Abstract We present the results of U–Pb dating of zircons of two Late Permian igneous rocks from the Dun Mountain–Maitai and Brook Street terranes of New Zealand's South Island. A conglomerate clast of hornblende diorite from the Early–Middle Triassic Stephens Subgroup, Maitai Group, gives an age of 251.1 ± 1.6 Ma. A sample of hypabyssal andesite–microdiorite (Weetwood Formation) that intrudes the Late Permian Productus Creek Group of the Brook Street Terrane gives an age of 258.8 ± 7.9 Ma. The intermediate and subalkaline geochemistry of the two samples is not distinctive of specific tectonic settings, but their ages match plutons of the I-type, subduction-related Longwood Suite of the nearby Median Batholith. Assuming that correlation with the Longwood Suite is correct, the Weetwood sample increases the known areal extent of intrusion of the Longwood Suite; and the Stephens Subgroup Formation clast is consistent with a detrital link between Gondwana and the Dun Mountain–Maitai Terrane by the Middle Triassic. However, because of uncertainties regarding the timing of magmatism along other parts of the Gondwana margin, the data in this paper do not establish any specific provenance links.

Abstract This contribution considers the fossil content of the three Eastern Province ‘central’ terranes discussed within this Memoir, namely the Brook Street Terrane, the Dun Mountain–Maitai Terrane and the Murihiku Terrane, and reviews the evidence and/or arguments for the current interpretation of their age ranges as determined from fossils. It also briefly considers the Permian–Triassic record of the Western Province. There has been limited new palaeontological discovery in the past few decades but there has been significant new taxonomic and biostratigraphic analysis of New Zealand Permian faunas in light of new research in eastern Australia. This enables refinement of age correlations and greater confidence in the age significance of the New Zealand Permian record.