316 REPORTS OF RESEARCH COMMITTEES:. 



present shore-line at Port Fairy and beyond, points to the in- 

 fillins' of an ancient river-delta which was originally of great 

 extent and embraced the Warrnambool-Portland area. 



The discovery of some well-preserved fossil wood from Gipps- 

 land gave an opportunity (10) to describe the associated palseo- 

 geography comprising the extensive sheets of gravels from west 

 of Bairnsdale (Flynn's Creek) to the eastern boundary of Vic- 

 toria, which are found, with certain breaks, from the foot-hills 

 to' the coast. The great thickness of parts of this gravel-bed 

 (probably as much as 100 feet at Paynesville) , is due to the same 

 causes as those which give rise to the subsidence still taking place 

 at the mouths of rivers like the Nicholson, where 80 feet of 

 alluvium was penetrated without touching bedrock. These gravel- 

 beds, resting as they do on Kalimnan sands at Lake Tvers, are 

 found to be of the Werrikooian age, as was suggeisted by Dr. T. 

 S. Hall in 1914 (4). 



The results of a seven years study of the material brought up 

 from the borings in the Mallee are embodied in " Cainozoic 

 Geology of the Mallee and other Victorian Bores " (8) The ai-ea 

 once occupied by the " Murrav Gulf " was in its earliest stage 

 filled in by a deposit, of polyzoa which was probably formed 

 iti moderately deep, clear water, free from much terrigenous or 

 land-derived sediment. There were also strong currents present 

 in this Janjukian (Miocene) marine area, as shown by the presence 

 of glauconitic sands and abundant fish-remains. Later on there 

 was a shallowing of the sea-bed, resulting in the deposition of blue 

 sands and clays worn from the adjacent highlands. The next 

 stage, the Kalimnan (Lower Pliocene), is represented by fairly- 

 shallow-water deposits, except, in a few instances where the rock 

 is a fine, blue, sTielly clay with small bivalves and gasteropods. 

 There alsoi appears to^ have- been some open communication between 

 the Bairnsdale and the Mallee areas rather than between the latter 

 and the Hamilton area, as indicated by the occurrence of localized 

 species like' C(di/ ptrcea kaJivimr and Tni ritclla 'pagodula. After 

 Kalimnan times base-levelling of the surrounding country resulted 

 in the formation of estuarine deposits containing brackish water 

 or shore-linei organisms, whilst later still a gradual desiccation of 

 the slowly rising land took place, whurh even now is still in pro- 

 gress. 



An examination cf the ostracodal marls on the southern part 

 of the MorningtoTi Peninsula has led to the conclusion that during 

 the period of Bass Strait subsidence a chain of lakes connected 

 the north-west corner of Tasmania with the Cape Schanck area. 

 (14). 



J. T. Jutson, in a paper " On the Age and Physiographic 

 Relations of the Older Basalt of Greenebororigh and Kangaroo 

 Ground " (2), remarks on the occurrence of grits probably con- 

 temporaneous with the Kalimnan beds, elsewhere underlying the 



