Western Australia

Undoubtedly the great drawback of Western Australia, if not of Australia in general, is the total absence of a great mountain system in the interior to give rise to large rivers.

The interior is, according to accounts of explorers, a vast tableland about 1,500 feet above the sea level, though not without its dunes and depressions at intervals. Some of these depressions are sometimes incorrectly called "lakes," but in reality they are only salt clay marshes, perfectly dry except after heavy rains, which do not occur very often, as the rainfall in the interior is very small.

This dry tract of country runs right through a large portion of Western Australia, from Eucla on the southeast seaboard through the interior of the country, about 1,100 miles or more in a north-westernly direction to the north-west Cape. This immense belt of dry tableland has often been regarded as a vast howling desert from one end to the other, but this in many respects is rather misleading, as some tracts of it contains excellent soil and covered with grass, but the drawback is the want of sufficient rain. But it must be remembered that the whole of Western Australia is not a dry region. In the south-western portion of the State, which is about twice as large as England, rain is abundant and regular. At Cape Leeuin, for instance, the very southwest point of the country, the annual amount of rainfall is not far short of 40 inches, but from this point, however, it gradually decreases both northward and eastward.

In the country around Perth, the capital city, which is situated about 180 miles north from Cape Leeuin, the rainfall is about 31 or 32 inches, but from Perth to the east it decreases gradually into the interior, and in the far inland tableland it cannot be more than 7 or 8 inches .as far as it has been ascertained.

The whole of the south-west part of the Colony is very heavily covered with trees, except here and there where patches have been cleared ; but in the north and east the timber gives place to bush and shrubby trees.