D E V O N I A N OF
NEW ZEALAND
A . J. WRIGHT
ABSTRACT
Fossiliferous Devonian strata are known from New Zealand
in only two areas in the South Island, near Reefton and the
Baton River.
At Reefton, Devonian beds occur in fault-bounded slices in
which the structure is not known with certainty. The sequence
includes sandstones, limestones and mudstones and is probably
more than 4,000 feet thick.
The Devonian sediments in the Baton River area consist of at
least 8,000 feet of predominantly mudstones which are probably
unconformable on Ordovician rocks.
Shelly fossils, especially brachiopods, belong to European as
well as endemic genera and have been thought to indicate affin-
ities with the early Devonian Malvinokaffric faunal province.
The two sequences, of different lithofacies and biofacies, can-
not yet be correlated in detail with each other. Both appear
largely Lower Devonian; the Middle Devonian age suggested for
part of the Reefton sequence is unproved.
The Tuhua Orogeny has been proposed for the diastrophic
event which concluded sedimentation in this period.
INTRODUCTION
Waterhouse (1965) has reviewed the history of investiga-
tion of the two New Zealand sequences now accepted as
Devonian. The first important publications were by McKay
(1879, Baton River; 1883, Reefton). Serious systematic
faunal studies were commenced by Allan (1935, Reefton)
(1967) Intl. Symposium of the Devonian system: Papers, Volume I
2010 by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists
and by Shirley (1938, Baton River), who were forced to
reject most of the previous determinations (e.g., those of
Thomson, 1913). By comparison with faunas from the
Yeringian beds in Victoria the Baton River beds had pre-
viously been considered Silurian, but Shirley's work stim-
ulated restudy of the Yeringian faunas. This paper is a
review of past work in areas of known fossiliferous Devonian
in New Zealand. The author is very grateful to Professor
H. W. Wellman who suggested many improvements to the
original manuscript.
DISTRIBUTION
In New Zealand, Devonian fossiliferous rocks are only
known from the Reefton and Baton River areas (Fig. 1)
in the northern part of the South Island, west of the dextral
transcurrent Alpine Fault. In the Reefton area about 4
square miles of Devonian crop out. At Baton River, about
70 miles to the north, there are about 40 square miles of
Devonian outcrops made up of 15 square miles of Baton
Formation and 25 square miles of Ellis Formation. Hen-
derson (1917, p. 79) mentioned the possibility that "marble
and quartzose schist" in the Grey and Maruia valleys some
20 miles south and southeast of Reefton could be metamor-
phosed Devonian strata.
GEOLOGICAL SETTING
No diagnostic Silurian or Carboniferous fossils have yet
been described from New Zealand. Grindley (1961) con-
sidered that Silurian strata conformably underlay the
Devonian in the Baton River-Wangapeka River area. At
Reefton, Devonian beds are thought to occur as fault-
bounded lenses (Suggate, 1957).
In both areas vegetation is very dense and river and
stream sections and road cuttings (the latter only in the
Reefton area) provide the main outcrops. Certain fossil
species at Reefton have not been found in place but are
Fig. 1. South Island of New Z e a l a n d showing the distribution of Devonian
known only from river boulders. Suggate (1957) mentioned
that exposures at Reefton have deteriorated since mining
ceased.
Geological efforts in both districts have been stimulated
largely by economic reasons, as alluvial gold, coal and some
small amounts of lode mineralization have been worked;
no significant mineralization has been recorded from the
Devonian.
No subsurface information on the Devonian of either
area is available, except for that resulting from mining
operations along the contact between the Reefton and
Waiuta Groups at the Big River mine (Gage, 1948).
A minor amount of igneous intrusion into the Devonian
of both areas was noted by Gage (1948) and by Willis
(1965).
Reefton Area
Because of gold and coal deposits, the Reefton area has
been mapped in considerable detail (Henderson, 1917; Gage,
1948; Suggate, 1957). Devonian rocks occur east and south
of Reefton as five discrete areas, arranged in a roughly
meridional strip. They are thought (Suggate, 1957) to
be downfaulted against the unfossiliferous Waiuta Group
which is possibly Precambrian (Wellman, 1956). Suggate
(in Hill, 1956) gave the most detailed map available of the
two largest areas of Devonian outcrop; these are herein
termed the Inangahua and the Waitahu areas, after the
rivers which cross them. A trilobite pygidium (Homalon-
otus?) in a distinctive quartzite, recorded as found in the
Nile River, is in the New Zealand Geological Survey collec-
tions. No Devonian rocks are known to crop out in the
Nile watershed, which is a minimum of 15 miles from Reef-
ton. Thus the origin and significance of this fossil are
as yet not certain.
