View allAll Photos Tagged quartzite
Quartzite in the Precambrian of South Dakota, USA.
Extensive outcrops of pinkish, Paleoproterozoic-aged quartzites are present at Falls Park along the Big Sioux River in the city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The quartzites here have nicely water-worn, sculpted surfaces. These rocks are part of the Sioux Quartzite, which consists of 1.65 to 1.70 billion year old metamorphosed sandstones. Despite the metamorphism, original sedimentary features such as horizontal stratification, cross-bedding, and ripple marks are still preserved.
The Sioux Quartzite is an erosion-resistant unit in America’s midcontinent. It has formed a long-lived paleotopographic high since Precambrian times - the Sioux tectonic core. This high is part of a northeast-to-southwest trending series of paleotopographic highs & depressions known as the Transcontinental Arch, which extends from Arizona to Minnesota (see Carlson, 1999).
Quarries of Sioux Quartzite occur in southeastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota. The rocks are used as building stone, road gravel, sidewalk and paving gravel, and erosion control material.
Stratigraphy: Sioux Quartzite, upper Paleoproterozoic, 1.65-1.70 Ga
Locality: Falls Park, near Sioux Falls along the Big Sioux River in the town of Sioux Falls, southeastern South Dakota, USA
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Reference cited:
Carlson (1999) - Transcontinental Arch - a pattern formed by rejuvenation of local features across central North America. Tectonophysics 305: 225-233.
Renoir Blue Quartzite - faulted, horizontally-bedded quartzite.
Quartzite (metaquartzite) is a quartzose, crystalline-textured, metamorphic rock. It forms by intermediate- to high-grade metamorphism of quartzose sandstones and siltstones.
A photograph I took last year but stumbled across whilst backing up my files. Xerochrysum collierianum (quartzite everlasting) photographed at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.
This species is endemic to Tasmania and typically occurs in rocky soils or rock fissures in the wetter west of the state.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Quartzose sandstone from the Devonian of Nevada, USA.
This sample is from the Guilmette Formation, a heterolithic unit having carbonates, sandstones, and evaporites. The sandstones in the unit are often referred to as "quartzite", but they have not been metamorphosed.
Stratigraphy: unit 2, upper part of the Upper Member, Guilmette Formation, upper Frasnian Stage, lower Upper Devonian
Locality: Bactrian Mountain East section - eastern shoulder of "5230 peak" at Bactrian Mountain, Mt. Irish Range, ~between the towns of Rachel and Alamo, western Lincoln County, southern Nevada, USA (vicinity of 37° 31' 42.12" North latitude, 115° 19’ 37.25" West longitude)
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Reference on the geology of this section:
Morrow (1997) - Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 219.
The Baraboo Range consists of highly eroded precambrian metamorphic rock; and is about 25 miles long and varies from 5 to 10 miles in width.
The range is an example of a buried mountain range exposed through erosion, to once again undergo the forces of surface erosion. The rocks are as much as 1.6 billion years old, among the oldest exposed rocks in North America consisting mainly of pink Baraboo quartzite and red rhyolite.
The Wisconsin River, previously travelling in a north to south direction, turns to the east behind it before making its turn to the west towards the Upper Mississippi River. The eastern end of the range was glaciated during the Wisconsinian glaciation, while the western half was not, and consequently, marks the eastern boundary of Wisconsin's Driftless Area.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Quartzite statue of the god Amun-Ra, it was badly damaged by the agents of the Pharaoh Akhenaten (1360 - 1343 B.C. 18th Dynasty). It has been restored by the museum.
Interbedded specularite-quartzite from the Precambrian of Michigan, USA. (7.6 centimeters across at its widest)
Silvery-gray = specularite, composed of specular hematite (micaceous hematite) (Fe2O3)
Dark purplish-gray = quartzite (SiO2)
Banded iron formations, or BIFs, are unusual, dense sedimentary rocks consisting of alternating layers of iron-rich oxides and iron-rich silicates. Most BIFs are Proterozoic in age (although some are Late Archean), and do not form today - they're “extinct”! Many specific varieties of iron formation are known, and some are given special rock names. For example, jaspilite is an attractive reddish & silvery gray banded rock consisting of hematite, red chert (“jasper”), and specular hematite or magnetite.
