14.—REPORT ON THE PROBABLE OCCURRENCE OF COAL IN 
THE WELSHPOOL DISTRICT. 
(By A. E. Kitson, F. G.S.) 
The country cursorily examined may be roughly described as parts of the 
parishes of Welshpool and Toora, extending from the northern shores of 
Corner Inlet to the spurs off Hoddle Range forming the southern portion of 
the watersheds of the Franklin and Agnes rivers, and Lamont’s, Shady, 
and Nine Mile creeks. 
The deposits noticed are placed in five general divisions :— 
1. The blown sandhills bordering Corner Inlet, and the marshy portions 
of the flats. 
2. The low messmate-covered sand rises and swelling ground running 
up to the ranges, and ascending the slopes for some distance. 
3. A small area of volcanic rock (basalt) occurring on a spur in the 
parish of Toora. 
4. Areas of limited extent of clays, sands, gravels, &c., capping the 
ridges in several places, and extending down into some of the 
valleys. 
5. The main mass of the ranges themselves. 
The formations taken in descending order of deposition are :— 
Post Pliocene. 
The deposits bordering the Inlet and the marshy portion of the flat country 
behind it consist of blown sand ridges, bearing coast honeysuckles ( Bctnksia) 
in fair number, and loam and mud flats, covered partly with mangroves and 
partly with ti-tree, reeds, &c. Near Welshpool the deposits are of no great 
extent, but thev widen considerablv towards Port Albert. 
Cainozoic. Miocene ? 
The low swells and gently rising country flanking the southern portion 
of the ranges, and timbered with messmate, yellow stringybark, and occasional 
bluegums—in the higher portions—consist of lignite, clays, clayey sands, 
sandy and ferruginous clays and grits, which run up to altitudes of between 
300 and 400 feet on the Hedley side of Welshpool railway station, though 
they are absent from the spurs adjacent to it on the Toora side. These beds 
are apparently of both marine and lacustrine or estuarine origin. In ascend¬ 
ing the slopes the deposits comprise various ferruginous sands, clays, and 
grits. No fossils of any kind have been recorded from them, and therefore 
their age is exceedingly doubtful. They are herein provisionally classed 
younger than beds to be mentioned later solely on the difference in elevation, 
which is between 200 and 300 feet. In general lithological character and 
succession of beds they appear to be portion of the same series. They may 
be unconformable, though still of Eocene ? age. 
On the plains, a short distance S.S.E. of Hedley railway station, a bore 
was put down by the South Gippsland Coal Prospecting Association, with 
Government aid, in 1862, to a depth of 96ft. 6in., and after passing, accord¬ 
ing to the records, through a Cainozoic covering of over 50 feet, comprising 
lft. 6in. of surface soil, 14 feet of light brown clay, 3 feet of “quartz sand,” 
20 feet of lignite, and 14 feet of “fire-clay,” struck Jurassic sandstones and 
