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Potential GeoHeritage Values Of Australian Desert Landscapes

A report to the Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Gresley A. Wakelin-King

Susan Q. White

Wakelin Associates, Melbourne, Australia

June 2011

Wakelin Associates Pty. Ltd. Geology – GIS – Geomorphology

Geoheritage of Australian Desert Landscapes: Wakelin Associates

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Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 4

Boundary of this study Summary of heritage criteria

Drivers of Australia’s Arid-Zone Geomorphology 12 Length of time, rate of activity Previous climates Modern aridity Inheritance

Themes and Sites 14 Astroblemes 17 Sand Deserts 22 Vertisol Plains 28 Karst 32 Arid Coasts 40 Tectonics 44

Fault Tectonics 45 Salt Tectonics 45 Flexure 46

Ranges, Uplands, and Monoliths 51 Regolith: Duricrusts and Weathering Profiles 59 Regolith: Duricrusts 59

Silcretes and Stony Deserts 60 Gypcrete 62 Calcrete 63

Regolith: Weathering Profiles 64 Hydrology 68

Palaeodrainages 69 Megaflood Landforms 70 Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams 73 Low-Sinuosity Sand-bed Rivers 76 Anabranching Rivers 77 Braided Mud-Aggregate Rivers 80 Waterholes 82 Banded Vegetation Sheetflow Plains 83 Floodouts 85 Playa Lakes and Associated Megalake Remnants 88 Mound Springs 91 Post-European Drainage Incision 92

Knowledge Gaps 93 Conclusions 95 Acknowledgements 97 Bibliography 97


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Figures Front cover: a waterhole in the Lake Eyre Basin. Photo: Gresley Wakelin-King 1 Sites on a Google Earth image. 2 Study area boundaries. 3 Sites and areas identified in this study 4 Sites and areas identified in this study, plotted on the IBRA regions. 5 Lake Acraman DEM 6 The Mitchell Grass Downs IBRA region corresponds closely to the distribution of Vertisol plains. 7 Speleologists at work on the Nullarbor Plain. 8 The Bunda Cliffs, on the Nullarbor. 9 Cape Range topography. 10 The Zuytdorp Cliffs 11 Location, the Neales River and Cooper Creek Catchments. 12 Gibber plain and the Neales River. 13 Uluru and Kata Tjuta. 14 Bevelled ridgetop in the MacDonnell Range. 15 Incised fans in the Flinders Ranges 16 Silcrete in the Neales Catchment. 17 Lateritic weathering profile, Eastern Goldfields. 18 A lower-order channel in Fowlers Creek. 19 Riverbed in Trephina Gorge. 20 Cooper Creek anabranches, waterholes, and braidplain. 21 Algebuckina Waterhole, in the Neales River. 22 Sandover River channel and floodout. 23 The edge of Lake Eyre.

Tables 1 Summary: ranked sites and areas of geomorphic heritage 2 The National Heritage Criteria. 3 The comparative matrix used in this study, with example. 4 see Appendix 1 Heritage Criteria Matrix used in this study. 5 Astrobleme and ejecta sites.

Appendix (A3 format) Table 3 Heritage Criteria Matrix for comparative analysis of sites in this report.


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Executive Summary In this study, the landforms of Australia's desert country are assessed against National Heritage criteria. The landforms are grouped and discussed according to themes:

• astroblemes (impact structures) • sand deserts (derived from aeolian sediment transport) (sub-themes:

sedimentary basins, low-relief landscape) • karst (created by the dissolution of soluble rocks) • coastal arid • tectonic (created by geologically recent tectonic activity) • ranges and uplands (sub-themes: fault-bounded, diapiric) • regolith: weathering profiles (resulting from regolith's long subaerial exposure

to previous climates) • regolith: duricrusts (sub-themes: silcretes and stony deserts, gypcrete, calcrete) • hydrology (landforms associated with water) (sub-themes: megaflood

landforms; palaeodrainages; discontinuous ephemeral streams, anabranching, braided, sand-bed rivers; waterholes; banded vegetation; floodouts; playa lakes and megalakes; post-European drainage incision; mound springs).

Sites and areas of potential heritage value are identified (Table 1, Fig. 1). The identification of these places does not, in itself, constitute a nomination, it is a recommendation that they be considered for nomination, and are prioritised as follows:

• AA: clearly-identifiable sites of clear outstanding heritage value; • A: areas which contain features of outstanding heritage value, for which more

work is required to identify an appropriate site; or areas of probable outstanding heritage value;

• B: areas or sites of high heritage value, which might or might not meet the criteria for National listing, but which may meet the criteria for State listing; or areas or sites of high potential value, for which there is presently insufficient information to establish their heritage value

• Additional to Existing: areas or sites which are currently listed; however this study adds information with respect to their potential heritage value on geomorphological grounds.

A bibliography, compiled thematically, summarises the available literature. The bibliography aims to be representative but is not exhaustive. Knowledge gaps exist for most areas but in particular are identified in the Davenport-Murchison Ranges area, the Great Sandy Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, and the Gibson Desert. The key drivers which have created the unique Australian desert landscapes are found to be the length of time that the stable landscape has existed, the previous climates which have operated on that landscape, the development of aridity in geologically modern times, and the high degree to which these landscapes display features inherited from the past. These drivers are the context within which operate the agents that work upon the landscape: water, wind, gravity, plate tectonics, chemical reactions, and living things.


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Theme Sub-theme Site / Area Name Rating IBRA

1 IBRA 2

Gosses Bluff AA MAC Astroblemes Lake Acraman AA GAW Simpson Desert A SSD Sand Deserts Strzelecki Desert A SSD CHC

Vertisol Plains Barkly Tableland Alex09 Cave A MGD Nullarbor AA NUL HAM Karst Cape Range existing CAR C. Range coast (see above) existing CAR Zuytdorp Cliffs existing PIL Shark Bay existing YAL CAR Bunda Cliffs (see Nullarbor) AA NUL HAM

Arid Coasts

Pilbara Coast A PIL Neales River Catchment AA STP

Tectonics Cooper Ck at the Innamincka Dome

AA CHC

Uluru – Kata Tjuta NP existing GSD Western MacDonnell Ranges A MAC Wilkatana Fan & Flinders B FLB GAW

Ranges Uplands & Monoliths Barrier Ranges Mundi Mundi

Scarp & Fans A BHC

Regolith: Duricrusts

(sites listed under other themes)

Pilbara Channel Iron A PIL Regolith: Weathering

Profiles Eastern Goldfields

Palaeodrainages A COO MUR

Palaeodrainages (sites listed under other themes)

Megaflood Landforms

Ross-Todd Confluence AA MAC SSD

Discontinuous ephemeral streams

Fowlers Creek B BHC

Low-sinuosity sand-bed rivers


Anabranching Rivers

Cooper Ck, Windorah to the Dome

AA CHC

Braided mud-aggregate rivers


Banded vegetation sheetflow plains

* adds value to a number of other potential sites

A MUR BHC

GSD BRT

Simpson Desert Floodouts A SSD Floodouts Northern Plains Floodouts A TAN

Playas & Megalake

Lake Eyre AA SSD

Hydrology

Mound Springs Dalhousie Springs existing STP

Post-European Incision


Great Sandy Desert

GSD

Great Victoria Desert

GVD Knowledge Gaps

Davenport-Murchison area

DMR

Table 1: Summary of the potential heritage of Australian desert landforms.


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Fig. 1 Sites and areas superimposed on a Google Earth map. Image: Wakelin Associates.


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Introduction In early 2011, the Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (Canberra) commissioned Dr Gresley A. Wakelin-King and Dr Susan Q. White of Wakelin Associates Pty. Ltd. (Melbourne) to investigate the potential geoheritage values of Australian deserts. The aim was to identify key places that best tell the stories of the development of Australian desert landforms. The steps in this process were

• undertake a literature survey focusing on geomorphology and hydrology of Australian deserts

• identify registered geoheritage sites (whether under state legislation or state geological organisations)

• analyse the results of the literature survey, with reference to the National Heritage criteria, to identify places that best tell the stories of the development of Australian deserts

• liaise with relevant experts for additional information/expert opinions as required

• for those places identified as potentially outstanding, provide arguments as to the place's significance in a national context as well as a physical description and relevant geological history

• identify any significant data gaps.

This report is the result of the investigation. Every effort has been made to include the relevant published literature in the bibliography, however it should not be regarded as exhaustive. In particular, unpublished reports and theses were generally not included, as they have not been through a peer-review process. Nonetheless they may contain valuable information. As well as key references for each landform theme, the bibliography includes as many as possible references relevant to the expression of that landform theme in arid Australia. The bibliography is weighted towards more recent references containing process as well as descriptive information. Some references of historical interest are also included.

The report describes locations of interest that are potentially the best examples of landforms that demonstrate the history and development of Australia's characteristic desert landscapes. They are not the only possible heritage sites in the study area; they are those which are currently sufficiently well-known to assess their significance. Other sites may also be worthy of inclusion.

The inclusion of locations in this report does not constitute any formal nomination for heritage status. Nomination relies on interest from individuals or groups who are willing to engage in the administrative process of putting a site forward. See website www.environment.gov.au/heritage/nomination/index.html for details.


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This report specifically addresses landforms. There are many areas of geological heritage in Australia's arid lands, however they are not the subject of this study. Geological heritage is addressed through the Geological Society of Australia's Geoheritage Standing Committee (www.gsa.org.au, follow links to heritage), and committees at State divisions.

Boundary of This Study The boundary of the study area (Fig. 2) was defined by the Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, based on the moisture index. The moisture index measures the ratio of moisture lost through evaporation, compared to moisture gained from rainfall. A value less than 1.0 indicates that evaporation exceeds rainfall. Australia's Cooperative Research Centre for Desert Knowledge (CRC DK) defines the arid zone as areas with a moisture index of less than 0.2, and the semi-arid zone as a moisture index between 0.2 and 0.4. (Desert Knowledge CRC 2006, accessed 2011). The practical, common-language definition of ‘desert’ is essentially biological: it is a place where climate-driven moisture deficit restricts the growth, distribution, and life strategies of plants and animals. In the course of this investigation, it was clear that some areas which might easily be regarded as ‘desert’, on the basis of their visible ecology and geomorphology, do not fall in the boundary as defined by the moisture index. In particular, the Willandra Lakes, the Hattah-Kulkyne area and the northern Mallee have many desert-like features: red sand dunes, dry lake beds, thin soils, spinifex and sparse vegetation cover. On the other hand, some areas falling within the boundary seem biologically rich for a desert (at least in a good year): for example the Mitchell Grass plains have deep black soils, occasional wetlands, and sometimes substantial vegetation. The moisture index is a purely climatological measure. Since the balance between rain and evaporation is a major ecological factor, it is a reasonable approximation of Australia's ‘desert’. However, vegetation does not suck water directly out of the air; it absorbs it through the interface of the soil. The soil's ability to retain rainfall and make it available to vegetation must be another important factor in whether an ecology is moisture-limited or not. If the soil surface is impermeable or sheds water rapidly (has a high runoff coefficient), rain will be unavailable to the vegetation. Soils of limited field capacity – shallow, or too coarse to store water, or with underlying structure that transports water away – will only bring some of the available rainfall to vegetation. It is likely therefore that a more comprehensive assessment of the physical environment of moisture-limited ecosystems will include some considerations of soil's ability to retain rainfall. In that circumstance, areas like the Mallee, Willandra Lakes, and Hattah-Kulkyne would fall within the definition of an Australian ‘desert’. In land management circles, the area that falls within the boundaries of this study is known as ‘rangelands’. This term is useful in that it avoids becoming enmeshed in the discussion of what constitutes ‘true desert’, and is less bulky than referring to the ‘arid and semi-arid zone’. Broadly speaking, rangelands are those areas which are generally too dry for agriculture.


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Fig. 2 Boundaries of this study, and IBRA regions (image provided by Dept. SEWPaC).


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Summary of heritage criteria Places (sites) on the National Heritage List (NHL) must be of the highest level of significance, which as a nation we want to keep, and that are recognised as being of outstanding importance to the Australian community. A general guide to whether a place is of outstanding heritage value to the nation might be found in the question ‘would the loss of the place significantly impoverish our National Heritage?’ Places potentially meeting the NHL criteria for their geomorphological values are discussed in this report. In these cases the natural values are for the surface landforms and landscape and are discussed below. Key tools used to decide a place’s heritage significance are criteria and thresholds. Associated with these key tools are the concepts of integrity and authenticity. Criteria are a collection of principles, characteristics and categories used to help decide if a place has heritage value. The criteria relevant to the National Heritage list are shown in Table 2. One or more of these must be applied to a place being considered for listing. In addition to criteria, there is also a question of the threshold for heritage listing. The threshold is the level of heritage value that a place must demonstrate in order to be included in a heritage list. The heritage lists at each level differ in the threshold used to decide what places to include. To be placed on the NHL a site must reach the threshold (a measure of value, above which a place meets a criterion) of outstanding heritage value to the nation. To determine if a place meets the threshold of outstanding heritage value a comparative analysis involving indicators of significance is conducted. As well as a site’s significance the site must have high levels of integrity and authenticity. Integrity in the natural environment is related to how sustainable and/or how restorable to a satisfactory level a site is. This restoration component applies where a site has sustained significant damage related to its outstanding values. In order to be assessed as significant for the National Heritage List, a place must meet the threshold for at least one value, having attributes to a high degree and recognition to the nation. The criteria for the NHL are listed in Table 2. To establish whether a particular place represents the best or one of the few outstanding examples in Australia, the Australian Heritage Council (the Council) compares the values at the place to other places in Australia with similar values, and to do this comparative information for the whole continent is required. In determining whether a site is eligible for listing on the NHL, natural heritage poses particular challenges. A site must be nationally outstanding and there is an enormous array of sites with potential national significance, many of which have not been fully or previously assessed for existing heritage lists. The issue of currently unknown sites is even more problematic. In the case of geomorphological sites there is further overlap with cultural values as the significance of a site can be confused with aesthetic values, which are cultural. The aesthetic appreciation of a landscape is not a direct function of its geomorphic or geological values but is related to cultural aesthetic concepts. Also these geomorphological values may overlap with other natural values e.g. biological values or other geological values. Not all geological values are geomorphological and


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some other geological sites listed on the NHL do not have geomorphological values e.g. Baragwanathia site, Yea Victoria. Other sites may be listed on NHL (World Heritage List) for natural values where the geomorphological values have not been included but probably should and could be, e.g. Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains WHA. The potential threshold of "outstanding heritage value to the nation" is entirely dependent on the ability to comparatively assess a suite of places with similar characteristics. The methodologies for this are limited. Although for sites with biodiversity values, the Australian Natural heritage Assessment Tool (ANHAT) has been developed, which allows rapid and comparative assessment for a wide array of environmental variables and biological values. To determine the selected sites that are of outstanding geomorphological value, they must be compared with other places of like features. The need to substantiate claims of relative significance on an Australian and worlds scale is paramount.

Table 2: The National Heritage Criteria for a place are any or all of the following:

a the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history (events and processes);

b the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history (rarity);

c the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history (research);

d the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of: i) a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or ii) a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments (principal characteristics);

e the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group (aesthetic);

f the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period (creative or technical);

g the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons (social);

h the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history (significant person);

i the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance as part of Indigenous tradition (indigenous).

Note: the cultural aspect of a criterion means the Indigenous cultural aspect, the non-Indigenous cultural aspect, or both.


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Although a series of workshops have been held for geoheritage values, the comparative tools are not as robust. The need to produce a discussion paper on this issue is urgent. Too many earth scientists still confuse significance (in general) with the more specific significance criteria for the NHL and the tendency for local and regional partisanship remains problematic. To at least partially address this issue with respect to geomorphological sites, a matrix using the NHL criteria and other relevant comparative material is used in this study. A general guide to whether a place is of outstanding heritage value to the nation might be found in the question ‘Would the loss of the place significantly impoverish our National Heritage?’ However a place can be an important heritage place and yet fail to meet the very high threshold for National Heritage listing. The conclusion that a place has outstanding heritage value is based on a comparison of its heritage value with the heritage value of other comparable places, or a finding that the place is unique and meets criterion (b). Comparing places, even those of the same general type, is not easy. It is necessary to be aware of some limitations in this method such as: how similar do the places need to be for a comparison to be valid, and to what extent do differing regional settings add to the significance of otherwise similar places? A comparison may also be based on national significance of the associated history rather than physical features. The notion of integrity assists in determining the relative significance of a place compared with places of a similar type. Generally a high degree of integrity would be expected for most National Heritage places. However, exceptions will occur. For the natural environment, integrity is an indicator of the likely long term viability or sustainability, reflecting the degree to which the place has been affected by other activities, the ability of the place to restore itself (or be restored) and the time frame likely for any restorative processes. For the cultural environment, integrity is the ability of the place to retain and convey key heritage values. The integrity of a place may be affected by internal and external factors. How much can the integrity of a place become compromised before it loses its significance? This difficult question can only properly be answered if the condition and integrity of the place were well documented initially. The notion of authenticity is usually related to cultural places and assists in determining if the heritage value for cultural places is genuine or of undisputed origin. As with assessing the integrity of a place the authenticity may be affected by internal and external factors. How much does the authenticity of a place truthfully and credibly express its heritage values? Heritage values such as spirit and feeling do not lend themselves easily to practical applications of the conditions of authenticity, but nevertheless are important indicators of character and sense of place, for example, in communities maintaining tradition and cultural continuity. These may be related to some sites which have extra cultural values with their natural geomorphic values. The test of authenticity is not usually a relevant consideration for places being assessed for their natural heritage values. It is therefore not discussed further here. However in the case of many geomorphic sites, many geomorphic processes were poorly understood, and many have been described inaccurately and attributed to processes not present. In this context we have rated sites as to the authenticity of the site description. This is


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important as appropriate geomorphic comparative analysis for many of the sites could be compromised. Whenever a place may be considered to share heritage values across two or more heritage environments (natural, Indigenous, historic), it is important that consideration is given to an assessment process that allows for cooperative, joint assessment within work priorities and available resources by the respective personnel relating to these environmental areas. This ensures that all relevant values and any synergies and connections between values are acknowledged in the assessment process. One type of place that this relates to is large and complex landscape areas. Heritage value assessments are undertaken on information available at a certain time. The availability of information changes over time, perhaps as a result of research, or further investigation of the place or of comparative places. It is possible that available information may improve for a place leading to a perception of a decrease or an increase in a place’s heritage value. This is particularly relevant to the national heritage value related to a place’s potential to provide information that makes a contribution to the understanding of Australia’s history, cultures, or the natural world, criterion (c). It is accepted that a place’s national heritage value may change over time with the threshold no longer being met for a particular criterion/criteria, and/or a threshold now being met for an additional criterion/criteria. Identification and assessment of appropriate sites for the various geomorphic themes is a complex and potentially confusing process. Sites may have different but significant values for more than one theme e.g. Ningaloo Coast which has both coastal and karst values. It is important that the various significant themes are listed for each site for each criterion as this makes the comparative analysis of various places under consideration more robust.

To assist with this process a matrix has been developed (Table 3). This matrix with the site information is included in Table 4 (Appendix 1). The matrix lists most of the NHL criteria (Table 2); criteria (d) (i) (the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of: a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places) and (i) (the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance as part of Indigenous tradition) have not been included as related to values outside the geomorphic scope of this study. As well as these criteria, the following attributes are added to assist comparative analysis;

• unusual on a world standard; • unusual on an Australian standard; • level of threshold on outstanding heritage value to the nation; • integrity of key values; • authenticity (heritage value is genuine or undisputed); and • citation on other lists e.g. NHL, WHL, Register of the National Estate,

Geological Society of Australia division geoheritage lists and relevant state government heritage lists.

Other useful information e.g. IBRA bioregion and type of site can assist the comparative analysis of sites. Additional information can be added to various cells to enhance comparative analysis.


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This matrix can be used in a variety of ways. Numerical values can be assigned to each site or merely that the site has the relevant value for the criteria. Sites can represent more than one theme or sub theme, thus enhancing their heritage value. One way in which this can be use is demonstrated in Appendix 1.

Table 3 The comparative matrix used in this study, with example

Criteria of Australia’s natural or cultural history e.g. Lake Acraman

Events and Processes: The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history.

XX

Rarity: The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history

XX

Research: The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history

XX

Principal characteristics of a class: The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments.

XX

Aesthetic: The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group

X

Creative or technical achievement: The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period

Social value: The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons

X Nat

iona

l Her

itage

Cri

teri

a (a

pply

to e

ach

site

)

Significant people: The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history

Unusual on world standard XX

Unusual on Australian standard XX

Threshold: outstanding heritage values to the nation XX

Integrity: do key heritage values remain intact XX

Authenticity: heritage value is genuine or of undisputed origin. XX Cross-reference geomorphic themes: astroblemes, sand deserts, vertisols, karst, arid coast, tectonics, ranges uplands & monoliths, regolith – duricrusts, regolith – weathering profiles, hydrology, knowledge gaps.

Cross-reference other sites Flinders Cited on other list:. RNE, NHL, WHL, GSA ( division lists), State government heritage lists. SA?

Com

pare

eac

h si

te to

oth

er p

lace

s

IBRA Bioregions GAW


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Drivers of Australia’s Arid-zone geomorphology

Geomorphology is the geology of landscape. It encompasses anything that affects landscape, including geological history and climate change. Its province is the surface of the earth: rocky outcrop, regolith (anything that isn't solid rock: sediment, soil, and weathered rock), and interactions between living things and the physical world. In its early days, geomorphologists frequently focused on description, naming and classification of landforms. Coherent patterns began to emerge, and by the late 1900s focus shifted towards the geomorphic processes from which the landforms arose.

The agents that work upon the landscape are water, wind, gravity, plate tectonics, chemical reactions (such as weathering) and living things. These are the nuts-and-bolts of the processes, and occur in deserts throughout the world. It is the relative rate and intensity of each agent that collectively makes Australia's landscapes special. The key drivers of Australian arid zone geomorphology are length of time, previous climates, inheritance of landscape features, and the development of the modern arid climate.

Length of Time, Rate of Activity Much of the Australian continent has experienced only subdued tectonic activity for a very long time. In other continents, present day rapid uplift pushes rocks up into mountains where they can be worn down by erosion and scraped off by glaciers; but in Australia’s inland, Himalayan-type peaks were so long ago that they have worn down right to their roots. Large parts of the landscape have been at or near the Earth's surface for as much as hundreds of millions of years. Glaciation during the Permian (before the age of the dinosaurs began ~248 million years ago) was the last time the study area's landscape was scraped back. Even so there are yet remnants of even older regolith (Anand 2005). The landscape here is very, very old. The lengthy time of this landscape's evolution means that processes which are slow to occur, have opportunity to develop fully. A process need not be intense if it can persist over geological lengths of time. Weathering (the chemical alteration of rocks into regolith) can proceed to very high degrees, and the weathering profile can extend hundreds of meters below the surface (Anand 2005). Erosion and deposition of sediments, taking place increasingly slowly as high mountains and deep valleys wear down to little hills and hollows, can continue until a very low-relief landscape is created. Australia's wide expanses of low-gradient slopes are a significant influence on the evolution of weathering profiles and fluvial styles (Nanson & Huang 1999, Anand 2005). It would be a mistake, however, to think that Australia is wholly without tectonic activity. The Australian continental plate has a very rapid rate of movement, with resultant continental-scale pressures that create the stress field which produces modern tectonic activity (Sandiford et al. 2009). Activity includes (but is not restricted to) rapid uplift in the Flinders Ranges (Quigley et al. 2006) and more subtle expressions of tectonism which include continental tilting, and long-wavelength low-amplitude landscape undulation (Sandiford et al. 2009).


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Previous Climates Over geological time, Australia has experienced many different climates (Anand 2005). After the Permian glaciation, the continent experienced a generally warm climate. During the Cretaceous (144-66 million years ago, the last period of the age of dinosaurs) much of inland Australia was covered by ocean (including the Eromanga Sea, laying down the sediments of the Great Artesian Basin) under a mostly warm and humid climate. The post-Cretaceous Tertiary and Quaternary periods have been a time of progressive climate change. Although global cooling began in the early Tertiary, Australia experienced warm and wet rainforest conditions at that time. Fluctuations of climate between warm/wet and cool/dry continued through the Tertiary. The warmth and greater availability of water of Australia's previous climates has had a profound effect on what we see today. The repeated cycles of deep weathering and their associated duricrusts have shaped much of Australia, from West Australia through to Charters Towers, from the Top End to Ceduna (Anand & de Broekert 2005, Bourman 2006). Intense wet-dry cycles in some weathering profiles produced the cracking clays characteristic of parts of inland Australia (Hubble 1984). The greater volumes of water once carried by the rivers were expressed not only in river landforms, but also in megalakes covering vast areas (English et al. 2001, Cohen et al. 2011). Caves and other karst landforms developed during previous climatic regimes (Webb & James 2006).

Modern Aridity The development of aridity in Australia is linked to cooling of the Earth. By the mid-Miocene epoch of the Tertiary period, a permanent southern ice cap formed, moving the Earth towards the present glacial/interglacial climate cycle, and moving Australia towards its present aridity. During the Quaternary (the last ~2 million years), there have been at least 20 oscillations from glacial to interglacial (Anand, 2005). In inland Australia these cycles have mostly been expressed as alternations of wet and dry, or alternations of warm and cool (however the complexity of climate change over a continent this size does not lend itself to brief summaries). Modern aridity has had an extremely strong effect on some aspects of the inland Australian landscapes;

• Soil mantles were stripped to reveal the gibber plains of Australia's stony deserts (Fujioka et al. 2005).

• The river systems carry less volume of water, so new fluvial styles have evolved to cope: meander sizes are reduced in some rivers, while other rivers develop anabranching; many are ephemeral. Some river systems have dried up entirely, becoming chains of playa lakes. Aridity is linked to a high degree of fluvial variability, so river landforms are shaped by very large but infrequent flow events. Australia's river flow variability is extreme on a world scale (Finlayson & McMahon 1980).

• The megalakes dried out, leaving playa lakes surrounded by old lake beds: wide, flat surfaces that contribute greatly the low-relief landscapes.

• Sand was mobilised, creating the vast dune fields of the Simpson (Fujioka et al. 2009) and incidentally burying the rivers that once ran from the MacDonnell


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Ranges towards a larger Lake Eyre (Craddock et al. 2010). Other dune fields were also mobilised or altered.

• The relative scarcity of water focuses vegetation on landforms which are near water or which retain water. Since vegetation plays an active role in landform development and maintenance, this creates process feedback loops which are an important element in some landforms (such as floodouts, Wakelin-King & Webb 2007a).

Though aridity is the most recent development in the Australian landscape, and is not necessarily the most powerful process at work, the sum of its effects on rivers, sand dunes, stony deserts, and gibber plains is extremely widespread.

Inheritance Events that took place in the geological past are relevant to Australia today. For inland Australia, absence of recent glaciation and the subdued tectonic regime has preserved landforms and sediments created long ago. Many of the strongest landscape elements are inherited from the past, or owe their origins to conditions that no longer exist. Aridity, which most of us feel is a defining characteristic of the Australian inland is only the latest imprint of a long series of processes. Aridity is now the most important condition modifying the landscape, but it is not the reason that this landscape exists despite that it is one of several reasons why this landscape has persisted and is special.

Themes and Sites The landforms of arid Australia in this report are divided into themes based on geomorphic processes, and described in terms of the visible landforms: astroblemes (impact structures), sand deserts (derived from aeolian sediment transport), karst (created by the dissolution of soluble rocks), coastal arid, tectonic (created by geologically recent tectonic activity), weathering (resulting from regolith's long subaerial exposure to previous climates), hydrology (landforms associated with water), and ranges and uplands. Some of these themes are divided into sub-themes. Where sites or areas are related to more than one theme or sub-theme, they are cross-referenced. Themes and sub-themes are briefly described, and key references cited. These paragraphs are a brief summary, not a review; further information can be found in the bibliography. Sites and areas of likely heritage value (Table 1) are described under their appropriate themes. They were examined in terms of the relevant criteria (Tables 3, 4). The criteria are applied specifically with reference to geomorphology. In particular, the criterion "value... because of the place's strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group... social value", as it applies to geomorphology, is mostly relevant to a site's importance to the research or teaching community. A site may be of great spiritual importance to a group, but unless that importance is specifically with reference to the site's geomorphology, it is not the subject of this report. No disrespect is intended in the exclusion of in-depth discussions relating to these features of the sites.


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Fig. 3 Sites and areas identified in this study. Image: Wakelin Associates.


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Fig. 4 Sites and areas identified in this study, plotted on the IBRA regions. Image: Wakelin Associates.


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In some instances, there are clear stand-out sites of importance in particular geomorphic themes. Lake Acraman, for example, is an excellent example of an unusual landform which was outstandingly important in the course of the world’s biological evolution; its preservation is due to Australian landscape stability; it is well-studied, unambiguous, and well-preserved. In other geomorphic themes, several areas are outstanding but some are better-known than others, or the landform is widespread but poorly-researched so that it is not clear where the best, rarest, or most important example might be. There are some areas about which very little is published, and these knowledge gaps are identified at the end of this section. In the site descriptions below, sites are given a ranking as follows:

• AA: clearly-identifiable sites of clear outstanding heritage value • A:

o areas which contain features of outstanding heritage value, for which more work is required to identify an appropriate site; or

o areas of probable outstanding heritage value • B:

o areas or sites of high heritage value, which might or might not meet the criteria for National listing, but which may meet the criteria for State listing; or

o areas or sites of high potential value, for which there is presently insufficient information to establish their heritage value

• Additional to Existing: areas or sites which are currently listed, however this study adds information with respect to their potential heritage value on geomorphological grounds..

Generally speaking, inland Australia is a vast area with relatively few researchers investigating its geomorphology. This investigation summarises as much as possible the published literature and present-day research. However, this list of sites and areas is not definitive; more research, particularly in the more remote areas, will provide more information.

