TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=.
These lectures each had a set of associated slides, a complete
list of which can be found on pages 143-152 at the end of the
book. These slide sets were sold separately and are not part of
the book. Some of the slides (those highlighted in =bold= in the
slide list) were inserted as illustrations in the original book,
and the captions of these illustrations are reproduced in this
etext.
The numbers in the right margin of the etext are the numbers of
the associated slides. Several of these margin slide numbers are
in parentheses ( ) to indicate that this particular slide is being
shown for a second time at this point in the lecture.
There are no Footnotes in this book.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
AUSTRALASIA
EIGHT LECTURES
Prepared for
The Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office
by
A. J. SARGENT, M.A.
LONDON
GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LTD., 32, FLEET STREET
Liverpool: PHILIP, SON & NEPHEW, Ltd., South Castle Street
1913
(_All rights reserved_)
THE VISUAL INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE
APPOINTED BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF MEATH, K.P., Chairman.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR CECIL CLEMENTI SMITH, G.C.M.G.
SIR JOHN STRUTHERS, K.C.B., LL.D., Secretary to the Scotch
Education Department.
SIR CHARLES HOLROYD, Director of the National Gallery.
SIR PHILIP HUTCHINS, K.C.S.I., late Member of the Council of
the Secretary of State for India.
SIR EVERARD IM THURN, K.C.M.G., C.B., late Governor of Fiji and
High Commissioner for the Western Pacific.
SIR CHARLES LUCAS, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.
DR. H. FRANK HEATH, C.B., of the Board of Education.
A. BERRIEDALE KEITH, D.C.L., of the Colonial Office.
H. J. MACKINDER, M.P., lately Director of the London School of
Economics and Political Science.
W. H. MERCER, C.M.G., Crown Agent for the Colonies.
PROFESSOR MICHAEL E. SADLER, C.B., LL.D., Vice-Chancellor of
the University of Leeds.
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The Slides in this Series are Copyright.
PREFACE
These Lectures, like the last series, have been written for
the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office by Mr.
A. J. Sargent, and have been revised at the offices of the
High Commissioners for the Commonwealth of Australia and New
Zealand. The lecture on the Pacific has been revised by Sir
Everard im Thurn. The slides are derived from pictures painted
and photographs taken by Mr. A. Hugh Fisher on behalf of the
Committee, supplemented by photographs supplied from various
sources. The Committee wish to acknowledge the great help which
they have received from the High Commissioners and Agents-General
and their staffs in the matter of slides, and in addition
their acknowledgments are due to, among others, the Honourable
Victor Nelson Hood, the Agricultural Departments of Queensland
and Western Australia, the Secretary to the Commissioner for
Queensland Railways, and the Government Geologist of Western
Australia.
MEATH.
_November, 1912._
PUBLICATIONS OF THE VISUAL INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE
A. Seven Lectures on the United Kingdom.
By Mr. H. J. MACKINDER.
In the following Editions issued on behalf of the Committee by
Messrs. Waterlow & Sons, Ltd.:--
=1. Eastern Colonies Edition, Sept., 1905.=
In use in Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and Hong Kong.
=2. Mauritius Edition, June, 1906.=
In use in Mauritius.
=3. West African Edition, Sept., 1906.=
In use in Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Southern Nigeria.
=4. West India Edition, Sept., 1906.=
In use in Trinidad, British Guiana, and Jamaica.
=5. Indian Edition, March, 1907.=
In use in the following Provinces:--Madras, Bombay, Bengal, the
United Provinces, the Punjab, Burma, Eastern Bengal and Assam,
the Central Provinces, the North West Province, and British
Baluchistan.
=6. Indian Edition, for use in the United Kingdom, Jan., 1909.
Price One Shilling net.=
B. Eight Lectures on India.
By Mr. H. J. MACKINDER.
Published by Messrs. GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LTD., 32, Fleet Street,
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[=A Lecturer’s Edition= has also been issued, price in cloth,
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Street, E.C.]
Six Lectures on the Sea Road to the East.
By Mr. A. J. SARGENT.
Eight Lectures on Australasia.
By Mr. A. J. SARGENT.
Published by Messrs. GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LTD., price 8_d._ net
in paper covers, 1_s._ net in cloth.
[In these two books the ordinary edition and the lecturer’s
edition are combined.]
CONTENTS
LECTURE I
PAGE
AUSTRALASIA 1
LECTURE II
NEW SOUTH WALES, WITH PAPUA 17
LECTURE III
QUEENSLAND 36
LECTURE IV
VICTORIA AND TASMANIA 51
LECTURE V
SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA 67
LECTURE VI
NEW ZEALAND--SOUTH ISLAND 84
LECTURE VII
NEW ZEALAND--NORTH ISLAND 103
LECTURE VIII
FIJI AND THE WESTERN PACIFIC 122
_NOTE.--The reader is asked to bear in mind the fact that these
lectures are illustrated with lantern slides. The numbers in the
margin of the text are the numbers of the slides, of which a
complete list will be found on pp. 143-152._
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 7._
NATIVE BEAR.]
