This project has been made possible by a research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain, whose assistance is gratefully ackowledged.
Aloe covered hillside
The 1820 settlers were tempted to undertake the risky venture of emigration by glowing descriptions of the Albany area as being like English parkland. Though green, rolling, and alluring from a distance, the country was in fact largely covered by rank and inhospitable thornbush, with beautiful but forbidding aloes prominent among other xerophytes. So unsuitable was some of the land to agriculture that it remains unchanged today.
