THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANDFORM STUDIES

IN AUSTRALIA

by

H.I. Scott, B.A.Qld.,M.Sc.Macq.

Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

School of Geography,

August 1976 University of New South Wales UNIVERSITY OF N.S.W.,

27922 T3.DEC.77 LIBRARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Directly and indirectly, I am indebted to many people. Many of those whose writing has stimulated me are mentioned in the Bibliography, but I wish to thank the following in particular: My Supervisor, Professor J.A. Mabbutt, Head,

School of Geography, University of New South Wales, for his helpful criticisms, suggestions and financial assis­

tance by way of my appointment as part-time tutor in the

Department; Dr. G. Seddon, Director, Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne, previously Professor and Head of the School of The History and Philosophy of Science, University of New South Wales, and my Co-Supervisor during Professor Mabbutt's Sabbatical Leave, for his helpful cri­ ticisms of the early drafts of the various Chapters; Professor J.N. Jennings, Professorial Fellow, Department of Biogeography and Geomorphology; Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, for his helpful comments on the last five Chapters, his discussion concerning the development of Australian geomorphology since 1945 , and related matters by way of Correspondence. \

Emeritus Professor E.S. Hills, Department of Geology, University of Melbourne, for his helpful comments on Chapters Eight, Nine, and Eleven, and for his time in dis­

cussing the role which he and his Department played in the development of geomorphology in Victoria during the pre- and post-war periods; Dr. C.R. Twidale, Reader, Department of Geography,

University of Adelaide, for his advice on Chapters Twelve and Thirteen, and his comments on the post-war development of geomorphology in Australia;

Messrs. J.G. Speight and R.H. Gunn, Division of

Land Research, C.S.I.R.O., for discussing Chapter Thirteen and the role of the C.S.I.R.O. in the development of Aust­ ralian geomorphology;

Professor J. Andrews, Head, Department of Geog­ raphy, University of Melbourne, for making time available to discuss the establishment of the Departments of Geography at the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne, together with background information on some of the people, now deceased, who played an important part in fostering an interest in

Australian landforms;

Professor T. Langford-Smith, Head, School of

Geography, University of Sydney, for his comments on pre­ war and post-war landform studies, and the different views of academic geomorphologists and C.S.I.R.O. scientists;

Professor J.L. Davies, Professor, School of Earth

Sciences, Macquarie University, for explaining his interest in certain aspects of geomorphology, his research prior to his arrival in Australia, and how this was adapted after his arrival;

the late Dr. R.W. Browne, who was actively engaged

in geomorphological investigations both before and after

World War II - a student and colleague of Edgeworth David, and personally acquainted with most geologists and other

Australian scientists during the whole of that time, thus being able to impart a wealth of information on the develop- ment of geomorphology in Australia from the nineteenth century to the present, including his personal involvement in the glacial controversy after World War II;

Professor G.H. Dury, Professor of Geography and

Geology/Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, United

States of America, for his correspondence on the origin of his interest in geomorphology, and his role in Australian landform studies during his years as Professor of Geography at the University of Sydney;

Dr. C.D. Ollier, Research Fellow, Department of

Biogeography and Geomorphology, Research School of Pacific

Studies, The Australian National University, for his corres­ pondence on the introduction of geomorphology in the Depart­ ment of Geology at the University of Melbourne in the post­ war period, and his views on the development of Australian geomorphology since World War II;

Mr. G.P. Taylor, Head, Department of Production

Engineering, The New South Wales Institute of Technology, son of the late Professor Griffith Taylor, for sharing his memories of their family life;

the geomorphologists of fifteen universities, who answered the questionnaire dealing with their academic back­ ground and research interests;

the Trustees of the Mitchell Library, for giving the writer access to documents and photographs of Australian history, without which the early Chapters of this Thesis would have been more difficult to write;

the Interloan Librarian, of the University of New

South Wales for her help in obtaining material from other libraries;

iii the Librarian at the Australian Museum, Sydney, the Librarian of the Geological Survey of New South Wales, and the Librarian of the Royal Society of New South Wales,

for giving access to documents and journals;

Mr. G.W. Muir, Principal, Kuring-gai College of

Advanced Education, Sydney, for arranging the printing of the Thesis;

Mr. T.M.H. Thorpe, Lecturer, Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, Sydney, for his friendly advice;

Mr. J. O’Dwyer, Photographer, Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, Sydney, for processing photographs, maps, and diagrams;

Mr. K. Maynard, Cartographer, in the Department of Geography, University of New South Wales, for his help­

ful suggestions and assistance with the cartographic layout and the drafting of some of the diagrams and maps;

my wife, for her secretarial assistance, financial support, and curtailment of social life over many years.

iv ABSTRACT

This thesis treats selected topics which illust­ rate the development of geomorphology in Australia.

It reviews the use of landform evidence to support speculation concerning the configuration of the unknown in­ terior early in the nineteenth century, and the impact of

Australian landforms on the first explorers.

It discusses the reasons for the slow growth of landform studies, as shown for instance by the lack of in­ teraction with early visiting scientists. Furthermore it shows how the establishment of local studies is linked with the development of a scientific community and local sources of publication, and also with the development of mining and the associated geological investigation and establishment of

Geological Surveys.

The question of the occurrence of glaciation in

Australia is treated as an example of a late nineteenth century controversy which stimulated important landform in­ vestigations .

Geomorphology in Australia is largely an academic subject, and its development was closely linked with that of university Departments of Geology, notably that of the Univer­ sity of Sydney, where Edgeworth David and his students can be considered the local founders of the discipline.

v The view of this school on the evolution of erosion

surfaces in eastern-Australia tended to stress the tectonic

displacement of extensive simple surfaces, whereas in the

late 1920s and early 1930s, perhaps under the influence of

overseas studies on denudation chronology, the importance of

staged uplift and planation, combined with broad arching, was

recognised. These views have essentially been confirmed by

the later dating of the basalts in the regions.

From the 1950s onwards, the major development of

geomorphology in Australia is linked with the growth of uni­

versity Departments of Geography and the increasing speciali­

zation of university geography courses. This development led

to a large recruitment of geomorphologists from overseas,

particularly from the United Kingdom; and the importance of

their background and of the interaction of features of the

Australian environment with their interests are discussed.

This development came at a time when the traditional domi­

nance of geologists in geomorphological studies in Australia

was giving way, and this change led to a considerable revi­

sion of established views as well as to some controversies,

for example those concerning the extent and nature of glaci­

ation in Australia, or the climatic significance of land-

forms .

Applied geomorphology, as represented in inventory

surveys and in soil studies by the C.S.I.R.O., is particular­

ly important in Australia, so that the nature of the studies,

and the reason for their significance in Australia are dis­ cussed.

vi CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT v INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I Appeal to the Evidence of Landforms in

speculations about the interior of

Australia ® 1.1 The evidence for a strait deduced

from tides and currents ® 1.2 The concepts of a river of

continental extent and of an inland sea ®

1.21 The use of stream projection to support the postulate of a large

east-west river .l1* 1.22 Arguments based on climate and

stream regimes

1.23 The attempt to establish the existence of an east-west river from evidence in the North-West of Australia 20 1.24 The continuing belief in the

existence of a continental river in the light of growing evidence to the contrary 2 3

1.3 The end of the concepts of a conti­

nental river and of an inland sea 23 CHAPTER II Impact of the Landforms of continental

Australia on early explorers and

scientific investigators 26 vii CHAPTER III Early Scientific Investigations,

Scientific Societies, and

Landform Studies 33 CHAPTER IV Contributions by the Visiting Earth- Scientists in the Early Nineteenth

Century 42 CHAPTER V The Stimulus Given to the Study of

Landforms by the Search for Minerals in the Mid-Nineteenth Century 47 5.1 The use of landforms to predict

the occurrence of minerals 47 5.2 Moves to establish Geological

Surveys 49 5.3 Consideration of the source of the alluvial gold 52 CHAPTER VI The First Geomorphological Controversy: Glaciation in Australia? 61 6.1 The first evidence 63 6.2 Consequences of the misreading of the evidence 66 6.3 Rejection of the evidence 68 6.4 Alternative explanations 70

6.5 The search for further glacial

evidence in the Australian Alps 73 6.6 Recognition of the original evidence

for what it really was 82

CHAPTER VII Beginnings of Academic Geomorphology:

Establishment of Earth-Science Studies at Australian Universities 87

ix 7.1 The introduction of geological

studies at the University of

Sydney 87 7.2 The influence of Edgeworth David

on geomorphological studies 91

7.3 Geomorphological studies by David's students 96 9.4 The establishment of the first Department of Geography at the

University of Sydney 102

CHAPTER VIII Early Studies of Denudation Chronology 109 8.1 Studies of upland surfaces in eastern Australia 110 8.2 Emphasis on tectonic disruptions 116 8.3 The duricrust landsurfaces of interior and western Australia 122 CHAPTER IX Later Studies on the Evolution of the Eastern Uplands 127 9.1 Newer interpretations by F.A. Craft and E.S. Hills 128 9.2 Post-war substantiation of this work 134

CHAPTER X Post-War Growth of Academic Geomorphology 138 10.1 The growth and specialization in Departments of Geography 138

10.2 The recruitment of overseas geo­ morphologists to Departments of Geography at Australian universities and their impact on the study of geo­ morphology in Australia 143

x 10.3 The recruitment of C.S.I.R.O.

geomorphologists to Departments

of Geography at Australian uni­

versities, and their impact on

the study of geomorphology in

Australia 150

10.4 The development of post-graduate

studies and the emergence of

later generations of geomorpho-

logists 15 3

CHAPTER XI Traditional Studies by Academic

Geologists 15 9

11.1 W.R. Browne and others at the

University of Sydney 160

11.2 A.H. Voisey at the University

of New England 161

11.3 The University of Western

Australia 16 2

11.4 The University of Melbourne 164

CHAPTER XII The Conflict Between Newer and

Traditional Views 167

12.1 The extent and nature of

glaciation in the Australian Alps 16 7 / 12.2 Landform evidence of climatic

change 179

CHAPTER XIII The Application of Geomorphology in

Australia 192

13.1 Terrain evaluation 193

13.11 The adoption and formulation of

survey methods 19 3

xi 13.12 The application of geomorphology to land system mapping 196 13.13 The application of parametric

stiffening to resource surveys 199

13.14 The formulation of landform

parameters for resource surveys 203

13.15 Individual research resulting

from resource surveys 206

13.2 The application of geomorphology

in reconnaissance soil studies 209

13.21 Soils as inherited phenomena 211

13.22 Soil periodicity and landscape dynamics 217

APPENDIX A Questionnaire 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY 227

xii TABLES

7.1 Number of staff, students, and first-year courses at the University of Sydney between 1852 and 1882 88

10.1 The establishment of Departments of Geography at Australian universities, and the introduction of Geomorphology 140

10.2 Subjects in the Geography course at the University of Queensland before and after 1964 141

10.3 Total number of geomorphologists at Australian universities’ Departments of Geography since 1945 142

13.1 Order of age of the surfaces in south-western Western Australia 216

xiii PLATES

1.1 Four early nineteenth century Australian explorers significant in establishing the 1 7 basic landforms of Australia

3.1 Four early nineteenth century naturalists, who stimulated an interest in Australian landform studies ^9

5.1 Four early Australian geologists, and their use of landform evidence to interpret the geological history in the areas of their investigations 51

5.2a Black Hill Lead at Ballarat 58

5.2b White Horse Lead at Ballarat 58

6.1a Permian glacial evidence at Hallett Cove 62

6.1b Permian glacial evidence at Hallett Cove 62

6.2a Permian glacial evidence at Inman Valley 64

6.2b Permian glacial evidence at Inman Valley 64

6.3a Von Lendenfeld's impression of ’Wilkinson's Glacier' 76

6.3b Wilkinson Valley 76

7.1 Four academics from the University of Sydney, who were significant in fostering an interest in landform studies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries 97

8.1a The Blue Mountain Peneplain 115

8.1b The Stannifer Peneplain, New England Plateau 115

xiv 8.2 The Monaro Peneplain 119

12.1a Blue Lake, Mount Kosciusko Plateau 170

12.1b David Moraine, Mount Kosciusko Plateau 170

XV FIGURES

1.1 Maslen's projection of an east-west river 7 1.2 Map of Evans’s routes west of the Blue Mountains 12

1.3 Map of Oxley’s two expeditions in western New

South Wales 13 2.1 Location of landforms interpreted as resulting

from marine action 28

5.1 Map of portion of the Ballarat gold fields 59 6.4 Map of Permian glacial deposits in Australia 86 7.1 Block diagram of the Sydney region 104

7.2 Geographical regions of the warped coastlands around Sydney 106 12.1 Glacial features in the Mount Kosciusko area 174 12.2 Distribution of cirque-like features in the south-eastern uplands according to various authors 176 12.3 Diagrammatic representation of climatic change in the post-Pleistocene Epoch 182

12.4 Diagrammatic representation of the history of climatic conditions, soil-forming intervals, and depositional systems indicated in the Riverine Plain 185

13.1 Drainage patterns in the Swan-Avon-Mortlock-Salt River flats system in relation to landscape zones 214 31.2 Landforms, parent material, and soils 215

13.3 Location map of the Riverine Plain in south­ eastern Australia 218

13.4a Diagrammatic cross-section of the common ground- surface situation on the Riverine Plain 221

xvi 13.4b Diagrammatic longitudinal section of dune

and swale at Swan Hill 221

13.5a Diagrammatic cross-section of the common

ground-surface situation at Canberra 222

13.5b Diagrammatic cross-section of the common

ground-surface at Nowra 222

xvii INTRODUCTION

Australian geomorphology

might be said to start with the earliest interpreta­ tions 'of landforms by explorers at the beginning of the

nineteenth century. Such interpretations were often made on the basis of what was known on the periphery of the continent to support conjectures concerning what lay in the interior.

Such conjectures reinforced their theories of the configu­

rations of the continent, and hence justified their expedi­

tions , or their predictions of the commercial potential of

the landscape. This early exploratory phase also included

the first interpretations of landforms that are peculiarly

Australian in character, and the impact these strange land­

scapes had on the explorers.

Systematic landform studies, however, were not under­ taken until the latter part of the nineteenth century, mainly because the early colony lacked that residential middle and might professional class, which / have initiated scientific pur­ suits, and followed some of the landform controversies which

were prevalent in Britain in the 1830s and 1840s. For this

reason, the visits of naturalists and geologists such as

Charles Darwin, J.D. Dana and J.B. Jukes in the first half of

the nineteenth century did not have the local impact that they might otherwise have had. Some attention is therefore given in

the thesis to the early growth of the scientific community in

Australia, and the establishment of scientific societies in

the second half of the nineteenth century which were instru­

mental in furthering the study of landforms by way of becoming a forum for discussion and a publishing medium.

1 In New Zealand, by contrast, systematic landform studies were made by geologists, surveyors and engineers shortly after settlement began in 1840. Perhaps this greater acti vity may be attributed to the different cross-section of European society then represented in New Zealand. As well, the landforms are more similar to those of Europe than are those of Aust­ ralia, and therefore offer a greater stimulus to landform studies than the Australian landforms which, apart from their

sheer size, hostile environment, flat and uniform nature, did

little to foster an interest in landform studies at this time.

Thus by 1861 Julius von Haast was already engaged in the

study of glaciation in New Zealand, whereas in Australia the

first study of glaciation was not made until 1879. Neverthe­ less, the first Australian glacial study produced such con­ troversial evidence that it led to systematic glacial studies,

and as it represents the first important geomorphological in­ vestigation, it is recorded here in some detail.

The mid-nineteenth century saw the development of two important interrelated conditions, which were to establish

and promote the study of Australian physiography. The first was early mining activity, in particular the search for gold, which necessitated the study of the physiographic relationship

between landforms and the alluvial deposits of gold of various geological ages. The second aspect was the establishment of

universities in the 1850s , which soon after their establishment began to teach physical geology and by the 1890s physiography, especially at the University of Sydney. It is therefore re­

levant to this thesis for the writer to trace both mining

activities in relation to the interpretation of landforms, and the history of the University of Sydney's Department of Geo-

2 logy and later, Department of Geography, in order to es­

tablish the growth of academic physiography.

By the turn of the century the first large-scale

studies of Australian landforms were being undertaken.

They inevitably referred to some of the peculiar features of the Australian landscape, such as widespread erosion

surfaces and plateau levels, and the associated duricrusts.

