Part I. deals with Devonian coral faunas from the West Kimberleys, the East Kimberleys, and the Carnarvon Basin of Western Australia. Of the 30 species described and illustrated from the West Kimberley's, 22 are from the Pilbara Limestone, and of these fifteen are from the main (lower) part of the Limestone of Givetian age, but there are five from the Atrypa beds of Teichert which the Bureau of Mineral Resources equates with the upper part of the Pillara Limestone and which may be late Givetian or possibly Frasnian; one Disphyllurn occurs in Atrypa beds referred by Teichert to Oberdevonstufe (Frasnian). This Pillara Limestone fauna (lower and upper) is dominated by Disphyllum with Hexagonaria, Thamnopora, and Alveolites also important. The overlying Mount Pierre Group, of Frasnian (Oberdevonstufe I) and early Famennian (ll and III) age, and the Bugle Gap Limestone (IV), have a strikingly different fauna mostly of small slender solitary corals. A new genus of Rugosa, Catactotoechus, type, species C. irregularis sp. nov., is described and figured. The East Kimberley corals are the Upper Devonian Palaeosmlia contexta sp. novo and Syringopora patula Hinde. From the Carnarvon Basin only four species are known, all from the Gneudna Formation; the genera to which they belong are those dominant and characteristic in the Pillara Limestone of the West Kimberleys, and in upper Givetian and early Frasnian faunas elsewhere, so that the Gneudna Formation Is probably of this age; the lack of identical species between the Carnanon and Kimberley Basins may be due to differences of province rather than time. The Western Australian Givetian coral faunas contain no species in common with those of eastern Australia, and many of the genera characteristic in eastern Australia, such as Endophyllum,, Sanidophyllum, and Heliolitcs, are absent in Western Australia. Part II deals with fragmentary coral material from the Silurian limestone, near Kiandra, southern New South Wales, including Halysites brevicatenatus sp. nov.; only two species are identified with previously described Australian forms, but the age indicated is probably Wenlockian, possibly Ludlovian.

Legacy product - no abstract available

Legacy product - no abstract available

Legacy product - no abstract available

Legacy product - no abstract available

The uranium prospect at Coronation Hill is situated on the south side of the valley of the South Alligator River, 75 miles from the town of Pine Creek, from which it is accessible by trucks in the dry season. The surface showings consist of discontinuous exposures of autunite over an area approximately 400 feet square upon the north-eastern corner of Coronation Hill, an isolated feature within the river-valley. The rocks present are of Proterozoic age. Mineralization is found within two deeply-weathered members of a sedimentary-volcanic complex which forms the basal member of the Upper Proterozoic: the rocks of the prospect may be in part of Lower Proterozoic age. Sulphide mineralization accompanied by a secondary uranium mineral has been found at one point by diamond drilling: the sulphides are principally pyrite and the nickel sulphide bravoite. Mineralization is associated with a partly crushed and highly altered zone adjacent to a mass of Upper Proterozoic sandstone which overlaps the older and lower rocks. The structure is imperfectly understood and the control over mineralization has not been established. Development work, including costeaning, pitting, diamond drilling (1006 feet in two holes) and geophysical surveys (Radiometric, magnetic and electrical) has found no mineralization of economic grade, although it has shown the presence of alteration and sulphide mineralization which indicate that the full potentialities of the prospect have not yet been determined. Further work sufficient to complete preliminary exploration would require a minimum of 2500 feet of diamond drilling on underground operations at least equivalent to 1000 feet of drifting and crosscutting. Diamond drilling is somewhat preferable, since it can reach more deeply below the weathered zone. Only after completion of this additional work can it be determined whether or not the prospect is of economic value.

This report summarises the activities of the Geophysical Section of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics of the Department of National Development in so far as the magnetic secular variation at stations under its control is concerned. It is a continuation of previous reports submitted to the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, the last of which covered activities during the years 1948-51.

Report on the activities of the administrative and technical sections in the Katherine-Darwin area, to March, 1954. A brief account is given of geological and geophysical operations. The results of prospecting and field work are summarised.

Operations of the Radioactive Section have been restricted during this quarter due to the "wet" season and lack of staff. Drilling operations at the Ella Creek Prospect were completed and operations commenced at the Edith River Prospect. No encouraging results were disclosed at either prospect. Other work has been limited to inspection of reported new discoveries and geophysical work in the Rum Jungle area.

In 1944, while Mr. H. B. Owen, geologist of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, was travelling by road from Port Lincoln, South Australia, to Norseman, Western Australia, he collected specimens of the Tertiary rocks for micropalaeontological examination. A detailed report on these samples has never been put on record, but, as the area is now being investigated for the possibility of oil accumulation, the samples have been examined and this report prepared. Some interesting observations made by Mr. Owen during the trip are incorporated here. The most important results of the micropalaeontological examination of these limestones are: 1. The discovery of extensive deposits of upper Eocene age both in outcrop and in subsurface sections; 2. The similarity of the upper Eocene to lower Miocene stratigraphical sequence in the coastal area of the Nullarbor Plains with that found in portion[s] of the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia, in the Adelaide Basin, South Australia, in north-western Victoria, and in the Torquay area, central southern Victoria.