BY A. B. WALKOM. 45 



here: such papers include the works of Jensen, Wearne and 

 Woohiough, and Richards, in addition to the publications of the 

 Queensland Geological Survey. 



The Lower Mesozoic Rocks of Queensland. 



(a) General. — Until quite recently, the Lower Mesozoic rocks 

 of Queensland have been officially designated "Trias-Jura." 

 This name was first used in 1892, it being suggested that the 

 Burrum and Ipswich Formations represented a period of time 

 extending from the base of the Trias to the top of the Oolite.* 

 Prior to that date, in 1888, regarding the Ipswich and Burrum 

 Formations, Jack saysf "The Burrum Coalfield is plainly on a 

 higher horizon than the *Bowen River field [Permo-Carbonifer- 

 ous]. It contains a fossil flora in which many plants are common 

 to the Mesozoic Ipswich Formation, and also, it is said, Glossop- 

 terin with a very meagre fauna, most of it peculiar to the coal- 

 field." "Probably to call it Triassic would not be very far 



from the mark, in al least a homotaxial sense." In the same 

 paper, speaking of the Ipswich coalfield, he says " The coalfield 

 contains an abundant fossil flora of a strongly Jurassic facies, 

 and is probably the equivalent of the Clarence River beds of 

 New South Wales." 



It appears, then, that the recording of Glossopteris in the 

 Burrum Formation was originally responsible for its being 

 regarded as older than the Ipswich Formation. There is, how- 

 ever, no authentic record of the presence of Glossopteris in the 

 Burrum Series. 



When the two formations were united, in 1892, as the Trias- 

 Jura, the Burrum Formation was regarded as Lower, and the 

 Ipswich Formation as Upper Trias-Jura.+ Ten species of plants 

 were described by Etheridge from the Burrum Formation, and 

 thirty-one from the Ipswich. The two formations were not 

 known in contact in the field, so there was no stratigraphic 

 evidence as to their relation to one another, and this had to 



* Geology and Palaeontology of Queensland, 1892, p. 312. 



t Report Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sci., i., 1889, p. 196. 

 ij: Geology and Palieontulogy of Queensland, 1S92, p. 312. 



