THE ORIGIN OF AUSTRALIA. 
By Sydney B. J. Skertchly, (Past President.) 
Late or H. M. Georoeican Surveys or Eneuanp & QUEENSLAND. 
Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, December 14th, 
1907 ; and repeated April, 1908. 
I. INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY. 
1. From the time when the peculiarities of the fauna 
and flora of Australia began to be studied, it has been the 
universal belief that in Australia we hive a unique example 
of an “ arrested’? continent, which, from long isolation, has 
preserved many of the features of bygone epochs, especially 
in its Marsupials. These are pointed out as survivals of 
the early forms of mammalian life which began, apparently, 
in Triassic times, and became important in the Jurassic.* 
As the testimony is practically, indeed as far as I know 
quite, unanimous on this point, there is no necessity to quote 
evidence in proof. . 
2. Yet it is this well-established belief that I controvert ; 
and | think I can prove that Australia, instead of being the 
oldest of Continental areas, is in reality the newest. Our 
flora, unique both in character and distribution, and our 
fauna, unlike any other, have been evolved upon Australian 
land, within a very recent period, not dating back in time 
much beyond the Pliocene, and this colossal change was the 
direct result of geological alterations in the geography of 
the area, which brought about deterioration of -climate. 
3. Briefly, my theory is this. In Cretaceous times, 
and far into the Tertiary, there was no Australian Continent 
at all, but, instead, an Archipelago consisting of two main 
islands, one in the west, the other in the north and east, 
with a number of smaller islands in between. This, Dr. 
A. R. Wallace clearly demonstrated in his masterly “ Island 
* They seem to be missing in the Cretaceous. 
