Journal and Proceedings of
The Royal Society of New South Wales
Volume 122 Parts 3 and 4 [for 1990, but Issued August,
1991]
CONTENTS
AUTHORS & TITLES
PAGES
Neef, G., Edwards, A.C., Bottrill, R.S., Hatty, J., Holzberger, L, Kelly, R. and Vaughan,
J., The Mount Daubeny Formation: Arenite-Rich ?Late Silurian-Early Devonian
(Gedinnian) Strata in Far Western New South Wales
97-106
Symposium: The Scientific Work of Tenison Woods
Branagan, D.F., Introduction
Player, Anne, Julian Tenison Woods, Scientist, 1832-1889
Archbold, N.W., J.E. Tenison Woods: His Contributions to the Tertiary Geology of
South Eastern Australia
McDonnell, Kevin L., Father Julian Tenison Woods and the Hawkesbury Sandstone
Martin, Peter, The Botanical Work of the Reverend J. E. Tenison Woods
Rear Admiral Sir David Martin, KCMG, AO, Occasional Address at the Annual
Dinner and Presentation of Medals, Royal Society of New South Wales,14th March,
1990
[Not reproduced here]
108
109-118
119-121
123-126
127
129
vol 122, pts 3-4, pp.97-106
The Mt. Daubeny Formation: Arenite-Rich ?Late Silurian-Early Devonian (Gedinnian)
Strata in Far Western New South Wales
G. Neef, A.C. Edwards, R.S. Bottrill, J. Hatty, I. Holzberger, R. Kelly and J. Vaughan
Abstract. The 6 km-thick, nonmarine Mt Daubeny Formation, commonly pale-red in colour,
crops out in far western New South Wales. It is largely composed of arenite with subordinate
siltstone and rudite. A basal orthoquartzite, the Koonburra Creek Quartzite Member, is present
in the south whereas in the north three horizons (~0.5 km, 2.5 km and ~4.5 km above
basement) contain andesite flows. The central part of the outcrop contains common 6m-thick
orthoquartzite beds which are interbedded largely with pale-red or grey arenite and siltstone. The
sequence containing orthoquartzite beds is at least 775m thick in the west and it is ~690m thick
in the east where it is overlain by a ~610m sequence composed of brownred arenite and
siltstone.
The upper part of the formation is Early Devonian (Gedinnian) in age, is dated by fossil plants.
The base of the formation is probably ~4 m.y. older than the fossiliferous horizon and this basal
part may be latest Silurian in age. An unknown thickness of the formation has been removed by
erosion since it was deposited.
Palaeocurrents indicate that during the ?Latest Silurian-Early Devonian a mountainous terrain
composed largely of Precambrian – ?Cambrian rocks lay west of the present outcrop area of the
formation area and provided the sediment from which the formation was formed.
[See Addendum here]
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vol 122 pts 3-4, pp.108
The Scientific Work of Tenison Woods.
A Symposium
Introduction
David Branagan
Julian Edmund Tenison Woods, Catholic priest, geologist, biologist, and historian, died in
Sydney on 7 October, 1889. Author of more than 200 scientific papers, written in the 'spare' time
of a busy missionary priest, Tenison Woods made major contributions to science during his
working life in Australia over a period of more than thirty years,.and was active in many of the
scientific societies of his day.
Because of his contributions to Catholic education, particularly through the founding of several
religious orders, his centenary has been remembered by the Church in various ways. In every
state of the Commonwealth, meetings have been held and papers written discussing his work.
To re-examine his contributions to Australian science a mini-symposium was organised by the
Earth Sciences History Group of the Geological Society of Australia Inc. in Sydney.
The Symposium was strongly supported by the Sisters of St. Joseph, who gave generous financial
assistance, by The Australian Museum, which allowed the use of the Hallstrom Theatre for the
occasion, and by The Royal Society of New South Wales, which helped to publicise the event.
Through this help speakers were brought to Sydney for the symposium held at the Australian
Museum on 14 September 1989, and a successful, well-attended meeting was held, although
unfortunately the airline strike was on at the time, and one invited speaker, Dr. Michael
Fitzgerald, was unable to come from Adelaide. The title of his talk was to have been 'Geological
observations in South Australia, principally in the district south-east of Adelaide, and the Taal
Volcano–then and one hundred years later'. Some aspects of these topics are covered in Anne
Player's expanded paper which follows.
The following papers cover the topics discussed at the symposium. Although wide-ranging, they
touch upon only a few of the vast range of interests that Tenison Woods had in science. Perhaps
their publication will encourage others to study facets of the work of this pioneer scientist, and
others of his generation, who laid the groundwork for so much of the science of today which we
take for granted.