Astroblemes Descriptor: Impact craters, impact structures, and ejecta fields

Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; social value; unusual (world); unusual (Australia); integrity and authenticity.

Potential Locations: As Australia has a large number of known astrobleme sites, a list of sites is included in Table 5. Most of these are located within the arid zone. The most significant of these are:

• Gosses Bluff, Northern Territory

• Lake Acraman, South Australia

Description: Australia's long subaerial exposure and stable tectonics means preservation of very old impact structures, and there is good exposure of the features by the arid-zone's thin regolith and lack of vegetation. Many impact structures are found within the arid zone as the increasing aridity over the past 3 million years has helped expose them, through the absence of soils and vegetation.


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Although the Earth’s active surface processes quickly destroy the impact record, a significant number of impact structures have been identified across the globe. The Australian continent has one of the best preserved impact-crater records on Earth, closely rivalling that of North America and parts of northern Europe, and the rate of new discoveries remains high. However, despite the large number of known sites, many Australian impact structures remain poorly studied in comparison to those in other western countries.

The Australian cratering record is anomalously biased towards old structures and includes the Earth’s best record of Proterozoic impact sites. This is likely to be a direct result of aspects of the continent’s unique geological evolution.

Table 5: Impact craters and astroblemes in the Australian arid zone (after Haines 2005)

Name State Diameter km

Age (years) Comments

Acraman SA 90 about 590 million

Most significant astrobleme

Amelia Creek NT 20 1660 – 600 million

Impact crater

Boxhole NT 0.17 5,400 ± 1,500 Impact crater

Connolly Basin WA 9 < 60 million On margin of area, astrobleme

Dalgaranga WA 0.024 about 3000 Smallest known crater in Australia

Glikson WA ~19 < 508 million Buried structure, limited surface expression

Gosses Bluff NT 22 142.5 ± 0.8 million

One of worlds’ best known craters

Henbury Meteorite craters

NT 0.157 4200 ± 1900 Excellent example of world’s smallest known crater field

Kelly West NT 10 > 550 million Limited surface expression of structure

Mount Toondina SA 4 < 110 million Heavily eroded structure

Shoemaker (was Teague)

WA 30 Proterozoic Structure named after the Shoemakers, who were instrumental in discoveries and extending knowledge of Australian impact features

Tookoonooka Qld 55 128 ± 5 million

No surface expression

Veevers WA 0.08 < 20,000 Impact crater

Woodleigh WA 60–120 364 ± 8 million

No surface expression

Yarrabubba WA 30 ~2 billion No surface expression


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Impact craters and structures (astroblemes) are due to the impact of material from space. Such features have a range of identifiable characteristics. Impact craters show a very clear form but impact structures are those where geological processes (e.g. erosion, sedimentation, tectonics) have destroyed most of the original crater topography and possibly buried the feature. In the past such craters and structures have often been confused with volcanic features but the distinctive astrobleme characteristics can clearly distinguish them.

Haines (2005) reviewed 26 impact sites including five small meteorite craters or crater fields associated with actual meteorite fragments and 21 variably eroded or buried impact structures. The Australian impact record also includes distal ejecta in the form of two tektite strewn fields (Australasian strewn field, ‘high-soda’ tektites), a single report of 12.1 – 4.6 Ma microtektites, ejecta from the ca 580 Ma Acraman impact structure, and a number of Archaean to Early Palaeoproterozoic impact spherule layers. Possible impact related layers near the Eocene – Oligocene and the Permian – Triassic boundaries have been described in the literature, but remain unconfirmed. The global K – T boundary impact horizon has not been recognised onshore in Australia but is present in nearby deep-sea cores.

Young craters are generally identified on morphological grounds, combined with the common association of preserved meteorite fragments and impact glass. Older structures are generally deeply eroded or buried and not expected to preserve unaltered meteorite debris, but may be associated with projectile-derived geochemical anomalies in impact melts, breccias, injected melt veins or ejecta layers. In such cases initial discovery usually follows the investigation of an anomalous circular structure either exposed at surface or revealed in the subsurface by geophysical means and from the additional recognition of shock metamorphic effects in the target rocks and/or an associated extraterrestrial geochemical/isotopic signature.

All impact craters produce ejecta which range from fragments of target rock through proximal impact glass to a variety of distal tektites. Distal ejecta layers provide important time lines for regional (and sometimes global) correlations, allow precise timing of impact events that can be compared to the palaeontological record (e.g. linking to mass extinctions and other biotic events), and provide a record of impacts otherwise lost due to erosion, burial or tectonism.

Impact craters and structures within the boundaries of this study are listed in Table 5. Other significant craters and astroblemes occur elsewhere, such as the Wolfe Ck crater (WA), and impact structures at Crawford (SA), Flaxman (SA), Foelsche (NT), Goat Paddock (WA), Goyder (NT), Lawn Hill (Qld), Liverpool (NT), Matt Wilson (NT), Piccaninny (WA), Spider (WA), Strangways (WA) and Yallalle (WA). There are a number of other potential sites, so more astroblemes and craters are likely to be recognised (Haines, 2005). Impact structures without significant surface expression were excluded from the significance rating for this study.

Key References

Haines, P.W. 2005. Impact cratering and distal ejecta: the Australian record. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 52 (4): 481-507.

Williams, G.E. & Wallace, M.W., 2003. The Acraman asteroid impact, South Australia; magnitude and implications for the late Vendian environment. Journal of the Geological Society of London 160 (4): 545-554.


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Williams G. E. & Gostin V. A. 2005. The Acraman – Bunyeroo impact event (Ediacaran), South Australia, and environmental consequences: 25 years on. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 52: 607 – 620. Potential Site: Gosses Bluff (Northern Territory)

• Location: A circle radius ~6.7 km, centred around a spot -23.8219°, 132.3075° (approximately); which is ~250 km south east of Alice Springs.

• Brief description: A well-defined but eroded impact structure leaving an exposed although dissected central uplift, dating from the early Cretaceous. The original crater rim has been interpreted as ~24km in diameter. Abundant shatter cones are present.

• Priority ranking: AA • Heritage Values:

o Events and processes: An extensively eroded impact structure in the flat lying Palaeozoic sediments of the Officer Basin, exposing significant features of the central core. The erosion of the softer sediments has exposed the characteristics of the structure.

o Rarity: Well preserved impact structures are not common. o Research: One of the best studied of the larger impact craters in

Australia (see Haines, 2005). It has been drilled by petroleum exploration wells and has extensive seismic lines which allow for a three dimensional view of the structure.

o Principal characteristics of a class: central uplift, shatter cones, planar deformation features (PDFs) in quartz, impact melt rocks and evidence of centripetal deformation.

o Social values: Gosses Bluff is a substantial tourist drawcard. o Unusual (world): One of the world’s best known impact structures. o Unusual (Australia): One of the best known impact structures in

Australia. Well researched. o Integrity, authenticity; High integrity and authentic. Shown to be an

impact structure despite earlier interpretations as a diapiric structure and a volcanic feature.

Potential Site: Lake Acraman (South Australia)

• Location: A circle radius ~18 km, centred around a spot -32.0089°, 135.4421°; which is ~225 km west-southwest of Port Augusta.

• Brief description: Impact structure is expressed as a ~20 km diameter depression with a central subcircular playa lake, and a shatter zone extending out a further 20 km at least. Geomorphic expression is clearly visible on satellite image or Digital Elevation Model, but the bedrock outcrop in the central depression is very localised. The Meso-Proterozoic crystalline target rocks (dacitic lavas) contain shatter cones, PDFs in quartz and devitrified melt rock veins in the isolated outcrops of dacite. The structure is deeply eroded and the original crater floor and rim are not preserved. It has been confidently linked with ejecta as far away as the Flinders Ranges to the east, and is linked to a pronounced biotic radiation event (Williams & Wallace 2003, Haines 2005, Williams & Gostin 2005) (that is, the impact influenced the course of evolution).


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Figure 4: Digital Elevation Model (DEM) showing a regional view of the Gawler Ranges and its fracture pattern. 1, Lake Gairdner; 2, the Acraman Impact Structure; 3, the Yardea Corridor (black dashed line); 4, like the Yardea Corridor, this curved feature (black dashed line) lacks hills. Picture is ~150 km wide. Lowest elevation (lake level) is purple to deep blue, with rising elevation climbing through the colours green-yellow-red-purple, to highest hilltops at dark blue to light blue. Image: Wakelin Associates.


o Events and processes: An impact structure occurring at ~580Ma in northern Gawler Ranges, which probably affected the course of evolution. Well documented distal ejecta layer are known as far away as the Flinders Ranges.

o Rarity: Only Australian known case of distal ejecta confidently linked to a well established impact structure and linked to the Ediacaran fauna.

o Research: reasonably well researched (see Haines, 2005) o Principal: characteristics of a class; Shows classic impact structure

characteristics. o Unusual (world): The ejecta and the event is linked to the Officer Basin

and the Flinders Ranges and the PreCambrian Ediacaran fossils. o Unusual (Australia): Only Australian impact structure confidently

linked to distal ejecta deposits located in contemporaneous sedimentary basins (Flinders Ranges, unusual as it has a wholly crystalline target

o Integrity, authenticity: Well preserved and in good condition

1

2

3

4


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• Cross-reference other sites or areas: Flinders Ranges (see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths)

Sand Deserts Descriptor: Sand dune fields and sand seas. Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; aesthetic; creative or technical achievement; social value; unusual (world); unusual (Australia); integrity and authenticity. Potential Locations .

• Simpson Desert (South Australia) • Strzelecki Desert (South Australia) • Great Sandy Desert (Western Australia) (see Information Gaps) • Great Victoria Desert (Western Australia) (see Information Gaps)

Description: As a major landform in arid Australia, the extensive sand deserts cover large areas of the arid and semi-arid zones. They have attracted research over a long period (Hesse 2010) and are complex in their relationships with topography, climate and substrate.

Of the five main Australian sand seas, the Mallee, Strzelecki and Simpson in eastern Australia cover Quaternary sedimentary basins whereas the Great Victoria and Great Sandy dune fields in the west are formed by reworking of valley and piedmont sediments in a non-basinal landscape of low-relief ridge and valley topography. Other smaller dune fields occurring in the arid zone outside these areas are not discussed. The extensive nature of dunes in sub-humid areas around the margins of the continent reflect the past expansion of arid climates during glacial stages. Nevertheless not all Australian deserts contain dune fields and several areas stand out as being presently largely dune-free (e.g. Tanami, Nullarbor and Gibson).

The principal factors determining the distribution and character of the dune fields are topography, climate and lithology. The evolution of a dune field needs to be considered in relation to the history of Quaternary climate changes and the evolution of both topography and lithological controls over this period. Everywhere the history of climate change is evident in dune morphology and distribution, including large areas where the sand dune orientations are markedly divergent from modern sand moving wind directions. As the Pleistocene age of the dunes is now accepted as luminescence dating methods suggest a strong temporal association between dune formation and glacial stages (Hesse 2010). Recent intensive dating of dunes in the Strzelecki Desert (Fitzsimmons 2007) has shown a finely structured age relationship, and luminescence dates have pushed back the age of earliest formation of the dune fields to the mid-Pleistocene. Cosmogenic nuclide burial ages on Simpson Desert dunes (Fujioka et al. 2009) indicate basal ages over 1 Ma.

One problem in assessing the Australian sand deserts is that not all dune fields have common or widely used names e.g. the south-eastwards extension of the Great Victoria Desert dune field into the Eyre Peninsula all the way to Spencer Gulf is not normally included in the Great Victoria Desert but has no acknowledged name and is large


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enough to constitute a sand sea in its own terms. Unfortunately, the alternative bioregions scheme, which is widely used in conservation management in Australia, uses both different boundaries and different names despite being partly based on geomorphology (Hesse 2010).

The anticlockwise whorl of longitudinal dune orientations and its general similarity to the winds of the sub-tropical high-pressure system has long been recognized (Hesse 2010). This pattern is complex (Hesse 2010) although outside a central axis the dunes are regularly oriented. Modern wind roses do not match dune orientations ‘exactly’ and there are regions in which there is close agreement and areas of divergence and even opposed wind and dune directions (Hesse 2010). In general, the distribution of dunes at this broad scale conforms to expectations of dune morphological response to wind direction (Wasson & Hyde 1983). The dunes appear to have undergone little modification of orientation after their initial formation, possibly as a result of stabilization by pedogenesis and vegetation, and their orientation preserves the alignment owing to sand drift direction at that time. There is no simple, continent-wide displacement of dune orientations, and therefore simple latitudinal shift of circulation patterns, as has been frequently postulated, is not an adequate explanation of the observed patterns.

Topography has a strong influence on the location of dune fields and dunes at all scales: it limits the supply of sand and erodible sediment in low-lying areas, influences the erosivity of runoff, and induces acceleration or deceleration of wind. At the broadest continental scale topography has an immediately obvious relationship with the supply of erodible sand and most dune fields occur in valleys, piedmonts, coastal plains or lowland basins from sedimentary accumulations (Hesse, 2010).

In the eastern half of the continent, dune fields generally occur in the lowland basins. The Cenozoic Lake Eyre Basin underlies both the Simpson and Strzelecki dune fields, which are separated by the low structural ridge of the Gason Dome on which Sturt’s Stony Desert is found (Hesse 2010). These eastern dune fields occur in basin depocentres and their sand is derived from reworking of sand-rich Neogene coastal, shoreline and fluvial sediments derived from lithologically diverse catchments.

In the west the underlying geology is dominated by the older cratonic crust and lacks Neogene basins and the extensive but discontinuous Great Victoria and Great Sandy dune fields occur on landscapes of subtle but distinct ridge and valley topography. The relict topography and extensive late Mesozoic to Early Cenozoic palaeodrainage network (van de Graaff et al. 1977; Clarke 1994b) probably reflects advancing aridity through the Neogene. Although the topography is often low enough that sand dunes can climb over and cover the ridges between valleys, it is clear from the topographic dependence that the valleys are the source of the sediment and that aeolian processes have not only reshaped the valley floors but also blown sand out to cover much of the ridges between (Hesse 2010). In this respect they are very different from the eastern dune fields or even most dune fields of Africa or Asia of comparable extent, which occupy geological and topographic basins (Hesse 2010).

Uplands, ranges and escarpments provide another distinct landscape exerting strong topographic control on dune field distribution. These uplands separate broad lowlands (e.g. Musgrave and MacDonnell Ranges) and/or form some of the boundaries of major dune fields (e.g. the Great Sandy and Great Victoria dune fields) and such dune fields occupy the lowest parts of the landscape. Elsewhere the topographic relationship is reversed and the dune fields sit above low (100–200 m high) escarpments (e.g. the escarpment marking the western boundary of the Lake Eyre catchment). Such


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escarpments mark a boundary between landscapes with coherent fluvial drainage networks below and landscapes without above. However in some cases, the landscapes below the escarpments are mostly dune-free and the landscapes above are dominated by sand dunes. These escarpments illustrate the relationship between topography, runoff and dune formation. This is not due to climate, as most of the Yilgarn is as dry today as the Great Sandy dune field, or drier than it, but due to the underlying geology (van de Graaff et al. 1977; Clarke 1994a).

The western dune fields have less clear pathways of formation than those of the east. The sand of the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Wiso and Barkly dune fields appears to be largely reworked from shallow valley and piedmont accumulations. Whereas the Yilgarn appears not to have been a good source of sand for surrounding low-lying regions, the Central Australian craton, parts of the Pilbara block and the Neoproterozoic–Mesozoic sediments of the Canning and Officer Basins seem to have yielded large volumes of sand. The low supply of sand generally and low storage in many landscapes, particularly in the west, has contributed to the distinctive nature of the Australian dune field with its dominance of longitudinal dune forms. Longitudinal dunes are associated with low sand supply under moderately variable wind conditions (Wasson & Hyde 1983). The general absence of transverse dunes is the corollary of this, requiring unimodal winds and a high sand supply, which is found very limited areas in Australia. Perhaps less well appreciated until now is the occurrence of mound and network dune morphologies under conditions of low supply and highly variable winds, rather than star dunes, which require very large amounts of sand (Wasson & Hyde 1983).

Nevertheless the formation of longitudinal dunes, which dominate the Australian continental dune fields, remains relatively poorly understood (Hesse 2010). Although there is some understanding of where the sediment sources are, the absence of deflation basins and other sediment sources at the upwind margin of the dune fields means there is a lot still unknown. The low gibber-covered ridge (Sturt’s Stony Desert) that separates the Strzelecki and Simpson dune fields provides a compelling case for downwind longitudinal dune extension over distances up to 100 km. The ridge has no local sources of sand but there are several prominent longitudinal dunes that are continuous from the Strzelecki dune field upwind, across the ridge to Goyder’s lagoon on the northern side.

At times in the late Quaternary, dune fields have been more active than they are currently (Hesse 2010; Fitzsimmons 2007) and that they formed in areas of the humid continental fringes in which conditions are no longer suitable. The arid glacial stages were accompanied by changes in the circulation patterns, which affected the distribution of raised dust (Hesse 2010) as well as the orientation of the sand dunes. The dunes preserve the resultant sand drift direction at the time of their formation, dominantly during glacial intervals, although the ages are unknown for large areas. There are dramatic divergences between dune orientations and modern resultant sand drift directions in several areas e.g. Great Sandy and Great Victoria dune fields (Hesse 2010). This formation of the extensive dune fields in Australia is one manifestation of the aridfication of the continent since the early Miocene in response to changes in global climate. The climatic sensitivity of dune movement points to periodic supply limitation as a result of vegetation cover (Hesse & Simpson 2006) but there is also a longer trend of supply limitation as fresh sediment sources are reduced and the desert surface becomes increasingly armoured (Hesse 2010).


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Most of the dune fields today receive little or no new supplies of sand from fluvial sources but rework old coastal, fluvial and lacustrine sediments from relict shorelines, terrestrial basin deposits, piedmonts and valley floors. The repeated expansion of arid conditions in glacial stages of the Quaternary glacial cycles has left dune fields extending from the most arid parts of the continent into the semi-arid zone and isolated patches in present-day humid areas.

Large low-relief areas of the arid zone are dune-free and these are related to because of substrate or catchment lithology or sediment starvation e.g. Nullarbor Plain (limestone), Georgina Basin (shale–mudstone), Carpentaria basin (clay soils and hardpans) and duricrusts of silcrete and ferricrete e.g. the dune-free areas within the Great Victoria and Great Sandy dune fields. The Yilgarn Block of southwestern Australia appears to have been a poor source of sand for dune formation in its subdued landscape or surrounding areas during the Cenozoic, possibly as a result of prolonged, deep weathering and duricrust formation. The generally low sand supply has contributed to the characteristic dune morphologies: longitudinal, network and mound.

Key references Clarke, J.D.A., 1994b. Geomorphology of the Kambalda region, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41 (3): 229-239. Fitzsimmons, K 2007 Morphological variability in the linear dunefields of the Strzelecki and Tirari Deserts, Australia Geomorphology Vol. 91, no. 1-2, pp. 146-160. Fujioka, T., Chappell, J., Fifield, L K., Rhodes, E. J. 2009 Australian desert dune fields initiated with Pliocene-Pleistocene global climatic shift Geology (Boulder), 37, (1): 51-54. Hesse, P.P. & Simpson, R.L 2006 Variable vegetation cover and episodic sand movement on longitudinal desert sand dunes Geomorphology, 81 (3-4) :276-291. Hesse, P., 2010 The Australian desert dunefields; formation and evolution in an old, flat, dry continent. IN Bishop, Paul (prefacer); Pillans, Brad (prefacer) Australian landscapes Geological Society Special Publications, vol. 346 pp.141-164, 2010 Van de Graaff, W.J.E., Crowe, R.W.A., Bunting, J.A. & Jackson, M.J., 1977. Relict early Cainozoic drainages in arid Western Australia. Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie 21 (4): 379-400. Wasson R.J. & Hyde R. (1983) Factors determining desert dune type. Nature 304: 337-339.

Potential Site: Simpson Desert (Northern Territory and South Australia)

• Location: The approximate boundaries of the Simpson Desert as a whole are after Fig. 1 in Hesse (2010), and comprise a polygon ~600 km north-south and ~350 km east-west; from a central point at approximately-25.34, 137.20, which is ~360 km southeast of Alice Springs. Note this indicates a broad area where there are likely to be many excellent representative locations to be selected from.


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• Brief description: A large dunefield in the lower Lake Eyre Basin, comprising of very long regularly spaced narrow-crested quartz sand and clay linear generally asymmetrical dunes. It is the fourth largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 sq km and contains the world's longest parallel sand dunes. The sand ridges have a trend of SSE-NNW and continue parallel for up to 200 kilometres. The height and the spacing between the ridges are directly related. The area is very large and more specific sites for National Heritage listing need to be identified. Separated from the Strzelecki Dunefield by Sturt’s Stony desert.

• Priority ranking: A • Heritage Values:

o Events and processes; The Simpson Desert contains the world's longest parallel sand dunes. These north-south oriented dunes are predominantly static, held in position by vegetation. They vary in height from 3 metres in the west to around 30 metres on the eastern side. The largest and most famous dune, Nappanerica, (Big Red) is 40 metres in height. The sand ridges have a trend of SSE-NNW and continue parallel for up to 200 kilometres. The geometry of spacing, height and length are interrelated and the dunes show marked asymmetry with steeper eastern slopes. The sand is predominantly rounded and sub angular siliceous grains, well sorted on the active crests but less so in the interdunes. The sediment varies in colour from pink to brick red but by the rivers and playas, is light grey. The dunes were formed by the winnowing of non-marine basin sediments. The dune field is defined by the sediment supply.

o Rarity: the Simpson Desert contains the most significant known sand dune systems in Australia. It has classic longitudinal sand dune formations, amongst the largest in the world.

o Research: It is significant for studies in geomorphology and palaeoclimatology (Hesse 2010), but is not as well studied at the Strzelecki.

o Principal characteristics of a class: The Simpson Desert region includes extensive longitudinal and reticulate dune systems, plus samples of surrounding or inlying systems - gibber plains, residuals, flood plains and sand plains

o Aesthetic: The area includes spectacular arid landforms and landscapes. o Social value: The Simpson Desert is very well-studied. o Unusual (world): It is unusual on a world scale; the satellite images of

the Simpson Desert Dunes are found in most geomorphology text books ( most of which are published overseas).

o Unusual (Australia): Although the Strzelecki Desert is also important the Simpson Desert has the more iconic status.

o Integrity and authenticity: Significant damage has been caused by rabbits, although other feral animals occur. Oil Exploration tracks are extensive but their effects are more visual than ecological.

• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology - Floodouts • Comments: This area is in need of careful assessment for specific sites that

would best meet the heritage criteria. It is the iconic sand desert of Australia. It needs to be assessed in context of the other sandy deserts listed in this report.


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Potential Site: Strzelecki Desert (South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales) • Location: The approximate boundaries of the Strzelecki Desert as a whole are

after Fig. 1 in Hesse (2010), and comprise a polygon ~530 km north-south and ~90 km east-west; from a central point at approximately-28.92, 140.60, which is ~150 km south of Innamincka. Note this indicates a broad area where there are likely to be many excellent representative locations to be selected from.

• Brief description: The Strzelecki desert is an extensive dunefield stretching from just within the New South Wales border to its north-eastern boundary at Cooper Creek. The ephemeral Cooper Creek and its distributary, the Strzelecki Creek, flow through the northern and central areas respectively. The desert is bisected in a roughly north-south direction by the Strzelecki Creek separating the two types of dune material; clay pelletal and quartzose. Within the dunefields are numerous small claypans and broad sandy loam flats that separate groups of dunes. The Cobbler Sandhills near Lake Blanche is a section of the Strzelecki Desert where the dunes are replaced by small eroded knolls, mostly with vegetation on the top.


o Events and processes: The significant events and processes for the evolution of the area is the interaction of dune development and the fluvial systems of Cooper Creek and Strzelecki Creek There is a sparse proximal (due to limited sediment supply) floodplain dunefield which contrasts to the relatively extensive dunefields on the floodplains associated with the Finke River in the Simpson Desert to the northwest, where the fluvial input has provided greater amounts of suitably-sized sediment for aeolian reworking. Other areas of intermittent dune field development also occur. The main dunefield lies southeast of Innamincka and is bounded by Strzelecki Creek to the west, gibber plains and a small channel to the east, and proximal floodplain and gibber to the north. The abrupt terminus of the dunefield at its northern extremity is possibly due topographic rises which prevent the downwind transport of sediment while creeks create hydrologic barriers to dune migration. The linear dunefields in the central Strzelecki Desert scene overlie proximal floodplains in the west and vegetated alluvial plains in the east. The geomorphic association of the dunefields with alluvial landforms suggests that the characteristics of substrate sediments in this area may have changed over time. Linear dunes on both the proximal floodplain and vegetated alluvial plain are highly organized although the organisation is different that seen in the Simpson Desert to the north. The southern Strzelecki Desert is divided into the linear dunefields in the east, and the Frome and Callabonna playas and low relief alluvial plain in the west.

o Rarity: This region exhibits the greatest variability in linear dune morphology of those mapped, which may in part be due to the development of dunes upon all substrate types.

o Research: Because of all the dune fields in Australia, the Strzelecki Desert is the most accessible; more research has been undertaken here. However the differences in this dune field and others are known and significant.

o Principal characteristics of a class: Shows the principal characteristics of dune fields and their relationship to sediment supply.


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o Unusual (world): Comparison of linear dune behavior of the Strzelecki Desert with that of linear dunefields elsewhere on Earth demonstrates the complexity of linear dune-forming processes. Significant differences can be seen between this dune field and those of southern Africa, probably as a response to increasing aridity. Linear dunes in the Taklimakan Desert of China appear to show little planimetric variability across the dunefield in comparison to the Strzelecki. Mean dune wavelength is noticeably lower compared with Rub'al Khali of Saudi Arabia but somewhat higher than for much of the southwestern Kalahari (36–225 m) the Taklimakan (10–100 m) and Arizona dunefields of the USA.

o Unusual (Australia): Significant differences between the dune fields of the Strzelecki Desert and other Australian deserts occur, even the Simpson Desert to the north. The differences with the dunes of the Great Victoria Desert are even greater. Mean dune wavelength is noticeably lower compared with the Simpson and Great Sandy Deserts of Australia (900 m).

o Integrity and authenticity: In relatively good condition despite feral animals and tracks.

• Comment: This potential site description covers a broad area, from which more specific locations may be selected.

Vertisol (Mud-aggregate) Plains Descriptor: Extensive plains of swelling-clay soils Heritage Values: Events and processes; research; principal characteristics of a class; unusual (world); integrity and authenticity. Potential Locations:

• Barkly Tableland and associated plains; in particular, Alex 09 Cave • Cooper Creek (Windorah to Innamincka Dome) (see Hydrology – Anabranch,

and Hydrology – Mud-aggregate braidplain) Description: Vertisols, or cracking-clay soils, are a type of soil exhibiting great capacity to expand when wet and contract when dry. Many vertisols have clay mineralogy which includes swelling clays (smectite, montmorillinite, etc). Australia has 48,000,000 ha of vertic soils; we are one of the three world regions with large amounts of this type of soil (Hubble 1984). Vertisols embody all four drivers of arid Australia landforms: they are associated with old weathering profiles, and are related to present aridity. Vertisol formation derives from high clay content and an alternate wet-dry soil water regime. Red-clay vertisols are created by long weathering, short-period wetting, and severe drying under high temperatures. Black earth vertisols are created with moderately abundant rainfall, alkaline parent material, and grass-dominant plant communities. In comparison with the rest of the world's deserts, India is the only other country rich in vertisols; sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America have some (Hubble 1984). The places from which popular culture derives its images of deserts, and where so much desert research has taken place (the Middle East and the USA) have very little.


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The presence of so much clayey soil has important consequences for the appearance and function of the Australian rangelands. Firstly, any clay will have important moisture-retaining and nutrient-containing properties that are not present in sands and gravels. The presence of such widespread soil will have a strong influence on plant distribution in the Australian rangelands. Secondly, any clay has important consequences for fluvial form and behaviour, since clays are cohesive and hard to erode, yet light and easy to transport. A river flowing through a clay-rich environment will be unlike a river flowing through sands and gravels. However, this particular kind of soil also has a special influence. Vertic soils exhibit deep cracking when they are dry, so rainfall can penetrate deeply. They absorb and retain a lot of moisture. In consequence, vertic soils are very biologically rich and are known as productive agricultural and pastoral land. These qualities provide some of the stories that enrich Australian culture. The black-soil plains of the Barkly Tableland (Edgoose 2005) are notorious: so hard when they are dry, so boggy when they are wet, so rich after rain; then when they dry, mice breed in the cracks, so there is a mouse plague, then snakes after the mice; but it's good cattle country. The swelling properties of vertic soils also contribute to the soil phenomenon known as gilgai, in which the shrink-swell behaviour promotes circulation within the soil profile. The circulation brings stones to the surface, creates microtopography, and is associated with banded vegetation (see Hydrology). Stony gilgai is a distinctive feature of some Australian landscapes, such as the Barrier Range in western New South Wales (Dunkerley & Brown 1999). The other unusual and significant property of vertic soils is that they can be self-mulching: when dry, they fragment into silt- and sand-sized pellets which are robust enough for fluvial transport (Maroulis & Nanson 1999). This is extremely unusual on a world scale. Mud aggregates in fluvial transport are a key feature of Cooper Creek (Fagan & Nanson 2004), and is the only documented example of a braided river in Australia (see Hydrology). Key References Dunkerley, D.L. & Brown, K.J., 1999. Banded vegetation near Broken Hill, Australia; significance of surface roughness and soil physical properties. Catena (Giessen) 37 (1-2): 75-88. Edgoose, C.J., 2005. Barkly Tableland region, Northern Territory. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia ; pp. 148-150. Goudie, A.S., 2002. Great Warm Deserts of the World: Landscapes and Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Hubble, G.D., 1984. The cracking clay soils: definition, distribution, nature, genesis and use. In: McGarity, J.W., Hoult, E.H. & So, H.B. (eds), The Properties and Utilisation of Cracking Clay Soils: .pp.3-13.