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 10._
GUM TREE.]
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 9._
EMU.]
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 12._
NATIVES FISHING.]
LECTURE I
AUSTRALASIA
For nearly two thousand years the existence of a great Southland,
in the ocean of the southern hemisphere, corresponding to the
land mass of the Old World in the northern, was a matter of doubt
and dispute among geographers. In the sixteenth century, this
land begins to appear vaguely on globes and charts; possibly
the information was due to the Malays and Arabs, who were
skilful sailors and made long voyages in the Pacific and Indian
Oceans. It has been thought that the Portuguese, approaching the
Malay region from the west, while the Spaniards came from the
east, may have been acquainted with the northern coast of the
new continent; since they certainly had some knowledge of the
northern coast of New Guinea early in the sixteenth century.
But our first definite information may be said to date from the
beginning of the seventeenth century, when a Spanish exploring
expedition, under de Quiros and de Torres, sailed across the
Pacific and discovered the New Hebrides group. One of the islands
they named la Australia del Espiritu Santo, under the idea
that it formed part of the great southern mainland. De Quiros
then sailed back to Mexico, but Torres continued his voyage
northwestward through the straits which still bear his name, and
so to the Spanish Possessions in the Philippines.
But the day of Spain as a sea power was passing away, and it was
to the Dutch traders that the western world owed its first real
acquaintance with Australia. The early discoveries were often
accidental and did not lead to settlement or regular intercourse
with the natives. This was due partly to the backward state of
the science of navigation, partly to the fact that the voyagers
on long expeditions usually lost from half to three-quarters of
their crews from disease. The Dutch had the advantage of a local
base, as they were already firmly established in the East Indian
Islands; so that Australia was really discovered from the Indies.
Trade, not exploration, was the main motive of the Dutch. So,
in the early part of the seventeenth century, trading ships
were dispatched from Batavia by the Dutch East-India Company to
explore the north and west coasts of Australia.
We find all along these coasts the names of the ships still
surviving, as in Arnhem Land and Cape Leuwin; those of the
captains, as in Dirk Hartog Island, Houtmans Abrolhos, Edels Land
and Nuyts Land; while the Gulf of Carpentaria is a memorial to
Peter Carpenter, the then Governor of the great trading company.
The most important voyage of all was that of Abel Tasman, in 1
1642. He started from Mauritius, to discover a passage south
of the Australian continent; and after landing in Van Diemen’s
Land, now Tasmania, he sailed across the Tasman Sea and up the
west coast of New Zealand, and so back to Batavia by way of Tonga
and the Fiji islands and the north coast of New Guinea. He left
behind him another name, New Holland, for the whole continent.
These names throughout Australasia bear witness to the skill and
energy of the Dutch navigators; but they came only as traders,
and the west coast of Australia, which they knew best, had little
to attract them to permanent settlement. Sand and grass, hostile
natives, and dangerous reefs marked by a series of shipwrecks
sum up their impression of the new land. Here are two views of 2,3
the coast; it does not seem attractive for sailors. We can quite
understand why they made no effort to open up a trade like that
of the East Indies, especially as they missed the east coast,
the most promising region for European settlement. Here are two
charts showing our knowledge of Australia, the first soon after
Tasman’s voyage, the second nearly a century later. 4,5
[Illustration: MAP OF PIETER GOOS, 1660.]
The discovery of the east coast was to come more than a century
later; it was made by an Englishman, at a time when England
was looking for new outlets, both for trade and settlement, as
an offset to her losses in the continent of North America. It
is true that Dampier visited the west coast towards the end of
the seventeenth century, and wrote an account of the animals,
natives, and plants; but he does not seem to have been much more
favourably impressed than the Dutch, and nothing came of his
visit.
[Illustration: MAP OF R. DE VAGONDY, 1752.]
But in the eighteenth century England and France were the great
rivals in colonisation, and voyages of discovery and plans of
annexation became the order of the day. It was a revival, in a
less forcible though more scientific form, of the old rivalry
with Spain and Portugal in the sixteenth century. State influence
was behind the explorers, as it had been in the days of Drake and
his freebooters. Captain Cook sailed in a ship belonging to the
Royal Navy, and not in a trader. In our own country his memory
is still kept green in the little port of Whitby where he served
his apprenticeship to the sea, and where the ships were built in
which he made his great voyages of discovery; in the Antipodes it
is for ever associated with the beginnings of a great and growing 6,7
Empire. Here we see his statue in Sydney, and here is a picture
of his ship, the _Endeavour_, approaching New Zealand.
