Now the creation of this great Lake round about the land chosen for the
Fairy City, and its gardens and grounds, not only acted as a bar to
certain enemies, but so vast a quantity of cool fresh water had a
miraculous effect upon the atmosphere. It became more humid, more
moist. Trees and shrubs that could not have lived there before, no
matter how much water might have been given them, now flourished
amazingly. Flowers, fruits and other edibles of all kinds grew to
perfection with astonishing rapidity. Birds of every sort and
description, attracted in some mysterious way to the Lake and Hill,
came in hundreds and settled there permanently. Bees, Beetles,
Butterflies, and Moths, in like manner, came, as it were, out of space,
to find a new, and possibly, a happier home than they had ever known
before.
In an incredibly short space of time, therefore, the place became
bright with the strains of feathered songsters and the glitter of their
gaily plumaged friends.
About the Hill Miniature Forests were planted and grew as if by magic.
On the outer edge of the Lake, partly to honour his noble Father, King
Eucalyptus; but also to act as permanent protection against the
detestable Desert Fairies, who, like the Bedouins of the African
desert, are always on the look-out to despoil and destroy, Prince
Waratah caused to be planted a magnificent belt of Eucalypts. This
great forest of truly splendid trees stretched in an unbroken line
right round the Lake, and very soon became a joy to all beholders, and
the dwelling place of every Australian animal that can be named. How
they got there must for ever remain a mystery; but there is good reason
to believe that Prince Waratah, who loved everything Australian, sent
out Fairy scouts and messengers, mounted upon storks, cranes, and
native companions, to tell them all about the New World, so to speak,
and to bring them there!
As to the City, that soon began to show itself!
Following upon the general plan marked out by the Surveyors, high up on
the hillsides pretty fairy residences were erected, their coloured
roofs and snow-white fronts standing sharply out amid the trees and
shrubbery scattered round about them. How all this work was done would
take far too long to tell; but to give you an idea of what the City and
surroundings looked like after they were finished, imagine yourselves
going there on a visit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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