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Fagan, S.D. & Nanson, G.C., 2004. The morphology and formation of floodplain-surface channels, Cooper Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 60 (1-2): 107-126. Goudie, A.S., 2002. Great Warm Deserts of the World: Landscapes and Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Maroulis, J.C. & Nanson, G.C., 1996. Bedload transport of aggregated muddy alluvium from Cooper Creek, central Australia; a flume study. Sedimentology 43 (5): 771-790.

Fig. 6 The Mitchell Grass Downs IBRA region (green outline) corresponds closely to the distribution of Vertisol plains (red dots, from a CSIRO online soil map). Image: Wakelin Associates. Potential Site: the Barkly Tableland & associated plains (NT, Qld); Alex 09 Cave

• Location: The Barkly Tableland and similar vertisol plains extend ~800 km south east of approximately Elliott in the NT, to beyond Barcaldine in Qld. The exact boundary is not defined in this report, but roughly corresponds to the Mitchell Grass Plains IBRA Region. Note this indicates a very broad area, from which a representative site may be selected. A place that is known to have soil-geology landforms exposed is Alex 09 Cave, roughly 6 km from Alexandria Station, which is -19.0582°, 136.7086º. Access to the cave is via the landholders, and cave data is held by the Victorian Speleological Association (www.vicspeleo.org.au).

• Description: A very large belt of cracking clay soils (vertisols) extends as a wide flat plain across the Northern Territory and Queensland. Population centres include Elliott (~250 km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern


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Territory) and Boulia (~300 km south of Mount Isa in Queensland). The extent of the Barkly Tableland (NT) coincides closely with the underlying geology (dominantly limestones of the Georgina Basin) (Edgoose 2005). The area is characterised by Mitchell Grass, and the geomorphology coincides closely with the Mitchell Grass Downs IBRA region (Fig. 6). The Barkly Tableland is of cracking black soils. Covered karst is where the karst host rock is covered by a thickness of overlying material, with usually little expression of solutional features at the surface. However, collapse into underlying cavities frequently occurs. Although underlain by thick and widespread limestone, the Barkly Tableland has a well developed drainage system and only isolated collapse dolines indicate karstification below. Only one main cave area is known, at Camooweal. The karst area extends from the arid /semi arid area into the less arid monsoonal tropics of northern Australia. This report has not found a documented specific location where the vertisol properties are especially outstanding. However, Alex 09 Cave is a doline cutting through the soil profile and leading into a cave in the underlying limestone. This location, while it is not known whether it is an outstanding example of the vertisol, is at least a known example of an exposure through the soil, showing the soil-rock relationships, and the relationship with the covered karst. Alex09 cave opened only recently, after heavy rains caused a collapse.

• Priority ranking: B • Heritage Values:

o Events and processes: The vertisol plains are of outstanding importance to Australia's natural history, not because they are an arid area with clayey, rain-retaining soils, but also because of their outstanding influence of the rivers of the Channel Country. Slow underground drainage occurs and limited cave development is known. The main cave development know probably dates from wetter climates and higher water tables. Further development is regarded as being due to increasing aridity in the Pleistocene, the lack of relief and the thick vertisol soils which appear to have restricted infiltration (Grimes, 1988).

o Rarity: The extent of buried karst in northern Australia is barely known so it is difficult to assess this.

o Research: The regional geomorphology is relatively unexplored and there is potential for much new information. In particular, the link between the Barkly Tableland and the mud aggregate rivers of the channel country is as yet unexplored. The extent of buried karst is not well known in northern Australia. Geology indicates that there should be more buried karst across northern Australia but the exploration is only just beginning.

o Principal characteristics of a class: Much of the Vertisol research is focused on the agricultural lands, outside the study area. The Alex 09 Cave site encompasses the surface geomorphology, covered karst, and possibly the interface between limestone and soil.

o Unusual (world): such an extent of Vertisol is unusual on a world scale. o Integrity and authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage

values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed. • Cross-reference themes: Hydrology (banded vegetation, braiding); karst


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• Cross-reference other sites or areas: Cooper Creek (Windorah to Innamincka Dome)

• Comments: o Closely associated with the Mitchell Grass Downs IBRA Region o The Barkly Tableland is a black earth Vertisol; arid zone red-clay

vertisols are associated with stony gilgai banded vegetation such as are found in western New South Wales around the Barrier Ranges.

o This location, while it is not known whether it is an outstanding example, is at least a known example of a described (unpublished) exposure through the profile. This particular site may or may not fit the criteria, but the vertisol plains have an outstandingly strong influence in Australian geomorphology, and that should be recognised in some location.

o There is a significant knowledge gap with respect to buried karst in northern Australia.

Grimes, K G; 1988 The Barkly Karst Region, North-west Queensland. Conference Proceedings: 17th Australian Speleological Federation: 16-24.

Karst Descriptor: Carbonate karst Heritage Values: events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; social value; unusual (world); unusual (Australia); integrity and authenticity. Potential Locations:

• Nullarbor (Western Australia & South Australia) • Barkly Tableland (Queensland & Northern Territory) (see Vertisols)

Current Sites: • Cape Range (Western Australia)

Description: The arid zone karst in Australia is significant and relevant because it shows inheritance from previous climatic conditions and it has been preserved and its exposure enhanced by Cainozoic aridity. The biological and palaeontological values associated with the caves are of high significance to Australians.

The Nullarbor is one of the largest single karst areas in the world and is unusual for its low relief and predominant treeless areas. Both Nullarbor and Cape Range are widely regarded by karst experts worldwide as important on a world scale, because of their exposure and scale. The covered karst of the Barkly Tableland is of major significance nationally.

As in the case of all arid zone geomorphology, detailed knowledge of the karst in arid Australia is limited due to difficulties of exploration and documentation. The geomorphology of the Australian desert karst regions has been predominantly done with only minimal institutional or government support, much of it by volunteer speleologists. Nevertheless both Cape Range and the Nullarbor have had and continue to have extensive exploration and study, although significant gaps remain.


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The development of karst depends, by definition, on dissolution of soluble lithologies. The low, variable rainfall of deserts automatically means that karst processes are inhibited, and this is compounded in hot deserts by the high evapotranspiration, resulting in a lack of effective precipitation. Therefore it might be expected that in deserts, karst landscapes would be poorly developed or absent. However, this is far from the case in many deserts around the world, including Australia, where karst features occur.

Australian arid zone karst occurs in carbonates (limestone and dolomite) and although desert conditions elsewhere in the world have evaporite karst developed in other very soluble lithologies (gypsum and halite), no evaporite karst is known in Australia. This is a direct result of the relatively low relief and altitude of the continent, as no massive deposits of evaporites are known.

Fig. 7 Speleologists at work on the Nullarbor Plain. Photo: Nicholas White.

Carbonate karst is the most common type of karst in hot deserts. This is not because the karst features have formed in the desert environment; in every well-documented case including Australia, the karst developed either under a previous wetter climate or by hypogene processes. Nevertheless, the karst landscapes in arid zones are not in a state of stasis; they are all being modified very slowly due to the lack of water and relatively low availability of CO2 for karstification. The lack of well-developed karst features in the Australian deserts are not due to aridity per se but are the result of characteristics that inhibited karst development even under favourable climatic


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conditions. In particular, extensive surface and underground karst did not develop on the Nullarbor Plain due to the characteristics of the lithology and topography, even though the climate was warm and wet in the past.

Calcite dissolution occurs in desert environments, particularly when assisted by processes like mixing corrosion. For example, on the Nullarbor Plain, occasional high intensity rainfall events result in a substantial, short-lived input of freshwater into the caves. This forms a surface layer up to two meters thick on top of the heavier saline water of cave lakes; mixing corrosion occurs at the interface (halocline) between the two water bodies and dissolves notches in the cave walls. However, the overall impact of dissolution on carbonate karst in deserts is minor. Even though floodwaters are typically undersaturated with respect to calcite, they are usually in contact with the limestone for only a relatively short period of time and limited solution occurs, often superimposed on the older, much larger and more extensive horizontal phreatic system that formed under a previous wetter climate.

One marked effect of the desert environment on carbonate karst occurs due to the interaction between evaporites and carbonates through salt weathering. In this process the crystallization of salts (usually halite) in the pore spaces within the limestone of cave walls causes fragmentation of the bedrock as the volume increase wedges apart blocks and grains of limestone. Rocks most liable to salt weathering contain large pores separated by micropores, so limestones with primary intergranular porosity are very susceptible.

Salt weathering is of major importance on the Nullarbor Plain, because the Tertiary limestone there is a bioclastic calcarenite with high primary porosity. Halite and gypsum crystallization within the pore spaces of the limestone detaches particles from the cave walls and deposits these as sand on the cave floor. This process of crystal wedging is at least partially responsible for the extensive collapse that is a feature of most Nullarbor caves (Webb and James, 2006), and forms tafoni on many cave walls as large irregular scallops (Lowry and Jennings, 1974). In addition, salt can overgrow calcite speleothems and break them into shards.

For salt weathering to be a significant process in modification of carbonate karst in deserts, a climate dominated by relatively frequent, low intensity, wetting and drying episodes is necessary, along with the presence of primary porosity in the limestone. Showers of a few millimetres evaporate almost as soon as they reach the land surfaces, causing considerable amounts of salt to build up in the soil. This salt is then gradually leached through the soil and limestone overlying a cave to evaporate on and just within the cave wall, precipitating salt crystals in the pore spaces of the limestone and causing salt weathering. In contrast, high intensity rainfall events flush the salt through the soil before it builds up to high levels, so desert areas like Cape Range in Australia, where a major proportion of the rainfall falls during cyclones, show little if any salt weathering on the cave walls, despite the high primary porosity of the limestone there. Instead erosion by sands and gravels washed into the cave can be important.

Other processes of mechanical weathering that are typically ascribed to deserts, particularly wind abrasion and daily heating and cooling of rocks, seem to have relatively little impact on carbonate karst because they affect only the surface karren features. Furthermore, carbonate rocks in arid zones are frequently protected from both mechanical weathering and dissolution by a surface layer of calcrete, precipitated from groundwater and soil water due to the high levels of evaporation that characterise hot deserts.


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Key references Lowry, D C; Jennings, J N 1974 The Nullarbor karst Australia Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie, 18, (1):35-81. Webb, John A; James, Julia M 2006 Karst evolution of the Nullarbor Plain, Australia. Perspectives on karst geomorphology, hydrology, and geochemistry; a tribute volume to Derek C. Ford and William B. White IN Harmon, Russell S; Wicks, Carol M (eds) Special Paper - Geological Society of America 404:65-78. Wyrwoll, K-H., Kendrick, G.W. & Long, J.A., 1993. The geomorphology and Late Cenozoic geomorphological evolution of the Cape Range - Exmouth Gulf region. In: Humphreys, W.F., (ed), The biogeography of the Cape Range. Records of the Western Australian Museum. Western Australian Museum, Perth, supplement 45: 1-23. Potential Site: Nullarbor including the Bunda Cliffs (Western Australia & South Australia)

• Location: Between -31.411º, 132.793º’E (eastern edge, which is ~ 460 km east of Ceduna) and -32.988º, 128.388º(southwest), and corresponding approximately to the Nullarbor IBRA region; 785 x 342 km in dimensions. Location: The spectacular long cliffed coastline, extends approximately 200 km east from where the Eyre Highway crosses the Western Australia border (at -31.6496°, 129.0033°) to a point~ 460 km east of Ceduna.

• Description: One of the largest single karst areas in the world and the largest karst area in Australia, the 200,000 km2 Nullarbor Plain, is a flat, mostly treeless limestone plain. Limited surface solutional features are present and the caves are concentrated in two bands within 80 km of the coast. The solutional

Fig. 8 The Bunda Cliffs. Photo: G Richardson


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features consist of about 100 larger caves, > 150 collapse dolines and over 3000 smaller features generally blowholes and small shallow caves. Most caves are characterised by collapse. Some 20 larger caves reach the water table and have extensive flooded passages.

Some caves contain formations composed of gypsum and halite, as stalactites, columns, crusts, curving crystal clusters and hair-like helictites. Some speleothems are composed of dark brown to black calcite, which are at present being overgrown and broken down by salt crystallising in cracks.

The caves are thought to have formed during the wetter climates that predate the present aridity (Webb and James, 2006). A series of major conduits developed during warm seasonally wet conditions of the Oligocene; they drained after the Nullarbor karst was uplifted in the late Miocene, and collapsed to form large passages and dome chambers that retain the general cave orientation. During the warm wet period of the late Pliocene (~5-3 Ma ago) shallow caves containing calcite speleothems developed. As the climate reached its present level of aridity ~1 million years ago, evaporite speleothems have formed. In addition, salt crystallisation along cracks and within the pore spaces of the limestone and speleothems has wedged grains of limestone from the cave walls and roof, depositing these as sand on the cave floor, and breaking calcite speleothems into shards. This process of crystal wedging has probably caused some cave collapse and assisted in the development of the collapse dolines (Webb and James, 2006).

Since the uplift of the Nullarbor Plain, surface weathering rates have been exceptionally low (2 to 5 mm/kyr), inhibited by the indurated surface calcrete layer and the overall semi-arid to arid climate. Little surface solution sculpture, relatively few caves and no solution dolines formed over this time, and the Nullarbor karst largely retained its flat depositional surface.

The Nullarbor cliffs occur at the coast in two sections; the Bunda Cliffs and the Baxter Cliffs both of which are the seaward extent of the Nullarbor Plain. The Bunda Cliffs are noteworthy as the longest continuous cliffed coastline in Australia. The cliff line extends 210 km from Head of the Bight in the east to Eucla in the west. The cliffs vary in height from 40 to 90 m. A landwards extension of lower bluffs continue inland as the Hampton Bluffs for another 300 km before reaching the cost again as the Baxter Cliffs that run for another 160 km to Point Culver. From here the cliff line strikes inland again as the Wylie escarpment. In all, the cliff line is 790 km long; the Bunda Cliff section being the longest and most spectacular. In addition to their remarkable length, the Bunda Cliffs expose the geological units of the Nullarbor karst (limestone) showing the upper reddish brown Nullarbor and Abrakurrie limestones and the lower white Wilson Bluff limestone (Fig. 8). Cliff recession itself isn’t a rare process, but the absence of subaerial downwearing of the hinterland, the relatively soft nature of the limestone, and the exposure to strong southerly swell and storm waves result in an excellent example of marine processes driving rapid cliff recession.


o Events and processes: Extensive surface and underground karst features have not developed on the Nullarbor due to the flatness of the plain, the


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high primary porosity, the limited jointing and the lack of inception horizons in the limestone (Webb and James, 2006). The characteristics of the lithology restricted the karst development of the Nullarbor Plain under past wetter climates; the present arid climate has preserved the caves and dolines but is not responsible for the overall lack of karstification. As the longest single cliff coast line in Australia, the Bunda cliffs are notable and rare. One of the remarkable features of these cliffs is their uniformity along such a long length of coastline. As a component of the Nullarbor the Bunda cliffs offer a visually striking interface between the Nullarbor Plain and the sea.

o Rarity: The karst features of the Nullarbor are found elsewhere in the high primary porosity Tertiary limestones of southern Australia but the extent and size of the karst area and its low relief and distinctive vegetation is a rare combination. In contrast the high cliffed coast line is the most significant of the arid cliffed coastal sites

o Research: As in the case of all arid zone geomorphology, detailed knowledge of the karst in arid Australia is limited due to difficulties of exploration and documentation. Recent cave discoveries have included potentially important megafauna, and there is potential for further discoveries. However only limited research has been undertaken on the spectacular cliffs. They are significant geologically as the type section for the Wilson Bluff Limestone. Research has focussed on the karst landscape rather than the rocky coast.

o Principal characteristics of a class: This one of the world’s outstanding examples of karst in a slightly uplifted setting; it is one of the world’s largest single karst areas. It exhibits excellent examples of solutional landforms which have been modified by increasing aridity. The current site also indicates the characteristics of cliffed coasts. They show the characteristics of coasts on a coastline with a long fetch (distance waves can travel over water); in this case effectively infinite.

o Social values: The geomorphology of the Australian desert karst regions has been predominantly done with only minimal institutional or government support, much of it by volunteer speleologists. Nevertheless significant exploration is currently underway assisted by GIS and new dating techniques.

o Unusual (world): The Nullarbor is one of the largest single karst areas in the world and is unusual for its low relief and predominant treeless areas. It is also a spectacular and long on a world standard cliffed coast with very long fetch characteristics.

o Unusual (Australia): The largest karst area of the continent unusual for its low relief and predominant treeless areas. As well it is the longest single cliff coast line in Australia. The Baxter Cliffs could be considered as a separate site, but it can also be argued they are a continuation of the same cliff line as the Bunda Cliffs. While cliffed coast lines in Tertiary limestones occur elsewhere in Australia, (e.g. Port Campbell Coast Victoria, Ningaloo Coast, WA), none are as uniform or continuous as the Bunda cliffs.

o Integrity and authenticity: Despite some pressures along the main highway the area has remarkably high integrity.

• Cross-reference themes: Arid Coasts


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• Comments: This is the site that is often queried by overseas karst specialists as to why it is not on the National or the World heritage lists. It is one of the most outstanding karst areas in the world. The cliffed coast is included here as a part of larger Nullarbor potential listing. It is an integral part of the Nullarbor karst, although significant caves have not been found in the cliffs, despite exploration.

Current Site: Cape Range, Ningaloo Coast and Karst (Western Australia)

• Location: The town of Exmouth (-21.9322°, 114.1221°) is close to the northern edge of this ~360 km long NHL area..

• Brief description: Exmouth Peninsula is the only Tertiary orogenic (resulting from uplift and warping) karst in Australia; an unusual situation in a relatively flat continent. Cape Range houses a high concentration of karst features and subterranean ecosystems of global importance, unparalleled in Australia. The presence of active karst solution as a result of seawater incursion is rare in Australia. The modern Ningaloo Reef, Exmouth Peninsula karst, and the wave-cut terraces, limestone plains, Pleistocene reef sediments of Exmouth Peninsula and associated marine, terrestrial and subterranean ecosystems, including the Muiron Islands, demonstrate a geological, hydrological and ecological unity which links the region’s present ecosystem functions with its evolutionary history as a time-series of coral reefs and an evolving karst system.

• Priority ranking: Addition to existing (this site is already on the National Heritage List for its coastal and karst geomorphic values)

Fig. 9. Rugged topography at Cape Range. Photo: Dragi Markovic

• Heritage Values: o Events and processes: The Australian continent is characterized by low

relief, relative tectonic stability and a very long history of landscape


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evolution. Exmouth Peninsula is a major exception, and is the only Tertiary orogenic (resulting from uplift and warping) karst in Australia. Most of the geological and geomorphological features of Exmouth Peninsula reflect a history of uplift and warping that commenced in the late Tertiary (middle Miocene to late Pliocene) and which has continued to the present. As a result, the karst systems of Cape Range extend over a large vertical range (at least 300 metres), which is not reflected anywhere else on mainland Australia. Cape Range houses a high concentration of karst features and subterranean ecosystems of global importance, unparalleled in Australia. (Wyrwoll 1993). The coastal features of the Exmouth Peninsula reflect a history of uplift and warping that commenced in the late Tertiary (middle Miocene to late Pliocene) continuing to the present. The coral reef history of the last 26 million years can be seen in the wave-cut terraces of Cape Range. The uplifted wave-cut terraces and fossil reefs which fringe the Exmouth Peninsula and the submerged fossil reef terraces which form the substrate of the modern reef, in immediate juxtaposition with the undeformed modern Ningaloo Reef, and late Pleistocene Tantabiddi terrace, contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms which led to the modern character of the west coast of Australia.

o Rarity: There are several aspects of the Cape Range karst which are rare in Australia: karst in orogenic Tertiary limestones, the vertical range of karst features in Cainozoic limestones, active karst solution as a result of seawater incursion and the trogloditic fauna associated with the cave systems. The presence of active karst solution as a result of seawater incursion is rare in Australia. The Ningaloo Coast is one of the best examples in Australia of this globally significant process.

o Research: significant research on the fauna has occurred and some associated geomorphological research but there is a need for further work to understand the karst processes in this setting. Studies of ancient reef systems show that coral reefs have a level of resilience to extreme climatic events, but the effect on and hardiness of modern reefs is unknown. Studies of modern reefs over relatively recent geological time give better understanding of modern reef resilience.

o Principal characteristics of a class: The modern Ningaloo Reef, Exmouth Peninsula karst, and the wave-cut terraces, limestone plains, Pleistocene reef sediments of Exmouth Peninsula and associated marine, terrestrial and subterranean ecosystems, including the Muiron Islands, demonstrate a geological, hydrological and ecological unity with the region's present ecosystem functions with its evolutionary history as a time-series of coral reefs and an evolving karst system. The Ningaloo Coast is characterised by a number of biologically and structurally interconnected terrestrial, coastal and marine landforms. The reef is a discontinuous barrier over approximately 260 kilometres south to north along the coast of Western Australia, enclosing a variable width lagoon unusual (world); Cape Range houses a high concentration of karst features and subterranean ecosystems of global importance.

o Unusual (world): Cape Range houses a high concentration of karst features and subterranean ecosystems of global importance.

o Unusual (Australia): Cape Range houses a high concentration of karst features and subterranean ecosystems which are unusual in Australia.


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The subterranean faunas and rangeland communities of Cape Range peninsula illustrate the intimate ties between ecology and geology more vividly than any other place in Australia. Unusual juxtaposition of coastal and karst landforms on a passive continental margin.

o Integrity and authenticity: The area encompassed by Ningaloo Reef Marine Park (state and Commonwealth waters) and the adjoining Cape Range is relatively undisturbed. Low visitation and limited development coupled with its isolation from large population centres contributes to the area's naturalness, the uninterrupted views of seascapes and the remote landscapes of the range and coastal plain. The areas outside the park have had some damage but this is still quite low.

• Cross-reference themes: Arid Coasts • Comments: This site is already listed on the NHL and has been proposed for

World heritage listing. Its geomorphic values should be added to the proposal.

Arid Coasts Descriptor: Rocky or cliffed coasts and sandy coastal areas; hypersaline coastal. Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; aesthetic; unusual (world); unusual (Australia) ; integrity and authenticity. Existing Sites:

• Cape Range, Ningaloo coast (Western Australia) (see Cape Range, Ningaloo Coast and Karst)

• Shark Bay, including Zuytdorp Cliffs (Western Australia) Potential Locations:

• Bunda Cliffs (Western Australia, South Australia) (see Nullarbor Karst) • Pilbara coast (Western Australia)

Description: The Australian arid zone touches the western and southern continental coastline and is significantly different to the eastern coast where most of the Australian population lives. Usually compared to many of the large deserts of the world, the Australian arid zone includes extensive coastal margin. Additionally, most of the Australian arid zone coastal areas are calcareous, rather than the siliceous coasts of the east coast. The arid, flat hinterland with its low-power streams results in very little clastic output and therefore clear water and white sand. The high effective evaporation promotes the hypersaline conditions of Shark Bay. In specific areas tectonic uplift results in the spectacular cliffed shorelines of the Great Australian Bight and along the west coast. The heritage values of the rocky coasts was discussed in the 2009 Rocky Coasts Workshop and included arid coastal sites.

These are either currently on the NHL (Shark Bay and Ningaloo Coast), could be part of new listings of more extensive sites (Nullarbor for Bunda Cliffs) or extension of current NHL listing (Zuytdorp Cliffs as an extension of Shark Bay).

Arid coastal areas in Australia fall into two major types: rocky, often cliffed coastlines and sandy or beach coasts. Other coasts with lagoons can be categorized as subtypes of one of these two. Coasts are not directly an arid landform per se. Coastal processes are predominantly independent of climate and are dominated by the sea, wind and local lithologies.


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However the immediate hinterland can be significant in its ability to deliver terrestrial sediment to the coast, and this may be significantly influenced by climate. The arid, flat hinterland with its low-power streams results in very little clastic output. This in turn results in clear water and white sand. It also results in conditions for modern stromatolites in hypersaline areas e.g. Shark Bay and clear water for coral reef development e.g. Ningaloo Coast. Where tectonic uplift has occurred, cliffs predominate e.g. Bunda Cliffs, (Nullarbor) and Zuytdorp Cliffs.

The arid zone coasts of Australia are generally wave dominated. In particular where deltas occur, e.g. Pilbara coast these differ greatly from other arid zone deltas (Semeniuk 1996).

The arid coastline has both rocky and sandy coasts, many of which are calcareous. Both the Indian Ocean and the Nullarbor coasts are predominantly calcareous: cliffed and sandy. However the more strongly siliciclastic Pilbara coast is set in one of the most arid parts of Australia in a mixed siliciclastic and carbonate setting.

Key References Lowry, D C; Jennings, J N 1974 The Nullarbor karst Australia Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie 18, (1): 35-81, 1974 Semeniuk , V. 1996 Coastal forms and Quaternary processes along the arid Pilbara coast of northwestern Australia Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 123 : 49-84 Webb, John A; James, Julia M 2006 Karst evolution of the Nullarbor Plain, Australia. Perspectives on karst geomorphology, hydrology, and geochemistry; a tribute volume to Derek C. Ford and William B. White Editor Harmon, Russell S; Wicks, Carol M Special Paper - Geological Society of America. 404:65-78. Wyrwoll, K-H, G W Kendrick and J A Long (1993). The geomorphology and late Cenozoic geomorphological evolution of the Cape Range-Exmouth Gulf region. In W F Humphreys, (ed), The biogeography of the Cape Range. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 45, 1-23. Existing World Heritage Site (part of Shark Bay WHA): Zuytdorp Cliffs, (Western Australia)

• Location: The Zuytdorp Cliffs extend for about 130 km of the western Australian coast between Shark Bay and Kalbarri. The southern edge of the defined potential site is 43 km northwest of the town of Kalbarri (-27.7116°, 114.1654°).

• Brief description: These are a rugged, spectacular and little visited segment of cliffs in Pleistocene aeolian calcarenites, in a wave dominated situation. The cliffs exhibit a cliff morphology with notches, multiple benches and pavement. At the highest point, near Womerangee Hill, the top of the cliffs is 250 m above the sea.


o Events and processes; Rocky cliffed coast in dune calcarenites (Pleistocene Tamala Limestone). Coastal environment is wave dominated to mixed wave and tide influenced. Like other arid coastal


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areas there is no sediment being brought from the terrestrial environment as no streams cut through the cliffs to the sea. This site is the cliffed areas rather than the more complex areas of shore parallel features. The geoheritage significance are related to the variable response of the increasing tidal range from meso tidal to macro tidal and variable oceanographic setting from wave dominated to tide dominated and the Pleistocene and Holocene stratigraphy, relationships and sea level history.

o Rarity: Cliffed coasts in dune calcarenites are not rare in Australia but Zuytdorp Cliffs are probably the most spectacular. However they appear not to have the same relationship to karstic development in the calcareous dunes as elsewhere e.g. SW WA and SW Victoria.

o Research: Some research and description undertaken e.g. Semeniuk, 1996

o Principal characteristics of a class: They are part of a group of calcareous cliffed coasts but are different from the Tertiary limestone coasts e.g. Ningaloo and Nullarbor

o Aesthetic: very spectacular Fig 10 The Zuytdorp Cliffs. Photo: Nick Rains


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o Unusual (world): because the dune limestones of southern and western Australia are unusual on a world scale, their coastal forms are also unusual.

o Unusual (Australia): the most spectacular of all the cliffed coasts in Pleistocene aeolian calcarenites

o Integrity and authenticity: High • Cross-reference other sites or areas: this is part of Shark Bay WHA, but the best

cliffs may be outside the current park boundaries. Existing World Heritage Site: Shark Bay, (Western Australia)

• Location: A rectangle approximately 150 km on the diagonal, enclosing the bay; the rectangle’s northern corner is 61 km south along the road from Babbage Island (-24.8752°, 113.6424°). Shark Bay is located on the most western point of the coast of Australia

• Brief description: In Shark Bay's hot, dry climate, evaporation greatly exceeds the annual precipitation rate resulting in increase of the seawater salinity in the shallow bays to hypersaline (1.5 to 2 times more salty than normal sea water). Seagrasses also restrict the tidal flow of waters through the bay area, preventing the ocean tides from diluting the sea water. At Hamelin Pool in the south of the bay, bacteria continue to build stromatolites that are over 3000 years old. The Hamelin Pool contains the most diverse and abundant examples of stromatolite forms in the world.

• Priority ranking: Addition to Existing • Heritage Values:

o Events and processes: The coastal geomorphology (sheltered hypersaline bay) leads to the survival of one of the world oldest life forms (stromatolites). The bay itself covers an area of 10,000 km2, with an average depth of 10 metres. It is divided by shallow banks and has many peninsulas and islands. The coastline is over 1,500 km long. It is located in the transition zone between three major climatic regions and between two major botanical provinces.

o Rarity: Shark Bay contains unique and rare natural coastal phenomena and formations including stromatolites (which represent one of the oldest forms of life on Earth) and Hamelin Pool which is the only place in the world with a range of stromatolite forms comparable to fossils in ancient rocks. These are directly the result of the coastal processes present. The significant biological values cannot be separated from the coastal geomorphological values.

o Research: Limited research has been undertaken on the coastal processes as the concentration has been on the stromatolites themselves. This is a limitation of the present NH and WHA listings.

o Unusual (world): The hypersaline coastal conditions are unusual in a world context.

o Unusual (Australia): The hypersaline coastal conditions are unusual in an Australian context

o Integrity and authenticity: High values • Comments: This site is already listed on both NHL and WHA lists, but the

geomorphological values are not strongly expressed in the current listing and should be strengthened. The exceptional biota are dependent on the geomorphic setting.


