COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA.

DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

BUREAU OF MINERAL RESOURCESGEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS.

RECORDS:

/74‘ 7-/V

The information contained in this report has been obtained by theDepartment of National Development, as part of the policy of the Common-wealth Government, to assist in the exploration and development of mineralresources. It may not be published in any form or used in a companyprospectus without the permission in writing of the Director, Bureau ofMineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics.

A PALYNOLOGICAL REPORT ON A .7 0,,G. WENTWORTH NO. 1 N.S.W.WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE PERMIAN,OF THE OAKLANDS COORABIN

__-AREA OF THE MURRAY BASIN

by

P.R. Evans

RECORDS NO. 1962/4

CONTENTS 1.224g2.

SUMMARY^ 1

OBSERVATIONS ON WENTWORTH NO. 1^ 2

OBSERVATIONS ON THE OAKLANDS-COORABIN COALFIELD^

3REFERENCES^

6

TABLE^

5

The information contained in. this report has beenobtained by the Department of National Development,as part of the policy of the Commonwealth Govern-ment, to assist in the exploration and developmentof mineral resources.^It may not be published inany form or used in a company prospectus without thepermission in writing of the Director, Bureau ofMineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics.

LOCALITY MAPA.O.G. WENTWORTH No.1

Scale/00 /00 200 Mlles

i■••1[^ 1...4

BASIN

Wentworth Nol

{YentworthMild ura.

MURRAY

—N

ADELAIDE •s/CoorabinOaklands

aureou Of Mineral Resources, Geology ond Geophysics. Dec.19611, 541 1 1

A PALYNOLOGICAL REPORT ON A.O.G. WEETWORTli NO.1 N.S.W.WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE PERMIAN OF THE COORi.BIN - OAKLANDS

APPA OF THE MUTZAY BASIN

by

P.R. Evans

Records No. 1962/4

SUMMARY

Palynological examination of cores and cuttings fromthe subsidised A.O.G. Wentworth No.1 well, Murray Basin, NewSouth Wales, indicates that the well passed from Tertiary intoLower Cretaceous marine sediments at either 1283 - 1335 feet or1407 - 1455 feet and into probable Lower Permian beds at 1615 - 1645feet.^The well was completed in conglomerates, probably also •of Lower Permian age, at a total depth of 2081 feet. Examinationof samples from the Oaklands - Coorabin coalfield, to obtain aguide to the age of the lore-Mesozoic section of Wentworth No.1,demonstrated that the coal measures are equivalent in age to theUpper Coal Measures of the Sydney Basin, that they overlie LowerPermian (?)marine beds which, by virtue of their common contentof Leiosphaeridae, compare in age with the Wentworth Permian section.

Sketch map of the Murray Basin illustrating the location of A.O.G. Wentworth No.1 INJI1 and the

Oaklands - -norabin coalfield

-2

OBSERVATIONS ON WENTWORTH NO.1

Table 1 (p. 5 ) illustrates the distribution of pollens,spores and microplankton in samples examined from Wentworth No.1well.

Tertiary

The microfloras of samples containing abundant angio-.

sperm pollens, including common Nothofagus (Cookson, 1946, 1959),have not been logged completely as the presence of such pollensis sufficient to indicate a Tertiary age.

Mesozoic - Lower Cretaceous

The highest undoubted Lower Cretaceous sample examinedwas from 1455 - 1460 feet which contained Cicatricosis oritesaustraliensisi Granulatisporites dailyi, Apicu a isporis wonthaggiensis (Cookson & Dettmann, 1958). The presence of raredinoflagellates indicates a marine origin for the section.Odontochitina operculata at 1553 - 1563 feet and Gonyaulax cf.G. edwardsi at 1604 - 1615 feet suggest that beds of approximatelyTlbian age are represented.

The position of the top of this unit is still debatableon palynological evidence. Cuttings at 1335 - 1345 feet and1397 - 1407 feet contained a low relative abundance of pollens and.spores, including Nothofagus, triporate app,, but few angiospermspecies were represented and the greater abundance of Cyathidites spp., Podocar idites spp., associated with Lycopodiumsporites austroclavidi es suggests, but does not prove, that the angio-sperms may have come from cavings and that Lower Cretaceous bedsmay have been cut at these horizons. The Lower Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary may therefore lie above 1335 feet and below1283 feet, the lowest definite Tertiary sample. More satis-factory evidence of the position of the boundary is needed.