Because of their age, most BIFs have been around long enough to have been subjected to one or more orogenic (mountain-building) events. As such, most BIFs are folded and/or metamorphosed to varying degrees.
BIFs are known from around the world, but some of the most famous & extensive BIF deposits are found in the vicinity of North America’s Lake Superior Basin. Many BIFs have economic concentrations of iron and are mined. BIFs are the most important variety of iron ore on Earth.
A famous BIF unit is the 1.874 or 2.11 billion year old Negaunee Iron-Formation, which outcrops in the Marquette Iron Range of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP), USA. The Negaunee Fe-Fm. has been metamorphosed to varying degrees and contains many specific lithologies, including jaspilites, taconites, specularites, ferruginous quartzites, ferruginous cherts, and ferruginous slates. The Negaunee Fe-Fm. has economic concentrations of iron and much of the unit in the Marquette Iron Range has been mined away. The best remaining, easily-accessible outcrop is Jasper Knob in the town of Ishpeming, Michigan. Earth’s oldest known macrofossils, Grypania spiralis, occur in this unit.
The specimen shown above is a metamorphosed BIF - the dark purplish gray layers are quartzite, metamorphosed from chert. The silvery-gray layers are specular hematite (micaceous hematite), which has been metamorphosed from "ordinary" rusty red hematite.
Stratigraphy: Negaunee Iron-Formation, Paleoproterozoic, 1.874 or 2.11 Ga
Locality: Republic Mine, western Marquette County, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA
A dramatic corrie sculpted during the last glaciation from the 530 million year old Cambrian quartzite. Stitched panorama.
Skolithos linearis (Haldeman, 1840) - burrows in the Silurian of Tennessee, USA. (bedding plane view)
Trace fossils are any indirect evidence of ancient life. They refer to features in rocks that do not represent parts of the body of a once-living organism. Traces include footprints, tracks, trails, burrows, borings, and bitemarks. Body fossils provide information about the morphology of ancient organisms, while trace fossils provide information about the behavior of ancient life forms. Interpreting trace fossils and determination of the identity of a trace maker can be straightforward (for example, a dinosaur footprint represents walking behavior) or not. Sediments that have trace fossils are said to be bioturbated. Burrowed textures in sedimentary rocks are referred to as bioturbation. Trace fossils have scientific names assigned to them, in the same style & manner as living organisms or body fossils.
Many shallow-water quartzose sandstones have conspicuous, long, vertical burrows called Skolithos linearis. Geologists traditionally consider Skolithos as a burrow of a filter-feeding vermiform organism in a shallow-water, high-energy lithofacies. Most Skolithos occurrences in the geologic record may be safely interpreted as such, but some demonstrably terrestrial examples constructed by other organisms have been discovered (e.g., see Martin, 2006).
The rock with Skolithos trace fossils shown here is often called "piperock". The host rock itself is frequently referred to as "quartzite", even though it's not metamorphic. Very hard, extremely well-cemented quartzose sandstones such as this do mimic true metamorphic quartzites in their physical characteristics.
Stratigraphy: Clinch Formation ("Clinch Quartzite"), Lower Silurian
Locality: large erosion control block on slope, northern side of Rt. 25E, southern side of Clinch Mountain, WNW of the town of Bean Station, northeastern Grainger County, northeastern Tennessee, USA (36° 21' 34.12" North, 83° 21' 05.77" West)
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References:
Haldeman (1840) - Supplement to Number One of “A Monograph of the Limniades, or Freshwater Univalve Shells of North America,” Containing Descriptions of Apparently New Animals in Different Classes, and the Names and Characters of the Subgenera in Paludina and Anculosa. Philadelphia. 3 pp. [= “Miscellaneous Pamphlets on Natural History 14”]
Martin (2006) - Trace Fossils of San Salvador. San Salvador, Bahamas. Gerace Research Center. 80 pp.