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Potential Site: Pilbara Coast, Ashburton River delta to De Grey River delta (Western Australia)

• Location: Approximately 530 km of coastline between the Ashburton River delta (-21.694º 114.727º) and the De Grey River delta (-19.980º 119.162º).

• Brief description: The mixture of coastal and terrigenous influences result in coastal landforms which were formed during the Quaternary period through influence of ancestral landforms and fluvial and shoreline accretion, coastal erosion, and cementation. This arid coast is characterised by a range of features such as construction of arid zone deltas, delta destruction and sediment redistribution during times of sediment depletion, cyclone-induced erosion and sedimentation, mangroves and their associated sedimentary deposits, evolution of coastal groundwater hypersalinity, formation of salt flats, and precipitation and cementation to form beachrocks, high-tidal crusts and gypsum precipitates. The Pilbara coastal stratigraphy and geomorphology suggests aridity was intricately involved in the sedimentation, geomorphic evolution, and pedogenic and diagenetic alteration of this coastal zone throughout the whole of the Holocene and Pleistocene.


o Events and processes: A complex terrigenous and carbonate sediment coast in the most arid part of the continent, these provide information of the evolutionary history of Australia. In particular because the Pilbara coast is arid and influenced by the warm waters of the Northwest Shelf, this has resulted in the formation of oolitic limestone. This Pleistocene and Holocene oolitic aeolian limestone limestones is a unique feature and unlike the other bioclastic aeolian calcarenites that dominate the discontinuous strandline dune coasts of the southern coastal margin from just north of Perth to Wilson’s Promontory.

o Rarity: One of the few Australian arid siliciclastic coasts. o Research: Limited research has been undertaken on the coastal

processes (Semeniuk 1996) and little work done internationally on arid coasts in siliciclastic or terrigineous terrains.

o Unusual (world): Unusual in world setting where emphases have been on carbonate arid coasts.

o Unusual (Australia): This is a siliciclastic coast, which is unusual for the study area. Most other arid coasts in Australia are carbonate, e.g. Ningaloo Coast, Nullarbor coast, Shark Bay

o Integrity and authenticity: High values • Cross-reference themes: Regolith: Weathering Profiles • Cross-reference sites: Pilbara Channel Iron

Tectonics Tectonism is that behaviour of the Earth in which rocks bend, break, or move in response to the forces of plate tectonics. Worldwide, amongst the most visible effects of tectonism are faulting, such as the large earthquakes which devastated New Zealand and Japan in 2011. Tectonic landscapes are those in which movement of rocks are expressed at the Earth's surface. Amongst the most well-known tectonic landscapes overseas is the trace of the San Andreas Fault, and in Australia, the 37 km scarp left by


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the 1968 Meckering earthquake, east of Perth. The tectonic landscapes relevant to the geomorphology of the study area are fault-bounded ranges, salt-influenced folding and uplift in a sedimentary basin, and two kinds of flexure: gentle folding of sedimentary basin rocks, and undulation of the Australian plate.

Fault Tectonics Descriptor: Uplift of fault-bounded blocks to create ranges and uplands. Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; social value; significant people; unusual (Australia). Cross-reference: see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths Potential Locations: see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths

• Flinders Ranges (South Australia) • Mundi Mundi fault scarp, Barrier Ranges (NSW)

Description: Faulting is the movement of one body of rock with respect to another body of rock, along an approximately semi-planar surface. In Australia, fault movement is dominantly roughly vertical (uplift, subsidence), in response to the plate's current compressive stress regime. Though not tectonically active on a world scale, Australia displays some tectonic activity which is sufficiently recent to affect modern geomorphology (Hill et al. 2003, Quigley et al. 2010). Key References Quigley, M.C., Sandiford, M. & Clark D., 2010. Tectonic geomorphology of Australia. In: Bishop, P., Pillans, B. (eds), Australian Landscapes. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346; pp. 243-265. Hill, S.M., Eggleton, R.A. & Taylor, G., 2003. Neotectonic disruption of silicified palaeovalley systems in an intraplate, cratonic landscape; regolith and landscape evolution of the Mulculca range-front, Broken Hill Domain, New South Wales. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 50 (5): 691-707.

Salt Tectonics Descriptor: Uplift, creating ranges and uplands, driven by salt diapirism Heritage Values: Events and processes; research; principal characteristics of a class; aesthetic; unusual (Australia) ; integrity and authenticity. Cross-reference: see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths Potential Locations: see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths

• the MacDonnell Ranges (Northern Territory) Under certain conditions of geology, thick layers of rock salt (halite) and other evaporite minerals can accumulate in sedimentary basins. The properties of these


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minerals are such that they undergo plastic deformation under certain conditions of tectonic stress. That is, they can be squeezed into new shapes and places. The Amadeus Basin, the Bitter Springs Formation and other units contain such minerals, which have long been known to have played a central role in the development of the basin (e.g. Lindsay 1987, Marshall & Dyson 2007). While their effects on Amadeus Basin geology are well-known, their effects on the geomorphology of central Australia have received less attention. However, one of the characteristic structural types resulting from evaporite diapir movement is the salt anticline: a doubly plunging anticline, very narrow but long (Hudec & Jackson 2007). This bears a very close resemblance to the disposition of folding within the Amadeus Basin which is ultimately responsible for the very distinctive strike-ridges and strike-valleys that characterise the MacDonnell Ranges and other central Australian uplands. While this association between salt geology and MacDonnell Ranges geomorphology is as yet untested, it is a persuasive explanation for some of the differences between the MacDonnell Ranges and other uplands such as the fault-bounded Barrier Range. Key References Hudec, M.R. & Jackson, M.P.A., 2007. Terra infirma: Understanding salt tectonics. Earth-Science Reviews 82: 1–28. Lindsay, J.F., 1987. Upper Proterozoic evaporites in the Amadeus basin, central Australia, and their role in basin tectonics. GSA Bulletin 99 (6):. 852-865. Marshall, T.R. & Dyson I.A., 2007. Halotectonics – a key element of Amadeus Basin development and prospectivity. In: Munson TJ and Ambrose GJ (editors), 2007. Proceedings of the Central Australian Basins Symposium (CABS), Alice Springs, Northern Territory, 16–18 August, 2005. Northern Territory Geological Survey, Special Publication 2, pp. 119-135.

Flexure Descriptor: Tectonically-induced folding of sedimentary rocks, with an expression at the land surface, or undulation of the land surface Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; unusual (world); unusual (Australia) ; integrity and authenticity. Potential Locations

• Neales River Catchment (South Australia) • Cooper Creek at the Innamincka Dome

Description: Rock units can be bent into folds (anticlines and synclines) during the development of large sedimentary basins. One of Australia's largest sedimentary basins is the Eromanga Basin (which forms most of the Great Artesian Basin). Eromanga Basin rocks are exposed at the surface in much of the more remote parts of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia including such landmarks as the opal fields of Coober Pedy and White Cliffs. Since its deposition during the age of the


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dinosaurs (Jurassic to Cretaceous) the Eromanga Basin has been gently folded into broad low-amplitude folds. One of these broad folds is the Innamincka Dome. A much more unusual example of rock being bent by geological forces is the tectonically-driven undulation of land surfaces in north-eastern South Australia, centred on the Lake Eyre Basin. Factors resulting from the Australian plate's movement towards Indonesia have caused the land surface in this area to undulate, with upwards doming and downward subsidence on a scale of hundreds of meters vertically, extended over hundreds of kilometres of landscape (Quigley et al. 2010). This movement has taken place since the Miocene, making it geologically very recent. Notable examples of landscape inversion have resulted, such as Lake Billa Kalina, once a large lake (so, at a low elevation), now the drainage divide between Lakes Eyre and Frome (so, the highest elevation in its local landscape) (Sandiford et al. 2009). The result of this undulation, in combination with widespread deep weathering and the emplacement of several layers of erosion-resistant silcrete, is a landscape with several flat layers stacked one on another. These are the iconic landscapes around Oodnadatta and other parts of the Lake Eyre Basin. Fig. 11 Location, the Neales River and Cooper Creek Catchments, in the Lake Eyre Basin.


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Key References Quigley, M.C., Sandiford, M. & Clark D., 2010. Tectonic geomorphology of Australia. In: Bishop, P., Pillans, B. (eds), Australian Landscapes. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346; pp. 243-265. Sandiford, M., Quigley, M., De Broekert P. & Jakica, S., 2009. Tectonic framework for the Cenozoic cratonic basins of Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 56 (Supplement 1): S5-S18. Potential Site: The Neales River Catchment (South Australia)

• Location: The Neales River catchment includes the Neales River and its tributary Peake Creek (including Lora Creek and Arckaringa Creek). It extends ~350 km from the Stuart Highway to Lake Eyre. The town of Marla is near its north-western edge, and the town of Oodnadatta (135.4466°, -27.5464°) is close to its northern edge midway between eastern and western boundaries.

• Description: The Neales Catchment topography is created by tectonic undulation; since the Miocene (so, in geologically recent time) parts of the western portion of the catchment have been uplifted, while Lake Eyre has developed as the regional low point. The landscape is the product of the tectonic history in combination with the surface lithologies inherited from previous climates; exposed by the development of modern aridity. Silcretes (see Regolith: duricrusts) forming erosion-resistant flat layers and uplifted by a tectonic activity (Alley 1998, Wakelin-King 2011), where exposed by soil loss as modern aridity developed (Fujioka et al. 2005). The resulting landscape of mesas, scarps of often brightly-coloured deep weathering profiles, and gibber

Fig. 12 Gibber plain and the Neales River. Photo: Gresley Wakelin-King.


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plains, is stark and iconic. Where high and low land surfaces are juxtaposed, stream capture takes place (where the drainage network of a higher land surface is diverted onto a lower land surface). The largest example is the spectacular Oodnadatta "S", a reversed-S drainage pathway. Small fault bounded uplift ranges (the Peake Denison Ranges) strike through the catchment ~100 km from its eastern edge, constraining the Neales and Peake rivers into narrow floodplains as they passed through the rocky outcrop. Elsewhere, the rivers occupy wide floodplains. The rivers have complex fluvial styles, alternating between anabranching (with major waterholes) and anastomosing. Major floodouts occur at some tributary outlets. The fluvial styles (including the waterholes) are the direct result of the combination of tectonism and duricrusts. The waterholes are critical ecological refugia in this harsh landscape and the locations of significant endemism. They are also significant drivers of post-European historical development, as their presence governed the routes taken by explorers, Afghan cameleers, and the Ghan railway. The Algebuckina railway bridge and the string of sidings and fettler's cottages along the old railway are noted parts of Australia's cultural history. Algebuckina and Hookey’s Waterholes are amongst the most significant.

• Priority ranking: AA

• Heritage Values:

o Events and processes: The Neales Catchment is outstanding with respect to the way in which the interaction between tectonics and the gibber plains control the development of river landforms, in turn governing local ecology.

o Rarity: The Oodnadatta "S" is an unusually large example of stream piracy by headward erosion

o Research: The Neales Catchment has outstanding potential to yield important information about the Lake Eyre Basin landscape evolution, and about a complex type of river whose landforms contribute to both ecology and history.

o Principal characteristics of a class: The Neales Catchment demonstrates the principal characteristics of stream capture, anabranching, waterholes, and tectonic influence of river landscapes.

o Creative or technical achievement: The waterholes of the Neales and Peake Rivers are significant to the exploration and development of inland Australia

o Unusual (world): The landscape development by tectonic crustal flexure is unusual on a world scale.

o Unusual (Australia): The processes and landforms of the river and its interactions with the tectonic landscape, are unusual.

o Integrity and authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed.

• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology (anabranching), Hydrology (waterholes), Hydrology (floodouts), Regolith (duricrust, silcrete)


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Key References: Alley, N.F., 1998. Cainozoic stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and geological evolution of the Lake Eyre Basin. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 144: 239–263. Fujioka, T., Chappell, J., Honda, M., Yatsevich, I., Fifield, K. & Fabel, D., 2005. Global cooling initiated stony deserts in central Australia 2-4 Ma, dated by cosmogenic 21Ne-10Be. Geology 33: 993-996. Wakelin-King, G.A., 2011. Geomorphological assessment and analysis of the Neales Catchment: A report to the South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board. Wakelin Associates, Melbourne. 128pp., 2 maps. Potential Site: Cooper Creek at the Innamincka Dome

• Location: The town of Innamincka 140.7376° -27.7466°; the dome is approximately circular, ~90 km in diameter, with Innamincka approximately at the southwest (downstream) edge, and the Nappa Merrie waterhole at the upstream edge.

• Brief description: The Innamincka dome is a physiographic high, a broad gentle dome raised above the base level of the surrounding sand dunes. The nature of the dome's uplift is not examined in this report; however it is marked on the geological map as an anticline, and is consistent in location and style with other gentle folds of the Eromanga Basin, so it is likely to result from ordinary processes of basinal structural development. The long exposure of these rocks to previous climates has led to weathering and overprinting by silcrete. The silcrete forms a dense gibber plain, which is erosion-resistant and is a fine example of the type, including some excellent desert pavements. The primary geomorphic significance here is the interaction between uplift and river process. Cooper Creek flows through and bisects the Innamincka Dome, suggesting that the drainage network is antecedent to the dome's uplift. The broad floodplain of the Cooper Creek is constricted where it flows through the Dome, increasing the river's stream power and therefore removing the necessity for the river to anabranch. The river becomes single-thread through this reach, and this is the location of several important waterholes. Priority ranking:


o Events and processes: The uplift at the Innamincka Dome has a critical role in controlling the fluvial style in the area. It also governs part of the Cooper Creek's downvalley slope, which promotes the anabranching in the upstream reaches (Windorah to Nappa Merrie). Thus, the influence of this area extends for hundreds of kilometres upstream. In this area, the particularly deep waterholes are critical ecological refugia.

o Principal characteristics of a class: This area has exceptional value in its demonstration of the effect of tectonics on river planform, and therefore the effect of tectonics on present-day ecology.

o Aesthetic: The gibber plains are an iconic Australian landscape. o Social: This is a well-studied area. This part of the Eromanga Basin is

one of Australia's best-developed hydrocarbon provinces, so the underlying geology and geological history is well-documented. In the same area, there is a strong focus of geomorphology research on Cooper


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Creek. The Lake Eyre Basin is a focus of ecological and land-management studies generally. It is also a growing tourist location. The Innamincka Dome and this part of the Eromanga Basin are associated with the work of Reg Sprigg (geologist) and the beginning of the Australian hydrocarbon exploration industry. The surface topography was recognised as an expression of the underlying doming of the Eromanga Basin rocks.


• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology (waterholes), Hydrology (anabranching), Regolith (duricrust, silcrete)

• Cross-reference site: Cooper Creek between Windorah and Innamincka Dome • Comments: Cooper Creek at the Innamincka Dome is an important

combination of several geomorphology themes. It is also the downstream continuation of another proposed site, Cooper Creek between Windorah and Innamincka Dome, which in itself is an important combination of several different geomorphology themes.

Key References Knighton, A.D. & Nanson, G.C. 2000. Waterhole form and process in the anastomosing channel system of Cooper Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 35 (1-2): 101-117.

Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths Descriptor: Monoliths (inselbergs) and uplifted fault bounded uplands. This includes low angle fans associated with the fault line scarps bounding some uplands. Heritage Values: events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; aesthetic; social value; significant people; unusual (world); unusual (Australia).

Current Locations:

• Uluru-Kata Tjuta (Northern Territory)

Potential Locations: • MacDonnell Ranges (Northern Territory) • Flinders Ranges (South Australia) • Barrier Ranges western scarps and associated low angle fans (New South

Wales)

Description: In a relatively low relief landscape, as much of Australia’s arid zone is, the uplands areas of arid Australia are prominent features in the landscape. They are significant also as evidence for the cyclicity of the landscape, the increasing aridity during the Pleistocene and evidence for the tectonic evolution of the central part of the continent. They have been significant in the development of ideas regarding the


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geomorphic evolution of much of Australia, especially the pediment and gibber plains controversies. The effects of differential weathering are seen most clearly on these upland areas. Features such as Uluru and Kata Tjuta are iconic sites for all Australians and are rightly placed on the NH and WH lists for their geomorphic natural values.

Mountains of arid Australia are spectacular features rising above an otherwise flat landscape, even though they are not of great altitude. Foothills are rare so they rise abruptly above the plains. Cliffs are common but the crests are subdued and can represent older land surfaces.

Monoliths (Inselbergs) are single rock masses, sitting in isolation above the surrounding desert plains and are of three types: domed forms (bornhardts), block strewn nubbins (knolls) and small angular castle koppies. An inselberg is an isolated rock hill or ridge that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. The bornhardt is the form from which the other two develop with further weathering and erosion.

Bornhardts are large dome-shaped, steep-sided, bald rock outcroppings at least 30 metres in height and several hundred meters in width. They are composed of a wide range of rocks but are commonly granitic. Bornhardts are seen at their best in arid and semi-arid regions, but occur over a wide range of climates. They are found in diverse topographic settings and they mainly occur in multicyclic landscapes. As residual landforms they are the result of differential erosion and have steep flanks steepened by scarp foot weathering, undermining and collapse. Sheet structures often occur. The less spectacular block nubbins and small angular castle koppies e.g. Devil’s Marbles (NT) are formed by further weathering and erosion and are common in the arid zone.

Intense tectonic activity has resulted in fault bounded uplands such as MacDonnell Ranges, Barrier Ranges and Flinders Ranges. These are prominent landscapes in the arid zone as they are significant areas of elevated and rugged terrain. They show evidence of tectonic movement over long periods of time, but most importantly evidence of relatively recent neotectonic deformation and its influence on the surface topography.

Upland topography results from the dynamic interplay between tectonic forces, climate and erosion and for relief to develop rates of incision must exceed erosion rates on the adjacent summits. In a continent dominated by low flat and old landscapes the upland areas are surprisingly rugged. Regardless of the magnitudes of the tectonic uplift, the development of significant relief is unlikely to have occurred without significant climatic conditions to facilitate fluvial incision.

Over many years the understanding of the upland areas of arid Australia has been part of a significant debate about how a land surface is worn down and how ‘pediments’ are formed. The issue of whether it was back-wearing of slopes or slope retreat that produces pediments and that pediments coalesce to form pediplains is now seen as irrelevant with the recognition that dissimilar geomorphic processes may converge to produce similar landforms. Nevertheless, awareness of the original debate, which is present in the older literature, is necessary if the same sterile discussions are not to be reactivated. From various detailed site studies it became obvious that scarp retreat, if it occurs at all, is negligible relative to surface lowering and no one process is sufficient to explain the evolution and the surface and subsurface characteristics of various low angle surfaces.


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Key References English, P., 1998. Cainozoic geology & hydrogeology of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. AGSO, Department of Primary Industries and Energy.

Quigley, M., Sandiford, M., Fifield, K. & Alimanovic, A., 2007a. Bedrock erosion and relief production in the northern Flinders Ranges, Australia. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 32 (6): 929-944.

Quigley, M.C., Sandiford, M., & Cupper, M.L. 2007b. Distinguishing tectonic from climatic controls on range-front sedimentation Basin Research 19: 491-505.

Thompson, R.B., 1995. A guide to the geology and landforms of central Australia. Northern Territory Geological Survey.

Wakelin-King, G.A., 1989, Geology of Simpsons Gap National Park, NTGS Report 6, Northern Territory. Department of Mines and Energy.

Wasson, R.J., 1979. Sedimentation history of the Mundi Mundi alluvial fans, western New South Wales. Sedimentary Geology 22 (1-2): 21-51. Fig. 13 Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Photo: Esther Beaton. Credit: Director of National Parks. Current NHL and WHL Site: Uluru-Kata Tjuta (Northern Territory)

• Location: Inside the National Park boundary, near the town of Yulara, (-25.2422°, 130.9829°), 335km south-west of Alice Springs.

• Brief description: Uluru is a huge, rounded, red sandstone monolith 9.4 kilometres in circumference rising to a height of over 340 metres above the plain. About 32 kilometres to the west of Uluru lie the 36 steep-sided domes of Kata Tjuta. The domes cover an area of 3 500 hectares with Mount Olga, the highest feature, rising to a height of 500 metres.

• Priority ranking: Addition to existing.


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• Heritage Values: o Events and processes: Uluru is composed of steeply dipping sandstones

exposed as a result of folding, faulting, the erosion of surrounding rock and infill. The monolith has a base circumference of 9.4 km, steep smooth sloping sides rising to about 340m above the plain and a relatively flat top. Major surface features of the rock include: peeling sheet erosion, deep parallel fissures and a number of caves, inlets and overhangs at the base formed by chemical degradation and sand blast erosion. Kata Tjuta, covering about 3500ha, comprises 36 steep-sided rock domes of gently dipping Mount Currie conglomerate. Kata Tjuta tends to have hemispherical summits, near vertical sides, steep-sided intervening valleys and has been exposed by the same process as Uluru. Mt Olga is the highest feature, rising to a height of 500 metres. Soils and sediments derived from the weathered conglomerate are found as isolated pockets on scree slopes and as gently sloping sheetwash aprons and small alluvial fans. The inselbergs are surrounded by sandy areas, including dunes. Surface water is largely restricted to seasonal pools fed by short shallow water courses from the monolith. Defined water-courses do not exist in the dune formations, although swales are moister and ponding may occasionally occur.

o Rarity: there are several inselbergs in arid Australia but Uluru and Kata Tjuta are the most impressive.

o Research: limited research has been undertaken but the processes of formation are well understood.

o Principal characteristics of a class: These are the best known examples. o Social values: The striking geomorphology of Uluru-Kata Tjuta is a

significant component of the tourist industry of the area. o Aesthetic values: Uluru-Kata Tjuta are the most aesthetically impressive

and best known of the Australian monoliths. o Unusual (world): Inselbergs are not rare in the world and are found in

many other arid areas, however Uluru-Kata Tjuta are standout examples and are well known on the world stage.

o Unusual (Australia): Although others exist e.g. Mt Augustus (WA) these are the best known and understood.

o Integrity and authenticity: Despite intense visitor pressure, management has ensured that the site retains its geomorphic integrity.

• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology – Banded Vegetation Potential Site: Western MacDonnell Ranges (Northern Territory)

• Location: The MacDonnell Ranges extend for hundreds of km east and west of Alice Springs. The area outlined here is a rectangle extending west from Alice Springs (-23.69° 133.87°) ~135 km, and is ~73 km in north-south extent. Note this indicates a broad area from which and appropriate site may be selected.

• Brief description: The MacDonnell Ranges are a 644km long series of ranges consisting of parallel ranges running east and west of Alice Springs. The ranges include a series of gaps and gorges, related to fractures, faults, or dykes, e.g. Simpson’s Gap, Stanley Chasm, Ormiston Gorge and Mt Helen Gorge. Folding and faulting during the Alice Springs Orogeny resulted in the sediments of the


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Amadeus Basin having near vertical dips and the prominent east-west strike of the ridges reflects the intense tectonic processes. The influence of evaporite layers on Amadeus Basin geology is well known, however the association between salt tectonic processes and the MacDonnell Ranges geomorphology is as yet untested. The possibility that salt diapir tectonics is a contributing process in the development of the long, narrow folding (which results in the distinctive strike-ridges and strike-valleys that characterise the MacDonnell Ranges) is still under discussion. It is however, a persuasive explanation for some of the differences between the MacDonnell Ranges and other uplands such as the fault-bounded Barrier Range.

Fig. 14 A quartzite ridge in the MacDonnell Ranges, showing the bevelled upper surface. Photo: Michael Jenson.

The ranges have long east-west ridges. Where erosion-resistant lithologies such as quartzite are exposed, steep cliffed scarps and dip slopes shape the hillsides. Many hilltops and ridge crests show a bevelled surface, relating to a previous planation surface. Differential weathering and erosion have accentuated the more and less resistant rocks so that thin hard vertically dipping beds outcrop as rock faces on hill slopes or as free-standing walls of rock trending along the strike. Jointing and faulting are significant in the development of the chasms as the joints and faults have been accentuated by weathering. The multi-colours of the rocks, the result of weathering, accentuate the spectacular cliffs. The ranges are composed of many rock types including metamorphics, limestone, sandstone and siltstone but are most famous for their striking red quartzite which is exposed particularly in the gorges and chasms.


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• Priority ranking: A (currently undergoing NHL listing) • Heritage Values:

o Events and processes: The major geoheritage values relate to the evidence displayed in the rocks and landforms of past climates, mountain building and erosion in the desert. Differential erosion of faulted and folded rocks of variable resistance to weathering processes in a tectonic setting has resulted in a spectacular landscape. The elongated strike oriented ridges dominated the landscape and are cut obliquely by gorges and chasms formed by erosion along joints and faults. The interplay of past climatic weathering regimes, landscape inheritance and landscape rejuvenation is evident in the landscape. The summits of may hills show a concordant planation surface, which indicates past land surfaces.

o Rarity: This type of feature is found in a number of areas but the MacDonnell Ranges are the best known and probably the most spectacular.

o Research: The MacDonnell Ranges have significant potential for research into salt tectonics in the Australian context.

o Principal characteristics of a class: The MacDonnell Ranges demonstrate the major features of strike dominated ranges and valleys in a tectonic upland area.

o Aesthetic: The panoramic landscape is well known for its aesthetic beauty.

o Creative or technical achievement: They are represented in Albert Namatjira’s paintings.

o Significant people: Albert Namatjira used the geomorphology of the area extensively in his paintings.

o Unusual (world); Strike dominated ridge and valleys are not particularly rare or unusual in the world.

o Unusual (Australia:) More unusual in Australia due to the flatter and more eroded nature of the landscape. The potential relationship of the slat tectonics is unusual in the Australian context.

o Integrity and authenticity: In reasonable condition despite feral animals, especially rabbits, and stock overgrazing in some areas. Some areas e.g. Simpson’s Gap have very high visitor numbers which are being managed management.

• Cross-reference themes: Tectonics: salt; Hydrology: megafloods • Cross-reference other sites or areas: Ross-Todd confluence • Comments: The West MacDonnell Ranges may have the best option for

National Heritage Listing as more of the landscape is already under national park management than the East MacDonnells, however both areas should be investigated.

Potential Site: Wilkatana fan complex and associated uplands, central Flinders Ranges (South Australia)

• Location: A rectangle approximatliy 18 km x 15 km, located approximately 12 km northwest from Quorn (-32.3453°, 138.0392°).

• Brief description: An area of prominent resistant quartzite and sandstone hogback ridges with narrow intervening valleys and extensive well developed alluvial fans along the western range front. The more easterly ridges contain broader forms incised into dolomite and shale sequences. Superimposed over


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these are lithologically controlled landforms is a general pattern of broader, u-shaped valleys steeply incised by narrow v-shaped valleys. Up to 600m of relative relief is present between the valley floors and ridgetops.


o Events and processes: At Wilkatana, the Flinders Ranges form part of a N-S trending upland system of prominent quartzite capped ridges and narrow valleys and broad basins. These ranges are formed in strongly deformed NeoProteozoic to Cambrian rocks and present as a series of folds that are reflected in the distinctive strike-ridge dominated topography. Plio-Quaternary coarse sediment alluvial fans flank both the steep and lower angle slopes, particularly along the prominent western fault scarp. These deposits contain evidence of relatively recent neo-tectonic deformation. The prominent strike-ridge and valley topography is related to the post Miocene tectonism (Quigley et al 2007b) with deformed Miocene and Pliocene sediments and associated uplifted older rocks. Numerous landslide scars and scree slopes are present along the range. Front and poorly sorted scree and talus breccias occur at the base of the front over its entire length.

Fig. 15 Incised fans in the Flinders Ranges are similar to the Wilkatana Fans. .Photo: John Baker.


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o Rarity: The Wilkatana alluvial fans and associated fault scarps are some

of the largest and best developed alluvial fans associated with fault scarps in arid Australia. The prominent western range front is one of the steepest and most linear of the fault scarps.

o Research: The site is important in research in distinguishing tectonic from climatic controls on landscape.

o Principal characteristics of a class: This shows the clear relationship between active tectonics, scarp development and fan deposition.

o Unusual (world): Fault bounded uplands are not unusual on a world scale but this is an excellent Australian example.

o Unusual (Australia): These are some of the largest and best developed alluvial fans associated with fault scarps in arid Australia.

o Integrity and authenticity: Despite grazing and problems with feral animas e.g. rabbits, the geomorphological values are retained.

• Cross-reference: Tectonics: faulting • Comments: The Flinders Ranges is a very large area and are best known for

their PreCambrian Ediacaran fossil fauna. However the tectonic upland geomorphology is significant and specific sites need identifying. Other sites may also show heritage values but this site certainly meets many criteria.

Potential Site: Barrier Ranges Mundi Mundi Scarp and associated low angle fans (New South Wales)

• Location: A polygon 38 km north to south, 39 km east to west, with Silverton (-31.8840°, 141.2172°) at the southernmost edge.