Cook came westward, across the Pacific, with an expedition in
1769, to observe the Transit of Venus at Tahiti, and then sailed 8
south-west to New Zealand. He sighted land at Poverty Bay and
sailed south as far as Cape Turnagain; then he went right round
the North Island and through Cook Strait, until the Cape was
again sighted, scattering English names and charting the coast
as he passed. Next he circumnavigated the South Island, steering
outside Stewart Island, which he imagined to be a peninsula; and
so to Cape Farewell, in the north-west corner of South Island.
He had obtained a fairly accurate idea of the nature of the
coast, and had proved that New Zealand was not connected with the
supposed Antarctic continent.
From Cape Farewell he struck westward, and sighted the mainland
of Australia at Point Hicks, on April 19th, 1770, but failed
to discover Bass Strait. From Point Hicks Cook sailed along
the whole of the east coast to Cape York, giving to the bays
and capes as he passed them the names of his crew, of British
admirals, officials and politicians of all kinds at home.
At various landing places he came into collision with the
aborigines, and at Endeavour River he stayed for two months to
repair his vessel which had been damaged through striking on the
rocks. Finally, before sailing westward through Torres Strait, he
landed on Possession Island and formally claimed the whole region
discovered for the British Crown.
When, in 1798, Flinders and Bass proved that Van Diemen’s
Land was an island, the rough work of discovery was complete.
Australia, New Zealand and many of the smaller islands were known
and charted, and the discoveries of the Spaniards and Dutch
were linked up, by the aid of a great deal of miscellaneous
exploration carried out by the French navigators who followed us
in the South of Australia, in New Zealand, and in the islands of
the Pacific.
The navigators, French and English, were in the habit of formally
annexing the country wherever they landed; but annexation of this
kind was of little value without effective occupation. This
was to come later, during the course of the next half century.
From 1800 onwards, we may say that the different parts of this
vast region begin to have a separate and individual history and
development, though behind all are the conditions common to most
of the area, conditions which distinguish it sharply from the
rest of the world even to-day, in spite of minor differences
between its separate parts. There is ample room for variation,
since the continent of Australia is about three-quarters the
size of Europe, or seven times the area of Germany and France
together; and it includes nearly every type of temperate and
tropical climate.
Whether we look at the animals, plants, or aborigines of
Australia, we are at once struck with the fact that they belong
to an entirely different order of life from that which we find
in the other great continents. The whole region seems, from a
very early age, to have been cut off effectively from the rest of
the world, and to have developed along lines peculiar to itself;
though since the advent of the white man we have the artificial
introduction of European and other plants and animals, which bid
fair in many cases to oust the native products, just as the white
man has displaced the original inhabitants.
The first animal which we naturally think of in connexion with
Australia is the kangaroo. His family is large and varied, from 9
the giant standing six feet high, and dangerous to attack, to the
dwarf measured by a few inches. He is a creature of the wide open 10
plains, living on grass, though in Queensland and New Guinea are
to be found some which climb the tall gum trees and feed on their
shoots. An ancestor of the present kangaroo, whose remains have
been discovered, was a formidable monster standing twelve feet
high.
The kangaroo is merely the best known representative of a very
large group, the marsupials or pouched animals. Closely allied
to the kangaroo is the wombat, a clumsy badger-like animal which
feeds on leaves and burrows in the ground; he is quite harmless,
though, like the kangaroo, he had a huge ancestor who seems to
have been as large as a rhinoceros. The bandicoots, ratlike
burrowing animals, are his cousins many times removed.
Next we have a group which looks very different but is really
closely allied to the kangaroo: the _phalangers_, or opossums,
as they are commonly called. The name is adopted from America 11
but is applied in Australia to the wrong group, as we shall see
later. Nothing is more misleading than the names given by white
settlers, ignorant of botany or biology, to native plants or
animals, generally on the ground of some fancied and superficial
resemblance. The so-called opossums are found all over Australia
and New Guinea and in many of the islands of the Pacific; but
owing to the value of their fur they are becoming scarce in
many districts. They live in trees, and some of the family have
their legs connected by a membrane, so that they can glide from
one branch to another. Hence the name flying squirrel; though
they do not fly and have no connexion with the squirrel which we
know. Here is another of the same group, the _koala_, or native
bear; though he again has nothing to do with bears. He is a 12
sleepy-looking animal, with no tail, and is not given to leaping
or gliding; though his claws are useful for climbing the gum 13
trees in which he lives. He is quite harmless, and a child can
play with him, as we see here.
Other members of the same great family are far from harmless:
among them are the _dasyures_, or native cats, with dark bodies
mostly spotted with white. Some smaller members of this family
are called weasels and mice. To this family belongs also the
Tasmanian Devil, whose portrait we have here; he is very fierce 14
though small. A larger animal, the size of a retriever, is the
so-called Tasmanian wolf; he is carnivorous, while most of the 15
marsupials are vegetarian. It is rather doubtful whether he
should be classed with the rest or go by himself.
