Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/188



THE BLACK SPUR

The Victorian bush is very beautiful owing to the immense tree-ferns that grow among the gums, and during our stay in Melbourne we were motored out to Black Spur, a favourite objective of Melbourne picnic and week-end parties, and a point of the "Great Divide," as the Dividing Range of Australia is familiarly called. From Melbourne, which lies at the edge of a plain, the country rises to the great Dividing Range. This belt of highlands starts from Queensland, and separates the coastal drainage from that flowing westward. An early rain had laid the dust, so that we had ideal conditions for motoring, as we left the city behind us, and passed through a region of trim villas or bungalows in gardens, each one of which showed its patch of wattle gleaming among the grey gum trees. At one point the road was bordered by fir trees, often planted by early Scotch settlers to remind them of home. Presently we had left all traces of the suburbs behind and were crossing "Kangaroo