• Brief description: The Barrier Ranges are a low set of hills, which are fault bounded on their western, south-eastern and north-eastern margins. The western faulted margin (Mundi Mundi Scarp) is a linear fault scarp with low angle alluvial fans (Umberumberka, Mundi Mundi, and Eldee Fans) which are fed by small streams such as the Umberumberka Creek.


o Events and processes: Linear fault controlled scarp development has resulted in the uplifted western Barrier Ranges to the east contrasting with the lower relief Tarkaroola Basin to the west. The faulting appears to be complex but the surface expression has resulted in a very linear feature. This fault control with valley-in-valley morphology records the early fault movement and the latest period of movement is recorded in dissected pediments remnants, knickpoint and discordant stream junctions down stream of the knickpoint. On the western edge of the scarp are a series of low angle coalescing alluvial fans. The tectonics are probably related to similar movement in the Flinders Ranges on the western edge of the Tarkaroola Basin. The last movement on the Mundi Mundi fault scarp may have been the Pliocene tectonics observed in the Flinders Ranges to the west, but the scarps are expressions of a very long history of vertical tectonic movement in the Barrier Range. Post-European grazing and infrastructure construction has affected the area.

o Rarity: Not extensively reported but may be more common than previously thought.

o Research: Low angle fans have not been reported extensively in the literature but more are being identified in Australia with satellite


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imagery techniques. These however are amongst the best studied, and Umberumberka Fan was the site of an influential study on post-European erosion.

o Principal characteristics of a class: Show clearly the features of scarps and associated fans.

o Unusual (world): Low angle fans have not been reported extensively in the literature and do not appear to be common on a world scale.

o Unusual (Australia): Low angle fans have not been reported extensively in the literature but more are being identified in Australia with satellite imagery techniques.

o Integrity and authenticity: Subjected to heavy grazing but the forms of the fans and the scarps not compromised.

• Cross-reference themes Tectonics; Hydrology – Discontinuous Ephemeral Steams; Hydrology – Post-European channel incision.

• Cross-reference other site: Fowlers Creek • Comment: Although additional examples of such fans are being found, these

are the best studied at the moment.

Regolith: Duricrusts and Weathering Profiles Regolith includes everything at or beneath the ground surface that isn't actually unweathered rock: soil, sediment, duricrusts, weathering profiles, and weathered rock. The history of Australia's regolith is one of long subaerial exposure and intense weathering by previous climates; the results of those processes have been inherited by the present-day landscape, and exposed by present-day aridity. The landscape evolution of almost the entire study area is affected to some degree by the history of its regolith. Because of its complexity and ubiquity in the study area, this broad theme has been broken down into two themes: Regolith-Duricrusts and Regolith-Weathering Profiles.

Regolith – Duricrusts Descriptor: hard planar layers, also gibber plains Heritage Values: (see sub-themes below) Cross-reference (see sub-themes below) Description: Duricrusts are hard or semi-hard mineral layers which have formed as a result of particular conditions of groundwater chemistry. (The name derives from ‘duri’ hard, as in durable.) The most common duricrusts are silcrete (mostly silica), ferricrete (dominated by iron oxides), calcrete (mostly calcium carbonate, calcite), and gypcrete (mostly calcium sulphate, gypsum). (The ‘-crete’ in these names is said to be derived from the word ‘concrete’.) If, in a particular location, the groundwater has high concentrations of particular ions (such as silica, calcium, or iron), and if the rock in which the groundwater sits has appropriate chemistry, then a material will precipitate out, often replacing some or all of the original rock in that location. Duricrusts can be vadose or pedogenic (part of soil-forming processes, deposited in the unsaturated capillary zone), in which case their deposits are often irregular or nodular, or they can


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be phreatic (deposited as part of the saturated groundwater profile) in which case their deposits may be more dense and uniform. Because duricrusts arise from high concentrations of dissolved minerals, they are usually associated with well-developed weathering profiles (silcrete, ferricrete, calcrete), or evaporative concentration around groundwater discharge zones (playa lakes: calcrete, gypcrete). During the 1900s, scientific discussion of duricrusts was strongly influenced by the idea that a single weathering episode was responsible for all duricrusts of a particular type, so that (for example) silcrete outcrops could be correlated across wide landscapes, and be used as a reliable stratigraphic marker. To some extent this was tied in with a parallel debate about planation and landscape evolution (see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths) (e.g. Woolnough 1927). More recent research has discarded this idea in favour of a more realistic view that Australia's long subaerial exposure has resulted in polygenetic weathering profiles resulting in complex regolith patterns (e.g. Anand 2005, Pillans 2005). Key References Anand, R.R. 2005. Weathering History, Landscape evolution, and implications for exploration. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 2-40. Pillans, B., 2005. Geochronology of the Australian regolith. IN: Anand, R.R., & de Broekert, P., (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models. Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia, pp. 41-52. Woolnough, W.G., 1927. Presidential address Part 1, The chemical criteria of peneplain nation; Part 2 The duricrust of Australia. Journal of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 61:1-53.

Silcretes and Stony Deserts Descriptor: hard silica-rich rocks, as coherent layers, or as gibber plains Heritage Values:

• Events and processes: Silcretes and gibber plains have an outstandingly important influence on landscapes in the study area.

• Research: Their potential in elucidating Australia's tectonic and weathering history remains very high, despite the amount of research already done.

• Principal characteristics of a class: The silcretes and gibber plains in the potential locations (see below) are outstanding examples of the class.

• Aesthetic: The gibber plain landscapes and the breakaway country are iconic. • Creative or technical achievement: Silcrete was an important source material

for aboriginal stone tools. • Social: Silcrete has been well-studied, especially with reference to the

palaeoclimate implications of their groundwater chemistry context. • Unusual (world): Australia's stony deserts (the gibber plains) are unlike stony

deserts of the Middle East.


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• Integrity and authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed.

Cross-reference themes: Tectonic (flexure), Hydrology Potential Locations

• Neales Catchment (South Australia) (see Tectonic - flexure) • Cooper Creek at the Innamincka Dome (South Australia, Queensland) (see

Tectonic - flexure) Fig. 15 Silcrete in the Neales Catchment. Photo: Chris Bell. Description: Silcrete is an extremely hard, durable rock. Where a silcrete layer is formed above softer, less resistant rocks in a context of uplift and erosion, the soft rocks are protected by the hard silcrete, forming distinctive flat-top hills (mesas, breakaways, or jump-ups). The mesas and their underlying, often brightly-coloured, weathered profiles are iconic landscapes in the Lake Eyre Basin and in the various opal-mining centres in the study area. Silcretes often occur as dense layers of fist-sized rocks (known as gibber). Gibber plains will also protect the soft underlying rocks from erosion. The widespread distribution and erosion-resistant nature of silcretes and gibber plains contributes substantially to the iconic and gibber plain landscapes of the Lake Eyre Basin, and is also a feature in other arid-zone landscapes. Silcrete exhibits a conchoidal fracture (breaks with a curved surface and a very sharp edge, like glass) and fine-grained silcrete is an exceptionally good material for the manufacture of stone tools. Investigations of Australian silcretes unravelled clues to its conditions of formation from its exceptionally variable and confusing field expression (Langford-Smith 1978), but silcrete's relationships to the broader questions of planation surfaces was more fully developed in later works (e.g. Hill et al. 2003, Anand 2005, Gibson 2005, Thiry et al. 2006). Silcrete, or silica-rich duricrust, can be coeval with calcretes


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in some settings, and with iron-rich duricrusts or ferricretes in others (Arakel 1991, Anand 2005). Key References Anand, R.R. 2005. Weathering History, Landscape evolution, and implications for exploration. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 2-40. Arakel, A.V., 1991. Evolution of Quaternary duricrusts in Karinga Creek drainage system, Central Australian groundwater discharge zone. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 38 (3): 333-347. Gibson, D.L., 2005. Wonnaminta 1:100,000 map sheet, New South Wales. In: Anand, R.R.,& de Broekert, P. (Eds), Regolith Landscape Evolution Across Australia; A Compilation of Regolith Landscape Case Studies with Regolith Landscape Evolution Models. Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp 126-129. Hill, S.M., Eggleton, R.A. & Taylor, G., 2003. Neotectonic disruption of silicified palaeovalley systems in an intraplate, cratonic landscape; regolith and landscape evolution of the Mulculca range-front, Broken Hill Domain, New South Wales. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 50 (5): 691-707. Langford-Smith, T., 1978 (ed), Silcrete in Australia. Department of Geography, University of New England, Armidale. Thiry, M., Milnes, A.R., Rayot, V., Simon-Coincon, R., 2006. Interpretation of palaeoweathering features and successive silicifications in the Tertiary regolith of inland Australia. Journal of the Geological Society of London 163 (4): 723-736.

Gypcrete Descriptor: Gypcrete is soft rock chiefly composed of calcium sulphate (gypsum) Cross-reference themes: Hydrology (playa lakes), Regolith – Weathering Profiles Description: Gypsum is a precipitate from highly-concentrated water rich in calcium and sulphate. It is a component of some weathering profiles, and is particularly associated with the lake floors and margins of playa lakes, where it results from groundwater evolution, sometimes in a situation of co-evolution with other duricrusts (Arakel 1991, Chen et al. 1991, Thiry et al. 2006. and e.g. Jacobson et al. 1988, English 2001). It can occur as gypcrete (a relatively firm surface layer of gypsum) (Chen 1997), as well as various other types of crystal and depositional facies. In particular, some crystal types indicate shoreline or saturated lake sediment depositional environments, and so are important indicators of palaeolake geography. Gypsum is


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important around the bed and margins of Lake Amadeus, Lake Eyre, Lake Gairdner, and other playas. Comments: Gypcrete and other forms of gypsum are not, by themselves, sufficiently prominent landscape elements to rate as natural heritage landscapes. However gypsum is a very important part of Australian playa lakes, and the qualities of any gypsum landforms should be considered in any playa lake considered for geoheritage nomination. Potential Locations:

• Lake Eyre (South Australia) (see Hydrology: playa lakes) Key references: Arakel, A.V., 1991. Evolution of Quaternary duricrusts in Karinga Creek drainage system, Central Australian groundwater discharge zone. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 38 (3): 333-347. Chen, X.Y., 1997. Pedogenic gypcrete formation in arid central Australia. Geoderma 77: 39-61. Chen, X.Y., Bowler, J.M. & Magee. J.W., l99l. Gypsum ground: a new occurrence of gypsum sediment in playas of central Australia. Sedimentary Geology. 72: 79-95. English, P.M., 2001. Lake Lewis basin, central Australia: environmental evolution and OSL chronology. Quaternary International 83–85: 81–101. Jacobson, G., Arakel, A.V. & Yijian, C., 1988. The central Australian groundwater discharge zone: Evolution of associated calcrete and gypcrete deposits. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 35 (4): 549-565. Thiry, M., Milnes, A.R., Rayot, V., Simon-Coincon, R., 2006. Interpretation of palaeoweathering features and successive silicifications in the Tertiary regolith of inland Australia. Journal of the Geological Society of London 163 (4): 723-736.

Calcrete Descriptor: Calcrete is a usually hard rock chiefly composed of calcium carbonate (calcite). Cross-reference: Hydrology (playa lakes), Hydrology (palaeodrainages) Description: Calcrete precipitates from water rich in calcium and carbonate ions. It is a component of many weathering profiles, and is associated with the playa lake and palaeodrainage margins and surrounding countryside. It precipitates during the early stages of groundwater evolution, sometimes in a situation of co-evolution with other duricrusts (Arakel 1991, Chen et al. 2002, Magee 2009). It can occur in a wide variety of types, from lightly calcareous earths to nodular and laminated calcretes (in vadose or pedogenic calcrete), and phreatic or valley calcretes which can be very fine-grained


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and dense. Calcretes may be most visible in the landscape as flat topped land surfaces with steep scarps facing towards the lake around playa lake margins, in which rubbley outcrop is exposed. Some palaeodrainage calcretes are aquifers important to local ecology or pastoral industry, such as the calcretes facing into the playa lakes of the Karinga Creek palaeodrainage (Northern Territory). Calcretes are important in the Lake Amadeus and Lake Lewis areas, as well as other playa lakes. Comments: Calcretes are not, by themselves, sufficiently prominent landscape elements to rate as natural heritage landscapes. However they are very important parts of Australian playa settings and palaeodrainages, and the qualities of any calcrete landforms should be considered in any playa lake or palaeodrainage considered for geoheritage nomination. Potential Locations

• Lake Eyre (South Australia) (see Hydrology: playa lakes) Key References: Arakel, A.V., 1991. Evolution of Quaternary duricrusts in Karinga Creek drainage system, Central Australian groundwater discharge zone. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 38 (3): 333-347. Chen, X.Y., Lintern, M.J. & Roach, I.C.,2002. Calcrete: characteristics, distribution and use in mineral exploration. Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration, CSIRO, Kensington, Western Australia. Magee, J.W., 2009. Palaeovalley Groundwater Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Australia – A Literature Review. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/03, Geoscience Australia, Canberra.

Ferricrete Hard, dark red-brown to black ferruginous duricrusts and ferricretes are a common component of many weathering profiles; they are discussed in Regolith – Weathering.

Regolith –Weathering Profiles Descriptor: What remains when rocks are chemically altered by subaerial exposure. Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; social value; significant people; unusual (world); unusual (Australia). Potential Locations

• Pilbara channel iron (West Australia) • Eastern Goldfields Palaeodrainages (West Australia)

Description: The colours found in deep weathering profiles are a characteristic part of the Australian arid zone. The bright bleached white, ocherous yellows, oranges, and tan browns, and the iron reds, from rich red-brown to a dark red that is almost black,


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are expressed in many location names: White Cliffs (NSW), Rainbow Valley (Northern Territory), Painted Desert (South Australia). Weathering profiles derive from long subaerial exposure under quite different climates to today's (Anand 2005). As such, they extend beyond the study area, from the tropics to Bass Strait. Where they are well exposed in the study area is due in some places to uplift (see Neales Catchment, in Tectonics: flexure). Many of the best exposures are related to mining activities, from the dugouts of the opal country to the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie. Regolith geology is intimately connected to Australia's mining prosperity. Weathering profiles extend to varying depths, depending on local geologic history, but may be ≤200 m deep. West Australia (particularly the Pilbara, Gascoyne, Murchison and Gibson Desert areas) have potentially the greatest length of exposure to weathering. For most of the study area, the deep weathering profiles are concealed below low-relief land surfaces, however they are expressed at the surface as ironstone pebbles ("buckshot gravel" in some parts of the country), ferruginous gravels, ironstones, ferricretes, and dark red iron weathering on other lithologies. A typical lateritic weathering profile was once considered to be ferricrete or ironstone on the top, a red oxidised zone grading down through a mottled zone to a bleached white pallid zone, overlying saprolite (weathered rock). While these elements (ferricrete, ferruginous, mottled, bleached) remain characteristic of deep weathering profiles, the complete picture is much more intricate. Not only is the chemistry of weathering complex and influenced by parent rock and geologic history, but repeated episodes of weathering have occurred while Fig. 16 Lateritic weathering profile exposed in a pit, Eastern Goldfields region. Photo: Pauline English, Geoscience Australia.


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drainage development and sediment transport was taking place: the weathered regolith contains both transported and in situ material. Even the simplest description of regolith geology is beyond the scope of this report. The work of the Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration is summarised in Anand and & de Broekert (2005), and Magee (2009) extensively reviews palaeodrainage weathering profiles. Key References Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), 2005. Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia. Magee, J.W., 2009. Palaeovalley Groundwater Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Australia – A Literature Review. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/03, Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Potential Site: Pilbara channel iron (WA)

• Location: Outcrops occur within a 400 km radius ENE to ESE of where the Panawonnica road meets the highway, near Robe River (-21.5924°, 115.9369°); this point is 130 km south west of Karratha; note this indicates a broad area where there are many interesting locations to be selected from..

• Brief description (Ramanaidou et al. 2003, Killick et al. 2005): Transported ferruginous regolith has been transported and accumulated as pisolitic iron oxides within, and up the hillslopes of, an alluvial valley. Subsequent landscape evolution has weathered away softer material around it (topographic inversion). These deposits are also known as the Robe Pisolite.


o Rarity: There are a number of these preserved palaeodrainage sediments within the described site area, however at least some are currently being mined for their high iron ore value.

o Principal characteristics of a class: These are very valuable demonstrations of the processes by which regolith is weathered, transported, re-cemented, and then exposed by differential erosion.

o Social: These deposits are well-studied, especially by the minerals industry.

o Unusual (world): They are extremely unusual on a world standard o Unusual (Australia): They are unusual on an Australian standard. o Integrity and authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage

values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed. • Cross-reference themes: Hydrology – palaeodrainages; Arid Coast • Comment: This potential site description covers a broad area, from which more

specific locations may be selected. Key References Killick, M.F., Churchward, H.M. & Anand, R.R., 2005. Hamersley Iron Province, Western Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape


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evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 295-299. Ramanaidou, E.R., Morris, R.C. & Horwitz, R.C., 2003. Channel iron deposits of the Hamersley Province, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 50 (5): 669-690. Potential Site: Eastern Goldfields Palaeodrainages (West Australia)

• Location: A circle radius 200 km around Kalgoorlie (-30.7526°, 121.4663°). Note this indicates a broad area where there are many interesting locations to be selected from. Lake Lefroy and Lake Cowan palaeodrainages, (and their surrounding contexts), are among those with the best publicly-available information.

• Description: In the Yilgarn craton, wide alluvial valleys were incised into a very low-relief weathered landscape during the early Tertiary. Channel sands, then other sediments, almost entirely filled the valleys, over a long period of time in a context of long-term weathering. In the present day, the palaeodrainages occur as broad low areas marked by strings of playa lakes and the occurrence of ferricrete, silcrete, and calcrete. The regolith geology is complex. The geological context of this region makes it highly prospective for a number of minerals and mining is a dominant part of the local economy. In addition, the palaeodrainages are potential sources of groundwater (Clarke 1994a, Clarke 1994b, Johnson et al. 2005, Magee 2009).

• Priority ranking : A • Heritage Values:

o Events and processes: The palaeodrainages of the Western Australian craton have outstanding importance to the natural history wherever they occur. They are the fundamental structure upon which the modern land surface and ecosystems are built.

o Research: The palaeodrainages with their polygenetic weathering profiles have yielded only a fraction of the potential information that they contain.

o Principal characteristics of a class: With the present information it is not possible to say which of the palaeodrainages is likely to best represent this type of feature. The West Australian palaeodrainages are likely to have the best-developed weathering profiles, and of these the Eastern goldfields palaeodrainages have the most publicly-available information.

o Social: The palaeodrainages of the Eastern goldfields are the best-studied.

o Unusual (world): These weathered palaeodrainages are extremely unusual on a world scale.


• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology (palaeodrainages). • Comments: This potential site description covers a broad area, from which

more specific locations may be selected. Because of Australia's tectonic


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stability, and the late Cainozoic development of aridity, there are palaeodrainages of one sort or another over large parts of the study area. West Australia's are perhaps the best-known, and most obvious because of their chains of playa lakes. There are less well-documented areas in the Great Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert, and Great Victoria Desert whose geomorphology is also related to palaeodrainages. This very important landform assemblage should be represented on a national register, and there are many palaeodrainages with deep weathering profiles to choose from.

Key References Clarke, J.D.A., 1994a. Evolution of the Lefroy and Cowan palaeodrainage, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41: 55-68. Clarke, J.D.A., 1994b. Geomorphology of the Kambalda region, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41: 229-239. Johnson, C.B. & McQueen, K.G., 2005. Gold-bearing palaeochannel sediments at Gidji, Western Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 284-289. Magee, J.W., 2009. Palaeovalley Groundwater Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Australia – A Literature Review. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/03, Geoscience Australia, Canberra.

Hydrology The hydrology theme includes all landforms associated with moving water across the surface of the land. This sounds like a statement of the obvious, however two landform sub-themes discussed here are not usually recognised as being fluvial because they transmit unchannelled sheetflow: banded vegetation sheetflow plains, and floodouts. Two other landform sub-themes may not be immediately clear to the passer-by because of their age and the scale of their features (megaflood landforms, palaeodrainages). A quantity of water, and a slope for that water to move down, is the usual requirements for a river system to exist. In Australia's inland, both those components are in limited supply. Although there are some areas of locally steep gradients (the Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths), most of the land is very low-gradient. Rainfall is limited, and where watercourses exist they must either be adjusted to a short, intermittent flow pattern, or they must be in a position where they can receive exogenous water (rainfall from outside the arid zone). The fluvial landforms described below have different mechanisms to cope with these limiting factors. Australia's drylands rivers are unusual in terms of the rest of the world. There has been some excellent research done, but because of their remote and difficult locations


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research funding is difficult to acquire, and there is more work yet to be done. There is certainly insufficient recognition of their various special landforms. The landform sub-themes described below are grouped as follows

• Large-scale, old watercourses: palaeodrainages, and megaflood landforms • Present-day watercourses: discontinuous ephemeral streams, low-sinuosity sand

bed rivers, and anabranching rivers • Components of present-day watercourses: mud-aggregate braid plains,

waterholes • Unchannelled watercourses: floodouts, banded vegetation sheetflow plains • Water basins: playa lakes and associated megalake deposits, mound springs • Cultural features: post-European channel incision.

Palaeodrainages Descriptor: Broad approximately linear low-elevation areas often marked by playa lakes Cross-reference: Regolith (Weathering), Regolith (Duricrust), Hydrology (playa lakes) Cross-reference: Existing heritage sites: Uluru -Kata Tjuta National Park Potential Locations: (see Regolith – Weathering)

• Eastern Goldfields Palaeodrainages (Western Australia) • Pilbara channel iron (Western Australia)

Description: Previously these areas were in valleys carrying rivers. Over geological time they have become infilled with sediments. Deep weathering profiles have been developed over them whose surface expression includes ferricretes, calcretes, and gypcretes. With the development of aridity, and because of changes to gradient or local base level or both, many palaeodrainages are now marked by chains of claypans or playa lakes. Other palaeodrainages are buried but not associated with the same degree of weathering and have a different surface expression (for example, the buried palaeodrainage at Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park, English 1998). Palaeodrainages were proposed as an explanation for the occurrence of playa lakes in chains in Western Australia's Yilgarn craton (Van de Graff 1977). Since then palaeodrainages have been recognised in most parts of the study area (see Magee 2009). Heritage Values:

• Events and processes: Palaeodrainages are an extremely important contributor to the present-day landscape over an enormously wide area.

• Rarity: They are not rare, however their outstanding importance (events and processes) is not recognised, so in that sense their position is not secure.

• Research: The sedimentary and weathering history of palaeodrainages across the study area has the potential to yield extremely important information on palaeoclimates. In particular, an important question of climate change is whether climate zones contract, expand, or migrate; data on this is extremely scarce in the inland. Examination of palaeodrainage regolith geology has potential to provide answers. Present knowledge gaps include the Great Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert, and the Great Victoria Desert.


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• Principal characteristics of a class: A wide area is described here. There is insufficient knowledge available to this study to select a particularly characteristic site.

• Social: The palaeodrainages of Western Australia have great economic importance to the country in their resources value, and in their potential as groundwater resources. Their value as the creators of wide swathes of countryside is harder to calculate, but no less important. It is interesting to speculate on the role of these landforms in the internationally recognised art of, for example, Balgo.

• Unusual (world): The landscape development by infilling of shallow palaeodrainages on stable cratons is unusual on a world scale.

• Integrity and authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed.

• Comments: Palaeodrainages are widespread in the study area. An area within which a potential site is likely (the Eastern Goldfields area, see Regolith – Weathering) has been identified, but there may be better or additional sites elsewhere.

Key References English, P., 1998. Cainozoic geology and hydrogeology of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. AGSO (Australian Geological Survey Organisation), Canberra. Magee, J.W., 2009. Palaeovalley Groundwater Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Australia – A Literature Review. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/03, Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Van de Graaff, W.J.E., Crowe, R.W.A., Bunting, J.A. & Jackson, M.J., 1977. Relict early Cainozoic drainages in arid Western Australia. Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie 21 (4): 379-400.

Megaflood landforms Descriptor: Extreme flood events leave permanent marks on the landscape. Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; social value; unusual (world); unusual (Australia); integrity and authenticity. Potential Locations:

• The Ross-Todd Rivers confluence area (Northern Territory) Description: Drylands rivers experience flow variability, and it is not unusual for a river which is dry most of the time to overtop its channels and experience above-floodplain level flow on a regular basis. Flow variability is expressed in terms of event recurrence intervals (e.g. "a one in 20 year flood") or the more technically correct percentage likelihood that a flow of such a level will occur in any given year (e.g. "annual exceedence probability 5%"). Human structures such as bridges are usually designed to withstand a "one in 100 year flood".


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However high-magnitude, low-recurrence interval extreme flood events also occur on timescales measured in centuries and millennia. These floods carve flood channels into the landscape which are later filled by the fluvial deposits of smaller more ordinary flow events. The sediment that they transport is deposited across the landscape in places that are not within the reach of ordinary fluvial processes. Megaflood deposits strongly influence the style and location of ordinary fluvial processes. They provide important information about palaeoclimates and long-term fluvial variability. Recognition of megaflood landforms is critical for the design of infrastructure such as human population centres, or potentially toxic industries (e.g. low-level nuclear waste dumps). In Australia, megaflood research sites include Katherine Gorge, the Finke River, and the Ross and Todd Rivers which flow from the MacDonnell Ranges (Baker et al. 1983, Bourke & Pickup 1999). Likely megaflood landforms are also noted in the Sandover River (Tooth 1999). Key References Baker, V.R., Kochel, R.C., Patton, P.C. & Pickup, G., 1983. Palaeohydrologic analysis of Holocene flood slack-water sediments. IN: Collinson, J.D. & Lewin, J. (eds), Modern and Ancient Fluvial Systems; Special Publications of the International Association of Sedimentologists, 6: pp. 229-239. Bourke, M.C. & Pickup, G., 1999. Fluvial form variability in arid central Australia. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 249-271. Potential Site: Ross-Todd Confluence Area (Northern Territory)

• Location: An irregular area extending ~11.5 km south, and ~15 km southeast, from where Ross River goes through a gap in the ranges (-23.7019°, 134.4983°), which is ~63 km east of Alice Springs.

• Description: The Ross-Todd confluence is an area where two sand-bed rivers join (the Todd and Ross Rivers), just south of where the Ross River emerges from the MacDonnell Ranges. Three extreme floods have taken place in this area. Firstly, a 10 km wide flood covered the entire floodplain, depositing low-amplitude transverse bars which are still present today (these are referred to on the webpages of fluvial geomorphologist Geoff Pickup as megaripples, but this phrase is technically ambiguous). Later, between 1500 and 750 years ago, other floods created a braided palaeochannel more than three times the width of the modern river (Patton et al. 1993). Where megafloods carve channels, smaller flows operate within those spaces. Where megafloods leave deposits, smaller flows are unable to materially affect those deposits, and so must work around them. Thus the present-day river and its associated landforms have developed within the context of the megaflood landforms. In this way, sand-bed rivers develop a hierarchy of landforms with variable surface morphology and complex subsurface sedimentary relationships (Bourke & Pickup 1999). Low-sinuosity sand-bed rivers occupy a special place in the technical literature on fluvial process, as being a response to coarse sediment, low stream power, and low gradient (e.g. Schumm 1977). However, because such rivers are uncommon in the rest of the world, they are given relatively brief treatment.



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o Events and processes: The megaflood creates the context within which the modern river, and the mosaic of associated floodplain deposits, operate. The sand bed river is an extremely important type of river.

o Rarity: The megaflood landforms truncated alluvial fan toes and the field of transverse bedforms are either extremely rare, or have not been recognised elsewhere. The field of transverse bedforms is vulnerable to erosion such as may occur by inappropriate land use, drought, or fire. As a group, the heritage value of sand-bed rivers is not presently recognised, and in that sense they are vulnerable.

o Research: The megaflood deposits will provide an important record of long-term flow variability, significant both for the planning of human infrastructure, and for understanding the nature of the Australian climate and climate change. The sand-bed rivers have substantial potential to yield more information which is relevant to sustainable land management. In addition, low-sinuosity sand-bed rivers occupy a special place in the technical literature on fluvial process as being a response to coarse sediment, low stream power, and low gradient (e.g. Schumm 1977).

o Principal characteristics of a class: The megaflood deposits are an outstanding example of the type. Any of the sand-bed rivers would be very good examples of the type.

o Aesthetic: Sand-bed rivers have a strong aesthetic attraction for visitors and residents of central Australia.

o Significant people: Sand bed rivers are part of the landscapes painted by Albert Namatjira

o Unusual (world): The megaflood landforms are unusual on a world scale.

o Integrity, authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed.

• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology – sand-bed rivers. • Cross-reference other sites or areas: MacDonnell Ranges.

Key References Baker, V.R., Kochel, R.C., Patton, P.C. & Pickup, G., 1983. Palaeohydrologic analysis of Holocene flood slack-water sediments. IN: Collinson, J.D. & Lewin, J. (eds), Modern and Ancient Fluvial Systems; Special Publications of the International Association of Sedimentologists, 6: pp. 229-239. Bourke, M.C. & Pickup, G., 1999. Fluvial form variability in arid central Australia. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 249-271. Patton, P.C., Pickup, G. & Price, D.M., 1993. Holocene paleofloods of the Ross River, central Australia. Quaternary Research 40 (2): 201-212. Schumm, S.A., 1977. The Fluvial System. John Wylie & Sons, New York.


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Discontinuous ephemeral streams Descriptor: Small dry creeks, which include both channelled and unchannelled reaches Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; social value; integrity and authenticity. Potential Locations

• Fowlers Creek (Barrier Range NSW) Description: Small (<70 km in length, approximately) dry creeks are characteristic of many parts of rangeland Australia. Where rainfall is episodic but sometimes occurs in short high-intensity bursts, sediments scoured from a channel may be transported only a short distance before being redeposited (Pickup 1988). Usually the channel is large compared to the amount of sediment transported, and sediment is deposited in-channel. Where the channel is small, or terminates, a sediment lobe will be deposited at the channel's downstream end: this is a floodout (see Hydrology: floodouts). The creek system as a whole then consists of an upstream reach often characterised by erosion, a central reach with an established channel, and a downstream unchannelled reach. Systems such as this in Australia have been described as erosion cells (Pickup 1991), and in the western USA chains of erosion cells have been described as discontinuous ephemeral streams (Bull 1997). Such streams are maintained by a self-reinforcing feedback systems, promoting either aggradation (and floodout maintenance) or channel entrenchment, depending on the balance between stream power and valley-floor Fig. 18 A lower-order channel in the part of Fowlers Creek that operates as discontinuous ephemeral streams. 1 m scale (arrowed). Photo: Gresley Wakelin-King.


