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'T'HE aboriginal peoples referred to in this paper are those occupying * the country to the north-east of a line running roughly from Cape Stewart on the north coast of Arnhem Land to Blue Mud Bay in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and extending to the sea coast and the adjacent islands. The social organization of these peoples is marked by a very pronounced emphasis on the importance of the horde, each of which exists as an almost entirely independent unit. These hordes are very numerous ; some of them are very small, and there is definite evidence that several of them have actually become extinct, at least in so far as their patrilineal descent as a separate unit is concerned. With the few exceptions mentioned below, each of these hordes, no matter how small, has its own particular dialect. In many cases the dialectal difference is small, and in at least one instance would appear to be consciously artificial. The two moieties into which the aboriginal society is divided are known as Yiritcha and Dua respectively, and these names are used without variation throughout the area indicated. Each horde is exclusively Yiritcha or Dua, as the case may be, and every man obtains his wife from some other horde of the opposite moiety. The two moieties are divided into eight subsections, four Yiritcha and four Dua, and the prevailing form of totemism includes the definite relationship of all members, both male and female, of each subsection (mar Ik), with some particular bird or animal, which is known by the individual as his or her dguyoin. These dgurjoin have, as far as I am able to discover, no association with totem centres. Every member of the same subsection possesses the same dguyoin, irrespective of the horde to which he belongs.

The relation between Neositta leucoptera and striata is discussed. A critical examination of the records of their occurrence in northern Queensland suggests that they are allopatric and do not interbreed. The barrier between them may lie between the Flinders and Leichhardt Rivers, and coincide with a barrier already noted between other bird species. It is proposed to call this the 'Carpentaria Barrier'. The validity of N. leucocephala is examined critically in the light of its contact with chrysoptera. It is concluded that a narrow zone of unnamed hybrids between the two occurs in north-eastern NSW and' south-eastern Queensland, that Gould's leucocephala is the correct name for white-headed birds with type locality Moreton Bay, and that lumholtzi is a synonym.

The Australasian species of Macrophthalmus show close zoogeographical relationships with those of ‘South‐East Asia’, and to a lesser extent with those of ‘Japan’, relatively little relationships with those of the ‘Pacific’, very few with ‘Indian’ species and none with ‘African’ species. In terms of the coefficient of faunistic similarity used, the only region to show some degree of affinity with all other regions, is ‘South‐East Asia’. This suggests the possibility that the genus Macrophthalmus arose in that region, and that the genus has radiated out from there to occupy its present wide distribution. A clear distinction is seen between the Australian distributions of the endemic and non‐endemic Macrophthalminae. Endemic species are confined to the east of a line drawn through the Gulf of Carpentaria and Spencer Gulf, and show a marked preference for the temperate and subtropical regions within that zone. Non‐endemic species, however, are mainly confined to the regions north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and occur in both the north‐eastern and northwestern regions of Australia. Four boundary points have been noted on the east coast of Australia; Cooktown, Port Curtis, Moreton Bay and Sydney. Copyright

Most islands of the arcs which lie to the east and the southeast of the Asiatic continent show proof of an uplift of the land relatively to the sea-level, which is amply demonstrated in tropical regions by the presence of upheaved fringing reefs. In the East Indian Archipelago there exists a striking difference between the western and the eastern parts as regards the rising islands and the submarine topography. If the sea-level were to be lowered 200 m., Sumatra, Java, and Borneo would form one mass of land with the peninsula of Cambodia and Siam, just as Australia would form a single mass with the Aru Islands through the vast tract now occupied by the shallow Arafura Sea and the Bay of Carpentaria to New Guinea and the islands Misool, Waigeu, Batanta, and Salawati to the west of New Guinea. Between these two near-land-masses lies an area in which deep sea basins alternate with upheaved islands. From a geological point of view Verbeek' first drew attention to this remarkable fact, of which a more satisfactory discussion has been made possible because of the flew deep-sea chart of the Siboga Expedition.2 In Verbeek's opinion the elevation of the islands surrounding the Banda Sea is the result of folding at greater depth. The active forces first began compressing near the surface, and as the geosynclines were formed they became active at greater depths. Later Molengraaff3 expressed similar ideas, and for the southeastern por

Travel‐time from explosions fired on the continental shelf round the Cape York Peninsula were recorded by a number of mobile seismic recording crews and seismic observatories. Least squares analysis of the results from various groups of shots indicated upper crustal velocities between 5.82 km/sec and 5.94 km/sec, lower crustal velocities between 6.62 km/sec and 6.83 km/sec, and upper mantle velocities between 7.84 km/sec and 8.09 km/sec. Subsequent time‐term analysis of the results gave depths to the intermediate refractor of 10 km at the continental margins increasing to 25 km in the Gilbert River region of Cape York. The Mohorovicic “Discontinuity” (M) dips at an average of 3° from depths of 25 km at the edge of the continent to 45 km in Central Cape York and the regions northwest of Charters Towers.