In the interpretation of these features, the framework of

the geographical cycle of W.M. Davis showed the impact of this theory at this time in Australia. Further, the impor­ tant role of geologists in these extensive landform studies is significant as it led to the later controversies concer­ ning the structural origin of these large landsurfaces when they were re-examined by geomorphologists.

The 1920s saw a period of less interest in landform studies, which was to continue into the post-World-War-Two period. The study of landforms during this period of decline was the product of a few geologists and geomorphologists ge­ nerally associated with universities. This decline can be attributed firstly to the fact that geology became more spe­ cialised and less concerned with aspects of physiographical interpretation, whilst the study of landforms became one of several aspects of geography at that time. Nevertheless the first fifty years of the century are significant for geomorpholo- gical investigations which not only established the basic knowledge of the landforms present in Australia, but also interpreted the landforms for the first time within a geomorphological framework, including their structural origins.

3 The post-World-War-Two period, especially since the mid-1950s, saw not only a revitalization, but also major changes in the emphasis of landform studies. This development can be attributed to two aspects: firstly, the rapid growth of Australian universities in the post-war period, including the establishment of new Departments of

Geography. Because of the larger student numbers these were able to employ specialists, including geomorphologists, which brought about changes in the structure of geographical teaching. Furthermore, the lack of a sufficiently large number of trained Australian geomorphologists necessitated large-scale recruitment from overseas, particularly from Britain, which had the effect of introducing into Australian geomorphology new areas of expertise and interests applied lo the Australian landscape. Secondly, the widespread ap­ plication of applied geoinorphology in regional resource sur-

\eys, regional soil studies and engineering terrain studies is reflected in the work of the C.S.I.R.O. These studies relied heavily on air photo interpretation, in which geomorphologists have made an important contribution. There has also been a trend in recent years for geologists to return to landform studies through their involvement in regional geological surveys which, like the C.S.I.R.O. surveys, depend on air photo interpretation, and make an understanding of landform de­ velopment important.

4 CHAPTER ONE

Appeal to the Evidence of Landforms in Speculations about the Interior of Australia

To European explorers, the remote location of

Australia and its physical features presented particular difficulties in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The large area, the unindented coastline, the short navigable reaches of many of the rivers, with steep sectors and irregular flow, the peripheral topographic barriers, and the arid climate made effective penetration of the interior difficult.

Early knowledge of the continent, like the pattern of early settlement, was therefore confined to the margin. This led to a situation in which explorers travelled into the inte­ rior from coastal settlements or from ships surveying re­ mote parts of the coast.

It was to be expected therefore that early re­ ports and maps of Australia were fragmentary and contradic­ tory, and that speculation should result concerning the vast interior that remained unknown. This speculation, based on

European experience of a humid climate and a developed river system, was often strengthened by the wishful thinking that a major river or inland sea would eventually be located, which would assist in the commercial exploitation of the con­ tinent - a sentiment expressed by Sir Joseph Banks as early as 179 8.

These speculations were further fostered by the

5 new-gained knowledge of north Africa, and the discovery that the Nile and Niger Rivers both flowed through large interior basins and swamps before they reached the sea.

It was therefore not surprising that speculations based on accounts of Australian exploration as to the existence of a continental river, inland sea, and mountain ranges were made by people who had not even visited Australia. One such example, T.J. Maslen (1830), published a book Friends of Australia, with an accompanying map of Australia

(see Figure 1.1) which epitomises the speculations made at the time both in Australia and Britain on the basis of the fragments of evidence known at the time.

1.1 The evidence for a strait deduced from tides and currents

The concept of a strait originated in the inconclu­ sive accounts of early Dutch and British navigators, and in coastal surveys undertaken in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. At this stage, early settlers were still uncertain whether Australia was one continent, or a series of islands separated by straits. This is seen by the speculation made by William Dampier, a British navigator, in 1699, when he reasoned that the high tidal range and strong currents north-east of Rosemary Island, off the north-west coast of

Australia, indicated a strait or a large river, as quoted by Lieutenant Matthew Flinders in 1814

"...he gives it as his opinion, that the northern part of New Holland was separated from the land to the south­ wards, by a strait; "unless," says he, "the high tides and indraught thereabout should be occasioned by the mouth of some large river; which hath often low lands on each side of the outlet, and many islands and shoals lying at its entrance; but I rather thought it a channel, or strait, than a river." (Quoted by M. Flinders, 1814, Vol. 1, p. LXVI)

6 FIGURE 1.1

An example of the speculations as to the existence of an east-west flowing river, by T.J. Maslen, a retired officer of the East India Company. Although he had never been to Australia, he compiled a book based on the findings of explorers, The Friends of Australia, in 1827, but deferred publication until 1830. By this time, Sturt's discovery of the Darling River, but not his discovery of the Murray River, had become known in England.

Dampier was probably influenced in this interpretation by his expectation that the archipelago characteristics of the Dutch East Indies would also hold true for nearby

Australia.

This uncertainty was also reflected in official

•thinking as late as 1800. Thus P.G. King, Governor of the

Colony of New South Wales, stated that the report of a coastal indentation (now Port Phillip Bay) made by Lieute­ nant James Grant of the "Lady Nelson",

"...favours the popular idea in this colony of a communication being between the southern part of New Holland and its northern extremity, terminating by the Gulph (sic) of Carpentaria, which if so, insulates New South Wales." (P.G. King, 1801, letter to the Colonial Secretary, 5th Jan., 1801)

1.2 The concepts of a river of continental extent and of an inland sea

As knowledge of the continent gradually increased, however,the concept of an archipelago had to be replaced, albeit reluctantly, by the idea of a single continent; and the concept of a strait by that of a river of continental extent or of an inland sea, either landlocked or with an out­ let on the north-west coast. Not unnaturally, the area of

Dampierfs speculation, the remotest from the early settle­ ments, remained the scene of conjectures for the longest period of time.

Such conjectures were exemplified by Flinders, whose incomplete coastal survey of 1802-3 led him to express the view that since the south and north coasts had not shown any evidence of a strait or major river estuary, the north-west coast seemed the most likely location for such features.

"But whether this opening were the entrance to a strait, separating Terra Australis into two or more islands, or led into a mediterranean sea, as some thought; or whether it were the entrance of a large river, there was, in either case, a great geographical question to be settled, relative to the parts behind Rosemary Island." (M. Flinders, 1814, Vol. I, p. LXVI)

Speculations continued to flourish in the absence of precise information. The hope that a navigable river existed, for example, was expressed in the British Admiralty sailing instructions to Captain P.P. King, in 1818.

"The chief nature of your survey is to discover whether there be any river on that part of the coast likely to lead to the interior navigation into this great conti­ nent. " (P.P. King, 182 7 , Vol. I, p. 18) As a result of sailing difficulties and incompetence, King's four voyages to the north and north-west coast between 1818 and 1822 failed to settle the question of the existence of a strait or major river in that part of the country. Thus

King's conclusions in 1827 were still essentially the same as Dampier's, and relied on the same evidence.

"...if there is any opening into the interior of New Holland, it is in the vicinity of this part. Off the Buccaneer's Archipelago the tides are strong and rise to a height of thirty- six feet. Whatever may exist behind these islands which we were prevented by our poverty in anchors and other circum­ stances from exploring there are certainly some openings of importance, and it is not at all improbable that there may be a communication at this part with the interior for a consi­ derable distance from the coast." (P.P. King, 1827, Vol. II, p. 123)

By this time, negative results of surveys along other parts

9 of the Australian coastline had served to focus all hopes of a major inlet on the north-west coast. Hence King's vague but optimistic reports were influential in perpetu­ ating the myth of a major waterway? thereby encouraging later explorers to continue the search and to interpret such landforms as they did locate as indicating the exis­ tence of such a river, even in the face of growing evidence to the contrary.

One of the first to consider the possibility of major waterways was Sir Joseph Banks in 1798. In line with commercial expectations that there would be major rivers leading into the interior of such a large land mass, his reasoning is illustrative of bontemporary assumptions that conditions prevailing in other well-watered continents would also apply in Australia.

"It is impossible to conceive that such a body of land, as large as all Europe, does not produce vast rivers capable of being navigated into the heart of the interior." (J. Banks, 1798, letter to the Colonial Secretary, 15th May, 1798)

After 1815, exploration, mainly by land, was do­ minated by attempts to locate large navigable rivers such

as those contemplated by Banks. Because expeditions set

out from the settlements in the south-east of the continent,

the explorers first gained knowledge of the watershed. Here

on the tableland surfaces they found headwaters of a relative­ ly low gradient, heading in various directions, and since they lacked knowledge of the coastal geography they allowed themselves almost limitless speculation about the possible

outlets of those rivers into the ocean.

10 Hence G.W. Evans, a surveyor who was the first to explore westward beyond the Blue Mountains, thought that the Macquarie River,the first to be discovered west of the

Great Dividing Range, (see Figure 1.2), flowed to the west coast, an assumption which was supported by Governor Lachlan

Macquarie.

"...I shall be happy and ready to go on at any future time to attempt a journey to the western coast, which I think this river leads to ..." (G.W. Evans, 1816, p. 173)

The Lachlan River, which Evans discovered in 1815, was also seen by him as flowing to the west coast.

As a result of these promising discoveries,

Governor Macquarie sent Lieutenant John Oxley in 1817 and

1818 to trace the courses of the two rivers (see Figure 1.3).

When both rivers seemed to end in marshes, Oxley conjectured that they combined to form an inland sea.

This conjecture proved to be a blow to the earlier extrapolative predictions of commercial enthusiasts regarding a continental river system, as was expressed by Judge Barron

Field in 1823.

"That the two principal interior rivers of New South Wales, namely the Lachlan and the Macquarie, should both terminate in swamps or shoal lakes, instead of finding their way to the sea, has caused as justly the surprise of the physical geographer, as the disappointment of the political economist." (B. Field, 1825, p. 299)

As a result of this disappointment, official exploration of these rivers was halted for ten years.

11 FIGURE 1.2

Twenty-five years after the landing at Port Jackson the Blue Mountains were crossed by Gregory Blaxland, William Wentworth, and Lieutenant Lawson. In the same year, Governor Lachlan Macquarie sent Assistant Surveyor George Evans to explore beyond the point reached by the three previous explorers, in the hope that he would locate a major river flowing from the eastern side of the continent to the north-western margin of the Indian Ocean.

(Hap by courtesy of the Trustees of the Mitchell

Library, of the Library of New South Wales,

Sydney.) , Nk.

SA'rtrh of ' ***■ MO! « y c' m?evanss koitte We S T of thr BL UE MO UNTAINS

Nor.DwfiSiS and Jan*TiAi4.

Th»____bciW.r tFEran* tradt out

TKa...... pu* bit return .

12 FIGURE 1.3

As a result of the promising discoveries by Evans, Governor Lachlan Macquarie sent Lieutenant John Oxley in 1817 and 1818 to trace the courses of the Macquarie and Lachlan Rivers. When both rivers appeared to end in marshes, Oxley conjectured that they combined to form an inland sea. This discovery was a blow to the hope of finding a river flowing from east to west and consequently retarded exploration further west by another ten years.

(Map by courtesy of the Trustees of the Mitchell Libra of the Library of New South Wales, Sydney.) IM.* 1.21 The use of stream projection to support the postulate

of a large east-west river

Since the headwaters of the Lachlan and Macquarie

Rivers, when first discovered, were at a considerable al­ titude above sea level, speculations as to their eventual course were supported by projections based on their pro­ bable fall. One such speculation based on stream projection was that of Alan Cunningham, a botanist appointed by Banks.

He employed this method to support the view that the Mac­ quarie , and the rivers he had located on his way north to

Moreton Bay in 1827, could flow to the north-west coast.

But in his calculations he failed to allow for the rapid fall of the rivers at their headwaters.

"...the Macquarie river, which rises in lat. 33®, and under the meridian of 150® east, would have a course of 2045 statute miles throughout, while the elevation of its source, being 3500 feet above the level of the sea as shewn by the barometer, would give its waters an average descent of twenty inches to the mile, supposing the bed of the river to be an inclined plane... The Gwydir originating in elevated land, lying in 31° south, and long. 151° east, at a mean height of 3000 feet, would have to flow 2020 miles, its elevated sources giving to each of mean fall of seventeen inches... Dumaresq's river falling 2970 feet from granite moun­ tains, in 28V under the meridian of 152°, would have to pur­ sue its course for 2969 miles, its average fall being eighteen inches to a mile." (Quoted by C. Sturt, 1833, Vol. I, pp. 156-157)

It is probable that Cunningham merely used these calcula­

tions to support the preconceived ideas which he had gained

during Oxley's expeditions to the Lachlan and Macquarie marshes , where the fall of the country was to the north­ west. He had also been influenced by King's ideas and his

own observations during their four surveys of the north-west

coast between 1818 and 1822.

14 with Field (1825), in contrast / Cunningham, was more cautious in drawing conclusions from the evidence of the eastern rivers of Australia as to their direction of flow, and suggested further exploration and the establish­ ment of fixed altitudes before stream projection could be employed.

"Our associate, Mr. Oxley, although his health is broken by these two long and unsuccessful expeditions, which make such sport to the Reviewers, is anxious to see how the end of the Macquarie may look in a different season; but economy is now the order to the day,...and another expedition, barometrically appointed, would perhaps set the question at rest, whether these rivers, from their heights above the surface of the ocean, can possibly fall into th6 main sea." (Field, 1825, pp. 305, 311)

To show that the two rivers might still continue to the ocean, and hence, to encourage the allocation of government funds for another expedition, Field used stream projection based on the known gradients of major rivers in other countries.

"Supposing the Lachlan to run to the nearest point of the sea, namely at Cape Jervis of the south-west coast, it would give a fall of only a foot and a third per mile for the whole river. Supposing the Macquarie to find its shortest way, namely to near Smoky Cape on the east coast, it would have more than two feet of descent for every mile. One foot for every mile is as great a descent as the Thames has for its last forty miles, and perhaps for its whole course, taking the Isis to be two hundred feet above the sea's level; and it is clearly shown in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, that the beds of rivers by no means form themselves in one inclined plane, but that the continued track of a river is a succession of inclined channels, whose slope diminishes by steps, as the river approaches to the sea." (Field, 1825, p. 306)

Field also took into account the barometric measure­

ments of altitude taken by Oxley and Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane.

15 "...Mr. Oxley (if we are to rely upon the Surveyor- General's heights) makes the Macquarie fall 437 feet in little more than fifty miles, namely, from near the head of the Fish River to Bathurst; and 750 in about fifty miles, namely, from the head of the Campbell to its junction with the Macquarie. Sir Thomas Brisbane makes a fall of 1140 feet from the Fish branch to Bathurst, which is impossible in a dis­ tance of only thirty miles without cataracts, and must be attributed to some error in using the barometer." (Field, 1825, pp. 307-308)

Field therefore took into account the steep inland fall of

the streams beyond the headwater reaches, which was due to

the tableland nature of the Great Dividing Range; and in

the light of the small remaining fall across the continent, he discounted the possibility that the rivers could reach

the sea on the north-west coast.

"...as far as the fall of the Macquarie waters has been ascertained, it is highly improbable that either the Lachlan or the Macquarie should ever reach the ocean..." (Field, 1825, p. 308) He also compared the Lachlan and Macquarie with the Niger, which was then thought to end in swamps, and the Nile, which flows through the Sudd in its upper reaches and continues to the coast, and rejected the possibility of an outlet onto the north-west coast. At the same time Field recognized that if the rivers ended in an inland sea, the altitude of such a

sea need not necessarily be at sea level.

"...if the Lachlan and Macquarie should ultimately end in large interior salt-lakes, there is no saying how small an elevation, from the ocean level, the rivers need have." (Field, 1825, p. 311)

Field supported this concept with evidence from Russia, where the Volga River flows into the Caspian Sea.

"The head of the Volga, a river which is 2600 miles in length, is not more than 470 feet above the surface of the ocean, but then it falls into the Caspian Sea, which is 306 feet below the level of the ocean;..." (Field, 1825, p. 311)

16 Four early nineteenth century Australian explorers significant in establishing the basic landforms of

Australia:

Alan Cunningham, botanist sent to Australia by Sir Joseph Banks. Accompanied Lt. J.J.W.M. Oxley to the Lachlan River, 1817, and Captain P.P. King on his four coastal voyages, 1818-22. Discovered the Darling Downs, 1825. As a result of his voyages with King and his crossings of the northern rivers, he used stream projection to support his firm con­ viction that a major east-west river existed in Australia.

Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, 1827-54. Explored the Darling River, 1835- 36, and the northern rivers, 1845-46, in his search for a major east-west river. Discovered the Barcoo River, the headwaters of Cooper Creek, which he named the Victoria River, in anticipation that this was the headwaters of the Victoria River located by Captain J. Lort Stokes, 1839, in north-western Australia.

Captain Charles Sturt. Traced the Macquarie River as far as the Darling, 1828-29. Showed that the Lachlan flowed into the Murrumbidgee. Traced the latter to the Murray. Found the junction of the Darling and the Murray. Traced the Murray to the south coast, 1829-30. Thereby solved the problem of western drainage. Believed in the existence of an inland sea. Instead, located the Stony Desert, 1844. Was the first to formulate a theory of landform evolution in Australia, 1840.

Edward John Eyre, discovered Lake Torrens and crossed the continent from Adelaide to King George's Sound in Western Australia, 1840-41. Was the first explorer to discount the theory of an inland sea and to suggest the existence of an inland desert. Supported Sturt's theory of landform evolution in Australia.

(Photographs by courtesy of the Trustees of the

Mitchell Library, of the Library of New South Wales, Sydney.) 17 Field therefore regarded stream projection as premature until the supposed inland sea had been located and its altitude had been established.

Captain Charles Sturt, like Field, recognized that the rapid fall of the rivers on the western side of the Divide, and their low gradient after that point, made it most unlikely that they would reach the north-west coast.

"As I have never been upon the banks either of the Gwydir or the Dumaresq, I cannot speak of these two rivers; but in estimating the sources of the Macquarie at 3500 feet above the level of the sea, Mr. Cunningham has lost sight of, or overlooked the fact, that the fall of its bed in the first two hundred miles, is more than 2000 feet, since the cataract, which is midway between Wellington Valley, and the marshes, was ascertained by barometrical admeasurement, to be 680 feet only above the ocean. The country, therefore, through which the Macquarie would have to flow during the remainder of its course of 1700 miles, in order to gain the N.W. coast, would not be a gradually inclined plain, but for the most part a dead level, and the fact of its failure is a sufficient proof in itself how short the course of a river so circumstanced must necessarily be." (Sturt, 1833, Vol. I, p. 157)

1.22 Arguments based on climate and stream regimes

In 1828, Cunningham postulated that the rivers of the north-western slopes would end in a large inland sea or join in the interior, and aided by tributaries, would have adequate water to sustain them across the continent. This false reasoning appears to have been due to his observations of the north-west fall of the topography and his assumption of a uniformly moist climate across the continent. Hence he expected rainfall to contribute to the volume of water needed

18 for a transcontinental river to maintain its flow.

"Viewing between the parallels of 34° and 27°, a vast area of depressed interior, subjected in seasons of prolonged rains to partial inundation, by a dispersion of the several waters that flow upon it from the eastern mountains whence they originate; and bearing in mind at the same time, that the declension of the country within the above parallels, as most decidedly shewn by the dip of its several rivers, is uniformly to the N.N.W. and N.W., it would appear very conclusive, that either a portion of our distant interior is occupied by a lake of considerable magnitude, or that the confluence of those large streams, the Macquarie, Castlereagh, Gwydir and the Dumaresq, with the many interfluent waters, which doubtless takes place upon those low levels, forms one or more noble rivers, which may flow across the continent by an almost imper­ ceptible declivity of country to the north or north-west coasts, on certain parts of which, recent surveys have discovered to us extensive openings, by which the largest accumulations of waters might escape to the sea. (Quoted by Sturt, 1833, Vol. I, pp. 154-155)

It was left to Sturt in 1833, to express a true understanding of Australian climatic control and topography, which made Cunningham's assumptions invalid.

"It is characteristic of the streams falling westerly from the eastern, or coast ranges, to maintain a breadth of channel and a rapidity of current more immediately near their sources, that ill accords with their diminished size, and the sluggish flow of their waters in the more depressed interior. In truth, neither the Macquarie nor the Castlereagh can strictly be con­ sidered as permanent rivers. The last particularly is nothing more than a mountain torrent. The Macquarie, although it at length ceased to run, kept up the appearance of a river to the very marshes; but the bed of the Castlereagh might have been crossed in many places without being noticed, nor did its channel contain so much water as was to be found on the neighbour­ ing plains.

There are two circumstances upon which the magnitude, and velo­ city of a river, more immediately depend. The first is the abundance of its sources, the other the dip of its bed. If a stream has constant fountains at its head, and numerous tribu­ taries joining it in its course, and flows withal through a country of gradual descent, such a stream will never fail; but if the supplies do not exceed the evaporation and absorption, to which every river is subject, if a river dependent on its head alone, falls rapidly into a level country, without receiving a single addition to its waters to assist the first impulse acquired in their descent, it must necessarily cease to flow at one point or another. Such is the case with the Lachlan, the Macquarie, the Castlereagh, and the Darling." (Sturt, 1833, Vol. I, p.155-156)

19 Sturt was therefore the first to appreciate some of the characteristics of the surface hydrology of Australia, and its difference from other continents as a result of the topography and the climate.

1.23 The attempt to establish the existence of an east-

west river from evidence in the north-west of

Australia

By 1833, Sturt had solved the problem of the outlet of the drainage in the south-eastern quarter of the

Australian continent. Thus speculations concerning a con­ tinental river now centred on the inland rivers in the north-east portion of the continent, and those which were thought to exist inland from the north-west coast. Thus a renewed attempt was made to settle the question by means of another coastal survey. In 1837, therefore, the British Admiralty sent HMS Beagle under Captain J.C. Wickham, with J.L. Stokes as second-in-command, to the area which had not been explored since the surveys of Flinders in 1802-3 and King in 1818-22.

"Of the Australian shores, the north-western was the least known, and became, towards the close of the year 1836, a subject of much geographical speculation. Former navigators were almost unanimous in believing that the deep bays known to indent a large portion of this coast, received the waters of extensive rivers, the discovery of which would not only open a route to the interior, but afford facilities for colo­ nizing a part of Australia, so near our East Indian territo­ ries, as to render its occupation an object of evident impor­ tance .

His Majesty's Government therefore determined to send out an expedition to explore and survey such portions of the Australian coasts, as were wholly or in part unknown to Captains Flinders and King." (J.L. Stokes, 1846, Vol.I,p.l-2)

20 Thus, when the Fitzroy River was located by

Wickham on the north-west coast in 1838 at a time of flooding, he interpreted the source of the floods as lying in the interior, rather than in the coastal up­ lands of the north-west portion of the country. In his letter of 1838 to Lieutenant George Grey, later Governor of South Australia, Wickham wrote of the Fitzroy that

"It appears to be very similar to the rivers on the south-east side of New Holland, subject to dreadful inundations, caused by heavy floods in the interior, and in no way connected with the rainy season on the coast. Our visit to it being in February and March, immediately after the rainy season on the coast, without our seeing any indication of a recent flooding, although there were large trunks of trees, and quanti­ ties of grass and weeds, lying on the bank, and sus­ pended on the branches of trees from ten to twelve feet above the level of the river." (G.E. Grey, 1841, Vol. I, p. 269-270)

Stokes , who later replaced Wickham as commander of the Beagle, showed the same tendency to argue in favour of a major river flowing from the interior to the north­ west coast. For example, when the Victoria River was lo­ cated in 1838, Stokes postulated its source as being far southwards into the interior, basing his argument on the direction of the river as established by exploration in a small boat a short distance upstream.

"Its apparent direction continued most invitingly to the southward - the very line to the heart of this vast land, whose unknown interior has afforded me so much scope for ingenious speculation, and which at one time I had hoped it was reserved for us to do yet more in reducing to cer­ tainty. And though from the point upon which I stood to pay it my last lingering farewell the nearest reach of water was itself invisible, yet far, far away I could per­ ceive the green and glistening valleys through which it wandered, or rather amid which it slept: and the refreshing verdure of which assured me just as convincingly as actual observation could have done of the constant presence of a large body of water: and left an indelible impression upon

21 my mind, which subsequent consideration has only served to deepen, that the Victoria will afford a certain pathway far into the centre of that country of which it is one of the largest known rivers." (Stokes, 1846, Vol. II, p. 82-83)

This report of a second river with its outlet on the north-west coast inevitably added fuel to speculations concerning a continental river.

To some extend these speculations were countered by Grey as early as 1841, who recognised that the flood regimes of north-west Australia might resemble those in the south-east of Australia as they also have their source very close to the sea.

"The rivers in North-western Australia much resemble in character those of the south-eastern parts of the continent. They rise at no very great distance from the sea. Near their sources they are mountain torrents, but in the lowlands they become generally streams, with slow currents,...which are liable to sudden and terrific inundations, caused, I conceive, by the rain which falls in that part of the mountains where the rivers take their rise ;. . . " (Grey, 1841, Vol. I, p. 268)

By virtue of this comparison, Grey showed a realization that the Victoria was likely to rise near the coast rather than inland.

1.24 The continuing belief in the existence of a continental

river in the light of growing evidence to the contrary

Nevertheless, the concept of a continental river persisted as late as 1845, when Major T.L. Mitchell, Surveyor General of New South Wales , still argued on the basis of the direction of stream courses. Thus, when he saw the upper reaches of the Barcoo River flowing in a north-westerly direc

22 tion, he named it the Victoria, in the expectation that this was the headwaters of the river of that name located on the north-west coast.

"...I hastened towards the gap and ascended a naked rock on the west side of it. I there beheld downs and plains extending westward beyond the reach of vision...the whole of these open downs declining to the N.W., in which direc­ tion a line of trees marked the course of a river trace­ able to the remotest verge of the horizon. There I found then, at last, the realization of my long cherished hopes, an interior river falling to the N.W. in the heart of an open country extending also in that direction. Ulloa's delight at the first view of the Pacific could not have surpassed mine on this occasion, nor could the fervour with which he was impressed at the moment have exceeded my sense of gratitude for being allowed to make such a dis­ covery. From that rock, the scene was so extensive as to leave no room for doubt as to the course of the river, which thus and- there revealed to me alone, seemed like a reward direct from Heaven for perseverance, and as a compensation for the many sacrifices I had made, in order to solve the question as to the interior rivers of Tropical Australia." (T.L. Mitchell, 1846 , pp. 30 8-309)

As with King’s confident predictions in 1818-22, Mitchell's report still left the basic question of a continental river unanswered, although by this time, 1845,

factors such as climate, gradient and the lack of tributa­

ries had cast doubts on the existence of such a river.

1.3 The end of the concepts of a continental river and of an inland sea

The question as to the existence of a continental

river was not settled until 1855-1856, when A.C. Gregory

established that the source of the Victoria River was near the north-west, and in 1858 showed that the Barcoo River was the headwater of Cooper Creek, which flowed into Lake Eyre in central Australia, thereby proving that no conti­ nental river existed in Australia.

Similarly, the question as to the existence of an inland sea became more doubtful by the 1840s as a result of exploration activities and a better understanding of

Australian stream behaviour. The first doubt as to the existence of such a feature which was based on the under­ standing of the Australian environment was expressed by

E.J. Eyre, when he located Lake Torrens in 1840.

"I have never met with the slightest circumstance to lead me to imagine that there should be an inland sea, still less a deep navigable one, and having an outer communica­ tion with the ocean. I can readily suppose, and, in fact, I do so believe, that a considerable proportion of the interior consists of the beds or basins of salt lakes or swamps, as Lake Torrens, and some of which might be of great extent. I think, also, that these alternate, with sandy deserts,..." (E.J. Eyre, 1845, Vol. II, p.134) His travels had brought Eyre face to face with the inesca­ pable realities of the climate in inland Australia.

"I may mention the hot winds which in South Australia, or opposite the centre of the continent, always blow from the north, to those, who have experienced the oppressive and scorching influence of these winds, which can only be compared to the fiery and withering blasts from a heated furnace, I need hardly point out that there is little probability that such winds can have been wafted over a large expanse of water." (Eyre, 1845, Vol. II, p. 137)

Despite this adverse report, Sturt took a boat with him when he set out in 1844 to locate pasture land west of the Darling River, in western New South Wales.

Instead of an inland sea, however, Sturt located an inland desert, which offered him no choice but to doubt the concept

24 of an inland sea, though he still found this very difficult

to accept.

"I am still of the opinion that there is more than one sea in the Interior of the Australian continent, but such may not be the case. All I can say is, would that I had dis­ covered such a feature, for I could then have done more upon its waters tenfold, than I was able to accomplish in the gloomy and burning deserts over which I wandered during more than thirteen months." • (Sturt, 1849 , Vol. I, p. 34)

In 1858, after a journey further north than Eyre, and further west than Sturt, the Gregory brothers cast further doubt

on the existence of an inland sea.

"This peculiar structure of the interior (drainage) renders it improbable that any considerable inland lakes should exist in connection with the known system of waters; for, as Lake Torrens is decidedly only an expanded continuation of Cooper's Creek, and therefore the culminating point of this vast system of drainage, if there was sufficient average fall of rain in the interior to balance the effects of evaporation from the surface of an extensive sheet of water, the Torrens Basin, instead of being occupied by salt marshes, in which the existence of anything beyond shallow lagoons of salt water is yet problematical, would be main­ tained as a permanent lake. Therefore, if the waters flowing from so large a tract of country are insufficient to meet the evaporation from the surface of Lake Torrens, there is even less probability of the waters of the western interior forming an inland lake of any magnitude, even should there be so ano­ malous a feature as a depression of the surface in which it could be collected, especially as our knowledge of its limits indicate a much drier climate and less favourable confirmation of surface than in the eastern division of the continent." (A.C. Gregory and F.T. Gregory, 1884, p. 209)

Like Eyre, therefore, they considered that climate, as

well as the drainage pattern of most Australian rivers, was unlikely to give rise to an inland sea. The mirage of such

a feature finally faded when J.McD. Stuart crossed the centre of Australia from south to north between 1860 and 1862.

25 CHAPTER TWO

Impact of Landforms of Continental Australia on Early

Explorers and Scientific Investigators

With the establishment of the main landforms on the continental margins and in eastern Australia by the

1840s, explorers now began to focus their attention on the inland and southern areas of the continent, and here they were struck by the extensive surfaces of low relief, in some areas with an extensive cover of stones or gibbers, and in other areas with sand dunes in the form of parallel ridges, or extensive salt lakes. In addition to these un­ accustomed landforms, the prevailing arid climate gave rise to the speculation by explorers that these features could not have been formed by running water or aeolian ac­ tion, and they consequently attributed the formation of the landforms to marine action. However, these specu­ lations did not arouse local or overseas scientific interest, as at this time the conditions for such follow-up studies were not advanced enough in Australia.

The impact made by these desert features led Sturt and Eyre to formulate the concept that the landforms of southern and inland Australia had been shaped by marine ero­ sion when the area had been a sea floor which had emerged only recently. Thus in 1840, in a letter to Sir George Gipps,

Governor of South Australia, Sturt suggested that Australia had been a group of islands.

26 "It has forcibly occurred to me after much mature consi­ deration of the subject, and intense observation that the continent of Australia was formerly an island, and that consequently all the isolated ranges had formerly the ocean rolling between them. This idea I took up before my first visit to Adelaide and was confirmed by my finding the fossil formation Substratum of the Country to the Westward of the Mount Lofty Range - My journey to the North with the Governor confirmed still more my conviction that the promontory of Cape Jarvis (South Australia) was an Island." (Sturt, 1840 , letter to Sir G. Gipps , 24th June, 1840)

In 1843, when writing to King for help in ob­ taining government support for an expedition to inland

Australia, Sturt cited further evidence for this view.

"It occurred to me that the Australian continent was formerly an Archipelago of islands and that the sterile tracts over which I had wandered was the former channel between these. I do not know how you will receive this idea, but it is self-evident to me. The city of Adelaide is built on the same kind of fossil formation which towers over the waters of the Murray. It is spread over the in­ terior to the northward and forms a greater part of the Australian Bight and lies along the shores of Encounter Bay. There can be no doubt therefore that the Mount Lofty Chain was once an island." (Sturt, 1843, letter to Captain P.P. King, 5th December, 1843)

Sturt’s expedition to the interior of South

Australia and part of the Northern Territory in 1844 (see

Figure 2.1) confirmed his earlier observations and specula­ tions that the interior of Australia had been submerged and only recently uplifted.

