Geology of Tasmania - History

History

Abel Janszoon Tasman noted in his journal on 22 November 1642 that his compasses were not steady and deduced the presence of mines of loadstone. This was two days before his lookout spotted Tasmania for the first time. This was the first prognostication of mineral wealth on the west coast of Tasmania.

A. W. Humphrey, a mineralogist, collected rocks and minerals from 1804. W. H. Twelvetrees and W. F. Petterd did petrographic investigations in Cygnet, around 1899. Other unpaid people studied Tasmanian geology such as Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Joseph Milligan who was a surgeon, Charles Darwin, John Lhotsky and Joseph Jukes.

Joseph Milligan sent specimens of a manganese mineral from Frenchman's Cap and Galena to the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. Small amounts of gold were discovered at Fingal and Lefroy in 1851. William B. Clarke a geologist and Anglican parson predicted that gold would be found in Tasmania at 146 degrees east longitude line. In 17 July 1859 Charles Gould a geologist recruited from England was appointed as the Geological Surveyor of Tasmania by the Tasmanian governor. He began the search for worthwhile minerals in the west, gave up and studied the geology of the eastern half of the state instead. He was commissioned by the Tasmanian Government in 1862 to return to the west coast, he named mountains in the West Coast Range: Mount Lyell after Charles Lyell, Mount Darwin, Mount Huxley and opponents of Charles Darwin were commemorated with Mount Owen, Mount Sedgwick, and Mount Jukes. Gould returned several times but did not find worthwhile mineral deposits. James "Philosopher" Smith discovered the Mount Bischoff tin deposit, the world's largest, on 4 December 1871. This discovery inspired Renison Bell to find more tin, and Dally found the gold reef at Beaconsfield and at Lefroy.

In 1882, Gustav Thureau was appointed Inspector of Mines, later called Inspector and Mining Geologist. In 1889, the position became Geological Surveyor. William Harper Twelvetrees took up the position. He established the Geological Survey library, and mineral and rock collection at the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston. In 1883, the Mines Office was created from the Commissioners and registrars for mines and goldfields that worked in the Mines Branch of the Lands and Works Department. Bernard Shaw was appointed the Secretary for Mines. The Mines Office gained a Minister for Mines in 1894 and changed its name to Mines Department. Bernard Shaw later became the Police Commissioner. The Mines Department lost its separate existence in July 1989 when it was merged to the Department of Resources and Energy, which has since changed its name several times. The current name for the Mines Office is Mineral Resources Tasmania.

Tannatt William Edgeworth David a geologist working out of Sydney was a proponent of the idea of Permo-Carboniferous glaciations. He studied the evidence for past glaciations in Tasmania.

Professor S. Warren Carey established the Department of Geology at the University of Tasmania in 27 October 1946. He was an early proponent of continental drift and the unauthodox expanding earth theory. He had become the Government Geologist of Tasmania in 1944 where he organised the understanding of Paleozoic formations in the west coast mineral fields, and introduced the Cenozoic rift valley idea, and the policy of publishing the results of the Geologic Survey. Carey introduced terms such as orocline and sphenochasm and the concept of the hotspot. The University of Tasmania building for Geology and Geography was constructed in 1962. It had exhibitions of a Foucault pendulum, a seismometer recording drum, a mosaic illustrating crystal symmetry, and a large terrestrial globe. Carey organised and hosted the Continental Drift Symposium in 1956.

The Tasmanian Seismic Net was established in 1957.

Professor Carey founded the Tasmanian Caverneering Club.