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strength along the flow path (Wakelin-King & Webb 2007a). Discontinuous ephemeral streams can occur within different landscape contexts, including low, regolith-covered hills such as the Barrier Range, and drainage lines extending out from range fronts and into flat depositional plains. The unchannelled reaches (floodouts) of erosion cells and discontinuous ephemeral streams are ecologically valuable because they are likely to be well-vegetated, and may retain water when the rest of the area is in drought. Fowlers Creek crosses a significant geological fault at the eastern Barrier Range. The hillslopes surrounding the upstream reaches demonstrate a significant type of banded vegetation (stony gilgai) which is characteristic of some parts of western New South Wales, and that is itself ecologically important. Key References Bull, W.B., 1997. Discontinuous ephemeral streams. Geomorphology 19:227-276. Dunkerley, D.L. 1992. Channel geometry, bed material, and inferred flow conditions in ephemeral stream systems, Barrier Range, western N.S.W., Australia. Hydrological Processes, 6: 417-433. Graeme, D. & Dunkerley, D.L. 1993. Hydraulic resistance by the River Red Gum, Eucalyptus camaldulesis, in ephemeral desert streams. Australian Geographical Studies, 31: 141-154. Pickup, G., 1988. Modelling arid zone soil erosion at the regional scale. IN: Warner, R.F. (ed), Fluvial Geomorphology of Australia. Academic Press, Sydney, pp. 105-127. Pickup, G., 1991. Event frequency and landscape stability on the floodplain systems of arid central Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 10 (5): 463-473. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007a. Threshold-dominated fluvial styles in an arid-zone mud-aggregate river: the uplands of Fowlers Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 85 (1-2): 114-127. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007b. Upper-flow-regime mud floodplains, lower-flow-regime sand channels: sediment transport and deposition in a drylands mud-aggregate river. Journal of Sedimentary Research 77: 702–712. Potential Site: Fowlers Creek (NSW)

• Location: The catchment of Fowlers Creek extends 54 km, close to the centre is the point where the Silver City Highway crosses Fowlers Creek (-31.0884°, 141.7105°), in the Fowlers Gap Research Station; this point being 100 km ENE from Broken Hill, New South Wales.

• Description: Fowlers Creek extends from the Barrier Range into the Bancannia Plain. Its central reaches cross the Fowlers Gap Research Station, currently owned by the University of New South Wales. It is consequently one of the best-researched arid zone rivers in Australia, with local research projects including fluvial process (e.g. Dunkerley 1992), hillslope processes, vegetation, soil, aeolian deposits, pre- and post European history, and a range of ecological investigations. Fowlers Creek exhibits several different fluvial styles, including discontinuous ephemeral streams (with tributary-confluence intermediate floodouts) in its lower-order reaches, anabranching in its central reaches, and


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terminal floodout in the Bancannia Plain. Its sediment load is dominated by mud aggregates (of the red-clay vertisol type), imparting some unusual flow characteristics (Wakelin-King & Webb 2007b). Its sedimentary record demonstrates important points about pre-European landscape evolution. It was an important location in early post-European exploration and development of the grazing industry, and the site of influential research into recent landscape change (see Hydrology: post-European channel incision).


o Events and processes: The discontinuous creeks and tributary-confluence floodouts are extremely important to the local landscape development, and the floodouts are also extremely valuable ecological refugia.

o Rarity: There are only two examples of mud-aggregate fluvial systems described in the literature. The other is Cooper Creek, which differs in many respects from Fowlers Creek. The geomorphology of the central anabranching reaches is differs in many respects from other described anabranching rivers. In the upstream reaches, the discontinuous ephemeral streams with intermediate floodouts are not rare, however many are currently threatened by channel-floor incision resulting from early styles of grazing management. The discontinuous ephemeral streams and their floodouts are not recognised for their particular values in any reserve system.

o Research: Fowlers Creek has great potential to increase our knowledge of arid zone fluvial processes and Quaternary climatic history. It also has great importance as a research area in which the dialogue on the process, nature, and extent of post-European change is being developed. It is one of only two modern analogues for the lithology massive mudrock, which is important in the geological record.

o Principal characteristics of a class: The discontinuous ephemeral streams, and the stony gilgai banded vegetation, are good examples of the type.

o Social: Fowlers Creek is extremely important to the research community, as a place where independent research topics address overlapping themes and geographies, to the benefit of all. This is an almost unique situation in the arid zone.

o Unusual (world): Some aspects of this river catchment are unusual on a world standard.

o Integrity and authenticity: Some of the attributes contributing to its heritage values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed (its mud aggregate nature, anabranches). Some are threatened by developing erosion, however that is an aspect which makes this area an important research site.

• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology – anabranching; Hydrology – floodouts; Hydrology – post-European channel incision; Hydrology – banded vegetation; Vertisols.

• Cross-reference other sites or areas: Mundi Mundi scarp, Barrier Ranges (see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths)

• Comments: The discontinuous ephemeral streams are widespread landscape form, but its heritage value is presently unrecognised.


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Low-sinuosity sand-bed rivers Descriptor: Wide, relatively shallow sandy river beds Heritage Values: Events and processes; research; principal characteristics of a class; aesthetic; social value; significant people; unusual (world); integrity and authenticity. Cross-reference: Sand; Hydrology – megafloods; Hydrology – floodouts; Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths. Potential Locations

• The Ross-Todd River confluence (see Hydrology – megafloods) • Simpson Desert Floodouts (see Hydrology – Floodouts) • MacDonnell Ranges (see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths)

Description: Sand-bed rivers are characteristic of central Australia, and include those that arise from the MacDonnell Ranges (the Todd, Hale, Plenty, Finke, Hay and others) or those in the Northern Plains (the Sandover, Bundey, Woodforde and others). The flat white sandy and gravelly riverbeds, shaded by River Red Gums, stand out against the orange-red of the nearby rocks and floodplains. They are a big part of the tourist and local experience. They are wide and shallow and from above, they are typically single-channel, with a nearly straight or a gently curved planform. This configuration is a response to low slope and relatively coarse sediment; it makes the best use of the limited stream power to transport the bedload. In fluvial process studies, low-sinuosity rivers are associated with low slope, low stream power, and low capacity for sediment Fig. 19 Riverbed in Trephina Gorge. Photo: Gresley Wakelin-King


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transport (Tooth 2000). In the past, sand bed rivers were considered to be typical of deserts (e.g. Mabbutt 1977), however this is probably an oversimplification on a world scale, and certainly underestimates the diversity of Australian drylands rivers (this document, and see Tooth 2000). Appearing deceptively simple on the surface, the flat bedding can be a response to a variety of flow conditions (Wakelin-King & Webb 2007b), while the fluvial architecture of the depositional units can be very complex (Bourke & Pickup 1999). Sand-bed rivers (like other rivers) very their planform in response to changing conditions, for example flooding out with downstream decreases in discharge, or developing anabranching when a tributary brings in increased moisture and sediment (Mabbutt 1977, Tooth 1999, Tooth & Nanson 2004). Central Australian rivers which once drained into the north of Lake Eyre (Craddock et al. 2010) now flood out spectacularly amongst the dunes of the Simpson Desert (see Sand). Key references Bourke, M.C. & Pickup, G., 1999. Fluvial form variability in arid central Australia. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 249-271. Craddock, R.A., Hutchinson, M.F. & Stein, J.A., 2010. Topographic data reveal a buried fluvial landscape in the Simpson Desert, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 57 (1): 141-149. Mabbutt, J.A., 1977. Desert Landforms (An Introduction to Systematic Geomorphology: 2). Australian National University Press, Canberra. Tooth, S., 1999. Floodouts in central Australia. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A., (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 219-247. Tooth, S., 2000. Process, form and change in dryland rivers; a review of recent research. Earth-Science Reviews 51 (1-4): 67-107. Tooth, S. & Nanson, G.C., 2004. Forms and processes of two highly contrasting rivers in arid central Australia, and the implications for channel-pattern discrimination and prediction. Geological Society of America Bulletin 116 (7-8): 802-816. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007b. Upper-flow-regime mud floodplains, lower-flow-regime sand channels: sediment transport and deposition in a drylands mud-aggregate river. Journal of Sedimentary Research 77: 702–712.

Anabranching Rivers Descriptor: Multi-thread rivers, in which each channel is hydraulically independent and separated by stable, floodplain-height vegetated bars. Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; aesthetic; social value; significant people; unusual (world); unusual (Australia) ; integrity and authenticity.


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Potential Locations: • Cooper Creek from Windorah to Innamincka Dome (Queensland, South

Australia) • Neales River Catchment (see Tectonic – flexure) • Fowlers Creek (NSW) (see Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams)

Description: Anabranching is one of the possible fluvial responses to Australia's flat, dry inland. Stream power is low where the river gradient is low or the discharge is small. In such a situation, dividing a given discharge of water into several channels increases the stream power in each channel, allowing a greater grain size and/or amount of sediment to be transported (Nanson & Huang 1999). Anabranching occurs in a number of places in Australia, including Fowlers Creek, the Neales Catchment, and the northern plains of central Australia (Nanson & Knighton 1996, Tooth & Nanson 1999). Outside the present study area, significant anabranching occurs in rivers of the Macquarie fan (e.g. Thoms et al. 2006), and the Murray River. Within the study area, the most extensive and spectacular examples occur in the Channel Country of the Lake Eyre Basin: the Georgina and Diamantina Rivers, and Cooper Creek. These river systems are characterised by very wide floodplains, across which extends a network of anabranching channels. The anabranch channels contain waterholes which are critically important to the region's ecosystems and water table, and which provide important information about flow conditions (see Hydrology – Waterholes). The wide floodplains are also characterised by a shallow network of braided channels carrying mud-aggregate sediments (see Hydrology – Braided mud aggregate river). Key references Nanson, G.C., Young, R.W., Price, D.M. & Rust, B.R., 1988. Stratigraphy, sedimentology and late-Quaternary chronology of the Channel Country of western Queensland. In: Warner, R.F. (ed.), Fluvial Geomorphology of Australia. Academic Press, Sydney; pp. 151–175. Nanson, G.C. & Huang, H.Q., 1999. Anabranching rivers; divided efficiency leading to fluvial diversity. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 477-494. Nanson, G.C. & Knighton, A.D., 1996. Anabranching rivers; their cause, character and classification. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 21: 217-239. Nanson, G.C. & Tooth, S., 1999. Arid-zone rivers as indicators of climate change. IN: Singhvi, A.K. & Derbyshire, E. (eds), Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction in Arid Lands. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 175-216. Thoms, M.C., Beyer, P.J. & Rogers, K.H., 2006. Variability, complexity and diversity; the geomorphology of river ecosystems in dryland regions. IN: Kingsford, R., (ed), Ecology of desert rivers, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 47-75. Tooth, S. & Nanson, G.C., 2000. Equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions in dryland rivers. Physical Geography 21 (3): 183-211. Potential Site: Cooper Creek from Windorah to the Innamincka Dome (Queensland, South Australia)


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• Location: Cooper Creek from Windorah (-25.4218° 142.6553°) to a location ~50 km upstream from Innamincka (141.2365° -27.5959°)

• Description: Cooper Creek is, for Australia, an extremely large river (>1000 km long). Its headwaters are up north in the vertisol plains, and it extends southwest and west to enter Lake Eyre. It traverses some of Australia's driest country, but its headwaters are in a climate zone which can receive substantial rain. Flow is extremely variable (Knighton & Nanson 2001), but in a good (usually La Niña) year, the river in flood can occupy the entire floodplain, and the flood front can take months to reach its end. Between Windorah and Innamincka Dome, Cooper Creek occupies a very broad floodplain, whose sediments are dominantly mud aggregates which can be transported as bedload. During flooding, overbank flow is carried in braided channels (see Hydrology: braided mud-aggregate river). The main channels of the Cooper are a completely different fluvial style: narrower and deeper, linked as anabranches, and containing many waterholes (Nanson et al. 1988, Nanson & Tooth 1999) (see Hydrology: waterholes). Other Channel Country rivers have most of these properties to some extent, however to some extent Channel Country rivers should be viewed as a group together as they are geographically and causally linked. Of the Channel Country rivers, Cooper Creek is an excellent example, and is by far the best studied.

Fig. 20 Cooper Creek’s anabranching channels (larger channels with waterholes are set into a floodplain which is marked with the flow patterns of the mud-aggregate braids. Photo: Gerald Nanson.


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o Events and processes: Cooper Creek from Windorah to Innamincka Dome is of outstanding importance to Australian natural history. Its anabranches and waterholes govern water distribution and therefore ecology; water distribution also governs the disposition of the mud aggregate braidplain (see Hydrology: braided mud-aggregate river).

o Rarity: The width of floodplain and scale of anabranching in the Channel Country rivers, and in particular at this site is extremely uncommon. The close association between the Cooper's upper reaches and the Barkly tableland vertisols leads to the mud-aggregate braidplain, which is also extremely uncommon.

o Research: This site's surface processes continue to yield important information about the hydrology of drylands rivers. Its sedimentary record continues to yield important information about Quaternary climate history. It is one of only two modern analogues (and by far the best-known) for the lithology massive mudrock, which is important in the geological record, especially in hydrocarbon provinces.

o Principal characteristics of a class: Cooper Creek from Windorah to Innamincka Dome is a outstandingly good example of anabranching and waterholes. Its mud aggregate floodplain, combining both braiding and gilgai, is outstanding also.

o Aesthetic: The channel country has strong aesthetic appeal, and is linked to not only the history of Australian pastoral development, but also the songs and stories Australians tell about themselves (for example, the song "Diamantina Drover", or the Longreach Stockman's Hall of Fame. (Also see Hydrology: waterholes).

o Social: All the channel country rivers are spectacular, however Cooper Creek has been a particular focus of research, especially by the Nanson group at the University of Wollongong. This research group links processes and Quaternary history of Cooper Creek with other research into its neighbouring regions the Simpson/Strzelecki deserts, and Lake Eyre.

o Unusual (world): This site is unique on a world scale. o Unusual (Australia): This site is outstandingly unusual on an Australian

scale. o Integrity, authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage values

are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed. • Cross-reference themes: Vertisols; Hydrology – Braided mud aggregate rivers;

Hydrology –Waterholes • Cross-reference other sites or areas: Cooper Creek at the Innamincka Dome

Braided mud-aggregate rivers Descriptor: mud-aggregate sediments transported as bedload, deposited in a braidplain Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; social value; unusual (world); unusual (Australia); integrity and authenticity.


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Cross-reference themes: Vertisols; Hydrology –Anabranching rivers; Hydrology –Waterholes Potential Locations

• Cooper Creek between Windorah and Innamincka Dome (Queensland, South Australia) (see Hydrology – Anabranching Rivers)

• Fowlers Creek (NSW) (see Hydrology – Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams) Description: In textbooks of geology and geomorphology, fine sediments (mud) in fluvial transport are supposed to behave in a certain way related to their fine grain size: they are supposed to be transported as suspended load, and deposited in very low-energy conditions. However mud aggregates, such as are formed from self-mulching vertisols, are robust and capable of being transported and deposited in moderate to moderately high energy fluvial conditions (Maroulis & Nanson 1996, Wakelin-King & Webb 2007b). The first observations of this mode of sediment behaviour, from Cooper Creek, were only recently brought to the attention of the geological community (e.g. Nanson et al. 1986), and were received with interest and astonishment. Although massive mudrocks (now known to be created by mud aggregates) are well-known in the rock record, including important stratigraphic and hydrocarbon-seal units, modern analogues which can be used to study these important rocks were until recently undocumented. There are only two in the world currently described in the literature: Cooper Creek is by far the best known and best-studied, and also Fowlers Creek. Of these, Fowlers Creek mud aggregate deposits accumulate in the context of discontinuous ephemeral streams (see Hydrology: discontinuous ephemeral streams). Cooper Creek mud aggregate sediments occur in a complex assemblage of landforms, which includes gilgai and a braidplain. Their arrangement across the floodplain is dictated by flood frequency (Fagan & Nanson 2004). The braidplain coexists with a completely different fluvial style (deep, anabranching channels) in a way that may be unique on a world scale. (Note that similar landforms and associations occur in other Channel Country rivers, however all these rivers are geographically and causally closely linked. They are best viewed as a single entity, of which Cooper Creek is the best-studied and most well-known example.) Key references Fagan, S.D. & Nanson, G.C., 2004. The morphology and formation of floodplain-surface channels, Cooper Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 60 (1-2): 107-126. Maroulis, J.C. & Nanson, G.C., 1996. Bedload transport of aggregated muddy alluvium from Cooper Creek, central Australia; a flume study. Sedimentology 43 (5): 771-790. Nanson, G.C., Rust, B.R. & Taylor, G., 1986. Coexistent mud braids and anastomosing channels in an arid-zone river; Cooper Creek, central Australia. Geology (Boulder) 14 (2): 175-178. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007b. Upper-flow-regime mud floodplains, lower-flow-regime sand channels: sediment transport and deposition in a drylands mud-aggregate river. Journal of Sedimentary Research 77: 702–712.


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Waterholes Descriptor: Channel segments, deep compared to nearby channels, which retain water. Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; aesthetic; creative or technical achievement; social value; significant people; unusual (world) ; integrity and authenticity. Cross-reference Hydrology –Anabranching rivers; Hydrology – Mud-aggregate braidplain; Tectonics Potential Locations

• Cooper Creek between Windorah and Innamincka Dome (Queensland, South Australia) (see Hydrology – Anabranching Rivers)

• Cooper Creek at the Innamincka Dome (Queensland, South Australia) (see Tectonics – flexure)

• Neales River Catchment (South Australia) (see Tectonics – flexure) Description: Waterholes are parts of the channel which are notably deeper (and usually a little bit wider) than the upstream and downstream continuations of the same channel, and/or than other nearby channels. Waterholes are often marked by dense riparian vegetation, including gum trees, making them visible from a distance and from above (aerial photographs, Google Earth). Waterhole formation appears to be linked to local increases in stream power in particular river reaches, and during flood-level flow Fig. 21 Algebuckina Waterhole, in the Neales River. Photo: Gresley Wakelin-King.


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the hydrodynamic conditions act to scour out the waterholes (Knighton & Nanson 2000). Waterholes are critically important ecological refugia, not only for the riparian vegetation but also for the aquatic fauna which persist in refuge waterholes when the rest of the river system has dried out. In the Lake Eyre Basin, under current climatic conditions, waterholes need to be a minimum of ~four meters deep to avoid drying out between major flow events (Costelloe 2010). The refuge qualities of waterholes can be threatened by silting-up which may occur when erosion at the banks is accompanied by gullying across the floodplain, or by flow modification (flood control, major water extraction) which reduces flood size or frequency, or by the removal of riparian vegetation which interferes with flood-driven waterhole scouring processes (Wakelin-King 2011). Waterholes are associated with the development of Australia's pastoral industry, and are closely linked to enduring images of early Australia: the swagman, the songs Diamantina Drover and Waltzing Matilda. Undoubtedly waterholes were also highly significant in pre-European Australia. Key references: Costelloe J.F., 2010 (unpublished). Critical Refugia project – hydrology final report. Report to the South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resource Management Board, for the Caring For Our Country Program 2009/10, Adelaide, October 2010. Knighton, A.D. & Nanson, G.C. 2000. Waterhole form and process in the anastomosing channel system of Cooper Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 35 (1-2): 101-117. Wakelin-King, G.A., 2011. Geomorphological assessment and analysis of the Neales Catchment: A report to the South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board. Wakelin Associates, Melbourne. 128pp., 2 maps.

Banded vegetation sheetflow plains Descriptor: Gently-sloping plains, carrying unchannelled sheetflow, marked by vegetation banding which is usually contour-parallel Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; aesthetic; social value; unusual (world) ; integrity and authenticity. Potential Locations – one or more from:

• Mulga grove country in the Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park (see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths)

• Mulga grove country in the Burt Plain IBRA region (Northern Territory) • Mulga grove country in the Murchison and Gascoyne IBRA Regions,

especially between Wiluna (120.2254°, -26.5999°) and Meekatharra (118.4914° -26.5981°) (Western Australia) (see Regolith: Weathering Profiles, and Hydrology: Palaeodrainages)

• Stony gilgai and Mitchell grass banding in the Barrier Range, near Broken Hill (NSW) (see Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths)

• Stony gilgai in the Fowlers Creek area (NSW) (see Hydrology: Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams)


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Description: Banded vegetation (also known as tiger bush, or vegetation mosaic) is the visible expression of a landform which is almost never recognised by management theory as a hydrological entity; sheetflow slopes. In these, water moves downslope as unchannelled flow and is alternately shed from the bare areas, and trapped and retained in the vegetated bands and patches. It is a biophysical response to water-limited ecologies: greater biological productivity is possible with the vegetation segregated in this way, in comparison to if the vegetation was distributed evenly (Wakelin-King 1999). Banded vegetation occurs where there is a gentle slope and some degree of clay in the soil; it is strongly associated with vertisols and gilgai (such as banded Mitchell Grass plains, or stony gilgai chenopod plains, both in the Barrier Range near Broken Hill, Dunkerley & Brown 1995, 1999). Microtopography is an important part of the physical process: often the unvegetated areas appear steeper than the vegetated bands, although the truth is more complex (Dunkerley & Brown 1995, 1999). It is also found in red-earth soils, such as in the Burt Plain (Northern Territory), or in Western Australia (Mabbutt & Fanning 1987, Dunkerley 2002b). Banded vegetation, encouraging infiltration, may play a significant role in local water table recharge, and can be an important habitat (English 1998). Because of the wide variety of forms in which it occurs, its widespread distribution throughout the study area, and the relatively few places in which it has been studied as a landform, it is not possible in this report to identify specific sites of potential heritage value. Nonetheless it is a critically important and totally unprotected landform. It is possible that banded vegetation may be best protected as an additional landform of heritage value where it occurs within other sites (see potential sites list above). The potential site information below considers the heritage values of banded vegetation as a class. These heritage values may be applied to any particular instance of banded vegetation which is considered as a site in its own right, or as part of another site. Key references Dunkerley, D.L., 2002b. Infiltration rates and soil moisture in a groved Mulga community near Alice Springs, arid central Australia: evidence for complex internal rainwater redistribution in a runoff–runon landscape. Journal of Arid Environments 51, 199–219. Dunkerley, D.L. & Brown, K.J. 1995. Runoff and runon areas in a patterned chenopod shrubland, arid western New South Wales, Australia: characteristics and origin. Journal of Arid Environments 30: 41–55. Dunkerley, D.L. & Brown, K.J. 1999. Banded vegetation near Broken Hill, Australia: significance of surface roughness and soil physical properties. Catena 37: 75–88. English, P., 1998. Cainozoic geology & hydrogeology of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. AGSO. Mabbutt J.A. & Fanning P.C., 1987. Vegetation banding in arid Western Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 12: 41–59. Wakelin-King, G.A., 1999. Banded mosaic (‘tiger bush’) and sheetflow plains: a regional mapping approach. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 46: 53–60.


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Potential Sites (see list above: no specific locations are considered here) • Description: This potential site information considers the heritage values of

banded vegetation as a class, and may be applied to any particular instance of banded vegetation which is considered as a site in its own right, or as part of another site. Banded vegetation sheetflow plains are landforms in which water transmission takes place as unchannelled sheetflow. In a low-gradient setting with clayey or loamy soils the ecological response to limited moisture is often alternate bands with and without vegetation.


o Events and processes: Banded vegetation is of outstanding importance to the Australian landscape, as the principal landform for intercepting and managing runoff rainfall. It is of outstanding importance as the ecological response to physical conditions.

o Rarity: banded vegetation is the dominant landscape form in many parts of the study area. It is not recognised in management practice as a water-carrying landform, so can be quite vulnerable to erosion, resulting from certain types of land management and infrastructure development (earthworks, dams, culverts, or heavy grazing pressure). Its heritage values are not currently recognised or protected.

o Research: Banded vegetation occurs in a very wide variety of forms and geological contexts. Its potential information on processes of biophysical interaction in general, and site-specific ecological relationships in particular, is largely untapped.

o Principal characteristics of a class: The best example of banded vegetation will be an area showing relatively little post-European modification.

o Unusual (world): Because of its association with vertisols, banded vegetation is not widely reported from other parts of the world, except parts of Africa (see Vertisols).

o Integrity, authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage values are, as far as is known, undisputed. In some parts of Australia the integrity of banded vegetation landforms are threatened by infrastructure development and land management practices.

• Cross-reference themes: Vertisols • Comments: Mulga grove banded vegetation is strongly associated with the Burt

Plain IBRA region but is also prominent in other landscapes.

Floodouts Descriptor: Unchannelled (or largely unchannelled) reaches of a river, in which water travels as sheetflow across a continuous floodplain. Heritage Values: Events and processes; rarity; research; principal characteristics of a class; social value; significant people; unusual (world); unusual (Australia); integrity and authenticity.. Potential Locations

• Simpson Desert floodouts (Northern Territory)


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• Northern Plains floodouts (Northern Territory) • Neales Catchment (South Australia) (see Tectonics: flexure) • Fowlers Creek (NSW) (see Hydrology: Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams)

Description: Floodouts occur where a river's capacity to transport sediment declines to the point where the channel ceases to exist and water spreads out either as sheetflow, or as a network of small distributary channels. Some floodouts occur where the drainage terminates, for example where the central Australian sand-bed rivers flood out amongst the Simpson Desert sand dunes. Some floodouts occur in mid-drainage line, such that there is an unchannelled reach separating two channelled reaches (intermediate floodouts, Tooth 1999). Floodouts can occur on a range of scales from large (the Sandover-Bundy system, in the Northern Plains of central Australia, e.g. Tooth 2005) to small (such as the tributary-confluence floodouts in Fowlers Creek, Wakelin-King & Webb 2007a). This drainage discontinuity, in combination with the generally unchannelled nature of the flow, means that floodouts are frequently not recognised as a fluvial landform. This has land management consequences. Floodouts are extremely important mediators of erosion. They are drought refugia, and part of a fluvial process which retains water on floodplains (and therefore perform critical ecological services). As reliable sources of feed and water, they have been important in Australia's post-European history (explorers and pastoral development), and there is undoubtedly an important pre-European story as well. This is a widespread and critically important landform which is not currently protected for its geomorphic heritage values. Floodouts are widespread and occur in a wide variety of types and scales. Four potential locations are listed above and described in this report, however it is possible that floodouts of greater heritage value are yet to be described. Key references Tooth, S., 1999. Floodouts in central Australia. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A., (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 219-247. Tooth, S., 2005. Splay formation along the lower reaches of ephemeral rivers on the Northern Plains of arid central Australia. Journal of Sedimentary Research 75 (4): 636-649. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007a. Threshold-dominated fluvial styles in an arid-zone mud-aggregate river: the uplands of Fowlers Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 85 (1-2): 114-127. Potential Site: Simpson Desert Floodouts (Northern Territory)

• Simpson Desert Floodouts: A broad area ~250 km in north-south extent, ~200 km in east-west extent, and covering only those areas where the rivers flood out into the interdune corridors. The northern corner is ~235 km northeast of Alice Springs (-23.69° 133.87°).Within this area the Hay, Plenty, Hale, Illogwa, and Todd Rivers flood out in the Simpson Desert. Note this indicates a broad area where there are many interesting locations to be selected from. Description:



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o Events and processes: The floodouts play an outstandingly important role in the Simpson Desert, recharging local groundwater and local ecology during good years.

o Rarity: The floodouts as a group are uncommon on an Australian scale. o Research: Floodouts sediments, and their interaction with aeolian

sediments, have outstanding potential to reveal information about Australia's climatic history in an area where the information is otherwise sparse. This information is critically important for understanding future climate change.

o Principal characteristics of a class: The Simpson Desert floodouts are an outstanding example of floodouts into interdune corridors. Within the group there are several floodouts. In this report, there is insufficient information to establish whether any particular river's floodout is a better example than the others.

o Aesthetic: The vegetated interdune corridors which receive the last floodwaters of central Australia's sand-bed rivers are extremely beautiful, particularly after a wet year.

o Unusual (world): Although the concept of oases in the sandy deserts is known from the Middle East, those oases arise from a different geological context. The Simpson desert floodouts are unusual on a world scale.

o Unusual (Australia): Only a few parts of the Simpson desert benefit from the flooding-out of central Australian rivers, so these areas are special within the Simpson. Many of Australia's other sandy deserts (e.g. the Great Sandy, Little Sandy, or Great Victoria) are not in a position to receive flows from such substantial river systems.

o Integrity, authenticity: The properties contributing to the site's heritage values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed.

• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology: sand-bed rivers; Sand • Comments: There are a number of potential sites contained within this area;

further investigation would be of benefit to decide which are most valuable. Potential Site: Northern Plains Floodouts (Northern Territory)

• The confluence of the Sandover and Bundey Rivers, A circle radius ~ 32 km from a point approximately -21.825° 135.355°, which is ~270 km northeast from Alice Springs.

• Description: The Northern Plains Floodouts, as exemplified by the intermediate floodout at the Sandover/Bundy River confluence (Tooth 1999, 2005), represent larger-scale floodouts where declining river capacity takes place through transmission loss, as the river moves away from its catchment area and tributaries and out into the plains. The Sandover River declines in size until its channel disappears, and its water spreads out into the plain. The water continues to travel downslope however, and as it approaches the Bundey River it reforms into channelised flow.


o Events and processes: Intermediate floodouts are generally of outstanding importance to local ecology because of their capacity to retain moisture. They are outstandingly important to fluvial processes because of their role in mediating erosion.


