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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 67 (1983)

Issue: 9. (September)

First Page: 1454

Last Page: 1454

Title: Geology of Principal Australia Coals and Coal Basins: A Review: ABSTRACT

Author(s): Aureal T. Cross

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

Bituminous or subbituminous coals are known from nearly all parts of Australia. Those of greatest economic importance today are found in the Permian and Triassic Bowen and Galilee basins of Queensland and the Sydney-Bowen basin of New South Wales, with some coalfields of lesser significance in the Clarence-Moreton basin in Queensland and New South Wales. The lesser known fields also include the Permian Collie coalfield and Perth (Permian-Cretaceous) and Canning (Permian-Triassic) basins of Western Australia; the Bonaparte basin (Permian), mostly offshore in the Darwin area of Northern Territory and Western Australia; the shallow Permian coals of the large Arckaringa basin, and the smaller Triassic-Jurassic Leigh Creek basin in South Australia; the Early Cretaceous of the ippsland basin, Victoria; and the Permian and Triassic coals of the Tasmania basin, particularly the Fingal area. Structural, sedimentary, and paleobiologic features of the coal-bearing strata and regional trends of various coal characteristics of some of the principal economic or geologically interesting basins and coals are reviewed and illustrated. These include the Hail Creek syncline, Goonyella, Peak Downs, German Creek, Blackwater, Baralaba, Tolmeis and Moura Mines of the Bowen basin of Queensland and the unique Blair Athol mine at the far western edge of Bowen basin. In New South Wales these include the Hunter Valley area Singleton Coal Measures represented by the Foyebrook-Liddell Seam and Ravensworth mines; the Newcastle area; the Ulan Seam of the Goulburn Valley area; the weste n shelf area and Sydney-Wollongong region represented by the Illawarra (Permian) Coal Measures which are overlain by the thick Triassic Narrabean Series, Hawksbury Sandstone, and Wianamatta Group. A paleobiologic analysis of the thick brown coal sequences in the Yallourn, Latrobe Valley, and Bacchus Marsh areas of Victoria, and the significance of tectonics in the development of these great coal swamps will be reviewed.

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