VAN DIEMEN’S LAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 612, 14 June 1851, Page 4

VAN DIEMEN’S LAND.

[From the Maitland Mercury, May 17.] In the Van Diemen’s Land papers recently come to hand we observe a report, from the Surveyor General’s Office, styled “ A general report on the progress of operations west of the Derwent.” The western part of Van Diemen’s Land, with the exception of isolated penal settlements on harbours, has been until recently almost a terra incognita, principally owing to the existence of a belt of rugged, broken country, thickly covered with forest, extending from D’Entrecasteaux’s Channel, on the southern coast, in a north-west direction, to the north-west angle of the island. Through this forest belt or barrier persevering attempts have been made of late years, under the government of Sir William Denison to make roads or tracks to the country beyond, some portions of which have been in various ways ascertained to be wooded country, fit for pastoral occupation. Recently H.M.S. Bramble aided these surveying operations by surveying Port Davey, situated on the western coast. Port Davey is now stated to be an extensive and noble port. It consists of two inlets from the sea, one running to the northward, called Port Davey, and the other to the eastward, called Bathurst Harbour. The former gives shelter to shipping, except in severe gales, but Bathurst Harbour affords sites for noble ports, secure from every wind. It runs fifteen miles inland, and then opens out into a saltwater lake of 30 square miles. The bay or cove recommended'for forming the port is one into which Spring River falls, that river running through a fertile valley, and being navigable for barges for ten miles. The country around, and for considerable distances on the western side of the forest barrier, is said to be well fitted for pastoral occupation, and to afford

very fine timber for exportation. Roads or tracks are now being opened through the forest barrier, in two or three directions, to facilitate the pastoral settlement of the country.