CHAPTER IV.

GEELONG AND ITS VICINITY.

THERE is a steamboat daily from Melbourne to Geelong, a rising town at the head of the western arm of the great inlet or harbour of Port Phillip, and decidedly the second place in importance in the province. The distance is about fifty miles, and the two vessels on the course ply to and fro on alternate days. One of my fellow passengers was Alexander Thomson, Esq. of Geelong, one of the original members of the Legislative Council of New South Wales for the district of Port Phillip, who had kindly agreed to accompany me on horseback for about 120 miles across the country to the westward, in the direction of Portland Bay and South Australia.

Below the natural dyke over which the Yarra-Yarra falls at Melbourne, alluded to in the extract from Mr. Latrobe's communication already referred to, there is a natural basin of considerable extent, and sufficient for a large coasting commerce; but as another dyke crosses the river under water farther down, while a moveable sand bank obstructs its mouth, vessels of more than 200 tons cannot get up to the town. The inconvenience however, of having the shipping at so great a distance as Hobson's Bay will doubtless lead, at no distant period, to the removal of both of these obstructions, which money and engineering can easily effect; and in that case it will probably be deemed expedient and necessary to excavate a capacious dock, adjoining the present basin, on the left bank of the river, where the soil consists merely of successive depositions of mud and sand. But the tortuous course of the river, and the

probably great expense which it would cost, first to remove the existing obstructions, and afterwards to keep the channel clear, have induced Mr. Lennox, the Superintendent of Bridges, to suggest that a ship-canal should rather be excavated from the head of the bay to the basin at Melbourne, or a dock in its vicinity, with a sea-lock at the entrance. The distance across is only two miles, and the intervening land consists entirely of sand and mud, the successive deposits from innumerable land-floods. That such a project would be of comparatively easy accomplishment, there cannot be a doubt; but whether the action of a strong southerly wind upon nearly forty miles of shallow sea, within the heads of Port Phillip, would not render it impracticable to keep the sea-gates constantly open, is a question for engineers. to answer. At all events, it is sufficiently obvious that one of the first public works of importance to be undertaken by the Colony of Phillipsland, as soon as that province shall have attained a separate political existence and a self-determining power, will be a work of some kind or other for the improvement of the harbour.

The phenomenon noticed by Mr. Latrobe, of a great change having taken place in the relative levels of land and water around the harbour of Port Phillip, is particularly observable along certain parts of the western arm-the ancient sea-beach being strongly marked, and rising far above the present high-water level. There is reason, therefore, to believe that a considerable rise of the land has taken place at some period or other, along this part of the coast.

Among our fellow passengers, there was one of rather a rough exterior, and clothed in the coarse habiliments of a Squatter or Bushman, who, I understood, however, was one of the most extensive proprietors both of land and stock, not only in the Colony of Van Diemen's Land, to which he belonged, but also in Port Phillip. Mr. Clarke (for that was the gentleman's name) was a native of England, and had realized a handsome colonial fortune in Van Diemen's Land by rearing sheep of the Leicestershire breed-a breed of large carcasses and

of a heavy but coarse fleece-which he had subsequently introduced into Port Phillip. Mr. Clarke was, naturally enough, enthusiastic in the praise of that breed, which he preferred from the size of the carcass, as compared with that of the Saxon sheep, the weight of the fleece and the hardier constitution of the animal, in not being subject either to catarrh or to foot-rot-two diseases that often prove fatal to fine-woolled sheep; and he was unreasonable enough not to be convinced by the demonstrations of certain other flock-masters on board, (who, however, had as yet made no such fortunes to give weight to their reasonings,) of the superior eligibility of the Saxon breed-a breed of smaller carcass and a lighter fleece, but of much finer wool. He had embarked very shortly before at Melbourne for Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land, with a flock of 200 of his fat Leicestershire wethers, which, he stated, had each averaged 7 lbs. of wool, and were each 140 lbs. weight. He had been offered £1 a-head for them in Melbourne before he sailed, but expecting to get £2 at Hobart Town, he had refused it. A tremendous storm, however, having overtaken the vessel in the Straits, he was glad to put back with them to Melbourne, where he eventually sold them to a butcher at 17s..a-head. Mr. Clarke appeared to me to be one of those long-headed men who occasionally succeed in making a fortune by dealing in an inferior article which other people undervalue; for, although I did not pretend to offer any opinion on the subject, there did appear to me to be some reason in the observation of a respectable colonist, who had taken no part in the controversy, but who, I understood, had succeeded very well with Saxon sheep, that if every person were following Mr. Clarke's example, the colony would lose its character for raising fine wool, while its produce of that description would be unsaleable in England, except at the lowest price, and the fat sheep would find no market in the colony.

