Remarks on the Coals and Lignites of Victoria . 
141 
CHAPTER XV. 
Remarks on the Coals and Lignites of Victoria . 
In considering the question as to whether coal sufficient for 
home requirements will ever be produced from Victorian mines, it 
may be stated at the outset that we have not any exposed repre- 
sentatives of the true Carboniferous rocks of Great Britain and 
New South Wales ; it is possible, but does not appear to be very 
probable, that such rocks may exist concealed beneath the Meso- 
zoic rocks, or beneath the Tertiary beds of the north-western part 
of the colony ; their non-existence in any part of the main moun- 
tain system of the country is an ascertained fact. The only rocks 
in which exploration for coal can be carried on with any hope of 
success are the Mesozoic rocks of the areas already described, 
namely, the Wannou area, the Cape Otway area, or that lying 
between the road from Geelong to Warrnambool on the north, 
and the sea-coast on the south ; and the Western Port and South 
Gippsland Mesozoic area, or that lying between the Western Port, 
Lang Lang, and La Trobe valleys on the north, and the sea-coast 
on the south. It has already been shown that the Wanuon and 
Cape Otway beds may be continuous with one another beneath 
the intervening Tertiary formations, and that the latter may ex- 
tend for some distance under the great volcanic plains northward 
from Colac. 
As far as geological age is concerned, there is actually no reason 
whatever why our Mesozoic rocks should not contain large and 
payable seams of coal ; rocks of the same or oven of more recent 
periods do contain such seams in other countries. 
Sir R. Daintree, in his work on the Geology of Queensland, 
describes the Carbonaceous Mesozoic rocks of that country as 
geologically identical with those of Victoria, and as containing 
good workable coal seams on the east of the Dividing Range, where 
apparently of lacustrine origin, though the marino beds on the west 
of the divide appear to contain no coal. 
The only question with us is, whether at any periods during the 
deposit of our Mesozoic rocks the conditions for the formation of 
large seams over wide areas were present ; that they were to a 
certain extent is proved by the seams which have been found, and 
recent developments have tended to strengthen the belief that we 
are not so poor in sources of coal supply as many are inclined to 
imagine. Our main hopes are, however, centred in the Western 
Port and South Gippsland Mesozoic area, where a tract nearly 
K 
