pastoral and AaRicuLTURAL Development of Australia. 413 In Victoria are a number of agricultural high schools designed to act as stepping-stones between the State school and the agricultural college. The various experimental farms in New South Wales provide accommodation for students, whose time is mainly given to practical work, and in Western Australia similar provision has been made. A Chair of Agriculture has been established in New South Wales and Victoria, and the colleges are affiliated with the University, undergraduates who take the course of agricultural science being required to do a certain amount of field work at the agricultural college. Instruction classes for those already on the land are conducted in nearly every State, but in this respect Australia falls short of the standard realized in the IFnited States. This to a great extent is due to her scattered population and to the fact that there is no '' off " season in Australia, when farm work cannot be followed. The earliest students who passed through the colleges are now beginning to occupy prominent positions in the agricul- tural world, and the training is better appreciated by the public ; but farmers are not availing themselves of the agricultural high schools to the extent hoped for nor have they ever taken full advantage of the colleges for their sons. The majority of students, of whom the total according to the latest return is 630, comes from the professional and mercantile classes. Most of the students are too young, after finishing a college course, to undertake farming for themselves, they therefore pursue the wiser plan of gaining further experience on good farms, where the handling of men and the business of buying and selling can be learned. 10. Land Tenure. It is not possible to cover in a few paragraphs the systems of the various States, which differ considerably. They may, however, be considered under the broad headings of leases or licences, conditional purchases, free grants, and cash purchases. Leases are generally for pastoral purposes, the lessees being the pioneers who take up new country, which they usually improve considerably before being ousted by the selector. The immense stations containing hundreds of thousands of acres are now confined to the interior and northern parts of the Commonwealth, the rents for which are only a few shillings per acre. There are, however, large leasehold blocks in all the States, usually of rough land not fit for cultivation, and devoted to sheep or cattle. Lessees are usually allowed to select so many acres out of their leased land. The conditional purchase is the usual method of acquiring land in all the States. The age limit at which land may be secured varies fi-om sixteen to eighteen years ; the area, from 200 acres to 2,500 acres, according to locality or conditions of the Land Act ; and the price, from a few shillings to £1 per acre. As a rule, the survey fee and some deposit must be paid at the beginning, the full amount being paid off by yearly instalments, in different periods ranging up to 40 years. In some cases no payments are required for several years ; and, in all, the rate of interest is very low, prin- cipal and interest together amounting to not more than 6 or 7 per cent. Improvements must be carried out to a certain amount each year, and residence for so many months in the year is usually insisted upon. 2 D 2 414 Federal Handbook The holder of a block on conditional purchase is termed, in all the States, a selector. As a rule, at first, only a licence to occupy is given ; then, when the terms have all been faithfuly observed for several years, a lease is issued which is negotiable. At any time after the issue of the lease, by paying the remainder of the purchase money in cash, a grant may be obtained. These are the terms under which the great bulk of the land in Australia has been alienated. The maximum area in the early days was 320 acres, but it is noticeable that very few farms in the wheat-growing districts are as small as this — 1,000 acres being more nearly the average holding. In the heavily timbered coastal districts, the smaller area has proved quite sufficient, as the land is rich, the rainfall good, and the cost of clearing very heavy. In New South Wales, leased land in the western districts is being resumed and subdivided for selection, while in Victoria and South Australia, settlement is now taking place mainly in the Mallee lands of the north, which can be cheaply cleared for the plough by rolling down the scrub and then burning it off. Queensland and Western Australia have greater areas of Crown lands unalienated, and are attracting settlers from all the States and from overseas by their liberal ofiers. Closer Settlement Acts have been passed in every State, by means of which estates have been purchased in settled districts, subdivided, and disposed of on extended terms The earliest subdivisions, which were in Victoria, turned out very successful ; and enabled many men with small capital to obtain farms. Latterly, most of the eSort has been directed to settling those estates which are commanded by irrigation channels. Provision has been made for loans to settlers in proportion to the amount of capital sunk in improvements. In every State free grants are made for educational, religious, or recrea- tion purposes, but only in Queensland and Western Australia are they made for settlement. In Queensland the maximum area which may be selected as a free homestead is 160 acres. The selector must reside on the block for five years and must fence it in or make improvements of equal value. In cash purchases from the Crown, as a rule, the land must be put up at public auction, an upset price being fixed. In all the States are credit systems under which farmers can obtain advances on easy terms on the value of their land and improvements. U. Forestry. This subject is closely connected with land settlement, and most de- plorable has been the ruthless destruction of valuable timber in every State, during the process of agricultui'al development. Forests have disappeared before the axe and fixe of the selectors, and now, in the settled districts, a great scarcity of timber for fencing, firewood, and building purposes is noticeable. Forest reserves were made early in the history of Australia, but these were mainly to preserve timber for the use of the mining industry. South Australia has had for many years a well-organized Forestry Depart- ment, which, in many respects, has been an example to the rest of the Commonwealth. Of late years, greater attention has been paid to the pre- servation of existing timber and the replanting of areas with the best of Pastoral and Agricultural Development of Australia. 415 native and foreign timbers. All the States have established State nurseries and plantations, from which are distributed, at the cost of the labour in packing, to public bodies and farmers, trees of native woods, such as the many eucalypts, acacias, and native pines, as well as foreign trees, mainly pines and pepper-trees, while a few oaks, willows, etc., have also been grown. In this way encouragement is given to the growth of shelter belts, the thinning of which affords a useful amount of timber. In Victoria has been established a Forestry School, where subjects per- taining to this important industry are taught, as well as the practice in the growth and improvement of plantations and forests, and the employment of timber. There is also a course in forestry at the Adelaide School of Mines. Of late an increased interest in forestry has been evinced in all the States, due to conferences held in Sydney and Melbourne ; and it is hoped that further wanton destruction will be prevented, and that replanting will repair the damage which would eventually have so injurious an effect on the climate and soil of the Commonwealth. 416 Federal Handbook. CHAPTER X. MINING FIELDS OF AUSTRALIA. By E. F. Pittman, A.R.S.M., Government Geologist of New South Wales, and A. Gibb Maitland, F.G.S., Government Geologist of Western Australia. SYNOPSIS. 1. New South Wales, by E. F. Pittman. I 6. Northern Territory, by A. Gibb 2. Victoria, by E. F. Pittman. j Maitland. 3. Queensland, by E. F. Pittman. i 7. South Australia, by A. Gibb Mait- 4. Tasmania, by E. F. Pittman. land. 5. Western Australia, by A. Gibb I Maitland. ! 1. New South Wales. Since the discovery of payable gold by Hargraves at the junction of Lewis Ponds and Summer Hill Creek, in 1851, mining has been one of the most important factors in the prosperity of New South Wales. It was the easily- won alluvial gold which first attracted population to our shores, but subse- quent prospecting revealed the occurrence of rich deposits of almost all the known useful metals and minerals, and the permanence of the Mining Industry in the mother State of Australia is now assured. Goal. — Unquestionably the most important of the New South Wales' mineral assets is her coal, and in regard to both its quality and quantity she has been most liberally endowed by Nature. Coal seams of several geological ages have been found in the State, but it is only from rocks of the Permo-Carbonif erous period that coal of commercial value is obtained. The Permo-Carboniferous System has been classified as follows, in descending order : — Thickness in Feet. 1. Upper or Newcastle Coal Measujes, containing twelve seams. In the aggregate they contain 35 to 40 feet of workable coal . . . . 1,400 to 1,500 2. Dempsey series ; freshwater beds containing no coaf .. .. .. .. .. 2,200 3. Middle, or Tomago, or East Maitland Coal Measures, containing six seams of coal, varying from 3 to 7 feet in thickness. In the aggregate they contain 18 feet of workable coal . . . . 500 to 1,800 4. Upper Marine Series . . . . . . . . 5,000 to 6,400 5. Lower, or Greta Coal Measures, containing an aggregate of about 20 feet of coal . . . . 100 to 300 6. Lower Marine Series . . . . . . . . 4,800 17,000 Mining Fields op Australia. 417 There are four important coal-fields in New South Wales, viz., the Mait- land, the Newcastle, the lUawarra or Southern, and the Lithgow or Western. In the Maitland field the Greta and also the Tomago coal seams are worked, while in the other three fields the coal is obtained from the Upper or Newcastle Measures. The Greta Coal Measures never exceed 300 feet in thickness, nevertheless they contain two seams of splendid coal, viz., the Upper Seam fi'om 14 to 32 feet in thickness, and the Lower Seam from 3 to 11 feet in thickness. The quality of this coal is superior to that of any other coal in Australia, and it is especially suitable for household and gas-making purposes, and also for steam raising. Eleven collieries are at work on this coal between Mait- land and Cessnock, a distance of 15 miles, and their aggregate output for the year 1912 was 3,074,598 tons. The average composition of the coal from the Greta Coal Measures, as calculated from the analyses of 31 representative samples, is as follows : — Hygroscopic moisture . . . . 1 '89 Volatile Hydrocarbons . . . . 41 '35 Fixed Carbon .. .. .. .. 50*51 Ash .. .. .. .. .. 6-25 100-00 Calorific value .. .. .. 13*2 The Greta Measures are known to extend at intervals to near the Queens- land border. The Newcastle Coal-field has supplied most of the coal raised in New South Wales during the last 50 years ; many of the collieries, however, are now about worked out, and their owners have opened new mines in the neigh- bouring Maitland field. The Newcastle coal, most of which is obtained from the Borehole Seam (occurring near the base of the series) is of good quality for household and gas-making purposes. Its average composition as cal'Mi- lated from the analyses of 78 representative samples is as follows : — Hygroscopic moisture .. .. .. 2*01 Volatile Hydrocarbons .. .. 36*01 Fixed Carbon .. .. .. 53*27 Ash .. .. .. .. 8*71 100*00 Calorific value .. .. .. 12*7 The Illawarra or Southern Coal-field is situated around Bulli as a centre, aad is about 150 miles south of Newcastle. The Upper Coal Measures are worked here also, but in the uppermost seam of the series (known as the Bulli seam), and the coal is of a totally different character from that of New- castle, being essentially a steam coal of good quality. It also makes a splendid hard coke suitable for smelting purposes. 418 Federal Handbook. The average composition of the coal from the Southern Coal-field, as calculated from 35 analyses of representative samples, is as follows : — Hygroscopic Moisture .. .. .. 0*71 Volatile Hydrocarbons .. .. 23*65 Fixed Carbon .. .. .. 63-98 Ash .. .. .. .. 11-66 100-00 Calorific value .. .. .. 12*68 The Lithgow or Western Coal-field is situated on the Western Railway, 95 miles from Sydney, and here again the coal is obtained from the Upper Coal Measures, but in this instance from the lowest seam of the series. It is essentially a steam coal, but of rather inferior quality to that obtained fr'om the Southern Coal-field. Its average composition, as calculated from the analyses of 25 carefriUy taken samples, is as follows : — Hygroscopic Moisture .. .. .. 2*05 Volatile Hydrocarbons .. .. 32-31 Fixed Carbon .. .. .. 53-08 Ash.. .. .. .. .. 12*56 100-00 Calorific value .. .. .. 11*9 The Upper Coal Measures have been proved to be continuous between Newcastle on the north and lUawarra on the south ; and also between Sydney on the east and Lithgow on the west. The uppermost coal seam of the series occurs at a depth of nearly 3,000 feet under Sydney, where it is being worked by the Sydney Harbor Collieries Limited. It is extremely difficult to estimate the total quantity of coal available in New South Wales, owing to the comparatively small amount of prospecting which has been done. Assuming, however, that 10 feet of workable coal underlies the area known to be coal-bearing, and allowing for a loss of one- third of the gross weight in working, it is calculated that there must be 115,346,880,000 tons of available coal in the Permo-Carboniferous Measures within a depth of 4,000 feet. Kerosene Shale. — A petroliferous mineral which is a variety of Torbanite and is locally known as Kerosene Shale, has been worked with much success in past years at Joadja, near Mittagong, and at Hartley Vale, near Mount Victoria. Both these deposits, however, have been worked out, and the most important deposits now known are those of the Capertee Valley (the property of the Commonwealth Oil Corporation), in the parish of Megalong, near Katoomba, Doughboy Hollow, near Murrurundi, and Marangaroo, near Lithgow. This mineral occurs as lenticular patches or seams, rarely more than a mile in length or width, on certain horizons of the Upper Coal Measures of Permo- Carboniferous age. The seams vary in thickness from an inch or two up to 4 ft. 6 in., the one in the Capertee Valley being about 4 ft. 3 in. and of fair quality. Mining Fields of Australia. 419 Gold. — Althougli for many years the value of the gold won in New South Wales exceeded that of any other mineral, after the exhaustion of the easily won alluvial deposits there was a considerable drop in the production of the precious metal. It is true that auriferous reefs have been worked in many widely separated localities, and in a number of cases with very successful results. Speaking generally, however, the reefs have not been found payable at considerable depths, and the returns from gold mining have consequently been irregular. In times of general prosperity there is always a falling off in the gold yield, whereas, when other and more payable employment fails, people turn their attention to prospecting for gold, and the yield improves. Amongst the most important gold-fields which have been worked in the State may be mentioned Forbes, Parkes, Young, Kiandra, Gulgong, Grenfell, Wattle Flat, Sofala. Hargraves, Hill End, Lucknow, Temora, Wyalong, Pambula, Hillgrove, etc. Most of these fields are still producing gold, although the mining industry has not been very prosperous at any of them for some years. The mines of the Cobar field are at present the chief gold producers, and of these the Mount Boppy holds the pride of place. In this mine there is an interbedded auriferous quartz deposit of the type known as a saddle lode (inverted), which occupies the spaces formed by the folding of schistose rocks, which are probably of Pre-Silurian age. The deposit has been worked to a depth of about 800 feet, and mining operations are still being successfully carried on. A considerable amount of alluvial gold is still being recovered fi'om the beds of rivers by means of dredges, the use of which has been of great assist- ance to the mining industry during the past decade. Silver-Lead. — The most important silver-lead field in Australia is situated at Broken Hill, in the north-west of New South Wales. It was discovered in 1883 by Charles Rasp, who marked out a lease under the impression that the ore was tin-stone. The Broken Hill lode occurs in highly altered rooks, such as schists, gneisses, garnet sandstones, and banded quartzites, which have been in- truded by dykes of very coarse pegmatite. These rocks are probably of Lower Cambrian age. They have been much folded, and in a space thus caused an enormous interbedded lode of the type of the Bendigo saddle lodes has been formed. The cap of the lode consisted of manganiferous ironstone, and formed the summit of a low range about 21 miles long. Under the cap of the lode extremely rich oxidized ores consisting of carbonate of lead and kaolin with chloride of silver and native silver were found. These ores occurred for a width of several hundred feet in places, and beneath them were mixed sulphides of lead and zinc with a high silver content. As greater depth was attained, the proportions of silver, lead, and zinc in the ore declined, and the gangue consisted of rhodonite, making it very hard to crush. Owing, however, to improved methods of treatment, and more particularly the adaptation of the flotation process, the mines have been enabled to profitably exploit the poorer ore, and the mining industry at Broken Hill is in a most flourishing condition to-day. The greatest depth so far reached by any mine at Broken Hill is 1,815 feet, in Block 10. 420 Federal Handbook. In addition to silver, lead, and zinc, the Broken Hill ore contains a small proportion of gold and copper. The aggregate value of the metals produced by the principal mines on the lode up to the end of the year 1912 was £70,182,124, and the sum of £16,177,580 was paid to the shareholders. Another silver-lead field, where the mining industry has been in a flourish- ing condition during the past twelve years, though on a much smaller scale than at Broken Hill, is known as Yerranderie, and is situated about 80 miles south-west of Sydney. The country rock consists of quartz-felspar-porphyry overlain in places by the Permo-Carboniferous Coal Measures. Lodes of 6 inches to 4 feet in thickness of argentiferous galena occur in the porphyry dipping at an angle of about 28°. Mining operations have been carried on in these lodes under considerable difficulties, there being no railway to the field, and the ore having to be carried over mountainous roads to Camden at a cost of £2 to £2 5s. per ton. Nevertheless the returns have been steadily progressive. Copper. — New South Wales possesses many copper mines, but in a majority of them work has been carried on intermittently, owing to the fluctuations in the price of the metal. When the value of copper falls below a certain figure there are mines which cannot make a profit, and it becomes necessary to close therii down ; with a rise in price, and the probability of its being maintained for some time, such mines resume operations, and a period of prosperity is entered upon. Amongst the most important copper fields may be mentioned Cobar, Nymagee, Shuttleton, Mount Hope, Girilambone, Burraga, Cangai, Gulf Creek, Blayney, Cow Flat, and Orange Plains. The Great Cobar Copper Mine is undoubtedly the most important mine of its class at present worked. It is situated 464 miles west of Sydney, with which it is connected by rail. The lode occurs in slates of probably Pre-SUurian age, and consists of three immense lenses of ore which are the results of replacement of the slates. The ore bodies vary in width from a thread up to 100 feet, and they are at present being worked at a depth of 1,500 feet. Ore only showed at one point on the surface, and there was nothing there to indicate the enormous ore bodies which were afterwards found below. Cobar copper ore contains a variable proportion of gold, and near the surface it was extremely rich, as will be realized when it is stated that in the early years of the mine's history, the copper produced was con- veyed by bullock drays for a distance of nearly 300 miles, and paid hand- somely notwithstanding. As the workings progressed in depth the ore became poorer in both copper and gold, and at the present time is worth about 2*5 per cent, of the former and nearly 1 dwt. of the latter per ton. The Great Cobar ore, being of a basic character, is treated by partially ppitic smelting in conjunction with silicious ores (containing a little copper and gold) fi'om the Cobar Gold Mine, the Chesney Mine, and the Great Peak Mine, which are all owned by the same company. There are two other lodes (known respectively as the " Middle " and " Eastern ") parallel to the one which is being worked. Neither of these has been adequately prospected, and it is quite possible that they may yet be found to contain valuable ore bodies of a similar character to those already exploited. Mining Fields of Australia. 421 The Great Cobar Field has already produced about 100,000 tons of copper, 500,000 ozs. of gold, and 1,250,000 ozs. of silver, the aggregate value of which amounts to about £8,000,000. Tin. — Tin ore was first discovered in commercial quantities at Elmore, near Inverell, and shortly afterwards at EmmaviUe in the year 1872. Large quantities of stream tin were subsequently recovered from both districts, at fixst by means of ordinary sluicing appliances, and more recently by pump dredges, which are still employed. Most of the stream tin has been derived from stanniferoiis greisen, in which the cassiterite occurs as scattered grains, which become concentrated by the action of running water as the greisen is decomposed. Stanniferous lodes also occur, but are not often met with. The most important tin-bearing lodes are the Ottery lodes at Tent Hill (not being worked at present), and Butler's Lode, 8 miles north of Emmaville. Tin-bearing pipes are also a feature of the Emmaville District. Thev occur in granite and are oval or cylindrical in form, and generally a few feet in diameter. Their downward course is irregular and limited to 30 or 40 feet. The tinstone is disseminated through a gangue of felspar quartz and chlorite, and is frequently present in the proportion of 50 per cent. Alluvial tin ore also occurs in granite country at Dora Dora, 40 miles east of Albury, and lodes of tinstone and wolfram traverse granitic rocks at Jingellic, 20 miles further east. At Tabletop, near Wagga, tinstone and wol- fram are found both in lodes and alluvial deposits. At Euriowie, north of Broken Hill, tinstone occurs in coarse crystals scattered through pegmatite dykes. Attempts have been made to work these deposits, but the cost of freight from such an outlying district is almost prohibitive. The most recent discovery of tin ore in New South Waies was at Ardlethan, a town on the railway, about 40 miles west of Temora. The ore is found in lenticular chutes in granite close to its junction with Silurian slates. In one instance blocks of ore, weighing as much as a ton, and containing 50 per cent, of tin, were found lying on the surface. Considerable activity has been displayed on this field since its discovery, and if the deposits are found to maintain their values to a depth, it should have a prosperous future. Iron. — Deposits of iron-ore are found in various localities in New South Wales, the most important being situated at Coombing Park near the town of Carcoar, and at Cadia, about 14 miles west of Orange. The first-named deposit has been estimated to contain 2,571,000 tons. It has been quarried to a considerable extent by the Messrs. Hoskins Brothers, who have estab- lished iron smelting works at Lithgow. The ore consists of an intimate mixture of limonite and hematite in varying proportions, and the analysis of a bulk sample yielded 55*8 per cent, of metallic iron, 7*45 per cent, of silica, and '396 phosphoric anhydride. The Cadia deposit consists of beds of hematite and magnetite which have been estimated to contain about 39,000,000 tons, much of which is said to be suitable for the production of steel by the Bessemer process. Iron smelting works are also in course of erection at Newcastle. They are the property of the Broken Hill Proprietary Silver Mining Company, and it is proposed to bring the ore from their Iron Knob Mine in South Australia. 