"It struck me then, and calmer reflection confirms the impression that the whole of the low interior I had traversed was formerly a sea-bed, since raised from its sub-marine position by natural though hidden causes." (Sturt, 1849, Vol. I, p. 381)

He thought that the ranges and flat-topped duri-

crust-capped hills had been islands at the time of Austra-

27 >* c tp Eo 0> "O o* *-*-%-■*- != >* o c ^ LU I O cn . . 2 “3-3 « \ i. ■ i ■ i

_ cvj ro mari

from

resulting

as

interpreted

landforms

of

Location

2 8 lia's submergence, and that the steep sides of the duri- crust-capped hills displayed evidence of the turbulence of the water which had lapped the islands.

"That they exhibit evidences of a past violent commotion of waters...

that the range of hills I have called 'Stanley's Barrier Range' , and that all the mo ion tain chains to the eastward and westward of it, were once so many islands I have not the slightest doubt, and that during the prim­ eval period, a sea covered the deserts over which I wandered;..." (Sturt, 1849, Vol. II,pp. 128-129)

Consistent with the concept of seeing the inte­ rior plain-as a former sea floor, Sturt saw the ,§and dunes on the margins of the stony desert north-east of the New South

Wales border as the result of marine rather than aeolian action - a view he based on the concept of the continuing and regular spacing and trends of these longitudinal dunes.

"...-that the winds had formed these remarkable accumula­ tions of sand, as straight as an arrow lying on the ground without a break in them for more than ninety miles, that is to say across six degrees of latitude? No! winds may indeed have assisted in shaping their outlines, but I cannot think, that these constituted the originating cause of their formation. They exhibit a regularity that water alone could have given, and to water, I believe, they plainly owe their first existence." (Sturt, 1849, Vol. I, p. 381)

The absence of sand dunes on the stony desert

Sturt attributed to this area's lying lower than the area of sand dunes. Thus the ocean currents would have been too strong, and consequently no sand accumulation could have taken place.

"I further think, that the line of the Stony Desert being the lowest part of the interior, the current there must have swept along it with greater force, and have either made the breach in the sandy ridges now occupied by it, or have prevented their formation

29 at the time, when, under more favourable circumstances, they were thrown up on either side of it." (Sturt, 1849, Vol. I, pp. 381-382)

On the basis of his own observation in the Lake

Torrens area of South Australia (see Figure 2.1), Eyre

came to similar conclusions in 1845 as Sturt had in 1840-

1843 concerning the marine origin of the landforms and

recent uplift of the area.

"The suggestion thrown out by Captain Sturt a few years ago, that Australia might formerly have been an Archipe­ lago of islands, appears to me to have been a happy idea, and to afford the most rational and satisfactory way of accounting for many of the peculiarities observable upon its surface or in its structure. That it has only re­ cently (compared with other countries) obtained its pre­ sent elevation, is often forcibly impressed upon the tra­ veller, by the appearance of the country he is traversing, but nowhere have I found this to be the case in a greater degree, than whilst exploring that part of it, north of Spencer's Gulf, where a great portion of the low lands intervening, between the base of Flinders range, and the bed of Lake Torrens, presents the appearance of a succes­ sion of rounded undulations of sand or pebbles washed per­ fectly smooth and even, looking like waves of the sea, and seeming as if they had not been very many centuries deserted by the element that had moulded them into their present form." (Eyre, 1845, Vol. II, pp. 134-135)

with In contrast / Sturt, Eyre thought that the duri-

crust-(silcrete) capped hills he had observed near Lake

Torrens represented a distinct surface above which the

ranges rose. He regarded the duricrust (silcrete) surface

as part of the former sea floor, on the basis of having lo­

cated sea shells, as well as on the work in Arkansas? U. S . A. ?

by Vide Catlin, who described layers of gypsum and salt

extending through a considerable extent of the country, which Eyre thought was of similar formation to what he had

located in the north of Spencer Gulf. Eyre also regarded

30 the ranges as former islands.

"In this singular district I found scattered at intervals throughout the whole area inclosed by, but south of, Lake Torrens, many steep-sided fragments of a table land, which had evidently been washed to pieces by the violent action of water, and which appeared to have been originally of nearly the same general elevation as the table lands to the westward. It seems to me, that these table lands have formerly been the bed of the ocean, and this opinion is fully borne out by the many marine remains, fossil shells, and banks of oyster shells, which are frequently to be met with embedded in them. What are now the ranges of the con­ tinent would therefore formerly have been but rocks or islands..." (Eyre, 1845, Vol. II, pp. 135-136)

Although there is no direct evidence to link the views expressed by Sturt and Eyre with contemporary geolo­ gical thought, it is of interest that at this time the explanation of flat surfaces of unconformity and continen­ tal plains were being explained by marine planation rather than subaerial planation, as evidenced in Sir Charles Lyell’s book,'Principles of Geology* ,in 18 30-1833. It is possible that both Sturt and Eyre had been exposed to such ideas when they visited Britain in 1833 and 1844 respectively.

On the other hand, the interpretations by Sturt and Eyre in the 1840s of the desert landforms of Australia as being of marine origin were to foreshadow interpretation of desert features in other parts of the world. For example the Sahara’s landforms, such as sand dunes, salt lakes, level surfaces and steep-sided residual hills which rise abruptly from the plain-like islands, were seen by E. Desor in 1865 as the result of marine action. /

The idea of an Australian archipelago, and its re-

31 cent emergence from the sea, was kept alive by geologists and naturalists such as J.B. Jukes (1850), John Mac- Gillivray (1852), and A.R. Wallace (1880). They used the concept to explain the geographical distribution of flora and fauna within the continent. Similarly, geologists perpetuated the concept of marine submergence in the areas

they investigated for minerals. This is evident from the Report on the geology of the Kimberley district, Western Australia by E.J. Hardman (1885), who interpreted some of

the boulder beds in the Louisa River, south-west of Mt.

Huxley in the Leopold Range,as of marine origin, since he

considered they could not be correlated with the local geo­

logy. and had therefore been brought to the area by ocean

currents (an origin similar to that of the gibbers in central Australia, as Sturt had thought).

"...at one time, not very remote - perhaps the Pliocene period - this district was covered by a sea, remarkable for high and rapid tides and strong currents. The carbo­ niferous (sic) rocks formed prominent reefs in that sea; and these boulders, originally tom from what are now the Leopold Ranges, and tossed about in this troubled water, until they were rounded into the forms in which we now find them, were finally rolled away by powerful currents and tidal influences, and deposited against and on the carboniferous (sic) reef. The general form of the gravel ridges and the nature of the deposits, which, when a sec­ tion is exposed, is seen to be more or less stratified, goes far to favor this supposition." (E.J. Hardman, 1885, p. 15)

The gibber plain of the interior was only one example of the extreme flatness of interior Australia. It is this flatness which did more than anything else to en­

courage the concept of marine planation. Furthermore, since this was also an arid area, in which the early observers

32 disregarded running water as a process of shaping the land-

forms, it was possible to explain the origin of desert land- forms only by way of marine action - a concept that persis­ ted until 1908. This is seen from the work of Alexander Montgomery (1908), a geologist, who interpreted the land-

forms on the plateau of Western Australia as the result of marine erosion.

"The principal topographical features of the gold­ fields remain therefore as they were left after being shaped by a process of marine erosion by a shallow sea which later rapidly contracted to a series of salt lakes." (A. Montgomery, 1908, p. 40)

A year earlier, however, J.W. Gregory (1907) had

already pointed out that the landform features of the

Western Australian Plateau had been formed by subaerial denudation, and he saw the so-called isolated salt lakes to which Montgomery refers not as the result of a contracting sea, but because of their alignment, as part of an ancient river system which he called river lakes. Gregory's work thus foreshadowed that of Jutson and Woolnough.

33 CHAPTER THREE

Early Scientific Investigations, Scientific Societies, and Landform Studies

Australia was settled in a scientific age, but the growth of the early settlements was too slow at first to establish and nurture a middle and professional class which might have undertaken scientific investigations.

Thus the scientific investigations which were carried out in Australia at this time were undertaken by overseas scientists who were directed from overseas. The investi­ gations which dominated the period were concerned with the natural history of the new continent, and in particular its flora and fauna.

This period of scientific investigation took two forms. The earlier period was marked by the arrival of naval expeditions with a scientific element, coming from countries from continental Europe and having a primarily political purpose. The most important of these expeditions were from France under Napoleon I, and Russia.

Naturalists who were attracted to the study of the new flora and fauna were typified by French naturalists such as N.T.M.du Fresne in Tasmania in 1772 , Lou’is Nee in

New South Wales in 1793, Francois Peron in South Australia and New South Wales in 1802, or Russian naturalists such as Thaddeus von Bellingshausen in New South Wales in 1820.

34 Expeditions such as theirs made Australian natural his­

tory known in Europe, and stimulated the visits of other

scientists (G.P. Whitley, 1933, pp. 299ff), but they were

of necessity limited in scope and duration, since they

were all ship-based.

The second and more significant period was one

in which scientific investigation by Britain was associated

with the annexation and settlement of Australia. As a con­

sequence, this investigation was extended further inland

over larger areas and longer periods of time by the tem­

porary residents. To a very large extent these early

British investigations were initiated and directed by Sir

Joseph Banks, who had become keenly interested in Australian

natural history as a result of his journey with Captain

Cook from 1768 to 1771. Because of his high standing in

political as well as scientific circles, Banks was able to

obtain the support of George III and the Colonial Office to

appoint competent explorers and collectors. This influence

can be seen from his correspondence with Governor Hunter, in 1797,

"...I shall solicit the King to establish a botanist with you." (J. Banks, 179 7, letter to Governor Hunter) and with Governor King, in 1804,

"...I had a great loss in Lord Hobart's going out of office; for I had just prevailed upon His Lordship and Mr. Sullivan, his Secretary, to understand the history of your colony, and was in hopes of going on better than I ever have done, when His Lordship re­ signed.

I have a new task to undertake, to bring Lord Camden and Mr. Cooke into the same happy disposition." (Banks, 1804, letter to Governor King)

35 and with Flinders, in 1801.

"I have the satisfaction to inform you that my Commission of His Majesty's sloop Investigator came down here this morning, and for which, Sir Joseph, I feel myself entirely indebted to your influence and kindness." (M. Flinders, 1801, letter to Sir Joseph Banks)

The direction of the activities of his appointees , such as Robert Brown and Ferdinand Bauer, is illustrated by

Banks’s letter to Brown in 1804.

"...if you have not proceeded on your return to Europe before this comes to hand that yourself and Mr. Bauer will get a passage in the first government vessel that returns. You will have exhausted all your neighbourhood and the southern isle, where I conclude the plants are very different from those of Sydney." (Banks, 1804, letter to Robert Brown)

A travelling collector for Kew Gardens on Banks’s recommendation, Cunningham showed what could be done over an extended period of time in the Colony. Thus between

1816 and 1839, he sent botanical and zoological specimens, fossils and rocks to Banks for classification, cataloguing and acclimatization. Banks also saw to it that Cunningham accompanied Oxley as a botanist to the Lachlan and Macquarie

Rivers, and King on his four voyages to the north-west coast of the continent, as shown in 1817 in a letter to King from

Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies.

"...you will receive on board Mr. A. Cunningham, a botanist, now in New South Wales, who has received the orders of Sir Joseph Banks to attend you:..." (King, 1827, p. XXX)

Later, Cunningham explored a route from Bathurst to the

Liverpool Plains, and discovered the Darling Downs. As

Superintendent of the Sydney Botanic Gardens in 1837, he studied soils, climate, and the acclimatization of plants

36 which might prove to be useful to the Colony.

Under Banks’s direction then, the natural history which dominated scientific activity during this early period

of Australian history was concerned primarily with the sampling of the new flora and fauna.

By the 1820s and 1830s, there arrived in Australia to take up administrative posts a small number of educated and enterprising men, who, with a potential interest in scientific investigation, formed the first nucleus of a scientific community. These residents formed two types: those who stayed temporarily, and those who remained per­ manently. The former were mainly senior officials, such as

Governors Sir Thomas Brisbane, Sir John Franklin, Sir William Denison and Judge Barron Field. The latter comprised more

junior officials, such as Lieutenant John Oxley, Major T.L.

Mitchell, Captain Charles Sturt, and H.G. Douglass, a medi­ cal practitioner.

The temporary residents, because of their senior suanding, were more able to take a lead in establishing

scientific activity and keeping them functioning as long as they were resident in the Colony. Because of their senior standing, they could pursue broader interests than

37 the permanent residents. The latter were often too pre­ occupied with their duties at this time to make a sus­ tained contribution to scientific societies. Their in­ terests were inevitably confined more to their professional tasks, and hence narrower than those of the temporary resi­ dents at the time when the scientific societies were first established and struggling for survival.

The first of these Societies, the Philosophical

Society of Australasia, modelled on scientific societies in Britain such as the Royal Society, was founded by Governor

Brisbane a mere month after his arrival in New South Wales in 1821. The Society consisted of only eleven members, however, and lasted only one year. In the following year, six of the eleven became office bearers of the Agricultural

Society of New South Wales, which lasted from 1822 to 1826.

This too reflected the small number of colonists interested in intellectual pursuits, and their inability to sustain scientific investigations at this time.

No minutes of the meetings of these early So­ cieties have survived, although some of their activities and office bearers were recorded in the Australian Almanac.

However, some of the papers presented at the meetings were collected by Field, and published in 1825 in his Geographic

Memoirs. The interests of these two Societies fell into three main areas: exploration, aboriginals, and scientific investigation. The last category included: On the Geology of part of the coast of New South Wales, by Alexander Berry,

38 Four early nineteenth century naturalists, who stimulated an interest in Australian landform studies:

Judge Barron Field. Member of the first scientific society, the Philosophical Society of Australasia, 1821-22. President of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales, 1823. Interested in the question of western drainage. Was the first to apply stream projection in Australia. Published the first scien­ tific papers in Australia in his Geographic. Memoirs on New South Wales, 1825.

Dr. Henry Grattan Douglass. Treasurer and Secretary of the Philosophical Society of Australasia, 1821-22. Committee Member of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales, 1823. Member of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of New South Wales, 1826-36. Secretary of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales, 1855-66. Persuaded W.C. Wentworth to propose a University Bill in the Parliament of New South Wales, 1848. Hence a dynamic member of the permanent scienti­ fic community in Australia, which helped to make con­ ditions favourable for geomorphic investigations in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane. Interested in science prior to his arrival in Australia. Initiated and became Presi­ dent of the first scientific society in Australia, the Philosophical Society of Australasia, 1821-22. Patron of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales, 1823. A temporary resident who stimulated the beginning of a local scientific community earlier than would otherwise have been the case.

Governor Sir John Franklin. Founder and President of the Tasmanian Society, 1838. Stimulated a high standard of scientific research. A temporary resident who initiated an active scientific community and attracted important over­ seas scientists as corresponding members of the Society. The Society did not foster geomorphic research, but showed scientific activity in Australia at this time.

(Photographs by courtesy of the Trustees of the Mitchell Library, of the Library of New South Wales, Sydney. ) 39 Esquire, and On the Astronomy of the Southern Hemisphere, by Dr. C.S. Rumker, both of which were read before the

Philosophical Society of Australasia; and On the Rivers of

New South Wales, by Field, read before the Agricultural

Society of New South Wales, and comprising the first app­ raisal of Australian landforms. These earliest scientific societies in Australia were typical of early Societies in

Britain and America, in that they all failed to persist initially, and were unable to provide a means of publica­ tion during their short lives.

The first scientific society to persist in Aus­ tralia, and to publish its own journal, was the Tasmanian

Society, founded by Governor Franklin in 1838 , and amalga­ mated into the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1849. The Tas­ manian Society published The Tasmanian Journal of Natural

Science, and the articles reflected a high standard and a broad range of interests, including natural science and ex­ ploration. Among them were the following: Strzelecki’s

(1842) Australian Coals, Clarke's (1846) The Trilobites of

New South Wales, Mitchell's (1847) Account of the exploring expedition into the interior of New South Wales, and

Leichhardt's lectures and report on the country between

Moreton Bay and Port Essington, given in 1847 and 1849.

The standing and influence of the Tasmanian So­ ciety are also illustrated by the corresponding members, both from overseas and from other parts of Australia, as for example, Reverend William Buckland, Professor of Geology

40 at Oxford University, W.S. Macleay, a retired diplomat and

judge, Clarke, Jukes, Count Sir Paul de Strzelecki, geolo­

gist and explorer, Sturt, Mitchell, Stokes, Dr. Ludwig

Leichhardt, and Governor Grey.

