the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Victoria, Australia
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or A British colonial state, occupying the southeastern corner of Australia. Its western boundary is in 140° 58' E.; on the east it runs out to a point at Cape Howe, in 150 E. long., being thus rudely triangular in shape; the river Murray constitutes nearly the whole of the northern boundary, its most northerly point being in 34° S. lat.; the southern boundary is the coast-line of the Southern Ocean and of Bass Strait; the most southerly point is Wilson's Promontory in 39° S. lat, The greatest length east and west is about 480 m.; the greatest width, in the west, is about 250 m. The area is officially stated to be 87,884 sq. m.
The coast-line may be estimated at about Boo m. It begins about the 141st meridian with bold but not lofty sandstone cliffs, worn into deep caves and capped by grassy undulations, which extend inland to pleasant park-like lands. Capes Bridgewater and Nelson form a peninsula of forest lands, broken by patches of meadow. To the east of Cape Nelson lies the moderately sheltered inlet of Portland Bay, consisting of a sweep of sandy beach flanked by bold granite rocks. Then comes a long unbroken stretch of high cliffs, which, owing to insetting currents, have been the scene of many calamitous wrecks. Cape Otway is the termination of a wild mountain range that here abuts on the coast. Its brown cliffs rise vertically from the water; and the steep slopes above are covered with dense forests of exceedingly tall timber and tree-ferns. Eastwards from this cape the line of cliffs gradually diminishes in height to about 20 to 40 ft. at the entrance to Port Phillip. Next comes Port Phillip Bay, at the head of which stands the city of Melbourne. When the tide recedes from this bay through the narrow entrance it often encounters a strong current just outside; the broken and somewhat dangerous sea thus caused is called "the Rip." East of Port Phillip Bay the shores consist for 15 m. of a line of sandbanks; but at Cape Schanck they suddenly become high and bold. East of this comes Western Port, a deep inlet more than half occupied by French Island and Phillip Island. Its shores are flat and uninteresting, in some parts swampy. The bay is shallow and of little use for navigation. The coast continues rocky round Cape Liptrap. Wilson's Promontory is a great rounded mass of granite hills, with wild and striking scenery, tree-fern gullies and gigantic gum-trees, connected with the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus. At its extremity lie a multitude of rocky islets, with steep granite edges. North of this cape, and opening to the east, lies Corner Inlet, which is dry at low water. The coast now continues low to the extremity of the colony. The slight bend northward forms a sort of bight called the Ninety Mile Beach, but it really exceeds that length. It is an unbroken line of sandy shore, hacked by low sandhills, on which grows a sparse dwarf vegetation. Behind these hills comes a succession of lakes, surrounded by excellent land, and beyond these rise the soft blue outlines of the mountain masses of the interior. The shores on the extreme east are somewhat higher, and occasionally rise in bold points. They terminate in Cape Howe, off which lies Gabo Island, of small extent but containing an important lighthouse and signalling station.
The western half of Victoria is level or slightly undulating, and as a rule tame in its scenery, exhibiting only thinly timbered grassy lands, with all the appearance of open parks. The north-west corner of the colony, equally flat, is dry and sometimes sandy, and frequently bare of vegetation, though in one part some seven or eight millions of acres are covered with the dense brushwood known as "mallee scrub." This wide western plain is slightly broken in two places. In the south the wild ranges of Cape Otway are covered over a considerable area with richly luxurious but almost impassable forests. This district has been reserved as a state forest and its coast forms a favourite holiday resort, the scenery being very attractive. The middle of the plain is crossed by a thin line of mountains, known as the Australian Pyrenees, at the western extremity of which there are several irregularly placed transverse ranges, the chief being the Grampians, the Victoria Range and the Sierra Range. Their highest point is Mount William (3600(3600 feet). The eastern half of the colony is wholly different. Though there is plenty of level land, it occurs in small patches, and chiefly in the south, in Gippsland, which extends from Corner Inlet to Cape Howe. But a great part of this eastern half is occupied with the complicated mass of ranges known collectively as the Australian Alps. The whole forms a plateau averaging from 1000 to 2000 ft. high, with many smaller table lands ranging from 3000 to 5000 ft. in height. The highest peak, Bogong, is 6508 ft. in altitude. The ranges are so densely covered with vegetation that it is extremely difficult to penetrate them. About fifteen peaks over 5000 ft. in height have been measured. Along the ranges grow the giant trees for which Victoria is famous. ' The narrow valleys and gullies contain exquisite scenery, the rocky streams being overshadowed by groves of graceful tree-ferns, from amid whose waving fronds rise the tall smooth stems of the white gums. Over ten millions of acres are thus covered with forest-clad mountains which in due time will become a very valuable asset of the state. The Australian Alps are connected with the Pyrenees by a long ridge called the Dividing Range (1500 to 3000 ft. high).
