Contents: 1. Some early cretaceous plant microfossils from Queensland/ by D. Burger. 2. Palynological observations in the Officer Basin, Western Australia/by E.M. Kemp.

The Pelean type of volcanic eruption, with its swift and deadly cloud of hot, gas-charged particles, was first brought to the attention of a horrified world in 1902, when 29,000 people perished in a few minutes in the morning of May 8th, at St. Pierre on Martinique in the West Indies, only sixteen hours after an eruption of the same type at La Soufriere on nearby St. Vincent had killed 1,650 of the inhabitants and devastated a large area of that island. These eruptions were described by Lacroix, Hovey, Anderson, Flett, and others, and since then several eminent vulcanologists have studied and reported on this fortunately fairly rare type of volcanic activity and the phenomena associated with it. Notable amongst these later works are Fenner's description of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes at Mt. Katmai in Alaska, Perret's masterly analysis of the eruptions of Mont Pelee in 1929-32, and the work Stehn and Neumann van Padang in the East Indies. The Mt. Lamington eruption which is the subject of this bulletin is one of the most outstanding examples of the Pelean type of eruption that has occurred in historic times. It was remarkable both as a: manifestation of volcanic violence and because of the character and calibre of the observations that were subsequently made. The area had no volcanic history; local native folk lore contained no legend of eruption, nor were any surface expressions of volcanic activity known in the area. Mt.Lamington was not merely regarded as extinct-it was not even considered as a volcano at all. The presence of a crater had not been recognized-it had never been examined by a geologist-and, being completely open on the northern side, it appeared only as one of the heads of the stream system of the Ambogo river, which rises in a series of rugged hills. It is doubtful if the violence of the eruption itself has been exceeded in modern times by any observed Pelean-type eruption, although Mount Pelee had a more impressive record of human destruction, owing to the particularly vulnerable position of the town of St. Pierre with respect to the crater. Opportunities for recording the phenomena associated with the Mt. Lamington eruption were exceptional: the main outburst was observed and photographed from a passing aircraft at close (almost too close) quarters. A qualified vulcanologist began recording events on the spot barely 24 hours after the main explosion, and observations were continuous from then onwards. A sensitive seismograph was installed at Sangara plantation, 8t miles from the crater, within eighteen days of the eruption. Skilfully manned aircraft were available for daily inspection, photography and recording of crater phenomena and dome growth. The full co-operation and support of the administrative authorities were accorded throughout the investigation to vulcanologist Taylor and the other scientists associated with him. Several reliable observers living 8 to 10 miles from the crater survived the blast and provided details of the eruption and of pre-eruption events. The author of this Bulletin, who combines a fearless devotion in the field to his fascinating but unruly subject with a considerable talent for narrative writing, has supplemented his detailed observations of the progress of the eruptive series with painstaking analysis of a mass of seismograph and other records. The results presented in this Bulletin constitute an important contribution to the literature of volcanoes and volcanic processes.

Standard curves for interpretation of the magnetic anomalies due to spheres have been derived. The anomalies in the vertical component, and the horizontal component in the direction of the traverse, are each found to be represented by a single family of curves. The horizontal component is found to be not represented by a single family, and separate curves for each field inclination and traverse azimuth are presented. Curves for the anomaly in the total intensity were not computed.

Most of the Carboniferous brachiopods (excepting productoids and rhynchonellids) so far collected from the Carnarvon, Canning (Fitzroy), and Bonaparte Gulf Basins of Northwest Australia are described. The faunas of the Bonaparte Gulf Basin are the least well represented. Six Carboniferous brachiopod zonal assemblages are distinguished: two of Tournaisian, one of late Tournaisian. to possibly Visean, two of Visean and one of late Visean to possibly Namurian age. The described faunas include species of Rhipidomella, Leptagonia, Schellwienella, Schuchertella, Rugosochonetes?, Prospira, Unispirifer, Spirifer, Anthracospirifer, Ectochoristites?, Brachythyris, Kitakamithyris, Torynifer?, Syringothyris, Punctospirifer, Cleiothyridina, Composita, and an unnamed new spiriferid genus. At least 23 species are new. Affinities with world-wide Dinantian faunas are suggested for the majority. The brachiopods are distributed through the Moogooree Limestone and Yindagindy Formations of the Carnarvon Basin, the Laurel Formation of the Fitzroy Basin, and the Burt Range Formation, Enga Sandstone, Septimus Limestone, Utting Calcarenite, Burvill Beds and Point Spring Sandstone of the Bonaparte Gulf Basin. Four Permian spiriferacean species are also described from the Carnarvon and Canning Basins. They comprise the Sakmarian Lyons Group species Trigonotreta narsarhensis occidentalis subsp. nov., and Cyrtella nagmargensis australis subsp. nov., and the Artinskian Pseudosyringothyris dickinsi sp. novo from the Callytharra Formation and Pseudosyrinx? sinuosa sp. novo from the Madeline Formation. The species support a correlation of the Lyons Group with the Umaria beds of India, part of the Agglomeratic Slate of Kashmir, and early Permian beds of Arabia. Boreal affinities are suggested for P. dickinsi sp. Novo Generic morphological features are discussed. Points of interest include the composite nature of the dental plates in Schellwienella, the initial dental plates of certain Spiriferidae, the adductor muscle attachment function of the syrinx in Syringothyris and the adductor muscle scars on the delthyrial plate in Pseudosyringothyris. The taxonomy of certain families is discussed, notably the Syringothyridae.