"There was then no other scientific society or periodical in Australia. The Society had corresponding members in the neighbouring colonies, and also in Europe: and con­ sequently it had the opportunity of publishing much scien­ tific work from other countries; and many names afterwards famous are to be found among its contributors." (E.L. Piesse, 1913, p. 130)

Even when the scientific community had grown suf­

ficiently by the 1840s to sustain a permanent Society with

its own journal, as in Tasmania, geological papers formed

only a small part, and landform studies an even smaller

part of the total number. A parallel development did not

commence in Victoria until 1855, and in New South Wales in

1862, when, stimulated by the search for gold and the es­

tablishment of Geological Surveys, geological papers were being presented and published in increasing number. Since the search for gold at this time involved surface deposits, attention was focussed on landforms, with the result that landform studies now began to be undertaken.

41 CHAPTER FOUR

Contributions by the Visiting Earth-Scientists in the Early Nineteenth Century

In view of the slowness with which an indigenous

scientific society was started in Australia, it was not un­

expected that the visits of some outstanding naturalists

with geological interests, and geologists, during the second

quarter of the nineteenth century, as members of the around- the-world scientific expeditions which characterised scienti­ fic investigations at this time

aroused remarkably little local interest.

The first of these around-the-world scientific

expeditions to arrive in Australia was that of H.M.S. Beagle from Britain in 1836, with Charles Darwin as its naturalist.

During the ship's eighteen days in Sydney, Darwin crossed the

Blue Mountains to Bathurst, and examined the surrounding

countryside. His interpretation of the landforms, and notably

the canyons of the Blue Mountains, is of interest as it

amounts to the first scientific statement on the origins of Australian landforms.

His account of the canyons of the Blue Mountains, in particular, shove the influence of Lyell, a copy of whose

Principles of Geology Darwin had brought with him on board.

Hence Darwin emphasised marine rather than subaerial erosion

as the means by which the canyons had been shaped.

42 "The first impression, from seeing the correspondence of the horizontal strata, on each side of these valleys and great amphitheatre-like depressions, is that they have been in chief part hollowed out, like other valleys, by aqueous erosion; but when one reflects on the enormous amount of stone, which on this view must have been removed, in most of the above cases through mere gorges or chasms, one is led to ask whether these spaces may not have sub­ sided. But considering the form of the irregularly branching valleys, and of the narrow promontories, projecting into them from the platforms, we are compelled to abandon this notion. To attribute these hollows to alluvial action, would be pre­ posterous; nor does the drainage from the summit-level always fall, as I remarked near Weatherboard, into the head of these valleys, but into one side of their bay-like recesses, with the headlands receding on both hands, without being struck with their resemblance to a bold sea-coast. This is certainly the case; moreover, the numerous fine harbours, with their widely branching arms, on the present coast of New South Wales, which are generally connected with the sea by a narrow mouth, from one mile to a quarter of a mile in width, passing through the sandstone coast-cliffs, present a likeness, though on a miniature scale, to the great valleys of the interior. But then immediately occurs the startling difficulty, why has the sea worn out these great, though circumscribed, depressions on a wide platform, and left mere gorges, through which the whole vast amount of triturated matter must have been carried away?" (C. Darwin, 1876, pp. 152-153)

The second world scientific expedition to call in at Sydney was the American Squadron, in 1839. J.D. Dana, its naturalist, remained in the Colony during the Squadron’s voyage to Antarctica, thus making his visit longer than that of Darwin. Dana’s account of the canyons of Kangaroo Valley, in The American Journal of Science in 1850, was in complete with contrast / Darwin’s explanation of a comparable feature in the Blue Mountains to the north.

"The idea that running water was the agent in these operations appears not so 'preposterous' to us, as it is deemed by Mr. Darwin...The extent of the results is certain no difficulty with one who admits time to be an element which a geologist had indefinitely at command...Indeed the whole rock, from the uppermost layer to the deposits below the coal, is remarkably fragile, considering the age of the deposits - crumbling readily, and often breaking without difficulty in the fingers; ...The denudation of such material requires no preparatory de­ composition, as with many igneous rocks, but takes place from wear alone, and with but slight force in the agent. It is obvious for the same reason that the material carried off by denudation ought not to appear in frag­ ments through the lower country. A short journey along a rapid stream would reduce even large masses to powder. The plains of the Kangaroo Valley are covered in places with basaltic pebbles or boulders; but the sandstone/ which is the prevailing rock along the bed of the stream and in the enclosing hills, has scarcely a representative fragment among the debris. The sandstone blocks are worn to sand or earth by the torrent, while the harder basalt is slowly rounded...

The credibility of the view we favor is farther sustained by the character of the stream. We have alluded to the great extent of the floods and the rapid rise of the rivers attending them. The stream of the Kangaroo Grounds, when visited by the writer, was a mere brook, fordable in any part, and it flowed along with quiet murmurings. How different when the brook becomes a river thirty feet deep, driving on in a broad torrent, and flooding the valley; and this had been its condition but a few weeks before. If, as has been shown, the transporting power of running water increases the sixth power of the velocity, and a stream of fifteen miles an hour has more than ten times the transporting power of one moving ten miles an hour, we can comprehend how very inadequate must be the conceptions of this force which we derive from viewing a stream at low water...

Mr. Darwin derives his principal argument against the hypo­ thesis of denudation from the forms of the valleys, - their width, extent and ramifications, and yet narrow embouchures. But we find on consideration that this form is a necessary result of the mode of denudation under the circumstances supposed." (J.D. Dana, 1850, pp. 290-292)

Dana’s interpretation of subaerial erosion represents the

Huttonian point of view. In this., Dana was one of the few who did not adopt the then current theory of marine erosion which had been expounded by Lyell.

Another geologist of note to visit Australia during this period was J.B. Jukes, naturalist on HMS Fly, which arrived in 1842 to survey the Barrier Reef and explore the

Queensland coast. Jukes’s prime concern was with geology ra­ ther than with landforms , and he was significant for his com-

44 pilation of Australian geology.

The general lack of local impact by these visitors can be attributed to the dearth of naturalists and geologists in the colony at the time of their visits. Darwin, the first scientist with an interest in geology to visit Austra­ lia, made virtually no contact with the scientific society in the colony. In part, this is explained by the shortness of his visit, and the fact that he was not a well-known figure at this time. In fact, Darwin did not even meet the

few naturalists who were here, such as the entomologist,

Alexander Hacleay, although he did meet the hydrographer, P.

P. King, briefly.

By the time of Dana's visit in 1839, however, the geologist, Reverend W.B. Clarke, had arrived to take up his appointment as headmaster of The King's School, at Parramatta,

New South Wales. Clarke accompanied Dana to the Kangaroo

Valley canyons south of Sydney, and en route wrote the first

description of the Kiama Blowhole. The two men established a

firm friendship which resulted in a regular correspondence,

and kept Clarke in touch with American advances in geology in the eighteen forties and fifties.

Further personal interaction took place when Clarke met Jukes in 1842 and established a link with geological de­

velopments in Britain by means of a correspondence which lasted for many years.

The effect of Jukes's visit on the knowledge of

45 Australian geology was extended by the publication in 1850 of his book,A Sketch of the Physical Structure of Australia as far as it is at present known. This reflected the in­ creasing amount of information on Australian geology and landforms which had by now been collected. The book was accompanied by a geological map, the first to be compiled, which was used by gold seekers.

46 CHAPTER FIVE

The Stimulus Given to the Study of Landforms by the Search for Minerals in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

The discovery of precious minerals and the de­ velopment of mining were important factors in the initi­ ation of landform studies in Australia around the middle of the nineteenth century. Problems of the source and occurrence of alluvial gold in eastern Australia led directly to consideration of the geomorphological process responsible, and the nature of the ancient river systems with which alluvial gold was associated. Indirectly, the nascent mining industry was important in that it led to the establishment of geological surveys and encouraged within Australia many of the geologists who were to become the pioneers of landform studies. This remained an impor­ tant link whilst the emphasis was on surface exploration of mineral deposits.

5.1 The use of landforms to predict the occurrence of

minerals

The forecast of mineral potential based on com­ parison of the trend and geological formations of different mountain ranges was proposed as early as 1829 by Elie de

Beaumont in his theory of a contracting earth. One of his supporters was Sir Roderick Murchison, Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. In 1845, after

47 a visit to the gold-mining areas of the Urals, Murchison obtained Australian rock specimens brought to Britain by Strzelecki, and found that they resembled the auriferous rocks of the Urals. This resemblance inevitably led him to predict the existence of gold in the Great Dividing Range of eastern Australia, since not only its lithology, but also its longitudinal trend and moderate altitudes were similar to those of the Urals.

"With the exception then of a few embranchments towards its southern end, which throw off the waters of the Darling and its tributaries into the new settlements of South Australia, and of the curvilinear band in Van Diemen's Land, this chain may be said to have a meridian direction through upwards of 35° latitude, and is there­ fore considerably longer than the Ural, another great meridian chain,... The Australian chain further resembles the Ural in being composed, according to Strzelecki, of an axis of eruptive or igneous rocks (greenish syenite, greenstone, porphyry, serpentine, &c.) - some metamorphic rocks (quartz rocks and slate) with unquestion­ able palaezoic deposits on either flank. It still further resembles the Ural in altitude and in the total absence of all free transpor­ ted blocks or boulders, all the alluvia or di- luvia being local; but it so far differs from the Ural and many other meridian chains, in having as yet offered no trace of gold or auri­ ferous veins." (R. Murchison, 1844, pp. 49-50)

with Clarke used this comparison / the local scene, and also pointed out that several known auriferous mountain ranges in the world occurred at regular intervals of longi­ tude , so that on this basis the eastern Australian upland areas were favourably aligned to offer prospects of gold discovery.

"Sufficient examples of the parallelism of auriferous mountain ranges to each other and to the meridian are offered in these pages; but it is a very remarkable fact, that in some cases these parallels fall on meri-

48 dians at intervals of 90° from each other; thus, the Ural, the Australian Cordillera, and the Sierra Nevada, in California, are 90° apart. The auriferous ranges of Madagascar are also 90° distant from the auriferous ranges of South Australia. Other instances will occur to the physical geographer...

All then, that was required to predict the existence of gold in Australia, was this - that rocks known to produce gold in other countries exist here under the same normal conditions; and having determined, not only that these conditions do exist, but also recur in parallels, it is easy to predict, with certainty of success, that what is true of one locality, must be, probably, true of every other similar locality." (W.B. Clarke, 1851, p. 13)

As the major gold deposits occurred on the dry eastern side of the Urals, Clarke's prediction that those of Australia would occur on the dry western slopes of the

Divide appeared to be justified.

"It is scarcely needful to say, that, as in Australia, the slopes are westerly, towards our Siberian desert, the auriferous detritus is more likely to occur on this, than on the eastern side of the Cordillera, though there is no solid reason to doubt that it might occur on that side, if the conditions allowed, just as occasionally in the Ural they pass to the westward of the chain." (Clark, 1851, p. 15)

His views were supported by his earlier disco­ very of gold in the Hart 1 ey district on the western side of the Divide in 1844.

5.2 Moves to establish Geological Surveys

The establishment of geological investigations, particularly those on a regional scale, was dependent on the establishment of a geological survey, and in Australia, this in turn had to wait on the discovery of gold and the gold fever of the mid-nineteenth century. Although Clarke had located gold at Hartley in

1844, this discovery was kept confidential to prevent an exodus of Sydney’s population and a disruption of the fab­ ric of Australian society at that time. J.D. Lang moved in the Legislative Council of New South Wales that funds should be provided for a geological purvey, but the move was defeated because at this time it was considered to be a purely scientific enterprise. It thus lacked political support and attracted only public apathy.

"Zoology, Mineralogy, and Astronomy, and Botany, and other sciences are all very good things, but we have no great opinion of an infantile people being taxed to promote them. An infant Colony cannot afford to become scientific for the benefit of mankind." (Sydney Monitor, 20th July 1833, editorial)

However the proposal to establish a Survey was strengthened by Murchison's prediction in that year, as also by Strzelecki's suggestion to the British Government in 1845, that such a body should be established to relate Australia's geology to that of the rest of the world. Jukes, as

Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, also recom­ mended a systematic geological survey of the Australian

Colonies in order to reduce the wastage incurred in uncon­ trolled mining if gold were discovered.

All this fell on deaf ears until after the dis­ covery of gold in California, and of copper, lead and iron in New South Wales. Thus, in 1849, the Governor of New

South Wales, Sir Charles Fitzroy, asked that a geological surveyor be sent from Britain, and Samuel Stutchbury's ar­ rival in November, 1850, marked the beginnings of systematic surveys. Before he had time to organize his investigations,

50 PLATE 5.1

Four early Australian geologists, and their use

of landform evidence to interpret the geological

history in the areas of their investigations.

a. Reverend William Branwhite Clarke. Pioneer geologist, friend of Dana, unofficial Government Geologist in New South Wales, 1851-52. At various times Vice-President of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales and the Royal Society of New South Wales. The first to locate gold in Australia, 1844, and to predict gold deposits by means of landforms.

b. Samuel Stutchbury. Curator of the British Philosophical Institute, 1850, first Government Geologist of New South Wales, 1851-55. Surveyed 32,000 square miles, submitted 16 Government Reports, located gold and limestone deposits

c. Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn. Employed by the Geological Survey of Great Britain, 1845-52. Mineral Surveyor of Victoria, 1852-60, Director, Geological and Mineral Survey of Victoria, 1860-69. Was the first to locate glacial de­ posits in Australia, in 1859, at Inman Valley, in South Australia.

d. Robert Mackenzie Johnston. Registrar-General and Govern­ ment Statistician of Tasmania from 1882. Wrote the first book on the geology of Tasmania, 1888. Published a host of papers on geology between 1871-1918. A friend of A.K. Lewis, whom he imbued with his interest in geology and glaciology. Lewis developed a theory of gla­ cial stages in Tasmania.

(Photographs by courtesy of the Trustees of the

Mitchell Library, of the Library of New South

Wales , Sydney.) 51 however, E.H. Hargraves found gold near Bathurst in April,

1851, and started a gold rush such as had been feared earlier

Stutchbury surveyed and mapped parts of New South Wales which included Queensland at this time, and also located further gold deposits. He was assisted in this survey work by Clarke who was a geological advisor to the government in 1851-2.

In 1855, Stutchbury returned to Britain and the Survey in New South Wales lapsed until 1873.

After gold was discovered in 1851 in Victoria, a Geological Survey was established in that Colony in 1852 by Lieutenant-Governor C.J. La Trobe under A.R.C. Selwyn, (who had previously been with the Geological Survey of Great Britain).

5.3 Consideration of the source of the alluvial gold

In 1851-1852, Clarke discussed the origin of the gold deposits, their location, and the geomorphological factors involved. He was of the opinion that the alluvial gold deposits which had been located by this time must have originated in either quartz or granite, and had been removed by weathering.

"I have seen several of these lofty masses rising to sixty and even 100 feet in height. Careful examina­ tion proved to me that they owe their general outlines to the directions of the joints and planes of fissure that were once continuous through vast areas of rock, of which these are alone the relics, now shaped into rounded forms by the slow but certain processes of nature, and still gradually crumbling into dust by the effects of that decomposition which attends all concretionary structures in decay. The frosts of winter, the snows and rains, and the summer's heat, to which they are alternately exposed, are the silent

52 but sufficient chiselling by which nature fashions the solid structures of the globe into those forms of picturesque beauty which often greet the weary geologist in his solitary researches; and it is impossible to contemplate these spectacles of change without a perplexing sentiment as to the little we really know of what has been or as to what may be­ come of the surface of a planet thus impressed by the visible demonstrations of powers that nothing can resist." (Clarke, 1852a, p. 71)

To account for the gold in areas where there was no evidence of quartz or granite source rocks, Clarke

proposed that the gold had been transported by water during a previously moister climate.

"...the amount of evidence, from a collection of ob­ servations recorded by the various travellers and navigators, in Australasia, is so great in favour of a former much more moist condition of climate than now obtains, that it is impossible to come to any other conclusion than that in previous geological epoch, waters which were capable of producing effects such as those shown by the widespread local detritus and deeply-accumulated alluvia of the country north­ west of the Liverpool Range, and capable of dispersing gold as we now find it dispersed (which the present streams could not have dispersed under any known con­ ditions of the present climate), must have occupied a more prominent position on the then surface of Australia than the lakes, and rivers, and streams of the present day can claim." (Clarke, 1852b, p. 38) i

This is perhaps the first formal statement of a geologist writing as a geomorphologist concerning the possibilities of a previously wetter climate in Australia.