Victoria is fairly well watered, but its streams are generally too small to admit of navigation. This, however, is not the case with the Murray river. The Murray for a distance of Rivers. 670 m. (or 1250 m. if its various windings be followed) forms the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria; it receives a number of tributaries from the Victorian side. The Mitta Mitta, which rises in the heart of the Australian Alps, is 150 m. long. The Ovens, rising among the same mountains, is slightly shorter. The Goulburn (340 m.) flows almost entirely through well-settled agricultural country, and is deep enough to be used in its lower part for navigation. The valley of this river is a fertile grain - producing district. The Campaspe (150 m.) has too little volume of water to be of use for navigation; its valley is also agricultural, and along its banks there lie a close succession of thriving town - ships. The Loddon (over 200 m.) rises in the Pyrenees. The upper part flows through a plain, to the right agricultural and to the left auriferous, containing nearly forty thriving towns, including Bendigo (formerly named Sandhurst) and Castlemaine. In the lower part of the valley the soil is also fertile, but the rainfall is small. To the west of the Loddon is the Avoca river with a length of 140 m.; it is of slight volume, and though it flows towards the Murray it loses itself in marshes and salt lagoons before reaching that river.
The rivers which flow southwards into the ocean are numerous. The Snowy river rises in New South Wales, and in Victoria flows entirely through wild and almost wholly unoccupied territory.
The Tambo (120 m. long), which rises in the heart of the Australian Alps, crosses the Gippsland plains and falls into Lake King, one of the Gippsland lakes; into the same lake falls the Mitchell river, rising also in the Australian Alps. The Mitchell is navigated for a short distance. The Latrobe empties itself into Lake Wellington after a course of 135 m.; it rises at Mount Baw Baw. The Yarra Yarra rises in the "Black Spur" of the Australian Alps. Emerging in a deep valley from the ranges, it follows a sinuous course through the undulating plains called the "Yarra Flats," which are wholly enclosed by hills, on whose slopes are some of the best vineyards of Australia; it finds its way out of the Flats between high and precipitous but well-wooded banks, and finally reaches Port Phillip Bay below Melbourne. Owing to its numerous windings its course through that city and its suburbs is at least thirty miles. Nearer to the sea its waterway, formerly available for vessels drawing 16 ft., has now been deepened so as to be available for vessels drawing 20 ft. The Barwon, farther west, is a river of considerable length but little volume, flowing chiefly through pastoral lands. The Hopkins and Glenelg (280 m.) both water the splendid pastoral lands of the west, the lower course of the former passing through the fertile district of Warrnambool, well known throughout Australia as a potato-growing region.
