82 LIMESTONE AREAS IN QUEENSLAND 



can never become dangerous to the very existence of the 

 water supply for the future generations. Now almost alL 

 of the stations on the Tableland and in the South-eastern 

 part of the Northern Territory use that subterranean water, 

 and in the future a practically unlimited number of bores 

 will make the extensive use of that Territory for stock one 

 of the most important resources of the interior. I shall 

 be very glad indeed if the present remarks reach the 

 State Governments concerned, and if a thorough geological 

 survey from both sides prove to what extent my 

 suggestions are of practical value for the development of 

 that, until the present, very little known and neglected 

 country. 



The subterranean basin in the limestone formation 

 gives a permanent- water supply to many magnificent 

 rivers and creeks, whose surrounding areas can be the basis 

 of closer settlement in the future. On the Queensland 

 side, the Gregory River derives her splendid stream from 

 numerous springs in the limestone, the lime suspended 

 in the water is deposited in some places, in the form of 

 travertin and calcareous conglomerate, forming natural 

 dams across the river bed, which the stream leaps in a number 

 of picturesque cataracts and rapids. In the Northern 

 Territory the Mc Arthur, the Roper, the Victoria, the Daly 

 and many other streams get their permanent, splendid 

 quantity of water out of the subterranean limestone basin. 

 The surface of the plateau is very level and the strata 

 almost undisturbed, and there are extensive patches of 

 country covered by a sandstone formation corresponding 

 very probably with the so-called desert sand;stone formation 

 in age and aspect.* 



The caves are not very numerous, but they are ex- 

 tremely interesting from the very young stage of develop- 

 ment they represent. They seem mostly to be due to 

 fissures crossing the country in an almost north-south 

 direction, and several groups of caves and sinkholes are 

 known in the environs of Camooweal. I visited most of 

 them. The best known aie the Nowranie Caves, about 

 10 miles South-South-East from Camooweal, accessible 

 over a precipice and extending in two levels for some hundred 



* On the Queensland side a small desert sandstone plateau forms the^ 

 divide about 30 miles east from Camooweal, near Wooroona Creek. 