Auriferous lodes are confined to the Waiuta Group and
have controlled the emphasis of geological mapping in the
Reefton area; they are absent from Devonian strata, which
have, accordingly, not been mapped in detail. As a result
there is doubt about the structure and stratigraphy of the
Devonian. Gage (1948, p. 8) drew attention to the possibil-
ity of folds in the Devonian. Suggate (1957, p. 29) intro-
rocks. duced the possibility of a syncline, in the Inangahua area,
with an overturned southwest limb. Henderson (1917) and
Allan (1935) dealt only with incomplete but uniformly dip-
ping and apparently continuous sections such as those in
the Waitahu River or Lankeys Creek.
Devonian strata in this area have a complex tectonic his-
tory; the rocks are commonly highly cleaved and elonga-
tion of the fossils is parallel to the bedding-cleavage inter-
section (Wellman, 1962a).
In his Reefton Group (Reefton Beds of Allan, 1935, and
Reefton Series of Gage, 1948) Suggate (1957) recognised
four formations:
Upper Reefton Quartzite (in excess of 600 ft.)
Reefton Limestone (80 ft.)
Reefton Mudstone (630 ft.)
Lower Reefton Quartzite (in excess of 2500 ft.)
Because of the structural uncertainty, the Devonian se-
quence is not established. If the above stratigraphy is cor-
rect a syncline must exist; if there are neither overturned
beds nor significant repetition by faulting, there may be
formations not recognised by Suggate.
Three main lithologies, quartzite, mudstone and lime-
stone, dominate the Reefton Devonian and are gradational
laterally and vertically (Henderson, 1917; Allan, 1935;
Suggate, 1957). Of the recorded faunas, most of the
brachiopod species occur mostly in quartzites and mud-
stones, but a few have been recovered from limestones, to
which tetracorals are almost completely restricted; tabu-
late corals occur in limestones and mudstones. Important
Reefton brachiopods range from silty beds near the top
of the Lower Reefton Quartzite, through the Reefton Mud-
stone to the highest fossiliferous beds in the Reefton Lime-
stone. No fossils are recorded from the Upper Reefton
Quartzite.
Detailed data about the above formations and their fossil
content may be found in Suggate (1957). Sandy and cal-
careous, muddy sediments with associated sedimentary
structures (particularly ripple marks), together with abun-
dant brachiopods and corals, suggest deposition in a shelf
environment, very similar to the Siegen type of the Rhenish
facies of Shirley (1938). The dominant fossils at Reefton
are articulate brachiopods which occur in bands, generally
dominated by one species. Most brachiopods occur as single
valves but articulated valves are common. Coral colonies
are mostly not in their living attitude but as with the
brachiopods the amount of abrasion and of post-mortem
transportation was small.
Baton River Area
The concept of the Baton River "beds" has varied wide-
ly. Early workers, including McKay (1879) and Henderson
et al (1958), developed the concept of a broad "Baton River
series" unconformably overlying the calcareous Mount
Arthur series and cropping out from north of the Baton
River to south of the Wangapeka. Grindley (1961) recog-
nised a Baton River Group, consisting of two units, the
Baton Formation underlain conformably by the Ellis
Formation. Willis (1965) recognised seven members in
the Baton Formation from which all the Baton River fossils
were derived.
Following Shirley's (1938) decisive work proving the
Devonian age of the Baton River fossils, Grindley (1961)
considered the whole of the Baton River Group to be Devo-
nian and to be underlain conformably by the Wangapeka
Formation which he considered Silurian. On the other
hand, Willis thought that, in the Baton River area, the
Baton Formation probably unconformably overlay the
Ellis Formation which he considered "Silurian or Ordovi-
cian," and included the Ellis Formation in the Mount
Arthur Group (see Willis, 1965, Table 1).
Grindley's Devonian age for the Ellis Formation depends
largely on Shirley's (1938, p. 498) identification of brachio-
pods from quartzites at several localities near the mouth
of the Rolling River; as these include Schizophoria,
"Eatonia bithynica" and probably Notoconchidium (Con-
chidium sp. of Shirley, pi. 43, Fig. 1), a Devonian age
appears correct. On the other hand no fossils have yet
been described from the Ellis Formation in the type area,
although Willis recorded graptolites. Thus Grindley ap-
pears to have correctly assessed the Devonian distribution
in the Wangapeka-Rolling Rivers area, but Devonian quartz-
ites there may not be the same as those quartzites in the
Ellis Creek-Baton River area for which Willis has sug-
gested a pre-Devonian age. This may not be resolved until
diagnostic fossils are recovered from the Ellis Formation
at or near the type area.