422 Federal Handbook. Aluminium. — -Bauxite, the mineral from which aluminium is made, and which consists principally of alumina, is found in several districts in the State, as at Parish of Wingello, County of Camden, and also near Emmaville and Inverell, where it occurs both in the pisolitic and massive forms. These deposits are not being utilized at present for the manufacture of aluminium, but there is no doubt that attention will be attracted to them in the future. Antimony. — The principal mining field where stibnite, or sulphide of antimonv, is found in quantity, is Hillgrove, 20 miles east of Armidale, where it is associated with gold and scheelite. Antimony mining, however, is a spasmodic industry, owing to the fluctuations in the price of the metal. There is not much demand for antimony at present, and consequently the mines are not being worked. Bismuth and Molybdenum. — Ores of bismuth associated with molybdenite are found at Kingsgate, 18 miles east of Glen Innes. The deposits consist of pipes similar in form to those in which tin occurs near Emmaville. The Kingsgate pipes intersect granite rocks near their junction with slate. They are roughly circular or oval in section, and descend irregularly, dipping at an average angle of 30° towards the Junction of the two formations. Indi- vidual pipes have been worked for a distance of 460 feet on the underlie. The gangue is quartz, and this is impregnated with molybdenite, native bismuth, sulphide, carbonate, and oxide of bismuth. Similar deposits occur at Pheasant Creek, 30 miles north-east, and also at Whipstick, 14 miles fi-om Pambula on the South Coast. In the last- named occurrence the gangue consists of quartz and felspar with a little mica and garnet. Tungsten. — Scheelite and wolfram occur in many localities in the State ; the former is worked pretty extensively at Hillgrove, where it occurs, associ- ated with stibnite, in auriferous quartz reels in intrusive granite near its junction with slate. Although wolfram is widely distributed in New South Wales, its occurrence in commercial quantities is rare. The wolfram mining industry is, however, in a prosperous condition at Torrington, to the north of Emmaville, where it occurs in association with bismuth. The sedimentary rocks of the neighbourhood are believed to be the lower marine (Gympie) beds of the Permo-Carboniferous system. They have been intruded by granite, and subsequently both granite and slate have been intruded by a rock which now consists largely of secondary silica and con- tains also topaz, wolfram, and bismuth. This rock is believed to be an altered granite, and the name topaz-greisen has been proposed for it. The wolfram occurs in crystals scattered through the greisen ; also more plentifully in quartz veins penetrating that rock, and again in pegmatite dykes associated with it. Diamonds are won from alluvial drifts at Copeton, 17 miles from Inverell. A Dutch Company has recently been formed to extract diamonds from the dolerite matrix in which they have been proved to occur at Oakey and Staggy Creeks in the same district. Opal. — Precious opal occurs in veins or seams in a soft, white siliceous rock in the Desert Sandstone Series, of Upper Cretaceous age. It is ex- tensively worked at two widely separated localities, viz., at White Cliffs, Mining Fields^of Australia. 423 north of Wilcannia, and at Lightning Ridge, north of "Walgett. In the last- •named phice the rare variety known as black opal, of great beauty and value, is obtained. Alunite or Alumstone. — This mineral occurs in considerable quantity at Bullah Delah, where a mountain 900 feet high is largely composed of it. The alunite appears to have been formed from the decomposition of rhyo- lites, which form the base of the mountain. The mineral is partially treated on the ground, and then exported to Scotland for the manufacture of alum. Table showing the Quantity and Value of the Minerals won during THE Year 1912, and to the End of 1912. New South Wales. Production for Y( ar Ending Total Production to 31st December 31st Decembei , 1912. 1912. MineraL Quantitj Value. Quantitj Value. Coal 9,885,815 tons £ 3,660,015 181,595,980 tons £ 69,087,688 Gold 165,295 oz. fine 702,129 13,998,775 oz. fine 59,462,975 Silver 2,389,195 oz. 251,652 26,194,502 oz. 3,328,713 Copper 11,034 tons 579,791 216,073 tons 11,784,102 Tin 2,075 ,j 338,074 105,144 „ 9,327,609 Lead 17,251 ,, 264,530 138,191 ,, 2,000,911 Antimony 62 ,, 355 16,653 ,, 305,225 Opal 35,008 1,330,207 Wolfram i72 tons 16,584 1,357 tons 132,517 Manganese 577 ,, 1,662 Bismuth 6 tons 1,210 541 ,, 128,537 Molybdenite . . 57 3,706 304 „ 36,036 Limestone 33,186 11.066 1,124,671 ,, 702,814 Lronstone 1,093 761 106,917 ,, 81,618 ScheeUte 56 4,963 1,130 ,, 100,848 L:on 32,677 ,, 130,708 337,445 2,113,786 Lron Oxide 3,757 " 4,763 23,696 30,748 Lime . . . . 35,657 99 44,478 307,553 277,927 Portland Cement 368,280 1,839,684 Shale (oU) 86,018 tons 34,770 1,651,434 tons 2,322,831 Diamonds 2,239 cts. 2,001 178,970 cts. 120,408 Alunite 3,425 tons 13,700 39,035 tons 119,543 Chrome 23 JJ 60 30,835 ,, 101,468 Marble 1,340 23,064 Platinum 610 ozs. 3,880 12,990 ozs. 29,010 ♦Stone (building, etc.) . . 559 24,176 *Slates 79,234 890 Cobalt 885 tons 8.065 Coke 241,159 tons 162,454 3,012,083 ,, 2,138,667 Quicksilver 1,010 lbs. 126 ♦Grindstones . . '"l76 2,842 Zinc (metal and concen- trates) 520,518 tons 1,766,242 2,819,718 tons 7,539,913 Silver, Lead Ore Concen- trates, etc. . . 345,307 ,, 3,229,614 7,442,007 ,, 54,892,276 Sundry Minerals 8,566 122,084 Totals . . 11,641,435 229,618,970 * Quantity and value exported. 424 Federal Handbook. 2. Victoria. Although gold was first discovered in New South Wales, it was in Victoria (which was proclaimed a separate Colony about this time, viz., 1st July, 1851) that the richest and most extensive gold-fields occurred. Most of these fields were found immediately after a reward of 200 giiineas had been offered for the discovery of a gold-field within 200 miles of Melbourne. The alluvial gold deposits of Anderson's Creek were discovered on 5th July, 1851, those of Buninyong on 8th August, Ballarat on 8th September, and Bendigo on 10th December. Many other alluvial fields were found within a few months, and the immediate result was a large influx of people all eager to prospect for gold. In the following year 1852, there were 40,000 men at Ballarat, a like number at Bendigo, and 25,000 at Castlemaine, in addition to the many thousands who were scattered over the smaller fields. The output of gold in Victoria for the year 1852 was 2,218,782 ozs., valued at £8,875,128, while in 1856 it rose to its maximum, viz., 2,985,991 ozs., valued at £11,943,964. For many years afterwards the value of the gold yield exceeded five millions sterling, and the foundations of Victoria's present prosperity, as well as the formation of her principal townships, was thus the direct result of the discovery of the gold-fields. Auriferous Lodes.-— Th.Q auriferous quartz mining areas of Victoria have been classified as follows : — (1) the Western or Lower Ordovician group, including Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Stawell, Ararat, and Maryborough districts; (2) the Central or Silurian group, including the Walhalla, Wood's Point, and Upper Yarra fields ; and (3) the Eastern group, including the Upper Ordovician and the extensive metamorphic series of Bethanga, Mount Wills, and Cassilis districts. Ballarat. — The auriferous lodes of Ballarat occur in an area of acutely but irregularly folded slates and sandstones which are believed to be of Ordovician age. The axes of the folds have a meridional strike, and the anti- clines and synclines follow an easterly and westerly dip. In Ballarat East a zone of these slates and sandstones about 350 feet in width has been proved favorable to the occurrence of gold, but it is only when these beds have an easterly dip that the intersecting reefs are profitable. These beds are traversed and faulted by north and south felsite dykes. ' The faults are known locally as " leather jackets," because they usually contain a layer of leathery " pug " or " casing," which can be removed in sheets. The " leather jackets " form the foot- walls of extensive quartz formations (often up to 40 feet in width) from which spurs frequently extend westwards, and these deposits have produced great quantities of gold. A second series of dykes (limburgites) intruded the Ballarat gold-field in an east and west direction at a date subsequent to the formation of the quartz reefs, and probably had some influence upon their enrichment. A very interesting feature of Ballarat East is the occurrence of what are termed " indicators," which have been found to have a distinct relation to certain deposits of gold. The indicators are thin beds of slate (and sometimes sandstone) which usually contain pyrites, and occasionally a little quartz. Mining Fields of Australia. 425 They occur in the 350 feet of favorable beds previously referred to, and are therefore usually intersected and faulted by the " leather jackets." The most persistent and important of these occurrences is known as " The Indi- cator " ; it consists of a slate bed one-eighth of an inch thick with a pyritous seam running through it. There is no gold in the Indicator itself, but wherever it is intersected by quartz veins the latter are found to contain deposits of gold, frequently in the form of slugs or masses weighing hundreds of ounces. Other analogous beds are known as " the Western Indicator," " the 4-ft. slate," " the 12-ft. slate," and " the big sandstone." Much more gold, however, has been obtained form the large quartz formations of Ballarat East than from the slugs found at the intc'section of quartz veins with the indicators. The greater part of Ballarat West is covered by a thickness of about 400 feet of basalt, of which there are four distinct flows, together with alluvial clays and gravels. Beneath this covering are the folded slates and sandstones, and these include a favorable series of beds 80 feet wide, containing four black graphitic slate beds, which appear to have had a marked effect upon the deposition of the gold. Payable lodes have only been found within the 80-ft. zone, and again only where these beds have a westerly dip. The three principal lodes are the Consols, or most easterly, the G-uiding Star, and the Albion, or most westerly. Other important lodes are the Phoenix, an inverted saddle, and the Prince of Wales, which is situated on the southern end of the field. The Consols lode has been as much as 70 feet wide on the anticline, and 50 feet in the syncline, and it averaged 4 feet in width down to a depth of 1,000 feet in the celebrated Band and Albion mine. Following a southerly pitch this lode was worked to a depth of nearly 3,000 feet in adjoining mines. The Guiding Star lode was payable for 5,000 feet in length, and the Albion line of lode has been tracea for 4 miles. The black slate horizon on the Albion anticline has been denuded for a distance of several thousand feet, shedding the rich alluvial gold deposits for which this portion of the field was famous. Below the favorable black slate zone there appears to be a thickness of about 1,000 feet of barren rocks, while above it tbere are indications of other favorable strata. The two most profitable quartz mines at Ballarat West were the Band and Albion Consols, which paid £252,001 in dividends, and the Star of the East, which paid £284,400. Bendigo is at present the most prosperous gold-field in Victoria, and is also the one where mining operations have been carried to the greatest depth. The field has a length of about 15 miles by a width of 3, and it may be regarded as the type-district of the lodes known as saddle-reefs. The prevailing rocks are slates and sand.stoncs of Lower Ordovician age, but at Harcourt, about 15 miles to the south, an intrusive massif of granite has altered the sediments for a distance of 25 chains from the junction. The sedimentary series has been thrown into a remarkably regular succession of anticlinal and synclinal folds, whose axes have a strike of about N. 16° W. ; moreover, the beds undulate in this direction as well as in that at right angles to it, though not to the same extent. A section across the field from east to west would there- fore show the slates and sandstones bent into a regular series of corrugations, 1:26 Federal Handbook. while a noitli and south, section would show a similar formation in a less pro- nounced degree. Owing to the bending or folding of the strata, lune-shaped cavities or spaces have been formed between contiguous beds, the spaces being widest at the tops of the anticlines and at the bases of the synclines, and thinning out gradually between the two. In these spaces auriferous quartz has subsequently been deposited, and the lodes thus formed have received the name of saddle-reefp, owing to their resemblance to a saddle in cross-section. The thickest part of the reef is called the cap of the saddle, while the eastern and western extensions are termed the legs. In the case of a perfectly formed saddle-reef occupying the dome of an anticline it will be understood that the deposit will have a quaquaversaJ dip, and will gradually taper out to nothing in a downward direction. The anticlinal axes are locally known as " centre-country," and fifteen of these nearly parallel axes have been proved to carry saddle-reefs the distance from one to the next ranging from 300 to 1,300 feet. The angle of dip of the beds varies considerably, but th.e average is about 65°. The caps of the reefs are often from 20 to 30 feet in width, and even more in thickness or height, but the legs are seldom more than 3 or 4 feet wide, and they rarely extend downwards for a greater depth than 100 feet. Saddle-reefs recur in depth, and as many as 24 of them have been met with in a depth of 2,200 feet in the Lazarus mine. The sedimentary rocks have been intruded by a series of small monchiquite dykes, locally known as " lava streaks," which have also intersected and in many instances faulted the reefs. Besides the saddle-reefs, " spurs " are a feature of the Bendigo field, and have yielded large quantities of gold. There are no less than 53 shafts over 2,000 feet deep on the field, and several exceed 4,000 feet in depth, the deepest being the Victoria Quartz shaft, which is down 4.614 feet. Amongst the most successful mines at Bendigo are the Garden Gully United, which has paid £852,169 in dividends, and the South New Moon, which has distributed profits amounting to £492,000. The output from Bendigo for the year 1912 was 168,177 ozs. of gold. Castlemmne gold-field resembles Bendigo in that the lodes are chiefly saddle lodes, and there are also fault lodes occurrmg m Lower Ordovician rocks, which have been folded into anticlines and synclines. Fault or " blocky " lodes consist of laminated quartz up to several feet in thickness, with large masses of spurs and veins traceable for hundreds of feet, the spurs forming at times payable stockworks. Maryhorough gold-field occurs in folded Ordovician slates and sandstones, which have been traversed in every direction by dykes of porphjay, porphy- rite, and lamprophyi-e. The principal ore deposits are quartz lenses occurring on either wall of lamprophjrre dykes, and large lode channels with main veins and stockwork spurs adjacent to such dykes. Daylesford is an important gold-field, the conditions under which the gold occurs being very similar to those at Bailarat. The Ordovician slates and sandstones have been folded into anticlines and synclines, which are traversed by dykes and cut by faults. The Ajax group of lodes, which are the most Mining Fields op Australia. 427 important, have formed in west-dipping faults, which intersect certain favor- able east-dipping beds, while " flat makes " between the faults have also proved rich gold producers. The Cornish group of lodes to the east of the Ajax line are also west- dipping fault lodes in a series of favorable east-dipping strata. In the Maldon gold-field there are lodes of the fault type similar to those of Ballarat, saddle-reefs like those of Bendigo, and quartz lodes directly associated with dykes analogous to those of Maryborough. The prevailing rocks are folded slates and sandstones of Ordovician age, which have been altered by contact with intrusive granite. The most important mines are the Beehive, the Union, and the South G-erman ; the latter is still giving good returns. Stawell and Lauriston are other examples of gold-fields characterised by the occurrence of saddle-reefs. At Berringa also saddle-reefs have been successfully worked, as well as fault lodes similar to those of Ballarat. St. Arnaud is another gold-field where deep quartz mining has been highly profitable. The Lord Nelson group of lodes is the most important ; they have a westerly dip and intersect Lower Ordovician strata having a nearly similar inclination. Up to December, 1912, the Lord Nelson mine paid £265,350 in dividends. Walhalla gold-field is situated in an area of highly folded and contorted slates and sandstones of Silurian age. Cohen's reef has been most success- fully worked in two mines known as the Long Tunnel, and Long Tunnel Extended. It is a true fissure lode, and is associated with a dyke of quartz- mica-diorite, which is sometimes on one side of it and sometimes on the other. The strike of the lode is N. 18° W., and it dips W. 18° S. at a high angle. It has been worked down to a depth of 3,375 feet, and has yielded 1,475,625 ozs. of gold, and paid £2,378,290 iti dividezids. In width the lode varied from a thread up to 12 feet, and exceptionally up to 50 feet. Wood's Point gold-field is also within an area of folded Silurian slates and sandstones. The principal feature of the field is the occurrence of gold- bearing " flat reefs " or " floors " intersecting diorite dykes. These flat reefs vary in thickness up to 10 or 20 feet ; and in one mine, The Morning Star, thirteen distinct flat reefs have been worked to a depth of 400 feet (water level) for a yield of over £1,000,000. Other important mines of a similar character are the New Loch Fyne and the Al. The former has paid nearly £110,000 in dividends. At Bethanga, on the Upper Murray, and Cassilis, in East Gippsland, lodes containing auriferous sulphide ores occur. Those of the first-named field are highly arseni(;al and have proved very refractory ; the Cassilis ores are being successfully treated. ; Alluvial Leads. — The denudation of the auriferous reefs has produced exten.sive alluvial deposits on all the gold-fields, and it was the shallower of these which \yere worked with such successful results in the early days of gold-mining. Sub.sequently the gold was traced into the deep UvmU, which are liver beds of Tertiary age, now covered by accumulations of clays and sands, and frequently by lava flows. In Victoria these ancient C 121 54 . '2 K 428 Federal Handbook. auriferous valleys measure in the aggregate several hundred miles in length, and they trend in a northerl)^ and southerly direction from an old divide closely approximating in position to the existing Main Dividing Range The value of the gold won from the deep alluvial leads and their shallower tributaries is probably not less than £150,000,000. In the earlier and more prosperous years of gold mining the principal alluvial fields were Ballarat, Bendigo, Creswick, Castlemaine, Maryborough, Ararat, Stawell, Chiltern, Rutherglen, and Beech worth. In most of these centres the gold yields- were phenomenal, and many large nuggets were found. At the present time deep leads are being worked at Ararat, Beaufort (Fiery Creek), Poseidon, Chiltern, and Rutherglen, and new leads are still being systematically searched for by means of the drill. Of recent years alluvial deposits that would be unpayable by ordinary mining methods have been worked successfully in many localities by means- of dredges, and at the present time there are 26 of these at work in the immediate vicinity of Bright. Nuggets. — The occurrence of very large gold nuggets in positions close to the surface in alluvial ground, where, by reason of their great weight,, it seems unlikely that they could have been transported by running water, has given rise to much speculation as to their origin, and some years ago it was suggested that they may have been formed in situ, either wholly or in part, by the deposition of gold from aqueous solutions. The largest nugget ever found (" The Welcome Stranger," from the Black Lead, Moliagul) weighed 2,520 ozs. in its natural state, and contained 68 lbs. of quartz. It was covered by only a few inches of surface soil. The discovery of several large nuggets, one of which weighed 953 ozs., a few inches below the surface, at Poseidon, in December, 1906, and the subsequent unearthing of a number of others, at intervals, in the same lead, has enabled more careful observations to be made of the conditions under which they occur, and there now appears to be little doubt as to their source. Every nugget of gold found in the Poseidon lead was observed to lie in the immediate vicinity of an " indicator," which could be seen traversing the bed rock forming the floor of the lead. The indicators consist of thin beds of slate, which have been more or less replaced by laminated quartz, and which contain pyrites veins. Occasionally the pyrites has been oxidized, and the indicator then consists of ferruginous laminated quartz of a saccha- roidal structure. Samples of the indicators have been assayed and found to- contain no gold. The occurrence of similar indicators in the Ordovician rocks of Ballarat East, and the fact that where they are intersected by quartz, veins the latter are frequently found to contain massive slugs of gold, strongly suggests a similar origin for the luiggets obtained in the Poseidon alluvial lead. Most of these nuggets have a considerable quantity of vitreous- quartz attached to them, and it is believed that, in the process of denudation, they have been shed from quartz reefs at the intersection of the latter with the indicator. It is probable therefore that if the indicators were followed into the solid rock, other cross veins would be met with, and that undisturbed masses of gold would be found at the intersections, as is the case in Ballarat East. Mining Fields of Australia. 429 Bituminous Coal. — There are three isolated areas of Jurassic Coal Measures in Victoria, two of which, viz., the Wannon River Watershed, and the Otway-Bellarine district, have not been proved to contain workable seams of coal. In South Gippslaud the measures occupy an area of 2,100 square miles, and a belt about 50 miles long by 10 miles wide, extending from Kilcunda to Morwell, has been proved to contain some payable seams. Mining is now being carried on at Kilcunda, Wonthaggi, Outtrim, Jumbunna, and Korumburra, but the coal seams, with the exception of those at Wonthaggi, rarely exceed 3 feet in thickness. At the Wonthaggi State Coal Mines the seam reaches a thickness of 7 ft. 8 in., with two shale bands varying from a quarter of an inch to 1 inch in thickness. The seam has been much faulted, and this adds considerably to the cost of winning. The coal is of good quality, but is friable, and there- fore produces a considerable proportion of " smalls." The average com- position of the coal is as follows : — Hygroscopic Moisture .. .. .. 4*93 Volatile Hydrocarbons . . . . 34 '32 Fixed Carbon .. .. .. 51*43 Ash .. .. .. .. 9-32 100-00 Calorific value .. .. .. 11*97 The total annual output of coal is at present about 600,000 tons, of which the State Mine produces 456,000 tons. Broivri Coal. — There are three main deposits of Brown Coal of Tertiary age in Victoria, viz. : — 1. Morwell area, of about 800 square miles. 2. Alberton area, of about 200 square miles. 3- Altona Bay area, extending from Melbourne to Werribee, containing 700 square miles. The deposits are the thickest in the world ; one bore at Morwell passed through 780 feet of brown coal in a depth of 1,010 feet ; the three largest beds being 266, 227, and 166 feet thick respectively. The composition of the Morwell coal is as follows : — • Water .. .. .. .. 35*08 Volatile Matter . . . . 29*24 Fixed Carbon .. . . . . 33*28 Ash .. .. .. .. 2*40 100*00 Calorific value .. .. .. 8*53 There is every reason to believe that practical use will be made of this fiifl in the future. 2E2 430 Federal Handbook. Tin. — Tertiary leads containing stream tin have been worked at Beech.