Australia – a Cenozoic history

Abstract

The study of the Quaternary events that shaped the surface of Australia cannot be separated from the previous 60 Ma of the Tertiary. This history has only begun to be clearly understood since about 1950. Explorers from the late seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century laid the groundwork for the later understanding by their observations, particularly under difficult conditions, and by their attempts to interpret what they recorded. The western and southwestern coasts provided evidence of relative uplift of land, while the northeastern coast (the Great Barrier Reef) indicated evidence of the opposite. Explorers of various nationalities provided the evidence. Knowledge of the dry inland began to emerge from the 1830s, with puzzlement about 'hard crusts'. Evidence of limited Pleistocene glaciation and relatively young, but quite extensive, volcanic activity took somewhat longer to evaluate. A major interest for European savants was the discovery, in the late 1820s, of cave deposits of extinct vertebrates.

OCBIL theory: towards an integrated understanding of the evolution, ecology and conservation of biodiversity on old, climatically buffered, infertile landscapes

“…are interspersed among classic OCBILs in complex mosaics. Similarly, on continents like Australia, where many old landscapes are evident (Twidale 1976;Gale 1992;Pillans 2007;Branagan 2008;Fig. 5), such old landscapes will vary in their relative age.…”

The Geological Society on the other side of the world

“…Strzelecki had been introduced to Fitton through Governor Franklin (Paszkowski 1997, p. 174), and also possibly through Phillip Parker King. Although Joseph Beete Jukes (1811-1869) joined the Society in 1836, his work on the Australian coast, and particularly the Great Barrier Reef, belong to the 1840s. His perceptive observations and classification remain, in many senses, the best ever made (Jukes 1847(Jukes , 1850Branagan 2008b). His geological map of Australia had been preceded by the Frenchman Boué (Branagan 2008b) and by Strzelecki, the latter having based his work to a large extent on personal field observations on SE Australia (Strzelecki 1845).…”

“…His perceptive observations and classification remain, in many senses, the best ever made (Jukes 1847(Jukes , 1850Branagan 2008b). His geological map of Australia had been preceded by the Frenchman Boué (Branagan 2008b) and by Strzelecki, the latter having based his work to a large extent on personal field observations on SE Australia (Strzelecki 1845). Jukes, however, included material on other parts of the Australian coast and nearby regions.…”

Contributions to the history of geomorphology and Quaternary geology: an introduction

“…Mesozoic or Early Tertiary palaeosurface remnants have been identified in many other cratonic and old orogenic areas (e.g. China and Australia; see articles by Branagan (2008) and Zhang (2008), respectively, in this Special Publication), and their persistence raises fundamental questions about the complex interaction of surface-shaping processes such as erosion, the effects of climate change, tectonic uplift and deformation, etc., the duration of erosion 'cycles', or rock composition and structure.…”