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 Wilsons 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 sölvsbergites 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 South-Western 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 valuable being Eucalyptus amygdalina, a tree with a 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 1000 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,
