A number of selected specimens from the Tennant Creek mining field were submitted for examination by N.J. McMillan. The object was to investigate the possibility that the talc in the area was derived by the metamorphism of ultrabasic rocks.

This report covers gravity survey work conducted by Century Geophysical Corporation for Magellan Petroleum Corporation during the period 1st July to 31st December 1959. The survey was made following an aeromagnetic survey. The gravity survey was intended to corroborate the magnetic interpretation; to provide further information as regards depth to basement and fault systems; and to indicate structural "highs" which could then be more precisely delineated by seismic reflection methods. Gravity values were observed and plotted over the area surrounding Winton, Queensland. Both the gravity survey and the aeromagnetic survey indicate a fault or fault zone across the area. In an appendix by the Bureau of Mineral Resources, it is stated that a seismic profile crossing this zone indicates that this zone is either a fault or a monoclinal fold. Magellan Petroleum Corporation are planning to deepen the water bore at Corfield, and if this does not provide sufficient information regarding the deeper rocks, a further stratigraphic test will be drilled at Winton.

Mollusca from the Nanutarra Formation, a recently defined strata! unit cropping out along the north-eastern edge of the Carnarvon Basin of Western Australia, are described and the age of the' formation is discussed. The fossils occur largely as moulds of the original shells, so that their study has been based mainly on artificially prepared casts. Of about 48 forms recorded in the paper, only one (Pseudavicula anomala) has been definitely referred to a previously described species, four (Maccoyella aff. corbiensis. M. aff. barklyi, M. aff. moorei, and Modiolus aff. ensi/ormis) have been assigned qualified identifications with known species, and 18 are described as new; the remainder have been given only generic identifications, owing to the limitations of the material. The new species are as follows:-Nuculana hoelscheri, Glycymeris mckellari, Pacitrigonia? nanutarraensis, Pterotrigonia australiensis, "[socyprina" fairbridgei, "Corbicellopsis," nanutarraensis, Lucina macroporum, Mutiella? teicherti, Protocardia wapeti, Astarte (Nicaniella) mcwhaei, Eriphyla playjordi, Pleuromya ashburtonensis, Panopea glaessneri. CQrbula nanutarraensis, Muricotrochus? australiensis, Purpurina? yanreyensis, Procerithium (Rhabdocolpus) brunnschweileri, and" Acteonina" australiensis. Apart from the species of Pseudavicula, Maccoyella, and Modiolus, which have been identified, mostly with qualification, with Australian Lower Cretaceous species, the fossils bearing particularly on the age of the formation are those belonging to the genera Pterotrigonia (hitherto solely Cretaceous apart from one record from the Tithonian), Eriphyla (hitherto mainly Cretaceous, but known from the Upper Jurassic), Glycymeris (known from the Cretaceous but not from the Jurassic), and large Panopea (resembling several Cretaceous species and unlike any from the Jurassic). No species belongs to an exclusively Jurassic group. It is concluded that, notwithstanding palaeobotanical evidence of a Jurassic age, the Nanutarra Formation should be most probably referred to the Lower Cretaceous. It has yielded no ammonites or brachiopods.

Legacy product - no abstract available

Legacy product - no abstract available

Legacy product - no abstract available

Between February and April 1961 the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics made a seismic survey in the Rosedale area of the Latrobe Valley, partly at the request of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria to provide more information about the brown coal measures in this area, and partly in order to test the Bureau's latest seismic recording equipment. One traverse, combining both reflection and refraction profiling techniques, was run south from the A.P.M. No.1 bore at Rosedale as far as Merrimans Creek, and a second traverse was run west from the bore as far as Toongabbie. Results show that the maximum thickness of the Tertiary sequence is about 3000 ft and that it thins gradually to 1000 ft at Toongabbie and rapidly to about 750 ft on the Baragwanath Anticline. It is shown that early Tertiary deposits were laid over the whole area but have been uplifted and partly eroded in late Tertiary or post-Tertiary times in the Toongabbie and Baragwanath areas, but the main syncline sank and accumulated thick Tertiary sediments. Results show alao that on the northern flank of the Baragwanath Anticline where crossed by the seismic lines the Tertiary and Jurassic sediments are steeply folded but not necessarily faulted. No positive information was obtained below 4500 ft but long refraction shots suggest that a high-velocity basement does not exist at a depth less than 12,000 ft.

The Canning Basin is the largest sedimentary basin in Western Australia, and the second largest basin in Australia. Excluding the seaward extension of the basin on the Rowley Shelf, and the southern part of the basin, south of Lat. 24° S, which are unknown, its area is 175,000 square miles, roughly the size of Spain. The sediments overlie a Precambrian basement, which in most areas consists of crystalline rock (gneiss, schist), and in the north-eastern part of unaltered sedimentary rocks. The Bureau started field work in the Canning Basin in 1947 and continued every year up to 1958. This work was carried out by geological parties equipped with land vehicles (1947-56) and with a helicopter (1957), by seismic and gravity parties, by an airborne magnetic party, and by a stratigraphical drilling party (1955-58). All work was based on air photographs, at a scale of 1:50,000, prepared by the R.A.A.F. This bulletin incorporates the results of all these surveys. The main published material is: Traves, Casey, & Wells (1957),* Guppy, Lindner, Rattigan, & Casey (1958), and Brunnschweiler (1954 and 1957). Geophysical work is described in unpublished records. Fossils collected by Bureau parties in the Fitzroy Basin have been the subjects of several monographs, which have been published by the Bureau. The first study of plant fossils from the Canning Basin is by White (Appendix 6). 4-mile geological series maps and explanatory notes have been published for Derby, Lennard River, Mount Anderson, Noonkanbah, Yarrie, Anketell, Paterson Range, and Tabletop; and maps and explanatory notes of Mount Bannerman, Billiluna, Lucas, Cornish, and Stansmore will be published shortly. Other major reports on the area are included in McWhae, Playford, Lindner, Glenister, & Balme (1958), Reeves (1951), and the numerous papers published by Teichert (1941, 1947, 1949, and 1950). The first attempt at compiling a geology of the Canning Basin was made by Reeves (1949, unpubl.). Photographic cover extends to 24° S, and the examination of the basin south of 24° S is postponed until air photographs are prepared. This Bulletin thus deals with the (greater) part of the Canning Basin that lies north of 24° S.

The R502 series of maps has been replaced by the National Topographic Map Series (NTMS). The R502 series consists of 542 map sheets and covers Australia at a scale of 1:250,000. It was compiled from aerial photography, but only about one quarter of the series was contoured. The standard sheet size is 1 degree of latitude by 1.5 degrees of longitude. Transverse Mercator map projection and Clark 1858 datum were used. Coverage of the country was completed in 1968.

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