An Inland Australian Town.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 125, 2 April 1872, Page 7

An Inland Australian Town.

The following picture of the town of Dcniliquin and the surrounding country in Riverina, the remote district of New South Wales scparted from Victoria by the River Murray, (taken from a contribution to the Argus by its special correspondent), does not present a very attractive picture, which is not increased by the fact that the cultivation of grain is so precarious that only in two seasons out of live, on an average, can satisfactory harvests be calculated upon : “ Outside the township there are no main roads. The main thoroughfare in Deniliquin, the only main road in the district, is formed and repaired out of the tolls collected on the bridge, which amount to £1503 a year. No metal is to be found anywhere, and lumps of burnt clay and broken bricks are the materials of which the roads are made. The bricks make a pretty solid roadway, but are very expensive ; the bricks for a length of 350 yards, by 25 ft. wide by 7 in. thick, have cost £4OO. Blocks of wood have been tried as a substitute, i.e., round timber from G in. to 12 in. thick, sawn in short lengths of 8 in., but a road formed with them costs nearly £SOOO a mile. Clay is plentiful on the river bank, and brickmaking is carried on in rough fashion. As most of the town buildings are of brick, so arc the chid portions of the main road ; and as the buildj ings are straggling and scattered, so are the lengths of street-making. The town council raises £SOO a year in rates, and the Govern merit gives an equivalent sum. The population of Deniliquin is from 1000 to 1100 Tire stations are numerous, but the nurnbei ! of hands small, from the universal adoptior lof fencing. Hero we arm cast away in tin midst of a perfectly flat country of wide ex tent, the view limited, and nothing risin; higher above the dry ground than the gun trees scattered about the township, and mark ing the course of the river. No appearanci of mountain, or range, or even little hills, hj any direction ; and the horizon only boundet by a line of trees. In general, at this season the sun pours down his great heat from perfect cloudless sky. The thermometer dm ing the last month, which has been one o unusual warmth, has marked 110 in th shade ; the daily record printed in the Mol bourne newspapers gives only the tempera turc at nine o’clock in the morning. Th mirage is visible towards the sou th-west, wh er ■ the prospect opens out. The distant greo trees present a misty appearance, and thei outline is lost in the glassy liquid in whic ' they seem to float. The constant passing < ! flocks and herds over the exposed, unshade surface, has destroyed all signs of vegetal)! 1 life ; and it will not be until the return ( the rains that the grass will spring into lift - and cover the plains with green. The bake - earth crumbles into dust, which the win i gathers up and drives away in thick clouds.'