Hornblende‐bearing xenoliths in the I‐type Petford Granite, north‐east Queensland, show an abundance pattern suggesting redistribution in a convecting magma system and were probably carried up with the host magma. The Petford Granite and xenoliths are chemically cognate, but quartz monzodiorite‐granodiorite bodies (a potential source for the xenoliths) in the adjacent country rocks belong to an independent magma suite. The xenoliths are chemically similar to andesite lavas and dykes 90 km to the NW. They represent fragments of the parental andesite (diorite) of a calcalkaline suite, which fractionated to yield the Petford Granite. They are not source rocks for the granite melt, melt residua, or early cumulates. The fractionated granite melt broke through the earlier envelope of diorite and rose into the upper crust, carrying dioritic fragments with it. Interaction between magma and xenoliths was generally minimal.