On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 John wrote:

>I've uploaded an image to the miscellenous photo album. It is of a
collection of Jurassic log sections found last week in the far south
of Tasmania by Peter Harris. The trees were conifers perhaps
araucariads related to Wollemi Pine.

>So far no showpiece trilobites or dinosaur bones but we're working on it.

>Regards

>John Newlands
ex NSW now Tas




Dear Fossilclubgroup,


I must greatly apologise that I have neither sent off my subscription fee
yet for Club Membership nor an intended detail response to John who has
also sent log photo/info to me. I ask for more indulgence till I do this,
?soon.

As I probably noted by way of introduction, one of my "pet" interests is
trees, viz.
http://www.lachlanhunter.deadsetfreestuff.com/JB/Big-Trees/big-trees.htm
which is a survey of big tree localities worldwide).

I recently discovered, while attempting to tap into the knowledge of those
who know Catherine Hill Bay far better than I, and/or live thereabouts,
that there seems to be a quite significant (for geology anyway) layer of
standing fossil trees, or petrified forest if you like, just close below
the Great Northern Seam.

As far as I am yet aware, nobody before has recognised or described this
tree-bearing interval (which would be withing the Awaba Tuff) - I found
out that a snorkeller saw a big standing log in the underwater cliff face
at Catherine Hill Bay some thirty years ago and it turns out also on more
enquiry that NPWS have known about fossil stumps visible at low tide on
Ghosties Beach just south of the Bay.

Geologist Sir Edgeworth David (1907) reported seeing good fossil trees near
Quarries Head (or else at Stinky Point?) and at the "Government Quarry"
near there, where he recorded that some are up to 10m in length. I'll
certainly be interested, some time, to try and retrace David's steps
thereabouts.

There's well known fossil forest exposures at Swansea Heads and at Fennel
Bay on the western side of the Lake. I know of some other fossil log
mentions ,,,, for Stockton (VERY large, one hundred feet in length), near
Freemans Waterhole, at West Wallsend, etc., but I expect I certainly would
have nothing like a full and comprehensive list of all occurrences yet.

As I get fresh new snippets of interest (new to me but not necessarily to
others who might already know of such) I tend to upload them ... and
http://www.lachlanhunter.deadsetfreestuff.com/JB/enchanted-professor.htm is
recent example of such. It is about somebody (maybe a local Swansea
resident?) who appears to have paraphrased David's 1907 writings into an
article. You can see there some more 'modern' geologists following David's
steps on the "sandy beach below the pilot station" and headed for the
fossil trees.

That particular excursion is by the Geological Survey which was, and is,
the same living entity that was David's old outfit in the 1880s when he did
his immense undertaking of coalfields survey - A fine feat which I think in
particular kicked off the great 1920s mining boom of the Greta or South
Maitland coalfield.

I suspect that many or most of the fossil tree locations we might know or
learn of today were already known to David, with the possible expception of
the Catho-Ghosties one.

With Best Regards,




John Byrnes

(Geologist, Strathfield)