The only existing allies of the marsupials of Australia are to
be found in the opossums and some other less known animals of
South America; but the opossum of South America resembles less
his Australian namesake than the other group, the _dasyures_. In
Europe and Asia the marsupials existed, but only in very remote
geological ages, as their remains prove. It has been argued from
the existence of the opossum family in America that at some time
there must have been a land connexion between Australia and South
America, either by way of the islands of the Pacific or by an
Antarctic continent. But the isolation of Australia must have
been very ancient, since it has given time for the development of
the enormous differences which we have seen among the individuals
of the same family.
Even these strange animals, old as they are, are not the most
primitive to be found in Australia. The _ornithorhynchus_ or
duck-billed platypus lives in a burrow by the river; it has teeth 16
when young, but seems to lose these as it grows up. It is said
to lay eggs like a reptile, though it is a true mammal. We are
not surprised to learn that when the first stuffed specimen of
this strange beast reached Europe it was thought to be a fraud,
put together to deceive the ignorant and unwary. Another of these
egg-laying animals is the _echidna_, or spiny ant-eater, which
has a kind of beak for burrowing and a long sticky tongue to
capture its prey. It has sharp spines and rolls itself into a
ball like a hedgehog when attacked. In addition to these curious
animals there are rats and mice and the dingo, or native dog, of 17
a type more familiar to us. It is thought possible by some that
the dingo, being so different from the other native animals, was
introduced by man at some very early date.
The typical Australian animals disappear as we travel away
through the islands to the north, and the boundary line between
Australia and Asia is usually drawn through the strait between
Bali and Lombok, and then on between Celebes and Borneo; though
it is much disputed whether Celebes belongs to the one region
or the other. The division is only a narrow water strait, and
we can understand that Asiatic birds would have no difficulty
in crossing. On the other hand, as there is no great land mass
to the south, there are no crowds of seasonal migrants from
cooler regions, such as we find in the warmer countries of the
northern hemisphere; so that the existing Australian birds are
for the most part allied to the bright-coloured inhabitants of
the tropics to the north. Some are peculiar to the region, such 18
as the lyre birds with their wonderful tails, the emu, and the 19
brush birds which bury their eggs in a mound of earth, leaving
them to be hatched by the heat of the sun. Other birds, as the
honey-eaters, though common in Australia, are found also in the
neighbouring islands of the Pacific. Unfortunately, not content 20
with the flowers of the gum trees, these birds now attack the
fruit in the orchards and are becoming a nuisance in some
districts. Finally we have the _kukuburra_ or laughing-jackass, 21
one of the most popular and best known of all Australian birds.
It belongs to the kingfisher tribe and is said to be a great
destroyer of small snakes. Nor must we forget the black swan, one 22
of the most striking and beautiful of all, and still to be found
in large numbers in the lakes of Gippsland and in West Australia.
Then we have lizards, snakes, and strange fish of all kinds,
some peculiar to Australia, others, like the animals, allied
to species found in Asia or South America. All the evidence
afforded by the animal life of the continent points to a very
remote connexion with the other continents, followed by a very
long period of isolation during which the families of animals
developed wide differences among themselves, together with
special peculiarities suited to the conditions in which they
lived.
Now let us turn for a moment from the animal to the plant life
of Australia. In the tropical parts of Queensland there are many
plants which belong to the Malayan region as a whole; this we
might expect. We may see palms growing even at Brisbane; while 23
further north they form a dense forest, thoroughly tropical
in appearance, with its creepers and undergrowth, as we see
in these two pictures. But further south we meet more species 24
peculiar to Australia, in the vegetable no less than in the 25
animal world. The typical Australian plants are those specially
adapted to resist hot sunshine with drought, and often sudden
changes of temperature. All over the continent the gum trees 26
give a special mark to the landscape of the forest. The leaves
hang vertically, so as not to give a large exposure of surface
to the hot sun, and are collected in dense clusters for the same
purpose of protection; so that we miss much of the spreading
shade of our English trees. The leaves, too, are alike on both
sides, and the colour is more uniform than in our own trees, nor
do they change colour and fall in autumn, but decay gradually on
the stalk. The bark of many of the gums hangs in strips, thus
spoiling the appearance of the huge trunk, for huge it is, rising
to four hundred feet in some species. Owing to the character
of the foliage the forests are more open than our own, except
in the wetter parts where there is a dense undergrowth of fern
and creeper. These districts are always near the coast. As we
travel away from the coast the forest thins out, except along the
watercourses, and becomes smaller and more stunted. In place of
trees with leaves we find thorny scrub of various kinds, such as 27
the mulga, whose leaves are replaced by woody spikes still more
resistant to drought. Finally we reach the salt-bush and spinifex 28
and wiry grasses of the desert interior. Often there is little 29
but bare rock as in the pictures before us. The watercourses 30
themselves may dry up in the hot season, leaving a desolate 31
expanse of sand and stones, but the line of trees still marks the
presence of moisture below. 32
The huge gum trees are, as a rule, the main feature in the forest
landscape, but this is varied by curiosities like the grass
tree and the bottle tree; while in the moister regions, as in
the forests of Gippsland, we find beautiful tree ferns of every 33
kind. Here are specimens of grass trees and gums. Everywhere 34
we find the acacia and the wattle with its sweet scent, the 35
banksia shooting up into great trees, and the beautiful waratah;
everywhere, too, where the rainfall is sufficient, flowers of the
same order as those with which we are familiar in Europe grow in
great profusion.