To explain the drifts of coarse angular quartz sand in the Monaro region, Clarke wrote in 1853 that evi­ dence such as polished surfaces suggested glaciation in the higher parts of the Monaro region, which he thought might

53 have been at an even higher elevation in the past.

"So far as Maneero (sic) is concerned, the melting of snows when the country was at a higher elevation... seems a more probable cause of dispersion, either in connection with, or independent of, a diluvial torrent. ...In my opinion, the polished surfaces in question owe their condition to snow. In the present state of the climate, and at the present level above the sea of these rocks, snow never lies in their neighbourhood more than a few days or hours, and could not produce such ef­ fects.

But if the continent once stood at a generally higher, though not greatly higher elevation, the snows of the Alpine chain of the Muriong must have extended into these very localities, and ice would then have existed as glaciers; the snows would thus have produced here the same results ascribed to them in Europe and America." (Clarke, 1853 , p. 37)

Like the later Australian geologists in the

1880s, Clarke considered that a higher altitude rather than a colder climate might have been the cause of perma­ nent snow in the eastern uplands, and as well, that Aus­ tralia might once have been more extensive to the east than in the present, and therefore had a larger catchment area for snow and the formation of glacier ice.

"The conviction of my mind is, that the dry land of Australia was once far wider than now; that is, ex­ tended to the eastward; that it stretched seaward so as to advance nearer to New Zealand, and the intermediate islands, which all evidently rise from the same submarine base;...there was once, if not more than once, a breadth of surface sufficiently wide, perhaps, to have allowed the formation of reservoirs, or when higher of melting snows, and other agencies by which drift has been produced in other regions;..." (Clarke, 1853, p. 38)

In Victoria, gold was first discovered in areas where the landforms had been modified by basalt flows.

Here the alluvial gravels which in the pre - basalt period had been deposited in deep valleys, had become covered and

54 protected by basalt flows(New Volcanics). These so- called deep leads became recognised as the fillings of ancient valleys and were related partly to the present drainage system and partly to an earlier drainage system, which had been disrupted by basalt flows and earth move­ ments. Therefore the search for gold deposits was asso­ ciated with the elucidation of ancient river systems, necessitating the explanation of the disruption of these stream systems, and thereby giving some of the first in­ dications as to the origin and age of the landforms of the southern parts of the eastern Australian uplands.

In themselves deep leads were therefore impor­ tant features for the location of further gold deposits in Victoria. A deep lead was defined in 1869 by R.B. Smyth as

"A deep alluvial auriferous deposit or gutter. A lead, correctly defined, is an auriferous gully or creek or river, the course of which cannot be determined by the trend of the surface, in consequence of the drainage having been altered by the eruption of basalt or lava or the deposition of newer layers of sand and gravel." (Quoted by S. Hunter, 1909 , p. 2)

However, until it was understood that the alluvial gold occurred in gravel which had been deposited by older river systems, covered by basalt flows, and frequently dis­ placed by earth movement from the present stream system, any form of prediction of the occurrence of gold deposits was meaningless in Victoria.

"The locality now known by the name of the 'Ballarat Diggings' lies about six miles in a direct line from the remarkable volcanic hill still known by the native name of 'Boninyong' and to the west of 'Warreneep',

55 another eminence of similar origin, rising on the same ridge or water-shed. The geological formation of the country would appear to be the ordinary quartz ore, iron, sandstone, and clay slate, which is so general throughout this colony. 'Golden Point', where the principal workings at 'Ballarat' have been opened, presents, superficially, no feature to distinguish it from any other of the numerous forested spurs which descend from the broken ranges at the foot of the higher ridges, and which bound the valley of the Leigh on either side. Yet although it is now seen that the gold is to be found in one position or another, in greater or less quantities, in the whole of the sur­ rounding country, both on the ranges, or in the flats, or in the water-courses, various causes would seem to have given this particular point a superficial struc­ ture at least very distinct from others in its neigh­ bourhood as far as they have been examined, and have made it the depository of a far greater quantity of the precious metal within a limited area than has hitherto been discovered." (La Trobe, 1851, pp. 43-44)

The first time that the gold-bearing alluvium was traced underneath the basalt capping was in 1854 at

Creswick, just north of Ballarat. The relationship be­ tween the two was not immediately recognised, however, as shown by the fact that the miners at Ballarat continued to follow the present streams until 1855 .,

"Mining at Ballarat had so far been confined to the surface deposits and to the old river gravels that were buried under a comparatively thin layer of clay or sand. These gold-bearing beds were found lying upon the old slates and sandstones of the White Horse Range and Black Hill. The gullies on the hill slope, leading up to the main plateau, east of Ballarat, yielded some gold; but they were not rich. The rocks of the White Horse Range and of the hills around Little Bendigo were clearly the main source of the gold; so that, when the surface depo­ sits were exhausted, the miners naturally tried to follow the deposits down the river which had drained westward from these hills. It was obvious that the old river had not discharged southward along the present course of the Yarrowee. It seemed to have followed further towards the west. The courses of the main river and its tributaries were soon lost beneath the high basalt-capped plateau of Sebastopol. They appeared to dive under the plateau, so that it appeared probable that their gravels would be found continued westward beneath it.

56 The miners at first believed that the leads must be bounded to the west by the plateau of Sebastopol. The rock which forms the surface of this plateau was called trap ...The identification of the rock as trap expressed the belief that the igneous rock was the summit of a deep-seated igneous mass.

The apparently incredible hypothesis that the leads would be found to continue westward under the plateau was, however, in time forced on the miners by the failure to discover any other possible outlet... The miners would not at first believe that the lead could possibly pass under the basalt. The lead was expected to turn southward, down the valley of the Yarrowee. Shafts were sunk along its supposed route, and the search finally proved that the lead kept on beneath, and at right angles to, the Yarrowee, and passed under the basalt plateau." (J.W. Gregory, 1907, p. 3)

Once the nature of the deep leads was understood, the Geological Survey was provided with a principle which enabled the leads to be traced (see Plate 5.2). This then involved the geologists in the mapping of ancient topography, which indirectly led to a concern with the origin of the landforms in the area surveyed (see Figure 5.1).

The deep leads in Victoria were understood only after the Geological Survey in New South Wales had been suspended in 1855. As a result, the alluvial leads at

Forbes and Parkes, and the basalt-covered deep leads at Kiandra, were traced by the miners themselves, although they did not map the topography of the ancient landforms.

Thus Clarke's Government Report in 1852 had shown no aware­ ness of deep leads, although a footnote to the reports he published in book form in 1860, Research in the Southern

Goldfields of New South Wales, made reference to them. Mean­ while in 1855 with the lapse of the Geological Survey in

New South Wales, opportunities for systematic investigations PLATE 5.2

a. The Black Hill Lead at Ballarat, showing the present- day remnants of surface gold mining, was not a rich area, and the miners therefore followed the deposits downstream, which led them to the deep leads beneath the basalt flows. (Photograph taken by the writer.)

b. The White Horse Lead, also at Ballarat. Here the miners followed an ancient stream course, which, as seen from Figure 5.1, was at right angles to the present stream system. All that is left of their activity today are the mine shafts and waste, which form part of the local garbage dump. (Photograph taken by the writer.) 58 FIGURE 5.1

A portion of a map of the Ballarat Gold Fields showing the deep leads traced by the geologists employed by the Geological and Mineral Survey of Victoria.

(Map by courtesy of the Trustees of the

Mitchell Library, of the Library of New

South Wales, Sydney.) Snrvrvrd 4 Hr«n»irml for ihr WHITE HOUSE LEAD

Sartnnl Jr KriMfiil for ihr Hti:\TH)Ll\S LEW

/ / /

— slioHine Ihr r«*ljUi\r po»niutii» ol'llir __ N FRENCHMAN'S.WHITE HORSE,TERRIBLE7 COBBLER'S A LOW GILLY LEADS. ^KALUVAkAVf^ " Victoria SUstralia.^ I«SS.

i air 12 iSfi la am lark

59 ceased.

The alluvial tin discoveries in New England,

New South Wales, in 1873, led to the re-establishment of the Geological Survey that same year, and the Survey’s first report after this date, written by David, reflected an understanding of the New England leads. However this was not published until 1887, by which time the alluvial tin rush was over and interest in the area had waned.

Therefore, the report itself did not foster further stu­ dies of deep leads at this time, and follow-up studies were undertaken only in 1903 and 1904 by E.C. Andrews, who was also with the Geological Survey of New South Wales.

This time they led to extensive landform studies, which will be discussed in Chapter Eight.

60 CHAPTER SIX

The First Geomorphological Controversy: Glaciation in

Australia?

One of the earliest geomorphic controversies, that concerning the question whether or not part of Austra­ lia had been glaciated during the Pleistocene, was to lead to a number of significant developments in the history of

Australian geomorphology. Firstly, it showed the natural link between geologists and geomorphologists, in so far as that it was presumed that they were dealing with the last geological episode, the Quaternary. Secondly, it was the erroneous interpretation of the low-lying evidence, which was to focus attention on the true evidence in the Aus­ tralian Alps. Thirdly, the denouement was the recogni­ tion of the initial evidence as Permian.

The controversy started when Ralph Tate, Pro­ fessor of Natural Science at the University of Adelaide, discovered freshly exposed ice-worn boulders near sea- level at Hallett’s Cove in South Australia in 1878 (see Plate 6.1). He assumed that they had formed in situ and dated them to the Pleistocene period. These assumptions sparked off the first controversy in Australia concerning landforms, and for the next twenty years stimulated in­ vestigation into the existence and extent of glaciation in this country. To some extent, the controversy is still going on at the present time.

61 PLATE 6.1

a. Hallett Cove, where in 1878 Tate discovered freshly exposed ice-worn boulders. In the centre of the photograph are the large erratics he saw, in the foreground and background are the smaller gravels, (Photograph taken by the writer.)

b. A close-up view of the gravels at Hallett Cove, (Photograph taken by the writer.) 62 6.1 The first evidence

The early glacial landform studies show a link between Australia and Europe, as many of the early geolo­ gists had a background in glacial studies in

Britain or Europe. There are many factors which might have attracted glaciation studies, but possibly the most significant one at this time was that the concept of an ice age had been accepted only a quarter of a century earlier, and to find evidence of this in Australia was quite remarkable.

Tate had not been the first to discover evi­ dence of glaciation in South Australia. During his sur­ vey of the Inman Valley (see Plate 6.2) in the Mount Lofty

Ranges in 1859, Selwyn had already made reference to de­ posits of possible glacial origin.

"At one point, in the bed of the Inman, I observed a smooth striated and grooved rock surface, presenting every indication of glacial action. The bank of the creek showed a section of clay and coarse gravel, or drift, composed of fragments of all sizes, irregularly imbedded through the clay. The direction of the grooves and scratches is east and west, in parallel lines, or nearly at right angles to the strike of the rock, and though they follow the course of the stream, I do not think that they could have been produced by the action of water, forcing pebbles and boulders detached from the drift, along the bed of the stream. This is the first and only in­ stance of the kind I have met with in Australia, and it at once attracted my attention strongly reminding me of similar markings I had so frequently observed in the mountain valleys of North Wales." (Selwyn, 1859, p. 4)

Similarly, in New South Wales, Clarke had observed glacial features such as perched blocks during a geological survey for gold in the Australian Alps in 1851-1852.

63 PLATE 6.2

a. The smooth glacial pavement discovered by Selwyn in the Inman Valley in 1859/ showing the fresh­ ness of the striations and grooves. (Photograph taken by the writer.)

b. The glacial erratic/ also of Permian age, located by David in Inman Valley in 1897, not far from Selwyn's glacial pavement. (Photograph taken by the writer.) 64 "Probably in earlier times glaciers did form; for I saw more than one unmistakable bloc perche. A mass resting on upturned edges of strata...I am persuaded that formerly true glacier ice was formed on the Muniong, and I have always thought that the effect of it may have produced a kind of 'gold moraine' in places, where auriferous veins came into contact with ice." (Clarke, 1860, p. 230)

In Tasmania, the first report of possible glaciation was made in the 1850s by Charles Gould, Govern­ ment Geologist, previously with the Geological Survey of

Great Britain. Gould handed his observations on only ver­ bally, and they were not published until 1893.

"Mr. Charles Gould, formerly the Government Geologist of Tasmania, was the first person who appears to have drawn attention to the abundant evidence of glacial action in the alpine valleys of Western Tasmania... He has left no special memoir on the evidences of gla­ ciation, but it was through verbal communication to a personal friend of my own, and one of his early asso­ ciates, that I first, about 20 years ago, became aware of his discovery..." (Johnston, 1893, pp. 92-93)

That these mid-nineteenth century discoveries of past glaciation in Australia were not investigated fur­

ther at that time may be attributed to the fact that they were published in obscure government reports concerned primarily with auriferous deposits, and in one case did not appear in print until some twenty years later. Fur­

thermore, it may also be that at this time geological in­ vestigations were still in their infancy, and consequently

there were few resources for research into theoretical questions such as past glaciation.

By the 1880s, however, the number of geologists

65 and geological investigations in Australia had increased considerably, and with it, the growth in the scientific community, which made scientific publication possible.

One must also consider the considerable amount of glacia­ tion studies in New Zealand in the mid-nineteenth century, especially by von Haast, who urged Australian geologists to undertake similar studies in the Australian Alps.

Tate’s discovery and conclusions therefore received more publicity now, stimulated lively discussion, attempts at alternative explanations, and the search for glacial evi­ dence in the Australian Alps.

6.2 Consequences of the misreading of the evidence

Tate first presented ice-worn boulders from

Hallett's Cove to the Royal Society of South Australia in 1878.

"Professor Tate exhibited a piece of rock from Hallett's Cove which showed a polished and scratched surface indi­ cating glacial action." (Tate, 1878, p. 1)

In his Presidential Address to the Society in

1879, Tate presented further evidence of glacial action from Black Point in the same area. This consisted of smoothed, grooved and striated rock surfaces and morainic debris. To the south, across the Field River, he had located more morainic debris, and large erratics above the flat-topped cliffs, 50ft above sea level. Further inland, at Kaiserstuhl and Crafer's in the Mount Lofty Ranges, at an altitude of 800ft, Tate had observed what he considered

66 to be roches moutonnees.

Because of the freshness of the deposits, and their surface exposure, Tate dated them as Pleistocene.

However, this presented the problem of accounting for their location at a latitude of only 35° S, and at an al­ titude of only 50 to 800ft above sea-level. This is 5° equatorward of the southernmost limit of Pleistocene gla­ ciation near sea level in the Northern Hemisphere.

To explain Pleistocene glaciation in this setting, Tate suggested the following:

"If the ice originated within the country, then it must have been the result of either 1. The prevalence of a very much colder climate, or 2. That the land stood at much greater altitude (say, 10,000 feet), or the mountains may have had a more plateau like form and therefore need not have been so high, and consequently collec­ ted more snow, or 3. A combination of both." (Tate, 1878-79, p. 65)

Tate favoured the second hypothesis by claiming that during the Pliocene period, the continent had been elevated to an altitude of "perpetual snow" , and that the climate had been moister. He also claimed that the land had since subsided, and the climate had become drier. He did not explain the means for this large-scale elevation of the Mount Lofty Ranges to 10,000 ft, nor of the subsequent subsidence to their present 2,000 ft. There was therefore a lack of plausibility in Tate's assumptions which invited alternative explanations for the glacial deposits at Halletfs

Cove .

6 7 There were those geologists and naturalists who disputed the glacial origin of the evidence; others accepted "he evidence but disagreed with Tate's view that glacial deposits had formed in situ. A third group was motivated to test the hypothesis by seeking evidence of glaciation in areas which, by virtue of their altitude, were most likely to be glaciated, namely the Australian Alps.

6.3 Rejection of the evidence

The reluctance of certain geologists and naturalists in Australia to accept Tate's evidence as

Pleistocene in age or even glacial in origin was based on the belief that the low latitude of the continent and the low altitude of its mountains mitigated against the possibility of glaciation. They claimed that the evidence of flora and fauna indicated a warmer climate inconsistent with glaciation near sea level in South Australia.

The views were exemplified by Woods, an amateur but highly respected South Australian geologist. Woods questioned Darwin's theory of universal glaciation by pointing to the low latitude of this part of the Australian continent, and hence the futility of expecting glacial features there.

