Hitta hit:
T-bana: Universitetet
Frescativägen 40

Ordinarie öppettider:
Tisdag–fredag 11–17
Lördag–söndag 10–18

  • Huvudmeny
PERMIAN PLANTS OF AUSTRALIA

Illawarra Coal Measures:

Ulan Coal Mine flora

Specimens

Ulan Coal Mine is located in the central west region of NSW (Fig. 1), approximately 45 km north-northwest of Mudgee and 25 km northeast of Gulgong (Fig. 2). It is one of the most established underground and opencut coal mining operations in the western coalfields of the Sydney Basin. The operation currently mines about 6 million tonnes of coal per year (although there are plans for a major underground extension to operations). The mine is one of the NSW´s leading exporters of bituminous thermal coal and is currently managed by Xstrata Coal Australia Pty Ltd. Mining operations at Ulan principally target the 7 m thick Ulan seam. Most workers regard this seam as laterally equivalent to the Lithgow and Bayswater coal seams or upper Lidsdale Seam, all of which belong to the fluvial—paludal Cullen Bullen Subgroup of the Illawarra Coal Measures (Tadros 1995, Yoo et al. 1995). These units host a Permian Upper Stage 5a—b palynoflora (of Price 1983), corresponding to a Wordian—Capitanian (middle—late Middle Permian: 268—260 Ma).
 
The fossil flora of the Ulan Mine is dominated by glossopterid gymnosperms but has not been thoroughly studied. A recent study reported a large gall on the midrib of a Glossopteris acutifolia leaf from this mine (McLoughlin 2011), representing one of the few such examples of arthropod-plant interactions in the Permian Glossopteris flora.
 
NRM has only two rock slabs from Ulan Coal Mine in its collections. They bear numerous compressions of Glossopteris leaves and a scale leaf.

References

McLoughlin, S., 2011. New records of leaf galls and arthropod oviposition scars in Permian-Triassic Gondwanan gymnosperms. Australian Journal of Botany 59, 156-169.

Price, P.L., 1983. A Permian palynostratigraphy for Queensland. In Proceedings of the Symposium on the Permian Geology of Queensland. (Ed anonymous) Geological Society of Australia, Queensland Division, Brisbane, 155-212.

Tadros, N.Z., 1995. Sydney-Gunnedah Basin overview. In Geology of Australian coal basins. C.R. Ward, H.J. Harrington, C.W. Mallett & J.W. Beeston, eds, Geological Society of Australia, Coal Geology Group, Special Publication 1, Sydney, 163-175.

Yoo, E.K., Norman, A. & McDonald, I., 1995. Sydney Basin — Western Coalfied. In Geology of Australian coal basins. C.R. Ward, H.J. Harrington, C.W. Mallett & J.W. Beeston, eds, Geological Society of Australia, Coal Geology Group, Special Publication 1, Sydney, 231-245.

Fig. 2. Map of the Sydney-Gunnedah basins showing the location of Ulan Coal Mine in the Western Coalfield of the Sydney Basin.

Fig. 1. Distribution of Permian sedimentary basins in Australia, with the Ulan Coal Mine area highlighted