Quartzite rock.
A leftover shot from our trip to Cheaha Mountain in Fall,2009
I didn't really want to post this,but I'm getting short on ideas during this cold wet weather,but this "big rock"was on Explore, believe it or not !
The proprietor of Reader's Oasis Books in Quartzite, AZ, is a full-time nudist who quietly tends a surprisingly good bookstore in the middle of this small desert town. Interestingly, while HE doesn't cover up, his adult section is hidden beneath a demure flap of cloth just to his left.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
View from Seneca Rocks.
Purchased by the federal government in 1969, Seneca Rocks is one of the best-known landmarks in West Virginia. These rocks have long been noted as a scenic attraction and are popular with rock climbers.
The rocks are a magnificent formation rising nearly 900 feet above the North Fork River. Eastern West Virginia contains many such formations of the white/gray Tuscarora quartzite. Seneca Rocks and nearby Champe Rocks are among the most imposing examples. The quartzite is approximately 250 feet thick and is located primarily on exposed ridges as caprock or exposed crags. The rock is composed of fine grains of sand that were laid down approximately 440 million years ago, in an extensive sheet at the edge of ancient ocean. Years of geologic activity followed, as the ocean was slowly destroyed and the underlying rock uplifted and folded. Millions of years of erosion stripped away the overlaying rock and left remnants of the arching folds in formations such as Seneca Rocks.
Man has apparently been a visitor to the area around Seneca Rocks for a long time. Some evidence suggests that the Native Americans of the Archaic Period may have camped at the mouth of nearby Seneca Creek. The famous Seneca Trail followed the Potomac River, allowing the Algonquin, Tuscarora, and Seneca tribes to trade and make war.
The first European settlers in the region appeared about 1746. At that time, West Virginia (or western Virginia as it was then) was the edge of the great wilderness. Slowly the area was settled, disturbed by the events of the American Revolution and the Civil War, which pitted brother against brother in these border counties.
It is unknown who the first person was to climb Seneca Rocks. Undoubtedly Native Americans scaled the rocks prior to European settlers reaching the area, but there is no record of their ascents. The historic ascent of Paul Brandt, Don Hubbard, and Sam Moore in 1939 found an inscription of "D.B. Sept. 16, 1908." This has been attributed to a surveyor named Bittenger who was known to be working in the area. (Seneca, the Climber's Guide by Bill Webster).
The documented climbing history of the rocks began in 1935 with a roped ascent of the North Peak by Paul Brandt and Florence Perry. In the 1930's and 40's only a few climbers, mostly from the D.C. and Pittsburgh areas, attempted to climb Seneca Rocks. In 1943-44 the U.S. Army used the rocks to train mountain troops for action in the Apennines. Evidence of their climbing activities can still be found on the rocks. (Webster).
Quartzite & slate in the Precambrian of Wisconsin, USA. (photo by Mary Ellen St. John)
The Baraboo Ranges of southern Wisconsin are dominated by a hard, erosion-resistant Precambrian metamorphic unit called the Baraboo Quartzite. These rocks were originally marine sandstones and have been subjected to metamorphism and structural folding. Original sedimentary structures are preserved, such as cross-bedding and ripple marks. Baraboo Quartzites vary in color from pinkish to dark reddish to grayish. During metamorphism, quartz overgrowths formed over the original quartz sand grains. Long-term, modern weathering can result in original sand grains being released.
The large rock shown above is Van Hise Rock, which detached from a natural cliff of Baraboo Quartzite outcrop behind the photographer (the cliff has since been modified by road construction). The pinkish areas at right are quartzite. The dark gray areas at left are slate (often referred to as "phyllite" in the literature). Slate/phyllite interbeds (= originally shales) are somewhat common in certain intervals of the Baraboo Quartzite.
Van Hise Rock has fallen such that the original sedimentary bedding is now vertical. The slanted layering in the slate at left is metamorphic foliation.
This unit has economic significance - it has been quarried historically and in modern times. The quartzite is broken down into gravel-sized pieces for use as railroad ballast and erosion-control rip-rap.