- ■worth, Eldorado, the Upper Murray, Toora, and the Latrobe Valley, but the workings have not been very extensive. At Toora, in South Gippsland, the deposit of gravels and clays, containing a little tin and gold, is about 150 feet in thickness and extends for about a mile and a half in length. It occupies an old river valley in the Jurassic rocks and has evidently been carried a long distance. A very complete hydraulic plant, which cost £20,000, has recently been erected and is now treating the gravels ; the question as to their commeicial value will therefore soon be settled. In the North-Eastern district, around Tallandoon and Eskdale, lodes, pegmatite dykes, and greisens carrying tin-ore occur, but there has been very little mining there. Copper. — At the Thomson Kiver, near Walhalla, the Silurian rocks have been intruded by a hornblendic dyke 60 feet wide, and through a width of 20 feet of this rock copper sulphides, containing platinum and palladium, are disseminated. The chute of ore has been proved for a length of about 70 feet. Although essentially a concentrating ore, it has hitherto been smelted as it came from the mine, and 1,290 tons yielded 3 per cent, of copper and 18 grains of platinum per unit of Cu. To the west of the ore-body an enriched vein of sulphides is said to have yielded from 10 to 13 per cent, of copper for a length of 120 feet by a depth of 40. Antimony. — Sulphide and oxide of antimony occur in quartz veins in dykes in the Silurian rocks and occasionally in the Ordovician. At Coster- field a considerable quantity of antimony has been won, and at present about 55 tons of sulphide concentrates containing 2j ozs. of gold per ton are being exported weekly. Bismuth occurs in small quantities at Redbank, Lintons, Wombat Creek, and Maldon. Molybdenite is also found in small quantities, the best deposit being at Wangarabell, in East Clippsland. Wolfram and Scheelite occur in lodes in Ordovician strata at Linton and Chiltern, and in granite at Mount Murphy. The deposits, however, appear to be of small extent. Gypsum has been extensively worked in Tertiary deposits at Boort and Lake Boga. At Kow Plains, in the Mallee District, deposits of earthy gypsum occur over an area of about 100 square miles. The mineral contains about 94 per cent, of calcic sulphate, CaS04 -f- 2OH2. It occupies ridges about 20 feet high, and also extends to a depth of about 3 feet below the intervening plains. These deposits are probably the most extensive in Australia. Diatomaceous Earth is found in deposits of Tertiary age in many localities, the most notable being Lillicur, near Talbot, where extensive deposits are now being worked. Mining Fields of Australia. 431 Table showing the Quantity and Value of Minerals won during THE Year 1912 and to the end of 1912. Victoria. Production for Year ending 31st December, 1912. Total rroduction to 31st December, 1912. Name of Metal or Mineral. Quantity raised. Value. Quantity. Value. fine ozs. £ fine ozs. £ Gold 480,131 2,039,464 68,672,868 291,703,453 Silver 1 17,424* 1 2,200 1,360.2.52* 30,058 206,359 7,816 Platinum tons. 184 tons. 989 Coal 589,143 258,455 4,667,054 2,436,017 Brown Coal 4,012 866 73,185 26,374 Copper and Copper Ore 18,694 215,761 Tin Ore . . 48 5,733 15,715 782,680 Antimony Ore 2,430 16,162 37,896 240,874 Silver-lead Ore 793 5,760 Iron Ore 5,434 12,540 Wolfram "lO "574 65 5,«59 Diamonds 20 128 Sapphires, etc. 630 Gypsum . . 2,078 3,359 21,198 14,473 Magnesite 211 633 383 1,143 Kaolin 288 342 5,535 11,366 Diatomaceous Earth 850 3,400 4,743 19,352 Manganese Ore 20 60 45 212 Building Stones (Basalt, Sandstone, Granite, Slate, Flagstone, Lime- stone (for making Ume), also Crude Salt) .. 3,996,423t Pigment Clays 13 " 26 " 81 106 Totals 2,331,294 299,688,115 * Extracted from gold at Melbourne Mint. t These returns are from 1866 only, and are collected by the Government Statist. The value of building stones (including crude salt) raised during 1911 was £151,713 — total to end of 1911 only, the figiu-es for 1912 not being yet available. 3. Queensland. The potential wealth of Queensland is remarkable, by reason of the extent and diversity of the mineral deposits already discovered ; the mining industry is in a healthy condition to-day, and vast areas of the State still remain practically unprospected. The Coal-fields of Queensland are of great extent, and are of three ages, viz., Permo-Carboniferous, Trias-Jura, and Cretaceous. The first-named will probably prove to be the most important in the future, as the coal they con- tain is of the best quality, and the seams are of greater thickness and uni- formity than those of the fields of more recent age ; hitherto, however, they have been the least developed. They extend for a length of about 350 miles in a northerly direction from near the Southern railway across the Central line to within 60 miles of Bowen, and other isolated areas occur at Blair Athol, near Clermont, and at Mount Mulligan, about 50 miles west of 432 Federal Handbook. Cairns. The Blair Atliol field is a very remarkable one, for though only 2^ miles long by 1| wide, as at present known, it contains, at a depth of about 120 feet from the surface, a seam of good hard steam coal, 66 feet thick, and without bands. It has been estimated by Mr. Dunstan, Government Geologist, that the Permo-Carboniferous seams probably contain 1,000,000,000 tons of coal. The Trias-Jura coal-fields are of special interest because the greater proportion of the coal hitherto produced in Queensland has been obtained from them, particularly from the neighbourhood of Ipswich, where coal- mining has been carried on for over 50 years. The area of the productive Trias-Jura Coal Measures is approximately 70 square miles, chiefly in the south-eastern quadrant of Queensland, and it has been estimated that they probably contain 470,000,000 tons of coal. The Cretaceous Coal Measures cover a wide area in the centre of Queens- land, where they contain supplies of artesian water, and where their coal seams have not yet been proved productive. An easterly development, however, of these measures occurs at Burrum, near Maryborough, where collieries have been working for 30 years. The productive area of the Burrum coal-field is about 6 square miles, and it has been estimated to contain approximately 104,000,000 tons of coal. In the aggregate, the Queensland coal-fields which are known to be pro- ductive probably contain about 1,574,000,000 tons of coal, in seams over 1 foot in thickness. Gold is very widely distributed throughout Queensland, and many isolated gold-fields have been worked since the precious metal was first discovered in 1852. Gympie Gold-field is situated about 100 miles north of Brisbane. Alluvial gold was first discovered here in 1867, and the first auriferous reef was found in the same year. The total yield of gold from this field up to the end of the year 1912 was £11,270,466." The rocks in which the auriferous reefs occur have been named by the Queensland Geological Survey the " Middle Gympie Series," and are of Permo-Carboniferous age, as determined by numerous marine fossils found in them. These beds consist of limestones, shales or slates, conglomerates, tufis, and interbedded diabases and greenstones. At least seven distinct beds of black graphitic or anthracitic slate occur in these rocks, and have a very marked influence on the gold contents of the reefs intersecting them. In thickness these graphitic beds vary from a mere thread up to 200 feet. The beds have a general dip to the east at an angle of about 25 degrees, while the inclination of the reefs is generally to the westward at an angle of about 60 degrees. A distinctive feature of the field is that payable gold values are only found when the reefs have a westerly dip, and where they intersect black or graphitic slates, dipping in the opposite direction. Occasion- ally a bed of graphitic slate is found to merge into grey or purple mangani- ferous slate, and where this happens the intersecting reefs are almost invariably found to be barren. Furthermore, where a reef is afiected by a normal fault within the limits of a bed of graphitic slate, an enrichment of the reef is produced, but in the case of a reversed fault the reef is found to be barren. Mining Fields of Australia. 433 The reefs vaiy in thickness from a thread to 20 feet. Some exceptionally rich yields of gold have been obtained, and in one instance one of the monthly dividends of a mining company amounted to £68,000, a sum equivalent to its nominal capital. At the present time the field is in a somewhat depressed condition, and its future prosperity appears to depend upon the success of attempts now in progress to test the third or lowest graphitic slate bed recently found to extend to the east at considerable depths below the Monk- land slates. Charters Towers is a small but very rich gold-field situated on the Northern railway line 82 miles south-west of Townsville. The oldest rocks on the field are schists, slates, and quartzites, which have been intruded and meta- morphosed by granite. Later dykes of felsite and diorite have intersected the granite and sedimentary rocks. The gold, associated with galena, pyrites, and some blende, occurs in quartz reefs, which are found chiefly in the granite, and almost invariably in proximity to igneous dykes. The principal lines of reef are the Day Dawn, Brilliant, St. George, and Queen's, which all have an east and west strike with a northerly dip. They vary considerably in width, occasionally widening to as much as 50 feet. Over £27,000,000 worth of gold has been won at Charters Towers since 1872, and although the field has not been in a very flourishing state for some time, the geological features connected with the occurrence of the gold point to the probability of a renewed prosperity. Mount Morgan, 25 miles south-west of Rockhampton, was discovered in 1882. It is unquestionably the most remarkable gold and copper mine in Australia. An area of 1 square mile was purchased from a selector for £640, and a company, with a capital of £1,000,000, was subsequently formed to work it for gold. The upper portion of the deposit, consisting principally of limonite, was enormously rich in fine gold. Though the metal was seldom visible in the ironstone, much of the latter contained from 30 to 40 ozs. of gold per ton, and in one year the Company paid a million sterling in dividends. The total amount hitherto paid to the shareholders is nearly nine millions. The geological foundation upon which this extraordinary deposit was formed consisted of a series of limestones, and banded claystones and tuffs, with sills and dykes of quartz porphyry. Subsequently this stratified series, which is probably of Carboniferous age, was intruded by hornblendic granite, and still later by andesitic dolerite dykes of at least two ages. It is probable that the intrusion of the hornblendic granite was the cause of (1) the meta- . morphism of the sedimentary series ; and (2) the impregnation of these rocks with iron pyrites containing small proportions of gold and copper. The later intrusions of the dolerite dykes, of which there is a complete net- work, probably completed the alteration (silification) of the ore bodies, which in the lowest levels, consist of massive quartzite impregnated with low-grade copper and gold bearing pyrites. The invasion of the dolerites was probably also responsible for vigorous solfataric action, which had the effect of concen- trating on the top of the deposit pyrites containing high proportions of gold and copper. Subsequently atmospheric agencies caused the decomposition of the pyrites, the bulk of the gold being left in extremely rich limonite ore, while the copper was leached and redeposited between the 300 and 650 ft. levels. Below the latter depth the ore becomes gradually poorer. 434 Federal Handbook. The gold in tlie limonite was extremely pure, being worth £4 4s. 8d. per ounce. The Mount Morgan ore body is approximately wedge-shaped, its dimen- sions being about 1,200 feet in length by 500 in width, and it is believed to thin out at a depth of about 1,100 feet. An extremely good fire-brick is made from a bed of shale, 30 feet thick, found in the Trias-Jura rocks in the vicinity of Mount Morgan. Amongst other gold-fields which have been worked with greater or less success are Clermont, Croydon, Coen, Etheridge, Eidsvold, Calliope, Hamilton, Palmer, Ravenswood, and Starke. Copper. — Undoubtedly the most important copper producing territory in Australia is the Cloncurry Field, which consists of an area of primary rocks (probably Silurian) about 200 miles in length by 100 in width. Clon- curry is situated 480 miles west of Townsville, with which it is connected by rail, and about 220 miles south of the G-ulf of Carpentaria. The prevailing rocks are schists, quartzites, indurated slates, marmorized limestones and calcareous tufT?, with intrusive granites, porphyries, diorites„ etc. A notable feature of the district is the occm^rence, along the tops of ridges, of lenticular masses of hematite. Although comparatively little prospecting has yet been done, quite a number of deposits of extremely rich copper ore has been opened, and some of these have been developed into very important mines. Generally speaking, the ore deposits occur as interstratified lenses and bunches, sometimes of very large dimensions, and a small proportion of gold is frequently associated with the copper. The field has unquestionably a great future before it as a copper- producing area. Amongst the most important mines of the Cloncurry Field are Mount Oxide, Mount Cuthbert, Mount Elliott, The Hampden, The Duchess, and the Great Australia. The Great Fitzroy is an important copper mine situated 10 miles north of Rockhampton ; other notable deposits occur at Mount Perry, and at Peak Downs, near Clermont. Tin mining was commenced at Stanthorpe, near the southern border of Queensland, in 1872, and for a period of about eleven years afterwards large quantities of tin-stone were recovered from the granite of that district. Thereafter the production gradually decreased, though tin mining is still carried on — principally by means of dredges. The Herberton District, in Northern Queensland, is the prin-^ipal tin- producing field of the State at the present time, other important tin-bearing localities being Annan, Kangaroo Hills, FossUbrook, and Stanhills, near Croydon. The Herberton and Chillagoe Districts constitute an important mineral field, and contain deposits of tin, copper, silver-lead, wolfram, bismuth, molybdenite, antimony, gold, monazite, and coal. The country is very mountainous its altitude varying from 1,000 to 4,000 feet above sea-leveL It is situated to the west of Cairns, with which it is connected by railway Mining Fields of Australia. 435 The oldest rocks about Herberton are tuffaceous sandstones and shales, probably of Carboniferous age, which have been intruded and highly meta- morphosed by granites and quartz-porphyries, while both the latter and the sedimentary series have been intruded by later dykes of diorite, andesite, and elvan. The alteration of the sandstones and shales near Herberton and Irvinebank has been so complete that little or no trace of their original bedding can be distinguished, though at Stannary Hills fine contorted sections can be seen in the banks of Eureka Creek. The ore deposits occur both in the sedimentary and in the intrusive rocks, but generally within a short distance of the boundary between the two. True fissure lodes are of comparatively rare occurrence in this field, the ore bodies consisting for the most part of pipes, bunches (chutes) or impregnation?. Near the town of Herberton large quantities of stream tin were obtained over 30 years ago from an alluvial lead which was traced down under basalt and which is still being worked. Subsequently quite a number of ore deposits was found in the quartz-porphyry near the alluvial lead, and these developed into most irregularly shaped chutes or bimches, some of which were extremely rich. They are of all sizes, but rarely exceed 100 feet in length by 15 feet in width, while they have occasionally been worked to a depth of about 700 feet. The most important of these deposits at present being worked is " The Eain- bow," which is of considerable size, and is yielding siliceous ore containing 15 per cent, of black tin. At Watsonville, 6 miles to the west similar ore bodies occur in sandstones (quartzites) and shales near the junction with granite, where the tin is fre- quently associated with copper ores. The Irvinebank Mining Company has a large crushing and tin-smelting plant, 18 miles from Herberton, which is served by a number of mines within an area of sedimentary rocks. The most important mine near Irvinebank is the Vulcan, which has a vertical shaft 1,460 feet deep. A series of discon- nected, but in many cases overlapping, bunches of tin-ore of great size and irregular form, have been worked down to a depth of 1,050 feet, and there are indications that deposits occur below that level. This mine has had a most successful history and its future prospects appear to be excellent. To the south of Irvinebank there are numerous deposits of tin around Spring Hills, Smith's Creek, etc., in sedimentary rocks, while at Mount Garnet about £360,000 worth of copper was obtained from ore-bodies in granite ; however, in the lower levels of this mine the ore became zinciferous and iron pyrites replaced the copper ore. A few miles to the west of Irvinebank the Victoria silver-lead lode, up to 5 feet in thickness, is being worked at a depth of 200 feet, while at Montalbion the same class of ore occurs in irregular bunches in sedimentary rocks. At Stannary Hills both tin and silver-lead are found in the sandstones near their junction with intrusive quartz-porphyry. The tin-ore occurs in a chlorite gangue in irregularly-shaped bunches having the same character as those in the Vulcan Mine, and has been worked to a depth of about 700 feet. 436 Federal Handbook. About 18 miles west of Stannary Hills deposits of wolfram, bismuth, and molybdenite are worked at Bamford Hill, near Petford, and 10 miles south-west of the latter place a considerable area of sedimentary rocks con- taining tin and wolfram occurs near Koorboora. Many of these deposits are being worked in a small way. Seven miles further west, in Torpy's Crooked Creek Mine, an irregularly-shaped pipe of sliver-lead ore is being worked. At Chillagoe, which is connected by private railway (92 miles long) with the Government line at Mareeba, extensive copper and lead smelting works were erected to treat the products of the district, but although the copper lodes in the vicinity were exceedingly promising on the surface they failed to carry their values to a depth, and most of the Chillagoe Company's Mines have now been closed down, the works being kept going by other mines in the district. At Mungana, 10 miles from Chillagoe, some very interesting silver-lead deposits occur in the Girofla and Lady Jane Mines. The ore occurs in caverns in limestone rock close to its jimction with granite. Some of these ore-bodies are of great magnitude, in one instance as much as 140 feet long by 40 feet wide, and over 30*^ feet in depth. In the Girofla Mine, considerable quantities of oxidized lead and copper ores were found underneath galena and copper pyrites. This unusual occm-rence was probably due to the surface waters having found their way below the sulphides through one of the side channels which are so numerous in limestone caves As the contact between the granite and the limestone has been traced for a distance of many miles, it is probable that numerous other deposits of a similar character will be found. About 23 miles westerly from Mungana, in the Klondyke District, a smelt • ing plant has been erected by the Mammoth Company to treat the copper ores from their mines. These ores also contain an appreciable proportion of gold. Wolfram Camp is situated about 14 miles north-west from Dimbulah, a station on the Chillagoe Railway. Wolfram, molybdenite, and bismuth are extensively mined here in intrusive greisen close to its junction with slates. The ores occur in bunches and strings in very irregularly-shaped chutes or pipes, similar in their mode of occurrence to the tin-bearing deposits of Herberton. The general trend of the wolfram chutes, however, is northerly and they have occasionally been followed on their dip for as much as 600 feet in that direction. The ores are invariably found in a quartz gangue. The Irvinebank Mining Co. has erected a compact plant at Wolfram Camp for the treatment of these ores. The molybdenite is separated from the wolfram and bismuth by jigs and concentrators, and is finally recovered from the tailings by the flotation process. From Northcote, 14 miles west of Mareeba, for a distance of about 50 miles in a north-westerly direction, occurs a belt of slates and sandstones con- taining antimony and gold deposits. Both metals occur in quartz reefs, some of which are interbedded, while some intersect the strata. Some of these reefs contain gold only, in others nearly pure stibnite is found, whilst in others again gold is associated with the antimony ore. The antimony Mining Fields of Australia. 437 lodes are worked intermittently, the industry being; influenced by the market price of the metal. The sedimentary rocks of this district are traversed by immense dykes which have been much altered by secondary silica. The wolfram deposits of Mount Carbine are situated about 22 miles west of Mount Molloy railway station. They occm- in dykes of coarse pegma- tite which have intruded highly altered blue slates near their junction with a, granite massif. The pegmatite dykes vary in width from an inch up to 8 feet and they ■occur in more or less parallel series, though adjoining dykes are frequently connected by smaller ones running in every conceivable direction. The result is a complete network of ore-bodies in which the wolfram is distributed in an average proportion of about 1 '3 per cent. The deposits are being worked by tunnels several hundred feet below the top of the mountain, and it seems probable that they will be found to increase in width as greater depth is attained. A large dyke of felsite crosses the mountain near its summit, -and intersects the pegmatite series which is evidently older than it. A very complete crushing and concentrating plant, containing twenty head of stamps, is employed in treating the ore from these mines, which are mainly the property of the Irvinebank Mining Company. The granite mountains on both sides of Mount Carbine are stanniferous, and on the northern side considerable deposits of alluvial tin-ore are being worked, at intervals, nearly as far as Cooktown. It may be stated that from 1,000 to 1,500 men are making a living by working alluvial tin within the Herberton, Chillagoe, and Cooktown districts. The principal difficulty connected with mining in these fields is the scarcity of timber for fuel, which at some of the principal centres costs as much as 23s. per cord. The recent discovery of coal seams at Mount Mulligan, which is only 30 miles north of Dimbulah, a station on the Chillagoe railway, is therefore of immense importance to the mining industry. A railway is now being constructed to the coal-field, and it is safe to say that the cost of fuel at the mines will shortly be reduced by 50 per cent. Texas. — Near the town of Texas on the southern border of Queensland an important silver-lead mine, called the Silver Spur, has been successfully worked for many years. The ore consists of argentiferous galena with zinc- blende and a little copper pyrites, and it occurs in extensive lenses in Permo- Carboniferous rocks. Precious Opal is found in Upper Cretaceous rocks in the western districts of Queensland. The most important opal workings are at Paroo, Kyabra, and Koroit. Other localities where the gem has been found include Duck Creek, Bull Creek, Sheep Station Creek, Yowah, and Kynuna. Sapphire Mining is practised to a considerable extent in the Anakie District about 20^ miles west of Kockhampton. The gemstones, which are blue, green, or yellow in colour, occur in a Post-Tertiary alluvial lead, associated wath water-worn boulders of basalt, granite, and sandstone. The lead has been traced for a distance of about 27 miles. The original matrix of the sapphires is doubtless the basalt which occurs near the source of the alluvial deposit, and the gems have been set free by the weathering of the rock. 438 Federal Handbook. Table showing the Quantity and Value op Minerals Won during the Year 1912, and to the End of 1912. Queensland. Production for Year Ending Total Production to 31st December 31st Decembe r, 1912. 1912. MineraL Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Coal . . . . 902,166 tons £ 338,264 14,1.54,049 tons £ 5,377,240- Gold 347,946 ozs. fine 1,477,979 17,707,939 ozs. fine 75,218,494 Silver 569,181 ozs. 66,188 13,497,125 ozs. 1,722.319 Copper 23,120 tons 1,698,280 196,163 tons 10,948,399^ Tin .. 3,230 „ 364,503 134,593 „ 8,199,391 Lead 3,108 „ 55,667 39,093 „ 534,504 Antimony 4,181 „ 50.953. Opal . . i 3,000 172,195 Wolfram . . 1 626 tons 57,821 8,350 „ 735,665 Manganese .. 1 308 „ 1,281 17,004 „ 64,589 Bismuth 197 „ 19,261 696 „ 111,08^ Molybdenite . 102 „ 17,349 1,415 „ 153,70a Limestone 97,175 „ 24,176 869,867 „ 279,427 Gems 40,016 226,302 Ironstone 15,526 tons 9,035 259,801 tons 202,780 ScheeHte 20 „ 1,772 Fireclay 6,336 „ 2,535 23,491 „ 9,63a Graphite 148 „ 732. Totals . • 4,175,355 104,009,087 4. Tasmania. The West Coast. The West Coast of Tasmania consists of very mountainous country composed of Silm'ian and Pre-Silurian sediments, with granites and other intrusive rocks. The granites are probably mainly responsible for the mineralization which has of late years resulted in the development of a number of important mining fields within this area. Waratah Mining Field. — The oldest and most important of these fields is that of Waratah, where the Mount Bischoff tin mine has had a most successful history dm-ing the last 40 years. Mount Bischoi! is formed of Silurian slates and sandstones, which have been intruded by a dyke of topaz-porphyry varying in width from 6 to 150 feet. The general course of the dyke is about north-west and south-east, but near the top of the mountain it makes a complete horseshoft bend. The porphyry contains about '3 per cent, of tin-oxide, and the slates and sandstones, which have been altered by contact metamorphism, also contain, within a distance of about 60 feet of the dyke, small veins and impregnations of tin-ore. The denudation of the dyke during past ages resulted in the formation of a vast talus of detrital material, which in the early years of the mine's history yielded almost fabulous retm-ns of tin. At the Mining Fields of Australia. 