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Updated: June 1, 2025
The highest flood-marks we observed were from six to eight feet above the level of the bed; these marks were on the trunks of Casuarinas, Melaleucas, and flooded-gum, which grew along the channel.
Blue lilies and flaxen pampas grass grow in thickets upon the emerald slopes, and the ordered loveliness of the mountain Paradise, walled in by dense jungle and savage precipice, brings the glamour of dreamland into the stern environment of mysterious forest and frowning peak. A rudely-paved and mossy path, shadowed by the black foliage of stately casuarinas, leads into the gloomy jungle.
The horses being heavily packed, and the spinifex distressing them so much, we found a convenient spot where the animals could water without bogging, and camped. Hard by, were some clumps of the fine-looking casuarinas; they grow to a height of twenty to twenty-five feet of barrel without a branch, and then spread out to a fine umbrella top; they flourish out of pure red sand.
Then came the rainy season, and day after day the rain poured down in torrents. The hungry river, like an enormous serpent, swallowed down terraces, villages, cornfields, and covered with its flood the tall grasses and wild casuarinas on the sand-banks. From time to time there was a deep thud, as the river-banks crumbled. The unceasing roar of the rain current could be beard from far away.
Casuarinas were plentiful on its banks; the poplar-gum, and the Moreton Bay ash on the adjacent flats; Tristania, with pubescent leaves round some lagoons; narrow-leaved Ironbark, and poplar-gum grew on the hills; and rich grass every where. The night was clear, but the morning foggy, and the dew very heavy. The wind was from the northward, and, as usual, very strong after sunset. May 11.
At about three miles we passed a very remarkable and perfectly isolated hill, of about 150 feet in height. It ran longitudinally from south to north for about 350 yards, and was bare of trees or shrubs, with the exception of one or two casuarinas.
Here we noticed two or three stunted xanthorrhoeas growing on the South-West side of the hill; and a few small casuarinas, and wattles were thinly scattered on its summit, which, by barometric measurement, was found to be 715 feet above the level of the sea. Part of the range lying immediately north was absolutely a mass of bare ironstone.
The timber on the sandhills near the pillar is nearly all mulga, a very hard acacia, though a few tall and well-grown casuarinas of a kind that is new to me, namely the C. Decaisneana are occasionally met.
At this time of the year, the commencement of the month of April, which represents the month of October, in this hemisphere, that is, the beginning of autumn, they were still in full leaf. They consisted principally of casuarinas and eucalypti, some of which next year would yield a sweet manna, similar to the manna of the East.
About three miles to the westward of our camp, the water ceased, and the creek formed a dry sandy bed, covered with Casuarinas; it was joined by two Pandanus creeks with steep deep channels, and well provided with water-holes.
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