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Report on the Examination of Crown Lands etc. in the County of Wellington
Appendix I. Exploration, County of Wellington - From Roger River to Marrawah Plain
Appendix II. Exploration 5700 acres State Forest Reserve - Parish of Lerunna
Appendix III. Parish of Warra
Appendix IV. Parish of Marrawah
Appendix V. Parish of Lerunna
Appendix VI. Parish of Riengeena
Appendix VII. V.D.L. Co's Woolnorth Block
Appendix VIII. Parish of Williams
Appendix IX. Parish of Togari
Appendix X. Parishes of Malompto and Terragomna
Appendix XI. Parish of Mowbray
Appendix XII. Parish of Ford
Appendix XIII. Parish of Poilinna
Appendix XIV. Parish of Gibson
Appendix XV. Parishes of Trowutta and Meryanna
Appendix XVI. Hunters Islands

Well. 2a.

APPENDIX XI.
Parish of Mowbray

      The parish of Mowbray, east of Williams, fronts Duck Bay
in the north, and contains no hills except along the edge on the
south end of the western side. Almost the only available Crown
Land in the parish is 2,000 or 3,000 acres of coastal plain used as
rough run, of no great value as they stand for grazing, and as a
rule unsuitable for reafforestation on account of hardpan. About
7,000 acres of Mowbray is covered by the well known "Swamp", an
alluvial area with a gentle fall, and of exceptional fertility,
which has produced as much as 300 bags of potatoes, and 600 bags of
carrots to the acre, without the use of fertiliser. It has taken
nearly 25 years for the Swamp to reach its present stage, mainly
through want of knowledge of the best practical means of development
under local conditions, want of drainage and roads, isolation and
insufficient capital to develop expensive country. These
difficulties have now, to a great extent, been overcome, and as a
result the more prosperous settlers are increasing their production
by leaps and bounds, chiefly from the profits of previous seasons.
Being the first proposition of its kind in the State, the develop-
ment of this swamp country was necessarily slow, for inexperienced
settlers had to evolve out of frequent failures the best methods
of coping with the new and peculiar problems involved, but they have
now been successful, and the knowledge and experience gained will
make the development of other swamp areas a much simpler and easier
problem. In one instance, fourteen years ago, 160 acres of
unimproved Crown Land in the Swamp was subdivided, and sold at a
Crown Land sale, and realised £1007, some of the lots reaching £15
per acre, as they were situated on a main drain, and now today the
actual settlers paying the highest price are among the most
prosperous in the whole area. All but about 1,000 acres of Mowbray
has been selected during the past 25 years, and practically the
whole of it is under 150 feet above high water mark. The average
rainfall at Smithton on the north east coast of the Parish is 42¼
inches, falling in about half the days in the year. Smithton is
a prosperous town, the seat of local government, served by the State
Railway system, and has made more progress during the past twenty-

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Well. 2a.

APPENDIX XI.
Parish of Mowbray (2)

five years than any other township in the State. The Marrawah
tramway runs round the north western portion of the swamp, and a
branch tram is now contemplated, running at present about ¾ of a
mile into the Swamp, in order to tap some of the produce, and
relieve the traffic on the roads. Of over 50,000 bags of produce
leaving Smithton railway station this season, nearly the whole came
from the Swamp. In the near future this tram will have to run
another two or three miles and collect nearly the whole of the
produce from the centre and back of the swamp, as not much more
than a tenth of the swamp is now under crop.

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