To: Fossil Club, fossilclubgroup@...




Hi All,


My apology to the Club that I *STILL* have not yet sent money for
membership .... blush.

I do wish to belong and my only 'excuse' is that I am a great
procrastinator with a long list of many thing to be done and knowledge that
I'm guilty of "not getting around to things" to a significant degree.

Anyway, I WILL be sending the membership application and fee; or if perhaps
I came to any meeting beforehand I'll pay on the spot.

That said, I'm catching up with something else I perhaps should have done
before and didn't do .. or maybe I did (I don't remember)?

That was that Albert on 4/7/2006 wrote that I might like to post more
information on the Maroota project.

So here that is.

It is based in or closely related to LachlanHunter Associates, which is a
voluntary association (so far of geologists and one archaeologist) of
persons interested in the way things used to be (natural history) of the
Lachlan/Sydney/Hunter region of NSW (that's most of NSW leaving off a few
bits like New England, Broken Hill precambrian block, and Murray Basin).
Anyone's welcome to join or associate in any way.

A common theme that would 'work' for any area that we have been following
is the idea of compilation of natural history information on disk. Best
commercial pricing I've so far seen for that is $0.33 per A4 page (jobs
over 200 pages).

We are not likely to do it unless we get a grant of some sort. So far 8+
grant-seekings have all been unsuccessful but this year once again grant
request for Maroota is being made to Environmental Trust. And ditto for
Upper Castlereagh area which is also mainly to do with the history of the
Nepean-Hawkesbury River evolution.

The Maroota project is based on the Maroota Sand, and hence the scope/area
extent of it is restricted per se to the area of the Maroota Sand formation
(but some/most of the persons interested also have wider interests in the
area too).

Even though the Maroota project has not been funded we are "doing it
anyway" but only on a very small scale and at quite slow rate.

This entails occasional meetings at Maroota and also there is a newsletter
for anybody interested. I think there's about 40 people on the newsletter
and if you want to be added just send me a request directly please. News
of Maroota is sent out at least once a month.

The next meeting coming up for Maroota will be held at Maroota Public
School in conjunction with the "show and tell" for the
next sand quarry planned for Maroota (for Lot 2, DP 555184, Old Northern
Road, Maroota by Arkzeal Pty Ltd).

Our prime interest is getting permission to wander over the land at
Maroota, much of which is now owned by sand mining companies, because until
we can do that (i.e. actually look at the Maroota Sand and also look at
exposures made within it during quarrying) we are not getting very far very
fast with the envisaged study.

Others likely to go to the show-and-tell day would almost certainly be
local residents with various concerns about sand mining.

We (Maroota Sand geology devotees .. or LH .. might, if time were
available, and if sufficent interest manifested, also try to organise a bit
of a tour of the surroundings on that day. There's not a terrible great
deal to be seen that you would not see for yourself just by driving around
with or without any guide. On the east side of the Maroota Sand is a small
circular remnant of a basalt flow. It overlaps the edge of the Sand
against Hawkesbury Sandstone on the east, we think. A bit of drilling
would be nice .. but again that needs funds. A dating of the basalt has
given an Eocene age. The sand at Maroota is likely the oldest known bit of
the Nepean-Hawkesbury history preserved anywhere around.

If you measured the height of Maroota, or rather read it off a map which
might be easiest (or easier still off Google Earth), and the elevation of
the river where it now lies in its valley 'far' below, take one from the
other and divide by the number of years between then you'll get an idea of
average downcutting rate at this area.

The Aboriginal carvings at Maroota (Devil's Rock) have been said by some to
be some of Australia's finest. The Maroota Sand is a good aquifer, which
contained easily accessible water at not all that far down. If the
Aborigines knew this, and used that water, then this could have
sustained/made Maroota a major pre-European meeting place. That idea has
probably been around a long time but is difficult to test one way or the
other - and there are very few implements or fragments that have been found
on the Maroota Sand area itself.

So, that is a description of the Maroota project or current interests at
Maroota.

LachlanHunter also has a 'Fossil Trees Interest Group (FTIG)' activity.

If you wish to be added to the emailing list for that, again just contact me.

FTIG interests include fossil trees/forests worldwide, and locally the
Permian ones of the Sydney Basin.

Main interest is in the fossil forest horizons of the Lake Macquarie area
but there are also interests in the southern coalfield too.

And of course in chasing the possibility of a Narrabeen Group fossil
forest, the first suggestion/trace of which came from
the Fossil Club, with the mention of a fossil tree having been found many
years ago at Coal and Candle Creek.

Since then more ?tree objects, vertical in sandstone, have been reported in
sandstone at Box Head.

So far neither of these spots have been visited to look for or look at
these "trees" but there is now a total of ~13 or more persons interested in
this and a meeting of these is planned for 23 June (pencilled in date) at
Bouddi National Park.

I watch the activities in Tasmania on the fossil trees of course and
amazing what's been achieved or might be achieved/discovered there.

None of us (LachlanHunter) happen to be a creationist, but our small scale
community activities (e.g. the Maroota project monthly news is published in
a small newspaper/newsletter distributed all around Maroota and nearby
places) have attracted response from one creationist at Maroota and also
the fossil trees topic north of Sydney has been of running interest to
creationists for years. No creationists have so far come to any of our
meetings but I think it is inevitable that they sooner or later will. Maybe
we will get along okay (as some creationists are geologists too) but in
general the ideas of creationists and orthodox geology are impossible to
reconcile.

So that's it .. there's three projects or interests that I'd love to hear
from know anybody else interested in joining or cooperating in (Maroota,
Castlereagh, fossils trees at Lake Macquarie area or elsewhere).

Cheers,



John Byrnes

(Strathfield)














surrounding the Project Site. This meeting raised certain concerns
which our client would prefer to address prior to holding the information
session.
Our client appreciates that the community’s time and attention is valuable.

Postponement of the session will allow time to resolve issues, meet landholder
expectations and ensure project plans meet the detail and certainty
necessary for
effective community discussion. It will mean that your time, and that of other
stakeholders, is not unduly spent reviewing information that may change or not
remain relevant as the project progresses.

Arkzeal and Key Insights apologise for any inconvenience. We thank you for
your
interest to date and will inform you of the new Information Day date as it
becomes
available.

Regards,

Melissa Kilkelly
Key Insights Pty Ltd






^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Hi Melissa,


Just seeing this very late at the moment before I hit the sack.

But yes I can distribute widely the postponed date.

I'll do it tomorrow.

And get back to you to confirm I've done it.

Cheers,




John Byrnes