The Geography of the British Colonies and Dependencies

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...that enter the Pacific from the latter are shorter and less navigable than those which descend from the former. Of the coast streams of Queensland, the principal are the Burdekin, theFitzroy (formed by the junction of the Mackenzie and the Dawson, with their subsidiary creeks), Burnett, and the Brisbane, all of which are navigable for steamers of considerable tonnage for some distance inland. In New South Wales, the coast plain is watered by many noble streams, the largest of which are the Clarence, MacLeay, Manning, Hunter, Hawkesbury, and Shoalhaven. The volume of all these rivers varies greatly, being liable in winter to sudden and violent floods, but they are not altogether worthless for navigation. The Clarence is half-amile wide at its mouth, and is navigable by sea-going steamers for 70 miles; the Hunter and other rivers are also regularly traversed by colonial trading 1. Chisholm. AUSTRALIA: RIVERS. 121 vessels. In Victoria, the Snowy River, the Mitchell, and other smaller streams fall into the Pacific; the other rivers of the colony, and, indeed, of the whole continent, with the exception of those already named, and a few continental 1 streams in the interior, belong to the basin of the Indian Ocean. The Australian Section of the River-System of the Indian Ocean comprises the Murray, which enters Encounter Bay through Lake Alexandrina; the Swan, Murchison, Gascoyne, Ashburton, De Grey, Fitzroy, and other rivers of Western Australia; the Victoria and Daly, in the Northern Territory; and the Roper, Flinders Mitchell, and other streams which fall into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The MURRAY, which drains a large portion of Queensland, the whole of the interior of New South Wales, the northern half of Victoria, and a part of South Australia, ri...