Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/109

 April 19th.—Having taken leave of my hospitable host, I passed the large brick stores, originally erected by the Government as a sugar-mill. The ground formerly planted with the canes was now covered by a fine crop of maize, I rode on, down the valley of the Wilson along its right bank, which is skirted by a very good road. Having passed along the foot of Mount Caoulapatamba, a large round-topped hill on the range between the Wilson and the Hastings, I crossed the Wilson again in an alluvial brush, and a little farther on arrived at Ballengarra, where the Wilson river becomes affected by the tide, and is navigable for boats. The police magistrate at Port Macquarie has stationed some men here with a punt, for the convenience of the settlers at the Wilson. Having crossed the river in it, I entered on a very thickly wooded, undulating country, tolerably grassy, and intersected by moist tea-tree flats and sedgy hollows. This description of country extended to the Hastings river, which I reached at its junction with the Maria river, at Blackman's point, where another punt has been established. The Hastings has a beautiful appearance here, as the reaches are of great length, and of an uniform width of about a quarter of a mile. On its left bank there is a pretty cottage, with a flourishing garden of vines and fruit trees, and some distance further down the river, on the right bank, is the handsome villa of Dr. Carlisle.

Having crossed over in the punt, I followed the