Title

Plate 3: Fall of the first creek near Glen Osmond, South Australia.

Author

Author not identified

Source

[Not applicable]

Publication date

1868

Type

About the work

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Plate 3: Fall of the first creek near Glen Osmond, South Australia.

The romantic scene depicted in the accompanying Engraving is situated near Glen Osmond, and at the foot of Mount Lofty, about seven miles from Adelaide, the Capital of South Australia. From the village of Glen Osmond, a bush track, winding over a succession of hills, sprinkled with she-oaks and grass-trees, conducts the visitor to this sequestered spot, where the eye is charmed by the infinitely diversified forms assumed by the mountain slopes, and by the beauty of the Cascade, falling like a silvery veil over the rugged face of the rock, a sheer descent of 100 feet, and breaking into foam and spray in the valley beneath, through which it glides away, “in mazy error lost.” Higher up the Mountain, the same Creek forms other picturesque Falls ; and, following the stream to its sources, the excursionist arrives at an eminence from which he commands a most extensive prospect, embracing the City, Plains, and Port of Adelaide, the Gawler, Barossa, and Burra Burra Ranges, the Gulf of St. Vincent, and Yorke Peninsula. Mount Lofty attains an altitude of 2,100 feet above the level of the sea; and is considered by the Rev. Julian Woods to form part of a second Cordillera, which was originally a chain of islands, commencing at Cape Jervis, and continuing to the bend of Lake Torrens, occasionally throwing off spurs to the right and left. With regard to the formation of these rocks, he says:--“They are highly metamorphic, and consist principally of slates, quartzites, and schists. Gold has been found in several parts of the range, although never very extensively, but the deficiency is amply made up by the immense quantities of copper, iron, lead, and silver, besides marble and various other valuable building stones, No range of hill was ever richer in beautiful varieties of minerals, and even diamonds and other precious gems have occasionally been discovered.”

Accompanying text, 1868.