QUEENSLAND COAL FIELDS. :,3 



Tlie Burrum coal is a coking and gas making coal. Locally 

 it is considered that the coal south of the Burrum River is 

 better suited for coke making than that on the north. At the 

 gas works, the amount of gas obtained in ordinary working 

 is 10.200 cubic feet per ton of coal. The coal being friable is 

 not very suitable for steaming purposes, as it will not stand 

 handling. The iron in the clinker is heavy on the bars, and 

 the clinker sticks to the bars. 



The Ipswich Formation consists of conglomerates, sand- 

 stones, and shales, with a probable thickness of some 2500ft., 

 in which are 14 or 15 iiiterbedded coal seams, which have been 

 worked at one time or another, estimated to cover an area of 

 about 12,000 square miles in south-eastern Queensland. The 

 Ipswich beds belong to the Upper Trias- Jura, and are known 

 to contain coal seams at many widely separated points over 

 this area, though they have been most extensively worked in 

 the neighbourhood of the town of Ipswich, which is twenty- 

 five miles south of Brisbane, by rail. There are several faults 

 of considerable throw around Ipswich, which generally run in a 

 N.W and S.E. direction, .parallel with the axis of folding of 

 the Ipswich beds, with a down throw to the N.E. They have 

 no doubt been formed by the same movement which resulted 

 in the folding of the beds. The faulting and folding renders 

 mining more difficult than it otherwise would be, and also 

 renders any prediction from geological evidence as to their 

 existence in a workable condition, at points even a short dis- 

 tance apart, a matter of great uncertainty. According to W. 

 E. Cameron,* from whose work much of the following informa- 

 tion has been obtained, the Ipswich coal may be divided into 

 four areas. (1st) North Ipswich, or Tivoli ; (2nd), Blackstone 

 and Bundamba ; (3rd), Swanbank and Cooneana ; and (4th), 

 Dinmore. 



The North Ipswich or Tivoli Coal Area. Between the 

 basal conglomerates and the lowest worked seam in the North 

 Ipswich area are about TOOft. of carbonaceous and sandy shales, 

 with thin sandstones and conglomerates. They contain several 

 thin seams of coal that have been opened up at various points, 

 but none of which have so far proved of workable thickness. 

 Practically all the workable coal of this area has been obtained 

 between Mahi Creek on the west, to a little east of Sandy 

 Creek, measuring about three miles along the outcrop, and 

 about a mile and a half across. Seven seams outcrop, all of 

 which have been worked for coal. The perpendicular dis- 



*Geology of the West Moreton or Ipswich Coal Field. (By 

 Authority. Brisbane, 1899). The West Moreton (Ipswich) 

 Coalfield," Second Report on. (By Authority, Brisbane, 1907). 



