CHAPTER IV.
NEW SOUTH WALES—TERRITORIAL DIVISION.
Extent—Counties—Argyle—Auckland—Bathurst—Bligh—Brisbane'—Cook —Cumberland — Gloucester —Hunter—Macquarrie—Murray—Phillip— Roxburgh—Westmoreland—Stanley—Squatting districts.
Australia is
the name given to the whole of the Southern Continent, or rather
island, it being a continent only as spoken of with reference to its
opposite neighbour Van Diemen's Land. It is bounded on the north by
Torres Straits and the Arafura Sea, which separate it from the Malay
Islands, on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the south by the South
Pacific Ocean and Bass's Strait, and on the east by the Pacific Ocean.
It lies between 10° and 39° of south latitude, and 112° and 153° of
east longitude. Its length from east to west is about 2,500 miles, and
its breadth from north to south about 2,000 miles. It contains a
superficial area of 3,000,000 square miles or
1,920,000,000 acres, a vast proportion of which, however, is not
adapted for the residence of man. The extent of coast line is about
8,000 miles. The portion already occupied by colonists is comparatively
small, and lies on the west, south, and east portions, forming a continuous chain, or belt, which fringes the vast deserts
of the interior. This belt is divided into four distinct colonies:
"Western Australia, extending to the head of the Australian Bight;
South Australia, from the latter point to the Glenelg River; Victoria,
formerly Port Phillip, from the Glenelg to Cape Howe; and the parent colony of New South Wales, stretching along the east coast to Wide Bay;
