The Geological Evolution of Australia and New Zealand

426 Pages·1968·29.03 MB·English

by  D. A. Brown, K. S. W. Campbell and K. A. W. Crook (Auth.)

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THE
GEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
OF
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
by
D. A. BROWN
K. S. W. CAMPBELL
K. A. W. CROOK
All of Department of Geology, Australian National University, Canberra
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THE GEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF
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AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.
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Preface
KNOWLEDGE of the geology of the Australasian region has expanded apace
since the end of World War II as a result of two main factors—the extensive
programme of reconnaissance mapping being carried out by the Common­
wealth Bureau of Mineral Resources and the various State Geological Sur­
veys, and the 1:250,000 mapping project of the New Zealand Geological
Survey, on the one hand, and the increased activity of oil and mining com­
panies, particularly in geophysical and drilling work, on the other. All
phases of this work are still proceeding and no doubt will continue, perhaps
at an increasing rate. Consequently in a book of this kind, all that can
be offered is a single (and somewhat arbitrary) cross-section of a continuously
and rapidly developing spectrum of ideas. Many of the data that have been
collected are not yet available in published form, being either in oil company
files or awaiting publication by governmental agencies, so that some of the
opinions expressed here will have to be modified almost before the book is
published. Under such circumstances, publication at the present time needs
some justification.
This work is not intended to be a detailed compendium of the stratigraphy
of Australia and New Zealand, though it is hoped that it may in some mea­
sure meet the need for an up-to-date teaching aid in this field. It may, in
particular, be used to assist students to obtain a knowledge of the stratigraphy
of their own country, so as to supplement and illustrate the courses on
stratigraphie principles that have formed an increasing part of formal
teaching in stratigraphy in recent years. For Australia, it cannot, of course,
replace David and Browne's Geology of the Commonwealth of Australia as a
source of information. This excellent work, however, was issued in 1950
(and is now out of print), too early to incorporate the major post-war
advances in knowledge. Moreover, the State geology volumes being issued
by the Geological Society of Australia are in the nature of reference works
rather than textbooks, and to date there are none available for New South
Wales, Victoria, or the Northern Territory. Other works, such as The Geology
of Australian Ore Deposits and The Economic Geology of New Zealand, published
by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy for the Eighth
Commonwealth Mining and Metallurgical Conference, are concerned with
special aspects of Australasian geology.
vii
viii Preface
In so far as New Zealand is concerned, there is no modern text available
of a kind suitable for teaching the regional stratigraphy to undergraduate
students, though reference may be made to the valuable summaries accom­
panying the series of 1:250,000 geological maps now in process of publication.
Presumably teachers and students in overseas universities also have a need
for a textbook such as this at the undergraduate level, though it is hoped
that the method of presentation will make the subject matter intelligible
to the interested layman also. For the reason, too, that we expect the book
to be consulted by non-Australasians, we have used the metric system of
measurement throughout.
The task of compilation and interpretation of available data for the
Australian sections has been very laborious owing to the vast size of, and
vigorous activity in, the fields of geological investigation in the Common­
wealth. The almost daily changes in the geological picture, as new data
come from the host of exploratory ventures in the search for petroleum
alone, made the task especially difficult. We should like to pay a special
tribute here to all those officers of the Bureau of Mineral Resources who
gave much of their time in helpful advice and constructive criticism of our
work as it developed.
For New Zealand, the task was markedly more simple. The relatively small
country and the good coverage of geological mapping with a wealth of well-
founded interpretation and palaeogeographical reconstruction very greatly re­
duced the labour involved. Again, we make our acknowledgement of the great
assistance rendered by the officers of the New Zealand Geological Survey.
So far as is possible, we have tried to integrate the geological events in
both countries, drawing attention to the similarities and contrasts between
them. Indeed, some critics may find it difficult to justify such a treatment
when, on practically every count except geographical juxtaposition (if
one may use this term to describe the present separation of some 2000 km),
there is such a difference between these two lands. On the one hand, there
is a relatively stable coign of continental proportions, in a sense geologically
senile and sclerotic, and on the other, there is a small, seismically active
chain of mountains, recently emergent from the Pacific Ocean, géosynclinal
in nature for most of its decipherable history, a veritable Peter Pan of the
geological world. It is, however, this géosynclinal character that links
eastern Australia with New Zealand, separated as they now are by a broad
seaway, the bottom of which is apparently composed of oceanic crust. For
in Palaeozoic times, when the similarities in depositional events and faunas
between these two areas were most apparent, both were the sites of géosyn­
clinal troughs. Since then, however, the links have largely been severed as
the Tasman Orthogeosyncline of eastern Australia passed through orogenic
phases and became stabilized.
Preface ix
It will be seen that in general we have concentrated on the interpre­
tation, rather than on presentation, of the raw data. This is a consequence
of our belief that Geology is ultimately a history of the Earth, and as such