439 present time the dyke, the adjacent sediments, and the detrital material are all being removed by open-cast workings in a series of benches, and are sent to the mill in conjunction for an average yield of '5 per cent, of tin- oxide. There is also a lode known as the Queen lode, which is being worked underground. It intersects both the slates and the dyke, has an average width of 3 ft. 6 in., and yields about "75 per cent, of tin-oxide. This lude- stufi is also treated with the material from the open cut. From a commercial point of view the mine has a unique history. The company was floated in 1873, the capital actually paid up amounting to only £7,600. In the 40 years which have since elapsed the shareholders have loceived upwards of £2,400,000 in dividends. At present the total cost of mining, conveying, and milling amounts to only 4s. lid. per ton of ore. The plant is driven by hydro-electric power, the water having a hydrostatic head of .560 feet. The Mount Bischofi Extended mine adjoins the Mount Bischofi, and contains a lode averaging about 3 feet in width and yielding '94 per cent, of metallic tin. The workings extend for a vertical depth of 750 feet, and nearly 20,000 tons of ore are treated annually in a ten-head mill. The Magnet Silver-Lead mine is situated about 5 miles west of Mount BischoS. The lode channel, which occurs in dolomite, varies in width from 6 to 100 feet. The lode exhibits a banded structure with veins and lenses of silver-lead-zinc sulphides, with occasionally a little jamesonite and ruby silver ore. The lode channel has been worked for a length of about 400 feet. The mill is worked by water power, a hydrostatic head of 450 feet being available. The concentrates contain 100 ounces of silver, 50 per cent, of lead, and 11 per cent, of zinc. The Mount Cleveland Tin mine is situated 10 miles from Mount Bischofi, on the Whyte Eiver. A lode of considerable width and said to yield '9 per cent, of tin oxide has been worked by an open cut, and has been proved at a lower level to consist of pyritic ore. Osmiridiiim Mining. — Alluvial deposits of osmiridium are worked in the Mneteen-mile Creek and other tributaries of the Savage River, near Bald Hill, to the north-west of Mount Bischofi. The metal occm-s in grains and small nuggets in the crevices of the rocks farming the creek beds. The largest piece yet discovered weighs about 2 ounces. The source of the metal has been proved to be serpentine rock, in which it appears to be sparsely disseminated in gi-ains. The Tullah Field is situated about 15 miles south of Waratah, and the principal mine is the North Mount Farrell Silver-lead Mine. There are three lodes varying from 5 to 20 feet in width in the prop(>rty, and they occur in crushed schist near its junction with intrusive porphyry. The ore consists of argentiferous galena with only a trace of zinc-blende. The output is about 2,700 tons per annum of picked ore and concentrates, the former containing 63 per cent, of lead and 75 ounces of silver per ton, while the latter average 53 per cent, of lead and 55 ounces of silver. In the Rosebery Field, near the town of Rosebery, on the Burnie-Zeehan railway, there are three important mines, viz., the Tasmaniaii Copper Com- pany, the Primrose, and the Horculos. The Tasmaniaii Copper Company as a misnomer, as thev work a silv(u-h'a(l-ziiic niim;. Th(( couiitrv rock is a 440 Federal Handbook. silicious schist and tlie ore-deposits consist of large interbedded lenses of fine-grained pyritic ore with galena, zinc-blende, and a little fahlerz. The lenses extend for a length of 2,500 feet with a maximum width of 60 feet. Over 30,000 tons of ore have already been extracted, the average contents being 25 per cent, of zinc, 7*96 per cent, of lead, 12*3 ounces of silver, and •145 oimces of gold per ton. The developed and blocked-out ore reserves have been estimated at 227,300 tons, and the probable ore reserves at 773,000 tons. The Primrose is an adjoining mine containing deposits of similar ore, and the two mines are worked, under the one management, by means of tunnels and open cuts. The Hercules Mine is situated at an altitude of 2,800 feet on the slopes of Mount Read, about 4| miles from Rosebery. It contains three large^ lenses of sulphide ore of similar character to that of the Tasmanian Copper Company's Mine, the average composition being 28 per cent, of zinc, 8 per cent, of lead, 8 ounces of silver, and '16 ormces of gold per ton, while the most eastern lens also contains a fair proportion of copper. The probable ore reserves in the Hercules Mine have been estimated at about 500,000 tons. The futm'C success of those niines appears to depend upon the adoption of a method of treatment which will enable the zinc to be recovered in addition to the other metals. The Renison Bell Field contains a number of tin mines, of which the most important are the Renison Bell, Boulder, Central, Penzance, Dreadnought, and Federal. They are situated near the Renison Bell Station, on the Emu Bay Railway. The principal rocks in this locality consist of slates, tufEs, and intrusive quartz-porphyry. The ore-bodies are composed chiefly of pyrrohotite and iron pyrites carrying cassiterite, and they have been deposited by ascending solutions and vapours along faults which have fissured the country rock in a very irregular manner, causing the lodes to exhibit many branches and flat floors. The slates in the vicinity of the lodes have also been impregnated by veinlets of tin-bearing pyrites. The gangue of the ore bodies consists chiefly of quartz and dolomite. Rich pockets and bands of tin ore are occasionally found in the lodes. The oxidation of the sulphide ores has resulted in the formation of rich stanniferous gossan at the sm'face, and large quantities of this have been profitably treated. There was also a considerable accumulation of detrital ore on the sides of the hills, and from this the tin was recovered by sluicing. The mill at the Renison Bell Mine contains only ten head of stamps, and the ore at present being treated has an average yield of *9 per cent, of tin oxide. The Zeehan Field. — 'The town of Zeehan is the principal settlement on the West Coast, and possesses important smelting works, besides being the centre of a group of mines. The principal properties in this district are the Zeehan- Montana, Cuni, Silver Queen, British Zeehan, Silver King, and Oonah, but at the present time only the two first-named are being worked. At the Zeehan- Montana Mine Sihu'ian slates and tuiis form the country rocks, and with these are associated intrusive dykes of stilite. The ore bodies are in the form of north and south fissure lodes, the filling of which is principally com- posed of siderite with galena, zinc-blende, and pyrites. A series of fault Mining Fields of Australia. 441 fissures, locally called slides, with a general north-west and south-east strike, have intersected and displaced the lodes. As the siderite lodes approach the south-western or footwall sides of the slides, they are split up into branches which frequently, contain chutes of argentiferous galena. The con- tinuation of the lode beyond the hanging wall of the slide is usually barren until it approaches the footwall of another slide, when similar deposits of galena are met with. The shaft has been sunk to a depth of 800 feet, but so far practically no payable ore has been found below the 500-ft. level. The mine has peid about £180,000 in dividends since 1893. The Cuni Mine is situated 5 miles fi-om Zeehan on the railway to Eenison Bell. The country consists of alterations of ferruginous slate and serpentine. Lenses of pyrrhotite occm" in the serpentine, and the ore contains about 5 per cent, of copper and 12 per cent, of nickel. The lenses attain a maximum width of 14 feet, and are sometimes 100 feet long. This mine and a similar one adjoining it are at present in the prospecting stage. The ore has been proved at intervals over a distance of about 1 mile. The Mount Lyell Fiehl.—The Mount Lyell Mining and Eailway Company's property is situated near Queenstown, about 15 miles fi'om Strahan. The principal mines owned by the company are the Mount Lyell, North Mount Lyell, Comstock, South Mount Lyell, and Lyell Tharsis. The Mount Lyell ore deposits consists of a huge lens of low-grade pyritic ore of the following composition : — Sulphur . . . . . . . . 42 per cent. L:on Silica . . Alumina Barium sulphate Copper Silver .. Gold . . 36 5 „ 2-8 „ 4-1 „ 0-4 „ 1 '86 oz. per ton •04 The ore-body occm's in tufiaceous schists close to theii- junction with con- glomerate. It is probable that it has been deposited fi-om ascending solutions- in a cavity or fissure formed by a fault, and there is evidence, especially on the hanging wall, of its having been enlarged by replacement of the schists. The lens has been worked by an open cut to a depth of 470 feet, and by shafts and levels to a further depth of 350 feet, while bores have proved t^at it extends to a total depth of 850 feet. The present ore reserves are estimated at two million tons. The ore is smelted in conjimction with the North Mount Lyell ore in the proportion of 2 tons of the former to 1 of the latter. The South Mount Lyell Mine contains a pyritic ore-body similar to Mount Lyell, and containing '38 per cent, of copper. It is estimated to contain about 300,000 tons, but has only been opened up on one level at present. The North Mount Lyell Mine is situated about 1 mile from the Mount Lyell. The ore-body is an irregular lens of large dimensions, bounded by conglomerate, and it has the appearance of having resulted from the meta- somatic replacement of schist. The ore is .silicious, and contains bunches 442 Federal Handbook. Its composition is as 6 per cent. 65-70 7-7 6 10-2 1 1'15 oz. per ton. A trace 1,100 feet, and has been 1,000,000 tons. The ore and impregnations of bornite and chalcopyrite. follows : — ■ Copper Silica . . Iron Sulphur Alumina Barium sulphate Silver . . Gold . . The lens has already been proved to a depth of stoped for a length of 1,000 feet at the No. 10 level The ore reserves in the mine are estimated at from the Mount Lyell and North Mount Lyell Mines is smelted, in conjunction, in blast furnaces, in the proportion of 2 tons of the former to 1 of the latter. The matte is treated locally in converters, and the resulting blister copper is refined at the Port Kembla Works, New South Wales. The North Mount Lyell ore deposit extends into the Comstock section on the north. The Lyell Tharsis is a similar deposit of lower grade occurring in the schist ; it carries about 2 per cent, of copper. The North Coast. The Blythe River Iron Ore Deposit is situated about 10 miles from Burnie, on the North Coast. The ore body consists of a huge vertical bed or lens of hematite having a north-east and south-west strike for a distance of over a mile, and apparently interbedded with slates and sandstones of pre-Silurian -age. The Blythe Eiver has cut its way through the deposit which extends up both sides of the gorge. It has been estimated that there are at least 20,000,000 tons of ore in the deposit above the level of the river. The deposit has been sampled over the whole outcrop, and the analysis gave an average yield of 63*259 per cent, of iron, 7 per cent, of silica, and 0"036 per cent, of phosphorus. Nothing has yet been done towards utilizing this valuable deposit of iron ore. Oil Shale Deposits of the North C oast. ~-ln the Mersey district there are deposits of a peculiar resinoid shale known as Tasmanite, which is believed to be of considerable commercial value as a source of fuel oil. The shale occurs as a seam in the Marine Sandstones of the Permo-Carboniferous series, and in the neiglibourhood of Latrobe it has an average thickness of 4 ft. 6 in. It is a brownish laminated rock consisting of sandy mud through which are dis- seminated numerous minute yellow resinous-looldng discs, which are believed -to be sporangia. The peculiarity of the resinoid discs is that they contain ^bout 2 per cent, of sulphur in combination with their carbon and hydrogen. The average composition of the shale is as follows .— Moisture . . . . . . . . 1 * 10 Volatile matter .. . . .. 29*69 Fixed carbon .. .. .. 3*11 Ash.. .. .. .. .. 66-10 100-00 Sulphur 2 per cent. Mining Fields of Australia. 443 The shale yields, by destructive distillation, from 30 to 50 gallons of oil per ton. Mr. Tvvelvetrees, Government Geologist, estimates that there are in the Mersey district 12,000,000 tons of shale containing 2,000,000 tons of crude oil, equal to 1| million tons of fuel oil. The Latrobe Shale and Oil Company are erecting retorts for the pro- duction of oil from Tasmanite. The Middlesex Field, situated near Railton, contains deposits of silver- lead, and also tin, bismuth, and wolfram. In the Round Hill Mine, 16 miles from Railton Silver-lead lodes occur in slates close to then- junction with conglomerates. About 1,000 tons of concentrates containing 56 per cent, of lead and 33 ounces of silver per ton have been produced. The Shepherd and Murphy Mine, 28 miles from Railton, contains narrow lodes in quartzite and garnet rock close to their junction with intrusive granite. The lodes contain cassiterite, bismuth, and wolfram impregnations in a quartz gangue. Nearly 40,000 tons of ore have been crushed and 671 tons of- concentrates produced. Beaconsfield Mining District, The celebrated Tasmania Gold Mine is situated at Beaconsfield on the west side of tte Tamar. Up to the end of 1912 this mine had treated 982,587 tons of stone for a yield of 808,255 ounces, and had paid £772,671 in dividends. The last dividend was paid in 1905. Grubb's shaft is down to a depth of 1,500 feet, and work is being carried out at this level. The lode occurs in slates, conglomerates, and sandstones, and was 40 feet wide on the surface, but became narrower and poorer in depth. It is an exceptionally wet mine, and is equipped with one of the finest pumping plants in the world. At Anderson's Creek, near Beaconsfield, there are deposits of hematite and magnetite containing a considerable proportion of chromium, which has hitherto interfered with their use, for smelting purposes. There are probably several million tons of ore in these deposits. The Lefroy Gold Field is situated 7 miles east of George Town, on the Tamar River. Auriferous reefs and alluvial deposits have been worked with considerable ?ucce^s in the past on this field. The total amount of gold won amounts to over 200,000 ounces, and dividends amounting to nearly £300,000 have been paid, but tbe gold chutes have failed below a depth of 400 feet. At the present time the prospects of successfully working the deep alluvial (basalt-covered) leads appear to be hopeful. The Tin=Fields of the North=East Coast. A considerable area of tin-bearing granite occurs near the north-east coast, and tin mining has been carried on here with much success for over 30 years. The tin-oxide is found as impregnations and small veins in the granite and greisen, and the decomposition and denudation of tliese rocks has resulted in the concentration of large quantities of stream tin in the Tertiary basalt-covered deep leads along the course of the Ringarooma River, and also in the Pleistocene and recent alluvial deposits. The shallow alluvials were of course worked first, and the tin was subsecpiently traced down into the deep leads. The latter are being successfully worked by hydraulic sluicing in sucli mines as the Arba, Briseis, Pioneer, Garibaldi, and Clifton C.121.54 2 F 444 Federal Handbook. Creek. The Briseis has removed 4,746,000 cubic yards of overburden and 4,600,000 cubic yards of drift for a yield of 9,589 tons of stream tin, valued at £1,125,700, and has paid dividends amounting to £380,000. The Pioneer, which is worked by hydro-electric power, has treated 5,720,900 cubic yards of gi'avel for a yield of 4,832 tons of stream tin, and has paid £254,095 in dividends. A most remarkable example of economical mining is supplied by the Anchor Tin Mine at Lottah, where the tin is being won from the solid granite or greisen. The ore bodies are covered by an overburden of as much as 100 feet, in places, of barren granite, which, being moie or less decomposed, is partly removed by hydraulicing. The Anchor Mine has crushed 1,200,000 tons of rock for an average yield of less than 3| lbs. of tin oxide per ton. The cost of mining, crushing, and concentrating, during ten years' work, has been from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per ton of stone. The ore is worked by open cut, and hydraulic power is employed for the mill. The Sca)7iander Field. — A few miles from Scamander, on the east coast, there are low grade deposits of tin, copper, wolfram, silver, and gold. None of these are at present being economically worked, though prospecting opera- tions are being carried out in tin-bearing quartzites close to theii junction with granite. In the Mathinna Field, 17 miles north of Fingal, a number of quartz reefs was successfully worked for some years. The principal mine was the New Golden Gale, which was tested to a depth of 1,800 feet, where the ore ceased to be payable. Between 1888 and 1904 the mine yielded 232,225 ounces of gold, from 277,393 tons of stone, and paid £355,200 in dividends. Coal. Tasmania is not so fortunately situated as the other eastern States in regard to her coal resources The coal measures of Tasmania are of two ages, viz., (1) Permo-Carboniferous ; and (2) Mesozoic. (1) The Permo-Carboniferous measures are characterized by thin coal seams (from 1 to 2 feet in thickness) of fair quality, though high in moisture and sulphur. The average composition of tne coal is as follows . — Moisture .. .. .. .. 12-9 Volatile hydiocarbons .. .. 36*5 Fixed carbon . . . . . . 46 • 6 Ash.. .. .. .. .. 40 100-00 It is suitable for domestic use and for steam raising, but contains an excess of sulphur. The principal localities where it occui's are the Mersey Coal- field, near Latrobe, and the Preolenna Coal-field, 18 miles from Wynyard, but it is not being worked at present. (2) The Mesozoic coal measures cover a large area of the State, but unfortunately they have been much faulted and dislocated by intrusions of diabase. They contain seams up to 12 feet in thickness, but the workable coal seldom exceeds 6 feet. The quality of the coal varies considerably, but it is usually high in ash and moisture ; it is useful for domestic purposes, and Mining Fields of Australia. 445 is also employed in tlie locomotives on brancli railways. The two principal collieries working this coal are the Mount Nicholas and the Cornwall, near St Mary's, which have an annual output of about 30,000 tons each. Mr. Twelvetrees estimates the probable coal reserves as follows : — Permo-Carboniferous . . . . 13,000,000 tons Mesozoic .. .. .. 54,800,000 „ Total 67,800,000 tons Table showing the Quantity and Value of Minerals Won during THE Year 1912, and to the end of 1912. Tasmania. Production for Year ending Total Production from 1880 31st December, 1912. to 1912 inclusive Mineral, Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Gold 37,973 ozs. £ 161,300 1 £ 1,738,661 ozs. 6,914,132 Sih'er-lead ore 90,124 tons 303,098 950,613 tons 5,488,286 Blister copper 5,136 „ 430,965 122,912 . 9,728,833 Copper matte 6,227 . 133,736 Copper and copper ore 1,391 tons 9,479 35,135 , 536,014 Tin 3,714 „ 543,103 109,915 , 10,884,922 Iron ore 42,762 , 25,701 Coal 53,560 tons 24,568 1,312,460 . , 1,057,700 Wolfram 66 „ 6,601 402 , 36,033 Bismuth 7 ,. 2,646 43 , 14,961 Asbestos 374 . : 521 Shale 864 , 464 Osmiridium 779 ozs. 5,742 1,170 oz s. 8,160 Unenumerated prior to 1 894 . . •• 31,988 1 'otal 1,493,502 34,861,451 5. Western Australia. The State of Western Australia occupies the western third of the conti- nent, and is estimated to embrace an area of 975,920 square miles. The inception of active mining operations in Australia dates from the year 1842, when lead and copper lodes were first discovered and worked at Waneranooka in the Northampton district of Western Australia. Since then the State has produced mineral products the total value of which, up to the end of 1912, amounts to £113,660,065 ; of this 54-5 per cent, has been obtained from the East Coolgardie Gold-field, which contains the important gold mining centre of Kalgoorlie. The real mining history, however, dates from the year 1893. The mineral fields are numerous and scattered over a very wide area. The total area of the proclaimed mineral fields amounts to 329,828 square miles ; the position of these, as legally defined by the authorities, has been shown on the map of AVestern Australia included in the Report of the Department of Mines for the year 1912. The legal boundaries of the mineral fields, however, bear no relation whatever to the geological boundaries. 2f 2 446 Federal Handbook. The principal mineral products of greatest importance in "Western Australia, arranged in order of value, at the end of 1912, are gold, copper, coal, tin, lead, and phosphates. The metals and metalliferous minerals make up by far the greater proportion of the value of the output, being over 98 per cent, of the total. The south-western corner of the State from Israelite Bay to Cape Leeuwin, and as far north as latitude 25° south, is a more or less broken tableland from which rise isolated hills and ridges of metamorphic and crystalline rocks to which a pre-Cambrian age has been assigned. This plateau forms the chief mineral region of the State. Isolated patches of variable extent of these older pre-Cambrian rocks rise from beneath the newer strata in the north-west and Kimberley divisions, and are as important from the mineral stand-point as in the south-western plateau. The pre-Cambrian rocks are remarkable for the variety of useful and valuable minerals they contain, numbering up to date no less than 196. There are sound reasons for knowing that the major portion of this pre- Cambrian plateau has been a land surface since early Palaeozoic times, and having had such a peaceful geological history, there has not been very much opportunity for mineralization, hence the valuable ores have a very wide distribution instead of, with certain notable exceptions, being concentrated into very rich deposits. Whilst this is so, the results obtained by geological exploration, prospecting, and mining operations indicate quite clearly that the mineral industry of the State will not only be progressive but great. The future of gold mining in Western Australia, however, must in a great measure depend upon the exploitation of its low-grade deposits of which there are very many. Geologically the pre-Cambrian plateau is characterized by a more or less complicated structure. The plateau forms one general geological province in which the nature and mode of occurrence of the mineral deposits are more or less identical throughout. The interdependence of the mineral belts on the geological structure is exceptionally well marked in all parts of the State. The rocks are of very different types ; many of them are in a crystalline condition and form coarse crystalline schists and gneiss as well as basic rocks, which have been more or less crushed, foliated, and completely converted into greenstone schists. The basic rocks comprise gabbro, dolerite, por- phyrite, epidiorite, pyroxenite ; in some localities these basic rocks can be seen passing by scarcely perceptible gradations into hornblende schists and allied rocks. Some of these older rocks are of sedimentary origin and are practically unaltered ; others are quartz and mica schists, and in certain localities are cleaved conglomerates, some of the pebbles in which consist of a pre-existing conglomerate from a very much older series. The less altered members of these ancient sediments consist of a great variety of types of indurated slates, quartzites and conglomerates, together with igneous rocks, which probably represent lavas and ashes. These older rocks are invaded by batholitho and veins of granite and allied rocks, which in many parts of the State occupy very large areas. The old granitic rocks are traversed by many large ice-like quartz reefs, which rise like walls to considerable altitudes above the surface. The mode of occurrence, etc., of these large quartz masses point to their being of igneous Mining Fields of Australia. 