Stratigraphy: Baraboo Quartzite, upper Paleoproterozoic, ~1.7 Ga
Locality: Van Hise Rock - large, cliff-detached block on the eastern side of Rt. 136, just north of the town of Rock Springs, North Range of the Baraboo Ranges, north-central Sauk County, southern Wisconsin, USA (43° 29’ 20.70” North latitude, 89° 54’ 56.57” West longitude)
Wheeler Peak, elev. 13,033 ft., is the highest point in the Snake Range and is the second-highest peak in Nevada. It is composed pimarily of the Prospect Mountain Quartzite of Cambrian age. The north face, shown here, has been glacially carved. The cirque contains a small rock glacier, the only glacier between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. Great Basin National Park. Near Baker, White Pine Co., Nevada.
Ancient Egypt Gallery, Louvre Museum, Paris, France. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com.
Looking SW to the northeastern corries of Beinn Eighe from the Conservation Cairn at the high point of the Mountain Trail in the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve.
There is much exposed quartzite in this area - composed almost entirely of silicon dioxide, it contains virtually zero nutrients and supports little plant life.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Quartzite from the Precambrian of Michigan, USA.
Quartzite is a crystalline-textured metamorphic rock composed of quartz. It forms by low- to high-grade metamorphism of sandstones (or siltstones or chert). Low-grade metamorphism is often insufficient to destroy the original sand grains. In this sample, the sand grains of the original sandstone are still evident (= small, scattered gray masses - click on the photo once or twice to zoom in).
Stratigraphy: Mesnard Quartzite, lower Chocolay Group, lower Marquette Range Supergroup, lower Paleoproterozoic, ~2.3 Ga
Locality: roadcut on the western side of Route 41, immediately north of EconoLodge motel (= stop 1 of Kangas & Brown, 1986, GAC/MAC/Canadian Geophysical Union Joint Annual Meeting, 1986, Ottawa, Ontario, Field Trip 1: Guidbeook, Proterozoic Sediment-Hosted Stratiform Copper Deposits of Upper Michigan & Belt Supergroup of Idaho & Montana, pp. 16-20), southern side of the town of Marquette, northern Marquette County, northern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA (46° 30' 42.73" North latitude, 87° 22' 29.67" West longitude)
■ Arquitectura Negra's (Black Architecture's) parish church at Campillejo, a small village in Guadalajara (Castile-La Mancha, Spain) near mount Ocejon. The church was built using mainly slate and assorted quartzites.
Taken handheld using a Panasonic Lumix TZ7 (ZS3) at sunset ( 62 mm, F5, 1/500 sec., ISO 80, EV -2/3 ).
■ Iglesia Parroquial de Arquitectura Negra en Campillejo, un pequeño pueblo de Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha) al pie del monte Ocejon. La iglesia fue construida utilizando principalmente pizarra y cuarcitas diversas.
Tomada a pulso con una Panasonic Lumix TZ7 (ZS3) a la puesta de sol ( 62 mm, F5, 1/500 seg., ISO 80, EV -2/3 ).
From Egypt
18th Dynasty, around 1350 BC
'He who cuts off the face of him who cuts off your face'
This inscription on the statue appears to identify it with Hapy the son of Horus. Yet this baboon still reminds of the Cynocephalus ape of Thoth.
Ancient Egyptians might identify the baboon with at least three main deities. The first was the sun-god, as baboons screech at sunrise. Religious papyri often depict baboons adoring the rising sun. The second deity, who this sculpture is normally thought to represent, is Thoth, the ibis-headed god of Hermopolis. Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC), whose names are incised on the pedestal of this small figure, in fact set up four colossal baboon statues at Hermopolis, the centre of Thoth's cult.
However, the baboon is also associated with Hapy, one of the four sons of Horus. The inscription on this statue suggests that it might be Hapy who is represented here, as it bears the epithet 'He who cuts off the face of him who cuts off your face', which is usually identified with the guardian Hapy.