SYNOPSIS This study describes the results of examinations in 1964 of 332 and in 1965 of 410 Aboriginal children and adolescents living in Missions on the Gulf of Carpentaria in North Queensland. Their general physique and nutrition were found to be good. As shown by the incidence of organic type cardiac bruits, and on clinical grounds, there was evidence of streptococcal infection in both these Missions, one readily accessible to white Australian population and the other relatively isolated. Unusually high erythrocyte sedimentation rates (E.S.R.) and anti-streptolysin O (A.S.O.) levels were found, usually without any apparent relationship to the clinical findings. Possible reasons for the high E.S.R. rates have been studied. It is considered that there is scope for further paediatric investigations among Aboriginal children.

A sequence up to 40,000 ft thick of unmetamorphosed and only slightly deformed sedimentary and volcanic rocks occurs in the Carpentaria Province of Northern Australia. Metamorphic and granitic rocks form the basement to this sequence, and K‐Ar and Rb‐Sr age measurements show that the basement granites are about 1,800 ± 50 m.y. old. Associated in space and time with the granitic rocks are acid volcanics which form the basal unit in the overlying sequence. Glauconites in sedimentary rocks from this succession yield dates ranging from 1,600 m.y. in the Tawallah Group, the second lowest unit, to about 1,390 m.y. in the Roper Group, the uppermost unit. Plagioclase and pyroxene from dolerites intrusive into the Roper Group give K‐Ar dates ranging from 1,100 to 1,280 m.y.; the older date provides a younger limit to the age of the Roper Group. Following slight folding the Wessel Group was deposited unconformably on the Roper Group; a single glauconite from the topmost formation of the Wessel Group yields...

The tidal rivers of Cape York, Australia, transport well-sorted, angular quartz sand into the Gulf of Carpentaria by flotation. The combination of the environmental conditions causing this process are firstly, the peneplanation of the coastal area; secondly, the tidal rivers which run upstream for several miles; thirdly, the semi-tropical climate; fourthly, the lateritic and bauxitic soil containing a high percentage of very angular, quartz grains. The flotation phenomenon acts as a by-passing and sorting agent, and large amounts of clean sand are transported in this manner in various parts of the world, where other environmental combinations may permit the flotation of sand.

Triact fragments, probably of sponge spicules, occur in a siliceous rock found in the Proterozoic succession along the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory of Australia.

DURING petrological examination of core from DDH Tawallah Pocket No. 1, a diamond drill hole drilled in 1972 by Carpentaria Exploration Co. Pty Ltd (a subsidiary of Mount Isa Mines Holdings Ltd) as part of its exploration activities in the McArthur River region of the Northern Territory, Australia (Fig. 1), N. J. W. C. discovered microfossils. The samples were forwarded to M. D. M. for detailed study, and are briefly described here as the first record of microfossils of their particular age and from this area. The coordinates of the hole are 16° 00′ 02″ S and 135° 30′ 35″ E.

The typical form of the Brown Treecreeper Climacteris p. picumnus occurs in south-eastern Australia, a darker form with paler head markings C. p. melanota occupying the peninsula east of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Specimens from near Cardwell are intermediate, not faded, examples of melanora. Variation' occurs in C. p. picumllus, specimens from the north-east being slightly darker with slightly paler head markings. These four groups might form an interrupted cline. Alternatively, the north·eastern forms of picumnus might be regarded as intermediate. In either case it seems preferable to regard picumnus and melanota as forms of a single species.

This chapter provides an overview of the Jurassic system. The Jurassic strata in Australia are confined to the Canning, Carnarvon, and Perth Basins in Western Australia, and to the Carpentaria, Laura, Maryborough, Great Artesian, Polda, Mulgildie, and Clarence–Moreton Basins in eastern Australia. The deposits in eastern Australia are almost exclusively nonmarine. Much of the Western Australian Jurassic is marine but only that in the western part of the Carnarvon Basin is regarded as a deep-water deposit. Volcanism was greatly restricted both in time and space in the Jurassic of Australia. In New Zealand, the Jurassic rocks are geographically associated and, on the whole, conformable with those of the Triassic System. They are lithologically similar to the Triassic but, especially in their upper portions, they are less indurated, finer bedded, and contain more mudstone and less visible feldspar. The Middle Jurassic saw a marked increase in the area of sedimentation in the Great Artesian Basin. Throughout this basin, and the Mulgildie and Clarence–Moreton Basins, a sequence of lithic sandstone, shale, sideritic mudstone, and sub-bituminous coal accumulated, apparently under fluviatile to swamp conditions. The Walloon reaches a maximum thickness of 600 m in the Clarence-Moreton Basin where it extends into the Upper Jurassic at least.

