132 



time much has been made public in the Mining Reviews ^^^ 

 of the Department of Mines under reports by the Govern- 

 ment Greologist, Mr. L. K. Ward; the Chief Inspector of 

 Mines, Mr. L. J. Winton; and the Engineer for Boring, 

 Mr. C. F. Duffield. A short note has also been contributed 

 by Mr. A. C. Broughton.(2) 



The scope of this present paper is accordingly restricted 

 to generalized notes upon the strata, more particularly a 

 correlatioD with the Tertiary beds of other localities. 



II. General Physiographic and Geological Features. 



Moorlands is situated on a nearly level mallee-covered 

 plain which extends from the Murray River (some 10 miles 

 to the west) eastward into Victoria. Over all this area 

 undulations of the surface are rarely conspicuous. Perhaps 

 the most noteworthy of such is the long, low rise known as 

 Marmon Jabuk Range, which trends in a general N.N.E. 

 and S.S.W. direction across the country just to the north 

 of the Moorlands coal field. Such rises are often composed 

 of flexed Tertiary beds, but, at other times, much more 

 ancient rocks come to the surface in these more highly 

 elevated portions. The latter are frequently slaty beds not 

 unlike certain of the "Adelaide Series," and probably ot 

 late pre-Cambrian age. ^3) At times more highly altered 

 sedimentary rocks appear; for example, a strongly developed 

 chlorite schist was entered in a well sunk about one mile 

 south-east of Moorlands railway station. Ancient igneous 

 rocks are, probably, not uncommon underlying the Murray 

 mallee lands, as evidenced by the outcrops of pink granite at 

 Mannum, at Murray Bridge, and to the south of Coonalpyn ; 

 also, the appearance of a broad intrusive sheet of gabbroic 

 rock, now much modified by age, exposed in the railway 

 cutting, on the line to Moorlands, about two miles beyond 

 Tailem Bend. 



But, though there is unquestionably a considerable 

 diversity in the underlying strata, the surface features of 

 these mallee plains, as a rule, give little indication thereof, 

 for there is developed everywhere at the surface a hard 

 travertine formation which varies from a few inches to a 

 few feet in thickness. It is thickest where it overlies Tertiary 

 strata and thinner where the more ancient rocks underlie it. 



(DSee Mining Review, Nos. 13. p. 21; 32, pp. 32-38; 33, pp. 

 68-78; 34, pp. 31, 32, 34-39, 43-50'; 35, pp. 25, 26, 28-42, 47-55. 



(2) "Notes on the Geology of the Moorlands (South Australia) 

 Brown Coal Deposits," bv A. C. Broughton, Trans. Rov. Soc. 

 S. Austr., vol. xlv., 1921, jpp. 248-253. 



(3) Vide Paper read by T. W. E. David, Trans. Rov Soc. 

 S. Austr., vol. xlvi., Nov., 1921. 



