Australian Town and Country Journal at KellyGang 12/3/1870 (2)
see previous
The ranges on its eastern side exhibit a line of baldness near their summit, which extends from one to the other, though broken by a deep gully between. This has a peculiar appearance, something like a natural tonsure. High over them tower the Cargill Ranges, of which Kosciusko (7300 feet) is the crowning summit. These are forty miles distant from Tooma to their base, and the day I saw them were obscured by the smoke of fires rolling across the Murray from Victoria; on a clear day there must be a splendid view from here.
The meteor I have previously mentioned was seen at Tooma, resembling a mixed mass of liquid fire poured out on the sky ; the light of which lasted about one minute. I was shown the contents of a hen's gizzard at this station, and counted 125 different samples of, what I took to be, glass, but so changed either by the digestive powers of the defunct hen, or by fire, that they were difficult to recognise as such. I took a few to Albury, and on trial at Mr ---, they were found to be glass, or something equally worthless. From Tooma to Weleregang (M'Donald's), is eight miles, and this is about the principal cattle station on the Upper Murray. Another fine grass fiat surrounds this homestead, and the Murray rattles along over its rocky bed half-a-mile off, and on the opposite side everywhere appears the smoke of bush fires, rolling between the ranges at every distance from green to blue; and some of them advancing to the water's edge. The volume of water going down the river at Weleregang is about equal to the Yarra at Melbourne, at the same time of year, and is formed by the junction of the Swampy River and the Indi heading, from Kosciusko, and flowing almost parallel to one another, on opposite sides of a long leading spur coming down from the mountain, and ending at 'Possum Point.
This is a roughish country, cool in winter, and never distressingly hot; it has long been taken up, however, in stations, and tracks extend through the scrub in every direction. A track has been blazed by the surveyors' into Gipps' Land, passing near 'Possum Point; but no trigonometrical or other survey has as yet laid down the exact position of Kosciusko and the sources of the Murray. Prospectors for gold have pushed their way far up, and tell me that it is a very likely-looking country; but the winters are long and severe. From Upper Tumberumba the ground has been falling all the way, and the atmosphere getting hotter, and every little gully, which in the mountains ran with cold spring water, has become dust for a distance of eighty-five miles, from Welaregang to Albury; Dora Dora is the only place that contributes any water to the Murray from the New South Wales side at present. On the Victoria side it receives two streams - the Little River and the Mitta Mitta.
Geologically, the whole distance is divided amongst three rocks - granite, slate, and porphyry. The glittering granite of Tumberumba extends down the river to Jinjellac and Copabella; then comes on a belt of slate some miles in width, then granite again, and from some miles above Dora Dora, porphyry. Eight miles below Ourenee (Mr Emsley's) specimens have been picked up, which l saw; and the stratum of slate appears to abound in quartz. I found a reef in the porphyry, or on the edge of it; the first stone I picked up contained gold, twelve miles below Dora Dora, which is forty miles from Albury. Then came Talmalmo (Mr Smithwick's); Mugwee and Cumberoona (Mr Hoare's); and Wagara , with Bungel on the opposite side, twenty-five miles from Albury - Cumberoona being sixteen miles.
Free selectors are found here and there all the way down, but they now become thick, and the fences, tracks, gates, and panels are a caution. The various designs for passage through the fences are amusing: first, a wide gate with a wicket alongside for foot passengers and horsemen; then a double gate without the wicket; then a wide gate only; then the slip panels of the selectors, with or without pegs; some gates hinged or revolved, tenon and mortice fashion, in and underneath a broad projecting cap spiked to the gate-post; some large posts were protected from the sun by some inches of neatly cut sod or soil; of these ideas the wicket is the best, giving the least trouble to shut again, and consequently most likely to be done.
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