One of the hungriest cleared roads in New South Wales runs to within a
couple of miles of Hungerford, and stops there; then you strike
through the scrub to the town. There is no distant prospect of
Hungerford--you don't see the town till you are quite close to it, and
then two or three white-washed galvanized-iron roofs start out of the
mulga.

They say that a past Ministry commenced to clear the road from Bourke,
under the impression that Hungerford was an important place, and went
on, with the blindness peculiar to governments, till they got to
within two miles of the town. Then they ran short of rum and rations,
and sent a man on to get them, and make inquiries. The member never
came back, and two more were sent to find him--or Hungerford. Three
days later the two returned in an exhausted condition, and submitted a
motion of want-of-confidence, which was lost. Then the whole House
went on and was lost also. Strange to relate, that Government was
never missed.

However, we found Hungerford and camped there for a day. The town is
right on the Queensland border, and an interprovincial rabbit-proof
fence--with rabbits on both sides of it--runs across the main street.

This fence is a standing joke with Australian rabbits--about the only
joke they have out there, except the memory of Pasteur and poison and
inoculation. It is amusing to go a little way out of town, about
sunset, and watch them crack Noah's Ark rabbit jokes about that fence,
and burrow under and play leap-frog over it till they get tired. One
old buck rabbit sat up and nearly laughed his ears off at a joke of