INAUGURAL ADDRESS 29 



Northern Division, both having been members of Mr. Selwyn's 

 staff in Victoria. The former held office till 1870. In 1871 the 

 latter proceeded to London in charge of the Queensland mineral 

 exhibits at the exhibition of 1872, and remained there as Agent- 

 General for the colony, a jjost he held until 1876, when in con- 

 sequence of ill-health he was obliged to resign. In recognition of 

 his services to the colony in his official capacitj', and to colonial 

 science, Her Majesty conferred on him the distinction of C.M.G. 

 His well-earned honor was held for a very brief period, as he died 

 in 1878. Daintree, aided by the palseontological determinations 

 of Mr. Etheridge, sen., outlined the geology of Queensland in a 

 paper *, accompanied by a sketch map, the first of its kind. The 

 Silurian of previous authors is referred to the Middle Devonian, 

 the coal formation of N'orthern Queensland is recognised as 

 Carboniferous, the removal of the coal deposits characterised by 

 Taeniopteris to the Mesozoic age is insisted on, the Ipswich 

 Coal Measures are regarded as the equivalent of the Carbonaceous 

 series in Victoria, the marine Mesozoic fossils of the River 

 Flinders area are classed as Cretaceous, whilst his " Desert Sand- 

 stone " is regarded as Tertiary. The progress of the survey has 

 not materially disturbed this classification. The chief emenda- 

 tions are the removal of certain areas classed as Devonian to the 

 Carboniferous, and the transference of the Desert Sandstone — on 

 palseontological data, though it was previously thought to be 

 unfossiliferoiis — to the Upper Cretaceous. 



Mr. A. C. Gregory, who explored the Gascoigne and Murchison 

 rivers in 1848, directed the North- West Australian Expedition in 

 1856, headed the Leichhardt Search Expedition in 1858, and was 

 formerly Surveyor-General for Queensland, held the appointment 

 of Geologist for the Southern District from 1875 to 1879. His 

 most important reports relate to the southern coalfields, and '• that 

 on the Ipswich coalfield is the most important published up to the 

 present date, although it is one of the earliest." f 



Mr. R. L. Jack, who had served ten years on the Scottish 

 Geological Survey, was appointed in 1877 Geologist for Northern 

 Queensland, and on the retirement of Mr. Gregory became chief 

 of the staff for the whole colony. Mr. N. H. Rands joined him as 

 assistant in 1883, and Mr. A. G. Maitland in 1888. 



The present state of our knowledge on Queensland geology is 

 succinctly and clearly set forth in the '^ Geology and Palseoutology 



* Quart. Joum. GeoloH-ical Socii-ty, vol. xxviii., 1872. 

 t Geology of Qu. enslaml, by Jack and Etheridge, p. 333, 1892. 