Palaeozoic - (?)Lower Permian

Cores 4, 5 and 6 (1760 - 2021 feet) were cut fromgrey-white to light grey very fine grained shales and siltstoneswhich are well graded in many places. Samples chosen from thefiner fractions of such graded beds contained swarms ofLeiosphaeridae with virtually no other organic debris. Mostspecimens were of crumpled spheres with smooth tests, some witha pylom. In a number of specimens punctae passed radiallythrough their relatively thick walls. This is a featurecharacteristic of Tasmanites Newton, although the average dia-meter of the tests was smaller than that of described speciesof the genus.

sediment. Alone they are not indicators of the age of the

It is uncertain whether a marine environment ofdeposition is represented by the leiosphaerid swarms, althoughEisenack (1958) favoured such an association; supporting hisattitude is the occurrence of marine fossils in the Tasmanites-bearing shales of Tasmania (Reid, 1924, p.46).

Spores were found only in core 4 (1760 - 1769 ft. 6 in.)and the presence of a specimen of Nuskoisporites triangularisis probably sufficient to indicate a Permian age for thathorizon. Evidence from the Oaklands - Coorabin area (below )suggests that a Lower Permian (Sakmarian) section might havebeen penetrated.^L definite age cannot be given to the wholesection because of the apparent lack of spores from the lowercores, but the persistence of Leiosphaeridae 2 the presence inthe conglomeratic section sampled by core 7 (2n71 - 2081 feetof graded bedding similar to that in higher cores, suggestthat the sediments at the bottom of the well were associatedwith those of core 4 so that they were also or only a littleolder than Lower Permian in age.

Leiosphaerids were present in cuttings at 1645 - 1656 feetso that, unless they have been reworked, the top of the(?)Permian unit lies between 1615 and 1645 feet.

OBSERVATIONS ON TIE OAYLANDS - C00-2ABIN COALFIELD

As so little is known of the pre-Mesozoic of theMurray Basin the only section immediately available in the Bureauof Mineral Resources with which the Palaeozoic section ofWentworth No.1 could be compared was that of the Permian of theOaklands - Coorabin Coalfield.

Sturmfels (195C) summarized available knowledge of thecoalfield where coal seams containing a Permian macroflora(Walkholm ident.) underlie (?)Tertiary beds and overlie anunknown thickness of sediments, at the top of which Permian foram-inifera had been found (Crespin, 1943). Only a few samples,some inadequately labelled, from bores in the Oaklands arearemain in the B.M.R. museum. However, all thase examined con-tained abundant micro-organisms in which two distinct assemblageswere recognized.

The upper assemblage is associated with the coalmeasures and was recognized in samples from bore D and E(Sturmfels, 1950, P.2; P1.3, sections A - B, C - D). Forexample:

Bore E, 345 - 352 feet, contained,Leiotriletes directus,Acanthotriletes ericianus,A. teretagngulatus,Granulatisporites trisinus,G. micronodosus,Nuskoisporites tria.,Ezularis,Vesicaspora ovata,lunatis.orites .212aplus,una ispori,es IIE517us,

Miatopodocarpidites fusus,Marsupipollenitei=uosus,M. triradiatus 4

4-

-4-

Bore D, "shale below coal seam", i.e. either 290 - 314feet 6 in. or 344 - 360 feet included,

Leiotriletes directus,Calamos ora dT7FFETTOrmis,.7Fau a is oiliTeThisinus,1Cantho ri e - 67—Teretean ulatus,MicrocFa-ICUITTis orites bitrianularis,7TFETFIFgai es sp endens, -17177577STFIF7F—triangularis,Lunatis.orites amplus,L. urn idus,ariatopodocarpidites fusus,Striatites cancellatus,Protosacculina muliITTriatus,Warsupipollenites sinuosus.

Both assemblages suggest similar ages for the samplescomparable with that of the Upper Coal Measures (Balme &Hennelly, 1956) rather than the Lower Coal Measures of theSydney Basin.

The lower assemblage came from Bore J, 384 feet, thehorizon at which I.Crespin discovered foraminifera. The sporeassemblage consisted of abundant Nuskoisporites triangularisand common Vestigisporites spp.^Granulatis orites trisinus and. Laevigatosporites sp. were also present. Iiiddition tothe spores a number of specimens of Leiosphaeridae were present,identical to those from Wentworth No.1.

A very similar assemblage was found in the light greysilty shale from either bore no.4 or bore no.5 at (?)509 feetwhere, additional to the bore J species, Cirratriradites sp.and Punctatisporites gntensis were also present. The actualstraTigraphic position ofthis sample cannot be determined onexternal evidence and it is mentioned only to confirm thepersistence of this lower assemblage in the area. (If thesample was stratigraphically lower than the coal seams, it couldnot have been taken from bore no.5, 509 feet, because the borewas still above the coals at that depth, but it could havecome from bore no.4).