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vol 122 pts 3-4, pp.109-118
Julian Tenison Woods, Scientist, 1832- 1889
Anne Player
INTRODUCTION
In the last decade of his life Julian Tenison Woods was certainly not without recognition of his
achievements as a scientist. At its meeting on 14 December 1887 the Council of the Royal
Society of New South Wales, 'on the motion of Mr. Hunt, seconded by Dr. Leibius, unanimously
resolved to award the Clarke Medal' for 1888 to Woods, for his services to Australian science.
The following May, C.S.Wilkinson, Government Geologist and President of the Society, in his
anniversary address to the members declared that a more appropriate award could not have been
made for:
During the last thirty-one years the Rev. Tenison Woods has been well known as a writer upon
the Natural History of Australasia. Of his 157 works published since the year 1857 no less than
74 are upon his favourite branch of Science – Geology ... wherever I have travelled I have
found his name a household word, so wide an influence have his writings exercised among all
classes (Wilkinson, 1889).
Woods, the eleventh recipient of the medal, joined a distinguished company. He shared the
award with Sir Richard Owen, George Bentham, Professors Thomas, Huxley, Frederick McCoy
and James Dwight Dana, and with Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Alfred R.C. Selwyn, Sir Joseph
Dalton Hooker, Professor L.G. De Koninck and Sir James Hector. These men currently held or
had formerly occupied government scientific posts. Woods alone of the group had no official
appointment and his designation of Union Club, Sydney fitted ill with such descriptions as:
Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew; Director of the Geological and Natural History Survey of
Canada, Ottawa; Government Botanist, Melbourne; the Royal School of Mines, London;
University of Liège, Belgium and so on. (Royal Society of New South Wales, 1887)
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vol 122 pts 3-4, pp.119-121
J. E. Tenison Woods: His Contributions to the Tertiary Geology of South Eastern
Australia
N.W. Archbold
Introductory Paragraphs. A portion of the prodigious energy of the Rev. Julian Edmund
Tenison Woods was directed to science (Player,1989), and in particular to the understanding of
the palaeontology, stratigraphy and correlations of the Tertiary sedimentary sequences of
southeastern Australia. While his contributions to Australian geology were by no means
restricted to writings on Tertiary geology, it was problems of Tertiary stratigraphy and
stratigraphy that dominated much of his scientific work.
Woods' contributions to Tertiary geology span the colonies (as they then were) of South
Australia, Victoria and Tasmania; he was familiar with deposits and collections from Aldinga,
Mount Gambier, the Murray cliffs, (South Australia) the southern coast, Hamilton (Victoria)and
Table Cape (Tasmania). He firmly believed in the value of descriptive palaeontology. Charles
Lyell had advised Woods in 1859 to study both fossil and living forms in order to solve the
problems of the ages of the Tertiary successions (Player, op cit). Not surprisingly, therefore,
Tenison Woods' palaeontological work includes a series of papers on Tertiary bryozoans, corals,
brachiopods, echinoids and molluscs. Many of his taxa have survived the subsequent century of
study. For example Darragh (1970) lists some 20 species of Bivalvia and 120 species of
Gasteropoda named by Woods from Tertiary strata of which only 3 and 7 respectively have not
survived.
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vol 122 pts 3-4, pp. 123-126
Father Julian Tenison Woods and The Hawkesbury Sandstone
Kevin L. McDonnell
Abstract. Tenison Woods' paper "The Hawkesbury Sandstone" presented to the Royal Society
of NSW in bears clear testimony to his considerable stature as a scientist and pioneer Australian
geologist. His interpretation of the Hawkesbury Sandstone as a wind-blown formation is
supported by his observations of its geometry, lithology, sedimentary structures and fossil
content; by comparison with aeolian and other formations in Australia and in various other parts
of the world, either through the literature or by personal observation; by experiments he
conducted with wind-blown sand, and by personal observation of aeolian processes in the field.
Although his interpretation of the origin of the Hawkesbury Sandstone as a whole is not
accepted today (he did not have available to him the detailed knowledge we now have of the
processes and products of fluvial and other environments) his method was sound and his
competence undoubted.
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p.127
The Botanical Work of the Reverend J. E. Tenison-Woods
Peter Martin
Introductory Paragraph. In scientific circles, Tenison-Woods is mostly remembered as a
geologist, invertebrate zoologist and palaeontologist. He was, however, a highly competent
botanist. His published papers on modern and fossil botany would, by themselves, have been
sufficient to establish him as a significant figure in the annals of Australian science.