Samples from three cable tool holes near Lake Victoria were submitted for palaeontological examination and stratigraphic advice. Brown to carbonized black wood fragments are rare to abundant in (Pliocene) Loxton Sands (mainly the pyritic 'lower beds'). Fish bones and ostracode valves characterise a clay unit of the same beds. All units intersected are non-foraminiferal, non-glauconitic, and non-marine. None of the bores reached Mio-Pliocene Bookpurnong Beds. Criteria for recognition of Loxton Sands units in the Chowilla area (the 'lower beds' are pyritic)can be applied in the Lake Victoria area, but attention is drawn to possible alternative interpretations of both Quaternary and the late Tertiary sequences.