 At present the position and relationships of the base
of the Devonian are therefore obscure. Upper Ordovician
graptolites found by Johnson et al (1965) in the Wanga-
peka Formation north of Mount Owen indicate that the
Silurian age suggested by Grindley can only, at best, be
true for part of the formation. A gap in the sedimentary
record between the Ordovician and the Devonian here is
quite possible.
The most common rocks of the Baton Formation are
blue-grey calcareous mudstones; lower beds become sandy
to the northeast and southwest of Baton River (Grindley
et al, 1959). Widely distributed benthonic shelly fossils
include articulate brachiopods and trilobites with less com-
mon gastropods, pelecypods, and corals. Because of the
highly deformed enclosing rocks, calcareous fossils are gen-
erally difficult to extract, so moulds are the most useful
form of preservation. Brachiopods generally occur as
single valves, not extensively abraded; such fossils, in this
mode of preservation, together with the current bedding
and ripple marks (Willis, 1965), are indicative of a shelf
environment. Shirley (1938) likened this facies to the
Koneprusy type of Bohemian facies in the European Devo-
nian. The Devonian age of the brachiopod fauna, mostly
apparently from Willis' Member 3, has not been seriously
questioned since Shirley (1938) considered a Late Siegenian
age most likely, although previously these faunas were
commonly considered Silurian (Waterhouse, 1965). Subse-
quently slightly different Devonian ages have been sug-
gested. As the sequence measured by Willis exceeded 8000
feet in thickness, the time represented by the Baton Forma-
tion must be considerable, assuming a moderate rate of
subsidence.
T E C T O N I C HISTORY
It is reasonably certain that the Devonian sediments
of the South Island were deformed and. probably intruded
prior to the Permian (Grindley, 1961; Lensen, 1962; Sug-
gate, 1965). Grindley (1961) suggested three Palaeozoic
deformations in Northwest Nelson (including the Baton
River area)one in Devonian time and two in the later
Palaeozoic. Willis (1965) stated that at Baton River the
folding of nearby Tertiary beds was at least as complex
as that of Devonian beds and also proposed a complex tec-
tonic history for the Devonian beds, which are much more
highly cleaved than the Tertiary rocks of the area.
For the event which gave rise to the deformation of the
Devonian strata Suggate (1965) revived the term Tuhua
Orogeny (Park, 1921), but when this diastrophism ceased
is not clear.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY
At present, recognition of any major Devonian sedimen-
tary basins is hampered by:
1. extremely limited areas of Devonian outcrop com-
pared with the probably large original area of sedi-
mentation.
2. knowledge of shelf sediments only.
Gill (1952) envisaged a Lower Devonian New Zealand
geosyncline, encompassing all of New Zealand and extend-
ing around a Tasmantis Massif to link up with the Tasman
geosyncline of Eastern Australia; Suggate (1957, p. 34)
considered this concept unproven. Recent geophysical data
(Standard, 1962) do not support the Tasmantis concept.
The absence of Devonian rocks in the southern part of the
South Island does not add weight to the idea of an exten-
sive Devonian geosyncline in New Zealand; the lack of
lower Palaeozoic rocks beneath the Devonian at Reefton
led Wellman (1956) to suggest the possibility of a Devo-
nian transgression. Allan (1935, p. 33) had previously
suggested that "the Reefton area was flooded by the Aus-
tralian Middle Devonian transgression, or by a sea con-
nected therewith."
Grindley (1966) introduced the idea that the Baton River
Devonian beds were deposited with volcanics and unfossil-
iferous (possibly Silurian) strata on the eastern side of an
early Palaeozoic geosyncline. There is no published palaeo-
current evidence suggesting directions of derivation of the
sediments in either area. However the predominantly
sandy Reefton sequence has long been considered to have
accumulated in a shallower environment than the muddy
Baton River sequence.