The figure is carved from the brown quartzite of Lower Egypt so favoured by Amenhotep III. It has been suggested that the statue may have come from Amenhotep's tomb, but divine statues in royal burials are more likely to have been made of wood. It seems more likely that this is one of the huge number of statues of deities made for Amenhotep's mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile.
A.P. Kozloff and B.M. Bryan, Egypts dazzling sun: Amenhotep (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992)
S. Quirke and A.J. Spencer, The British Museum book of anc (London, The British Museum Press, 1992)
British Museum
Room 4: Egyptian sculpture
www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_object...
Skolithos linearis (Haldeman, 1840) - vertical burrows in the Silurian of Tennessee, USA. (cross-section view; camera lens cap for scale)
Trace fossils are any indirect evidence of ancient life. They refer to features in rocks that do not represent parts of the body of a once-living organism. Traces include footprints, tracks, trails, burrows, borings, and bitemarks. Body fossils provide information about the morphology of ancient organisms, while trace fossils provide information about the behavior of ancient life forms. Interpreting trace fossils and determination of the identity of a trace maker can be straightforward (for example, a dinosaur footprint represents walking behavior) or not. Sediments that have trace fossils are said to be bioturbated. Burrowed textures in sedimentary rocks are referred to as bioturbation. Trace fossils have scientific names assigned to them, in the same style & manner as living organisms or body fossils.
Many shallow-water quartzose sandstones have conspicuous, long, vertical burrows called Skolithos linearis. Geologists traditionally consider Skolithos as a burrow of a filter-feeding vermiform organism in a shallow-water, high-energy lithofacies. Most Skolithos occurrences in the geologic record may be safely interpreted as such, but some demonstrably terrestrial examples constructed by other organisms have been discovered (e.g., see Martin, 2006).
The rock with Skolithos trace fossils shown here is often called "piperock". The host rock itself is frequently referred to as "quartzite", even though it's not metamorphic. Very hard, extremely well-cemented quartzose sandstones such as this do mimic true metamorphic quartzites in their physical characteristics.
Stratigraphy: Clinch Formation ("Clinch Quartzite"), Lower Silurian
Locality: large erosion control block on slope, northern side of Rt. 25E, southern side of Clinch Mountain, WNW of the town of Bean Station, northeastern Grainger County, northeastern Tennessee, USA (36° 21' 34.12" North, 83° 21' 05.77" West)
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References:
Haldeman (1840) - Supplement to Number One of “A Monograph of the Limniades, or Freshwater Univalve Shells of North America,” Containing Descriptions of Apparently New Animals in Different Classes, and the Names and Characters of the Subgenera in Paludina and Anculosa. Philadelphia. 3 pp. [= “Miscellaneous Pamphlets on Natural History 14”]
Martin (2006) - Trace Fossils of San Salvador. San Salvador, Bahamas. Gerace Research Center. 80 pp.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Sandstone in the Silurian of Tennessee, USA.
The Clinch Formation (a.k.a. Tuscarora Quartzite, Clinch Sandstone, Tuscarora Sandstone; Clinch Quartzite, Tuscarora Formation) generally consists of hard, well-cemented, quartzose sandstones and some quartz-pebble conglomerates. Commonly seen sedimentary features include cross-bedding and burrows. The quartz grains in the Clinch appear to have been recycled, probably several times during the Precambrian and Early Paleozoic. These sediments were deposited near the end of the Taconic Orogeny. The beds themselves were structurally tilted during the Allegheny Orogeny, in the Late Paleozoic.
Stratigraphy: Clinch Formation, Llandoverian Series, lower Lower Silurian
Locality: roadcut on the northern side of Rt. 25E, across the road from Veterans Overlook, near the top of Clinch Mountain, northeastern Grainger County, northeastern Tennessee, USA (36° 20' 02.41" North latitude, 83° 23' 37.39" West longitude)
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
Reflections in a rolling ball fountain in Bad Dürkheim. A perfect sphere of blue Brazilian quartzite, floating in a corresponding socket in a pressurised stream of water. The marble is covered with a thin film of water that provides reflections like this one. The stone has a diameter of 1.25 m and weighs 2.2 tons, but the direction of rotation can be changed with the greatest of ease.
