514 
iDetween Coorajah and Spencer Creeks (between G-rey and Cheviot Ranges). Two of 
these springs were capable of watering one hundred thousand sheep each, and another 
of watering twenty thousand, even in the drought of 1S85. 
Opals are found in the Cheviot Range, on Bulgroo Run, and in the Grey Range, on 
Nickavilla Kun. At the latter place, Mr. Fitz waiters, of Adavale, one of the owners of 
the mine, informed me that the opals arc found by driving into the conglomerate or 
sandstone cliffs, the opals being found in nodules of siliceous ironstone. Elsewhere they 
are found in similar nodules scattered over the surface of the Rolling Downs, and 
evidently derived from the waste of the Desert Sandstone. Some of the finest opals I 
have ever seen came from Kyabra Creek, in this neighbourhood. The “change in popular 
fancy” and the “ eradication of prejudice” which I observed in 1886 * were all that was 
required to make the Queen.sland opals “ as Auluable as the most appreciated gems from 
Hungary,” appear to have already in some measure been brought about. 
In the whole of the I'egion described, from Dulbydilla to the Grey Range, the 
Desert Sandstone tablelands rest on the Rolling Downs beds at elevations varying 
from 1,463 feet to about 1,000 feet The late Mr. Charles S. Wilkinson, Government 
Geologist of New South M^ales, informed me, however, that the Palaeozoic rocks of the 
Barrier Range.s are continued into Queensland at the southern end of the Grey Range, 
and it is probable that the Desert Sandstone in that locality rests directly on the Palaeozoic 
rocks. 
West of the Grey Range the Desert Sandstone forma a tableland extending from 
north to south for nearly one hundred and fifty miles, with a breadth varying from 
seven to thirty-six miles. I have not visited this outlier, but it is evident from the Runs 
Map, published by the L.anda Department, that the rainfall soaked up by the Desert 
Sandstone escapes in springs around its base — that is, as soon as it comes in contact 
with the argillaceous rocks of the Rolling Downs Formation. The same is true of 
Willie’s, Walter’s, and Hood’s, three little ranges north of Hungerford, and which are 
surrounded by springs. 
The Desert Sandstone of the Cheviot Range, although it has been breached by 
the Thomson River at Windorah, is doubtless continued to the north for nearly two 
hundred miles by the range which divides the Diamantina waters from those of the 
Thomson. The south end of this range is unknown to me, but I had an opportunity in 
January, 1882, of seeing its northern extremity near Winton. It presents a long line 
of bold mural cliffs to the north, and is surrounded by outlying fragments, once a part 
of it, to north, south, east, and west. I visited the “Lancewood Range,” between the 
Diamantina River and Wokingham Creek, and found it to be composed partly of gritty 
white sand, stone and partly of hardened white clay, horizontally bedded. 
In the “Opal Range,” south of Winton, and in the tableland between the 
Diamantina and Majme Rivers, both outliers from the long tablelands, opals are found. 
Between Morven and Tambo something is again seen of the Desert Sandstone, m 
the spurs from the western side of the range dividing the Warrego from the Balonne 
waters, and of the fragments into which the range has been cut. Seven miles west of 
Clara Creek is a tableland of horizontal beds of fine-grained hard sandstones, with 
layers and bauds of hardened felspathic clay, presumably the north end of the Angellalla 
Range already mentioned. The beds have a total thickness of a little less than eighty 
feet, the road being 1,400 feet and the top of the tableland 1,480 feet above the sea- 
level. Several fragments of the Desert Sandstone tableland are seen to right and left 
of the road between Clara Creek and the township of Ellangowan, on the Warrego 
Handbook of Queensland Geology, p. 77. 
