president's address. 33 



About a hundred and twenty miles east of Cape Byron lies 

 a meridional ridge nearly fifty miles long, which if it has not 

 yet received a name, might be called the "Britannia Ridge." 

 It was discovered by Mr. Peake when the "Britannia" was 

 surveying a track for the Pacific telegraph cable in May, 

 1901.* Out of a depth of 2500 fathoms it suddenly rises to 

 within 250 fathoms of the surface. In other words it towers 

 up some fourteen thousand feet from the abyss (Fig. 6). 

 Possibly it represents a fold emerging and advancing upon 

 the continent, an ultimate consequence of which might be 

 the formation of a river of the Shoalhaven type.t 



Of South Queensland Dr. 11. I. Jensen | writes, "A some- 

 what recent elevatory movement in part of this area has 

 effected certain changes in the drainage .... It is evident 

 that the Brisbane River is a fairly young stream as regards 

 its lower courses. . . . The Teviot Valley is mature except for 

 a small part .... where it flows through hilly country, and 

 I consider this region to have been slowly and recently ele- 

 vated, river-erosion having kept pace with elevation." 



Dr. R. L. Jack considered >< that the Brisbane River first 

 poured its waters to the west and "took the course now fol- 

 lowed by Gowrie Creek and the heads of the Condaniine." 

 Subsequent elevation of the Toowoomba Range tiirned the 

 river into the Pacific ; it probably flowed between Mount 

 Gravatt and Mount Cotton south of its present bed. Finally 

 in late Tertiary times other movements compelled its removal 

 to the present situation. 



An area of intensel3' marginal drainage occurs in North 

 Queensland. From Townsville to Cooktown new short rivers 

 pour into the ocean from a lofty coastal range. Immediately 



* List of Ocean Depths, Hydrographic Dept., No. 183, 1902,.pp.26-28. 



t This ridge is sliown in Prof. Marshall's map Aust. Assoc. Adv. 

 Sci. xii., 1910, opp. p. 450. 



t Jensen, These Proceeding.s, xxxiv., 1909, p. 75. 



§ Jack, Lecture reported in the " Brisbane Telegraph," 22/5/94. 



