Australia has not made as rapid progress in respect of the construction of railways as might perhaps be expected. She has not, however, been altogether unmindful of her interests in this respect. Of the four great modern divisions of the Australian Continent, New South Wales had, at the commencement of the present year, 263 miles, and the expenditure upon them had been £2,746,373; Victoria, 272, with an expenditure of £9,905,634; Queensland, 78, with an expenditure of £617,658; and South Australia, 56. The expenditure for railways in this last-named colony is not stated in the returns before us. It will thus be seen that the aggregate length of the Australian railways is 669 miles. In the New South Wales Province there are three main lines, all of which commence at Sydney—the Great Southern, the Great Western, and the Great Northern. The first is to extend through Goulburn to the Murray River at Albury. Although some of the works on this line are very heavy, and there is a long tunnel to complete through the Gibraltar Mountains, it is, nevertheless, expected that the line will be completed in 1868. The Great Northern will extend to Muswell Brook on the Hunter River, sixty miles north-west of Maitland, and 153 miles from Sydney. The third, or Great Western Line, is to extend to Bathurst on the Macquarie River, 122 miles from Sydney. New South Wales has its Windsor and its Richmond, and these places are accommodated with railway communication from Sydney. When the several lines now open, and those now in process of construction, are completed, the Colony will have 500 miles of railway within its limits.[112] The Victorian railways consist of two main lines, one from Melboure to Castlemain (Mount Alexander Goldfields) and Sandhurst (Bendigo Goldfields), 101 miles long, and the other from Melbourne to Geelong and Ballarat, with a branch to Williamstown (the Port of Melbourne). The total length of this second line is ninety-six miles. The Geelong and Melbourne Railway was purchased from the shareholders by the Government in 1860. An extension from Sandhurst to the Murray River at Echuca, fifty-six miles long, is in progress, and will be opened next year. Echuca is 150 miles distant from Albury, the terminus on the Murray River of the intended southern extension of the New South Wales Railways. There will, therefore, not be direct railway communication between Sydney and Melbourne, at all events for the present. The gauge of the New South Wales and Victorian Railways is 5 feet 3 inches.