So we see that there is great variety of vegetation in Australia,
though the only native plants of much use to man are the gum
trees, which we value for their dense hard woods. All else that
is of value, both among plants and animals, has been introduced
by the settlers, and many of the native types seem doomed to
extinction.
We may now be able to understand why this country of strange
plants and animals had no attraction for the Dutch trader,
especially in the drier west; in fact, it could have no trade
until it had been settled by Europeans bringing with them
European crops and animals. In India and Malaya there was already
a basis for trade in some of the natural products of the region;
while the natives were sufficiently advanced in civilisation to
make commercial intercourse possible. It was far otherwise in
Australia. The aborigines, as we found them, were as primitive
as the plants and animals. They are not black, but a dark-brown
people, and their hair is waved and silky, not curly like that of
the negro. They are different also from the negro in the shape
and build of the head and face. There are various theories as to
their origin, but the nearest correspondence seems to be in some
of the ancient hill tribes of India and the Veddas of Ceylon. At
any rate they are quite different from the Malays, and equally
also from the now extinct Tasmanians. The Tasmanians had woolly
hair, and perhaps represented the remnants of an earlier and even
less developed race than the invaders from the north.
The native Australian, as the first European discoverers found
him, was not an attractive being. He was looked on as little
better than a wild beast and treated as such. This was partly
due to ignorance of his language and customs. His mode of life
was fitted by long adaptation to the peculiar conditions of his
surroundings. He had developed no agriculture in his new home;
not without reason, if we think of the agricultural possibilities
of the country in the hands of a rude and backward people. He
was equally without any of the useful animals, and had no means
of procuring them. So he was reduced to the nomad life and to
the utilisation of the wild roots and plants of the country and
such small game as he could kill with his rude weapons. He was
necessarily a hunter, with a temporary shelter for his home, 36
often an overhanging rock as in this picture; and civilisation
does not grow up in such conditions. Here we see some natives 37
fishing, and here again are some armed men scouting in the bush. 38
The hostility of the native to the European colonists often arose
from their interference with his natural food supply, or to their
careless ignorance of his semi-religious ideas or customs, such
as the tabu.
His only possible clothes were the skins of animals, and his
weapons and tools all belonged to the Stone Age. The axe, knife,
and hammer were in universal use, and long journeys were made to
obtain the right kind of stone. This involved a certain amount of
intercourse among the tribes. For weapons of offence the native
had the club, and the spear tipped with bone or stone; while
some tribes used a special spear-thrower. The boomerang was a
curved bar of heavy wood, often five or six feet long, which was
used for killing or stunning at a short distance. The smaller
boomerang, which returns to the thrower, was merely a toy and
used in sport; here we see it in use. The stone implements are 39
all similar to those which are dug up in Europe, the relics of
the Neolithic Age of man. One of the chief uses of the axe was to
cut notches for climbing trees, in search of honey among other
things; though they had another method which we see here. 40
The natives were divided into tribes and sub-tribes, and had some
form of tribal government, under headmen. In the south-east of
the continent these chiefs had considerable authority and were
sometimes treated by us as representing the tribe. Here is one
of them, though he does not look imposing in his European dress. 41
They had an elaborate social system and curious marriage customs
about which the learned still dispute. They had a strong belief
in spirits of various kinds, though it could hardly be called a
religion, and a whole series of tales and legends handed down
orally, some of them showing considerable power of imagination.
They even had the beginnings of some ideas of art and ornament, 42
as we can judge from the crude paintings shown here. 43
The most interesting of their social customs was the corroboree,
a great gathering for feasting and dancing, often combined with 44
some religious or social ceremony. Such meetings represented the
only real social intercourse of the people and tribes, except
messages by ambassadors who were sacred everywhere.
On the whole, then, they were not so low in the scale of
civilisation as the early observers imagined. Even the language,
with its many dialects, due to the absence of writing and the
nomad life of the people, is elaborate and inflected like those
of Europe.
