Record 2008/02

Stratigraphic drilling report - DME Fairymead NS1, Bundaberg area

DME Fairymead NS1 was drilled by the Geological Survey of Queensland in the Wide Bay - Burnett Region, central Queensland to provide a reference section of the Bundaberg Trough, overlying the Maryborough Basin. This information was part of an investigation of extractive resources in the BUNDABERG 1 1:100 000 Sheet area between 1976 and 1979.

A revised Cainozoic geology of the Bundaberg region, including the graben-like structure named the Bundaberg Trough is presented in this report.

As part of remapping the geology of the BUNDABERG 1:250 000 Sheet area in 2006, DME Fairymead NS1 drill core was re-examined at its present storage location in the Exploration Data Centre at Zillmere.

DME Fairymead NS 1 comprises reference material of two geological units with relatively no surface expression. These are the late Oligocene (Middle Tertiary) Pemberton Grange Basalt (Bundaberg Volcanic Province), which forms the basal unit of the Bundaberg Trough; and the overlying late Miocene (?Early Miocene) flood-plain sediments, informally referred to as the Fairymead beds.

New ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology by the University of Queensland on two samples of the Pemberton Grange Basalt yielded ages of 24.4±0.5Ma and 25±2Ma.

PIMA (Portable Infrared Mineral Analyser) analyses were carried out on samples from the DME Fairymead NS 1 drill core between 61.7 and 76.7m, to attempt to distinguish unit boundaries within the overall sequence and test the validity of the identification of the Fairymead beds.

Within the lower part of DME Fairymead NS1, the Maryborough Basin is represented by about 80m of sediments of the Burrum Coal Measures. Palynofloras reported from the formation in this section have been assigned to the Coptospora paradoxa Zone of Playford & Dettmann, indicative of an Albian age.

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Last Updated 06 October 2009