In the west there are Lakes Corangamite and Colac, due north of Cape Otway. The former is intensely salt; the latter is fresh, having an outlet for its waters. Lakes Tyrrell and Hindmarsh lie in the plains of the north-west. In summer they are dried up, and in winter are again formed by the waters of rivers that have no outlet. In the east are the Gippsland lakes, formed by the waters of the Latrobe, Mitchell and Tambo, being dammed back by the sandhills of the Ninety Mile Beach. They are connected with Bass Strait by a narrow and shifting channel through a shallow bar; the government of Victoria has done a great deal of late years to deepen the entrance and make it safer. The upper lake is called Lake Wellington; a narrow passage leads into Lake Victoria, which is joined to a wider expanse called Lake King. These are all fresh-water lakes and are visited by tourists, being readily accessible from Melbourne. (T. A. C.) Geology. - Victoria includes a more varied and complete geological sequence than any other area of equal size in Australia. Its geological foundation consists of a band of Archean and Lower Palaeozoic rocks, which forms the backbone of the state. The sedimentary rocks in this foundation have been thrown into folds, of which the axes trend approximately north and south. The Lower Palaeozoic and Archean rocks build up the Highlands of Victoria, which occupy the whole width of the state at its eastern end, extending from the New South Wales border on the north to the shore of the Southern Ocean on the south. These Highlands constitute the whole of the mountainous country of Gippsland and the north-eastern districts. They become narrower to the west, and finally, beyond the old plateau of Dundas, disappear beneath the recent loams of the plains along the South Australian border. The Lower Palaeozoic and Archean rocks bear upon their surface some Upper Palaeozoic rocks, which occur in belts running north and south, and have been preserved by infolding or faulting; such are the Grampian Sandstones in the west; the Cathedral Mountain Sandstones to the north-east of Melbourne; the belt of Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks that extends across eastern Victoria, through Mount Wellington to Mansfield; and finally, far to the east, is the belt of the Snowy river porphyries, erupted by a chain of Lower Devonian volcanoes. Further Upper Palaeozoic rocks and the Upper Carboniferous glacial beds occur in basins on both northern and southern flanks of the Highlands. The Mesozoic rocks are confined to southern Victoria; they build up the hills of southern Gippsland and the Otway Ranges; and farther west, hidden by later rocks, they occur under the coast of the western district. Between the southern mountain chain and the Victorian Highlands occurs the Great Valley of Victoria, occupied by sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Kainozoic age. The NorthWestern Plains, occurring between the northern foot of the Highlands and the Murray, are occupied by Kainozoic sediments.
Victoria has a fairly complete geological sequence, though it is poorer than New South Wales in the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Mesozoic. The Archean rocks form two blocks of gneisses and schists, which build up the Highlands of Dundas in the west, and of the north-eastern part of Victoria. They were originally described as metamorphosed Silurian rocks, but must be of Archean age. Another series of Archean rocks is more widely developed, and forms the old framework upon which the geology of Victoria has been built up. They are known as the Heathcotian series, and consist of phyllites, schists and amphibolites; while their most characteristic feature is the constant association of foliated diabase and beds of jasperoids. Volcanic agglomerates occur in the series at the typical locality of Heathcote. The Heathcotian rocks form the Colbinabbin Range, which runs for 40 m. northward and southward, east of Bendigo. They are also exposed on the surface at the eastern foot of the Grampian Range, and at Dookie, and on the southern coast in Waratah Bay; they have been proved by bores under Rushworth, and they apparently underlie parts of the Gippsland coalfields. The Cambrian rocks have so far only been de finitely proved near Mansfield. Mr A. M. Howitt has there collected some fragmentary remains of Olenellus and worm tubes of the Cambrian genus Salterella. These beds at Mansfield contain phosphatic limestones and wavellite.
The Ordovician system is well developed. It consists of slates and quartzites; and some schists around the granites of the western district, and in the Pyrenees, are regarded as metamorphic Ordovician. The Ordovician has a rich graptolitic fauna, and they have been classified into the following divisions: - Upper Ordovician Darriwill Series Castlemaine Series Lower Ordovician Bendigo Series Lancefield Series The Ordovician beds are best developed in a band running northnorth-west and south-south-east across Victoria, of which the eastern boundary passes through Melbourne. This Ordovician band begins on the south with the block forming the plateau of Arthur's Seat and Mornington Peninsula, as proved by Ferguson. This outlier is bounded to the north by the depression of Port Phillip and the basalt plains west of Melbourne. It reappears north of them at Lancefield, whence it extends along the Highlands, past Ballarat, with southern outliers as far as Steiglitz. It forms the whole of the Ballarat Plateau, and is continued northward through the goldfields of Castlemaine, Bendigo and the Pyrenees, till it dips under the North-Western Plains. Certain evidence as to the age of the rocks in the Pyrenees has not yet been collected, and they may be pre-Ordovician. Some Upper Ordovician rocks occur in the mountains of eastern Gippsland, as near Woods Point, and in north-eastern Victoria, in Wombat Creek.
