By the end of 1850 the population already numbered more than 76,000 people. The next year gold was discovered, and in 1851 the population had risen to over 400,000, and was six times that it had been before. The gold boom brought in its train cultivators, and pastoral settlers, for the staple of Australia is still wool. The state has an area of 56 million acres, less than 6 millions of which are under cultivation. The climate varies greatly according to rainfall and elevation, and there are even snow-bound districts during the winter months. Part of the country with a low rainfall is excellent for the cultivation of wheat, and one of the principal problems in Victoria is to guard against an uncertain rainfall by the conservation of water. For the north-east and north extensive irrigation works have already been undertaken, but the whole question awaits further investigation.
At present it is not known whether drought cycles can be predicted; how far the large quantities of water which flow through the Murray River and its tributaries could be utilised for irrigation; how far improved methods of farming will increase the extent to which the rainfall can be utilised. " No country in the world," says Dr. T. W. Barrett, whom we have already quoted, "is more dependent than