"Has this theory of a glacial period for all the world been borne out by observations in Australia? Of course we do not expect such evidence as the groovings and striations of icebergs, drift and 'till' or roches moutonnees. These signs do not extend in the northern hemisphere below the 40th parallel of latitude." (Woods, 1868, p. 44)

68 Woods also questioned the notion that Australia had been affected by a colder climate, as all the fossil evidence located by then suggested a warmer climate in the Pleistocene period.

"...the universality of a period of cold seems to be questioned by none; and even Australia is supposed not to have been exempted from it...But do we find evidence of extreme cold? On the contrary, we find evidence of extreme heat, or at least a heat almost tropical in South Australia, and as a consequence a subtropical fauna." (Woods, 1868, p. 44)

Although Woods found the evidence of glaciation in New Zealand rather disturbing, he regarded it as too limited to allow conclusions to be drawn from it, other than that it could have resulted only from exceptional circumstances which were not applicable either to Austra­ lia or to the rest of the Southern Hemisphere.

"A true glacial period in New Zealand would be a puzzling fact, and very difficult to reconcile with what we observe in Australia; but we may find hereafter that even in Europe climatial changes may depend upon physical conditions to which New Zealand has been especially and excep­ tionally subjected. At any rate, there has been no glacial period in Australia - in fact, the con­ tinent is now passing through a colder period than any of which we can find evidence in its previous geological history." (Woods, 1868, p. 47)

Sixteen years later, in 1883, Woods also brought forward the argument that the evidence was too localised, therefore rejecting Tate’s evidence.

"There is no satisfactory evidence of any former participation in the great ice age by the Continent of Australia. One or two instances of grooves or striations are recorded, but standing alone in so vast a territory the ice origin is very doubtful." (Woods, 1883, p. 382)

69 6.4 Alternative explanations

Some geologists and naturalists, while accepting the glacial origin of the deposits at Hallett's Cove, questioned Tate's assumption that they were products of glaciation in situ. The first of these was Gavin Scoular

(1884-1885), who accepted the morainic origin of the boul­ ders at Hallett's Cove.

"...erratic boulders have been found sparingly strewn over the land surface in the locality of Black Point, and, also, a few, on rare occasions, have been dis­ covered in other parts of the colony, chiefly near the present coastline." (G. Scoular, 1884-85, pp. 38-39)

Scoular however regarded these as erratics, having been transported to the coast of South Australia by floating icebergs. He applied Lyell's ice drift theory, namely that the glacial deposits of Britain had been depo­ sited by floating icebergs.

"...a period of extreme glaciation of the southern hemis­ phere, ...would facilitate the passage of icebergs north­ wards... and might be expected to strand. The watery parts of which they were composed would soon give way to the action of the surrounding warmth,...consequently, the more coherent materials of these stranded bergs would soon drop..." (Scoular, 1884-85, p. 39)

The striations and groovings of the glacial pave­ ments which Tate saw as having formed in situ, were not accepted by Scoular, who attributed these features to differential weathering, or aeolian activity,

"I am led to believe that the furrowings in question were not produced by the action of land-ice. The phenomena, in all likelihood, might otherwise be referable to the original chemical inequalities in the character of the stone itself, the softer parts, after its exposure to at­ mospheric influences, yielding in a somewhat greater

70 degree to the action of the north winds, and surcharged as these winds most frequently are with silicious (sic) sand, the furrowed markings upon the stone, and the path of these winds being in direct parallelism, suggests a hypothesis that the markings may have arisen in the manner described." (Scoular, 1884-85, p. 38)

The striations on the boulders were considered to have formed prior to their deposition in South Australia.

"It is not at all improbable but that some, at least, of the boulders transported in this manner may have been striated by the action of ice on lands far away,..." (Scoular, 1884-85, p. 39)

In order to overcome the difficulty as already pointed out by Woods in 1867, that icebergs could not be expected to reach this latitude even at the height of a glacial phase, Scoular proposed the displacement of the I "frost line" here by 8° - 90equatorwards during a cycle of high eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, as formulated by James Croll in 1867.

Although such a phenomenon could have made it possible for icebergs to reach Hallett’s Cove and deposit their glacial material at sea-level, it did not account for similar evidence at altitudes of 800 ft in the Mount

Lofty Ranges. To overcome this Scoular therefore sugges­ ted a higher sea-level during the cycle of high eccentri­ city .

"I am fully convinced that our so-called drift formations, extending at least to an altitude of 800 feet above present sea level, are chiefly of marine origin, and were deposited during the period whilst the last high state of eccentricity prevailed, and whilst the southern hemisphere was passing through its long secular winters of the period." (Scoular, 1884-85, p. 41)

To overcome the possible objection of a higher

71 sea-level on the basis of a lack of fossils in the drift

deposits, Scoular concluded that the water had been too

cold for marine life, and hence no fossils could have been left behind.

"As the cold reached its severest point the sea increased upon the land in the latitude of Adelaide to the extent of from 800 to 1,000 feet, and the deposits laid down in that azoic sea when elevated into dry land would assuredly be devoid of most if not all indications of marine life." (Scoular, 1884-85, p. 46)

Another supporter of the concept that the er­ ratics were -brought to Hallett’s Cove by stranded icebergs

was R. von Lendenfeld, a German marine biologist visiting

Australia in 1885. In contrast with Scoular however, he accepted the striations as glacial, being due to the abrasion by the same icebergs that had transported the erratics. Like Scoular, he assumed that the stranded icebergs had come from the South Polar region.

However this source of the icebergs was challenged by F. W. Hutton (1885), a New Zealander, who noted that granite,

of which the erratics were composed, had not been located in

the South Polar region, and that all the area then known was

volcanic. He therefore suggested New Zealand or Tasmania as

a more likely area of origin. This was supported by Johnston

(1893), who thought that Western Australia could also have

been a source area.

"It is almost certain, however, that at the last great period of eccentricity of the earth's orbit with winter in aphelion, the limit of Antarctic drift ice would touch the southern extremity of the Australian mainland when

72 Tasmania would stand well within it. It is not impro­ bable, therefore, that in the extreme of winter portions of the drift ice might for a time be stranded on the precipitous shores of Tasmania and New Zealand, or even on the southwestern shores of Western Australia, long enough to receive from overhanging cliff or pebbly beach debris which, on breaking away in the extremely hot and short summer, might find its way northward, to be again partly stranded on projecting points of the Australian mainland in St. Vincent Gulf, and there to leave in its trail the channelled traces of its course and part of its debris picked up on the coasts further south." (Johnston, 1893, p. 85)

To explain the altitude of the erratics above later sea-level at Hallett's Cove, Johnston proposed a/ elevation of the sea-bed by about 70-100 ft rather than a marine transgression as had been suggested by Scoular.

6.5 The search for further glacial evidence in the

Australian Alps

Another consequence of Tate’s claims for low- level glaciation of Pleistocene age in South Australia was that geologists and naturalists were motivated to undertake a search for corroborative evidence elsewhere in Australia. The most logical area was in the highest part of the Aus­

tralian continent, the Australian Alps. This had already been urged to no avail by von Haast as early as 1867.

"Therefore if we want to find evidence of a glacier epoch in Victoria, we must look for it in the Austra­ lian Alps, where morainic accumulations may have been preserved round the lakes, and along the valleys; and where striae, roch.es moutonnees, and other physical fea­ tures peculiar to glacialised countries may be found. Although from the altitude of the Australian Alps, the position and extent of these glacial indications can be expected to be of small dimensions only, even if they exist at all." (Haast von, 1867, p. 277)

73 Similar views were expressed in 1885 by von

Lendenfeld.

"Every child in the European Alps knows that glaciers are formed on mountains and nowhere else. So...glacial traces must be looked for in the mountains first, and then, when the existence of traces of prehistoric gla­ ciers there have been found, the investigation can be extended down to the low lands to ascertain how far the glaciers reached." (Lendenfeld von, 1885a, p. 46)

It is obvious from their documentation, however, that neither von Haast nor von Lendenfeld was aware that some evidence of glaciation had already been located in the Australian Alps by Clarke as early as 1852.

That glacial evidence would be found only in the highest portions of the alpine regions was indicated by the negative results of earlier studies made in the lower parts of the Victorian uplands. For example, Rawlinson (1866) had published an account of his exploration of the area between

Sale and Jericho in south-eastern Victoria. Accepting nu­ merous lakes as suggesting glaciation in Britain, Rawlinson noted the absence of such features here, and concluded that no glaciation had occurred in the area - a view which ac­ cords with current interpretation.

"The glacial action which has been so influential in abraiding and scooping out the valleys of other count­ ries, must in our case be omitted from the list of causes, for I have neither seen or heard of any indi­ cations of such action, in the existence of moraines, or other evidence of the former presence of glaciers. Nor do I think that the valleys and river courses ge­ nerally, could have their present form and character, had such agencies been concerned in their excavation." (Rawlinson, 1866, p. 31)

74 Ten years later, in 1876, A.W. Howitt also discounted glacial activity in the same area as that ob­ served by Rawlinson.

"Nowhere in Gippsland have I been able to detect any appearances which I could in any way refer to a Glacial period analogous to that of the northern hemisphere. I have nowhere met with grooved or scratched rocks, erratic boulders, moraines, or any traces of ice-action: and I think that had such existed they would have been met with ere this." (A.W. Howitt, 1876, p. 35)

Similarly, in a paper read to the Royal Society of Victoria in 1881, Stirling, whose interest in geology had been fostered by Howitt, described the upland region in Victoria, including the Omeo and Livingstone Creek dist­ ricts, without noting any evidence of past glaciation.

On the one hand, the failure of geologists and naturalists to locate glacial evidence in the foothills of the Australian Alps cast further doubts on Tate's assumptions of Pleistocene glaciation for Australia. On the other hand, it focussed attention on the upland areas of the Alps as the most likely location for glacial evidence if any were to be found at all. This prompted von Lendenfeld to explore the

Mount Kosciusko Plateau and what he took to be Mount Townsend, in 1885. He located a polished rock surface and roches moutonnees. On this evidence, and considering the latitude, he came to the conclusion that only the area above 5800 ft, the Kosciusko plateau, had been glaciated, (see Plate 6.3) giving a total area of glaciation as 150 square miles.

"The extent of the glaciers may have been as great as that of the plateau, namely, 150 square miles.

It appears that at the glacial period an extensive mass

75 PLATE 6.3

a. Von Lendenfeld's impression of 'Wilkinson's Glacier', from Mount Townsend.

b. Wilkinson Valley as drawn by von Lendenfeld to give prominence to glacial features, such as U-shaped and hanging valleys, which clearly indicate past glacial activity.

(Photographs by courtesy of the Trustees of the Mitchell Library, of the Library of New South Wales, Sydney.) 76 of ice covered the Kosciusko plateau down to 5,800 feet. This glacier was pretty continuous in the upper part of the Snowy tributaries, intersected by a few high ranges as that of the 'Perisher1. The valleys were filled with ice: the ice streams in these valleys probably joined to form a large glacier in the Snowy Valley, which may have ex­ tended some distance downward. It is highly pro­ bable that a trace of a terminal moraine will be found in the Snowy Valley." (Lendenfeld von, 1885b, p. 11)

On the basis of these findings, von Lendenfeld surmised that Pleistocene glaciation had not occurred any­ where else on mainland Australia, thus discounting Tate's evidence in South Australia.

"As even on the highest elevation the glaciers were so small it is not likely that glaciers existed anywhere else in Australia at the time." (Lendenfeld von, 1885a, p. 53)

Von Lendenfeld's investigation now stimulated others to examine Australia's upland areas. One of these was Richard Helms (1889 , 189 3), a naturalist, who located von Lendenfeld's predicted terminal moraines in the Snowy

Valley and supported the notion of a past ice-sheet over the summit area of the Kosciusko Plateau.

"From the discovery by me of a number of terminal moraines it can no longer be doubted that during a certain period the whole of the Kosciusko Plateau was covered with ice, and that the little difference in height at present found between the valleys and most of the ranges are to a great extent due to the levelling action of glaciers." (Helms, 1893, p. 352)

Helms was unable to find von Lendenfeld's polished rocks in

Wilkinson Valley, probably because von Lendenfeld had con­ fused the names of Mount Townsend and Mount Kosciusko.

Like von Lendenfeld, Helms concluded that the granite could not have retained its glacial polish for any length of time

77 because of the weathering that had taken place.

"During my first visit to the Snowy Mountains (Feb., 1889) I carefully looked for striae and polished sur­ faces on the rocks described by Dr. v. Lendenfeld, par­ ticularly in Wilkinson Valley, but could not agree with him that they retained such traces, although the general appearance when looked at from a distance favoured the theory that glaciers had ground them down, and that some of the valleys had undergone a prolonged glacial action. On none of the many solitary rocks and exposed rock-sur­ faces... I examined then and since have I found polished surfaces, nor the characteristic striae seen on most of the reliable roches moutonnees. If, however, the nature of the rock formation is taken into consideration, the absence of these features can scarcely be surprising, because its tendency to weather is so great that it for­ bids one to expect the retention of polish or striation for any length of time. I am of the opinion that, except where buried in moraine deposits, very few polished and striated rock fragments will be discovered in this dist­ rict." (Helms, 1893, p. 350)

On the other hand there were those, less con­ servative in their view as to the glacial extent in south­ eastern Australia, who consequently widened the search for evidence at lower altitudes. This is exemplified by G.S.

Griffith, a naturalist, who in 1884 ascribed the plateau features of north-eastern Victoria to ice sheet erosion.

"...the smooth-swelling rock surface which tells of massive ice moving slowly across the country and planing down all prominences into flowing outlines." (Griffith, 1884, p. 10)

In the areas where Rawlinson (1866) and Howitt

(1876) had observed no evidence of glaciation, Griffith now saw considerable evidence of glaciation:

"...the rubbish which has been planed and ground off; ...the clays, the sand-drifts, the gravel beds;...the cemented conglomerates and the loose boulders. All these we have in abundance, filling up the hollows, crowning the rises, terracing the mountains, and some­ times capped with basalt, standing out on the open

78 plains all alone, solitary outliers, the remnants and measure of eroded plateaux." (Griffith, 1884, p. 10)

Griffith regarded the lithology and structure of the area he investigated as unsuited to such evidence of glaciation as striae or polished surfaces, and used thus negative approach to explain the lack of evidence in areas he regarded as having undergone glaciation.

"Now, our Silurian (sic) slate, sandstone, and shales are loaded with iron oxide, and are upedged; while our recent marine sandstones abound in the chlorides of magnesia and soda. Therefore our rocks are to a large extent ill-suited either to receive or to retain ice scratches...Again, thin ice does not leave behind it striae, moraines, or till. Such are the products of massive ice alone, and to nourish such high land is required. Now, Victoria has not a large area of moun­ tain land; the scope of such ice action would be res­ tricted to its neighbourhood...the absence of such evidences is not conclusive as against the occurrence of a glacial climate...we ought not to wonder at rock striae being scarce, but rather we might feel surprised that any should have been preserved." (Griffith, 1884, pp. 7-8)

This misinterpretation of evidence led to the view that much of south-eastern Australia had been glaciated. Stimulated by Griffith's paper of 1884 to re­ examine the Lake Omeo and Livingstone Creek area located at 4,400 ft, where he had previously failed to observe any glacial features at all, Stirling (1886) now noted rock striae, groovings, markings, numerous erratics, ice-worn boulders and polished surfaces. These indicated nothing less than extensive glaciation.

"If my evidences are correct, the glaciers would not only have covered the whole of the Australian Alps, but might have extended their influence to the lower levels down the Murray basin." (J. Stirling, 1886, p. 32)

79 This misinterpretation of evidence which is today attributed to processes other than glaciation, forced scientists like von Lendenfeld to reconsider their views. His original opinion had been that only a small portion of the Australian Alps had been glaciated. Now he had to admit the possibility of a much larger area as glaciated.

The discovery of these so-called low-level glacial deposits in the Victorian uplands prompted von Lendenfeld in 1886 to accompany Stirling to Mt. Bogong to investigate his findings. In the face of the evidence Lendenfeld now felt he had to concede that the glaciation of south-eastern Australia seemed more widespread than he had proposed earlier, and that it linked with Tate's evi­ dence in South Australia.