The native life in its original form is decaying, and survives
chiefly in the interior and the west. Wherever white occupation
has extended, the native is dying out; in fact, in some parts
he survives only on the Government Reservations. Here are some 45
of these survivors in Victoria. Here again, in Queensland, we 46
see the native converted to European clothes, though he does not 47
seem very comfortable in them. In this district, as in South and
Western Australia, and the Northern Territory, they still exist
in considerable number; but it is probable that there are less
than 100,000 in all in the Commonwealth. In the census of 1911 an
attempt was made to count them, and some 20,000 were found to be
living in or near white settlements; only a vague estimate was
possible in the case of the tribes of the interior, who still
live their nomadic life in the more inaccessible parts of the
country. But the area untouched by the white man grows smaller
every year, and unless the native can change his character
greatly, he is likely to die out in the north and west as in the
south-east. In 1911 there were only about two thousand in New
South Wales, hardly any in Victoria, and none at all in Tasmania.
It was inevitable that the Australian native should be displaced
from his hunting grounds. An area about equal to that of the
United States could not be left in the sole occupation of a few
thousand savages. Now, instead of the savage with his primitive
tribal system, we have a white race, purely British in origin,
with industry and agriculture of the most advanced type, and an
elaborate political constitution of federated States. It is the
utilisation, by the white man, of the resources of this vast area
which we must study.
We have seen something of the coast of this area; let us now try
for a moment to picture it as a whole. The map shows us an oblong
block, which lies east and west, on either side of the Tropic of 48
Capricorn. On the north, two peninsulas, Arnhem Land and Cape
York, project towards the Equator; between them is the Gulf of
Carpentaria, the only deep indentation in the whole continent. On
the south, Victoria, continued by Tasmania, stretches into the
cool waters of the Southern Ocean. A coastal plain, broad in the
north, narrow elsewhere, fringes a plateau which occupies the
greater part of the oblong. The plain is narrowest in the east,
and the plateau edge most marked, so that it resembles a series
of mountain ranges. Rivers, short for the most part, plunge down
the seaward edge of the plateau. The only large area of lowland
is in the south-east, drained by a group of long rivers and
shared by four of the Australian States. Some of these rivers
lose themselves in the salt lakes and marshes of the inland basin
of Lake Eyre; the rest, gathered up by the Murray, reach the sea
at the one point where the plateau rim disappears. The tropical
lowlands, the temperate coast-plains, the plateau and the long
inward slopes of the Murray system are the main features which we
shall find recurring in the geography of the various States.
* * * * *
So far we have dealt only with Australia. New Zealand shows to
some extent the peculiarities which mark Australia off from the
rest of the world, but on the whole the differences between
these two sections of Australasia are more noticeable than the
likeness. We might anticipate this, since the dominant fact
in the development of the peculiar plant life of Australia is
drought; in the case of New Zealand it is moisture. Again, New 49
Zealand has no snakes, and lacks the peculiar animals which we
have seen in Australia. In fact, its only native animals are a
bat and a rat, the latter perhaps introduced by the Maoris. To
compensate for this it has a large group of birds peculiar to
itself, including the wingless birds, which may have lost their
wings since they had no need for flight from enemies on the
ground. The best known of these birds is the _kiwi_; here we see 50
him in his natural haunts. Again, there is the _takahe_, which
was at one time thought to be extinct; but one or two specimens
have been found, and there may be others still existing. Here 51
is one of these stuffed. Finally there is the gigantic _moa_, 52
which probably existed at the time of Captain Cook’s voyage. Now
we can only see its skeleton, but naturalists have attempted to
re-construct the whole bird, as we see here. One link New Zealand 53
possesses with a very remote geological past; this is the curious
_tuatara_ or three-eyed lizard. He belongs to an extinct group 54
of reptiles which lived in Europe many ages ago and is now only
represented in the fossils which we dig up. So we see that in its
animal life New Zealand differs from Australia and from the rest
of the world; we shall find also a strong contrast between the
native races of the two countries in their character and origin,
their relations with the white settlers, and their influence on
the history and development of the land which they possessed
before our arrival.
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 23._
GOVETT’S LEAP: BLUE MOUNTAINS.]
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 27._
THE MURRAY, IN FLOOD.]
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 31._
YASS.]
LECTURE II
NEW SOUTH WALES
When, in 1770, Captain Cook dropped anchor in Botany Bay, he just
missed discovering the finest harbour in the world. Voyaging
northwards he sighted Port Jackson in the distance but did not
examine it more closely, and the discovery was left to the first
party of colonists, a few years later. The harbour which we are
going to explore was the scene of the first real settlement, and
is still the vital centre for the whole of New South Wales.