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o Rarity: Floodouts are a relatively common landform within the study area, however their fluvial nature is almost entirely unrecognised in management practice and as such they are vulnerable to inappropriate infrastructure development. Where some form of flow concentration triggers channel entrenchment through the floodout, its ecological value is usually severely diminished or destroyed (Wakelin-King & Webb 2007a).

o Research: Floodouts occur in a wide variety of contexts and forms, and have the potential to reveal presently unrecognised information of relevance to sustainable rangelands management.

o Principal characteristics of a class: Floodouts are widespread but only a few have been studied; of these the Northern Plains Floodouts are the best and best-known examples of this kind of floodout.

o Integrity, authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed.

• Cross-reference themes: Hydrology: sand-bed rivers • Comments There are a wide variety of floodouts within the study area. A

further investigation would be of benefit to decide which are most valuable. Fig. 22 Sandover River channel (right) and floodout (centre). Photo: Stephen Tooth.

Playa lakes and associated megalake remnants Descriptor: Dry lake beds, some surrounded by palaeolake remnants. Heritage Values: events and processes; research; principal characteristics of a class; social value; unusual (world); unusual (Australia); integrity and authenticity..


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Potential Locations • Lake Eyre (South Australia) • Goldfields Palaeodrainage (Western Australia) (see Regolith – Weathering

Profile) Playa lakes are usually-dry lake beds where less water enters the lake than the water potentially lost by evaporation. Some playa lake beds are characterised by thick layers of evaporite minerals (such as salt), covering wet black muds in which large crystals of gypsum or other evaporite minerals are growing. Some lake beds have firm floors that look as if they are only brown mud (although many are actually mud with fine-grained gypsum). Many playa lakes are associated with calcrete scarps around their margins, and gypsum dunes, gypcrete, and lunettes around the margins and downwind. Some playa lakes have springs of relatively fresh water at their edges. Because the current climate is considerably more arid than previous climates, many playa lakes are set within a context of a previously much wetter landscape. The chains of playa lakes so characteristic of the Yilgarn area (Western Australia) occur along palaeodrainages that mark old river courses (Magee 2009). The chain of playa lakes southeast of Lake Amadeus occupy a river valley that used to flow into the Finke River (Wakelin-King 1989). Other playa lakes are the shrunken remnants of once much-larger bodies of fresh water (e.g. English et al. 2001, Cohen et al. 2011). Unless obscured by later sediments (such as sand dunes), these old megalake deposits express in the landscape as wide, very flat mud plains. The study area has many playa lakes of all sizes. Some of the most notable which are also well-studied are playas in the Yilgarn palaeodrainages (Clarke 1994c), Lake Lewis (English et al. 2001), Lake Amadeus (Jacobson 1988b, Chen et al. 1993), and Lake Eyre, which was once linked with Lake Frome in an enormous megalake system (Cohen et al. 2011). Key references Chen, X.Y., Bowler, J.M. & Magee, J.W. 1993. Late Cenozoic stratigraphy and hydrologic history of Lake Amadeus, a central Australian playa. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 40 (1): 1-14. Clarke, J.D.A., 1994c. Lake Lefroy, a palaeodrainage playa in Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41 (5): 417-427. Cohen, T.J., Nanson, G.C., Jansen, J.D., Jones, B.G., Jacobs, Z., Treble, P., Price, D.M., May, J-H., Smith, A.M., Ayliffe, L.K. & Hellstrom, J.C., 2011. Continental aridification and the vanishing of Australia's megalakes. Geology (Boulder) 39 (2): 167-170. English, P., Spooner, N.A., Chappell, J., Questiaux, D.G. & Hill, N.G., 2001. Lake Lewis Basin, central Australia; environmental evolution and OSL chronology. Quaternary International 83-85: 81-101. Jacobson, G., 1988b. The central Australian groundwater discharge zone: Evolution of calcrete and gypcrete deposits. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 35 (4): 549-565.


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Magee, J.W., 2009. Palaeovalley Groundwater Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Australia – A Literature Review. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/03, Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Sandiford, M., Quigley, M., De Broekert P. & Jakica, S., 2009. Tectonic framework for the Cenozoic cratonic basins of Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 56 (Supplement 1): S5-S18. Wakelin-King, G.A., 1989. Investigations of playa lakes on the Kulgera 1:250,000 map sheet. NTGS Technical Report 1989/012, Department of Mines and Energy, Darwin. Potential Site: Lake Eyre (South Australia)

• Location: A polygon measuring ~180 km x 120 km, centred on a point -28.587° 137.377°, which is ~530 km north of Port Augusta.

• Description: Lake Eyre is the depocentre for the Lake Eyre Basin, one of the world's largest endoreic drainage basins. Lake Eyre receives flow from the Channel Country, from the Neales River and other rivers on its western side, and used to receive water from central Australia. It occupies the lowest parts of the Australian continent (below sea level in many places) and is a geologically recent feature, owing its existence to tectonic undulation (Sandiford et al. 2009). Lake Eyre is surrounded by a landscape marked by the duricrusts of previous climates, exposed by present-day aridity. Its sediments and shorelines preserve the record of its previous cycles from megalakes to playa lake and back again. In previous geological eras, Lake Eyre was joined with Lake Frome in Megalake Frome (Cohen et al. 2011).


o events and processes: Lake Eyre is outstandingly important in the course of Australia's natural history, in its geologically recent development by tectonic undulation, and as the place in the centre of the continent which is alternately an inland sea, and Australia’s driest place.

o rarity: Playa lakes are not rare in the Australian landscape, however Lake Eyre's position as the centre of the Lake Eyre Basin, and its close links with three proposed sites in this report (the Neales River catchment, Cooper Creek) place it in an extremely unusual position of geomorphic significance.

o research: Lake Eyre's potential to increase our knowledge of Australia's climate during previous climatic fluctuations is great; the existing research has only begun to tap the possibilities. Examination of the recent flood record will provide invaluable information about Australia's ENSO records, and modern climatic conditions. Lake Eyre is also an extremely useful modern analogue for certain kinds of sedimentary rock.

o principal characteristics of a class: Lake Eyre is an outstanding example of this kind of landform.

o aesthetic: The stark beauty of Lake Eyre and it surrounds are a tourist draw card, and an inspiration for artists.

o social: Lake Eyre is the focus of two significant Australian earth science research groups, at Adelaide University and Wollongong University.

o unusual (world);


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o unusual (Australia) Lake Eyre is extremely unusual in that it is a very large playa lake, receiving water from both the tropical (monsoonal) weather systems, and the southern winter-rainfall belt.

o integrity, authenticity: The properties contributing to its heritage values are, as far as is known, intact and undisputed.

• Cross-reference themes: Tectonics – flexure, Regolith-Duricrusts (calcrete, silcrete); Sand Deserts

• Cross-reference other sites or areas: the Neales River catchment, Cooper Creek, Simpson Desert Floodouts, Simpson Desert, Strzelecki Desert.

• Comments: While the lake itself is spectacular, it is its lake-margin landforms that give it the most meaning.

Fig. 23 The edge of Lake Eyre. Photo: Gresley Wakelin-King.

Mound Springs Descriptor: The artesian water comes to the surface, depositing sediments and supporting ecology. Heritage Values: Events and processes; integrity and authenticity. Priority: Addition to existing NHL listing Potential Locations

• Dalhousie Springs, South Australia, location approximately -26.42° 135.51°.


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The Eromanga Basin (Great Artesian Basin) aquifers are artesian; the water has sufficient hydraulic pressure that if it is not restrained by an aquilude, it will come to the surface and flow of its own accord. Springs occur where the aquilude is removed by erosion, or fractured by tectonic activity. Where spring water comes to the surface, chemical sediments can be deposited (forming a mound). Where tectonic activity has raised the elevation of the spring outlet, or where human use of the groundwater resource has lowered the piezometric surface, the spring may cease to flow. Mound springs are an example of geomorphology being created by the interaction between groundwater and tectonic history. While mound springs are not especially unusual in the Great Artesian Basin, the geomorphology should be an aspect of heritage value to be added to the existing listing. Key reference Habermahl, MA. 1982. Springs in the Great Artesian Basin, Australia – their origin and nature. BMR Report 235. Australian Government Publishing Service, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics; Canberra.

Post-European Drainage Incision Descriptor: Channel incision within the last 200 years has desiccated valley floors. Heritage Values: Events and processes; research; integrity and authenticity. Priority B Cross-reference Hydrology: floodouts Potential Locations

• Fowlers Creek, New South Wales (see Hydrology: Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams)

• Barrier Range, Mundi Mundi scarp, New South Wales (see Ranges, Uplands, and Monoliths)

Description: Where a fluvial valley has only a small channel, or no channel (such as floodout, or a banded vegetation landscape), the natural fluvial process may be one that allows floodwaters to be retained in the valley floor, supporting viable ecosystems. In some circumstances, post-European land management has promoted valley-floor incision, in which deeper channels remove floodwaters. The floodplain becomes desiccated and its vegetation diminishes or dies. Post-European management actions which can trigger valley-floor incision include swamp drains, overgrazing, infrastructure construction, or the use of stock routes. While this problem has occurred throughout Australia e.g. Wasson et al. (1998), the arid zone is particularly vulnerable, and some very high erosion rates have been documented (Fanning 1994). The Barrier Range has been the focus of some of this research: the Umberumberka Fan (Wasson & Galloway 1986), near the Mundi Mundi Fault Scarp, and Fowlers Creek (Fanning 1994, Wakelin-King & Webb 2007a). Channel incision is not particularly uncommon, but it is extremely important to understand the triggers (both natural and human-created). The initial research on the topic has not fully examined its possibilities, nor


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has the information made a useful transfer to management practice (e.g. Pringle & Tinley 2003). Sustainable rangelands management depends on further information about these processes. Though the landforms are (by definition) in a compromised state, it is proper to recognise them as representative of the latest potent force to affect the landscape in the study area. Key References Fanning, P., 1994. Long-term contemporary erosion rates in an arid rangelands environment in western New South Wales, Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 28: 173-187. Pringle, H.J.R., & Tinley K.L., 2003. Are we overlooking critical geomorphic determinants of landscape change in Australian rangelands? Ecological Management and Restoration 4: 180-186. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007a. Threshold-dominated fluvial styles in an arid-zone mud-aggregate river: the uplands of Fowlers Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 85 (1-2): 114-127. Wasson, R.J. & Galloway, R.W. 1986. Sediment yield in the Barrier Range before and after European settlement. Australian Rangeland Journal 8: 79-90. Wasson, R.J., Mazari, R.K., Starr, B. & Clifton, G., 1998. The recent history of erosion and sedimentation on the Southern Tablelands of southeastern Australia: sediment flux dominated by channel incision. Geomorphology 24: 291-308.

Knowledge Gaps In projects such as this, covering such a large area of the sparsely settled parts of the continent, it is expected that significant knowledge gaps will be present. Even in the areas of Australia where the arid zone geomorphology has been a subject of exploration and research for many years e.g. Strzelecki Desert, very large gaps in knowledge remain particularly compared to European and North American equivalent areas. This is further exacerbated by the remoteness and difficulty of access to much of Australia’s arid and semi-arid zone. Therefore, except in relatively small areas, significant knowledge gaps exist although some are more extensive than others. All of the sites chosen as having the potential to meet the threshold of outstanding criteria for their geomorphology have significant gaps in knowledge. This has ramifications for the potential for new values to be identified and new sites with values of higher significance than ones currently known, to be discovered in the future. A classic example is the Nullarbor Plain, a very large area about which we know a great deal. However despite over 4000 karst features (caves and blowholes) being known there are vast areas of the plain, north of the railway, which are virtually unexplored and therefore the geomorphic heritage values are unknown. Knowledge of these areas may or may not change the values known now; we just do not know. Similarly all of the areas, even including those currently listed on the NHL, will have knowledge gaps, which may have significance for their heritage status.


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As well, much of the research and documentation of sites in the arid zone have been cultural, and where natural values have been considered the overwhelming component has been biological values. Where earth science values are documented and listed, they have tended to be geological rather than geomorphological, i.e. fossils, lithologies, rare minerals, geological sequences, type sections and occasionally prominent “mountains” e.g. Mt Painter, Flinders Ranges, but without much geomorphic process described. Geomorphic sites tend to be larger than many of these types of sites and are often quite difficult to put boundaries around. The more recent additions to the list e.g. Ningaloo Coast have much better analysis of the geomorphology, but many of the older sites e.g. Shark Bay need this aspect of their current listing upgraded. As well as these problems however we have identified clearly four (4) areas where so little is known that no comparative assessment can be made despite potential outstanding values. What is known in all of these cases is that the arid zone geomorphology is of great interest, but until more documentation and research is undertaken no heritage analysis can be made against National Heritage criteria. We do not know and cannot identify from published literature, if the areas are likely or not to meet the criteria of the National Heritage List for their geomorphology. In a few cases an NRE indicative site or place is listed but what little detailed information is included is often biological. Where geological values are listed they are nearly all of the variety described above. The most extensive knowledge gaps in the study area are in some of the large areas of named deserts; in particular the Great Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert, and the Great Victoria Desert (all in Western Australia). As well the uplands areas of the Murchison and Davenport Ranges in the Northern Territory are noted for their various geological values but very little geomorphology is known, especially recent analysis. Very little published information is available for any of these sites. Virtually no geomorphic information could be found on the Gibson Desert (WA) except that it consists of undulating lateritic plains, with a surface covered by fine gravel and that dry and salt lakes, claypans and sand dunes occur in some areas. Great Victoria Desert (WA) is over 700 kilometres wide (from west to east) and covers an area of 424,400 square kilometres from the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges in South Australia. The Great Victoria is the biggest desert in Australia and consists of many small sandhills, interdune areas, gibber plains and salt lakes. The sandy dune fields of the Great Victoria Desert are formed by reworking of valley and piedmont sediments in a non-basinal landscape of low-relief ridge and valley topography. However detailed geomorphic analysis of the dunes is lacking (compared to the Strzelecki Dunefield), despite it being probably the most complex of the western dunefields. Very limited geomorphic assessment has occurred except in the context of mineral exploration and extraction. The relationship between the dunefields and the better understood palaeodrainage networks is still unknown. It is very different from the better researched dune fields of the eastern arid zone e.g. Strzelecki Dunefield, but details are difficult to assess. Except for specific mining operations the area is relatively in good condition as it has not been intensively settled. The little heritage assessment that has occurred has concentrated completely on the biological aspect of the area without reference to the geomorphology. The Great Sandy Desert (WA) is to the north east of Port Hedland. The Telfer gold mine site is on the southwest edge of the Great Sandy Desert. It is the second largest


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desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of 284,993 km2, of mainly large north-west trending longitudinal dunes. The sandy dune fields of the Great Sandy Desert are formed by reworking of valley and piedmont sediments in a non-basinal landscape of low-relief ridge and valley topography. However detailed geomorphic analysis of the dunes is lacking (compared to the Strzelecki Dunefield). It is however regarded as having the most potential for improving the understanding of dune morphology and its relation to the evolution of the Australian continent (P. Hesse, pers. com 2011). Similar to the Great Victoria Desert, the basin and piedmont style of deserts are less well known than the dune fields on the sedimentary basins to the east and almost no research has been undertaken on the geomorphology of the dune field. The Canning stock route crosses part of the Great Sandy Desert and represents a significant technological feat to establish a droving route through a difficult landscape. Despite the cattle droving the areas is in good condition. The little natural heritage assessment that has occurred has concentrated completely on the biological aspect of the area without reference to the geomorphology. The Davenport Ranges provide a spectacular exposure of large scale interference folds in the sedimentary rocks, with associated dome and saddle patterns clearly visible from the air. These exposed landforms in the Davenport Ranges are considered to contain an old persistent subaerial surface. However this information has not been tested against the more recent information on neotectonic flexure of the continent and its relationship to central Australia. (e.g. Sandiford, et al 2009) as the stability of the continent is now not as absolute as once perceived. The potentially extreme age of the surface of the ranges is of high significance but insufficient detail is known. These four areas can be seen as real knowledge gaps but these specific examples should be supplemented by the knowledge gaps within areas where sufficient information can be assembled to be able to make an initial appraisal, e.g. Nullarbor, Pilbara Coast, Eastern Goldfields Palaeodrainages, and much of the hydrology. This report covers a vast area of the continent so gaps in the material are to be expected.

Conclusions In this study, the landforms of Australia's arid areas are reviewed and assessed against the National Heritage criteria. There are many geomorphologically significant sites in arid Australia, however the not all will be sufficiently outstanding to meet the criteria thresholds for listing on the National Heritage List. The 26 sites identified in this report are those, which have either met the criteria and are listed, or appear from literature and our field knowledge to have potential to meet these heritage criteria thresholds. These are the best examples of landforms that demonstrate to the highest level of significance the history and development of Australia's characteristic desert landscapes. They are not the only possible heritage sites in the study area; they are those that are currently sufficiently well-known to assess their significance. Other sites may also be worthy of inclusion. The boundaries of the sites are indicative rather than specific and accurate. Knowledge gaps exist in most of the areas but the Great Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert (WA) and the upland areas of the Murchison and Davenport Ranges (NT) are poorly known and understood. The boundaries of the zone excluded areas e.g. the Victorian Mallee, which generally meet the criteria and any


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further work on arid zone geomorphological sites should include this area for comparison. Also over the past decades, understanding of the Australian landscape has resulted in some major controversies as to the processes and timescales involved in the landscape evolution. These paradigm shifts can be found in the literature and care needs to be undertaken in the use of older literature. Older publications may have concepts which are now superseded. Older useful descriptive information may be gleaned form such work but the use such literature needs to be discerning. A matrix was developed assist with the process of identifying and comparing sites to determine whether a site reached the criteria thresholds for National Heritage Listing (Table 3). This included the relevant NHL criteria and heritage attributes. This process resulted in the development of four threshold levels: AA, A, B and Addition to Existing. Four (4) sites which are currently listed on the NHL are categorised as Addition to Existing, eight (8) as AA, ten (10) as A and four (4) as B. The matrix recorded particular outstanding heritage values for each site and the degree to which this occurred. Australia has a diverse array of arid and semiarid landscapes and a number of themes, and subthemes, are present. These are briefly explained in the report and each site is assessed as to whether a particular criteria or attribute is present and to what degree. The themes identified are related to the processes operating in the arid zone and are: astroblemes (impact structures), sand deserts (derived from aeolian sediment transport) (sub-themes: sedimentary basins, low-relief landscape), vertisols (extensive areas of swelling soils), karst (created by the dissolution of soluble rocks), coastal arid, tectonic (created by geologically recent tectonic activity), ranges and uplands (sub-themes: fault-bounded, diapiric), weathering (resulting from regolith's long subaerial exposure to previous climates) (sub-themes: weathering profiles, duricrusts), hydrology (landforms associated with water) (sub-themes: rivers –anabranching, discontinuous, braided, sand-bed; waterholes; banded vegetation; floodouts; megafloods; playa lakes and megalakes; mound springs). The sites chosen relate to at least one of these themes but not all subthemes have separate sites. Many sites have significant heritage value for multiple themes/subthemes. The key drivers of the unique Australian desert landscape can be identified as the length of time that the relatively stable landscape has existed, the previous climates that operated on it, the onset of aridity in recent geological times and the high degree to which these landscapes display features inherited from the past. These drivers set the context within which the agents of landscape change work: water, wind, gravity, plate tectonics, chemical reactions and living things. There are many areas of geological heritage in Australia's arid lands, however they are not the subject of this study. This report specifically addresses landforms. Geomorphology is complex and to understand the heritage values of landforms and landscapes, a robust understanding of the discipline is necessary. Sites can be large or small, time scales can be long or short and the process concepts have changed over time.


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Acknowledgements We would like to thank Pauline English, Cameron Grant, Paul Hesse, Ron Hacker, John Magee, Gerald Nanson, and Lisa Worrall for generously making available their time, experience, and photographs. We would also like to acknowledge the work of the Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration, whose long-term research focus on regolith geology has provided much new information, particularly for remote and difficult areas.

Bibliography This bibliography is representative of the available published literature on the geomorphology and landform evolution of Australia's arid zone. It is not an exhaustive list. The bibliography is compiled according to landform theme: some citations are present in several categories. Key references are listed separately. Some references are included because of their historical value, with respect to the development of the theoretical framework: these references are indicated by an asterisk*. Their conclusions or implications are not necessarily valid today, although their observations remain relevant.

Key References Anand, R.R. 2005. Weathering History, Landscape evolution, and implications for exploration. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 2-40. Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; Belton, D.X., Brown, R.W., Kohn, B.P., Fink, D. & Farley, K.A., 2004. Quantitative resolution of the debate over antiquity of the central Australian landscape: implications for the tectonic and geomorphic stability of cratonic interiors. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 219: 21-34. Bourke, M.C. & Pickup, G., 1999. Fluvial form variability in arid central Australia. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 249-271. Cohen, T.J., Nanson, G.C., Jansen, J.D., Jones, B.G., Jacobs, Z., Treble, P., Price, D.M., May, J-H., Smith, A.M., Ayliffe, L.K. & Hellstrom, J.C., 2011. Continental aridification and the vanishing of Australia's megalakes. Geology (Boulder) 39 (2): 167-170.


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Craddock, R.A., Hutchinson, M.F. & Stein, J.A., 2010. Topographic data reveal a buried fluvial landscape in the Simpson Desert, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 57 (1): 141-149. Finlayson, B.L. & McMahon, T.A., 1988. Australia v the World; a comparative analysis of streamflow characteristics. IN: Warner, R.F. (ed), Fluvial Geomorphology of Australia. Academic Press, Sydney, pp. 17-40. Fujioka, T., Chappell, J., Fifield, L.K. & Rhodes, E.J., 2009. Australian desert dune fields initiated with Pliocene-Pleistocene global climatic shift. Geology (Boulder) 37 (1): 51-54. Fujioka, T., Chappell, J., Honda, M., Yatsevich, I., Fifield, K. & Fabel, D., 2005. Global cooling initiated stony deserts in central Australia 2-4 Ma, dated by cosmogenic 21Ne-10Be. Geology 33: 993-996. Haines, P.W., 2005. Impact cratering and distal ejecta: the Australian record. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 52 (4): 481-507. Hesse, P., 2010. The Australian desert dunefields; formation and evolution in an old, flat, dry continent. IN: Bishop, P. (prefacer); Pillans, B. (prefacer) Australian landscapes Geological Society Special Publications 346: pp.141-164. Hesse, P.P. & McTainsh, G.H., 2003. Australian dust deposits; modern processes and the Quaternary record. Loess, and the Dust Indicators and Records of Terrestrial and Marine Palaeoenvironments (DIRTMAP) database. Quaternary Science Reviews 22 (18-19): 2007-2035. Hubble, G.D., 1984. The cracking clay soils: definition, distribution, nature, genesis and use. In: McGarity, J.W., Hoult, E.H. & So, H.B. (eds), The Properties and Utilisation of Cracking Clay Soils: .pp.3-13. Knighton, D. & Nanson, G., 1997. Distinctiveness, diversity and uniqueness in arid zone river systems . IN: Thomas, D.S.G. (ed), Arid Zone Geomorphology; Process, Form And Change In Drylands. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester; pp. 185-203. Magee, J.W., 2009. Palaeovalley Groundwater Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Australia – A Literature Review. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/03, Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Pillans, B., 2005. Geochronology of the Australian regolith. IN: Anand, R.R., & de Broekert, P., (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models. Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia, pp. 41-52. Pillans, B., 2007. Pre-Quaternary landscape inheritance in Australia. Journal of Quaternary Science 22 (5): 439-447. Nanson, G.C. & Knighton, A.D., 1996. Anabranching rivers; their cause, character and classification. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 21: 217-239.


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Nanson, G.C. & Huang, H.Q., 1999. Anabranching rivers; divided efficiency leading to fluvial diversity. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 477-494. Nanson, G.C. & Tooth, S., 1999. Arid-zone rivers as indicators of climate change. IN: Singhvi, A.K. & Derbyshire, E. (eds), Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction in Arid Lands. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 175-216. Pillans, B., 2007. Pre-Quaternary landscape inheritance in Australia. Journal of Quaternary Science 22 (5): 439-447. McTainsh, G.H. & Lynch, A.W., 1996. Quantitative estimates of the effect of climate change on dust storm activity in Australia during the last glacial maximum Response of aeolian processes to global change. Geomorphology 17 (1-3): 263-271. Quigley, M.C., Cupper, M.L. & Sandiford, M., 2006. Quaternary faults of south-central Australia: palaeoseismicity, slip rates and origin. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 53: 285-301. Sandiford, M., 2010. A slow divorce: tectonic signals in an ancient continent. The Australian Geologist 157: 29-31. Sandiford, M., Quigley, M., De Broekert P. & Jakica, S., 2009. Tectonic framework for the Cenozoic cratonic basins of Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 56 (Supplement 1): S5-S18. Sandiford, M., Quigley, M., De Broekert P. & Jakica, S., 2009. Tectonic framework for the Cenozoic cratonic basins of Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 56 (Supplement 1): S5-S18. Tooth, S., 2000. Process, form and change in dryland rivers; a review of recent research. Earth-Science Reviews 51 (1-4): 67-107. Tooth, S. & Nanson, G.C., 2000. Equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions in dryland rivers. Physical Geography 21 (3): 183-211. Twidale, C.R. & Campbell, E.M., 1993. Australian landforms; structure, process and time, pp. 272-279. Webb, J.A. & James, J.M., 2006. Karst evolution of the Nullarbor Plain, Australia. IN: Harmon, R.S. & Wicks, C.M. (eds), Perspectives on karst geomorphology, hydrology, and geochemistry; a tribute volume to Derek C. Ford and William B. White. Special Paper - Geological Society of America 404: 65-78. Williams, G.E. & Wallace, M.W., 2003. The Acraman asteroid impact, South Australia; magnitude and implications for the late Vendian environment. Journal of the Geological Society of London 160 (4): 545-554. Young, W.J. & Kingsford, R.T., 2006. Flow variability in large unregulated dryland rivers. IN: Kingsford, R., (ed), Ecology of desert rivers, Cambridge University Press, New York; pp. 11-46.


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Other General References Bourman, R.P., 2006. A composite regolith profile at Ceduna, South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 130: 197-205 Goudie, A.S., 2002. Great Warm Deserts of the World: Landscapes and Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford. *Mabbutt, J.A., 1977. Desert Landforms (An Introduction to Systematic Geomorphology: 2). Australian National University Press, Canberra. Fanning, P.C., Holdaway, S.J., Rhodes, E.J., 2008. A new geoarchaeology of Aboriginal artefact deposits in western NSW, Australia: establishing spatial and temporal geomorphic controls on the surface archaeological record. Geomorphology 101 (3): 524-532. Nanson, G.C., Price, D.M., Jones, B.G., Maroulis, J.C., Coleman, M., Bowman, H., Cohen, T.J., Pietsch, T.J. & Larsen, J.R., 2008. Alluvial evidence for major climate and flow regime changes during the middle and late Quaternary in eastern central Australia. Geomorphology 101 (1-2): 109-129. Hesse, P.P. & McTainsh, G.H., 2003. Australian dust deposits; modern processes and the Quaternary record. Loess, and the Dust Indicators and Records of Terrestrial and Marine Palaeoenvironments (DIRTMAP) database. Quaternary Science Reviews 22 (18-19): 2007-2035. Twidale, C.R. & Campbell, E.M., 1993. Australian landforms; structure, process and time, pp. 289- 291. Allen, H., Holdaway, S., Fanning, F. & Littleton, J., 2008. Footprints in the sand: appraising the archaeology of the Willandra Lakes, western New South Wales, Australia. Antiquity 82: 11-24. Croke, J., 1997. Australia. IN: Thomas, David S. G., 1997 (ed), Arid zone geomorphology; process, form and change in drylands. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 563-573. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007a. Threshold-dominated fluvial styles in an arid-zone mud-aggregate river: the uplands of Fowlers Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 85 (1-2): 114-127. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007b. Upper-flow-regime mud floodplains, lower-flow-regime sand channels: sediment transport and deposition in a drylands mud-aggregate river. Journal of Sedimentary Research 77: 702–712.

Astroblemes Clarke, J.D.A., 1994. Geomorphology of the Kambalda region, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41 (3): 229-239.


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Davey, J. & Hill, S., 2009. Modern evolution of continental interiors: tectonostratigraphic and palaeogeographical reconstructions of the Lake Frome Embayment. In: Anonymous, 2009, Programme with Abstracts - International Geomorphology Conference, vol. 7, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, July 6-11, 2009. International Association of Geomorphologists, Abstract no. 1040. de Broekert, P. & Sandiford, M., 2005. Buried inset-valleys in the eastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia; geomorphology, age, and allogenic control. Journal of Geology 113 (4): 471-493. Haines, P.W., 2005. Impact cratering and distal ejecta: the Australian record. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 52 (4): 481-507. Macdonald, F.A., Bunting, J.A. & Cina, S.E., 2003. Yarrabubba; a large, deeply eroded impact structure in the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 213 (3-4): 235-247. Twidale, C.R. & Campbell, E.M., 1993. Australian landforms; structure, process and time, pp. 302-309, 333-336. Williams, G.E. & Wallace, M.W., 2003. The Acraman asteroid impact, South Australia; magnitude and implications for the late Vendian environment. Journal of the Geological Society of London 160 (4): 545-554. Williams G. E. & Gostin V. A. 2005. The Acraman – Bunyeroo impact event (Ediacaran), South Australia, and environmental consequences: 25 years on. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 52: 607 – 620.

