Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South WalesMitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
History
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales
Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone)
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Mitchell, T. L. (Thomas Livingstone), 1792-1855
Taking leave of my kind host at an early hour, I continued my ride,
passing through the new township in which, although but few years had
elapsed since I had sketched its streets on paper, a number of houses had
already been built. The Mulwary Ponds scarcely afford sufficient water of
the supply of a large population there; but at the junction of this
channel with the Wollondilly there is a deep reach not likely to be ever
exhausted.
GREAT ROAD.
The road marked out between this township and Sydney led over a country
shut up, as already stated, between the Wollondilly and the Shoalhaven
rivers. These streams are distant from each other at the narrowest part
of the intervening surface about ten miles; and as each is bordered by
deep ravines the middle portion of the country between them is naturally
the most level, and this happens to be precisely in the direction most
desirable for a general line of communication between Sydney and the most
valuable parts of the colony to the southward.
TOWRANG HILL.
At a few miles from Goulburn the road passes by the foot of Towrang, a
hill whose summit I had formerly cleared of timber, leaving only one
tree. I thus obtained an uninterrupted view of the distant horizon, and
found the hill very useful afterwards in extending our survey from
Jellore into the higher country around Lake George. This hill consists
chiefly of quartz rock. At its base the new line leaves the original cart
track which here crossed the Wollondilly twice. I now found an
intermediate road in use between the old track and my half-formed road
which was still inaccessible at this point for want of a small bridge
over Towrang Creek.
THE WOLLONDILLY.
The Wollondilly pursues its course to the left, passing under the
southern extremity of Cockbundoon range, which extends about thirty miles
in a straight line from north to south, and consists of sandstone dipping
westward. Near the Wollondilly and a few miles from Towrang a quarry of
crystalline variegated marble has been recently wrought to a considerable
extent, and chimney-pieces, tables, etc. now ornament most good houses at
Sydney. This rock occurs in blocks over greenstone, and has hitherto been
found only in that spot.
WILD COUNTRY THROUGH WHICH IT FLOWS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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