Vol. LVI., No. 10. 
85 
THE GEOLOGY OF CENTRAL AUSTRALIA. 
By H. I. Jensen, D.Sc. 
{From an address delivered before the Royal Society of Queensland , 
2 6th June , 1944; received for publication and accepted 28 th November, 
1944; issued separately, 29 th June, 1945.) 
1. INTRODUCTION. 
There is a popular mis-statement very often repeated to the effect 
that Australia is the oldest continent in the world. There is some 
biological foundation for this belief in those animal and plant survivals 
of mesozoic types of fauna and flora indigenous to Australia, such as 
marsupials, the platypus, the macrozamia, inter alia, but such survivals 
after all only indicate a condition of isolation extending back for 
considerable periods. 
Geologically Australia consists of old lands and new lands. A 
considerable, in fact major, proportion of West Australia, the Northern 
Territory and South Australia is composed of formations belonging to 
the Archaean, Proterozoic and Cambrian, while newer formations 
dominate in the eastern States, considerable portions of the Murray 
Valley area being capped with Tertiary. 
Central Australia contains some of the oldest geological formations 
in Australia, but it would be a wild, unfounded and unproved state- 
ment to assert that these formations are older than other ancient 
gneissic areas such as those of the Canadan shield and of Central Brazil. 
Even when an enthusiastic geologist tries to bring together in point 
of time formations of the older proterozoic in remotely distant portions 
of Australia he treads on dangerous ground. Honman, for several 
years senior geologist of the Aerial, Geological, and Geophysical Survey 
in Queensland, being himself a West- Australian, assigned to various 
formations in the Cloncurry district the same names as similar 
formations had been given in Western Australia. Much as one may 
admire Honman ’s endeavour to simplify and connect up, the facts were 
insufficient to warrant the correlations implied. For the present it is 
better to use the alternative Queensland names of these formations, such 
as the Soldier’s Cap, and Mt. Isa series, without any implication of the 
one being equivalent to the Warrawoona or the other to the Mosquito 
Creek series. The key to the correlation of the proterozoic rock of 
Eastern and Western Australia has to be found by the closer study of 
the rocks of the Northern Territory. Dr. Madigan (1931-1933), 
lecturer in geology at the Adelaide University, closely studied the 
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