The prospect of an extensive district naturally destitute of timber is
rare in Australia, and therefore it surprises and pleases the eye of the
traveller. Bathurst Plains form, however, by no means a dead level, but
consist rather of a series of gentle elevations, with intervening flats
of moderate extent; the surrounding forest is rather thin, and patches
of it extend irregularly to some distance in the plains, like points of
land projecting into a lake.

The green pastures and naturally clear state of this district, formed
the first inducements to settlers to occupy a spot, which is now distant
from Sydney by the road 121 miles, about fifty of which cross the
wildest and most barren mountains imaginable, and which then had no road
at all leading to it, except a difficult mountain-pass only recently
discovered; consequently, the district was portioned out chiefly in
large grants to persons whose means enabled them to cope with the
difficulties of approaching the new settlement; and the society at
Bathurst Plains is esteemed very good; possibly it may be all the better
for its distance from the capital. But the best proof of the goodness of
the society in this neighbourhood is the attention which the inhabitants
are stated to pay to their religious duties, and the harmony in which
they live with one another.[132] The situation of Bathurst Plains is an
exceedingly high one, being more than 2000 feet above the level of the
sea; and this elevation, rendering the climate much cooler,[133]
produces the same vegetable productions in the parallel latitude of
Sydney with those that are to be found in Van Diemen's Land, ten degrees
farther to the south. Bathurst is said to be a very healthy climate;
wonders are told of the climate of New South Wales generally, and yet we
are informed that "the cheeks of the children beyond the mountains have
a rosy tint, which is seldom observable in the lowlands of the colony."
However, notwithstanding all that may be said, disease and death can
find out their victims even in Bathurst Plains.

"Guilt's fatal doom in vain would mortals fly,
And they that breathe the purest air must die."

[132] See Lang's New South Wales, vol. ii. p. 119.

[133] The difference of temperature in twelve hours' journey is
stated to be upwards of twenty degrees.--OXLEY's _Journal of his First
Expedition_, p. 4.

The county of Northumberland is one of the most important and valuable
in the colon