[No. 146. 
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
REPORT OF GOVERNMENT GEOLOGIST. 
Ordered by the House of Assembly to be printed, and plans lithographed, August Wth, 1883. 
[Estimated cost of printing (720), £9 7s. Od. Lithographing (.5 plans), £23 17s. 6d.] 
In accordance with the instructions conveyed in Crown Lands docket No. 201/83, I left Adelaide on 
March 21st and proceeded to Tlcltana, which place I left on the 24th, with two men and five camels, arriving- 
at Waukaringa on April 4th. and remained until the 9th, during which time I made an examination of the 
strata with relation to the probability of obtaining artesian water at the Government bore. 
Arriving at Thackaringa, in New South Wales, I crossed over to the Mooleulooloo Hills, and proceeded 
northward to the A'andama Creek, which I followed to Milpariuka, arriving there on May 2nd. Bad weather 
and rain detained me at the latter jdaee a few days, and it was not until the 7th that I left, t'la the Beefs 
and Granite diggings, for Innamineka, arriving on the 19th. On the 22nd I travelled northward to the North¬ 
east comer peg, thence along the Queensland boundary to Pandic-Paudie station, on the Diamentina river ; 
then, turning southward, down the Diamentina Swamp to Clifton Hills, and thence up Cooper’s Creek to 
Innaminek.'i, amving there on June 16th. My rctimi jounicy began on the 18th, following down the Strze- 
lecki Creek to Mulligan Springs ; thence on to Blanchewater, Mount Lyndhurst, and Eeltana, arriving at 
the latter place on .July 7th, and Adelaide on the 10th. 
The chief objects of this jounicj’ were to a.scertain the extension from New South Wales into South 
Australia of the gold-bearing rocks of Mount Brown, and the Cretaceous formation in which artesian and 
other water has been found. The gold-bearing rooks were not found to extend across the border into South 
Australia, as far as could be ascertained. The Flinders Kango is the nearest point in this colony where rocks 
likely to proA'c auriferous outcrop, the intervening country being covered over with Cretaceous and Tertiary 
formations. Tlicre may, however, be some low outcrops occurring amongst the sandhills, but this is not 
very likely, and they cannot e.xist to any gi’eat extent. The extension of the Cretaceous and Tertiary area 
into this colony from New .South Wales and Queensland was proved along a dfstaiice of 225 miles of 
boundary of the former, and 300 miles of that of the latter colony. 
The accompanying sketch map and sections (vide 1558/83) are intended to show approximately the 
boundaries, thickness, and stratigraphical jiositions of the older mineral-bearing and the secondary and 
tertiary rocks. The hitter arc provisionally classed as of Cretaceous ago, pending the obtaining of further 
information from fossils and the discovery of older underlying beds over any portions of the area. The ages 
assi'’’ncd to the older rocks are in accordance with their similarity in composition and position to certain 
rocks in New South Males, 
Amnist 1st, 1883. IIFiNllY AL L. BROWN, Government Geologist. 
REPORT OX JOURNEY TO THE NORTH-EAST. 
Beltana to Thackaringa. 
From Beltana to AVirrielpa the road taken passes over mountainous country, attaining to an elevation of 
over 2 000 feet. The formation consists of quartzose sandstones and purple shales, with quartzose 
Lnnds resting on limestone, siliceous limestone, and limestone conglomerate, .shales, and flagstones. 
rVoPustone dykes are intruded, and come to the siu-face at several points on the eastern flank of 
the rann-e and elsewhere, and have uptilted and twisted the overlying rocks, throwing them into 
niimeroiis cimvcs and undulations, accompanied by faults and dislocations. Beds of hmestoue con- 
rWratc of recent age overlie the older slaty rocks in many places; they appear to Jt/t .due to 
hie cementation of gravel by lime contained in water from springs. Iravellmg on froin M irne pa to 
Tnntb’s Knob stony plains of loam, with scattered quartzose sandstone, limestone and ironstone pebbles are 
1 r>vi.r ' Bluish limestone frequently outcrops, and nodular limestone shows on the surface, together 
?vito ou ^z W The Tooth’s Knob Range is composed chiefly of the puiqile sluale and siincLstones, and 
a-inflstoiics. Goinp; southward from this range quartzose sandstone underlymg limestone is crowed 
diiniimr west followed by stony plains showing nodular limestone, pui-ple and gi-eenish shale aiid limestone 
C cAc ireous shalL, and blue limestone bands striking N.E. Near the Pasmore river there are some 
r^u^senrned hills of horizontal conglomerate on white and colored pipeclay. Between the Pasmore nver and 
p' ' ^nnii station there are similar shales, limcBtoncs, &c., for a short distance dipping beneath a wide 
Cuniamoona sta into New South \Vales. These same plains also continue southward to the 
v;/.!, cluster of hills lU’c composed of greenish clay slates and sandstones ; the country thence con- 
Stto/taw S a^fphins and undulatLs, the fvhole of wlLh is covered with quartz draft and ferrugmous 
A—No. 146- 