We steam through a broad channel, nearly a mile wide between
the rugged points which guard it. There is no lack of room here 1
for ships to pass one another, and our large vessel seems quite
insignificant beside the towering cliffs. On our right is a broad
bay, the North Harbour, with the village of Manly at its head;
on the other side of Manly, across a narrow isthmus, is the open
ocean, with its long rollers thundering always in surf upon the
beach. But inside the Heads the water is calm as a lake. In
front of us, and beyond the North Harbour, is a narrow, winding
inlet, running for miles into the hills; this is Middle Harbour. 2
There is plenty of good anchorage here, but it is mainly given
up to pleasure boats; we are a long way yet from the commercial
harbour. To reach this our vessel turns sharply southwards,
behind the South Head with its lighthouses, and steams on for 3
about five miles up the Main Harbour. All along, on either hand,
are jutting headlands, and in the bays between, especially on the
south side, are seaside villages. But we shall not see swarms
of bathers on the beaches as in our own country, for there are
sharks in Sydney Harbour; the only safe bathing is in the surf
outside. As we approach our landing-place the houses are more
closely packed together, and islands are dotted here and there
in the channel. We may be reminded to some degree of parts of
the Clyde, or of one of the larger inlets on the west coast of
Scotland; though here we find not only the most beautiful scenery
but a great seaport and busy city in the very midst of it.
We turn at last into Sydney Cove, on the south side of the
harbour, and here we are moored at Circular Quay in the very 4
heart of the city. Further on to the west, just round the next
point, we see Darling Harbour, crowded with shipping, and its 5
busy wharves piled with merchandise. The waterway extends some
miles further inland, but here in Sydney Cove is the centre
of commercial activity and the landing-place of the original
settlers in 1788.
[Illustration: PORT JACKSON.]
Before we land let us look at a chart which shows us the long
passage by which we have entered, the windings of the harbour 6
and the city spreading over the surrounding hills. This will give
us our bearings and help us to understand the views.
We will now land, climb the hill, and look down on the Cove. (4)
There, on the further side, is our vessel, lying close to the
tall warehouses. Beyond it are the trees of Government Domain,
with the tower and roof of Government House showing above them.
The little bay on our left is Farm Cove, where the warships lie 7
at anchor; and beyond it again, on the next point, we see the
trees of the Botanical Gardens. Then we have Woolloomooloo Bay,
running up to a new and crowded suburb, and in the distance
many more points and bays, as we look along the south side of
the harbour back towards the sea. Or let us climb up behind our
vessel, in another direction, to the library, and look down over
Farm Cove. Below us, on the little island, is Fort Denison; and 8
across the water on the north side is Mossman Bay, where a new
Sydney is growing up. It is all very different from the crowded
ugliness of most of our own commercial cities.
To see something of the inside of the city we walk up George
Street from the quayside. On our right is old Sydney, irregular
and picturesque, built on the rocky peninsula between Sydney Cove
and Darling Harbour. Here is a view of one of the old streets. 9
George Street itself is very modern in appearance, with its broad 10
roadway, electric cars, and handsome stone buildings. Here is the
Post Office at one of the corners; it is built of sandstone and 11
granite which are to be found in abundance in the local rocks.
Across George Street runs Bridge Street, one of the oldest in the
city. It takes its name from the old bridge across the little
Tank stream, which has now been absorbed into the underground
drainage of the city, like so many of our old streams in London.
There are many Government buildings in this older part as we
might expect, and at the top is the entrance to Government House.
On the west side of Darling Harbour is the suburb of Pyrmont, on
another peninsula; and at the base of these peninsulas Sydney is
spreading and broadening out beyond the railway station. But even
here, in the new suburb, are many parks and open spaces reserved
for public use; while nothing can destroy the beauty of the older
portion of the city, divided up by inlets, and with glimpses
down many of its sloping streets of the blue water and the hills
beyond. It is not surprising that the early settlers found this
spot far more attractive than the open beach of Botany Bay.
As we look down on the Cove and its neighbourhood, we must
remember that we have in front of us only a small part of the
great expanse of landlocked anchorage available in the harbour;
there is still room for unlimited growth, though Sydney has
already over a third of the total population of New South Wales
collected in and around it.
We must now look beyond the actual harbour, and try to place
ourselves in the position of the early settlers. We have great
distances to cover, since New South Wales is just half as large
again as France; we must therefore keep fairly closely to the
railway; but we shall not lose much by this as the railway will
carry us through all the important districts of the State.
We may travel north, south, or west, and the map can give us some
idea of the character of the country through which we shall pass. 12
Sydney lies near the middle of a long strip of coastland, shut in
on its western side by the steep edge of a great plateau. In the
neighbourhood of Sydney this edge goes by the name of the Blue
Mountains. Here the barrier is about forty miles inland; further
north, in the valleys of the Hunter and Hawkesbury rivers, the
lowland widens out to nearly a hundred miles; while in some
parts of the south the highlands come right down to the sea. This
narrow strip was the original New South Wales.
[Illustration: NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA: OROGRAPHICAL.
