NOTES ON THE PETRIE SERIES, SOUTH-EASTERN QUEENSLAND. 91 
six miles to the S.W. of the Brighton locality. The Upper Esk Series 
is generally regarded as being of Lower Kenper age. 
Moreover, on closer examination the small patches of shale in the 
Brighton sandstones were found to be lenticular in shape, and generally 
parallel with the sandstone bedding. They accordingly represent 
deposition under quiet conditions in small depressions or hollows in the 
lake floor. That conditions of deposition were subject to rapid change 
at this time is also evident, for the sandstones themselves vary consider- 
ably in grain size and show very pronounced current bedding. This is 
strikingly exhibited in the numerous cuttings which have been made to 
act as slit trenches in these massive sandstones. 
The micaceous sandy shales on the southern side of Bald Hills Creek, 
moreover, have been found to be identical in lithological appearance with 
those outcropping in the upper portion of the bank outside the Brighton 
Hotel in which the writer has recently found Cladophlebis and Ginkgo 
along with numerous indeterminate plant impressions. The Brighton 
Hotel sandstone, however, as distinct from the sandy shale, is totally devoid 
of fossils and is strikingly similar in lithology with the fine-grained red 
and white micaceous sandstones of the Redcliffe Peninsula. The Redcliffe 
sandstones, which extend from Clontarf to Scarborough and are overlain 
in places by basalt, were included in the Petrie Series by Jones (1927, 
p. 31), although he did not find any fossils in them. As Dunstan in 1915 
(p. 3) had originally referred these sandstones to the coastal portion 
of the Ipswich Series, an intensive search for fossil evidence to confirm 
their true age was made by the writer. This search revealed a trunk 
of silicified wood in the sandstones which outcrop on the eastern bank of 
Humpybong Creek, adjacent to portion 113v, parish of Redcliffe. On 
examination the wood has shown itself to be coniferous, and determinable 
as Dadoxylon sp. Unfortunately, the preservation is much poorer than 
that of the material from Brighton, which permitted of specific deter- 
mination. It might be mentioned, however, that wood of the primitive 
Dadoxylon type is characteristic of the Triassic and earlier periods, 
preceding in time the diversification of the conifers. Thus, although the 
wood does not admit of specific determination it is sufficient to place the 
age of the Redcliffe sandstones as Triassic. It is of interest to note that, 
although sections of the fossil wood collected from both Brighton and 
Redcliffe show that they have all been crushed after fossilisation, that 
from Redcliffe shows the most intense crushing, and suggests the 
strongest lateral pressure. This crushing can be correlated at Redcliffe 
with the field occurrence in sandstones which dip at 20° to the S.W. 
Apart from the fossil wood, the only other organic remains found in 
the rocks of the Redcliffe Peninsula have been indeterminable plant 
fragments which show certain resemblances to the stems of some 
Equisetales. They occur in the weathered sandy mudstones of the cliff 
bank a few chains to the north of Scotts Point. 
The above observations are of some importance, as, combined with 
the discovery by Bryan (1927a, p. vii.) of shales containing Ipswich 
fossils on the north bank of the Pine River, almost opposite the conflu- 
ence of the North and South Pine Rivers, they considerably reduce the 
area of the Petrie Series as approximately mapped by Jones in 1927. 
In fact, it now appears that the Petrie Series occupies a roughly circular 
area of some fifteen square miles centred about Strathpine, and that the 
material to the north of the Pine River within the parish of Redcliffe is of 
Mesozoic age. This is also supported lithologically by the presence of 