Light traps and chicken-baited traps were used to sample the mosquito fauna near Innisfail on the NE coast of Australia. Weekly collections at fixed trapping sites in rain forest, swamp forest, mangrove forest and farm land from June 1963 to June 1964 yielded 29,395 ♀ mosquitoes of 61 species. The mosquito fauna resembled that of Papua, and at least 43 species are common to both areas. The habitat sequence rain forest, swamp forest, mangrove forest was associated with progressive restriction in mosquito fauna. Of the 39 farm land species 8 were not taken in other habitats. Densities were highest during the wet season (January to May), and lowest during periods of low temperature from June to September. All species confirmed as arbovirus vectors in Queensland were recorded. In most cases these were at lower levels than at Mitchell River Mission, near the Gulf of Carpentaria, where higher virus transmission rates have been found. C. annulirostris , the most important arbovirus vector in Queensland, was widely distributed but did not reach high density. Coq. crassipes was the most common mosquito. Aedeomyia catasticta was taken for the first time in animal baited traps.

THREE glauconite concentrates from Proterozoic sediments of the Carpentaria region of the Northern Territory which have been dated by the potassium–argon method show that there is almost complete retention of radiogenic argon in these samples when compared with control ages by the potassium–argon and rubidium–strontium methods on micas and whole-rock samples.

NO one has done more valuable work in elucidating the ethnography of the aborigines of Australia than Sir Baldwin Spencer, and therefore a new book by him deserves careful consideration. “Wanderings in Wild Australia” is possibly the final record of travels and field-work begun thirty-four years ago and continued at intervals until within a few years. The area of the wanderings is, roughly, between 132° and 136° E. long., and from Lake Eyre in the south to Bathurst Island and the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. Wanderings in Wild Australia. By Sir Baldwin Spencer. Vol. 1. Pp. xxviii + 455 + 210 plates. Vol. 2. Pp. xiv + 457-930 + 194 plates. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1928.) 42s. net.

IN May of last year (1908) I had the good fortune to meet the Bishop of North Queensland (Dr. Frodsham) at Liverpool, and he gave me in conversation some valuable information as to the native Australian beliefs and customs based on his personal knowledge of the aborigines. He told me that he had travelled among the Arunta as well as among various North Queensland tribes, and he asked me whether I was aware that the Australian aborigines do not believe children to be the fruit of the intercourse of the sexes. His Lordship informed me that this incredulity is not limited to the Arunta, but is shared by all the North Queensland tribes with which he is acquainted, and he added that it forms a fact which has to be reckoned with in the introduction of a higher standard of sexual morality among the aborigines, for they do not naturally accept the true explanation of conception and childbirth even after their admission into mission stations. The Bishop also referred to a form of communal or group marriage which he believes to be practised among aboriginal tribes he has visited on the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, but, unfortunately, I had not time to obtain particulars from him on this subject.

Charts of the distribution of salinity, temperature, inorganic phosphate, nitrate nitrogen, oxygen, and particulate organic phosphorus, for the eastern Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria in August 1964 are presented. Interrelationships of these properties show that at least three water masses were identifiable in this month. Two were very low in nutrients (phosphate less than 0.20, nitrate less than 1.0 �g-atom/l) but differed in salinity (less than 33.00‰ and greater than 35.50‰). The third was high in nutrients (phosphate greater than 1.40, nitrate greater than 17 �g-atom/l) and had salinities between 33.80 and 34.70‰. The high nutrient water mass was derived from Banda Sea slope water at around 100-150 m, wlth its nutrients increased subsequently by biological action. The other two water masses were formed in the coastal region of West Irian and the Coral Sea. High surface oxygen saturation (139%) and accumulation of organic phosphorus in near-bottom waters of the eastern Arafura Sea were the result of an uplift of Banda slope waters, much earlier in the year than August. In the Gulf of Carpentaria, the August salinity temperature characteristics were formed by the southward drift along the eastern margin of Coral Sea waters, which increased in salinity and decreased in temperature by evaporation. Low salinity water of the previous summer occurred in August, only in the north-west of the gulf.