The age of the lower assemblage cannot be determined withcertainty, but the absence of species such as Marsupipollenites sinuosus, Microreticulatis orites bitrian laris, and of Abundantstriate bisaccate pollens that ,oget,er cnarac eriseArtinskian and post-Artinskian beds and the recognitioh ofabundant Nuskoisporites comparable with the Lake Phillipson boreSouth Australia, 430 - 730 feet, (Balme, 1957) strongly suggestthat the containing beds are Lower Permian (Sakmarian) in age.

4- 1- + + 4- ,;-++ ++++

+4- + ++4- 4-^4- -- 4- +

- c -

V3LE

Species distribution chart^A.O.G. Wentworth No.1

1-ar;r1-7-taceousl^ewerert

AG-E L. (?)Permian

o r-Q PI^t--LC1 re-)c--)^<4- 0O 0 C)^re) 't"

0 1- rr)r-

tx■ Lf"'■^T - 1- 1- 1- 1- 1- 1- T- T- T- r- I-- r- I--^1-- (NJ

1111111!^1111^I^1^1^II0 re) felt-- 01 rel L( - urN^re) ‘:41- LC\ (7.1 (:) (lj 3--.st 01 C\I (NJ 01 N rn 01 LC\ 0 LC\ 001 01 0^T-^rv-1 er)^LC\ In VD

I--

MICROSPORESNothofagus spp.Triporate spp.Argiosperms undet.Lyeopodiumsporitesaustrocliditj

Podocarpidites grandisMicrocachryidites

antarcticusAraucorincites australisClassopollis torosusCyathidites spp.C. australis rimalisC. crassiangulatusPodocarpidites spp.Sphagnumsporites clavusGranulatisporites dailyiNeoraistrickia sp.Cicatricosisporitesaustraliensis

Baculatisporites comaumensisZonati sp.AGinkocycadophytus nitidusPodocarpidites ellipticusZonati sp.BPilosisporites sp.Microreticulatisporites

pudensApiculatisporis wonthaggiensisSphagnumsporites australisInaperturopollenites spp.Zonati sp.Lycopodiumsporites aff.

circolumenusNuskoisporites triangularisMarsupipollenites sp.Rugulatisporites sp.Laevigati sp.

MICROPLANKTON Hystrichosphaera sp.^+ -+Hystrichosphaeridium spp.Peridinida sp.Cymatiosphaera sp.Hystrichosphaera furcataOdontochitina operculataaff. Apteodinium maculatumScriniodinium sp.Gonyaulax cf.G. edwardsileosphaera spp.Tasmanites sp.

common; fc = fairly common; + - prlsent

LC\ a)^c\J

lC) T-N N 00 0

SPECIES

cc CCC CCC CCC C++ +++ +

+ + C CC+ ++

<.7.1- all()1/4.0 NI-- 1-- 1--

(:) 17-

G) 0(NJ

REFERENCES

BALME, B.E.^1957-. Upper Palaeozoic microfloras insediments from the Lake Phillipsonbore, South Australia, Aust.J.SCi,20(2), 61 - 62.

BALME, B.E. & HENNELLY, J.P.F. 1956 - Trilete sporomorphsfrom Australian Permian sediments.Al2st.j.Bot. 4(3),

COOKSON, I.C. 1946 - Pollens of Nothofaus Blume fromTertiary deposits in Australia.proc.Linn.Soc.N.S.W. 71, 4963

^ 1959 - Fossil pollens grains of Nothofagusfrom Australia. Proc.Ro , ^ic oria.71(1), 25-30.

COOKSON, I.C. & DETTMAN, M.E. 1958 - Some trilete spores fromUpper Mesozoic deposits in the easternAustralian region. Proc.Roy.Soc.Victoria.70(1), 95-128.

CRESPIN, I.C. 1943 - Permian foraminif era from a bore atCoorabin, New South Wales. Aust.J.Sci.6(2), 65.

EISENACK, A. 1958 - Tasmanites Newton 1875 und Leiosphaeridian.j:77-77attungen der Hystrichosphaeridea.PalaeontocLuhica. (Abt.A) 110 (1-3), 1-92.

STIORMITELS, E.K.1950- Preliminary report on geology and coalresources of Oaklands - Coorabin coalfieldNew South Wales, Bur.Min.Resour.Aust,EZep, 3.

REID, A.M.^1924 - The oil shale resources of Tasmania.Tasmania Dep.Mines, G.Surv.Min.Resour.

(1).

240-260.