The Silurian system consists of two divisions: the lower or Melbournian, and the upper or Yeringian. Both consist in the main of sandstones, quartzites and shales; but the upper series includes lenticular masses of limestone, at Lillydale, Loyola and along the Thomson river. The limestones are rich in typical Silurian corals and bryozoa, and the shales and sandstones contain brachiopods and trilobites. The Silurian rocks are well exposed in sections near Melbourne; they occur in a belt running from the southern coast at Waratah Bay, west of Wilson's Promontory, north-north-westward across Victoria, and parallel to the Ordovician belt, which underlies them on the west. The Silurian rocks include the goldfields of the Upper Yarra, Woods Point, Walhalla and Rushworth, while the limestones are worked for lime at Lillydale and Waratah Bay. The Devonian system includes representatives of the lower, middle and upper series. The Lower Devonian series includes the porphyries and their associated igneous rocks, along the valley of the Snowy river. They represent the remains of an old chain of volcanoes which once extended north and south across Victoria. The Middle Devonian is mainly formed of marine sandstones, and limestones in eastern Gippsland. It is best developed in the valleys of the Mitchell, the Tambo and the Snowy rivers. The Upper Devonian rocks include sandstones, shales and coarse conglomerates. At the close of Middle Devonian times there were intense crustal disturbances, and the granitic massifs, which formed the primitive mountain axis of Victoria, were then intruded.
The Carboniferous system begins with the Avon river sandstones, containing Lepidodendron, and the red sandstones, with Lower Carboniferous fish, collected by Mr Geo. Sweet near Mansfield. Probably the Grampian Sandstone, the Cathedral Mountain Sandstone, and some in the Mount Wellington district belong to the same period. The Upper Carboniferous includes the famous glacial deposits and boulder clays, by which the occurrence of a Carboniferous glaciation in the Southern Hemisphere was first demonstrated. These beds occur at Heathcote, Bendigo, the Loddon Valley, southern Gippsland and the North-Eastern district. The beds comprise boulder clay, containing ice-scratched boulders, and sometimes rest upon ice-scratched, moutonne surfaces, and some lake deposits, similar to those laid down in glacial lakes. The glacial beds are overlain by sandstones containing Gangamopteris, and Kitson's work in Northern Tasmania leaves no doubt that they are on the horizon of the Greta or Lower Coal Measures of New South Wales.
The Mesozoic group is represented only by Jurassic rocks, which form the mountains of southern Gippsland and include its coalfields. The rocks contain fossil land plants, occasional fish remains and the claw of a dinosaur, &c. The coal is of excellent quality. The mudstones, which form the main bulk of this series, are largely composed of volcanic debris, which decomposes to a fertile soil. These rocks trend south-westward along the Bass Range, which reaches Western Port. They skirt the Mornington Peninsula, underlie part of Port Phillip and the Bellarine Peninsula, and are exposed in the Barrabool Hills to the south-west of Geelong; thence they extend into the Otway Ranges, which are wholly built of these rocks and contain some coal seams. Farther west they disappear below the recent sediments and volcanic rocks of the Warrnambool district. They are exposed again in the Portland Peninsula, and rise again to form the Wannon Hills, to the south of Dundas.
The Kainozoic beds include three main series: lacustrine, marine and volcanic. The main lacustrine series is probably of Oligocene age, and is important from its thick beds of brown coal, which are thickest in the Great Valley of Victoria in southern Gippsland. A cliff face on the banks of the Latrobe, near Morwell, shows 90 ft. of it, and a bore near Morwell is recorded as having passed through 850 ft. of brown coal. Its thickness, at least in patches, is very great. The brown coals occur to the south-east of Melbourne, under the basalts between it and Geelong. Brown coal is also abundant under the Murray plains in north-western Victoria. The Kainozoic marine rocks occur at intervals along the southern coast and in the valleys opening from it. The most important horizon is apparently of Miocene age. The rocks occur at intervals in eastern Victoria, along the coast and up the river valleys, from the Snowy river westward to Alberton. At the time of the deposition of these beds Wilson's Promontory probably extended south-eastward and joined Tasmania; for the mid-Kainozoic marine deposits do not occur between Alberton and Flinders, to the west of Western Port. They extend up the old valley of Port Phillip as far as Keilor to the north of Melbourne, and are widely distributed under the volcanic rocks of the Western Plains. They are exposed on the floors of the volcanic cauldrons, and have been found by mining operations under the volcanic rocks of the Ballarat plateau near Pitfield. The Miocene sea extended up the Glenelg valley, round the western border of the Dundas Highlands, and spread over the Lower Murray Basin into New South Wales; its farthest south-eastern limit was in a valley at Stawell. Some later marine deposits occur at the Lakes Entrance in eastern Gippsland, and in the valley of the Glenelg.
