Settlers
Most of the course of the river is very rugged, and away from the narrow floodplain the soil becomes barren and sandy. The clearing that was carried out in the early 19th century was all that is usable. Thirty kilometres north of St Albans the valley becomes so narrow that there is no room for cultivable land and as families were large, farmers were forced to cultivate the flood plains down to the riverbank and even up the slopes. The first reliable record of the Macdonald valley settlers resulted from a survey by Felton Matthew in 1833-34. His map showed some 86 landholders, some with several blocks. The survey was from the mouth of the Macdonald up to the Boree Swamp that is now part of the St Albans Common. By the mid 1840s the population reached a peak of more than 1000 people on about 100 small properties.
Read more about this topic: Macdonald River (St Albans)
Famous quotes containing the word settlers:
“When old settlers say “One has to understand the country,” what they mean is, “You have to get used to our ideas about the native.” They are saying, in effect, “Learn our ideas, or otherwise get out; we don’t want you.””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)