both temperate and tropical climates,—a sort of Norway or Switzerland, rocks, lakes, fat alluvial valleys, under a southern sun, tempered by breezes from the sea. We descend from the landward side by crossing a range of hills 1,500 feet in height, so precipitous that it is difficult for a horseman to ride down, and, without dismounting, impossible for a loaded dray to descend.
The communication with Sydney, which Illawarra supplies with large quantities of fruit, vegetables, and agricultural produce, is chiefly carried on by coasters from the small harbour of Wollongong, a favourite resort for invalids. Here is a celebrated show-garden, where may be seen fruits and English watercress, tropical oranges, pomegranates, nectarines, and bananas, and avenues covered with grape-bearing vines of all colours. Here is Illawarra Lake, too, than which it is scarcely possible to conceive anything more picturesquely beautiful, environed by rocks and tropical vegetation, peopled with bright-coloured birds.[1]
At Illawarra the palm and the tree-fern flourish, and from land as fertile, and cultivation as careful, as that of Devonshire, a short walk may bring you to a camp of aborigines sheltering from the warm rain
BLACKS UNDER GUNYAH.
- ↑ A beautiful and accurate view of this lake was given in Prout's Australian Panorama.
