Note on the Lignite Deposit of Lal-Lal, Victoria, Australia

The observations recorded in the present note were made at the latter end of the year 1868, during a preliminary survey of the Mount Buninyong District, Victoria. Unfortunately, through the dissolution of the late Geological Survey by the Colonial Government, circumstances did not permit of my carrying them to a successful termination. The village of Lal-Lal is situated about 3 miles to the south of Mount Buninyong, in the Buninyong District, Victoria. The surface aspect of the ground occupied by the lignite deposit is, in winter, that of a sandy marshy flat, in summer dry and parched, covered with coarse grass, and of no great extent. The country immediately to the north of Lal-Lal is composed of granitic rocks overlain by the lava-flows of Mounts Buninyong and Warrenheip, which extend some distance to the northward. On the south and west the deposit is bounded by the low Silurian hills of Williamson's Creek, and the Mount-Doran ranges. The Melbourne, Geelong, and Ballarat Railway crosses the western edge of the Lal-Lal flat; and near this a shaft was sunk by the “Lal-Lal Lignite Company,” which appears to have struck the bed about its thickest point, viz. 115 feet, as later mining operations have proved that it thins out all round this point. The supposition would therefore be that the position of the shaft represents nearly the centre of the bed of lignite. The following is a generalized section from above downwards:— 1. Alternations of sand, clay, and gravel, about 73 feet. 2. Fine fire-clay