PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION C. 179 



1.— THE CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF WOODY ISLAND, 

 QUEENSLAND, AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD, AND THEIR 

 RELATIONS TO THE BURRUM FORMATION. 



By H. C. Richards, M.Sc, Lecturer in Geology, University of 

 Queensland. 



Plates V. and VI. 



Introduction. 



In August, 1912, the author conducted a party of students to this 

 area, which is situated to the south of Hervey Bay and in the Great 

 Sandy Strait between Phraser Island and the mainland. 



Some considerable time was spent here, and a detailed examination 

 of the area which seems to afiord the key to the relationship between 

 the Maryborough marine beds and the Burrum coal-measures, was 

 carried out. 



In the Progress Report of the Geological Survey of Queensland, 

 1911, reference was made to the investigations which were being carried 

 out in the Maryborough district concerning the relationship of these 

 beds, while in the Queensland Government Mining Journal, of 15th 

 December, 1912, Mr. Dunstan writes as follows : — " About eighteen 

 months ago the writer, when examining the Burrum coal-measures, 

 made the discovery that the marine beds in the district were con- 

 formable with the coal-measures, but that instead of being of younger 

 age they were actually older. The discovery was such an extra- 

 ordinary one and seemed so inconsistent with the observations of 

 several previous observers that some hesitation was experienced in 

 making it known until confirmatory evidence could be obtained." 



This confirmatorv evidence has now been obtained, and in the same 

 journal under an article, " Geological Features of the Maryborough 

 District — A New Geological Horizon for the Wide Bay Coel-measrres," 

 Mr. Dunstan gives the results of his observations on this question. 



He has traced five lines of outcrop of the Maryborough marine 

 beds between Croydon Junction, 2 miles W.N.W. of Maryborough, 

 and Fraser Island. He also states that the area has been folded into 

 a series of anticlines and synclines having approximately a N.W. and 

 SE. trend, and that the Burrum coal-field is situated in a synclinal 

 area. 



Unfortunately, Mr. Dunstan is unable to communicate any of his 

 observations to this meeting, but as the author of this paper has investi- 

 gated the stratigraphical relationships of these beds, and established 

 the interbedding of the marine and freshwater beds in an area which 

 seems to afford the key to the position, the opportunity of bringing 

 this most important and interesting matter before this Association is 

 availed of. 



