A Six weeks' Tour
INCLUDING NEW SOUTH WALES, QUEENSLAND, VICTORIA, TASMANIA AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA..
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Sydney, the capital of the British colony of New South Wales (which has an area of 310,367 miles), has most attractive surroundings, and the tourist can well spend a week or ten days in enjoying them. Its beautiful harbor, Port Jackson, having 188 miles of coast line, is world famous. The city itself has two fine parks, — the Botanical Gardens and Stanwell Park. A hundred miles to the north lies Newcastle, the second city and the largest mineral center in the colony. The railroad thither crosses the celebrated Hawkesbury River by the largest bridge on the southern continent. To the south are Botany Bay, Port Hackjng, Bulli Pass and the Illawarra and Cambawarra Mountain districts, abounding in tropical scenery and picturesque waterfalls. To the west are the Blue Mountains, full of romantic scenery. All these resorts can easily be reached by rail or motor car. The chief tourist attractions of the colony are its wonderful caves, namely: the Jenolan Caves, reached by rail to Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains, thence by stage; the Wombeyan Caves in the Southern Mountains, reached by rail to Bowral, eighty-one miles, thence by stage, forty -three miles; and the Yarrangobilly Caves in the Monaro district, reached by rail to Cooma, 266 miles, and thence by stage via Kiandra. |
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Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, is about five hundred miles north of Sydney, and can be reached in about twenty-eight hours by rail or forty hours by steamer. It is situated on More- ton Bay, and is the center of a rich mining region. The tropical climate of Queensland per - mits the cultivation of pineapples, arrowroot, bananas, coffee, mangoes, sugar-cane and cotton, the latter being long and of the best staple. In the neighborhood of Darling Downs are the immense sheep "runs," which crown wool as " king" in Queensland. Darling Downs consist of broad, undulating, grass-covered steppes. Warwick, the principal town of the Downs, is reached by rail in a few hours from Brisbane. Queensland is the only one of the Australian colonies where the aborigines are still an element of the population worth taking into account. The great Barrier Reef of Australia (a coral formation a thousand miles in length) belongs entirely to Queensland, extending along its coast from Port Brown to Torres Straits, the average distance from the shore being about sixty miles. |
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Melbourne, on the Yarra, is the capital of the colony of Victoria (which is the southeastern portion of the continent and has an area of 87,884 square miles), and may be considered the Chicago of the Southern Hemisphere. It is 586 miles by rail from Sydney, taking seventeen hours. The city was first laid out in 1837, is one of the handsomest in the world and has now a population of over half a million. It is located at the head of the greatest of harbors, Port Phillip Bay, whose narrow and well-fortified entrance lies forty miles south of the city. Victoria is supremely rich not only in agricultural resources, but in the auriferous strata which have made Melbourne the "City of the Golden Fleece." Visitors should bear in mind that the Australians are a sport-loving people, and in order to appreciate the fact they should arrange to be in Melbourne during "Cup Week," when the Melbourne Cup is run for on the Flemington race-course, early in November. This is the carnival of Australia, and there is usually an attendance of about 100,000 people on the course on "Cup Day." Besides that of Flemington, there is the Caulfield course, which may be said to be the Ascot of Australia. A short distance from Melbourne are the cities of Bal- larat and Bendigo, formerly two of the most wonderful gold-mining camps in the world, now transformed into handsome cities, and still centers of gold-mining activity. A railroad journey of a hundred miles or so due east from Melbourne brings the traveler to Gippsland, where are to be seen immense trees exceeding in height even those of California. In this picturesque lake district some of the wild life of Australia can be seen, including kangaroos, lyre-birds, cockatoos, parrots and that extraordinary bird, the laughing-jackass. The Black's Spur, about fifty miles from Melbourne, also celebrated for its big trees and fine mountain scenery, can be visited in one day from Melbourne. |
TASMANIA |
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| For an outing the Melbournite usually goes to the island colony of Tasmania, in earlier days known as Van Diemen's Land. New turbine steamers now make the -trip south across Bass Strait, from Melbourne to Launceston, in seventeen hours; and from Launceston express trains land the traveler at Hobart, the capital, in less than six hours. Launceston is about forty miles from the mouth of the Tamar, the voyage up which river is one of great beauty. | |
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At Launceston carriage drives can be enjoyed to Corra Linn, Rosevear, Perth, Dilston, Long- ford and Cataract Gorge. From Hobart coaches run to Huon, the apple-land of the island, where there are seen immense gum-trees; also to the Lakes, Mount Bischoff, Brown's River, Risdon and Derwent Valley. The good roads in Tasmania offer attractions to cyclists and motorists, and the numerous picturesque resorts make the island a delightful place for a sojourn of a week or two. |
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. |
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Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is about five hundred miles by rail from Melbourne or thirty-six hours by steamer. The city pre- sents a fine picture, lying as it does in an amphi- theater of wooded hills, and is the center of an agricultural and pastoral country. It is an ele- gant city, with a noble University, Parliament Houses, and other government buildings. The streets are broad and well laid out, and the city is surrounded with parks, forming a magnificent drive eight or ten miles long. The botanical gardens cover 130 acres, and have a museum of economic botany. Among the native trees of Australia can here be seen that curious specimen, the bottle-tree, which has the remarkable property of storing up water in its hollow trunk. |
WESTERN AUSTRALIA. |
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An extension of this tour for another seventeen days could be made to include western Australia. Steamers leave Adelaide for Albany, where there is rail connection to Perth, Fremantle and the gold-fields. Coastal steamers also leave Adelaide and Albany for Fre- mantle twice a week. Eight days could be comfortably spent in visits to the famous Kalgoorlie gold-fields, and to the caves in the Busselton district. Perth, the capital of western Australia, is picturesquely situated on the Swan River, thirty minutes' rail journey from Fremantle. It is a handsomely laid-out city of about 50,000 inhabitants. There are handsome government buildings and a fine park, with water frontage and an excellent zoological garden. |
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