The analysis of the time‐relations between different minerals, between a mineral and some aspect of deformation, and between different aspects of deformation, enables the complex history of some regionally metamorphosed rocks to be recognized. Two separate periods of deformation occurred during the regional metamorphism of Precambrian schists, phyllites, quartzites and amphibolites from Frenchman's Cap, the Mersey‐Forth area and Port Davey, Tasmania.