The Herberton/Mount Garnet area is situated in north Queensland, southwest of Cairns (Fig. 1). It is bounded by latitudes 17°15'S and 17°45'S, and by longitudes 145°00'E and 145°30'E, and comprises 2885 sq km. The area is covered by the Herberton and Mount Garnet 1-mile Military map sheets, and lies within the Atherton 1:250,000 Sheet area. Almost the whole of the productive part of the Herberton Tinfield* is covered by the two 1-mile map sheets.

Conodonts of Ludlovian-Gedinnian age from the Yass Basin of New South Wales are described. The fauna consists of 61 species referable to 24 genera of which one, Coryssognathus, is new. Four conodont assemblage zones are recognized and correlated with classic Ludlovian-Gedinnian zones of Europe; two faunas, one of probable latialatus Zone age and the other of probable woschmidti Zone age, have also been recovered. Reworked Ludlovian conodonts from Devonian conglomerates at the top of the Yass succession are also described.

BULLETIN 116 is a collection of palaeontological papers,1968

The systematic part of this paper is the continuation of my study (bpik, 1958) of the anatomy and concept of the genus Redlichia, presented on the basis of Redlichia forresti from the Negri Group of Western Australia, Redlichia idonea from the Yelvertoft Beds of Queensland, and some other, then unnamed, species. At that time (op. cit., p. 36) the taxonomy of the species was reserved for the future. This paper serves a double purpose-first, in presenting such speciestaxa as can be established from selected and properly preserved material, and second, in establishing a sequence of informal 'biostratigraphic operational units' in advance of a scale of Ordian zones. Such a scale of zones would be premature in view of the difference between the specific composition of Redlichia in Queensland and in the Northern Territory, and because of the incompleteness of data regarding the vertical distribution and specific taxonomy of Redlichia in many sites of the Territory, and the numerous undescribed other fossils of the Ordian of Australia. The fossils are kept in the Museum of the Bureau of Mineral Resources and the specimen numbers (CPC) refer to the Commonwealth Palaeontological (type) Collection.

The Upper Devonian to Lower Carboniferous Drummond Basin sequence crops out over an area of approximately 25 000 km2 , mainly west but also east of the Anakie Inlier in east-central Queensland. The Drummond Basin is a structural remnant of a large intermontane depositional basin that developed in the Tasman Geosynclinal zone after the Tabberabberan Orogeny. It received up to 12 000 m of predominantly fluviatile sediments which were transported into the basin by a northerly flowing river system. There may have been some marine incursions. Basement to the basin consists of early Palaeozoic slightly metamorphosed sediments and granite. Sedimentation in the Drummond Basin ceased at the onset of the Kanimblan orogenic event, during which the sequence was folded and uplifted to form a structural high shedding detrital material into the Bowen and Galilee Basins.

The Solomon Sea is a semi-enclosed oceanic basin bordered by technically active land masses: its morphology is dominated by an arcuate trough, the New Britain Trench, which bounds the basin on its northern side and is over 8000 metres deep. Density of soundings is sufficient to reveal a large scale left-lateral displacement near the western end of the New Britain Trench; this appears to be a continuation of the onshore Markham-Ramu Lineament. The same structure controls the position of the Markham submarine canyon, which is the major conduit feeding sediment to the ocean basin. No continental shelf is developed along the northern margin of the Huon Gulf owing to the strong and continuing uplift of the Huon Peninsula, which lies within the Northern New Guinea Arc structural province. South of Lae, however, a narrow continental shelf is present. Seismic reflection profiles reveal that this shelf is a geologically young constructional feature, composed in its upper levels of a coalescing series of deltaic deposits. In some areas these can be seen resting directly on non-sedimentary basement. Several submarine canyons cross the shelf and each is closely related to a large river onshore. The seismic records clearly show truncation of strata by the canyon walls: however, it is postulated that upgrowth of the shelf around the canyons, with occasional slumping along the rims, as well as axial downcutting by abrasive sediment flowage, have controlled the formation of the canyons. Their steep axial gradients, which average about 5° compared with the shelf surface which slopes seaward at only 1°, are taken to indicate that the canyons were initiated before the Pleistocene and have maintained their courses during the upward and outward growth of the deltaic deposits forming the present day continental shelf.