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Department of Geology • University of Queensland VOLUME 10 NUMBER 2 Summary of Formations and Faunas of the Permian Back Creek

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Department of Geology • University of Queensland VOLUME 10 NUMBER 2 Summary of Formations and Faunas of the Permian Back Creek Department of Geology • University of Queensland VOLUME 10 NUMBER 2 Summary of formations and faunas of the Permian Back Creek Group in the Southeast Bowen Basin, Queensland D.J.C. BRIGGS & J.B. WATERHOUSE Stratigraphy and palaeobotany of East and West Haldon, Main Range, Southeast Queensland M J. DUDGEON Date of publication: June 1982 SUMMARY OF FORMATIONS AND FAUNAS OF THE PERMIAN BACK CREEK GROUP IN THE SOUTHEAST BOWEN BASIN, QUEENSLAND by D.J.C. Briggs & J.B. Waterhouse (with 1 Text-figure) ABSTRACT. In the southeastern Bowen Basin the Back Creek Group is almost entirely marine and comprises, in ascending order, the Büffel, Pindari, Brae, Oxtrack, Barfield and Flat Top Formations. We informally divide the Büffel Formation according to lithology into three members, each having a different fauna, but all of early Permian age. We correlate the upper member with the lower Homevale fauna of the northern Bowen Basin. The upper Homevale fauna is absent in the type Büffel, but is seen in strata mapped as Büffel to the north. The Pindari Formation is poorly fossiliferous in the type section. A marine fauna unmatched elsewhere in eastern Australia characterizes the Brae Formation. The Oxtrack Formation has a distinctive small fauna known from New Zealand and New South Wales, but not yet recognized elsewhere in the Bowen Basin. The thick, fine-grained Barfield Formation matches through its lithology and fauna the lower or restricted Ingelara Formation of the southwestern Bowen Basin. The Flat Top Formation contains a basal fauna like that of the Barfield, two successive younger faunas which match those of the Peawaddy and lower Blenheim Formations of the southwestern and northern Bowen Basin, and small overlying faunas of uncertain age. INTRODUCTION The Permian sequence in the southeastern Bowen Basin has been divided into three major units : in ascending order, the Camboon Andesite, the shallow-marine Back Creek Group, and the fresh and brackish water Blackwater Group. In the southeastern Bowen Basin these units are exposed in a belt running roughly northwards from just south of Cracow Station, where they emerge from beneath Mesozoic sandstone of the Surat Basin, to north of Baralaba, where they are obscured by Cainozoic cover (Fig. 1 ). Six named formations are recognized in the Back Creek Group in this region. Wass (1965), Olgers et al. (1966), Dear et al. (1971), Molían et al. (1972), Whitaker et al. (1974) and Gray & Heywood (1978) accepted a four­ fold subdivision of the group into the Büffel, Oxtrack, Barfield and Flat Top Formations respectively. (See McClung 1981, table 4, p.18). Flood et al. (1981) recognized two additional formations, the Pindari and the Brae, between the Büffel and the Oxtrack Formations. This paper will summarize the stratigraphy, faunas, and correlations of the Camboon and Back Creek rocks. Part 1. STRATIGRAPHY CAMBOON VOLCANICS Derrington et al. (1959) defined the Camboon Andesite as ‘grey and purplish-grey to locally greenish-grey andesite tuffs and agglomerates’ Pap. Dep. Geol. Univ. Qd, 10(2): 69-82, June 1982 70 Text-fig. 1 Distribution of Permian formations of the Back Creek Group in the southeast Bowen Basin, emended from Dear et al. (1971) and Whitaker etal. (1974). We have grouped the Brae and Pindari Formations, and north of Theodore, the Oxtrack Formation, for reasons of scale. 71 unconformably underlying the Back Creek Group. They gave the type area as ‘near Camboon Homestead’ in error for Camboon Woolshed, 24 km north­ west of Cracow (Dear et al. 1971). Derrington et al. set no specific lower limit to their formation, and some authors (Molían et al. 1972; Dickins & Malone 1973) have included in it the entire sequence of igneous and sedi­ mentary rocks between the Auburn Complex and the Back Creek Group. Dear et al. (1971) restricted the term to cover the upper part of this sequence, showing that the lower part (called the Torsdale Beds and regarded as mostly Carboniferous) consists of predominantly acidic lavas and pyroclastics, and various sediments. Although andesite is predominant, a diversity of igneous rock types is present, and we suggest that the neutral term volcanics may prove to be more appropriate and more widely applicable for the Camboon rocks. There does not appear to be any clear difference between the Camboon and the Lizzie Creek Volcanics, which occupy an almost comparable strati­ graphic position in the northern part of the Bowen Basin, and McClung (1978, fig. 1, p. 19) has referred the Camboon Andesite of the southeast Bowen Basin to the Lizzie Creek Volcanics. However the name Camboon (Derrington et al. 