2-970-162 - /Heritage Images

Perth, Western Australia, from Mount Eliza, 1856. Europeans colonising the continent of Australia. View of Perth, '... the seat of government...[it might]...become a wine-growing country - the vine grows most luxuriantly, and produces grapes of the largest size in bunches often of five and six pounds weight. The olive is another tree the growth of which in Western Australia is remarkable, comparing it with that in the south of Europe...The fig-tree flourishes equally well with the vine. The sugar-cane also has been introduced, and might be largely cultivated, and with great advantage...Coal, also, has been discovered in one part of the colony, but has not yet been worked...The population of Western Australia numbers about 12,000, not including the aborigines'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.