And while we're on the subject of blue and Bad Dürkheim, this is the town where Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen (of burner fame) discovered the atom caesium (Lat. "sky blue"). During spectral analysis experiments they encountered unexpected blue lines in the emission spectrum, which led to the discovery of the new atom. To isolate 7.3 g of caesium chloride they needed 44,000 litres of Bad Dürkheim mineral water.
Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor's masterpiece in Vals, Switzerland, is made from local quartzite stone and bermed into the slope beneath a hotel that it is connected to.
The Kalkadoon People, also known as the Kalkatungu, Kalkatunga, or Kalkadungu, ruled what is called the Emu Foot Province and have been living on these lands for over 40 thousand years. The Kalkadoon People owned vast tracts of land extending from McKinley’s Gap in the east where they joined the Goa tribe of the Winton district to Gunpowder Creek which was the territory of the Waggaboongas. On the southern side of their territory the Kalkadoons were touched upon by the Pitta-Pitta tribe of the Boulia district, and on the northern side by the Mittakoodi of the Fort Constantine country.
The Kalkadoons would mark their territory boundaries with an emu or cranes foot that was either painted onto rocks and trees or carved into the hard granite rock. This was also a warning for other Aboriginal clans not to pass these boundaries.
The Kalkadoon (Kalkatungu) are descendants of an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the Mount Isa region of Queensland. Their forefather tribe has been called 'the Elite of the Aboriginal warriors of Queensland'. In 1884 they were massacred at "Battle Mountain" by settlers and police.
The first Europeans to visit the area were explorers Burke and Wills who crossed the Cloncurry River in 1861. Though their journals make no mention of the tribe, their passing through is said to have been recorded in Kalkatungu oral history, and in their language they coined the term walpala (from 'white feller') to denote Europeans. Three parties sent out to search for Burke and Wills, led respectively by John McKinlay, William Landsborough, and Frederick Walker, passed through the general area. Walker, a former commander of the Dawson native police, shot 12 natives dead and wounded several more, just to the north east of Kalkatungu territory.
Another early European settler, Edward Palmer, who was described by George Phillips as 'one of that brave band of pioneer squatters who in the early sixties swept across North Queensland with their flocks and herds, settling, as if by magic, great tracts of hitherto unoccupied country', settled on the edge of Kalkatungu country in 1864, at Conobie, on the western bank of the Cloncurry River. Decades later, Palmer described the natives as a peculiar people of which little was known. Palmer was critical of the use of native police and interested in indigenous tribes. His station lands did not cover any Kalkatungu sacred sites, he did not object to their presence in the vicinity, and found no problem in his relations with the Kalkatungu. He tried to learn their language. Ernest Henry arrived in 1866, discovering, with the assistance of Kalkatungu guides, copper deposits the following year, and founded the Great Australia Mine. He successfully enlisted some Kalkatungu people to work one of these mines. A short attempt at settlement by W. and T. Brown at Bridgewater in 1874 experienced, like Palmer, no difficulties with the indigenous owners of the land.
The Scottish settler Alexander Kennedy then took up land in the area in 1877. He had managed, since his arrival in 1861, to accumulate land holdings of some 4,800 sq. miles, holding 60,000 cattle, and established himself in a residence he built, called Buckingham Downs. Kennedy is thought to have begun the troubles with the native peoples of the area by instigating murderous assaults on the Kalkatungu. Iain Davidson describes him as 'the man who led the destruction of the tribes of North West Central Queensland.'
The traditional white heroic narrative version of what then occurred drew on the account provided by Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh in 1933. According to this version, the Kalkatungu was by nature a hostile and bellicose tribe, exceptionally brave with 'primitive' military cunning and guerilla-like tactics of strategic withdrawals to the mountains to evade reprisals for their savagery. They were eventually vanquished and broken after a last stand against men like Alexander Kennedy.
Source: Kalkadoon PBC (www.kalkadoonpbc.com.au)