Soon after the discovery of Brisbane River,
a penal settlement was formed there, which
abided on the spot till transportation to New
South Wales altogether ceased, and the district
was thrown open to free emigration a score of
years ago. Nothing was left as a substantial
memorial of convict labour. The overseers
having an allowance for every acre of land
cleared of timber, cleared the few cypress pines
from the sand hills of Moreton Island at a very
profitable rate. They built a wharf towards
the month of Brisbane River, and, when it was
built, found that a mud flat between it and deep
water made it impossible for any vessel to come
alongside. They drained a swamp at very great
cost, considering that it would make the right
land for growing rice. Then, instead of sowing
the grain in its natural state of paddy, they got
a lot of manufactured rice from Sydney, and
sowed that. As it was no more disposed to yield
a rice crop than pearl barley, or hot-water-gruel
would yield barley or oats if sown in an English
field, they reported that the settlement had not
a soil and climate suitable for rice cultivation.

The "city of Brisbane," with seven thousand
inhabitants, has a mayor and corporation, an
Anglican bishop, churches, and chapels of various
denominations, some handsome houses and
shops in its chief street, called Queen-street,
an Exchange-room, two newspapers (the Moreton.
Bay Courier and the Queensland Guardian),
besides the Government Gazette, four Branch
Banks and a Savings Bank, a Botanic Garden, a
School of Arts, a Library and Reading- Room,
a Club-house, a Hospital, a Government-house,
and a large Jail. But the region in which
English life is making for itself a new centre
of wealth and industry, suggests from a
neighbouring hill-top only one of the grand solitudes
of nature. Lofty mountain ranges close the
distant scene on every side except that towards
the sea. Within the landscape are detached
hills, and there is the winding river that appears
and disappears as it runs under the dark forest
that lies large over the land, with the majestic
Moreton Bay pine overtopping all the other
trees.

The town of Queensland second in importance
to Brisbane, is Ipswich, with a population
of four thousand five hundred, fifty miles
distant, where the Bremer flows into the Brisbane
River. Between Brisbane and Ipswich there
is a stearmer daily. Inland, behind Brisbane and
Ipswich, are the sheep and cattle stations of the
Darling Downs, on streams or creeks that come
down from the western slopes of the coast
range, and meander to the river Condamine.
The Darling Downs reach a height of about two
thousand feet, and are cool enough now and
then to show ice in the winter. At one end of
the Downs is the rising town of Warwick,
on the Condamine, which is just getting its
mayor and corporation. It lies in the midst of
the finest land, with excellent water and
extensive pastures. The scenery is beautiful.
The town of Drayton, at the other end of
the Downs, is not so well placed, its choice
having been Hobson's, when it was established
on the only ground its settlers could get from
the squatters. A place of heights and hollows,
deficient both in good land and in water supply,
and, although it thrives enough to raise among
its four hundred inhabitants a newspaper—The
Darling Downs Gazette— its shortcomings of
site caused the establishment of the new town
of Toowoomba, in better country, four miles off.
This is already in importance the third town in
the colony, and is four times as populous as
Drayton. Toowoomba has even put in a bold
claim to be made the capital of Queensland.

Sir George Bowen, on his first visit to
Darling Downs, probably the most beautiful and
fertile region in all the Australias, replied to the
congratulations of the Drayton people in words
worth repeating. "I wish," he said, "to avail
myself of this opportunity to state publicly, that
my recent journey over the Darling Downs has
filled me with surprise and admiration. Even
before I left England I knew by report the rich
natural resources and the picturesque beauty of
this district, the scenery of which vividly recalls
to my mind the general aspect of the classic
plains of Thessaly. But I confess that I was
not fully prepared for so wonderfully rapid an
advance in all that can promote and adorn
civilisation; an advance which has taken place
during the fourth part of an average lifetime.
Not only have I seen vast hordes of horses and
cattle, and countless flocks of sheep, overspreading
the valleys and forests, which, within the
memory of persons who have yet scarcely attained
to the age of manhood, were tenanted only by
wild animals and by a few wandering tribes of
savages; not only have I travelled over roads
beyond all comparison superior to the means of
communication which existed less than a century
ago in many parts of the United Kingdom; not
only have I beheld nourishing towns arising in
spots where, hardly twenty years back, the foot
of a white man had never yet trodden the
primeval wilderness; not only have I admired
these and other proofs of material progress, but
I have also found in the houses of the long chain
of settlers who have entertained me with such
cordial hospitality, all the comforts and most of the
luxuries and refinements of the houses of country
gentlemen in England. The wonderful advance
of this portion of the colony during the last ten
years is due to no sudden and fortuitous
discovery of the precious metals; it is derived
wholly from the blessing of Providence on the
skill and energy of its inhabitants in subduing
and replenishing the earth. Assuredly, I have
observed during the past week very remarkable
illustrations of the proverbial genius of the
Anglo-Saxon race for the noble and truly
imperial art of colonisation." The districts of
which we have been speaking represent now
the centre of activity in Queensland. North of
Moreton Bay, and chief among lesser settlements,
are Wide Bay, Port Curtis, and Rockhampton.

Wide Bay is at the mouth of the Mary River,
and about thirty miles up the river is
Maryborough, with a population of eight hundred,