62 
shales, stated to contain four “ seams ” of u black coal.” These “ seams/' 
it is recorded, vary from 2 inches to 3ft. 4in., and when boring was discon¬ 
tinued the thickest “ seam ” had not been passed through.* 
A few hundred yards to the W.N.W. of Hedley railway station two shafts 
were sunk many years ago. The deeper shaft was originally a double com¬ 
partment one and slabbed, but it is now broken down at the surface and 
nearly full of water. It is said by Mr. Hy. Denham to have been sunk to 
a depth of about 90 feet, passing through some 12 feet of lignite, and, near 
the bottom, a small seam of black coal. For 8 feet, from The surface to the 
water-level, the deposits are bluish-grey and yellowish gritty and fine clays 
with fragments of lignitic material, and small patches of dark-blue clays. 
How much deeper the Cainozoic deposits continue could not be ascertained 
owing to the water. Amongst the debris lying around the mouth of the 
shaft can be seen fragments of bluish-grey felspathic and micaceous shales 
and sandstones, the latter being medium-grained, and containing black coal 
fragments. The greater part of the material, however, lying on the surface 
around has been quite disintegrated, and has crumbled into clay and loam. 
The fragments are those of Mesozoic rocks, and their occurrence here, and 
also further south, as disclosed by the bore, proves that the Jurassics, in 
this part of the district at any rate, extend well out under the Cainozoic 
plain. With respect to these u coal seams,” it is advisable to quote the 
remarks madef by Dr. A. Ii. C. Selwyn, the then Director of Mining and Geo¬ 
logical Surveys. He says :— u I have no details of the operations that have 
been conducted in the district by Dr. Hedley, with the exception of the 
particulars given me by him of a bore, 96ft. 6in. deep, put down under his 
superintendence, near the Nine Mile Creek, on the road from Alberton to 
Corner Inlet. A shaft was commenced under Dr. Hedley’s superintendence 
on the day I left the district, for the purpose of cutting the two seams of 
coal shown in the above section. When I last heard, the sinking had reached 
the so-called 2-ft. coal, which, however, proved to be only a mixture of 
black shale and coal, and not a workable seam. It is to be hoped that the 
3-ft. seam will be found, when reached, to be of better quality ; but evidence 
regarding it, the result of a bore alone, cannot, as I stated to Dr. Hedley 
at the time I visited the work, be relied on ; and it is therefore premature 
to offer an opinion on the character of the seam until it has been cut in the 
shaft. Should it realise Dr. Hedley’s anticipations as regards thickness and 
quality we may fairly assume that it will probably be found to extend over 
a very considerable area between the Franklin and Albert Fivers. . . .” 
A section of the bore referred to is published with his remarks. The shaft 
mentioned by Dr. Selwyn is probably identical with the deeper shaft near 
Hedley station, already referred to. In the following year an inspection of 
the locality was made by Mr. C. D'Oyly H. Aplin, who was acting as 
Director in Dr. Selwyn’s absence. In speaking of the boring for coal carried 
on by the South Gippsland Coal Prospecting Association in the neighbor¬ 
hood of the liiver Albert, he saysf :— u Two bores were put down in this 
locality, but although passing through beds belonging to the coal-bearing 
series of Victoria, they have not resulted in the discovery of any coal. The 
same may be said of the further operations carried on by boring at Dr. 
Hedley’s shaft, nearer Welshpool.” 
* The deep bore (2,102' 6") recently put down shows these records to be quite unreliable.— 
31.7.02. 
t Selwyn, Reports and Papers relative to the Mining and Geological Survey of Victoria, 
1863, p. 16. Papers presented to Parliament. 
X Selwyn, Report of the Director of the Geological Survey of Victoria for period from 
June, 1863, to September, 1864, p. 15. Papers presented to Parliament. 