Sand Desert Beard, J.S., 1982. Late Pleistocene aridity and aeolian landforms in Western Australia IN: Barker, W.R. & Greenslade, P.J.M., (eds), Evolution of the flora and fauna of arid Australia. Peacock Publications, Adelaide, pp. 101-106. Brookfield, M., 1970. Dune trends and wind regime in Central Australia Piedmont plains and sand-formations in arid and humid tropic and subtropic regions. Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie 10: 121-153. Bullard, J.E. & Livingstone, I., 2010. Wasson R.J. & Hyde R. (1983) Factors determining desert dune type. Nature 304: 337-339. Progress in Physical Geography 34 (6): 857–862. Croke, J., 1997. Australia. IN: Thomas, David S. G., 1997 (ed), Arid zone geomorphology; process, form and change in drylands. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 563-573. Fink, D., 2006. Unravelling the landscape evolution process of sedimentary sand sheets and stony deserts in Australia with in situ cosmogenic nuclide depth profiles. Abstracts of the 16th annual V. M. Goldschmidt conference. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70 (18S): A173.


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Fitzsimmons, K., 2007. Morphological variability in the linear dunefields of the Strzelecki and Tirari Deserts, Australia. Geomorphology 91 (1-2): 146-160. Folk, R.L., 1971. Longitudinal dunes of the northwestern edge of the Simpson desert, Northern Territory, Australia, 1 Geomorphology and grainsize relationships. Sedimentology 16: 5-54. Fujioka, T., Chappell, J., Fifield, L.K. & Rhodes, E.J., 2009. Australian desert dune fields initiated with Pliocene-Pleistocene global climatic shift. Geology (Boulder) 37 (1): 51-54. Gardner, R. & Pye, K., 1981. Nature, origin and palaeoenvironmental significance of red coastal and desert dune sands. Progress in Physical Geography 5: 514. Glassford, D.K. & Semeniuk, V., 1995. Desert-aeolian origin of late Cenozoic regolith in arid and semi-arid Southwestern Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 114: 131-166. Goudie, A.S., 2002. Great Warm Deserts of the World: Landscapes and Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Hesse, P., 2010. The Australian desert dunefields; formation and evolution in an old, flat, dry continent. IN: Bishop, P. (prefacer); Pillans, B. (prefacer) Australian landscapes Geological Society Special Publications 346: pp.141-164. Hesse, P.P. & Simpson, R.L., 2006. Variable vegetation cover and episodic sand movement on longitudinal desert sand dunes. Geomorphology 81 (3-4): 276-291. Hollands, C.B., Nanson, G.C., Jones, B.G., Bristow, C.S., Price, D.M. & Pietsch, T.J., 2006. Aeolian-fluvial interaction; evidence for late Quaternary channel change and wind-rift linear dune formation in the northwestern Simpson Desert, Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 25 (1-2): 142-162. *Jennings, J.N., 1968. 'A revised map of the desert dunes of Australia'. Australian Geographer 10 (5): 408-409. *Mabbutt, J.A. Denudation chronology in central Australia; structure, climate, and landform inheritance in the Alice Springs area. IN: Jennings, J.N. & Mabbutt, J.A., (eds), Landform studies from Australia and New Guinea. Cambridge University Press, pp. 144-181 Twidale, C.R. & Campbell, E.M., 1993. Australian landforms; structure, process and time, pp. 409-456. Wasson, R.J., 1978. Landform development in Australia. IN: Barker, W.R. & Greenslade, P.J.M., 1982, (eds), Evolution of the flora and fauna of arid Australia. Peacock Publications, Adelaide, pp. 23-34. Wasson R.J. & Hyde R., 1983. Factors determining desert dune type. Nature 304: 337-339.


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Mud Aggregate Plains & Vertisols Berg, S.S. & Dunkerley, D.L., 2004. Patterned Mulga near Alice Springs, central Australia, and the potential threat of firewood collection on this vegetation community. Journal of Arid Environments 59 (2): 313-350. Cattle, S.R., McTainsh, G.H. & Elias, S., 2009. Aeolian dust deposition rates, particle-sizes and contributions to soils along a transect in semi-arid New South Wales, Australia. Sedimentology 56 (3): 765-783. Dunkerley, D.L. & Brown, K.J., 1999. Banded vegetation near Broken Hill, Australia; significance of surface roughness and soil physical properties. Catena (Giessen) 37 (1-2): 75-88. Dunkerley, D.L. & Brown, K.J., 2002. Oblique vegetation banding in the Australian arid zone: implications for theories of pattern evolution and maintenance. Journal of Arid Environments 51 (2): 163-181. Edgoose, C.J., 2005. Barkly Tableland region, Northern Territory. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia ; pp. 148-150. Fagan, S.D. & Nanson, G.C., 2004. The morphology and formation of floodplain-surface channels, Cooper Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 60 (1-2): 107-126. Goudie, A.S., 2002. Great Warm Deserts of the World: Landscapes and Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Goudie, A.S., Viles, H.A., Allison, R.J., Day, M., Livingstone, I. & Bull, P., 1990. The geomorphology of the Napier Range, Western Australia. Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, New Series 15 (3): 308-322. *Hallsworth E.G. & Beckmann, G.G., 1969. Gilgai in the Quaternary. Soil Science 107: 409-420. Hubble, G.D., 1984. The cracking clay soils: definition, distribution, nature, genesis and use. In: McGarity, J.W., Hoult, E.H. & So, H.B. (eds), The Properties and Utilisation of Cracking Clay Soils: .pp.3-13. Ludwig, J.A., Tongway, D.J. & Marsden, S.G., 1999. Stripes, strands or stipples: modelling the influence of three landscape banding patterns on resource capture and productivity in semi-arid woodlands, Australia. Catena 37 (1-2): 257-273. Mabbutt, J.A. & Fanning, P.C., 1987. Vegetation banding in arid Western Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 12: 41–59.


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Karst Allen, A.D., 1993. Hydrogeology of Cape Range. IN: Humphreys W.F., (ed), The Biogeography of Cape Range. Records of the Western Australian Museum. Western Australian Museum, Perth, Supplement 45: 25-38. Bowler, J.M., 1978. Quaternary climate and tectonics in the evolution of the Riverine Plain, southeastern Australia. IN: Davies, J.L. & Williams, M.A.J., (eds), Landform evolution in Australia. Australian National University, Canberra, pp. 149-172. Bowler, J.M., 1982a. Aridity in the late Tertiary and Quaternary of Australia. IN: Barker, W.R. & Greenslade, P.J.M., (eds), Evolution of the flora and fauna of arid Australia. Peacock Publications, Adelaide, pp. 35-46. Bowler, J.M., 1982b. Australian salt lakes: a palaeohydrologic approach. Hydrobiologia 82 (1): 431-444. Davey, A., 1986. Themes in prehistory of the Nullarbor Caves, semi-arid southern Australia Cave history. Helictite 24 (1-2): 53-59. Davey, A.G., Gray, M.R., Grimes, K.G., Hamilton-Smith, E., James, J.M. & Spate, A.P., 1992. World heritage significance of karst and other landforms in the Nullarbor


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Hou, B., Frakes L.A., Sandiford M., Worrall L., Keeling J. & Alley N.F., 2008. Cenozoic Eucla Basin and associated palaeovalleys, southern Australia - Climatic and tectonic influences on landscape evolution, sedimentation and heavy mineral accumulation. Sedimentary Geology 203: 112–130. Humphreys, W.F., Watts, C.H.S., Cooper, S.J.B. & Leijs, R., 2009. Groundwater estuaries of salt lakes: buried pools of endemic biodiversity on the western plateau, Australia. Hydrobiologia 626 (1): 79-95. James, J. M., 1989. Tietkens Plains karst, Maralinga IN: Resource management in limestone landscapes; International Perspectives; Proceedings of the International Geographical Union Study Group Man's Impact on Karst (Eds) Gillieson, D.S., Smith, D.I., Special Publication - Australian Defence Force Academy. Dept. of Geography and Oceanography: 101-110. Lowry, D.C., 1967. The origin of blow-holes and the development of domes by exsudation in caves of the Nullarbor Plain. Annual report for the year 1967; extract from the report of the Western Australia, Geological Survey, East Perth, West Aust., (AUS) Annual Report - Western Australia, Geological Survey, Report: 1967: 40-44. Lowry, D.C. & Jennings, J.N., 1974. The Nullarbor karst Australia. Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie 18 (1): 35-81. Twidale, C.R. & Campbell, E.M., 1993. Australian landforms; structure, process and time, pp. 272-279.


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Arid Coasts Johnson, D.P., 1982. Sedimentary facies of an arid zone delta; Gascoyne Delta, Western Australia. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 52 (2): 547-563. Semeniuk V. 1993 The Pilbara Coast: a riverine coastal plain in a tropical arid setting, northwestern Australia Sedimentary Geology, 83 235-256 Semeniuk , V. 1996 Coastal forms and Quaternary processes along the arid Pilbara coast of northwestern Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 123 : 49-84 Semeniuk , V. 1996 Coastal forms and Quaternary processes along the arid Pilbara coast of northwestern Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 123 : 49-84

Tectonics Alley, N.F., 1998. Cainozoic stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and geological evolution of the Lake Eyre Basin. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 144 (3-4): 239-263. Davey, J. & Hill, S., 2009. Modern evolution of continental interiors: tectonostratigraphic and palaeogeographical reconstructions of the Lake Frome Embayment. In: Anonymous, 2009, Programme with Abstracts - International Geomorphology Conference, vol. 7, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, July 6-11, 2009. International Association of Geomorphologists, Abstract no. 1040. Hill, S.M., Eggleton, R.A. & Taylor, G., 2003. Neotectonic disruption of silicified palaeovalley systems in an intraplate, cratonic landscape; regolith and landscape evolution of the Mulculca range-front, Broken Hill Domain, New South Wales. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 50 (5): 691-707. Hudec, M.R. & Jackson, M.P.A., 2007. Terra infirma: Understanding salt tectonics. Earth-Science Reviews 82: 1–28. Lindsay, J.F., 1987. Upper Proterozoic evaporites in the Amadeus basin, central Australia, and their role in basin tectonics. GSA Bulletin 99 (6): 852-865.


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Ranges, Uplands and Monoliths Bagas, L., 1988. Geology of Kings Canyon National Park, Report 4. Northern Territory Geological Survey. Bierman, P.R. & Caffee, M. 2002. Cosmogenic exposure and erosion history of Australian bedrock landforms. Geological Society of America Bulletin 114 (7) : 787-803. Bourman, R.P., Ollier, C.D. & Buckman, S., 2009. Mount Augustus Geology and Geomorphology. Geographical Research 48 (2): 111–122.


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Quigley, M., Sandiford, M., Fifield, K. & Alimanovic, A., 2007. Bedrock erosion and relief production in the northern Flinders Ranges, Australia. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 32 (6): 929-944. Thompson, R.B., 1995. A guide to the geology and landforms of central Australia. Northern Territory Geological Survey. *Twidale, C.R., 1967. Hillslopes and pediments in the Flinders ranges, South Australia. IN: Jennings, J.N. & Mabbutt, J.A., (eds), Landform studies from Australia and New Guinea. Australian National University Press, Canberra, pp. 95-117. Twidale, C.R. & Campbell, E.M., 1993. Australian landforms; structure, process and time, pp. 177 - 186, 187 -218, 313- 336. Twidale, C.R., 1980. The Devil's Marbles, central Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 104 (3-4): 41-49. Wakelin-King, G.A., 1989. Geology of Simpsons Gap National Park, NTGS Report 6, Northern Territory. Department of Mines and Energy.


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Wasson, R.J., 1979. Sedimentation history of the Mundi Mundi alluvial fans, western New South Wales. Sedimentary Geology 22 (1-2): 21-51. *Wopfner, H. & Twidale, C.R., 1967. Geomorphological history of the Lake Eyre Basin . IN: Jennings, J.N. & Mabbutt, J.A., (eds), Landform studies from Australia and New Guinea. Australian National University Press, Canberra, pp. 118-143.

Regolith: Duricrusts Al-Farraj, A., 2008. Desert pavement development on the lake shorelines of Lake Eyre (South), South Australia. Geomorphology 100: 154–163. Alley, N.F., 1998. Cainozoic stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and geological evolution of the Lake Eyre Basin. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 144: 239–263. Anand, R.R. 2005. Weathering History, Landscape evolution, and implications for exploration. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 2-40. Arakel, A.V., 1986. Evolution of calcrete in palaeodrainages of the Lake Napperby area, central Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 54: 283-303. Arakel, A.V., 1991. Evolution of Quaternary duricrusts in Karinga Creek drainage system, Central Australian groundwater discharge zone. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 38 (3): 333-347. Arakel, A.V. & McConchie, D., 1982. Classification and genesis of calcrete and gypsite lithofacies in paleodrainage systems of inland Australia and their relationship to carnotite mineralization. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 52 (4): 1149-1170. Arakel, A.V., Jacobson, G., Salehi, M. & Hill, C.M., 1989. Silicification of calcrete in palaeodrainage basins of the Australian arid zone. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 36 (1): 73-89. Bourman, R.P. & Milnes, A.R., 1985. Australian Landform Example 48: Gibber Plains. Australian Geographer 16 (3): 229-232. Brown, K. J. & Dunkerley, D. L., 1996. The influence of hillslope gradient, regolith texture, stone size and stone position on the presence of a vesicular layer and related aspects of hillslope hydrologic processes; a case study from the Australian arid zone. Catena (Giessen) 26 (1-2): 71-84. Carlisle, D., Merifield, P.M., Orme, A.R., Kohl, M.S. & Kolker, O., 1978. The distribution of calcretes and gypcretes in southwestern United States and their uranium


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favourability; based on a study of deposits in Western Australia and South West Africa (Namibia). Technical report, University of California, Los Angeles. Chen, X.Y., 1997. Pedogenic gypcrete formation in arid central Australia. Geoderma 77 (1): 39-61. Chen, X.Y., 1997. Pedogenic gypcrete formation in arid central Australia. Geoderma 77: 39-61. Chen, X.Y., Bowler, J.M. & Magee. J.W., l99l. Gypsum ground: a new occurrence of gypsum sediment in playas of central Australia. Sedimentary Geology. 72: 79-95. Chen, X.Y., Lintern, M.J. & Roach, I.C.,2002. Calcrete: characteristics, distribution and use in mineral exploration. Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration, CSIRO, Kensington, Western Australia. Clarke, J.D.A., 1994a. Evolution of the Lefroy and Cowan palaeodrainage, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41: 55-68. Clarke, J.D.A., 1994b. Geomorphology of the Kambalda region, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41: 229-239. Clarke, J.D.A., 1994c. Lake Lefroy, a palaeodrainage playa in Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41: 417-427. *Dury, G.H., 1970. Morphometry of gibber gravel at Mt Sturt, New South Wales. Journal of the Geological Society of Australia 16 (2): 655-665. English, P.M., 2001. Lake Lewis basin, central Australia: environmental evolution and OSL chronology. Quaternary International 83–85: 81–101. Fink, D., 2006. Unravelling the landscape evolution process of sedimentary sand sheets and stony deserts in Australia with in situ cosmogenic nuclide depth profiles. Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts 2006, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70 (18S): A173. Gibson, D.L., 2005. Wonnaminta 1:100,000 map sheet, New South Wales. In: Anand, R.R.,& de Broekert, P. (Eds), Regolith Landscape Evolution Across Australia; A Compilation of Regolith Landscape Case Studies with Regolith Landscape Evolution Models. Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp 126-129. Goudie, A.S., 2002. Great Warm Deserts of the World: Landscapes and Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Hill, S.M., Eggleton, R.A. & Taylor, G., 2003. Neotectonic disruption of silicified palaeovalley systems in an intraplate, cratonic landscape; regolith and landscape evolution of the Mulculca range-front, Broken Hill Domain, New South Wales. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 50 (5): 691-707.


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*Wopfner, H., 1978. Silcretes of northern South Australia and adjacent regions. IN: Langford-Smith, T., (ed), Silcrete in Australia. Department of Geography, University of New England, Armidale, pp. 93-142. *Wopfner, H. & Twidale, C.R., 1967. Geomorphological history of the Lake Eyre Basin . IN: Jennings, J.N. & Mabbutt, J.A., (eds), Landform studies from Australia and New Guinea. Australian National University Press, Canberra, pp. 118-143. *Woolnough, W.G., 1927. Presidential address Part 1, The chemical criteria of peneplain nation; Part 2 The duricrust of Australia. Journal of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 61:1-53.

Regolith: Weathering Profiles Alley, N.F., 1998. Cainozoic stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and geological evolution of the Lake Eyre Basin. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 144: 239–263. Anand, R.R. 2005. Weathering History, Landscape evolution, and implications for exploration. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 2-40. Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; Anand, R.R., King, J.D. & Robertson, I.D.M., 2005. Mt Magnet District, Western Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 328-332. Bourman, R.P., 2006. A composite regolith profile at Ceduna, South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 130: 197-205 Clarke, J.D.A., 1994. Evolution of the Lefroy and Cowan palaeodrainage, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41: 55-68. Clarke, J.D.A., 1994. Geomorphology of the Kambalda region, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41: 229-239. Clarke, J.D.A., 1994. Lake Lefroy, a palaeodrainage playa in Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 41(5): 417-427.


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de Broekert, P., 2005. Lady Bountiful extended gold deposit, Western Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 312-316. Firman, J.B., 1994. Paleosols in laterite and silcrete profiles; evidence from the south east margin of the Australian Precambrian shield. Earth-Science Reviews 36 (3-4): 149-179. Glassford, D.K. & Semeniuk, V., 1995. Desert-aeolian origin of late Cenozoic regolith in arid and semi-arid Southwestern Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 114: 131-166. Harper, R.J. & Gilkes, R.J., 2004. Aeolian influences on the soils and landforms of the southern Yilgarn Craton of semi-arid, southwestern Australia. Geomorphology 59 (1-4): 215-235. Heimsath, A.M., Chappell, J., Hancock, G.R., Fink, D. & Fifield, K., 2008. Eroding Australia; slowly. Abstracts of the 18th annual V. M. Goldschmidt conference. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72 (12S): A363. Hill, S.M., 2005. Regolith and landscape evolution of Far Western New South Wales. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia ; pp. 130-145. Hill, S.M., West, D.S., Shirtliff, G., Senior, A.B., Maly, B.E.R., Jones, G.L., Holzapfel, M., Foster, K.A., Debenham, S.C., Dann, R. & Brachmanis, J., 2005. Southern Barrier Ranges - Northern Murray Basin, New South Wales. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia ; pp. 104-109. Hou, B., Frakes, L.A. & Alley, N.F., 2005. Palaeochannel evolution, Northwestern Gawler Craton, South Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 226-229. Johnson, C.B. & McQueen, K.G., 2005. Gold-bearing palaeochannel sediments at Gidji, Western Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 284-289.


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Killick, M.F., Churchward, H.M. & Anand, R.R., 2005. Hamersley Iron Province, Western Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 295-299. *Langford-Smith, T., 1983. New perspectives on the Australian deserts. Australian Geographer 15 (5): 269-284. Magee, J.W., 2009. Palaeovalley Groundwater Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Australia – A Literature Review. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/03, Geoscience Australia, Canberra. McTainsh, G.H. & Lynch, A.W., 1996. Quantitative estimates of the effect of climate change on dust storm activity in Australia during the last glacial maximum Response of aeolian processes to global change. Geomorphology 17 (1-3): 263-271. Pillans, B., 2005. Geochronology of the Australian regolith. IN: Anand, R.R., & de Broekert, P., (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models. Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia, pp. 41-52" Ramanaidou, E.R., Morris, R.C. & Horwitz, R.C., 2003. Channel iron deposits of the Hamersley Province, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 50 (5): 669-690. Thiry, M., Milnes, A.R., Rayot, V. & Simon-Coincon, R., 2006. Interpretation of palaeoweathering features and successive silicifications in the Tertiary regolith of inland Australia. Journal of the Geological Society of London 163 (4): 723-736. Witford, J.R., 2005. Granites-Tanami region, Northern Territory. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia ; 151-155.

Palaeodrainages Arakel, A.V., 1991. Evolution of Quaternary duricrusts in Karinga Creek drainage system, Central Australian groundwater discharge zone. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 38 (3): 333-347. Arakel, A.V., Jacobson, G., Salehi, M. & Hill, C.M., 1989. Silicification of calcrete in palaeodrainage basins of the Australian arid zone. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 36 (1): 73-89.


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Craddock, R.A., Hutchinson, M.F. & Stein, J.A., 2010. Topographic data reveal a buried fluvial landscape in the Simpson Desert, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 57 (1): 141-149. de Broekert, P. & Sandiford, M., 2005. Buried inset-valleys in the eastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia; geomorphology, age, and allogenic control. Journal of Geology 113 (4): 471-493. English, P., 1998. Cainozoic geology and hydrogeology of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. AGSO (Australian Geological Survey Organisation), Canberra. Glasby, P., O'Flaherty, A. & Williams, M.A.J., 2010. A geospatial visualisation and chronological study of a late Pleistocene fluvial wetland surface in the semi-arid Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Geomorphology 118 (1-2): 130-151. Harper, R.J. & Gilkes, R.J., 2004. Aeolian influences on the soils and landforms of the southern Yilgarn Craton of semi-arid, southwestern Australia. Geomorphology 59 (1-4): 215-235. Hou, B., Frakes, L.A. & Alley, N.F., 2005. Palaeochannel evolution, Northwestern Gawler Craton, South Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 226-229. Johnson, C.B. & McQueen, K.G., 2005. Gold-bearing palaeochannel sediments at Gidji, Western Australia. IN: Anand, R.R.& de Broekert, P. (eds), Regolith landscape evolution across Australia; a compilation of regolith landscape case studies with regolith landscape evolution models . Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Bentley, West Australia; pp. 284-289. *Langford-Smith, T., 1983. New perspectives on the Australian deserts. Australian Geographer 15 (5): 269-284. Magee, J.W., 2009. Palaeovalley Groundwater Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Australia – A Literature Review. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/03, Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Morgan, K.H., 1993. Development, sedimentation and economic potential of palaeoriver systems of the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. Sedimentary Geology 85 (1-4): 637-656. Twidale, C.R. & Campbell, E.M., 1993. Australian landforms; structure, process and time: 339 - 365. Van de Graaff, W.J.E., Crowe, R.W.A., Bunting, J.A. & Jackson, M.J., 1977. Relict early Cainozoic drainages in arid Western Australia. Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie 21 (4): 379-400.


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Megaflood Landforms Baker, V.R. Pickup, G., Polach, H.A., 1983. Desert palaeofloods in Central Australia. Nature (London) 301 (5900): 502-504. Baker, V.R., Kochel, R.C., Patton, P.C. & Pickup, G., 1983. Palaeohydrologic analysis of Holocene flood slack-water sediments. IN: Collinson, J.D. & Lewin, J. (eds), Modern and Ancient Fluvial Systems; Special Publications of the International Association of Sedimentologists, 6: pp. 229-239. Bourke, M.C. & Pickup, G., 1999. Fluvial form variability in arid central Australia. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 249-271. Jansen, J.D., 2006. Flood magnitude-frequency and lithologic control on bedrock river incision in post-orogenic terrain. Geomorphology 82 (1-2): 39-57. Jansen, J.D. & Brierley, G.J., 2004. Pool-fills: a window to palaeoflood history and response in bedrock-confined rivers. Sedimentology 51(5): 901-925. Patton, P.C., Pickup, G. & Price, D.M., 1993. Holocene paleofloods of the Ross River, central Australia. Quaternary Research 40 (2): 201-212. Pickup, G., 1991. Event frequency and landscape stability on the floodplain systems of arid central Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 10 (5): 463-473. Pickup, G., Alan, G. & Baker, V.R., 1988. History, palaeochannels and palaeofloods of the Finke River, central Australia. IN: Warner, R.F., (ed), Fluvial Geomorphology of Australia. Academic Press, Sydney, pp. 177-200. Schumm, S.A. 1977. The Fluvial System. John Wylie & Sons, New York.

Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams Bull, W.B., 1997. Discontinuous ephemeral streams. Geomorphology 19:227-276. Dunkerley, D.L. 1992. Channel geometry, bed material, and inferred flow conditions in ephemeral stream systems, Barrier Range, western N.S.W., Australia. Hydrological Processes, 6: 417-433. Dunkerley, D., 2008. Flow chutes in Fowlers Creek, arid western New South Wales, Australia; evidence for diversity in the influence of trees on ephemeral channel form and process. Geomorphology 102 (2): 232-241. Dunkerley, D.L., 2008. Bank permeability in an Australian ephemeral dry land stream; variation with stage resulting from mud deposition and sediment clogging. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 33 (2): 226-243.


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Sand-Bed rivers Bourke, M.C. & Pickup, G., 1999. Fluvial form variability in arid central Australia. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 249-271. Bourke, M.C., 1994. Cyclical construction and destruction of flood dominated flood plains in semiarid Australia. IN: Olive, L.J., Loughran, R.J. & Kesby, J.A. (eds), Variability in stream erosion and sediment transport; IAHS-AISH Publication 224. Proceedings of the Canberra Symposium. International Association of Hydrological Sciences, Louvain, pp.113-123. *Mabbutt, J.A., 1977. Desert Landforms (An Introduction to Systematic Geomorphology: 2). Australian National University Press, Canberra. Tooth, S., 2000. Process, form and change in dryland rivers; a review of recent research. Earth-Science Reviews 51 (1-4): 67-107. Tooth, S. & Nanson, G.C., 2004. Forms and processes of two highly contrasting rivers in arid central Australia, and the implications for channel-pattern discrimination and prediction. Geological Society of America Bulletin 116 (7-8): 802-816.


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Anabranching Nanson, G.C. & Knighton, A.D., 1996. Anabranching rivers; their cause, character and classification. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 21: 217-239. Nanson, G.C. & Huang, H.Q., 1999. Anabranching rivers; divided efficiency leading to fluvial diversity. IN: Miller, A.J. & Gupta, A. (eds), Varieties of Fluvial Form. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 477-494. Nanson, G.C. & Tooth, S., 1999. Arid-zone rivers as indicators of climate change. IN: Singhvi, A.K. & Derbyshire, E. (eds), Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction in Arid Lands. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 175-216. *Nanson, G.C., Rust, B.R. & Taylor, G., 1986. Coexistent mud braids and anastomosing channels in an arid-zone river; Cooper Creek, central Australia. Geology (Boulder) 14 (2): 175-178. Nanson, G.C., Young, R.W., Price, D.M. & Rust, B.R., 1988. Stratigraphy, sedimentology and late-Quaternary chronology of the Channel Country of western Queensland. In: Warner, R.F. (ed.), Fluvial Geomorphology of Australia. Academic Press, Sydney; pp. 151–175. Nanson, G.C., Price, D.M., Jones, B.G., Maroulis, J.C., Coleman, M., Bowman, H., Cohen, T.J., Pietsch, T.J. & Larsen, J.R., 2008. Alluvial evidence for major climate and flow regime changes during the middle and late Quaternary in eastern central Australia. Geomorphology 101 (1-2): 109-129. Sheldon, F. & Thoms, M.C., 2006. In-channel geomorphic complexity; the key to the dynamics of organic matter in large dryland rivers? Geomorphology 77 (3-4): 270-285. Thoms, M.C., Beyer, P.J. & Rogers, K.H., 2006. Variability, complexity and diversity; the geomorphology of river ecosystems in dryland regions. IN: Kingsford, R., (ed), Ecology of desert rivers, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 47-75. Tooth, S. & Nanson, G.C., 1999. Anabranching rivers on the Northern Plains of arid central Australia. Geomorphology 29 (3-4): 211-233. Tooth, S. & Nanson, G.C., 2000. Equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions in dryland rivers. Physical Geography 21 (3): 183-211. Tooth, S. & Nanson, G.C., 2004. Forms and processes of two highly contrasting rivers in arid central Australia, and the implications for channel-pattern discrimination and prediction. Geological Society of America Bulletin 116 (7-8): 802-816. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007a. Threshold-dominated fluvial styles in an arid-zone mud-aggregate river: the uplands of Fowlers Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 85 (1-2): 114-127.


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Braided Mud-Aggregate Rivers Fagan, S.D. & Nanson, G.C., 2004. The morphology and formation of floodplain-surface channels, Cooper Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 60 (1-2): 107-126. Maroulis, J.C. & Nanson, G.C., 1996. Bedload transport of aggregated muddy alluvium from Cooper Creek, central Australia; a flume study. Sedimentology 43 (5): 771-790. *Nanson, G.C., Rust, B.R. & Taylor, G., 1986. Coexistent mud braids and anastomosing channels in an arid-zone river; Cooper Creek, central Australia. Geology (Boulder) 14 (2): 175-178. *Rust, B.R. & Nanson, G.C., 1986. Contemporary and palaeo channel patterns and the late Quaternary stratigraphy of Cooper Creek, Southwest Queensland, Australia. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 11 (6): 581-590. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007a. Threshold-dominated fluvial styles in an arid-zone mud-aggregate river: the uplands of Fowlers Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 85 (1-2): 114-127. Wakelin-King, G.A. & Webb, J.A., 2007b. Upper-flow-regime mud floodplains, lower-flow-regime sand channels: sediment transport and deposition in a drylands mud-aggregate river. Journal of Sedimentary Research 77: 702–712.

Waterholes Costelloe J.F., 2010 (unpublished). Critical Refugia project – hydrology final report. Report to the South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resource Management Board, for the Caring For Our Country Program 2009/10, Adelaide, October 2010. Knighton, A.D. & Nanson, G.C. 2000. Waterhole form and process in the anastomosing channel system of Cooper Creek, Australia. Geomorphology 35 (1-2): 101-117. Larsen, J., Cendón, D., Nanson, G. & Jones, B., 2009. Surface and groundwater hydrology of arid-zone billabongs (waterholes) in Queensland, Australia. IN: Anonymous, 2009, Programme with Abstracts - International Geomorphology Conference, vol. 7, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, July 6-11, 2009. International Association of Geomorphologists, Abstract no. 462. Wakelin-King, G.A., 2011. Geomorphological assessment and analysis of the Neales Catchment: A report to the South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board. Wakelin Associates, Melbourne. 128pp., 2 maps.


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