447 origin, representing the final product of the differentiations of a granitic magma, its ultra-acid portion. These older granitic rocks are of considerable importance by reason of the fact that they form the matrices of the tin and allied deposits of the State. The mineral deposits of Western Australia occur in areas generally as more or less parallel belts of relatively narrow lateral dimensions, though in certain localities they appear as small isolated areas or patches. These narrow well-defined belts have a general north-west and south-west direction, with occasional divergencies of several degrees on either side. The ore deposits in these belts or zones, owing to dynamo-metamorphic processes, do not crop out in long lines, but are cut up into relatively short lenticles, arranged en echelon. There are in all, 24 proclaimed mineral fields in the State, though there are in addition other areas which have been proved to be mineral-bearing, but which have not as yet been brought within the limits of any legally defined mineral field. Most of the mineral fields of Western Australia pro- duce other metals besides gold, though in nearly all cases that is by far the most important product. Kimherley Gold-field. — This, the most northerly gold-field in the State, discovered in 1882, is of historical importance, though it has not been a very notable gold producer. The gold belt of Kimberley, a succession of crystalline schists of remark- able persistence, has been proved to extend from Denham River to Mount Dockrell, also in the Mueller Range, from whence it strikes north-westward along the foot of the King Leopold Range to King Sound. This belt of rocks, micaceous and talcose schists, gneiss, and granite, varies in width from 10 to 30 miles, and has been shown to have a horizontal extent of at least 120 miles. Mining and prospecting operations have been confined, however, to only six, more or less, isolated centres. These up to the end of 1912 have only produced 17,012 -75 ozs. of fine gold. Pilbara Gold-field. — The Pilbara Gold-field contains several gold and tin-bearing areas, scattered over different portions of the district ; economi- cally, however, the auriferous deposits have proved up to the present to be the most important. The geographical position of the various gold-mining centres shows a zonal development of the auriferous deposits which may be divided into six main and distinct groups, viz. : — (a) Lalla Rookh. (6) North Pole, Taiga Taiga, Bamboo. (c) Marble Bar, Warrawoona, Yandicoogina, Mount Elsie, Boodal- yerri ; (d) Nullagine, 20-mile Sandy, Mosquito Creek ; (e) Tambourah, Western Shaw ; and (/) North Shaw. The length of the Lalla Rookh Belt has not yet been defined, but it does not appear to be less than 30 or 40 miles. The North Pole, Taiga Taiga, and Bamboo Belt is 50 miles in length. The Marble Bar, Warrawoona, Yandicoogina, Mount Elsie and Boodalyerri Belt has a proved extent of 44S Federal Handbook. about 80 miles. The Nullagine, Middle, and Sandy Creek zone is known to extend for a distance of at least 40 miles, and there are strong geological reasons for the belief that it continues much farther to the east and may possibly cross the upper reaches of the Oakover Eiver. The Tambourah and Western Shaw Belt has not as yet been accurately defined, but it does not appear to be less than about 30 miles in length, whilst that of the North Shaw has only been proved to extend for a few miles. The general direction of these auriferous belts almost everywhere coincides with the strike of the schists which, with one or two exceptions, invariably form the matrices of the gold-bearing reefs. The prevailing dip of the belts coincides with the general trend of the main structural features of the district. Their width naturally varies, and in the three most northerly zones the width cannot be defined owing to the fact that one of the boundaries is invariably marked by a powerful fault, which throws down the newer beds against the schists. Quartz reefs occur in great abundance all through the schistose rocks, as well as to a more limited extent in the areas occupied by the granitic rocks. The quartz reefs are of two distinct types, viz., white quartz reefs and lami- nated quartz and jasper veins approaching very closely the hematite-bearing quartzites (?) which invariably form a conspicuous featm^e in most of the gold-fields of the State. Some of the laminated quartz veins range from almost pure quartz, through banded jaspers, with crystals of magnetite, to bands appearing to the eye to be virtually pure hematite. The quartz reefs, of what may be called the massive types, occur plentifully in both the schists and the granites. They invariably occur along the planes of folia- tion (? bedding) of the schists, or, at any rate, cut them at a low angle. The auriferous reefs cannot be said to be long, and are, as a rule, small, though they occasionally swell out into large lenticular masses. Some of the reefs have been traced along the outcrop for over 2,000 feet, and have swelled out to masses measuring about 15 feet across. In addition to the gold derived from quartz reefs, the conglomerates at the base of the Nullagine Series have been mined in two localities — Nullagine and Just-in-time. It is noteworthy that the base of the series has only proved auriferous in those places where it lies upon that portion of the under- lying formation which carries auriferous quartz reefs. At Nullagine the auriferous strata occur through a thickness of about 300 feet of grits, sandstones, and conglomerates, which form the lowest portion of the series. The auriferous conglomerate is of sedimentary origin, and is made up of rounded and subangular fragments of the underlying strata. Those portions of the strata which have proved to be gold-bearing are those which are largely impregnated with the oxides and sulphides of iron, and which lie between a well-marked fault and a greenstone dyke. Mining operations have, up to the present time, been confined exclusively to the oxidized zone of the conglomerate and to very limited and shallow depths. The available evidence regarding the origin of the gold seems to indicate that it is a secondary and not an original constituent of the con- glomerate ; and owed its introduction to the percolation of mineral-bearing solutions down the most porous portions of the conglomerate, this condition being facilitated by the downward inclination of the bedrock, and possibly MiNixG Fields of Australia. 449 accentuated in part by the folding which the strata have undergone. Numerous dry-blowers have been at work for a number of years over that portion of the conglomerate from which the crusliings have been obtained, and have acquired a considerable quantity of gold, of which the published figures afford no clue. In all probability one-half of the " alluvial " gold from Nullagine may be legitimately claimed to have been derived from the escarpment of the conglomerate. At Just-in-time, 8 miles to the south of Marble Bar, another auriferous conglomerate at the base of the series has been worked. In many respects the auriferous conglomerate resembles the ferruginous bands as developed at Nullagine, and varies in thickness from an inch up to 5 feet. Certain portions of it contain a sufficient quantity of iron oxides to give quite a distinctive character to the rock. The auriferous conglomerate of Just-in- time, is, however, not of any very great horizontal extent, nor does it appear to penetrate to any considerable depth. As has been the case at Nulla- gine, the sloping ground at the foot of the escarpment has yielded considerable quantities of gold to the dry-blowers, but; unfortunately, it did not appear to have been possible to keep a separate record thereof. Most of the gold obtained in this way owed its origin to the disintegration of the conglomerate. The Pilbara Gold-field has, up to the close of 1912, produced 166,914 '21 ozs. of fine gold, of which 3,264 "59 ozs. have been obtained from the conglomerate. West Pilbara Gold-field. — The West Pilbara Gold-field is of some his- torical interest in that it contains one of the oldest mining centres in the State. The mining history of the field opened with the discovery of rich copper and lead deposits in the vicinity of Roebourne during the year 1872, though it was not until five years later that auriferous quartz reefs were re- ported and opened out. Since then West Pilbara has turned out 54,172 "84 tons of copper ore and 22,601 "98 ozs. of fine gold in addition to small quantities of tin and iron ore. The area of the West Pilbara field, as legally defined by the authorities, embraces 9,480 square miles, of which, however, only about 1,500 are occupied by mineral-bearing formations, for by far the largest portion of the field is covered with the andesites, dolerites, con- glomerates, quartzites, and shales of the Nullagine Series, which effectually conceal the older rocks beneath. The remaining portions of the field con- sist of granite and gneiss, together with a series of metamorphic rocks of both sedimentary and igneous origin, and a series of basic dykes of pre-Nullagine age. The valuable ore deposits of West Pilbara are confined to the northern and eastern portions of the field. The most important gold mining centre is Station Peak, situated on the head waters of the Peewah River. In its geological structure, Station Peak is comparatively simple, consisting of a highly inclined series of sedimentary rocks invaded by basic and acidic dykes. The sediments are traversed by a dyke of quartz-dolerite, which varies from 800 to 1,000 feet in width ; this dyke forms the most important economic feature in the geology of the field, owing to its forming the matrix of the reefs which up to the present time have proved to be auriferous. The gold-bearing qiiartz reefs of Station Peak have a more or less parallelism, which is roughly approximate to the general strike of the dolerite. The reefs vary in thickness from J inch up 450 Federal Handbook. to as mucL. as 20 feet, whilst the maximum length attained by the most important is 4,000 feet. These reefs have yielded 9,382 ozs. of fine gold, from the milling of 9,993 tons of quartz. This yield forms nearly one-half of the total gold-output of the West Pilbara Field. Pre-Cambrian deposits of several types, containing copper, gold, anti- mony, etc., are found in several parts of the district, associated with those bands of laminated quartzite which make such conspicuous features in the structural geology of the field. Up to the end of 1912, the West Pilbara Field has produced 22,601 -98 ozs. of fine gold. Ashburton and Gascoyne Gold-fields. — The Ashburton and Gascoyne Gold-fields are situated on the headwaters of the Ashburton and Gascoyne Rivers respectively. They do not embrace any large area, and haye not so far been very noteworthy gold producers. There is a great diversion of geological formations, though in its broad outlines the geological features of the gold-fields are fairly simple. As is the case in West Pilbara by far the larger known area is made up of representatives of the Nullagine Series, which constitute the high plateau breached by the Ashburton River. The two fields contain several minor gold-bearing areas, scattered over widely separated localities. The auriferous deposits are of diverse types, and possibly of different geological ages. At Bangemall, on the Lyons River, in the Gascoyne Gold-field, the produc- tive auriferous area lies between two beds of micaceous quartz schist, forming the legs of a denuded anticline, which has a decided pitch to the south-east. These two bands trend across country for considerable distances, and are associated with auriferous quartz veins. The most important feature, however, is the saddle reef nature of the quartz veins, which bears a striking resemblance to those of Bendigo in Victoria. There are some sound geological reasons for believing this auriferous belt to extend as far westward as Mount Egerton. The gold-bearing zone of the Ashburton Valley is defined to the escarp- ment of the Nullagine Series which flank both walls thereof, and has been estimated at 10,000 square miles. There are five centres at which mining operations have at one time or another been carried on. The primary gold deposits are contained in a highly inclined series of sedimentary rocks, quartzites, grits, and slates, having an average strike of 122 degrees. The beds are in most cases traversed by quartz reefs of varying dimensions and interrupted continuity. The strata are disposed in a series of more or less acute folds, and the reefs, which occur on the flanks of the arches, may pos- sibly represent the legs of saddle reefs now modified by denudation. The coarse gold obtained from many of the gullies doubtless owed its origin to the disintegration of the quartz reefs. Up to the close of 1913 these two fields have produced 9,411 -04 ozs. of fine gold. Peak Hill, Murchison, Yalgoo, and Yilgarn Gold-fields. — The dependence of the mineral-bearing zones on geological structure is exceptionally well- marked in the three most westerly, of what may be called the Central Gold- fields. The important ore deposits are confined largely to a diagonal belt extending from Mount Beasley, on the north, to Mount Singleton, near the Mining Fields of Australia. 451 extremity of the westernmost arm of Lake Lefroy, ou the south. The mines of the belt yield almost entirely gold, though there are a few localities from which small quantities of copper and tin have been obtained and are not so far of any great importance. The geological structure of the mineral zone is remarkable for its uniformity ; it may be described as a series of more or less persistent zones of schists and allied metamorphic (in parts sedimentary) rocks forming a distinct lithological province. The schists and their asso- ciated rocks are remarkable for their persistent strike and horizontal extent, one belt alone having been proved to extend for at least 60 miles. These zones of schists are everywhere surrounded by granite, which seems to be of two distinct geological ages, viz., an older, which has undergone the same dynamic alteration to which the schists owe their origin, and a much newer, which penetrates the older granite as well as the schists. The schists are associated with diabase (dolerite), pyroxenite, and allied rocks, and there are sound reasons for believing that some at any rate of the schists merely represent crushed or plated out varieties of the basic rocks. Some of the basic rocks are traversed by belts of laminated quartzes intersected by numerous faults, which are of considerable economic importance by reason of the fact that it is along these fault lines that rich shoots of gold often occur. The principal mining centre along this belt is Day Dawn, where one of the largest solid quartz reefs (the Great Fingall) mined anywhere is situated. This reef, which has an outcrop of about 30 chains in length, produced up to the end of 1912, 1,080,415 ozs. of fine gold, and 150,470 ozs. of silver from the milling of 1,642,089 tons of ore. The outcrop, when first discovered, was of considerable size, and rose above the general level of the surface in a series of camel-backed ridges, from 10 to 20 feet in height. The average dip of the reef is about 60 degrees to the south westward, and its maximum thickness 40 feet. The lowest vertical depth at which the reef has been mined is 2,342 feet. The great Fingall Lode is more or less transverse to the general trend of the " Auriferous Series," and occupies a relatively narrow belt of schistose amphibolite which is traversed by basaltic dolerite and porphyry dykes. The quartz below water level contains small quantities of pyi'ites, pyrrhotite, mispickel, zincblende, galena, and a little copper pyrites. The mineral zone, which traverses the Murchison Gold-field, seems to be continuous southward through the Yilgarn Field, of which the official centre is Southern Cross. The first authentic gold find on the Yilgarn Gold-field was made at Ennuin in 1887 ; this was shortly afterwards followed by the discovery of the pioneer mine, Frasers, at Southern Cross, which has been continuously worked for over 25 years. The Frasers Lode occupies a belt of considerable length, and it outcrops at intervals in the form of lenses occurring in a shear zone of amphibolite and its derivatives. This shear zone contains more or less pyrites, and it has been found the gold values bear an intimate relation to the extent of its mineralization. The lode is intersected, in a direction at right angles to the general trend, by dykes of pegmatite granite, and where this occurs there is a slight impoverishment of the lode at the points of contact. 452 Federal Handbook. The Yilgarn Gold-field has, since its discovery, produced 407,770 ozs. of fine gold, of which the Erasers Lode alone yielded 172,471 ozs. of fine gold. These banded ferruginous quartz lodes when seen below the oxidized zone pass into schists with pyrites with thin seams of magnetite and pyrrhotite. The Mount Caudan Bore, put down in what is regarded as the southerly extension of the Erasers Lode ore channel, passed through 100 feet of massive pyrrhotite at a depth of 600 feet from the surface. The pjrrrhotite, however, contained only a minute trace of gold. The mineral zone, in which this persistent ore channel lies, is of consider- able horizontal extent ; it is really constituted of a series of very long belts arranged more or less en echelon, and encased in basic rocks, some of which may be of sedimentary origin. The larger area of the field is of granite, which is of distinctly later origin than the greenstones, which are invaded by dykes of pegmatite and veins of granite quartz. The Yilgarn Gold-field has, since the inception of mining operations, produced 407,770 ozs. of fine gold. The Eastern Gold-fields. — There is a remarkable uniformity in the geo- logical structure and mode of occurrence of the mineral deposits of the Eastern Gold-fields. The auriferous districts are of interest on account of their wide distribution and regular mode of occurrence of the gold-bearing deposits. Very large areas of the surface are covered with a variable thickness of recent accumulations, which are sometimes solidified into cement. The staple formation, however, is granite, gneiss, and a series of schistose rocks, some of which are of sedimentary origin ; associated with these are large areas of basic rocks of difierent types and possibly of difierent origins. As in other portions of the State the general strike of the schists is north- west ; they are very often vertical or at any rate inclined at high angles. Gold occurs generally at no gi'eat distance from granite intrusions and along shear zones or shatter belts containing quartz veins or quartz lenses. These zones or belts are often cut by pegmatites and porphyry dykes, which in places have been fractured and the resulting cracks filled with quartz. The acid dykes are often impregnated with iron pyrites which is occasionally auriferous. The schistose rocks are often associated with hematite-bearing quartzites, some of which might be concentrated into high grade iron ores. The pro- portion of oxide of iron in these rocks varies from practically pure hematite to a pure quartz rock, often permeated by secondary silica which has also penetrated the surrounding rocks. These banded quartzites are occasionally auriferous. In the North-east Coolgardie Gold-field, considerable interest attaches to the alluvial leads, the most prominent of which is the North Lead at Kanowna. This lead lies in an old water-course carved out of the older rocks, and has been proved to be not merely a simple isolated run of auriferous gravel, but part of a series of old stream deposits. The width of the North Lead varies from 2 to 80 feet, whilst the thickness of the deposit in the old channel varies from a few inches up to 90 feet. The fall of the lead is about 40 feet to the mile. The deposit consists of surface loam, underlaid by a gravelly ironstone, often partially cemented by kaolin and oxide of iron into solid rock ; beneath this lies a bed or beds of practically pure kaolin (" pug ") and a varying Mining Fields of Australia. 453 thickness of a pebbly quartz wash. The quartz wash is occasionally cemented by secondary silica into a hard compact quartzite. Most of the gold in the North Lead has been won from the quartz wash, although the overlying kaolin and ironstone gravel have also yielded fair quantities. The ultimate derivation of the gold in the North Lead is from the quartz veins and lodes (upon which the wash directly reposes in places) by which the fundamental rocks are traversed. The gold is not exclusively in the form of grains, scales, etc., but is found occurring in the quartz pebbles themselves. In addition to the undoubtedly detrital fold, there is another massive, arborescent or coarsely crystalline form which occurs, filling certain irregular cracks and covering cleavage planes or shrinkage cracks so as to prevent the appearance of painted surfaces. The mode of occurrence, associations, and character of this gold all point to a secondary origin, and it is of importance to note that this secondary gold has been deposited from solution, not only in the alluvium and other superficial deposits, but also in the zone of decomposition of the bed-rock. These secondary forms of gold, which result in the superficial enrichment of many gold-bearing deposits, are a not uncommon feature in the mineral fields of the State. The East Coolgardie Gold-field, the most productive in Australia, which has yielded £13,364,384 of gold, or about 55 per cent, of the total yield of the State, embraces an area of 632 square miles. The principal mining centre on the gold-field is Boulder, the wealth of which coupled with the skill which directs both the mining and metalliu'gical operations, has raised Western Australia to the front rank of gold-mining countries in the British Empii'e. The productive area of Boulder comprises a relatively small block of ground, which by reason of the richness of the lodes by which it is riddled, has become known throughout the world as the " Golden Mile." This area includes the Great Boulder, Ivanhoe, Golden Horseshoe, Perseverance, Oroya- Brown Hill, Associated, and Lake View Consols Gold Mines. The deepest shaft is over 2,800 feet vertically below the surface, and the country laid open by mining for investigation amounts to several miles, whilst the rocks have been riddled with bore-holes in all directions, thus affording oppor- tunities for the scientific study of many of the rocks in critical localities and in their relation to the ore deposits, such as are hardly to be found in any other single mining field on the globe. The rocks of Kalgoorlie and Boulder consist of : — (a) Ancient sedimentary rocks ; (6) older greenstones (calc-schists and fine-grained amphibolites) ; (c) newer greenstones (quartz-diabase and coarse-grained amphibolite) ; (d) peridotites ; (e) porphyrites ; and (/) quartz and felspar porphyries. The ancient sedimentary rocks consist of shales, soft sandstones, and conglomerates and boulder beds, associated with what appear to be inter- bedded lava flows. These sedimentary rocks have a general north-north- west trend, and an average dip of about 80 degrees to the west. They cover a very wide extent of country and have been found near Coolgardie in the west, and Kurnalpi on the east, whilst a similar series of metamorphic sedi- ments have been found to the southward at Norseman on the Dundas Field, where they are intersected by a large number of quartz dykes which form the apophyses of the large granite mass lying to the east of the Norseman auriferous belt. 454 Federal Handbook. The sedimentary series of Kalgoorlie are traversed by banded jasperoid and hematite quartz, of that type which forms such a conspicuous feature in the geology of the sedimentary area of Uaroo, in the Ashburton watershed. There seems to be some reason for believing the Kalgoorlie sedimentary rocks to be divisible into two distinct series of different geological age, and distinctly newer than the complex which forms the axis of the Boulder auriferous belt. Of the rocks of the Boulder-Kalgoorlie igneous complex, the quartz diabase is the most important as it is within this and its alteration products that the principal gold-bearing deposits at present known occur. The quartz diabase is as a rule massive, though owing to the dynamical and con- comitant chemical alteration which it has undergone, the rock occasionally assumes a more or less schistose phase. The principal effect of the chemical alteration has been the extreme carbonating which has gone on over certain portions of the mass, this being naturally greatest where the shearing of the rocks has been most pronounced. The diabase, owing to this chemical alteration, has been converted into an indefinite mixture of carbonates of lime, iron, and magnesia, with some residual silicates and a good deal of secondary and some original quartz. The carbonating is often of considerable extent and has been proved to be fairly deep seated, having been noticed at depths of over 2,000 feet. The ore deposits of the field form relatively narrow bands, trending generally north-west and south-east. Many of the ore lenses are of great length, and in some cases of considerable breadth ; at times, however, the lateral con- tinuity of the lenses is interrupted by overthrust and normal faults of very variable downthrow. The principal lode minerals, in addition to gold and tellurides (calaverite, petzite, sylvanite, hessite, coloradoite, and altaite) are iron-pyrites, marcasite, chalcopyrite, tennantite, asbolite, carbonates (of iron, lime, and magnesia), sulphates (of lime and magnesia), iron ore (haematite, magnetite, ilmenite, etc.), tourmaline, chlorite, albite, rutile, etc. Next to the gold and tellurides, iron pyrites is the most important of the lode minerals ; the grain or texture of the pyrites seems to bear some intimate relationship to the gold contents, and it has been noticed that the finer the gi'ain the higher the gold values. Copper Fields. — The known workable deposits of copper occurring in Western Australia are everywhere met with in areas which have been subject to violent earth movement and concomitant volcanic activity. They all show more or less similarity in their associations, mineralogical characters, and structural relations. Copper mining, however, is not as yet a very important feature in the mineral production of the State, though the State's total output of copper ore up to the end of 1912 amounts to 185,93.5 '08 tons. Copper ores, however, are widely distributed throughout the length and breadth of the State, but owing to a variety of causes have been worked only in a very few districts. The principal sources of copper are West Pilbara, Mount Morgans, and the Phillips Eiver ; the largest output, 72,190 tons, being from Phillips River, 54,172 tons from West Pilbara, and 47,860 tons from Mount Morgans. The Phillips River field consists of a series of metamorphic sedimentary rocks, associated with a complex series of crystalline rocks, which latter are Mining Fields of Australia. 