Courtesy of Trove Australian Town and Country Journal 21 October 1882
Knowing it to be the most effective manner of making the Parliament and the public acquainted with an abuse, we present, by illustration, a picture of the lamentable state of affairs on the Richmond River. It may be necessary to add, for the information of the Departments upon which it is a scandal this unseemly state of things could exist, that the Richmond is a river of New South Wales and one of the largest and most valuable water highways of the whole of Australia. From the entrance to the Richmond, seen in our sketch, to Lismore there are over 70 miles of grand river navigation, traversed regularly (when the sea passage is kept open) by sea-going vessels of high class. Another arm of the same river goes to Casino, a thriving town on the Upper Richmond, to which river craft run regularly. In addition there are fully 60 miles of navigable branches and creeks opening into the Richmond. So that in all there must be fully 200 miles of thickly-settled rich agricultural country upon navigable waters. And all this is blocked because a sandy flat has been allowed to accumulate. Had the Department of Harbours and Rivers, the Government, or the members of the district been awake and interested, in the welfare it is their duty to see to, the block need never have occurred.
Our illustration shows the state of affairs at the entrance to the Richmond on Wednesday morning of last week, while we were on the spot. Two ocean going steamers, the Lismore and Coraki, were blocked there, and nine schooners besides various smaller craft made up a total of wasted energy, and waste of time and capital, sufficient to arouse strong indignation in every reflecting mind. We need not wonder at the protest formulated in public meeting at Lismore, and supported in other centres of population on the Richmond. The block to traffic, to business, and to settlement is a very telling proof of the miserable incapacity of our administrative want of system. Could the people help themselves, we would be of the first to urge their doing so, for their losses are very heavy. But the keeping open of a sea channel is only accomplished by such machinery as the departments have at command. It is to the carelessness and want skill of those in authority that the block is attributable, and to them alone. No great expenditure of money, no special vote, is necessary to keep the channel open. The department should have used the appliances they have for the purpose stated. It will be a crying scandal if they do not act at once.
The vessels, shown in our illustration, are largely loaded with machinery, stores, coal, &c, for the sugar and other works being developed in the Richmond district; and there are piles of loading on the banks of the river (sugar, maize, timber, &c.) waiting to be taken away to Sydney. “How long, oh, how long, are such abuses to be tolerated” in New South Wales?