The volcanic series begins with a line of great dacite domes including the geburite-dacite of Macedon, which is associated with solvsbergites and trachy-dolerites. The eruption of these domes was followed by that of sheets of basalt of several different ages, and the intrusion of some trachyte dykes. The oldest basalts are associated with the Oligocene lake deposits; and fragments of the large lava sheets of this period form some of the table-topped mountains in the Highlands of eastern Victoria. The river gravels below the lavas have been worked for gold, and land plants discovered in the workings. At Flinders the basalts are associated with Miocene limestones. The largest development of the volcanic rocks are a series of confluent sheets of basalt, forming the Western Plains, which occupy over 10,000 sq. m. of south-western Victoria. They are crossed almost continuously by the SouthWestern railway for 166 m. from Melbourne to Warrnambool. The volcanic craters built up by later eruptions are well preserved: such are Mount Elephant, a simple breached cone; Mount Noorat, with a large primary crater and four secondary craters on its flanks; Mount Warrenheip, near Ballarat, a single cone with the crater breached to the north-west. Mount Franklin, standing on the Ordovician rocks north of Daylesford, is a weathered cone breached to the south-east. In addition to the volcanic craters, there are numerous volcanic cauldrons formed by subsidence, such as Bullenmerri and Gnotuk near Camperdown, Keilembete near Terang, and Tower Hill near Port Fairy. Tower Hill consists of a large volcanic cauldron, and rising from an island in a lake on its floor is a later volcanic crater.
The Pleistocene, or perhaps Upper Pliocene, deposits of most interest are those containing the bones of giant marsupials, such as the Diprotodon and Palorchestes, which have been found near Geelong, Castlemaine, Lake Kolungulak, &c.; at the last locality Diprotodon and various extinct kangaroos have been found in association with the dingo. There is no trace in these deposits of the existence of man, and J. W. Gregory has reasserted the striking absence of evidence of man's residence in Victoria, except for a very limited period. There is no convincing evidence of Pleistocene glacial deposits in Victoria. Of the many records, the only one that can still be regarded as at all probable is that regarding Mount Bogong.
The chief literature on the geology of Victoria is to be found in the maps and publications of the Geological Survey - a branch of the Mines Department. A map of the State, on the scale of eight inches to the mile, was issued in 1902. The Survey has published numerous quarter-sheet maps, and maps of the gold fields and parishes. The geology is described in the Reports, Bulletins and Memoirs of the Survey, and in the Quarterly Reports of the Mining Registrars. Statistics of the mining industry are stated in the Annual Report of the Secretary for Mines. See also the general summary of the geology of Victoria, by R. Murray, issued by the Mines Department in 1887 and 1895. Numerous papers on the geology of the State are contained in the Trans. R. Soc. Victoria, and on its mining geology in the Trans. of the Austral. Inst. Min. Engineers. The physical geography has been described by J. W. Gregory in the Geography of Victoria (1903). (J. W. G.) Flora. - The native trees belong chiefly to the Myrtaceae, being largely composed of Eucalypti or gum trees. There are several hundred species, the most notable being Eucalyptus amygdalina, a tree with tall white stem, smooth as a marble column, and without branches for 60 or 70 ft. from the ground. It is singularly beautiful when seen in groves, for these have all the appearance of lofty pillared cathedrals. These trees are among the tallest in the world, averaging in some districts about 300 ft. The longest ever measured was found prostrate on the Black Spur: it measured 470 ft. in length; it was 81 ft. in girth near the root. Eucalyptus globulus or blue gum has broad green leaves, which yield the eucalyptus oil of the pharmacopoeia. Eucalyptus rostrata is extensively used in the colony as a timber, being popularly known as red gum or hard wood. It is quite unaffected by weather, and almost indestructible when used as piles for piers or wharves. Smaller species of eucalyptus form the common "bush." Melaleucas, also of Myrtacea kind, are prominent objects along all the coasts, where they grow densely on the sand-hills, forming "ti-tree" scrub. Eucalyptus dumosa is a species which grows only 6 to 12 ft. high, but with a straight stem; the trees grow so close together that it is difficult to penetrate the scrub formed by them. Eleven and a half million acres of the Wimmera district are covered with this "mallee scrub," as it is called. Recent legislation has made this land easy of acquisition, and the whole of it has been taken up on pastoral leases. Five hundred thousand acres have recently been taken up as an irrigation colony on Californian principles and laid out in 40-acre farms and orchards. The Leguminosae are chiefly represented by acacias, of which the wattle is the commonest. The black wattle is of considerable value, its gum being marketable and its bark worth from £5 to £10 a ton for tanning purposes. The golden wattle is a beautiful tree, whose rich yellow
blossoms fill the river-valleys in early spring with delicious scent. The Casuarinae or she-oaks are gloomy trees, of little use, but of frequent occurrence. Heaths, grass-trees and magnificent ferns and fern-trees are also notable features in Victorian forests. But European and subtropical vegetation has been introduced into the colony to such an extent as to have largely altered the characters of the flora in many districts.
