The rural economy and agriculture of Australia and New Zealand / as seen by Robert Wallace.

  • Wallace, Robert, 1853-1939.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The rural economy and agriculture of Australia and New Zealand / as seen by Robert Wallace. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/766 (page 8)
    the heads, which were decidedly too long to be fashionable at home ; the animals also displayed too much white. A large area of the Hill River estate was at one time under grain crops, and the land which had been cultivated is, as is the case with land similarly treated in this country, all the better for being broken up, now and then, for a course of cropping. A considerable variety of trees grows well, including the olive and the carob tree (Ceratonia siliqtid), producing the locust bean, or St. John’s bread bean, so largely used as a condiment in cattle food. The trees are furnished with beautiful dark green, glossy leaves, and a single tree will at times yield as much as 6 cwt. of beans. They are planted in clumps, as the male and female flowers are usually on separate trees, although monoecious specimens have been found. With the exception of two wet days the weather had been excellent—like a bright bracing summer at home. The drive of nine miles to FarrelFs Flat Station ♦ to join the train going north to Broken Hill was made in a downpour of rain ; but the angry demonstrations of the elements were more than counterbalanced by a right good Irish welcome extended by a newly-married couple named O’Leary, who had a few days before started business in a wayside, country, or drovers’ and carriers’ inn. To be from the home, the old country, though neither the host nor the hostess had ever been there, was sufficient to rouse in them a spirit of enthusiasm, and to evoke expressions of loyalty worthy of being recorded. At Terowie the railway going north to Broken Hill changes from the 5 ft. 3 in. gauge, to the narrow 3 ft. 6 in. gauge, and this formed the first experience of the un- fortunate circumstance that the intercolonial railways have different gauge widths ; * a fact which has already led to * The standard gauge in New South Wales is 4 feet inches, the Victoria gauge 5 feet 3 inches, and the Queensland gauge 3 feet 6 inches.