455 of igneous origin, and range from granite to serpentine with, their cleaved and schistose varieties. The lodes of the field, which have a uniform strike of east-north-east, are of two types ; the first being basic cupriferous dykes, and the second siliceous or ferruginous deposits, of what may be called the shear-zone type. The Mount Malcolm Copper Mine at Eulaminna (late Anaconda) in the Mount Morgans district, has yielded nearly one-third of the copper production of the State. The whole of the copper-bearing belt is in basic rock, with quartz, jasper, and ironstone veins, which show little or no copper at the surface. The ore has been concentrated into zones of enrichment, in reality bonanzas, three of which have been worked at the surface to comparatively shallow depths. Nothing very definite is known of the precise geological relationships of the Anaconda copper deposit. The West Pilbara Gold-field has been a large producer of copper, which, however, has been obtained principally from one property, the Whim Well Copper Mine. This lode has proved to be the largest and richest copper ore body yet discovered in Western Australia in the oxidized zone. The country rock in which the deposit is situated is a weathered talcose schist, associated with beds of a sedimentary origin. The ore deposit is a very flat-lying lode, conforming to the bedding of the enclosing schist country, which has a general strike of north-west and south-east. Ti7i Fields.— There are only two districts in Western Australia in which tin mining has been carried on, viz., Greenbushes and Pilbara. From the former locality 8,477 tons of tin ore have been raised, whilst the latter pro- duced 4,886 tons ; a small quantity, however, has been obtained from the Murchison Gold-field. Wherever the tin deposits of Western Australia have been examined they are invariably found to fall into two distinct geological categories : — 1. Superficial deposits, which include (a) alluvial deposits ; and (6) residual sands, gravels, etc. ; and 2. Deposits in country rock, which embrace (c) tin-bearing granite and allied rocks ; and {d) tin-bearing dykes. The alluvial deposits which are the most important of any yet opened out in the State, vary very largely in nature and range from an extremely hard ferruginous conglomerate to a stiff clay or loose sand or gravel. The tin-stone in the first-named is often extremely coarse, whilst that in the softer material is almost uniformly fine. In the Greenbushes field the alluvial deposits may be divided into two main groups, the older being the old river courses or deep leads, and the newer being represented by the existing channels. In the latter the tin-bearing gravels often lie at from 10 to 40 feet from the present stream bottoms ; the older deep leads attain considerable depths, the deepest being 96 feet. The residual deposits are either lateritic ironstone or sands, clays, etc., derived from the decomposition in situ, of igneous rocks. Deposits of this type are frequently stanniferous, the chief minerals accompanying the tin are limonite, quartz, tourmaline, and mica. 456 Federal Handbook. Coal-fields. — The Collie Coal-field is the only one upon which any active operations are being carried on, though there are districts in the State in which lignites and brown coals occur. The Collie Coal-field lies to the east of Bunbury and south of Perth, near the north-western edge of the tableland which succeeds the Coastal Plain. The area occupied by the coal measures is approximately 50 square miles. The strata consist of alternations of shales, sandstones, and grits of Permo- Carboniferous age, which rest directly upon granite, schists, and other crys- talline rocks. The boundary of the field is, with one exception, everywhere defined by faults ; on the south-western side of the field the bound iry fault has been estimated to have a downthrow to the north-east of at least 2,000 feet. There are several coal seams on the field, which are of variable thickness, the greatest being the Wallsend seam, which varies from 9 to 17 feet. Accord- ing to estimates which have been made, there is, omitting the seam? of trifling thickness, about 137 feet of coal in the 2,072 feet of strata so far explored by mining and boring operations. The coal workings are very shallow, and, owing to the comparative freedom of the field from serious tectonic disturbances, difficulties, which would otherwise be involved in working the seams, are not encountered. The coals of the Collie are hydrous, semi-bituminous, non-caking coals, which approach very closely to lignite in some parts ; between the various varieties, however, the differences are only of degree. So far as departmental analyses indicate, it appears that the average calorific value of the Collie coal is about 10,000 British thermal units. The coal is not of such high calorific value as the New South Wales coals, whilst, being noi-caking, it crumbles in the furnaces to some extent, and requires a certain amount of increased attention in firing. That from some of the seams has been found rather prone to spontaneous combustion. The Collie coal, although not of the best steam-producing quality, when burned in ordinary boiler furnaces, has been proved to be particularly suitable for use in suction-gas producers. The coal production of the State up to the end of 1912 — which is entirely that of the Collie Coal-field— amounted to 2,323,136 tons, valued at £1,069,435. The principal local consumers are the Government Railways and local manu- factories ; the gold-fields market for coal is limited, owing to good firewood supplies being available. 6. The Northern Territory. The Northern Territory comprises an area of 523,620 square miles ; of this about 7,400 square miles of mineral-bearing country have been proved to exist in the north-western portion of the Territory, from which the prin- cipal products are gold, tin, and copper. These deposits, so far as investi- gations have at present been carried, are virtually confined to the pre-Cam- brian areas lying between the Daly and Mary Rivers. Since the first discovery of gold in the Northern Territory in 1869, there have been turned out up to the close of 1912, mineral products to the value of £2,543,000, of which gold alone amounted to £2,066,000. The mineral products arranged in the order of value are gold, tin, copper, and wolfram, together with small quantities of tantalite, amblygonite, and bismuth. The mineral production reached its zenith in 1906, when the output was valued Mining Fields of Australia. 457 at £146,665 ; since then there has been a gradual decline, the value of the yield in 1912 being only £57,820. Enough detailed geological survey work has not yet been carried out to enable many details as to the occurrence and association of the deposits of the mineral fields of the Northern Territory to be definitely set out. The fundamental rocks of the Northern Territory are of pre-Cambrian age, they cover a very large area, and are of considerable economic importance as they appear, everywhere, to form the matrices of the principal mineral deposits. The pre-Gambrian rocks consist of gneiss, hornblende, and chlorite schist, slate, phyllite, quartzite, and conglomerate, which seem to have been intensely folded, the axes of the folds trending generally north-west and south- east. These ancient sedimentary and allied rocks are invaded by granite (of pre-Cambrian age), which appears to have some genetic connexion with the known tin and wolfram deposits ; the beds are also penetrated by basic rocks of various types. Around some of the granite batholiths are broad contact zones of quartz and tourmaline. Veins of quartz and tourmaline, in reality a very acid phase of the granitic magma, extend from the granite into the surrounding schists and very often contain ore of some value. Dykes of pegmatite quartz occur in some localities, e.g., Brock's Creek, and contain large bunches of copper ore. The metamorphic rocks, mica, seri- cite, talc, and chlorite schist are occasionally traversed by shear zones, trending generally north and south, which often contain mineral lodes of that irregular nature which are characteristic of belts of this particular type. The metamorphic rocks of the McArthur River have been subject to consider- able chemical and dynamical alteration, and are traversed by veins containing lead and copper ore, along joint cracks by which the beds are traversed. Igneous rocks are believed to exist at a depth of about 1,000 feet in the McArthur District, and to be responsible for the mineralization of the area. The tin-fields of the Northern Territory, which, up to the close of 1912, . have yielded tin ore valued at £329,000, are scattered over a fairly wide area, the bulk of which is stream tin. In addition to the stream and residual tin, ore has been found in pegmatite granite dykes traversing the slates, schists, and allied metamorphic rocks. The dykes trend generally in a more or less meridional direction, and the ore is disseminated through portions of the mass more or less thickly. The tin-bearing dykes in the West Arm and Bynoe Harbor fields are very numerous. In the Daly River Dis- trict tin ore has been obtained from a massive tom'maline rock, varying from 50 to 100 feet in width, striking north-north-east. The lode occurs at the junction of quartzose, sandstone, and clay slate, the tin ore occurs in the tourmaline rock in small veins associated with quartz. Slugs of tin ore of considerable weight have been found in the debris near the outcrop. At the Horseshoe Creek and Mount Todd Tin-fields there is a considerable area of tin-bearing country. The tin ore in these localities, which occurs as veins and bunches in irregular fissures, traversed the highly inclined sedimentary rocks. The most highly ferruginous rocks are those which have been proved to be the richest in tin. Small quantities of tantalite and amblygonitc occur in the pegmatite dykes of the tin-fields of the Northern Territory, though no great quantity of the.se valuable minerals has yet been raised. 458 Federal Handbook. Wolfram to the value of £40,607 has been mined in the Northern Terri- tory. At Brock's Wolfram Mine, near Wandi, is a deposit remarkable for the size and richness of the ore, which is probably the largest yet found in Australia. The wolfram deposit is a lenticular-shaped mass, containing massive wolfram, scheelite, quartz, and copper pyrites, occurring in a dyke which has a strike of north 20 degrees east, traversing metamorphic sand- stones and allied rocks. A very large proportion of the £2,000,000 worth of gold has been derived from the alluvial and residual deposits which cover a fairly wide extent of country. Gold mining has been carried out in the Darwin Mining District in the north, and in the small fields in the neighbourhood of the MacDonnell Ranges in the southern portion of the Territory. The Ai'ltunga Gold-field is situated in the southern portion of the Terri- tory, near the MacDonnell Ranges, where the general trend of the auriferous formations is north-west and south-east. The rocks consist of mica, horn- blende, and quartz schist, clay slate, limestone, and quartzite, associated with dykes of epidosite, pegmatite, and diorite. The quartz reefs have a general parallelism, coinciding with the strike of the enclosing rocks ; the rich shoots of quartz are generally short and the reefs narrow. The White Range Gold-field in the MacDonnell Ranges was discovered in 1897 in a series of rocks consisting essentially of shattered quartzite, believed to be of pre-Cambrian age. The beds have a low dip of from 10 to 30 degrees. There are, however, no defined lodes, but the auriferous quartz is more or less confined to the fissures and cracks, which traverse the quartzites at all angles and in all directions. When viewed broadly the general trend of the ore bodies is east and west. The White Range field is remarkable for the extraordinary number of its auriferous deposits. North of Arltunga is the mica field of the Hart Range. The country rock consists of granite and granitic gneiss with basic dykes ; the whole being traversed by coarse pegmatite veins and huge masses of pure quartz, which together form the mica-bearing lodes. The mica-bearing dykes, which are numerous and extend over a large area, are extremely irregular both in shape and size. From one of these dykes, near Mount Palmer, a large block of mica, measuring 6 by 5 by 4 feet and weighing nearly 7 cwt., was obtained. Some of these mica-bearing pegmatites, which are believed to be of pre-Cambrian age, contain tourmaline, beryl, and garnets. 7. South Australia. ^ The State of South Australia is estimated to cover an area of 380,070 square miles. Since the year 1842, when the first copper mine was discovered atKapunda, the State has turned out mineral products, the total value of which up to the end of 1912, amounts to £30,427,000. Of this, over £27,000,000 represents the value of the copper as officially recorded. The principal mineral products of greatest importance in South Australia, arranged in order of value, at the end of 1912, are copper (£27,747,000), gold (£921,000), salt, (£815,000), and silver and lead (£338,554). Copper mining is the most important industry, and the yield of copper far outstrips that of any other single State in the Commonwealth. Mining Fields of Australia. 459 The mineral fields of South Australia cover a large a^ea of country, which extends continuously from Kangaroo Island as far north as latitude 30 degrees. Isolated areas are met with in the Musgrave, Mann, and Tomkinson Eanges, in the north-west corner of the State, along the border separating South Australia from the Northern Territory. These areas coincide more or less with those occupied by the metalliferous rocks of Archsexn, pre-Cambrian, and Cambrian age. These rocks consist of granite, gneiss, hornblende, mica, and quartz schists, sandstones, conglomerates, and crystalline lime- stone intersected by granite, diorite, gabbro, porphpy, etc. So far there does not appear to have been any specially noteworthy zonal arrangement of the mineral deposits detected, which is only possible after an exhaustive and systematic geological survey (now in progress) has been carried out. Deposits of copper ore are found distributed over a very large portion of the State, though active mining operations, on a serious scale, have been confined to one or two localities. Yorke's Peninsula, between Spencer's and St. Vincent's Gulf, contain a large area of copper country, which includes the two great mines of Moonta and Wallaroo, which have for over half a century been such a valuable State asset, having produced between them £12,500,000 of copper. The Wallaroo system of lodes are nearly vertical, having an average strike from 10 to 20 degrees south of east and vary in width from a few inches up to 14 feet. The country rock is micaceous schist, and the ore it contains is chiefly chalcopyrite. The Moonta Copper lode traverses a quartz-felspar porphpy, the relation of which to the surrounding schistose rocks is not quite clear. The ore channel contains several ore bodies, which vary in width from a few inches up to 20 feet, and have been worked to a depth of over 2,000 feet below the surface. The predominant copper ore is chalcopyrite. The Blinman Copper lode is another which has been an important pro- ducer. The lode is nearly 100 feet in thickness and over 350 feet in length. The ore-bearing belt of strata consist of crystalline siliceous limestone, sand- stones, shales, and clay slates, disposed in the form of an anticlinal fold trending north and south intersected by basic and acidic rocks ; and it is in the centre of these disturbed strata that the copper lode occurs. The ore is disseminated through the rock in patches, pockets, stringers, and veins, running east and west across the grain of the country forming an ore-bearing belt of from 20 to 30 feet wide. Some of the cross veins are of considerable size, and they are stated to be richer in copper than the main ore-bearing strata they penetrate. The gold-fields or principal auriferous districts of South Australia are fairly numerous, and cover relatively large areas. The production, however, has not been, in the aggregate, very great, amounting in value to only £921,000 since the inception of active mining operations. The Barossa Gold-field is made up of rocks believed to be of Lower Silurian age, and consisting of micaceous and hornblende schists, associated with sandstones and slates, and intersected by both basic and acidic dykes. The beds have a uniform strike of north 20 degrees east and an inclination of from 30 to 70 degrees to the east. There are fairly extensive deep leads, believed C.12I54 2g 460 Federal Handbook. to be of Pliocene age ; they consist of sand, clay, and gravel, covered by a very ferruginous cement. The payable gold is confined to a layer of from 1 to 2 feet thick lying directly on the bed rock. In the gold-fields of Talunga and Parra Wirra are large areas of older gold-drifts of Tertiary age, now represented by outcrops of cement, sand- stone, sand, and gravel, forming nearly all the low hills which flank the range, forming water parting between the Torrens and the Parra River basins. The range is made up of metamorphic rocks, believed to be of Lower Silurian age. These beds are intersected by dykes of granite and pegmatite, which have some genetic relationship with some of the quartz reefs, for some of them (solid white quartz) are seen to pass into granite. The quartz reefs mostly contain large quantities of iron pyrites from which it is probable that the gold is derived. The auriferous portion of the Tarcoola Gold-field extends over an area of about 10 miles in an east and west direction. The rocks enclosing the quartz reefs consist of quartzite, clay slate, and sandstone, resting upon a mica- free granite. The auriferous lodes cross the sediments approximately at right angles to the strike, and cut through them more or less vertically ; there are in addition another series of ironstone and quartz lodes, trending approximately at right angles to these, and conformable to the general strike of the sedimentary series and the junction of them and the granite. Auriferous lodes also traverse the granite and appear to be of the nature of auriferous igneous dykes. The salt industry of South Australia is of considerable importance, and the principal sources of supply are the salt lakes of the southern portion of the Cape Yorke Peninsula. Small quantities of the rare minerals, corundum beryl, and tourmaline have been met with in different portions of South Australia. Carnotite, the radio-active mineral, has been mined at Olary, where the ore bodies are pegmatite dykes, believed to be of pre-Cambrian age. 461 > OD 5 O LU 5 ^ CO J 1 > o H 03 O 462 GRAPHS SHEWING VALUES OP^ TOTAL TRADE. COMMONWEALTH, 1826 to EXPORTS 1912 AND IMPORTS or / / A r To A ?7 Tr VT r/ f ., r w k A> r \ / - 1 J r 1 - TD ni ^ y, (iovrrnment Printer); The Indus- trial .Vrbitratlon Itiports and Records, New South Walis (Syilru y, (lovci iinicnt Printer) ; Victoria, .\nnual Reports of (Jhief Inspi'ctor of Factories, Workrooms, and Sho|is (.Melbourne, Government Printer); Queensland, Annual Reports of the Director of Labour and Chief Inspector of Factories and Shoi)s (Bris- bane, Government Printer) ; South Australia, Annu.'iJ Reports of Chief Inspectors of Factories (.\delaigS£ >ss >§£ 1^° <--3§£ Hoi. £ £ £ £ £ £ Tanneries 176 3,247 585 2,099, 22, 332, 245, 2,698, Soap and Candle 81 1,668 674, 1,019, 32, 149, 388, 1,588. Saw Mills 1,494 26,785 3,675, 4,208, 37, 2,749, 1,542, 8,536, Agricultural Implements 155 5,156 529, 811, 32, 551, 262, 1,656, Entiineering Works, &c. . . 820 22,539 3,286, 2,832, 179, 2,343, 1,261, 6,615, Railway Workshops, &c. . . 72 17,425 3,469, 1,939, 70, 2,163, 461, 4,633, Smelting Works, &c. 143 7,036 2,244, 6,618, 608, 1,043, 1,840, 10,109, Bacon Curing . . 73 912 261, 1,186, 12, 105, 210, 1,E13. Butter, Cheese, &c. 540 3,730 1,453, 8,341, 68, 375, 648, 9,432, Ice and Refrigerating, &c. 197 6,146 2,660, 5,637. 110 622, 677, 7,046, Biscuit 37 3,329 416, 783, 20, 216, 302, 1,321, Jam and Fruit Preserving, &c. 120 4,352 409, 1,130, 17, 246, 305, 1,698, Confectionery . . 95 3,480 490, 844, 15, 229, 263, 1,351, Flour Mills 233 2,915 1,791, 6,078, 79, 342, 583, 7,082, Sugar Mills 53 4,764 2,691, 1,215, 57, 404, 531, 2,207, Breweries 121 3,450 2,440, 1,274, 69, 483, 1,493, 3,319, Distilleries 32 220 283, 115, 7, 25, 100, 247, Tobacco, Cigar, and Cigarette 33 3,730 588, 1,468, 4, 346, 701, 2,519, Woollen and Tweed ^Mills 32 3,200 762, 430, 20, 203, 171, 824, Boots and Shoes 341 13,772 956, 2,151, ■ 17, 1,097, 449, 3,714, Hats and Caps . . 82 3,856 347, 364, 11, 257, 136, 768, Coach and Waggon 768 8,030 958, 720, 25, 659, 335, 1.739, Furniture and Cabinet Making 426 6,918 763, 737, 12, 674, 278, 1.701, Electric Light and Power 164 2,432 3,965, 374, 325, 964, 1,663, Gas and Coke . . 136 4,125 4,628, 715, 73, 571, 1 1,003, 2,362, 5. Trade and Commerce. Under the provisions of the Commonwealth Constitution Act, power to make laws with respect to " trade and commerce with other countries and among the States " was conferred on the Commonwealth Parliament. It was also provided that on the establishment of the Commonwealth, Customs and Excise duties should pass to the Commonwealth, uniform Customs duties should be imposed within two years, and that on the imposition of such uniform duties, trade and commerce between the States should be absolutely free. The first Act passed under the authority of these provisions was the Customs Act 1901. This provided for the establishment of the necessary administrative machinery for all matters pertaining to the Customs, and prescribed, inter alia, the manner in which Customs duties should be computed and paid. It did not, however, determine the rates of duty. During the interval between the inception of the Commonwealth, on the 1st January, 1901, and the coming into operation of the Customs Act 1901, the Customs Acts of the several States were administered by the Executive Government of the Commonwealth, under section 86 of the Constitution. The first Commonwealth Customs Tariff imposing uniform rates of Customs duty in all the States was introduced in the House of Representatives on the 8th October, 1901. " An Act relating to Duties of Customs," assented to on the 16th September, 1902, made provision that uniform duties of Customs specified in the Tariff schedule should be imposed from the 8th October, 1901. From this time onwards trade between the States became free, with, however, the exception, under section 95 of the Constitution Act, of the right of Western Australia to levy Manufactures, Industrial, Etc., of Australia. 