Australian permian

The Australian Permian coals vary widely in rank (maturity) and type (vitrinite content) from the Oaklands (N.S.W.) coal at 72% (dry ash-free basis) carbon, a hard brown coal (6), containing 17% vitrinite, at one extreme - through high volatile bituminous coals such as Galilee (Queensland) coal at 77% carbon, 16% vitrinite Blair Athol (Queensland) coal at 82% carbon, 28% vitrinite, Liddell (N.S.W.) coal at 82% carbon, and >70% vitrinite - to low volatile bituminous such as Peak Downs (Queensland) at 89% carbon, 71% vitrinite, and Bulli seam (N.S.W.) 89% carbon, 45% vitrinite. 

Campbell, K.S.W. (1965) Australian Permian Terebratuloids. Australia, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics Bulletin, 68,147pp. 

The cold to warm-temperate (or possibly subtropical) climate change during the Permian in the Australasian region and the combination of cold eastern marine surface currents and cool to warm western surface currents (Archbold, 1998) collectively explain many of the palaeobiogeographical features of the Australasian Permian distribution patterns of the Productida. Productid genera demonstrate an increase in diversity from south (Tasmania) to north (Bowen Basin, Queensland) in eastern Australia. Eastern Australian Permian productids, demonstrate a degree of endemism and, particularly those of Queensland, possess strong links with those of New Zealand (Bri s,... 

Collectively these faunas are characteristic of the Austrazean Province -Fig. 37.1 (Archbold, 1983). Western Australian Permian productids also demonstrate a degree of endemism mixed with strong faunal links with southern Tethyan (peripheral Gondwanan and Cimmerian) faunal elements (Archbold and Shi, 1995) and collectively characterise the genera of the Westralian Province (Archbold, 1983). 

Archbold, N.W. (1984) Studies on Western Australian Permian brachiopods 4. Productellidae Schuchert LeVene 1929 and Overtoniidae Muir-Wood Cooper 1960. Proceedings of... 

Archbold, N.W. (1996) Paleobiogeography of Australian Permian brachiopod faunas. In Copper and Jin (eds) Brachiopods (Rotterdam A.A. Balkema), pp. 19-23. 

Archbold, N.W. (1998) Correlations of the Western Australian Permian and Permian ocean circulation patterns. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 110, 85-106. 

Effect of Rank. Most of the above observations were made on high volatile Australian coals of bituminous rank. These coals, whether of Permian, Triassic, or Jurassic age, tended to give fairly similar pictures. 

Earlier work on the isotopic compositions of pyrite, elemental sulfur, and organic sulfur in coals from Japan, Australia, and Germany (107-110) was summarized by Nielsen (102). Smith and Batts (110) showed that organic sulfur in Australian coals ranging in age from Permian to Tertiary has a large isotopic variation (+2.9 to +24%c) in coals with more than % sulfur, whereas organic sulfur in low-sulfur coals (less than 1% sulfur) has a narrow isotopic composition between +4.6 and +7.3%o. The relatively uniform isotopic... 

Figure 2. Isotopic composition of organic sulfur in Permian Australian coals containing <1% total sulfur.

Samples. Brown coal lithotype samples were taken from a bore core from the Flynn field in the Loy Yang region of the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia. The brown coal deposits in this area are believed to be Miocene to Eocene in age. All five lithotype samples were taken at depths between 93 and 100.5 m below the surface in a 120-m core and were provided by the SECV. The black coal sample was from the Upper Hunter region (Permian) of New South Wales (Sydney Basin), Australia, and had a carbon content of 81.3%, dry, ash-free basis (DAF). This sample was provided by the Australian Coal Industry Research Laboratories Ltd. (ACIRL). The characteristics of these samples are set out in Table II. 

Heath, R., Mcintyre, S. Gibbins, N. (1989) A Permian origin for Jurassic reservoired oil in the Eromanga Basin. In The Cooper and Eromanga Basins, Australia (Ed. O Neil, B.J.), pp. 405-416. Proc. Petroleum Exploration Soc. Australia, Soc. Petroleum Engineers, Australian Soc. Exploration Geophysicists (S.A. Branches), Adelaide. 

CoUinson JW, Kemp NR (1983) Permian-Triassic sedimentary sequence in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica. In OUver RL, James PR, Jago JB (eds) Antarctic earth science. Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, ACT, pp 221-225... 

Archbold, N.W. (1999) Permian Gondwanan correlations the significance of the western Australian marine Permian. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 29, 63-75. 

---