Finally, we come In the coastal belt. Where this is occupied by granites and the metamor- 
phosed Older Palaeozoic rocks it needs no attention whatever by the seeker after supplies of 
petroleum. W e turn then to the two basins in this area which are filled with little altered sediments 
of newer Palaeozoic and Mesizoic ages: Mr. Leo J. Jones, of the New South Wales Geological 
Survey, in a very interesting and informative bulletin,* lias dealt very fully with the efforts which 
have been made to discover oil in New South Wales. He eliminates the Clarence River area 
from the possible areas in the State on account of the paucity of organic remains, the conditions 
of sedimentation, and the fact that innumerable artesian bores sunk in this area have disclosed 
not a single trace of oil. I have personally seen something of this series near the Queensland 
border, and am not at all impressed with the possibilities of obtaining oil from these beds. 
We are now left with the Sydney Basin, with its enormous thicknesses of little altered 
rocks of Newer Palaeozoic and Mesozoic ages, its great coal-fields, and its rich deposits of kerosene 
shales ; an area, too, of great commercial and industrial activity, thickly populated in parts, and 
from every point of view demanding more close attention than any of the other regions dealt 
with. 
Briefly, the geological sequence in descending order in the Sydney Basin is as follows : 
Mesozoic — 
Triassic — 
Wianamatta Stage — 
Shales with occasional bands of sandstone and thin argillaceous limestone. 
Hawkesbury Stage — 
Massive sandstones with occasional beds of shale, grits, and conglo- 
merates. 
Narrabeen Stage — 
Ghiefly tuffaeeous shales with sandstones and conglomerates. 
Palceozoic 
Permo-Carboniferous 
Upper or Newcastle Coal Measures — 
Dempsey Measures — 
Barren fresh-water beds. 
Middle, Tomago, or East Maitland Coal Measures — 
Upper Marine Series — 
( onglomerates, sandstones, shales, occasional glacial erratics, con- 
temporaneous lavas and tuffs. 
Lower or Greta Coal Measures — - 
Lower Marine Series- 
Sandstones, mudstones, conglomerates, limestones, contemporaneous 
lavas, tuffs, and glacial boulder beds. 
Carboniferous- 
Claystones, sandstones, conglomerates, limestones, a glacial stage, and 
contemporaneous lava flow T s. 
We can again eliminate from this sequence the beds of Triassic age. Great ravines in the 
Biiie Mountains and down to the coast cut through these rocks from top to bottom, so that even 
1 1)1 iac ,een present in bygone times all traces of it have now disappeared. In any case the 
beds are not suitable in type, mode of origin, or structure to be or to have been possible sources 
on nnlTx'" 1 ! 1 ' , 1 r ? gard to tlie carboniferous series at the base, which attain a thickness of 
“ • . ' eat to north-west of Newcastle. Mr. Leo Jones states that The absence of oil may 
possibly be accounted for by the fact that the beds have undergone considerable disturbance, 
have been fractured and faulted as a result of earth movements and metamorphosed bv extensive 
gi anile intrusions, factors that would tend to dissipate any oil or gas that the beds might contain." 
'. tinctures that are probably good exist in these beds, but from an inspection of sections and 
rorn other obtainable data I could not recommend any drilling for oil in them. 
rhus we have run down the problem to an investigation of the remaining Permo-Carboni- 
ferous or (according to Prof. Sir. I. W. Edgeworth David) Permian, deposits of the Sydney Basin 
which cover an area of 16, fwO square miles, and since there are many things to be said in favour 
of this series, and since, therefore, I paid more attention to areas occupied by these rocks in the 
field, it is my intention to deal with this part of the investigation separately and in more detail. 
pp 33-*38^° teS ° n * >ctTOleurn a,Kl ^ at,,ral (ias and the Possibility of their Occurrence in N T ew South Wales. Geo], Surv,, Mineral Resources Bulletin, N< 
t Loc. cit. p. 45. 
No. 31, 1921, 