1959) has priority over Lizzie Creek (Malone et al, 1966). Formational units within the volcanics have been distinguished in the north by Isbell et al. (1960), and there are several distinct units in the south, which are of formational status though not yet formally named. Therefore the Camboon Volcanics might be treated as a group. On Cracow Station, two different igneous rock types, neither matching the lithologies described from the Camboon type area by Derrington et al. (1959) directly underlie the Back Creek Group (Briggs 1979). Subvitreous, massive and laminated ?ignimbrite underlies the sediments on Büffel Hill, whilst on either side along strike at least 70 m of interbedded compact and highly vesicular basalt takes its place. The contacts of these with each other and with Camboon Andesite are not exposed. Molían et al. (1972) and Hey wood (1974) showed that andesites are accompanied by basalts and ignimbrites to the north. These are separate and mappable and may be named as distinct units within the Camboon Volcanics. Marine fossils are unknown from the volcanic sequence in the south­ eastern Bowen Basin. But Dear et al. (1971) mapped as Camboon a sequence of interbedded marine sediments, lavas and tuffs of the Prospect Creek Folded Zone in the Eungella-Cracow Mobile Zone, and reported marine faunas resembling those of the Büffel Formation through most of this sequence, and directly above it. BACK CREEK GROUP The Back Creek Group was named by Derrington et al. (1959) for the Permian, mostly marine, formations between the Camboon Volcanics and the younger Permian non-marine sequences of the southeast Bowen Basin, as has been reviewed by McClung (1981). Dickins & Malone (1973) extended 72 the name well beyond its original definition in applying it to rocks of similar and dissimilar appearance throughout the Bowen Basin but we prefer to restrict the group to the southeast Bowen Basin. Major faunal breaks, including one in the type area (Wass 1965, and later workers), and terrestrial deposits interrupt the marine sequence in various parts of the basin. In the southeastern Bowen Basin, the constituent formations of the group are based on type sections separated by considerable distances, instead of a continuous sequence, and this has lead to multiple names, increased risk of miscorrelation, and omission of units. Büffel Formation The Büffel Formation was defined by Wass (1965) from Büffel Hill, which provides the type section across its northwestern flank. The type section runs through a syncline and takes in some Camboon volcanics (Flood et al 1981) though Wass did not realise this. The Büffel Formation has been found almost as far north as Baralaba (Dear et al. 1971) and has been described as principally limestone and siltstone. One of us has recently re-examined the formation in its type area and has divided it into three parts (Briggs 1979), for the present treated as informal members within the Büffel Formation. Lower (Sandstone) Member. This member consists of fossiliferous marine volcanoclastic sediments, predominantly of very fine sand grade, coloured dark green where fresh and brown where weathered. Its outcrop is confined to the neighbourhood of Cracow Station, where it occupies what appears to be an erosional depression 2.3 km wide along strike in the underlying volcanics. The member can be divided into three units according to the dominant biogenic constituents: a lower unit (up to 36 m thick) containing abundant bioclasts derived entirely from brachiopods and molluscs, a middle unit (up to 16-20 m thick) containing, in addition, abundant bryozoan material, and an upper unit (over 6 m thick) in which bioclasts are rare. Because of irregularities in the base and top of the member, the total thickness does not exceed 45 m in any one place. Brachiopods, including Lissochonetes, a new aulostegid genus, Terrakea, Trigonotreta, Tomiopsis, Notospirifer, bivalves (Eurydesma, Deltopecten and others), gastropods (Keeneia, Peruvispira and IMourlonia) and bryozoans are abundant. Tomiopsis denmeadi (Campbell), Lissochonetes cracowensis (Etheridge), a species of the new aulostegid, and Stenopora ovata Lonsdale are confined in the Büffel Formation to this member. Middle (Limestone) Member. Limestone, generally regarded as the typical lithology of the Büffel Formation, is mostly confined, in the type section, to an interval about 30 m thick near the middle of the formation. In the syncline west of Cracow Homestead, this member consists of interbedded finely laminated silty calcilutite (poorly washed biosparite and packed biomicrite) and thick-bedded calcarenite and calcilutite (poorly washed to unsorted bio­ sparite), the proportion of thick bedded limestone increasing northwards. 73 Chert is common in this area as primary void fillings and secondary replace­ ments, and small igneous pebbles are scattered over two horizons. Dear et al. (1971) and Whitaker et al. (1974)
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