TO

AUSTRALASIA;

BEING A BRIEF

Bistorical and Descriptive Account ·

OF

VICTORIA, TASMANIA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, NEW SOUTH WALES,

WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AND NEW ZEALAND :

EDITED

BY WILLIAM FAIRFAX.

WITH A MAP OF THE AUSTRALASIAN COLONIES.

Melbourne:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM FAIRFAX AND CO.,

NEXT "ARGUS" OFFICE, COLLINS STREET.

PREFACE.

The object of this work is to supply a narrative of facts. The design of the editor has been to furnish a supplement to Bradshaw's Guide to Victoria, which should contain as brief, but yet as comprehensive an account as possible, of the past history and present condition of the Australian Colonies.

It was originally intended that this Handbook should not exceed 200 pages. But when the project became known, it excited so warm an interest as to lead to many suggestions that came from various parts of the colonies-suggestions too valuable to be disregarded. But in the endeavour to embody them the work has increased to its present dimensions, necessitating the proprietors, very reluctantly, to raise the price.

Some apology may be deemed necessary for the delay in the publication. But the fact is, the information had to be obtained from diversified sources, depending on such a variety of contingencies, which the editor could not control, that the successive postponement, though very vexatious, has been unavoidable.

It will be readily perceived that a considerable prominence has been given, in the Handbook, to Victoria. This has arisen partly from the rapid progress it has made, especially since the discovery of the gold-fields, in the acquisition of all the materials of civilization and influence, perhaps unsurpassed in the annals of coloniza