As we leave Melbourne and follow the Yarra up-stream we soon 13 notice a change of scenery. At Warburton, the rail head, we are well within the highlands. The river runs through forests of eucalyptus and fern, and we notice rapids below the primitive 14 bridge. It is evidently a mountain stream. This district is one of the playgrounds of Melbourne, and we stumble on the Christmas 15 camp of the Boy Scouts, who are known in Australia as well as in our own part of the Empire. A few miles away to the north is 16 Healesville. We notice here, as we drive through, that there are some trees which seem to have shed their leaves. Perhaps these 17 are some English trees of which many have been imported, and they find the weather too dry and hot; for close by we find the native forest with trees in full leaf. In spite of the presence of English trees, we may easily recognise the country as Australia by the great gum trees, with their bare trunks, and the thorny acacia growing below. The gums and the tree ferns are everywhere 18 on the hillsides. Even the house and garden, which we see here, have a slightly foreign look, and do not seem adapted for the 19 conditions of an English winter. In fact, there is no winter, as we understand it, in this part of Victoria, though snow may lie for months on the heights of the Alps to the north-east. We must remember that Melbourne lies in nearly the same latitude as Seville. In the hills to the north of Melbourne we find the same scenery, with its abundance of streams and trees. Here is a woodland scene not far from Mount Macedon in this district, where 20 the Governor of Victoria has his summer home.
Let us now travel westward by the railway to Ballarat, which lies on the south face of the narrow ridge which forms the water-parting between the Victorian Valley and the north-western plains. Ballarat is a fine town, second only to Melbourne, and planted in far more picturesque surroundings. Here is Sturt 21 Street, named after one of Australia’s greatest explorers; 22 looking down it we can just see Mount Warrenheit in the distance. We can wander in the Botanical Gardens where the aloe is in 23 flower, or stroll by the lake and admire the black swans. But we have not come here only for the scenery. Ballarat represents the second great factor in the development of Victoria: gold.