357 
Quite recently a discovery of coal, whicli must assume considerable importance 
when railway communication lias been established, was accidentally made by a party of 
prospectors subsidised by the G-overnment (Messrs. Petersen, Otty, and Dunn), when 
sinking a shaft in search of alluvial gold. The locality is about fifty-two miles south- 
west of Gladstone, and about three miles north-west of the Old Callide Station, on 
Callido Creek. A Heport * by Air. W. II. Eands, just issued, enables me to give an 
account of this Coalfield. 
The lowest beds of the Coal Alcasures rest unconformably on Paheozoic rocks, 
which Mr. Eands says may be Permo-Carboniferous (? Gympie Series). They consist 
of conglomerates, sandstones, and shales, forming an escarpment of two hundred feet 
in height, and dip at 19° to S. 27° W. These strata are overlaid by a bed of close- 
grained olivine-basalt, which dips in the same direction, but at a lower angle. The 
stratified rocks re-emorge from beneath this lava-flow, at a lower elevation, further to 
the west, but are covered on the higher ridges with patches of basalt. Eegardiug the 
age of the coal-bearing strata, Mr. Eands says : — 
“I found two varieties of plant -remains in a thin bed of indurated clay in the 
gully near Shaft No. 3. One of these closely resembles the description given by Pro- 
fessor Ottokar Peistmantclf of Thinnfeldia odoniopteroides, Morris, except that the 
pinnules appear to be divided at the base, instead of being “ connate.” This fossil is 
found in both the Ilawkesbury and in the Wianamatta Scries, New South Wales ; and 
in the Upper Mesozoic Beds of Ipswich. This form is very numerous here. The other 
is a species of Tmniopteris,m which the veins are parallel, and about one-thirteenth of an 
inch apart. These remains would point to the beds belonging to the Upper Mesozoic, 
and probably they are the same ago as the Ipswich Beds.” 
The following remarks are taken from Mr. Eands’ description of the coal-seams : — 
“ Shaft No. 1. — The top eight feet is timbered, but I understand that it consisted 
®f a black carbonaceous shale or clod. 
limbered 8 0 
Coal (with a 1-inch band of clay at CJ feet from the top, and a -j-inch 
band at 7 feet from the top ... ... ... ... ... ,,, 10 5 
Greyish brown sandstone, thinning out to a more streak on one 
side of the shaft 0 8 
Coa^threo feet of this were underwater) 7 0 
Hard carbonaceou.s sandstone ; thickness unknown. 
“ The top ten feet of coal is of a somewhat friable character, but the bottom seven 
feet is a good strong coal. Analyses of this coal are given below, and from the analyses and 
appearance it should make a good steam coal. The beds just here are nearly horizontal. 
“ Shaft No. 2. — The shaft was partially filled with water, so that I was unable to 
descend. They are reported to have passed through in sinking — 
Ft. in. 
Greyish sandstone 8 0 
Black carbonaceous shale or clod 5 0 
Coal, not bottomed 12 0 
“ The large heap of coal on the surface is a bright, clean coal. An analysis of the 
coal is given below. The coal from this shaft appeared to consist to a great extent 
of Sporanpia. 1 cut a thin section for the microscope, and found it to be full of small 
circular spores, which appear brown iu the almost opaque coal. I believe these to be 
Sporanpia, but I found great difficulty in getting the section fully transparent. 
* New Discovery of Coal near the Callide Creek, Port Curtis District. Brisbane : by Authority : 1891. 
t Geol. Pal. Relations Coal and Plant-bearing Beds of E. Australia. Mem. Gcol. Surre!i -iV. S. Wales, 
f’aJ. No. 3, ih 101. 
