57Fe Mo¨ssbauer spectra have been taken of bed‐moist and dried samples of Latrobe Valley brown coals. The samples contain iron concentrations of 0.07‐1.8% and cover the known variations in the field. The bed‐noise samples (67% water) typically gave several poorly resolved doublets in the region −0.3 to +0.6 mm s−1w.r.t. Fe metal, with maximum absorption dips of 0.1‐0.3%. In contrast to work on higher rank, higher sulphur U. S. coals, only one of our coals had detectable amounts of pyrite. The remaining absorption lines could not be assigned to any known minerals or clays. The isomer shift and quadrupole splittings could corrspond to either low‐spin FeIIor to trivalent Fe and we believe that they are all due to hydrated organically bonded iron. Measurements at 78 K on one sample which was allowed to dry in air (&angupr;20% water) showed an increase of a factor of 10 in the absorption (Debye‐Waller factor) and a completely changed spectrum. We take this as evidence that the iron atoms have principally water ligands in the bed‐moist state. Dried and briquetted samples gave a large intensity (3%) doublet due to organically bonded Fe and one or more washed‐out hyperfine fields of 55 T, 48 T and 33 T probably corresponding to haematitie, goethite and organically bonded iron respectively. One sample also contained szomolnokite as an oxidation product from pyrite.