The island of Tasmania was next occupied; within the last few years we have established the colonies of Port Phillip, Melbourne, Victoria, Cooksland, and others.

The progress of these settlements has been rapid.
An extraordinary increase to emigration to Australia was given by the discovery of the Gold Regions.
For many years reports had been current that the Australian Alps and the Snowy Mountains were full of gold, but it was not till after the Californian discoveries that any was found in Australia.
Two shepherds were the first persons who found any gold, and for a long time they successfully concealed the source from which they obtained it; but being watched, their secret was discovered, and the news spread like wild-fire over the colony.

Everybody was mad to go gold hunting; shepherds forsook their flocks; traders closed their stores; sailors ran away from their ships; servants threw up their situations; everybody was mad to visit this newly-discovered Tom Tiddler's ground, to pick up gold and silver.

A groom informed his master, in one instance, that he would stop with him, as he had been in the family for five years, for a guinea a day, if it would be any convenience to him.

Another family was left with only a boy of sixteen to attend them, and his stipulations were--two pounds a week, and wine to his dinner! In one year the population of Melbourne rose from 23,000 to 85,000 inhabitants; the town of Geelong trebled its numbers; perhaps never in the whole history of the world had there been so extraordinary an emigration.
As a monument of the golden wealth of Australia, there is in the International Exhibition a wooden obelisk dead gilt on the outside.