STUDIES ON WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PERMIAN BRACHIOPODS 10. 
FAUNAS FROM THE WOORAMEL GROUP, CARNARVON BASIN 
N. W. Archbold 
Victoria College, Rusden Campus, 662 Blackburn Road, Clayton. Victoria 3168 
and Department of Geology, University of Melbourne. Parkville. Victoria 3052 
Archbold, N. W., 1991:12:31. Studies on Western Australian Permian brachiopods 10. 
Faunas from the Wooramel Group, Carnarvon Basin. Proceedings of the Royal Society 
of Victoria 103 (2): 55-66. ISSN 0035-9211. 
The brachiopod faunas from the One Gum and Billidee Formations of the Wooramel 
Group are reviewed and described. The new species Neochonetes (Sommeriella) hockingi is 
described and the Strophalosia jimbaensis zone is proposed for the faunas described herein. 
The age of the Strophalosia jimbaensis zone is discussed, with an Aktastinian (Early 
Artinskian) age being preferred. 
FOR MANY years there has been considerable 
debate about the stratigraphical and age signifi¬ 
cance of the Early Permian marine faunas from 
the Wooramel Group of the Carnarvon Basin. 
This study investigates the relatively small col¬ 
lections of variably preserved specimens from 
the dominantly arenaceous sections of the Woo¬ 
ramel Group sequence. A larger fauna from the 
Jimba Jimba Calcarenite Member will be docu¬ 
mented elsewhere, in view of some confusion 
over the recognition of this unit in the field (cf. 
Condon 1967. Hocking et al. 1987). 
STRATIGRAPHY 
The Permian stratigraphy of the Carnarvon 
Basin was extensively described by Condon 
(1967) on the basis of mapping by Bureau of 
Mineral Resources field parties, and was re¬ 
viewed and revised by Hocking et al. (1987) on 
the basis of mapping by Geological Survey of 
Western Australia field parties. Only the perti¬ 
nent stratigraphy concerning the Wooramel 
Group is summarised herein. 
^ The Wooramel Group was defined by 
Konecki et al. (1958: 28) as the predominantly 
arenaceous sequence, with few marine fossils, 
above the surface of the disconformity on top of 
the Callytharra Formation and conformably 
below the Byro Group. They divided the Group 
into three formations (the Nunnery Sandstone, 
One Gum Formation and Keogh Formation in 
ascending order) in the type locality region on 
the Wooramel River, Byro Sub-Basin. The Woo¬ 
ramel Group interval of sediments had pre¬ 
viously been recognised by such workers as 
Condit (1935), Condit et al. (1936), Raggatt 
(1936), Teichert (1952) and Condon (1954). 
McWhae et al. (1958) had access to the manu¬ 
script of Konecki et al. (1958) and were the first 
to cite the names of the formations proposed by 
Konecki et al. 
Other formations in the Wooramel Group 
were named or described by Condon (1954, 
1962a, 1962b, 1965) and in McWhae et al. 
(1958). Substantial simplification and revisions 
of the terminology of the Wooramel Group were 
proposed by van de Graaff et al. (1977) and 
Hocking et al. (1980). The collections described 
in the present study come from the One Gum 
Formation, Byro Sub-Basin (sensu Konecki et 
al. 1958, also Dickins 1956) and the Billidee For¬ 
mation of the Merlinleigh Sub-Basin (sensu 
Hocking et al. 1987). For convenience, these two 
stratigraphical names are used in this study. 
PREVIOUS FAUNAL STUDIES 
Most faunal studies involving the Wooramel 
Group assemblages have been based on field ob¬ 
servations or unpublished palaeontological re¬ 
ports (e.g. see Condon 1962a, 1967, Dickins 
1956, Cockbain 1979). On the basis of material 
observed and collected by Bureau of Mineral 
Resources field parties during the 1950s, 
Dickins (1963) was able to demonstrate that the 
bulk of the Wooramel Group was characterised 
by “rather unsatisfactory” material that ap¬ 
peared to be “closer to the older Fossil Cliff/ 
Nura Nura assemblage than to the younger 
fauna of the Byro Group” (Dickins 1963: 14). 
This was to characterise Stage C marine faunas 
of the Western Australian Permian sequences 
which were “marked by the absence rather than 
the presence of a marine fauna” (Dickins 1963: 
20 ). 
Dickins (1963: 14) also drew attention to the 
small bivalve and brachiopod fauna in the top- 
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