491 duty oil the goods from other States. The second Federal Tariff, succeeding the Kingston Act of 1901, came into force in 1907. The Commonwealth follows the British custom of enforcing a Tariff from the time it is presented to Parliament, modifying the rate of duty collected, if necessary, as the latter body passes the several items. The revision was in the direction of increased protection, though the free list was actually extended and a tariff of pre- ferential rates was pro\'ided on goods produced or manufactured in the United Kingdom. The general effect of the tariff is disclosed by comparing the results obtained by appl}'ing to the imports of 1907 the rates of duty, first under the tariff of 1902 and, secondly, under that of 1908. This shows that the percentage of free imports on total imports (exclusive of bullion and specie) increased from 35 "8 per cent, under the 1902 tariff to 40*7 under that of 1908, while at the same time the average rate of duty on all merchandise increased from 17*0 to 19*6 per cwt., and the average rate of duty on dutiable imports increased from 26*6 to 33*1 per cent. The total value of the oversea trade of the Commonwealth amounted in the year 1912 to over £157,250,000, that is, to £33 17s. 2d. per head of population. After making due allowance for imports for transhipment or re-export, the value of the trade per inhabitant is greater in Australia (where it is £32 lis. 2d. per head) than in any other country in the world, except Belgium (£40 19s. lOd.), New Zealand (£37 10s. 4d.), and Switzerland (£32 lis. 3d.), and while it is true that external trade is not in itself necessarily an index of the prosperity of a country, a consideration of the general charac- teristics and of the marked development of the trade of the Commonwealth over a number of years suffices to show that Australian affairs are progressing rapidly and favorably, more especially when it is recognised that there are practically no factors operating in the opposite direction. A review of the statistics of the total trade of the Commonwealth with oversea countries from the earliest date for which records are available {i.e., the year 1826, when the value was £566,000, or £10 13s. 2d. per inhabi- tant), shows that there was a marked rise, followed by a sudden fall, in the value of imports during the period 1837 to 1844.* This was contemporaneous with heavy land speculation and a subsequent severe financial crisis. In the early 'fifties, consequent on the discovery of gold, there was a gi-eat increase in trade, the total value of imports and exports rising from £5,070,000 in 1851 to £15,694,000 in 1852, £29,393,000 in 1853, and £36,406,000 in 1854. This represents an increase per head from £13 9s. 2d. in 1851 to £56 3s. lOd. in 1854. The rapid influx of persons anxious to share the good fortunes of these times soon reduced the value of the trade per head, until, by 1858, it had declined to £31 19s. 6d., while the period 1867 to 1872 again shows a marked reduction in the value per head. For some years prior to this period a succession of indifferent seasons had been experienced in New South Wales, while in Victoria the labour market was congested, owing to the decline in alluvial gold-mining. An examination of the movement of the oversea trade of AiLstralia shows that periods of depressed trade have been recurrent at more or less regular intervals of from seven to nine years, and, measured by population, each succeeding depression since 1855 has carried the trade per head lower than • See graph on page 462. 492 Federal Handbook. the preceding one, until the lowest point was reached in 1894. The year 1892 marked the beginning of a period of acute financial stress, culminating in the commercial crisis of 1893. The collapse of these years is plainly reflected in the trade records of that period, the trade of 1894 falling to £5-4,028,000, a decline of no less than 26*7 per cent, in three years. In 1895 there was a slight recovery, and a continuous upward movement until 1901, when the trade reached £92,130,000, or £24 6s. Id. per head. A decline, due to drought, in the exports of agricultural, pastoral, and dairy produce, reduced the trade of 1902 to £84,591,000, but although in the next year there was a further shrinkage in the exports of agricultural produce, the increase in the value of the exports of metals, specie, butter, and wool was so large as to eSect an increase in the total trade. From 1902 the increase in the value of trade continued, until in 1907 it reached the amount of £124,633,000, equal to £30 4s. 5d. per inhabitant. The imports during 1907 were, doubtless, to some extent inflated by the importation of goods in anticipation of the Tarifl revision of that year. The trade of 1908 shows a decline of £10,523,000 as compared with 1907, of which £8,513,000 was in the value of exports, notwithstanding an increase of £3,448,000 in the export of gold and specie. This decline in the value of exports was largely due to reduced prices ruling for wool and metals in consequence of the financial crisis in the United States during the previous year, and in lesser degree to the smaller exports of agricultural and pastoral produce, due to the unfavorable season experienced in some of the States. The trade of 1909 per head of population was slightly more than in 1908, notwithstanding that the gold exports were less by £5,194,000. In 1910 the trade reached an absolute value never before attained, while, measured by the population, the value of imports per head was higher than in any year since 1885, and the value of exports was — excepting the years 1906 and 1907 — -the highest since 1857. The high value of exports is particularly striking when considered in conjunction with the exceptionally small exports of gold. The latter, already much reduced in 1909 as compared with 1908, decreased still further in 1910 to £4,109,000, the smallest recorded since 1892. These relatively small exports of gold do not indicate the decline of the gold production, but are merely due to the fact that the recent prolific seasons and high prices made the exports of merchandise sufficient to meet all obligations abroad and so render the export of gold unnecessary. During 1911 the exports of gold bullion and specie again increased to £11,541,000. With few exceptions, due to temporary dislocations of trade, the balance of trade prior to 1892 was on the side of imports, but from 1891 the reverse has been the case, the value of exports having increased by 120 '5 per cent., and the imports by 77*6 per cent. The excess of imports in the earlier years represents the introduction of capital in the form of Government loans and for investment in private undertakings, and the excess of exports in the later years represents mainly the interest and profit on the earlier investments, repayment of loans to foreign bondholders, and also freight on trade which is carried mainly by ships of the United Kingdom. The continued increase in the value of imports during 1912, while the value of exports remained stationary, is largely due to increased loan flotations in London, and also in some degree to the larger introduction of capital by immigrants. Manufactures, Industrial, Etc., of Australia. 493 The total value of the Commonwealth's exports in 1912 was £79,096,000, of which the United Kingdom accounted for £31,459,000, British possessions for £16.888,000, and foreign countries for £30,749,000. As may be seen from the following table, considerable alteration in the direction of exports is evident in the figures for the last twenty years. Commonwealth's Exports, 1891 to 1912 — Purchasing Markets. To- Period. United Kingdom (000 omitted). British Possessions (000 omitti'd). Foreign Countries (000 omitted.) Total (000 omitted). 1891-5 1896-1900 . 1901-5 1906-10 1911 1912 £ 23,804, 24,624. 23,930. 32,984, 35,310, 31,459, £ 2,812, 5,067, 13,507, 10,754, 15,825, 16,888, £ 7,067, 11,402, 13,800, 25,598, 28,347, 30,749, £ 33,683, 41,093, 51.237, 69,336, 79,482, 79,096, It may be remarked that the decrease in the value of exports shipped to the United Kingdom in 1912 is largely due to the diminished production in Australia (owing to the drought in that year) of several important com- modities which are exported mainly to the United Kingdom. For example, the value of the exports of wheat decreased by £2.037,000, wool by £741,000, and butter £1,309,000. The exports of bullion and specie also decreased by £662,000. These figures show that the value of foreign markets to Australia is increasing at a much greater rate than the value of the export trade to the United Kingdom. The South African Union. India, and Ceylon are largely responsible for the increases in exports to British possessions. During the South African war large shipments of gold were sent from the Commonwealth to that country, and the more recent decline in the value of the exports to South Africa is due to the cessation of these shipments together with a decrease in the export of timber. The exports to India and Ceylon are also mainly of gold, of which exceptionally heavy shipments were made during 1904, 1905, and 1911; the large increase in exports to foreign countries occurred mainly with respect to Belgium, G-ermany, and France. Notwithstanding an increase of 32*2 per cent, in the actual value of exports to the United Kingdom during the year 1912, as compared with the yearly average of the period 1891-95, the proportion of the total exports despatched to the United Kingdom has fallen from 70*7 per cent, in the earlier period to 39*8 per cent, in the year 1912. This decrease, and the corresponding increase in the export trade to foreign countries, are to some extent, undoubtedly due to the fact that wool and other commodities which were formerly despatched to the United Kingdom, and distributed from that centre, are now to a greater extent shipped direct to continental parts. The figures given, however, do not even now denote the total purchases by foreign countries of Australian produce, as large quantities are still distributed from London. C.12154. 2 I 494 Federal Haxdbook. The foregoing table shows a great increase in the value of exports to foreign countries, both in actual amounts and in relation to total exports. The value of exports to foreign countries during 1912 shows an increase of 335 per cent, over similar figures for the years 1891-5, thus increasing the proportion per cent, of all exports from 20*9 per cent, in the earlier years to 38*9 per cent, in 1912. In order to show the general development and nature of Australia's export trade, the following table is given, in which the exports are arranged according to class, the usual distinction being made between Australian produce and re-exports. Commonwealth Exports Arranged in Classes, i901 and 1912. Classes. Australian Produce. Other Produce. Total Exports. 1901 1912 1901 1912 1901 1912 (000 (000 (000 (000 (000 (000 omitted). omitted). omitted). omitted). omitted). omitted). £ £ £ £ £ £ I. Animal Foodstuffs, & c. . . 4,104, 7,991, 3.5, 24, 4,1.39, 8,015. II. Vegetable Foodstuffs, &c. . . 4,633, 8,741. 81, 170, 4 714, 8 911, III. Beverage.? (non-alcoh( )lic), &c. . . 3, 5, 43, 78, 46, 83, IV. Alcoholic Liquors, Italy, 1899-1902. II "So So , Maies. 20 40 60 80 20 40 60 80 Years. Years. Years. Years. Years. Years. Y'ears. Years. Years. Years. Years. 52-2 50-9 50-4 50-2 46-2 45-7 45-4 44-1 42-9 42-8 40-6 44-7 44-7 43-6 44-5 43-4 41-5 41-8 41-0 42-0 43-1 41-2 28-6 29-9 30-6 28-9 28-1 27-1 26-7 25-6 27-3 28-0 25-9 14-3 15-4 16-4 14-7 14-0 13-8 13-4 12-9 13-5 13-6 12-8 5-0 4-9 5-6 4-9 4-7 4-9 4-6 4-6 4-3 4-3 4-2 Females. 54-8 45-7 30-5 15-9 5-5 53-6 46-8 51-7 16-6 5-4 54-1 46-5 32-3 17-5 61 53-2 46-7 31-2 16-0 5-3 49-0 44-8 29-7 150 5-0 49-1 44-0 29-6 15-1 5-4 48-8 44-4 29-5 14-8 4-9 47-8 45-6 43-2 44-0 43-4 44-2 43-2 43-4 27-8 29-5 28-7 28-1 14-1 14-6 13-7 13-6 50 4-9 4-2 4-5 Years 37-8 40-1 25-5 12-6 4-4 39-9 40-8 26-6 12-8 4-5 Comparing the Australian rates of mortality with those of Sweden for the decennium 1901-10 it will be seen that the incidence is markedly diSerent in the two countries. The eSect of this upon the economic aspect of the population of the two communities will best be seen by analysing the re- spective expectations of life so as to shew, in regard to each person born, the average time lived in the three groups of " Dependent Age " (under 15), " Supporting Age " (15 to 65), and " Old Age " (above 65). Treated in this manner the life tables furnish the following results : — Analysis op Australian and Swedish Expectations of Life, 1901-10 Age. Average Time Lived in Period by Each Person Born. Period. Males. ; Females. Australia, Sweden, 1901-10, 1901-10, Experience | Experience. Australia, Sweden, 1901-10, 1901-10, Experience. Experience. Dependent Age . . Supporting Age . . Old Age -15 15-64 65- Years. 13-14 36-56 5-50 Years. 12-94 35-20 6-41 Years. 13-40 38-19 7-25 Years. 13-20 36-30 7-50 The whole of life 55-20 54-55 58-84 1 5700 This table indicates that for the economically important period of life, viz., from 15 to 65, each male born in Australia experiences on the average 1 '36 years of Kfe more than a male born in Sweden, and each female born in Australia 1 -89 years of life on the average more than a female born in Sweden. This is a matter of considerable importance when it is remembered that the mortality experience of Sweden is practically the best in Europe. Australia, Its People and Their Activities. 587 2. The Trade and Finance of Australia. The subject of the oversea trade of Australia has been treated at some length in Chap. XI., section 4. What is added here is supplementary to that article. The facts which go to shew that there has been corresponding expansion of the internal trade are derivable from railway statistics and have been already set out at some length in the chapter mentioned, section 7. (a) Oversea Trade. Although far removed from the great centres of population, the Com- monwealth of Australia occupies a relatively high position amongst the trading countries of the world. To illustrate this, various tables have been compiled, and are given hereinafter. These review the situation for the past thirty years. In these tables the results are shewn either for quin- quennial groups, or at quinquennial intervals. Tables so built up have two advantages over others with only annual intervals. In the first place a much larger period can be brought within the limits of a single table ; and in the second place accidental fluctuations from year to year, due to non-recurring causes, are either eliminated or greatly reduced. In the period under review there were three of these fluctuations, to which refer- ence will be made in the proper place. The volume of a country's external trade, and its amount per head, is a very fair index of its prosperity, provided that due allowance be made for the important factors that may influence it. The first table shews the over- sea trade of the Australian Commonwealth under the three headings of " Recorded Value," " Value per Inhabitant per annum," and " Percentage of Imports upon Exports " : — Oversea Trade of the Commonwealth, 1881-1912. Quinquennial Recorded Value. Value Per Inhabitant Per Annum. Percentage of Exports Upon Exports. Imports. Exports. Total Trade. Imports. Exports. Total Trade. 1881-1885 1886-1890 1891-1895 1896-1900 1901-1905 1906-1910 Year 1912 £.1000 174,474 173,377 136,675 168,815 196,289 257,539 78,159 £1,000 140,274 132,895 168,413 205,468 250,188 346,683 79,096 £1,000 314,748 306,272 305,088 374,283 452,477 604,222 157,255 £ «. (I. 14 5 3 11 16 7 8 4 9 5 5 10 1 8 12 5 7 16 16 7 £ «. d. 11 9 3 9 14 10 2 11 5 9 13 3 2 16 10 8 17 7 £ s. d. 25 14 6 20 17 11 18 6 20 11 2 23 4 10 28 16 3 33 17 2 80-4 76-6 123' 2 121-7 130-5 134-6 101-2 It will be derived from this table that the value of trade per head per annum started at £25 14s. 6d. in the first quinquennium, fell rapidly for ten years, and then recovered itself, at first slowly and afterwards more rapidly. The first quinquennium, and part of the second, formed a period of large public borrowing and trade activity, but this was followed by a period of stress, culminating in the acute financial crisis of 1892, when several of the banks suspended payment. Recovery began to be apparent in 1896 and continued steadily until 1903-4, when there was a somewhat severe set-back owing to the drought of 1902. Since then, however, the advance has been almost continuous, the only check being in the years 1908-9, when, as a consequence of the American financial crisis of 1907, there was a fall in the prices of Australian staple products. 588 Federal Handbook. The tliird column of the table shews the relation between imports and exports for the period. For the first ten years the balance of trade was in favour of imports — the consequence of large public borrowing in that period. From that time until 1911, the balance was in favour of exports, the normal situation for a debtor country which is not largely increasing its public debt. In 1912, however, there was heavy public borrowing, and the imports were so largely increased in consequence, that imports and exports for that year practically balanced each other. (b) Public Debt. Reference has been made in the previous paragraph to Australia as a debtor country, and mention may now be made of the aggregate public debt of the various States. The table hereunder shews the increase since 1881 at quinquennial intervals, and the increase per head of population, and both will be be seen to be extremely large — Public Debt of Australian States. Year. Amount. Per Head. Year. Amount. Per Head. 1881 1886 1891 1896 £ 66,306,471 117,323,018 15.5,117,773 180,623,886 £ s. d. 29 4 6 42 15 10 48 10 8 51 5 7 1901 1906 1913 £ 203,518,275 238,427,820 *294,482,164 £ s. d. 53 14 6 58 14 9 61 6 1 * Exclusive of Commonwealth Debt, £7,430,948. This has been the occasion from time to time of much extraordinary and irrelevant criticism by persons who failed to recognize that the loan money has been applied largely to the improvement of internal communication (absolutely essential to the development of a country which has no large and navigable waterways), to harbor works, water supply, or other great public utilities. The Australian States thus possess solid assets which practically counterbalance the debt, inasmuch as they nearly pay the interest bill. That this is a fair statement of the case can be illustrated as follows : — In the financial year ended 30th June, 1912, the States obtained in revenue from their " Public Works and Services " the sum of £23,690,269. The expenditure during the same period was £15,952,803, leaving a surplus of £7,737, 466. The interest payments for the year amounted to £9,479,003. The profit on the " Public Works and Services " is thus sufficient to meet all the interest payments, except an amount of £1,741,537. This, if capi- talized at the average rate of interest paid by the States, amounts to about £50,000,000, which is thus the amount of the public debt which was not directly reproductive at that time.* Even this, however, is spent on immi- gration, or in other ways which indirectly increases the wealth of Australia. The country is thus not saddUng itself with a mere dead weight, but is rather in the position of a company which for business principles is constantly enlarging its capital, and is in a very different position financially from a country whose public debt has been incurred in, say, war. • The Public Debt at 30th June, 1912, was £277,124,095. Australia, Its People and Their Activities. 589 (c) Accumulation. Under this heading will be included deposits in ordinary banks, deposits in savings banks, etc., for the period under review. The following table (Accumulation i.) shews the amount of deposits in the ordinary banks for five-yearly intervals. The amounts given do not, of course, represent the savings of the people, but rather the foundation for the volume of trade. The fluctuations to be observed in the case of a former table (Oversea Trade) are reproduced here in an even more marked degree : — Accumulation (i.) Deposits in Ordinary Banks. Year, 30th June. Amount £1,000,000 Per Head £ I £ 50-932 I 75-468 £. g. d. \ £ s. d. 22 8 11 I 27 10 7 £ 97-692 £ s. d. 30 11 3 £ 85-680 £ s. d. 24 6 6 £ 91-487 £ s. d. 24 2 8 £ 106-515 £ s. d. 26 1 6 £ 149-828 £ s. d. 31 4 A second table (Accumulation ii.) furnishes the number of depositors in savings banks during the period and the amount at credit. These show steady advances during the 30 years, uninfluenced by any fluctuation. Accumulation (ii.). — Savings Banks Statistics. Year. Number of Amount at Amount Per Head Depositors. Credit. of Population. 1881 250,070 7,893,464 3 9 7 1886 396,735 10,284,530 3 15 1891 614,741 15,536.592 4 17 3 1896 764,650 24,330,214 6 18 2 1901 964,553 30,882,465 8 3 1906 1,185,608 38,286,219 9 9 10 1911 1,600,112 59,393,682 13 8 5 1913* 1,961,215 75,462,850 15 14 4 * Includes Commonwealth Savings Bank. A third table (Accumulation iii.) shews the amounts paid in insurance premiums (ordinary business). The figures from 1881-1906 include the foreign business of Australian companies, but exclude the Australian business of foreign companies : — Accumulation (hi.). — Premium Income (New and Renewal) of Australian Companies.* Year. 1881. 1886. 1896. 1901. 1906. £ Amount . . . . I 887,894 Amount per head of i £ s. d. population . . i 7 10 £ 1,406,854 £ «. d. 10 3 £ 2,144,695 £ 8. d. 13 5 £ 2,328,325 £ «. d. 13 3 £ , £ 2,917,552 , 3,619,918 £ s. d. \ £ s. d. 15 5 17 10 £ 4,938,315 £ s. d. 113 * Including (till 1906) foreign business of Australian companies, but excluding Australian business of foreign companies. The two tables taken together shew that, despite the charges of private extravagance, not unfrequently levelled against Australians, large and increasing sums are put by for purely provident pui-poses. This, moreover, is exclusive of the money invested in building societies, etc. It is just possible that persons whose experience is mainly of the old world are apt to mistake the higher standard of living for improvidence. 590 Federal Handbook. (d) Financial Relationship between Commonwealth and States. A few words may be added on the changes in public finance brought about by Federation. At the time of Federation the main revenue of the States was derived from taxation (direct and indirect), and income from " Public Works and Services." For the first ten years after Federation, the financial relations between Commonwealth and State Governments were regulated by Section 87 of the Constitution, known generally as the " Braddon Clause." This provided that the Commonwealth should, until 31st Decem- ber; 1910, and thereafter, as long as Parliament should decide, retain for its own use an amount not exceeding one-fourth of the net revenue from customs and excise duties, the balance to be returned to the States. The original framers of the Constitution only contemplated a moderate Federal expendi- dure, and doubtless considered one-fourth of the customs and excise revenue sufficient, as it certainly was at first. After six or seven years, however, it began to be realized that the Federal Government, with its heavy self-imposed commitments for large national purposes, such as defence, old-age pensions, etc., must face a largely increased expenditure. Consequently, on the expiration of the Braddon clause, a new arrangement was made, for a period of ten years, on terms much more favorable to the Commonwealth Government. By the terms of the new agreement, the Commonwealth retains the whole of the customs and excise revenue, and makes to each State, by monthly instalments, an annual subsidy equal to 2-53. per head of the population of that State, as at 31st December of the financial year in question. Special annual subsidies are being made, in addition, to Western Australia and Tasmania, as compensation for the dislocation of their fijiances, which occurred when they surrendered control of their customs and excise revenue to the Commonwealth. These arrangements are subject to alteration, or may be determined at the expiration of ten years (1920). 3. Productive Industries. (a) Value of Production. The productive industries of Australia may be classified under the headings of agricultural, pastoral, dairjdng, etc., forestry and fisheries, mining and manufacturing. From the point of view of value of production, manufacturing has taken the lead for the past two years — a position previously held by the pastoral industry. At present agriculture fills the third place, mining, dairy and poultry farming, and forestry and fisheries following in the order named. The development of these various industries having already been fully described in previous chapters of this book, this further reference to them must be considered as merely supplementary, and as dealing with them purely from a statistical point of view. The inaccuracy of statistical information, and the absence of uniformity of its collection by the several States prior to 1906, and in the case of manu- facturing for three years later, render it extremely difficult to form an estimate of the probable value of production during the earlier years. Careful estimates have, however, been made, and may be accepted as being suffi- ciently connect to form a basis for comparative purposes, and also to furnish evidence of the development that has taken place in the several industries during recent years. Australia, Its People and Their Activities. 591 Estimated Value op Production from Australian Industries. Year. ^S' j I'-*--!- Dairy, Poultry, and Bee Farming. Forestry and Fisheries. Mining. Manufac- turing. Total. 