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1 School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia; g.holdgate{at}earthsci.unimelb.edu.au
2 Geology Department, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; jdac{at}alphalink.com.au
Guy Holdgate is the principal director of Guy Holdgate and Associates Pty. Ltd. and a director of Tyers Petroleum Pty. Ltd. Since 1998, he has been a research associate at the School of Earth Sciences, Melbourne University, on carbonates in the offshore Gippsland Basin. He has previously worked with the Geological Survey of Victoria Basin Studies (1973-1977) and was the head of coal geology with the Exploration and Geological Division, State Electricity Commission, Victoria, between 1977 and 1990.Jonathan Clarke lectures at the Australian National University, Canberra. His research interests are regolith, sedimentary geology, and ore petrology. Previously, he spent 10 years with WMC Resources as an exploration geologist at Kambalda, Western Australia; as manager of the Geological Research laboratory, Melbourne; and as consultant sedimentologist. Research on Tertiary coals is part of ongoing work on southern Australian Cenozoic terrestrial and marine environments in the Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Evolution and Mineral Exploration.
The paleogeographical setting, sequence stratigraphy, and timing for six Tertiary brown coal deposits along the southern seaboard of Australia indicate a concentration of major coal-forming phases to periods of significant coastal onlap coupled with frequent sea level oscillations.
Structural settings for thick seam development include grabenlike depressions adjacent to a major basin, embayments often barred from the main marine basinal sedimentation by a barrier sand buildup across the entrance, and paleovalleys incised into hard rock. A correlation also occurs between thick brown coals and warm-temperate to subtropical climatic conditions with evidence for multicyclic stacking of raised mires and ombrotrophic conditions similar to the modern tropical peats of Indonesia.
Common periods for thick seam development can be tied to the Exxon coastal onlap charts in the late middle Eocene and late Eocene sequence cycles TA3.5 to TA4.3 (36.0 to 42.5 Ma) and the late early to early middle Miocene sequence cycles TB2.1 to TB2.3 (15.5 to 21.0 Ma).
Knowledge of the timing and disposition of coaly rocks provides useful information to the petroleum explorationist regarding source potential and distribution within these time periods.
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