Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/261

 averaging between three and four tons to the acre. We stopped for dinner at what we supposed to be in the dark a small wayside station called Singleton. It is actually a town of considerable importance, with a population of 10,000, and the neighbourhood is famous for its breed of horses. We dined in the characteristic wooden, iron-roofed hall. An immense advertisement of the local hairdresser at one end inquired, "Is your hair ringbarked?" A selection of the population, boys in front and men behind, a serious, rough-looking group, watched us at our meal with silent and rapt attention from the open doorway.

Soon after passing Singleton the line ascends steeply, crosses the Liverpool Range and runs through the Liverpool Plains, where some of the best wheat is grown. We awoke next morning to find ourselves passing through forest, and changed trains at Wallangarra, the border station where the gauge changes from four feet eight and a half inches to three feet six, so that all passengers and luggage must be transferred.