F A U N A L RELATIONS
Conflicting views have been expressed on the geographic
affinities of the New Zealand Devonian faunas. Allan
 (1935, p. 58) considered that the Reefton faunas closely
resembled those from the same facies as the Upper Siege-
nian of Western Europe but, following Shirley's work, aban-
doned this concept of world-wide faunal provinces. Shirley
(1938, p. 499) explained the resemblances of New Zealand
and European faunas by migration along a Lower Devo-
nion Tethys and probably a circum-Pacific route. Al-
though few brachiopods with marked North American affin-
ities are now recognized in the New Zealand Devonian, such
routes appear likely.
Austral ("Malvinokaffric") elements in the Reefton fauna
were listed by Allan (1935, 1942, 1945); these were sub-
sequently discounted by Gill (1952). Caster and Gill
(1957) stated that carpoids from the Devonian of Reefton
appeared to be related to Northern Hemisphere forms and
not to South American and South African forms. Doumani
et al (1965, p. 255) indicated that Tanerhynchia and
Pleurothyrella from Reefton are the only New Zealand
elements related to faunas of the Malvinokaffric Province,
and also stated that the Reefton brachiopod fauna is more
closely related to the Malvinokaffric faunas than to Eastern
Australian faunas. Boucot, Johnson and Talent (1965)
considered that in early Emsian (i.e. Reefton) time, New
Zealand constituted a separate faunal province.
Age Determinations
In estimates of the ages of the Reefton and Baton River
deposits made so far, emphasis has been placed on ben-
thonic fossils, especially brachiopods. No ammonoids or
conodonts have yet been recorded from either area.*
Correlations based on brachiopods necessarily assume the
wide geographic extent of a taxonomic group over a
restricted time interval; completion of taxonomic studies
of the New Zealand Devonian faunas may reveal unsus-
pected complications in correlations as a result of provin-
cialism.
Brachiopods such as Schizophoria, Fascicostella, Hippar-
ionyx, Cyrtina, and terebratulids and "advanced spiriferids"
are generally accepted as undisputed Devonian indicators.
*Dr. D. G. Jenkins, Department of Geology, University of
Canterbury, Christchurch, N.Z., kindly permits me to say that
he has recently recovered conodonts from limestones of the
Reefton Group.
Discrimination of precise positions in the early Devonian is
less simple.
Boucot et al (1963) and Gill et al (1966) have outlined
new arguments for the ages of the New Zealand Devonian.
The age of the Reefton deposits (Gill, Boucot and John-
son, 1966) is assessed as Early Emsian, mainly on the basis
of Acrospirifer coxi, " . . . very close to the widely distrib-
uted Lower Emsian fossil Acrospirifer hercyniae." This
estimate was said to be compatible with occurrences else-
where of Reeftonia, Maoristrophia and Pleurothyrella, all
known from Reefton. Hill (1956) had concluded that an
Emsian or Eifelian age was possible for the Reefton Lime-
stone, but an Eifelian age conflicts with the above recent
opinion based on brachiopods, and with Gill's record of
Fascicostella (in Suggate, 1957).
Shirley's (1938) designation of the Baton River beds
as "Upper Siegenian or Lower Coblenzian" was based on
the appearance of Fascicostella gervillei, Spirifer (Acro-
spirifer) arduennensis, Cyrtina heteroclita and Trigeria
gaudryi in the Siegenian. Boucot et al (1963) stated "The
absence of acrospiriferids . . . as well as the abundance of
Howellella and . . . Cyrtina, Fascicostella and Mutationella,
suggests . . . an Upper Gedinnian assignment." Talent
(1965, p. 12) indicated an age between Siegenian and Early
Emsian for these beds. One of the most important forms
from Baton River is Hipparionyx, not known from East
Australian assemblages older than late Siegenian or early
Emsian. In addition, Victoria University collections from
Member 3 (of Willis), from locality V856, contain large
Acrospirifer-like forms which apparently confirm Shirley's
age determination. Finally the tentative identification by
the writer of Notoconchidium from sandstones near the
Wangapeka River may be significant as the genus is known
as yet only from Gedinnian strata in Victoria (Talent,
1965); if these sandstones do underlie the Baton Formation,
the latter may well contain both Gedinnian and Siegenian
strata.
CONCLUSIONS
Detailed collecting of macrofossils and, where possible,
extraction of conodonts should assist in establishing the
ages of the two sequences. Some detailed mapping remains
to be done in the Reefton area; in the Baton River area
detailed biostratigraphic studies, especially of the brachio-
pods, have been commenced.
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A . J. W R I G H T ,
Department of Geology, Victoria University of Wellington, N e w Z e a l a n d