Ferdinand von Mueller

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MS is accompanied by a memorandum dated 20 April 1882 addressed to James Barnard, Secretary of the Royal Society of Tasmania, signed 'JMCB', in which the writer says he has sent a copy of the MS to M. He also suggests that the original 'might be kept with Baron von Müller's paper on "King Island"', that is, with the paper on the vegetation of King Island, Bass Strait, that M had recently submitted for publication in the Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania (see M to J. Barnard, 17 March 1882, and B82.13.14).

Extract

Mr F. Allison (sub-inspector) to Hon James Whyte Chief Inspector

Hobart Town, 9th July 1879

On Kent's Group the land is very good, and by the introduction of artificial grasses would carry a large number of sheep.

Of King's Island it my be no part of my duty to give an opinion, but I feel sure you will give me credit for desiring the general good only, if I say, it is a very great pity it should be locked up and almost useless, as now, the climate is beautiful and there are thousands upon thousands of acres of land capable of producing splendid artificial grasses, or root crops, and for dairy and fattening farms it could hardly be surpassed, as a rule it is lightly timbered, or has none at all, and the cost of improvement would be small, then there are some of the finest beds of timber I ever saw, "Blue Gum" and "Black Wood" in the North, but in the South "Light Wood" is "our Mahogany"

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in the North ... Mahogany has been enclosed, apparently later, in brackets.

even beyond anything on the Mainland. The formation is Granite, there is Slate, and Quartz in many places, and I feel positive the Island contains both Tin and Gold!

The Victorians now working at the Currie Harbour light, fully appreciate it and say only throw it open and in a year it will be flooded by our people: Should such a place therefore be overlooked as at present?

There are numerous Rivers and Creeks with Lakes, and Lagoons, thus it is well watered and at some future date will become the home of thriving thousands.

To its many advantages the Island has one drawback, a poison Weed, a kind of Tare, which when ripe drives stock mad, and kills them, but on improved lands it could be eradicated, even now it is not general.

On the 5th July we made King's Island but as a strong gale was blowing I could not land until the 9th which we did some miles below (South) of the Cape Wickham light . On the 12th we started on our return journey and reached Currie's Harbour . On the 13th I returned to the ship. On leaving here you will remember we were under an impression that the sheep station was only 15 or 18 miles from Cape Wickham light . The Station is at least, however, 55 miles from the above ligh t and as there are no roads and the country is hilly and difficult to ride through, I could not get on faster than he did, in fact Young Graves who has lived on the Island many years, says, "No one ever went up and down the Island so quickly before." When I got back to the ship, it came on to blow so hard that we could not move, and thus did not leave King's Island until the 15th or 9 days in all

" F. Allison "

King Island is under lease for a term of 14 years from 1st April 1877 at £ 275 per annum to Messrs Joshua Gregory, Alexander Draper, and Thomas Wood of Ballarat, Victoria, who have two flocks of 1,500 sheep [or 3,000 sheep] on the Island, which are badly managed and cannot pay the lessees!