in trying to construct a
harbour called Port Elliot, near the entrance to the Murray; but there
are now only a few surf-beaten stones to indicate the scene of his
fruitless attempt. He offered a bonus of L4,000 to the first person who
should ascend the Murray in an iron steamer as far as the river Darling.
A gentleman called Cadell made the effort, and succeeded; he obtained
the reward, but it was not enough to pay his heavy expenses, and when he
endeavoured afterwards to carry on a trade, by transporting wool to the
sea in flat-bottomed steamers, he found that the traffic on the river
was not sufficiently great to repay his heavy outlay, and in a short
time he was almost ruined. The attempt was premature; and though, in our
time, the navigation of the Murray is successfully carried on, and is,
undoubtedly, of immense advantage not only to South Australia, but also
to New South Wales and Victoria, yet, at the time when the first efforts
were made, it led to nothing but loss, if not ruin to the pioneers.

CHAPTER XII.

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD.

#1. Importance of the Year 1851.#--The year 1851 was in many ways an
eventful one to Australia. In that year the colonies received from
the Imperial Parliament the amended Constitutions they had so long
expected. Tasmania, South Australia, Port Phillip, and Western Australia
were now no longer under the absolute control of Governors sent out by
the colonial authorities in England; they could henceforth boast the
dignity of being self-governed communities, for, in 1851, they were
invested with political powers which had previously been possessed by
New South Wales alone. They now had the privilege of electing two-thirds
of the members of a Legislative Council which not only had the power of
making laws each for its own colony, but also of framing any new
constitution for itself according to its own taste and requirements.
Each colony kept its Legislative Council for only a year or two until it
could discuss and establish a regular system of parliamentary government
with two Houses and a Cabinet of responsible Ministers. Again, it was on
the 1st of July in the same year that Port Phillip gained its
independence; from that date onward its prosperous career must be
related under its new title--Victoria.

But the event which made the year 1851 especially memorable in the
annals of Australia was the discovery, near Bathurst, of the first of
those rich goldfields which, for so