The hydrological properties of five major surface zones in the south-east Indian Ocean are discussed. These are the Subantarctic, the Subtropical, the Tropical, and two transition zones separating them. Two regions of upwelled water are described. The Subantarctic Zone lies south of the 35.00‰ isohaline and has an inorganic phosphate P content hetween 0.30 and 0.60 μg-atom/l. The Subtropical Zone lies between the 35.80‰ isohaline in the south and the 35.50‰ isohaline in the north and has an inorganic phosphate P content between 0.10 and 0.15 μg-atom/l. For this zone waters with salinity greater than 36.00‰ in the south-east Indian Ocean and greater than 36.30‰ in the Great Australian Bight constitute the major source regions of high salinity water. Both of these, but particularly the latter, are very low in phosphate. The Tropical Zone lies between the south equatorial salinity minimum (34.26‰) and the Monsoon Current (salinity 34.10‰), at about 2°N. Four hydrological regions have been distinguished in this zone. From north to south these are (1) the Monsoon Current with low salinity (34.10‰), high temperature (28.9°C), and low phosphate P (0.12 μg-atom/l.); (2) the Equatorial Counter-Current with moderately high salinity (34.50‰), high temperature (28.7°C), and high phosphate (0.21 μg-atom/l.); (3) the South Equatorial Divergence with moderately high salinity (34.48-34.55‰), moderate temperature (26-27.5°C), and high phosphate (0.20-0.30 °g-atom/l.); (4) the South Equatorial Current with waters at its core of salinity 34.26-34.31‰, temperature 26-27°C, and phosphate 0.20-0.25 μg-atom/l. In the transitional zone between the Subantarctic and the Subtropical Zones salinity changes rapidly with latitude. The centre of the zone is marked by the position of the 35.40‰ isohaline. The centre of the transitional zone between the Subtropical and the Tropical Zones is marked by the position of the 34.90‰ isohaline. Two regions of upwelled water were found: (1) along the shelf and elope regions of north-west Australia south of Timor, distinguished by high phosphate P (0.20-0.30 μg-atom/l.) and a maximum upwelling occurring before September; (2) along the shelf and slope region of the eastern Arafura Sea, from the Aroe Islands to the Gulf of Carpentaria,, where the highest surface phosphate values in oceanic waters of Australia were found (0.66 μg-atom/l.), and a maximum upwelling probably occurring before August.

In this memoir Mr. Jukes gave a short abstract of all the information collected by various travellers regarding the Australian continent, including his own observations. The eastern coast is occupied by a great range of high land, appearing like a continuous chain of mountains when seen from the sea, and rising in several places to 5000 feet or more above the sea-level. This chain has an axis of granite, with occasional large masses of greenstone, basalt and other igneous rocks. It is flanked on both sides by thick beds of palaeozoic formations, chiefly sandstone, but also containing limestone and coal. In the northern portion of the chain Dr. Leichardt found similar formations, and especially trap and granite near the Burdekin river. In the Port Philip district there are similar igneous rocks, and on the coast tertiary formations, which Mr. Jukes found resting on the edges of upturned palaeozoic beds. In West Australia the Darling range consists of granite below, covered by metamorphic rocks; and between it and the sea is a plain composed of tertiary beds. In the colony of North Australia there is a great sandstone plateau, rising about 1800 feet above the sea, and probably of palaeozoic age; whilst on the immediate shore and round the Gulf of Carpentaria are beds supposed to belong to the tertiary period. Similar formations constitute the substratum of the central desert, in which Capt. Sturt was compelled to turn, when half-way to the Gulf of Carpentaria, from the southern coast.

The Leichhardt-Gilbert area of northwest Queensland comprises four physiographic divisions, the Isa Highlands in the west, the Carpentaria and Inland plains in the center, and the Einasleigh Uplands in the east. A plain of erosion of late Tertiary-Quaternary age occupies large areas of the central plains, and remnants of erosional plains of early to middle Tertiary and pre-middle Mesozoic ages are prominent elements of the present land surface in the two upland areas. The three plains are considered to be subaerial and polycyclic in origin; a geologically recent emergence has caused renewed downcutting near the coast. Except where the lithology is conducive in certain localities on the youngest plain of erosion no evidence suggests that pediplanation is or has been the dominant process molding the landscape. However, the writer agrees with the theses of L. C. King that in the Leichhardt-Gilbert area there are three major surfaces of erosion and that laterization occurred earlier than previously postulated.