Abstract

Recent (and in part unpublished) coral and conodont studies in the better-known Devonian limestone sequences of New South Wales and Victoria indicate that widely held views in eastern Australian Devonian correlations require substantial revisions. Evidence for the relationship of these sequences to overseas type sections is critically reviewed, and, for each, new data are presented which modify earlier interpretations. Principal changes in classification are:—

1) Nemingha Limestones, northern N.S.W. — early Gedinnian.

2) Coopers Creek Formation, central Victoria — early Siegenian.

3) Lilydale Limestone, Melbourne district, Victoria — early Siegenian.

4) “Waratah” and Bell Point Limestones, Waratah Bay, Victoria — early Siegenian and late Siegenian (? early Emsian) respectively.

5) Buchan Group, eastern Victoria — late Siegenian ? to early Emsian.

6) Murrumbidgee Group, southern N.S.W. — late Siegenian ? to late Emsian.

7) Part of the Timor Limestone, Tamworth Group, northern N.S.W. — Eifelian.

8) Moore Creek Limestone and part of the Timor Limestone, Tamworth Group, northern N.S.W. — late Eifelian.

9) Upper part of the Timor Limestone, Tamworth Group — Givetian.

Other Devonian limestones successions in New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania are correlated with this scheme of classification, and a table of correlation based on a zonal succession of faunas (given in detail elsewhere) is presented. The better-known Devonian limestone sequences of Queensland are briefly discussed and related to this scheme of correlation.