The Geology of Australia1

Abstract

IN the distant future the antiquity that this country can ever possess is the history of the occupation by its present holders; its aboriginal people have not furnished any evidence of a past history, insomuch, had it happened that they had become extinct a quarter of a century before their discovery, the only traces of prior occupation would have been in the form of stone knives and hatchets and flint spearheads. Interwoven with the history of the progress of discovery and occupation is that of the successive additions to our knowledge of its physical structure and its natural history. The records of botanical science and of geographical exploration have been brought up to a recent date; but the annals of the history of geological progress have not yet been consecutively placed on record. In the selection of a subject for my address I had experienced great difficulty in discriminating between personal interest and representative duty, and in choosing a “century of geological progress” for my theme I have sacrificed the former.