_By permission of the Diagram Co._]
We can travel now by railway along the coast strip to Newcastle, 13
then up the valley of the Hunter, and finally climb the Liverpool
Range on to the plateau beyond. But the journey was far from easy
for the early settlers. In fact, until 1820, when a stock route
was discovered from Sydney to Newcastle, the only intercourse
with the north was by sea, and Newcastle grew up almost as a
separate colony in consequence. The valleys of the Hunter and
other rivers gave a natural direction to early settlement, since
in their lower courses they flow through wide alluvial flats
which are very fertile and easy to cultivate. But they are
subject sometimes to devastating floods, as the settlers found to
their cost, while the heavy summer rainfall is not well suited
to certain of our crops, such as wheat. So in the early days the
colony was often in difficulty as to its main food supply.
The name Newcastle at once suggests coal; and coal is everywhere
in this district. The surface of the country round Sydney is
largely a barren sandstone; but underlying the whole of the area,
from Newcastle on the north to Bulli on the south, and extending
westward to the other side of the plateau edge, is a vast
coalfield. Its chief development at present is around Newcastle.
Here is a view of Hetton colliery, Newcastle; both the name and 14
the picture remind us strongly of the North of England. We see
the coal being wound up from the shaft as in our own mines, and
in the distance vessels lying at the wharves in the fine harbour.
Here again is a general view of the harbour in which we can 15
clearly distinguish the loading of the coal and merchandise.
A journey southward from Sydney to the other end of the coalfield
will bring us to a less familiar type of mine. At Clifton the
early explorers found coal strewn on the beach; the actual seam
is in the face of the cliff, and shows as a broad black band, 16
while the coal is mined by means of adits, and then run on to the
little pier to be shipped. The coal is found under Sydney itself,
and mining is now in progress on the south side of the harbour;
but the shafts are much deeper here than at Newcastle, since the
coal measures lie in the shape of a saucer, and Sydney is near
the middle. We may notice here that the southern railway line
ends at Nowra on the Shoalhaven river, and beyond are only a few
small coast towns; so we need not at present explore further in
this direction.
We will now leave the coast district for a time and climb the
plateau edge to survey the country beyond. First let us consider
the nature of the obstacle by which the early settlers were
faced. The Blue Mountains are merely a part of the eastern rim of
a great tilted tableland of sandstone, with a steep face towards
the sea and a long and more gentle slope towards the west. Down
this face a series of comparatively short streams come tumbling
to the sea; while on the other side of the ridge, almost within
sight of the sea, are the sources of the slow westward-flowing
rivers, whose courses are measured by thousands of miles.
In this sandstone block the torrents have carved out deep gorges,
which often widen out up-stream into broad valleys; but these
valleys are deceptive and do not provide a road to the interior, 17
since they end in steep cliffs over which the streams plunge
in waterfalls. Here is a view of the country at Govett’s Leap; 18
we may notice the flat tops of the ridges, all about the same
level, which suggest the old surface of a plateau. It was a long
time before the early settlers found a path over this edge, and
the available roads are still very few all along its length, as
we may see by tracing them on the map; our train must twist and
tunnel up one of the ridges between two of the valleys by a most
difficult route, with steep inclines, instead of following the
bank of the stream below. We realise that climbing a plateau is
a far more serious matter for the engineer than piercing through
a narrow ridge of mountains.
At Victoria, on our way up, we leave the train for a coach drive,
to Jenolan. Here the scenery changes; the rock is no longer
sandstone, but limestone, and the streams have burrowed out many
curious gorges and underground channels as in our own Derbyshire.
Here we have one of these in the form of a huge rock archway 19
through which we catch a glimpse of the country beyond; while
far down below us flows the stream which bored out the arch. A
little further on we find the stream running at the bottom of a 20
lofty cavern, and out into a deep and narrow gorge. Here again
is a view of the interior of one of these caverns, with its huge
pillars hanging from the roof and rising up from the floor.
These limestone tunnels and gorges, and the sandstone valleys 21
with their steep surrounding cliffs and narrow outlets, are a
fine subject for the artist and tourist in search of beauty, but
do not suggest opportunities for settlement or farming; at the
same time they are evidently a serious obstacle to movement.
The bare surface of the plateau is little better; in fact, the
highlands in this district are still among the most thinly
populated areas in New South Wales, in spite of their nearness
to the capital and the oldest settlements. So we pass through
quickly, and coming out by a long tunnel drop down to Lithgow, 22
where we enter an entirely different kind of country. Lithgow
is a manufacturing town, with coal mines, ironworks, smoke and
dirt. It really belongs to the coast region, and is here, on the
inside of the ridge, only because a small piece of the Newcastle
coalfield, which underlies all the country which we have been
crossing, crops out in this district from under the sandstone. On
our journey inland we shall not meet with any other town of the
same type, as we are now entering the great wheat-belt of Eastern
Australia.