Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/130

 course, and the great number of tributaries it receives, it soon becomes an important stream. The Brisbane is joined on its south side by the Bremer river, rising near Mount Fraser; coal and limestone abound on the banks of the Bremer. The country in the vicinity of the Brisbane river and its tributaries has been found to equal, if not surpass, the very favourable description which its discoverer, Mr. Oxley, gave of that portion which he saw: it is variegated by brush land of exuberant richness, clear alluvial plains of the greatest fertility, and good grassy park-like forest land. Although many mountains round Moreton Bay attain an elevation of nearly six thousand feet above the level of the sea, the country is not so much invaded by those endless, densely wooded ranges of hills, in the closest approximation, which render so large a portion of the Hastings and MacLeay rivers unavailable, though these ranges are frequently of very great fertility.

The Moreton Bay district, now called the county of Stanley, is therefore capable of maintaining a very dense population; for it possesses, in common with the rest of the coast country, from Port Macquarie northwards, a much greater proportion of rich land than the central part of New South Wales, at the same time that it is much more level than the country in the basins of the northern rivers generally. Mr. Martin, in his "Colonial Library," entertains the same opinion of the capability of Moreton Bay to support a numerous population, and