56 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 



one considers the Bullengarook lava-residual, 8 miles to the 

 east, which has many features in common with The Island. There 

 the marginal valleys, Goodman's Creek and Ooimadai Creek, 

 have been cut to a depth of over 400 feet below the original surface 

 of the Bullengarook scoria-cone flow. The limestone at Coimadai 

 was deposited in one of the marginal valleys and according to 

 Coulson (1924) was chemically precipitated in a small lake just 

 before, during, and after the eruption from Mt. Bullengarook. 

 The lake was probably formed by the damming of a lava flow 

 (Keble, 1945). Its recent age is indicated by the occurrence of the 

 remains of Nototherium in it. 



There is the possibility that the Myrniong implements were 

 buried in a cache, a common practice among the aborigines, 

 particularly with stone axes ; in view of the fact that more than 

 one implement was found, this seems improbable. A doubt, too, 

 has been expressed by a few archaeologists that they are implements 

 at all, but they have been accepted by most. 



30 ft dbove 

 river level. 



*AXF- 



FIG. 8. 

 Section in the hole at Bushfield. 



If The Island basaltic lavas belonged to the lava-plains phase 

 the age of the implements would be over 200,000 years! Their 

 occurrence under a scoria-cone flow makes them probably early 

 Postglacial and no older than any of the more ancient implements 

 found in Victoria. They presumably belong to one of Hale and 

 Tindale's earlier industries, perhaps the Tartangan. 



The Bushfield Axe was found by E. W. Hamilton, of Warrnam- 

 bool while he was sinking a hole to a depth of 8 feet on the right 

 bank of the Merri River to anchor a power-winch to clear the 

 bank of the river of trees. The site of the hole was about a quarter 

 of a mile north of Bushfield, on Allotment I, Parish of Meerai. 



Mr. S. R. Mitchell examined and checked with me the section 

 in the hole shown in Fig. 8, in which tuff rested on tuffaceous 

 limestone in which the axe was found. 



The tuffaceous limestone is a lacustrine deposit which, when it 

 was formed in the lake, incorporated the tuff falling at the time. 