I was amazed at the produce of Mr. Clarke's sheepit seemed so greatly to exceed anything I had ever heard of in New South Wales; but Dr. Thomson after

wards showed me a pet wether of his which, he told me, had once yielded 10 lbs. of wool. It was then aged nine years, and the quantity of wool it yielded had decreased from that maximum one pound every year. In the season of 1845 and 1846, its fleece weighed 6 lbs. Sheep in England average four pounds of wool each, and do not come to maturity till they are five years of age, but in Phillipsland they reach their maturity at three. The age to which they attain afterwards depends principally on the nature of the pasture. If the latter is either too rich or too sandy, the animal's teeth wear away sooner, and it would consequently die at last of starvation, if from no other cause. Dr. Thomson's pet wether was of the Saxon breed, and weighed from 150 to 160 lbs.

Mr. Clarke's estimate of the cost of production of every pound of wool was-in Van Diemen's Land fifteenpence, and in Phillipsland sixpence. This wonderful difference arises from various causes-from the comparatively small extent and inferior character of the natural pasture in Van Diemen's Land as compared with Port Phillip, from the greater severity of the winter in the former colony, and from the more open character of the country in the latter. At all events, it sufficiently accounts for the early and extensive emigration from Van Diemen's Land to Port Phillip.

The Western Arm is navigable for large vessels as far up as Point Henry on the southern shore, about seven miles from the harbour of Geelong. From that point, however, a shoal stretches across to the opposite shore; but as that shoal has been ascertained to consist exclusively of an ancient deposit of shells and other matter of inferior tenacity, it has been estimated by practical men that the channel could be opened, by means of a dredging-machine, so as to be rendered practicable for large vessels up to Geelong, at an expense of not more than £2500. At present such vessels must lie to the eastward of Point Henry, which occasions considerable inconvenience to the exporters of wool.

The bay of Geelong is remarkably picturesque, and the situation of the town-which many intelligent persons are of opinion ought to have been the capital of the province-is decidedly one of the best for a great commercial city in Australia. The progress of the settlement hitherto affords an instructive illustration of the peculiar tendencies and results of the Gippsian policy in the disposal of Crown Land and Town Allotments. In his despatch to Sir George Gipps, of the 31st May 1840, Lord John Russell, who was then Secretary of State for the Colonies, most judiciously observes as follows:

"Desiring, then, that no town-sites shall be reserved inland, and that even on the coast only the probable situations of considerable seaports should be reserved, I propose to advance a step farther, and to direct that, when such towns are properly laid out and offered for sale, the lots may consist of acres, or of equal parts of acres, as the circumstances of the case may require, but that the price shall be fixed at the uniform rate of £100 an acre.

Now, if this judicious policy had been pursued at Geelong, or even if the uniform price of £100 an acre, proposed by Lord John Russell, had been changed into a minimum price of that amount, so as to admit of competition for particular sites, a large number of town allotments would have been purchased in that locality, and a flourishing town, with a concentrated population, would have been formed. But Sir George Gipps, thinking this was much too good an opportunity for raising a large revenue from the sale of town allotments, fixed the minimum price of such allotments in Geelong at £300 an acre, and those who purchased at that rate were obliged either to cut up their allotments into the minutest fragments, or to expend the capital, which might otherwise have been employed in rearing for themselves respectable and comfortable houses, in the mere purchase of sites. But as this profound scheme for screwing out the last shilling from an enterprising and industrious people did not answer, and the