Fauna
The indigenous animals belong almost wholly to the Marsupialia. Kangaroos are tolerably abundant on the grassy plains, but the process of settlement is causing their extermination. A smaller species of almost identical appearance called the wallaby is still numerous in the forest lands. Kangaroo rats, opossums, wombats, native bears, bandicoots and native cats all belong to the same class. The wombat forms extensive burrows in some districts. The native bear is a frugivorous little animal, and very harmless. Bats are numerous, the largest species being the flying fox, very abundant in some districts. Eagles, hawks, turkeys, pigeons, ducks, quail, snipe and plover are common; but the characteristic denizens of the forest are vast flocks of parrots, parakeets and cockatoos, with sulphur-coloured or crimson crests. The laughing jackass (giant kingfisher) is heard in all the country parts, and magpies are numerous everywhere. Snakes are numerous, but less than one-fourth of the species are venomous, and they are all very shy. The deaths from snake-bite do not average two per annum. A great change is rapidly taking place in the fauna of the country, owing to cultivation and acclimatization. Dingoes have nearly disappeared, and rabbits, which were introduced only a few years ago, now abound in such numbers as to be a positive nuisance. Deer are also rapidly becoming numerous. Sparrows and swallows are as common as in England. The trout, which has also been acclimatized, is taking full possession of some of the streams.
Climate
Victoria enjoys an exceptionally fine climate. Roughly speaking, about one-half of the days in the year present a bright, cloudless sky, with a bracing and dry atmosphere, pleasantly warm but not relaxing. These days are mainly in the autumn and spring. During forty-eight years, ending with 1905, there have been on an average 132 days annually on which rain has fallen more or less (chiefly in winter, but rainy days do not exceed thirty in the year. The average yearly rainfall was 25.61 in. The disagreeable feature of the Victorian climate is the occurrence of north winds, which blow on an average about sixty days in the year. In winter they are cold and dry, and have a slightly depressing effect; but in summer they are hot and dry, and generally bring with them disagreeable clouds of dust. The winds themselves blow for periods of two or three days at a time, and if the summer has six or eight such periods it becomes relaxing and produces languor. These winds cease with extraordinary suddenness, being replaced in a minute or two by a cool and bracing breeze from the south. The temperature often falls 40° or 50° F. in an hour. The maximum shade temperature at Melbourne in 1905 was 108.5°, and the minimum 32°, giving a mean of 56.1°. The temperature never falls below freezing-point, except for an hour or two before sunrise in the coldest month. Snow has been known to fall in Melbourne for a few minutes two or three times during a long period of years. It is common enough, however, on the plateau; Ballarat, which is over moo ft. high, always has a few snowstorms, and the roads to Omeo among the Australian Alps lie under several feet of snow in the winter. The general healthiness of the climate is shown by the fact that the average death-rate for the last five years has been only 12.71 of the population.
Population
As regards population, Victoria maintained the leading position among the Australasian colonies until the end of 1891, when New South Wales overtook it. The population in 1905 was 1,218,571, the proportion of the sexes being nearly equal. In 1860 the population numbered 537,847; in 1870, 720,599; in 1880, 860,067; and in 1890, 1,133,266. The state had gained little, if anything, by immigration during these years, for the excess of immigration over emigration from 1861 to 1870 and from 1881 to 18go was counterbalanced by the excess of departures during the period 1871 to 1880 and from 1891 to 1905. The mean population of Melbourne in 1905 was 511,900.
| Period. | Births per 1000 o of Population. | p e riod. | Births per 1000 of Population. | 1861-65 | 43.30 | 1881-85 | 30.76 | 1866-70 | 39.27 | 1886-90 | 32.72 | 18 7 1- 75 | 35'69 | 1891-95 | 31.08 | 1876-80 | 31'43 | 1896-1900 | 26.20 | 1901-1905 | 24'97
|