should be presented as a continuously unfolding narrative. In doing this
we have been acutely conscious of the inadequacy of the data on which
many of our interpretations have been based. But we believe that uninter-
preted data are of little value and that the method used imparts something
of the excitement and intellectual stimulus which is Geology.
It will be obvious that the emphasis of the book is on the stratigraphical,
sedimentological, and palaeontological aspects of our subject, this bias
reflecting our own research interests. We have not, however, ignored the
petrological or structural aspects, and wherever possible we have consulted
with our colleagues on these matters.
In an attempt to cover the ground as completely as possible we have not
only made use of published sources, but have also consulted (a) the Record
series of the Bureau of Mineral Resources which is on limited distribution,
and (b) the well completion reports of various oil companies in Australia
drilling with the aid of government subsidy. Certain unpublished theses,
which are acknowledged in the text, have also been consulted. We
are indebted to the authors of these for permission to quote their
works.
To acknowledge the individual help of our colleagues in the geological
fraternity of both Australia and New Zealand, would occupy a great deal
of space. We must therefore, apologize for acknowledging this invaluable aid
in a collective fashion. In addition to the staffs of the Bureau of Mineral
Resources and the New Zealand Geological Survey, we also extend our
grateful appreciation and thanks to our colleagues in the Departments of
Geology of various Commonwealth and Dominion universities, in the State
Geological Surveys, and in the C.S.I.R.O. Divisions of Land Research and
Soils. At the same time, we accept full responsibility for all statements and
interpretations made in this book.
In the Australian sections of the book, one author (K. S. W. C.) was res­
ponsible for the chapters on the Palaeozoic Systems and the marine portion
of the Tertiary System. Another (K. A. W. C.) wrote the Precambrian,
Mesozoic and Quaternary chapters and the account of the non-marine
Tertiary. The New Zealand sections were compiled by the third author
(D.A.B.).
In a book of this nature not every statement of fact or interpretation can
be documented. In general we have quoted only the lastest general work
that deals with a particular sequence. Furthermore the principal references
to each sequence or basin are generally quoted early in the discussion, and
are not again referred to. Data not available by January 1965 have not
X Preface
been included in the text figures, though data available up to January
1966 may be referred to in the text.
The recommendations of the Australian Code of Stratigraphie Nomenclature
(4th edition, 1964) and the practice of the New Zealand Geological Survey
have been followed in matters of stratigraphie nomenclature in this book.
The terminology of terrigenous sandy sediments used is a simplified form
ofthat published by Crook (1960).
MAPS
We have not included geological maps of Australia and New Zealand in
this volume, both for reasons of economy and because their inclusion would
duplicate unnecessarily the excellent publications of governmental authorities
which are readily available.
For Australia the most recent maps are the Tectonic Map of Australia
(1960) (scale 1:2,534,400), with explanatory notes, available from the
Director, Bureau of Mineral Resources, P.O. Box 378, Canberra City,
A.C.T. (price $A3.00), and the map Geology (2nd edition, 1966) in the
Atlas of Australian Resources, 2nd series (scale 1:6,000,000) available from
booksellers, or the Department of National Development, P.O. Box 850,
Canberra City, A.C.T. (price $A0.50).
For New Zealand, the New Zealand Geological Survey, P.O. Box 3681,
Lower Hutt, has produced the Geological Map of New Zealand (1958) on a
scale of 1:2,000,000 (price $NZ 0-50).
CHAPTER 1
The Precambrian Systems
ROCKS of Precambrian age outcrop over large areas of Australia, principally
in Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, and are
known from all States except Victoria. A wide variety of lithologies is
represented, including essentially unmetamorphosed sandstones, shales,
and dolomites, acid to basic volcanics and intrusives, and highly deformed
schists and gneisses of sedimentary and igneous derivation. Probably the
most striking feature of the Australian Precambrian is the widespread
occurrence of thick sequences of sedimentary and volcanic rocks, up to
about 2300 m.y. old, in a state of preservation comparable to that typical
of Phanerozoic shelf sequences.
Although attempts have been made in the past to systematize our know­
ledge of the Australian Precambrian, these have largely failed to stand the
test of time. Only now, principally as the result of a concerted effort of
regional mapping and radiometrie dating conducted by the Commonwealth
Bureau of Mineral Resources, the State Geological Surveys of South Australia
and of Western Australia, and the Department of Geophysics and Geochemis­
try, Australian National University, is a coherent, comprehensive, and
soundly based stratigraphie scheme emerging.
This scheme (Dunn et al., 1966), in summary, recognizes that a fourfold
time-stratigraphic subdivision of the Australian Precambrian is feasible. It
is based on a combination of radiometrie dates on selected sediments, vol­
canics, and some granites and metamorphics, lithological correlation using
characteristic successions of lithologies, and geotectonic evolution as marked
by certain widely occurring "tectono-magmatic events", involving the
initiation or renewal of deposition over large areas and widespread vol-
canism and intrusive activity.
The nomenclature of these time-rock units is still in a state of flux. Dunn
et al. (1966) use the term Archaean, and divide the Proterozoic into three
units, the senses of which differ from both overseas and earlier Australian
usages. A local nomenclature has therefore been proposed for the Proterozoic
systems in Australia and will be used herein. Rocks known to be older than
Proterozoic will be termed Archaean.
The Archaean in Australia has not yet been subdivided into time-rock
units. Of the Proterozoic systems the two youngest have been named and
1