516 
Stewart’s Bore has been sunk for artesian water by the Government through 
Desert Sandstone rocks, approximately in Lat. 24° 20', Long. 146° 20'. 
The bore is situated about midway between Tambo and Alpha Eailway Station, 
It “was completed to the contract depth of 2,000 feet, unfortunately without tapping 
overflowing water, and this is the first (Toverument bore in which no overflowing artesian 
water has been tapped since the present system of boring was introduced in 1887. The 
strata pierced have been clays, shales, conglomerates, and sandstones of the Desert 
Sandstone or Upper Cretaceous Formation.”* 
This bore is interesting and unique. All the successful bores in the Western 
District have obtained their supply of water from the Lower Cretaceous rocks. It is quite 
possible that if the bore iiad been continued to the base of the Desert Sandstone, water 
would have been met with, but it is unlikely that it would have overflowed at the surface, 
as the moisture with which the Desert Sandstone is generally saturated has abundant 
facilities for escaping (as it frequently does) at the base of the formation, where it 
comes in contact with the argillaceous shales of the Eolling Downs (Lower Cretaceous). 
According to the Railway Survey the highest point on the divide between the 
Barcoo and Belyando Rivers crossed by the Central Railway is 1,448 feet. The Desert 
Sandstone extends past this to a few miles east of Fine Hill Station (1,158 feet — 255 
miles from Rockhampton), where it probably overlies the rocks of the Drummond Range 
(Star Formation). 
This same tableland is by far the largest fragment of the Desert Sandstone which 
has escaped denudation, extending, as it does, from the heads of the Warrego to the 
heads of the Flinders, a distance of three hundred and thirty- six miles, with a breadth, 
on the line of the Central Railw'ay, of seventy-two miles. Further north, where I 
crossed it in January, 1882, between the Thomson and Cape Rivers, its breadth is one 
hundred and twenty miles. Travelling from west to east,t a “ jump up” of about 
fifty feet near the head of Jirking Creek, brought us from the Rolling Dowms Formation 
to the top of the Desert Sandstone Tableland. The junction of the two formations is 
unconformable. the base of the Desert Sandstone, as seen at the “ jump up,” is highly 
ferruginous, and apparently of volcanic (ashy) origin. The immediately succeeding 
beds are of tough hardened sandstone, almost quartzite in places. Pebbles of the latter 
are scattered all over the Rolling Downs to the west. The tableland extends eastward 
to a line between Manoa Creek and the Campaspe River, and is so flat that to the eye 
it appears a dead level except where it is intersected by streams. Sections of the rock 
are consequently very rare. Beef-coloured sandstones and thin plates of yellow sandy 
ironstone were seen about eight miles below the upper crossing of Amelia Creek. The 
divide between the Landsborough and Burdekin w<aters, although marked on the Colony 
Map as a continuous mountain chain, is imperceptible. A great part of the tableland 
is thickly timbered with rather stunted ironbark, bloodwood, box, and gum, and grassed 
with Triodia. N ear the Campaspe mica schists are met with, but there is nothing to 
show whether the Desert Sandstone rests uncon formably on these, or is faulted against 
them. The former is more probable. 
The same tableland is crossed by the Northern Railway from the one hundred 
and twenty-three-mile peg (say 1,100 feet above sea-level) to about two hundred and 
twenty-four miles (say 1,169 feet). At one hundred and sixty -two miles yellow, 
brown, and white sandstone.s are quarried for building material, which is employed, 
* Report of the Hydraulic Engineer for Year ending 30th June, 1889. Brisbane: by Authority: 
1889. 
t See Reports on the Geological Features of part of the District to be traversed by the proposed 
Transcontinental Railway. By R. L. J aok. Brisbane : by Authority : 1885. 
