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PART I

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

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MAP OF

AUSTRALIA

to illustrate

“RAMBLES IN AUSTRALIA”

George Philip & Son Ltd

Mills & Boon Ltd

RAMBLES IN AUSTRALIA

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY: THE LAND OF THE UNLATCHED DOOR

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Opposite to us was Australia. During the long days of the voyage across the bleak South Indian Ocean it had seemed no more than a vague area on a map, small, as all countries and even continents are, compared to the interminable stretches of the sea. But the voyage was ended now, and Australia, first no more than a blur on the horizon, and then solidifying into a shore with green trees, had now become resolved into an island with a lighthouse; and now into a harbour with wharves and quays and a background of houses behind the sheds and derricks. There was a train puffing in the distance; and here fussed a launch bringing with it people from the shore....

Quite suddenly the Blue Funnel Liner which has had the accustomedness of a home to us for all these weeks, shrinks to the aspect of a ship, of no more importance to us than a passenger train; and impatience seizes us to be off. There is the land, alluring in a glow of sunset barred with feathery clouds ... there’s a shore breeze calling, let us go!

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