GEOLOGY AND PALAEONTOLOGY OF QUEENSLAND 
AND NEW GUINEA. 
— — 
CHAPTER I. 
mTEODUCTOET. 
Tiie eastern third, or perhaps nearly the half, of Queensland is the remnant of a 
lofty tableland, composed of hard materials which have resisted denudation, and which 
culminates, at an elevation of 5,150 feet, in the Bellendcn-Ker Eanges* This table- 
land is the chief seat of the mineral wealth of the Colony. Its eastern edge presents 
a series of escarpments, or a short and steep slope down to the Pacific. This elevated 
tract generally robs the rain-charged clouds which rise up from the ocean, and a fairly 
watered and well-timbered country is the result. The generally indifferent character of 
the soil accounts for the fact that the grasses, although fair, are not first-rate for 
pastoral purposes. A¥here, however, basaltic plateaux occur, agricultural soils of the 
highest quality are produced, and are often covered by dense tropical jungles, watered 
hy copious and perennial streams. 
Besides granites and syenites, partly of plutonic and partly of metamorphic 
origin, and basic igneous rocks, both bedded and intrusive, and of various ages, this coast 
region contains a series of stratified rocks, of which the older members are more or less 
metamorphosed. Among these, and recognisable by their fossil contents, are formations 
related homotaxially to the Middle Devonian (Burdekin), the Permo-Carboniferous 
(Gympie, Star, and Low'cr, Middle, and Upper Bowen), the Trias-Jura (Burrum and 
Ipswich), the Cretaceous (Eolling Downs and Desert Sandstone), the Miocene and 
Pliocene (Lower and Upper Volcanic Series with associated Drifts), the Post-Tertiary, 
and the Eecent. 
The western interior presents a totally different aspect. The tableland slopes 
gradually westward and falls away towards the Gulf of Carpentaria and the south- 
western boundaries of the Colony. The greater part of the interior is covered by soft 
stratified rocks of Cretaceous age which weather into a fine soil, supporting nutritious 
grasses, but almost treeless except in the south-western districts, where thick scrubs of 
mulga and gidya cover a region which is perhaps jmrtly of Tertiary age. The rainfall 
over this area is, however, comparatively small, and the watercourses are ill-defined and 
dried up to waterholes during the greater part of the year. This defect on the part of 
nature is rapidly being remeEed by the mnking of artesian wells. At intervals portions 
of the interior are occupied by detached tablelands of what has been aptly named 
‘ Desert Sandstone,” supporting, as a rule, only spinifex grass and stunted timber. The 
. * Report on the Bellenden-Ker Range, North Queensland, by A. Meston. Fop. Brisbane : by 
Authority; 1889, 