1901 1906 1912 £ £ 1,000 1,000 23,835 27,150 25,349 45,389 45,754 ' 51,615 £ 1,000 9,740 13,611 20,280 £ 1,000 2,772 4,879 6,432 £ 1,000 22,016 26,622 25,629 £ 1,000 27,191 33,205 57,022 £ 1,000 112,704 149,055 206,732 Per Head of Mean Poptjl\tton. £ £ £ £ £ £ £ 1901 6-29 7-16 2-57 0-73 5-81 717 29-73 1906 6-24 1118 3-35 1 20 6 -.56 818 36-71 1912 9-85 1111 4-37 1 38 5-52 12-28 44-51 (b) Agriculture. Prior to the gold discoveries, and the consequent large influx of popu- lation, very little attention was paid in Australia to agriculture, the bulk of the food-stuffs being imported. It is estimated that only 491,000 acres were under cultivation in 1850. The growing demand for agricultural products, however, was soon reflected in the increased area cultivated, and from that date, irrespective of fluctuations incidental to climatic conditions in certain seasons, a consistent and satisfactory development has been in evidence. From 1871 to 1912 the area under crop increased from 2,316,000 acres to 13,038,000 acres, or by 456 per cent., while the total value of produce increased from £8,941,000 to £45,754,000, or by 412 per cent. (c) The Pastoral Industry. The pastoral industry is far the most important of the primary pro- ductive industries of the Commonwealth, and in 1912 represented £51,615,000, or nearly 34 per cent, of the total value of those industries. Wool, of course, is the main factor in this yield, the values of wool and sheep- skins exported during 1901, 1906, and 1912 being £15,237,000, £22,646,000, and £26,355,000 respectively. The recent revision of the tariff of the United States of America will probably have the effect of opening up a very large market for Australian mutton and other meat products, in addition to largely increasing the demand for our wool. (d) Dairy, Poultry, and Bee Farming. The development of the dairying industry in Australia has been rapid during the last few years. The exports of butter, which in 1901 were valued at £1,451,000, rose to £3,240,000 in 1906 ; five years later, in 1911, they represented no less a value than £4,637,000, having more than trebled during the decade. The total value of output of dairy, poultry, and bee farming in 1906 was £13,611,000 ; in 1908, £15,045,000 ; in 1910, £17,387,000 ; and in 1912, £20,280,000. C. 12154. 2i' 592 Federal Handbook. (e) Forestry and Fisheries. (i.) Forestry. — The forests of the Commonwealth cover about 102,000,000 acres, the area specially reserved being about 27f million acres. The use» of the more important of Australian timbers are many and various, and for durability and beauty are unsurpassed by any timbers in the world. The quantity of local timber sawn or hewn in Australia during 1902 was 352 million superficial feet, five years after it was over 416 million, while in 1912 over 667i million superficial feet of Australian timber was sawn or hewn throughout the Commonwealth. A considerable quantity of wattle and other bark used for tanning pur- poses is produced. During 1912 the local tanneries used 26,739 tons, while 8,402 tons were exported. (ii.) Fisheries. — Valuable food fishes abound in the coastal waters of Australia, while the fresh water rivers and lakes yield abundant supplies both of natural and acclimatized species. Pearls and pearlshell are obtained in Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory, the last two places also exporting quantities of beche-de-mer and tortoiseshell. The enhanced value of the combined production of forestry and fisheries during the past few years has been very satisfactory, the value of output having increased from £4,879,000, in 1906, to £6,432,000, in 1912. (f) Mining. Although the annual return from mining is now considerably less than that yielded by the pastoral, agricultural, and manufacturing industries, nevertheless, the value of mineral production during 1912 amounted to £25,629,238, an amount that had only been exceeded by the 1906 output, the total value of which was £26,621,796. To the end of 1912 the Com- monwealth mineral production totalled over 810 million pounds, to which gold contributed £546,080,000 ; silver and lead, £70,069,000 ; copper, £62,394,000 ; tin, £31,577,000 ; and coal, £78,570,000. The following table shows the value of mineral production during certain years from 1851 to 1912 : — ■ Australian Mineral Production, 1851-1912. Silver Y ear. Gold. and Lead. Copper. Tin. Coal. other. Total. £ £ £ £ £ £ £ 1851 1,319,932 1,778 309,324 11,937 25,739 2,190 1.670,900 1853 12,757,564 1,787 176,355 11.937 78,252 2,265 13,028,160 1860 10,373,280 11,926 4,3,044 11,937 235,930 3,000 11,079,117 1880 4,906,903 46,496 667,545 841,128 644,801 43,520 7,150,393 1890 5,261,217 2,857,849 339,978 646,157 1,470.267 268,611 10,844,079 1900 13,578,438 3,044,524 1,802,215 550,256 2,019,303 395,239 21,389,975 1910 11,553,840 2,224,687 2,389,412 950,768 3,684,041 *2,412,443 23,215,191 1912 9,879,928 3,876,251 3,244,550 1,348,992 4,418,025 »2,861,492 25,629,238 • Including zinc, 1910, £1,289,781 and £1,766,459. Since the year 1900 the value of the mineral output has not progressed very rapidly, the chief cause being the steady decline in the gold yield. The other important minerals, however, shew a substantial increase in pro- duction. Australia, Its People and Their Activities. 593 (g) Manufacturing. Statistics relative to tlie manufacturing industries are not available for the Commonwealth as a whole prior to 1903. and are even then not complete. The growth of these industries since that date has been very considerable. The number of factories in 1903 was 11,551, as compared with 14,878 in 1912, while the number of hands employed has increased from 195,810 to 327,456 in the same period. Similarly the total amount of salaries and wages paid has risen from about £14,000,000, in 1903, to £31,287,492, in 1912. The total value added in the process of manufacture in 1907 was £38,063,153, as compared with £60,499,787 in 1912. As regards capital invested in manufacturing industries it hiay be noted that the approximate value of land and buildings in connection with factories increased from £23,056,000 in 1903 to £34,809,000 in 1912, while that of plant and machinery employed in factories increased from £20,653,000 in 1903 to £34,461,000 in 1912, that is to say, the total fixed capital employed in these industries rose from £43,709,000 to £69,270,000 — an increase of 58^ per cent. 4. Land Legislation and Settlement. In the early days of Australian colonization, land could be alienated only by grants and orders from the Crown, and the power of making these was vested solely in the Governor. In 1787, land was granted to liberated convicts only, but two years later the privilege was extended to free immi- grants or to marines serving in Australia and desirous of settling in the colony. Tenure under leasehold was not adopted till the year 1811, and in 1834 leases were granted under a covenant to convert the same into grants on the fulfilment of certain conditions, often merely nominal. Before this, however, the principle of alienation of land by sale to free settlers had been introduced by Sir Thomas Brisbane, the first land sale taking place in Sydney in 1825. The system of grants was abolished in 1831 except for public or charitable purposes, and purchase at public auction was made practically the sole means of alienating Crown lands. In the same year the principle of selection was introduced into the land laws of Australia. A new element was embodied in the Imperial Act of 1842, namely, the provision that, subject to a primary charge for survey, half the proceeds of the land sales were to be used to defray the cost of immigration of persons to the colony in which the revenue accrued. Under another Act, viz., in 1847, a new classification of lands took place, and, while sales by auction were maintained, a system of leasehold was introduced, giving the lessee a right of purchase during the currency of the lease at an upset price of £1 per acre, or, on the expiration of the lease, a pre-emptive right at the same price over all or any part of the land. The land legislation of New South Wales remained practically unaltered from 1847 to 1861, and, as the several colonies received their own Constitutions, their land laws for the most part remained identical with those of the mother colony until such time as local conditions and requirements called for new legislation. The influence of New South "Wales was not felt to the same extent in South Australia and Western Australia, where other conditions prevailed and where land settlement was effected by land laws of a special and novel character. In the first chapter of this book reference has already been made to Wakefield's scheme of settlement in South Australia. 594 Federal irANDBOOK. When the excitement of the gold rush had subsided and the interest in gold digging was declining, the number of people desiring to settle on the land so increased that the question of land settlement became of the first order of importance. As a consequence, greater encouragement was given to settlers by making the conditions of tenure more liberal, and legislation was enacted to facilitate the establishment of an agrarian population side by side with the pastoral tenants. Men with limited capital were enabled to take up land under conditions that ensured a reasonable chance of success and at the same time the Acts passed aimed at preventing land being made the subject of mere speculative selection without bond fide intention of settlement. In 1858, South Australia enacted an important piece of land legislation, viz., the " Real Property Act." This Act, originated by Sir Robert R. Torrens, and subsequently adopted by all the States and by New Zealand, has greatly facilitated all dealings in land by providing for such registration of title as not only simplifies the investigation of such title, but also secures the registered owner against all parties. Many and varied were the experiments in land legislation made by the several States. Acts from time to time were repealed, amended, or elaborated as new conditions emerged, or difficulties presented themselves. Even at the present time, though there is a considerable similarity between the principal form of tenure in the States, the terms and conditions vary very considerably. In all the States, what are known as Closer Settlement Acts have been passed. It was found that the value of the produce of a large estate, originally considered as being at its full capacity, compared unfavorably with the returns which could be obtained from the same area when subdivided and cultivated by settlers. Under the Acts mentioned, the State Governments resume, either under agreement or under compulsory purchase, large estates which have in past years been alienated by the Crown, and, after cutting them up into areas of suitable size, throw them open to settlement on easy terms and conditions. Of the total area of the Commonwealth, on the 31st December, 1912, 5"4 per cent, was alienated, 2-7 per cent, was in process of alienation, 45'1 per cent. was held under lease or licence, while the remainder, 46"8 per cent., was unoccupied. 5. Immigration. While recognizing fully the desirability of increasing the population of their respective States by immigration, the State authorities, long prior to Federation, deemed it wise to impose certain restrictions upon the character of the immigration. The influx of Chinese, for example, was limited by stringent statutory provisions, and Acts were passed in most of the States restricting the immigration of other, chiefly Asiatic, races. Further restrictions were placed upon the admission of persons who were undesirable as inhabitants, either for medical or moral reasons, or who were likely to be an economic burden upon the community. On the Federation of the States in 1901, the power to make laws with respect to immigration passed into the hands of the Commonwealth G-overnment. At the present time, besides the restrictions mentioned above, an immi- grant may be required to pass a dictation test before being admitted into Australia, Its People and Their Activities. 595 the Commonwealth. It may be stated that in general practice this test is not imposed upon persons of European race. Since the year 1861 the net immigration, that is, the excess of arrivals over departures, has been 959,515 ; while for the same period the natural increase, that is, the excess of births over deaths, has been 2,628,259. To shew, however, the present activity of the several States in the matter of immigration, it is necessary to give only the figures for the year 1912, during which the arrivals from overseas into the Commonwealth were 166,958. The departures in the same year amounted to 83,217, leaving a net immi- gration total of 83,742 — a number which easily constitutes a record. The net immigration for 1912 is also remarkable for the fact that it actuall}' exceeded the natural increase of the population, which was 80,911. In the earlier days of settlement in Australia, State-assisted immigration played an important part. Occasionally, however, one or other of the States would discontinue the practice, but of late years the policy has been revived and is now being vigorously carried out by all the States except Tasmania. Assistance is granted towards the payment of passage money to persons desiring to settle on the land or to engage in farm or dairy work, to domestic servants and to other persons who can satisfy the Agents-General that they will make suitable settlers ; while persons resident in Australia may nominate their relatives or friends to come out by assisted passages. During 1913, assistance was granted to 39,796 immigrants, making the total number assisted from the earliest times, 812,491. 6. The Postal Service. The development of a postal service in a large and sparsely populated territory is necessarily a work of difficulty and expense. In its comparatively short history, Australia has inaugurated a postal service which reaches practically every inhabited part of the continent, although its population is only about one-twentieth that of the United States of America, while its area is the same. The first office for postal purposes was established in Sydney in 1809, the charge for the delivery of each letter being one shilling ; but it was not until 1828 that a system of general post office communication was inaugur- ated. Kates of postage depended entirely upon the distance and difficulty of transmission, and varied from three pence to a shilling per letter. In Tasmania, the mails in 1824 were delivered once a fortnight by foot post, while in 1835 a mail cart made the journey twice a week from Hobart to Launceston (121 miles) in nineteen hours. A post office was established in Melbourne in 1837, with a fortnightly service between that city and Sydney. It is interesting at the present to notice a clause in the Postal Amendment Act passed in 1840 in New South Wales, which made it com- pulsory, under a penalty of from £10 to £50, for the masters of all vessels entering a port " to give timely notice of the near approach thereof, either by the ringing of a bell or by such other signal as may reasonably be expected to be distinctly heard or seen by the postmaster, a sufficient time before the actual arrival of such steam-boat or other vessel to enable hina to receive or despatch any mail on board." 596 Federal Handbook. In the year 1841, there were only 102 post offices in Australia, 56 being in New South Wales, 43 in Tasmania, and 3 in what is now Victoria. Subsequent to the discovery of gold, the history of the postal services reveals a remarkable rate of increase in postal correspondence, as is seen from the following table : — Development op Postal Services. Particulars. 1861. 1881. 1901. 1912. Number of post offices 1,006 3,018 5,008 8,225 Number of letters and post cards dealt with. .. 12,844,000 67,640,000 220,177,000 479,673,000 Number per post office 12,700 22,400 43,900 58,300 Number of letters and post- cards dealt with per 100 of population . . 1,099 2,932 5,756 10,134 7. Scientific Societies and Liberal Educational Effort. Despite the adverse influences incidental to the development of a young country, higher education and the promotion of scientific efEort were not neglected even in the earliest days of Australia, as the history of the establishment of scientific societies, superior schools, and the universities abimdantly shews. To some of these we shall now refer. The origin of the Royal Society of New South Wales dates as far back as 1821, when, under the name of the Philosophical Society of Australasia, it was founded by Sir Thomas Brisbane, who was its first president. Its present title was acquired by Royal sanction in 1866, its object being the promotion of art, science, literature, and philosophy. Some of the papers of the old Philosophical Society published in 1825 contain much that is interesting of the early history of Australia. The society has now over 300 members, while its exchange list comprises the names of 370 kindred societies. The society possesses a very fine library of about 21,000 volumes and pamphlets, and issues annually a journal of 500-600 pp., the 47th volume of which has already appeared. The Royal Society of Victoria dates back to 1854, the year preceding that during which its constituent origins, viz., the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science and the Philosophical Society of Victoria, were amalgamated, under the title of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria. Its present title was received in 1860. The constitution of the society states that it was founded " for the promotion of art, literature, and science," but for many years past science has monopolized its energies. Up to the present 56 volumes of publications have been issued. The society has a fine library of 10,000 volumes, and exchanges with 326 kindred bodies. The Royal Society of Queensland was instituted in 1884, being formed " for the furtherance of the natural and applied sciences, especially by means of original research." At latest date the members numbered over 100 ; publica- tions, 75 volumes ; library, 4,000 volumes ; and societies on exchange list, 142. The present Royal Society of South Australia grew out of the Adelaide Philosophical Society, which was founded in 1853, its object being the dis- cussion of all subjects connected with science, literature, and art. Despite this programme, the tendency ;of the society became purely scientific. Permission Australia : Its People and Their Activities. 597 to assume the title " Eoyal " was obtained in 1879, the society thenceforward being known as the Royal Society of South Australia. The membership is now about 100, and the exchange list numbers 253. Up to the present the society has issued 36 volumes of proceedings, and six of memoirs, exclusive of individual papers pubUshed in earlier years. The Royal Society of Tasmania, the first " Royal Society " to be estab- lished outside the United Kingdom, was founded in 1843, and in the list of the first corresponding members appear the names of Captains Ross and Crozier, of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror. The society has a membership of nearly 200, and a library of 8,000 volumes. Aimual volumes of proceedings have been published since 1844, and exchanges are made with 140 kindred bodies. The Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science was founded in 1888, and has its head-quarters in Sydney. It meets biennially in each State in turn. Up to date, thirteen volumes of proceedings have been issued, and the exchange list numbers 250. The Linnean Society of New South Wales, founded in 1875, maintains three investigators engaged in research work. The principal scientific society in Western Australia, viz., the Natural History and Science Society of Western Australia, has grown out of the Mueller Botanic Society, founded in 1897, and has for its object the study of natural history and pure science, promoted by periodical meetings and field excursions. Its membership is 118, and since its establishment twenty journals of proceedings have been issued. There are a number of lesser societies, among which may be mentioned the British Astronomical Society, which has a branch in Sydney, and the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, which has branches in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide, while Melbourne is the head-quarters of the Royal Australasian Ornithological Union. In 1901 the Australian Historical Society was founded in Sydney, having for its object the collection and preservation of all books, records, relics, and cognate matters having reference to Australian history. There are also professional societies, among which may be mentioned the Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane branches of the British Medical Associa- tion; and the Institutions of Surveyors of New South Wales and Victoria. As far as can be ascertained, the total number of libraries in the Commonwealth at the latest available date was about 1,500, the number of books contained therein being estimated at nearly 3,000,000. In each of the capital cities there is a well-equipped public library, the institutions in Sydney and Melbourne, especially, comparing very favorably with similar institutions in other parts of the world. An interesting table, shewing the number of libraries in receipt of State or municipal aid, is given hereunder : — Subsidized Libraries and Books Therein. Particulars. N.S.W. Vic. Q'land 8. Aust. W. Aust. Tas. Northprn Territory. Number of libraries 477 Estimated number 1 of books . . 925,000 525 1,109,000 203 304,000 211 459,000 237 214,000 32 2 106,000 2,700 598 Federal Handbook. Amongst other important libraries not included in the above table may be enumerated those at the Sydney University and the Australian Museum, which contain 96,000 and 18,000 volumes respectively. There are also over 500 libraries, with an estimated total of 145,000 volumes, attached to the State schools. In each of the capital cities, and in Launceston, museums devoted to natural history, ethnology, and geology have been established. The Australian Museum in Sydney, founded in 1836, is the oldest institution of its kind in Australia, and contains, inter alia, a very valuable and complete set of specimens of Australian fauna. There is a fine Technological Museum in Sydney, with branches in six country centres, the metropolitan institution containing over 109,000 specimens. Valuable research work in connexion with the oil and other products of the eucalyptus has been undertaken by the scientific stafi. A similar institution in Melbourne contains upwards of 55,000 specimens. Museums devoted to botany and plant life are estab- lished in Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart ; while there are several museums devoted to special objects, such as the " Nicholson " Museum of Antiquities in Sydney, and the Queensland Geological Survey Museum in Brisbane and Townsville. Each of the capital cities, as well as many of the larger towns, have erected art galleries, containing many valuable works by both European and Australian artists. 8. Educational Benefactions. The Universities of Australia have benefited considerably by private munificence, and so also have other institutions of an educational character, such as Public Art Galleries, Technical Schools, Museums and Libraries, etc. The most notable public benefactions are those which the Sydney University has enjoyed, donations thereto aggregating nearly £500,000, of which the bequests of Mr. J. H. Challis (£250,000), Sir P. N. Russell (£100,000), and Mr. Thomas Fisher (£20,000) are the most noteworthy. Melbourne University has received private benefactions totalling £175,000, Sir Samuel Wilson (£30,000), Mr. James Stewart (£25,000), and the Hon. Francis Ormond (£20,000) being the largest contributors. The last-named gentleman also donated £108,000 to Ormond College, one of the affiliated colleges of the Melbourne University. Sir Thomas Elder and Sir W. Hughes, with sums of £98,000 and £20,000 respectively, are the chief benefactors of the Adelaide University, which has so far received bequests totalling about £154,000. Other notable benefactions are the collections of Sir Charles Nicholson and Mr. George Masters to the Sydney University, the building for the Natural History Museum given by Sir W. Macleay, the library of IVIr. D. S. Mitchell, M.A. (valued at £108,000), given to the City of Sydney, and the Felton Bequest given to the Melbourne Art Gallery, and which returns annually about £8,000 to the trustees of that institution. y> By Authority : Albert J. Mullett, Government Printer, Melbourne. i '^' '^//i .>;lOSANCElfj> ■^/^aaAiNfi^wV' ^OFCALIFO/?^ o > .^;OFCALIF0% AWEDNIVER5-//. '"^ommy^ '-^omnw^ ^smmm'^ 'Oa^ ^UIBRARYOc, aWEUNIVERS/a ^VWSANCEI% lov "^mmyiSs^ •^■^mmm^ ^/ya3AiNfi-3Wv '^.i/ojiivdjo^' -oAtllBRARYQ^. '% ^OFCAIIFO/?/]^ ^WE•UNIVER5•/A vvlOSANCElfj> O ^^^ " ^OFCAIIFOff^ 1^1 %a3AiNn]Wv ^(?Aavaani^ ^ o "^Aa^AiNn-awv ^OFCALIFO/?^ ^OFCALIFOff^l^ A\^EUNIVERS/A < ea ^^TilJONVSOV'^" ftr O "^Aaa; y^Q^, ^^ILIBRARYQ^, 3/?^ ^OFCAllFOi?^ ? 11^ ^OAavaaii-^^ ^,WEUNIVER% ^lOSANCElfj^^ o .^WE•UNIVERS/A S O AIN(1-3WV o "^/^aaAiNOdWV -^lllBRARY^?^^ ^OAHvaaiii^ '"^om "^^'^Jr ^1-OSANCEiax ^UIBRARYQ^ -^tLIBRARY6?/. \MEUNIVER% vj^lOSJ '^(tfOJIlVOJO'f^ ^. '^(!/ojnvjjo>^ cs? 58 00339 2502 ^^OfCAllF0% ^^^AavaaiHS^"^ A^rtEUNIVERi-//, -'^: o ,\\^E1INIVER^//, '/- ..yC Sr;L'THf RN REGIONAL LIBRARY ^% FACILITY AA 000 950 327 7 RARYQ^. aweuniver% vvlOSANCFlfx> ^ ^ ,^ME•UNIVER% <^130NVS01^ ^lOSANCFi 5' DNVSOl^ ^\V\EUNIVER% %a3AiNrt3HV'' -A,OFCA1IFO% (Tfc^i iVP '^<>Aavaaiii^' ^• ^MEUNIVERS-//) 'J^^130NVS01^ ^^^^tLIBRARYQ^ -v,^lllBRARY6?/r AWE UNIVERiy/i vKlOSANCElf/^ >v^tllBRARY6?,r X.