In the year 1831, the quantity of sperm and black oil, the produce of the fisheries exported from New South Wales, amounted to 2,307 tons, and was estimated, together with skins and whalebone, to be worth 107,971 pounds sterling.  The gross amount of all other exports during that year, did not exceed 107,697 pounds sterling.  Of these exports, the following were the most considerable: 

Timber 7,410 pounds
Butter and Cheese 2,376
Mimosa bark 40
Hides 7,333
Horses 7,302
Salt provisions 5,184
Wool 66,112

The above is exclusive of 61,000 pounds value of British manufactures re-exported to the various ports and islands in the Southern Seas.

Other exports.

In this scale, moreover, tobacco is not mentioned; but that plant is now raised for the supply of every private establishment, and will assuredly form an article of export, as soon as its manufacture shall be well understood.  Neither can it be doubted but that the vine and the olive will, in a short time, be abundantly cultivated; and that a greater knowledge of the climate and soil of the more northern parts of the colony, will lead to the introduction of fresh sources of wealth.

Geographical features.

Having taken this hasty review of the commercial interests of the colony, we may now turn to a brief examination of its internal structure and principal natural features.

I have already given a cursory sketch of the geographical features of the whole continent.  Of the vast area which its coasts embrace, the east part alone has been fully explored.

A range of hills runs along the eastern coast, from north to south, which, in different quarters, vary in their distance from the sea; at one place approaching it pretty nearly, at another, receding from it to a distance of forty miles.  It is a singular fact, that there is no pass or break in these mountains, by which any of the rivers of the interior can escape in an easterly direction.  Their spine is unbroken.  The consequence is, that there is a complete division of the eastern and western waters, and that streams, the heads of which are close to each other, flow away in opposite directions; the one to pursue a short course to the sea; the other to fall into a level and depressed interior, the character of which will be noticed in its proper place.

Great proportion of bad soil.