The New Student's Reference Work/Victoria (Australia)

Victoria, is a state in the southeast of the Commonwealth of Australia. In 1906 the population had become 1,237,998. Murray River forms its northern boundary, dividing it from New South Wales, and the ocean its southern one. On the west is South Australia. Victoria is 480 miles long and about 250 wide, and covers 87,884 square miles. The coast is about 800 miles long, with Portland Bay, Port Phillip Bay and Corner Inlet as harbors. A chain of mountains, called Dividing Range, running nearly east and west, divides it unequally. The eastern part of the range, called the Australian Alps, is from 1,000 to 7,000 feet high, Mts. Hotham, Smith and Selwyn being high peaks. Along these ranges grow gigantic trees. The western part of the range is called the Grampians, where the principal peak is Mt. William. The western part of Victoria is level, with fine pastures for the merino, whose wool brings the highest price in the markets of Europe. Part is covered with timber and reserved as a state forest. Many thousand square miles in the east are unexplored, and more than ten millions of acres are so covered with forest-clad mountains as to be too wild for settlement. The streams are too small for navigation, except the Murray and the Yarra. The climate is fine, about half the year being bright, with a bracing, dry, pleasantly warm atmosphere. The temperature never falls below freezing, except for an hour or two before sunrise, in the coldest month. Snow has fallen only twice at Melbourne, though common on the higher plains and mountains. The disagreeable feature of the climate is the north wind, cold and dry in winter, hot and dry in summer. The trees, among the largest in the world, mostly are eucalypti or gum-trees. The white gums are the most beautiful, standing in groves, their long, branchless trunk, as smooth as marble, looking like the pillars of a cathedral. The largest measured was 470 feet long and 81 feet around. Eucalyptus oil comes from the blue gum, and the red gum is used for timber, being almost indestructible. Magnificent ferns and fern-trees are found in the forests. The kangaroo, opossum, wallaby, vardicoot and wombat are among the peculiar animals, all belonging to the marsupials (q. v.); and the parrot, cockatoo and laughing jackass or kingfisher are among the native birds. Snakes are numerous, but not venomous. Wheat, barley and oats are the principal crops, and almost all fruits except oranges and bananas are grown. See Australia: Victoria.