The Geology of Queensland

Abstract

PREFACEThe Geology of the third in the series of geological summaries of the Australian States, is written for the Queensland centenary celebrations. We have aimed to make it comprehensive, while giving greater space to new work than to work which has not been modified since the last summary, that of David and Browne in Geology of the Commonwealth, in 1950.The entry of the Bureau of Mineral Resources into Queensland in combined field work with the Geological Survey of Queensland, the great mining development at Mt. Isa and Mary Kathleen, the activity of many metal mining companies in exploration in North Queensland, the vigorous search by oil companies in the great basins of the State and increased University research have all combined to make the last decade by far the most fruitful period in the history of geological activity in the State. Queensland, at the end of its first century, is in the midst of a surge of geological work, and the present account must be regarded as in the nature of an interim report while this great expansion continues.Publication of this summary in its enlarged form has been made possible by the generosity of many groups and individuals. Not only have gifts totalling well over £3,000 been made, but information from company files has been contributed, and typing and map-drafting done. The Queensland Mines Department made available for the summary 2,000 copies of the 40-mile Geological Map of Queensland published in 1953, while the Bureau of Mineral Resources provided 2,000 copies each of the new 10-mile Geological Map of North-West Queensland and a chart of time-relations of Precambrian strata. These maps are distributed with Volume 7 in a separate envelope. The 40-mile coloured geological map of Queensland shows the state of our knowledge in 1953; all other maps show areas where significant modification of boundaries has been made since 1953 Sixty-two geologists contributed to the text; their names appear in the relevant chapter headings, and where passages within the chapters are the work of specific contributors these are indicated by their initials given in square brackets at the end of the paragraphs.The summary begins with a brief introduction setting out the major structural regions of the State and their geological history. The geology of each period is then discussed in successive chapters; in each chapter the material is treated in the several appropriate tectonic regions and each regional discussion covers stratigraphy, structure, petrology and economic geology. The bibliographic references throughout the text have been gathered together at the end of the volume where also an index may be found.We gratefully acknowledge the courtesy of the Editors of the Queensland Government Mining Journal (1959) and of the Australasian Oil and Gas Journal (1959) in publishing definitions of new formations prior to the appearance of the names in this work. We have thus been able to omit much descriptive material that must be given under the Australian Code of Stratigraphic Nomenclature (Raggatt, 1959) when new stratigraphic names are introduced. These new definitions bring up to date the Lexicon of Stratigraphic Nomenclature for Queensland prepared by Smith et al. ( 1958 ).We have discussed questions of editorial policy with Professor W. H. Bryan.The following officers of the Bureau of Mineral Resources have received their Directors permission to publish their contributions to this volume: M. B. Bayly, J. G. Best, C. D. Branch, R. Bryan, E. K. Carter, F. de Keyser, K. G. Lucas, A. A. �pik, P. W. Pritchard, M. A. Reynolds, D. A. White and E. G. Wilson.