FIELD GEOLOGY OF THE SHOALHAVEN DISTRICT NSW AUSTRALIA (Part 1)

 John G Paix 1970 (Reviewed 2013) © 
Australian Field Geology Club visit to the Cambewarra Range February 1965 
A Word or Two of Explanation
This book was written in the years 1968-1970. At the close of my time as a Science teacher at Nowra High School in 1967, I undertook to write a report titled "The Geology of the Shoalhaven Shire" for the then Shoalhaven Shire Council, which was published by them early in 1968. 
It soon became apparent that there was much additional information, especially relevant to the Geology excursions I had conducted during my 5 years in Nowra, which was not included in that book. 
What you see in front of you today was prepared for publication over the next three years and I fully expected to see it published in 1970. For reasons that do not matter at this distance in time, this never happened. I was left with a typed, proof-read copy, all the maps, drawings, photographs and figures and a feeling that one day something should be done to make this material available to the public. 
Well, here it is. Sadly, after 8 moves and a house fire, only the text and photographs remain. I have supplemented the text with additional photographs (some taken years later) and borrowed a few figures from “Geology of the Shoalhaven Shire” to make the text more meaningful. 
Google Earth can provide detailed images of many of the places mentioned in this book. What a tremendous benefit this resource has become for teachers of Geology! Likewise there is no need for an index for this book as the Find and Search commands with your PDF reader will do this even better. 
I am well aware that much has changed since I left Nowra in 1967. There has been a lot of research into the Geology of the area since my time; we have been using the Metric System for ages and such things as access to property, the expansion of National Parks and urban development will affect your ability to visit many of the locations I have described. The only concession I have made to more recent events is my comment about the access to the summit of Pigeon House Mountain (see Excursion 15a, Stop 2). That place is simply too good to miss! 
Things have changed, but the rocks themselves have not, so I hope this electronic publication brings pleasure to all those who make use of it.  
Please note that I retain the copyright to the text, photographs and any other content. I am not planning to update the book.  You should read it in conjunction with “Geology of the Shoalhaven Shire”, which is downloadable from the Australian Lapidary Forum website and also from the NSW Geological Survey site DIGS. 
John G Paix  
Glen Innes 2013 (and now Lithgow 2019)
Future Blogs will incorporate the rest of the book

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