INAUGURAL ADDRESS. d 



The earliest geological observations relating to Australia ante- 

 date by only a few years the beginning of this century, so that the 

 history of our progress in geology is concurrent with that of 

 modern geology, and it affords grand illvistrations of the methods 

 of ap})lication of the laws as they were successiA^ely eA^olved in the 

 European schools to an area so distantly removed from that which 

 gave them birth. Thus our history begins at a most fortunate 

 period. No prejudices or scholastic dispvitations have retarded our 

 progress, for those who have aided in the work were disciples in 

 the modern school of geology. And though, on a retrospective 

 glance, we may hesitate to attach any high value to the labors of 

 pioneer geologists, yet we should not forget that our horizon is 

 much vaster than theirs, and that the extension of it is partly due 

 to their labors ; and though it may be true that if the geological 

 progress of the first half of this century were quite ignored we 

 should not suffer any great loss (as I believe that nearly all 

 the areas explored at the earlier period have been re-examined 

 in later times by men more carefully trained than was previously 

 possible), nevertheless the gradual accumulation of data supplies 

 us with a history, and makes us better acquainted with the causes 

 that at certain times made that progress slow or even retarded it. 



For the first three or four decades of this century our geological 

 knowledge was almost entirely the outcome of maritime surveys, 

 whilst in later years it has been largely supplemented by inland 

 exjiloration. Thus, for a half century or so the geological pro- 

 gress is part of the history of topographical discovery, and this 

 explains why our earlier geological information is inseparable from 

 the achievements of such renowned geographers as Flinders, 

 Baudin, King, Sturt, Mitchell, Stokes, Wilkes, Leichhardt, A C. 

 Gregory, and others. 



Tne subsequent history of ovir geological progress commences 

 with the establishment of systematic geological surveys in New 

 South Wales and Victoria, which afterwards led to their extension 

 to the other provincial areas. Almost simultaneously universities 

 were founded at Melbourne and Sydney. Thus, whilst the surveys 

 dealt with geology more in its industrial applications, the 

 universities upheld its value on purely scientific grounds. By these 

 agencies a large interest was awakened in the science, and many 

 whose zeal had been latent were added to the ranks of geological 

 investigators. Much of our knowledge gained in these various ways 

 is expressed on the Geological Map of Australia, jjublished by the 

 Victorian Government in 1887. The several steps by which this map 