"I merely stated that no traces of glacier action were found below a level of 5800 feet on Mount Kosciusko, and consequently thought that the glaciers did not come to a lower level. (Report on Mount Kosciusko to the Government of New South Wales)

Since then the following three instances have been dis­ covered of glacier traces, situated at a much lower level: 1. Beautiful striae have been observed in the Mount Safety group, near Adelaide, at an elevation of 2000 feet, far away from any high mountains. These have been photographed, and the photographs show the striae very clearly. 2. An isolated erratic block of great size near Yackandandah, on the northern foot of the Bogong Ranges, at an elevation less than 2000 feet. 3. An immense accumulation of angular rocks - a moraine - taking up a portion of the valley of Mountain Creek at an elevation of 2000 feet. This has been observed by myself...

In my opinion, these three facts go far towards proving a pro-historic glaciation of very yreat extent in Australia. The assumption of a glacial period for Australasia therefore appears quite feasible, and I believe that, at that time, Aust-

80 rana was glaciated as much as Europe at the glacial period." (Lendenfeld von, 1886, pp. 124-125)

But not all naturalists agreed with this conclu­

sion. There were still those who continued to reject the

notion of glaciation anywhere on the Australian mainland.

In 1897, for example, J.M. Curran, a lecturer in geology

at Sydney Technical College, discounted all of the evidence

located in the Mt. Kosciusko area, and by implication there­

fore, any other glacial evidence located at lower levels.

"I have been over the same ground as Dr. Lendenfeld and Mr. Helms. I could not but agree with Mr. Helms as to the absence of any evidence of glaciation such as Dr. Lendenfeld had reported in Wilkinson Valley. But I also feel compelled to differ from Mr. Helms in respect of the other localities in which he believed he had detected evi­ dence of 'glacier action', as indicated on the map accom­ panying his paper; and I am forced to the conclusion that the evidence adduced is wholly insufficient, and that no striae, groovings or polished surfaces (due to ice-action), or roches moutonnees perched blocks, moraine-stuff, or erratics are to be met with." (J.M. Curran, 1897, pp. 807-808)

These opposing views foreshadowed the discussion

and reassessment which have taken place in the twentieth

century concerning the extent of Pleistocene glaciation in

Australia. The basis of this controversy rests on the geo­ logical build and geomorphic history of the uplands, as recently reviewed by R.W. Galloway (1963). Since the Aust­ ralian Alps are low in altitude for their latitudinal posi­ tion, one can expect only marginal forms of glaciation, making its true extent difficult to establish. As well as t this, the area is an uplifted peneplain, giving the false appearance of having been levelled by the action of an ice sheet. The structure, which is mainly granite, is not very

81 helpful in establishing the extent of glaciation, since

features such as mammillated forms, truncated spurs, steps and hanging valleys, simulate glaciated features. Fur­ thermore, as the granite is a crystalline rock, it is prone to rapid weathering, which destroys glacial evidence

such as striation and polished surfaces. If all this were

not enough, the whole area was weathered during the Ter­

tiary, with the result that many of the granite core stones

and rubble simulate morainic deposits.

6.6 Recognition of the original evidence for what it really was

It was only a matter of time before the deposits and their associated features, originally described by Tate as Pleistocene in age, were found to be Permian. What is surprising is that this took so long: nearly twenty years. As early as 1866, in the Lower Mesozoic beds of the Ballam district in Victoria, Richard Daintree, a geologist with

the Geological Survey of Victoria, had located grooved peb­ bles, the grooving of which he attributed to ice-action.

Similarly, in 1879, in Permo-Carboniferous rock in the Bowen

River coalfields, R.L. Jack, Government Geologist of Queens­ land, had found angular granitic boulders which he had also attributed to ice-action. In the same year, C.S. Wilkinson,

Government Geologist of New South Wales, regarded angular boulders in the shale of the Triassic Hawkesbury Series in the Sydney area as the result of ice-action. In 1885, whilst at Branxton near Newcastle, New South Wales, R.D.

Oldham, Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India,

82 discovered glacial erratics which resembled those of the

Talchir glacial beds of India. This glacial evidence in the Bowen River area, Sydney, Branxton and Bacchus Harsh was at once accepted as Permian in age.

That Tate did not link his evidence at Hallett’s

Cove with Permian deposits elsewhere in eastern Australia is understandable, since his evidence was extremely well- preserved and appeared to him to represent young surface deposits.

Tate’s deposits were well-preserved because they had been covered by a vast accumulation of terrestrial sediments after the Permian period, and by marine sediments during the early Tertiary period. During the Mio-Pliocene uplift, the area had subsided, and had been covered by ano­ ther layer of marine sediments. (During this time, the

Inman Valley area was uplifted, so that the sediments here were exposed to subaerial erosion earlier than those at

Hallett’s Cove.) Sea-level fluctuations and subaerial ero­ sion after the Pliocene period eventually exposed the glacial deposits at Hallett’s Cove as well. But because of their relatively recent exposure, they appear as fresh as the

Pleistocene glacial deposits of the Australian Alps and

Tasmania.

Even those geologists with personal experience of Permian glacial deposits in eastern Australia, like vvilkinson ,( 188 7) and Jack, (1831) supported Tate’s inter-

83 pretation of the evidence as formed in situ and Pleistocene in age, after they had examined Hallett's Cove personally. Similarly, in 1893, the Glacial Committee of the Austra­ lian Association for the Advancement of Science (A.A.A.S.) accepted Tate’s interpretation after a visit to the area.

Yet Tate himself (1888) had begun to view his findings as older than he had thought previously.

"The proximity of the Miocene escarpment suggests the possi­ bility of the Pre-Miocene age of the glacier. The Miocene formation, throughout its whole length on this part of the coast, has a conglomerate base consisting of well rounded pebbles of limestone and quartzite, and flat pebbles of slaty rock, but none other than local material has been yet observed, though diligently searched for. It is highly probable that the glacier cut its way through the incoherent Miocene forma­ tion, and that some of the Miocene shingle furnished some por­ tion of the moraine debris.

Some measure of the antiquity of the glacier is further affor­ ded by the amount of marine erosion that has subsequently taken place. Assuming that the glacier was in an alignment with the two headlands of Hallett's Cove, then a length of three-fourths of a mile by a breadth of one and a-half furlongs, and a thick­ ness of forty feet has been removed since the glacier ceased to exist." (Tate, 1888, p. 232)

In 1893, Etheridge jn. visited the area and sur­ mised that the glacial deposits extended underneath the marine Tertiaries. As a result, a bore was sunk by the

A.A.A.S. in 1895, and the stratigraphic data thus obtained showed that the deposits were in fact pre-Miocene in age.

Correlation was then proposed for Hallett’s Cove and Inman

Valley in South Australia with Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, implying Permian age for the first two areas, since the

Victorian deposits had already been dated and accepted as

Permian. In 1902, the Committee extended this correlation to include the glacial evidence in the Hunter Valley of New

South Wales and at Table Cape in Tasmania. By this time it

84 was generally accepted that Tate's evidence was also

Permian (see Figure 6.4).

This controversy is of interest as it began with a false clue, which had the effect of stimulating further research into the origins of Australian land- forms, and this established the true evidence almost at the same time as that the original evidence was dis- f rom covered to date /. a different geological period. Further­ more, it was one of the first active controversies which had a strong geomorphological bias, bringing together both geologist and geomorphologist in the quest to solve the problem. It was also a direct link with later geomor­ phological activities and foreshadowed many of the problems which were encountered in the twentieth century.

85 <3

area covered by land ice during at least part of Permian

direction of ice movements inferred from pavements, exhumed topography, and sedimentary provenance

Distribution of glacial deposits of Permian age in Australia. The area is considered to have been covered by ice during at least part of the period, and the inferred directions of ice movement, are also shown. (Adapted from D.A. Brown, K.S.W. Campbell and K.A.W. Crook 1968.)

FIGURE 64

86 CHAPTER SEVEN

Beginnings of Academic Geomorphology: Establishment of

Earth-Science Studies at Australian Universities

The second half of the nineteenth century saw

the development of geomorphology as a discipline in its own right, with the investigation of landforms as an end

in itself and becoming largely a university study, es­ pecially through its strong tie with geology. This con­

trasts with the earlier landform studies discussed in

the previous Chapters, which formed part of the exploration

of the continent, aspects of its natural philosophy, or part

of its geologic history. This Chapter deals with a new era

in the development of geomorphology in Australia, which is

very closely associated with the establishment of the teaching of geology in Australian universities.

7.1 The introduction of geological studies at the Uni­

versity of Sydney

The relationship between universities in Aust­ ralia and the establishment of a scientific community as embodied in the scientific societies is well exemplified by the University of Sydney. A key figure in this es­ tablishment was H.G. Douglass, who had been a member of the scientific community for many years: Honorary Secretary

87 and Treasurer of the Philosophical Society of Australasia from its foundation (1821-22), a committee member of the

Agricultural Society of New South Wales ( 1822-26 ), and of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of New South

Wales (1826-36), which succeeded it. When the Australian

Philosophical Society (1850-55) was founded, he became its Secretary and continued in this position when it be­ came the Philosophical Society of New South Wales (1855-

66).

In 1848,Douglass persuaded members of the Legis­ lative Council, including W.C. Wentworth, to propose a

University Bill, with the result that the Royal Assent was given to the Sydney University Act of Incorporation on

1st October, 1850, only two months after self-government was granted to the Australian Colonies.

The universities in Australia had a slow growth rate during their early years, however, as was typified by the University of Sydney (see Table 7.1).

TABLE 7.1: Number of staff, students, and first year of

courses at the University of Sydney between

1852 and 1882 .

Year Staff Students Courses

1852 3 24 Arts 1857 5 38 Law 1860 6 29 1865 6 43 M 1870 5 17 - r B 1875 5 22 imm mm * 1880 64 — — V— 1882 * 101 Science and Engineering

* No figures available.

88 The failure of student numbers to increase more rapidly reflects the lack of a sufficiently large middle class, the slow growth of a secondary school system, and not enough employment opportunities for those with a uni­ versity education, even though the Colonies were by now on a sound economic footing.

In the early stages, Australian universities were modelled on British universities, with an emphasis on traditional subjects such as Classics and Mathematics to provide a fundamental rather than a vocational education. Where teaching was extended into the sciences, the small scale of the establishment made it necessary to combine several studies under a single Chair. For example, at the University of Sydney geology was taught as part of Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy, as was the case at the Univer­ sity of Edinburgh and at the University of London.

All full-time students at the University of Sydney followed the Arts curriculum at first, but were required to include Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy, and hence all students were obliged to study geology also.

Geology was first taught at the University of

Sydney by the Foundation Professor of Chemistry ana Experi­ mental Philosophy, Dr. John Smith, who held the Chair from

1852 to 1881. As an active member of the Philosophical

Society of New South Wales he became acquainted with Clarke, the geologist, and made several field trips with him. Per­ haps as a result, three of the six papers Smith read before

89 the Society between 1856 and 1864 were of a geological n at ure .

With the growth of the University of Sydney, additional and more specialised appointments were made, among them a Reader in Geology and Mineralogy in I860.

This was Dr. A.M. Thomson who, like Smith, came from the

University of Aberdeen. In addition, he had studied at the University of London and at the Royal School of Mines under Murchison, who had recommended him for the post in

Sydney.

Thomson introduced practical work into his teach­ ing of geology, and established a rock, mineral, and fossil collection. In 1869, he made a geological study and map of the Goulburn district, and also published a

Guide to Mineral Explorers which was re-issued until 1882.

In 1870, Thomson made a lengthy government report on the

Wellington Caves. In that year, he was appointed the first

Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, but died in 1871, when the position reverted to a Readership.

By 1875, Geology had been recognized as a separate subject within the Arts curriculum at the University of

Sydney. Its academic status was reinforced when the Chair of Geology was made financially more secure in 1877 by the addition of the W.H. Hovell Lectureship in Geology and

Physical Geography to it. This link was to be an important one in the establishment of the teaching of geomorphology at a later date.

90 The Faculty of Science at the University of

Sydney was established in 1882, but there was no Professor of Geology until 1890, when W.J. Stephens was appointed

Professor of Geology and Palaeontology.

Stephens established Geology within the Science

Faculty, and set the pattern of geology teaching which was to last until after the turn of the century. As part of the first year of this curriculum, geomorphology was inc­ luded in Geology 1. This first year curriculum was compul­ sory for all students in Arts, Science, Engineering and teacher training, and therefore engendered a wide interest in landform studies.

On Stephens’s death in 1891, the new Professor of Geology and Physical Geography was T.W.E. David, who had been a Geologist with the Geological Survey of New South Wales for nine years, and had been Joint Examiner in Geolo­ gy with Stephens.

David's impact on geomorphological studies in Aust­ ralia was to be of major importance, not only through his own research but also through his influence on a body of outstanding students, who were to become pioneers in geomor­ phological studies in the first quarter of the twentieth cen­ tury .

7.2 The influence of Edgeworth David on geomorphological s tudies

0

91 David's interest in field geology was originally fostered by a geologist cousin, who was a member of the

Geological Survey of England and Wales. David had accom­ panied him on field work in the countryside near his home in southern Wales during his holidays. After studies in

Classics and the Humanities , at Oxford, David undertook a voyage to Australia in 1878. On his return to Oxford,

David enrolled in Geology under Professor Joseph Prestwich, and in 188] produced a paper on glacial action in the neighbourhood of Cardiff, which indicated an early interest in landforms. After graduating, David continued his geolo­ gical studies at the Royal School of Mines under Professor J.W. Judd, who secured his appointment to the Geological Survey of New South Wales.

During his nine years in the Survey here, David developed several of his geomorphological interests.

Through his studies of the tin deposits in the New England area, for instance, David became interested in erosion sur­ faces. His interest in structural geology was to become important in his studies of landform development especially in the Sydney area. Furthermore, David's early studies of glaciation in Europe and his investigation of Permian gla­ ciation in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales were to lead him later to studies of Pleistocene glaciation in the

Kosciusko area and to his trip to Antartica in 1908.

From 1891, when David became Head of the Depart­ ment of Geology at the University of Sydney, he at first taught all the Geology himselxr, and even when additional

92 staff was appointed, took part in all levels of teaching

until his retirement in 1924. He always taught first-

year students, thereby stimulating their interest in geo­

morphology at an early stage of their studies. His clas­

sical education, enthusiasm, and blackboard illustrations

made his lectures interesting, lucid and inspiring. As a

result, many Arts students continued to choose Geology as

their required one-year Science subject, even when Geology

I was no longer compulsory after 1905.

David passed his interest in landforms on to his

students, particularly by way of field excursions, during which he drew special attention to the relationship between

structure and landforms (personal communication, W.R. Browne).

The margin of the Sydney Basin was well suited to showing

this relationship, as here the Hawkesbury and Narrabeen the sandstones form / major relief. Thus the three main regions

for field excursions were the Hunter Valley, the coastal margin of the Wollongong area, and the Blue Mountains, as

shown in the synopsis of the Geology I course for 1913, for example.

David's influence was twofold, both as a researcher in his own right and as a teacher. As a researcher, David's interest in structural geology of the Sydney area is reflect­ ed in his papers of 1896 and 1902 . Both of these papers are structural studies with an emphasis on landforms.

Following from his early interest in glaciation became in Europe, David / actively engaged in investigating

93 the question of Pleistocene glaciation in Australia, first

at Hallett’s Cove, as Chairman of the Glacial Research Committee of the Australasian Association for the Advance­

ment of Science in 1893, and later, through Richard Helms, in the Kosciusko area, on which he published papers in 1901 and 1908. David was the first person to claim evi­ dence of multiple glaciation in the Australian Alps, and established a point of view on the great extent of glaci­

ation there which was to persist for decades. He also fostered this interest in some of his students, as a

result of which the Department of Geology at the University of Sydney became closely associated with the study of

glacial evidence in this area.

Many of David's research activities which gave rise to landform studies were the result of construction work on roads, railways, and drainage canals in the late nineteenth century. As a result of the discovery of un­ usual fossils and sedimentary stratigraphy at Botany Bay,

he became interested in sea-level changes, and the estab­ lishment of a chronology for the Sydney area. This gave rise to a paper by David, Etheridge and J.W. Grimshaw

(1897) On the Occurrence of a Submerged Forest, with Remains of a Dugong, at Shea's Creek near Sydney. A second paper dealing with sea-level changes as a result of construction work was by David and G.H. Halligan (1909), Evidence of

Recent Submergence of Coast at Narrabeen. Based on fossil and sedimentary evidence, these were the first studies of sea level changes carried out in Australia.

94 By the end of the nineteenth century, David

was sufficiently well-known to organize and lead an ex­

pedition to Funafuti Atoll in the Ellice Islands to veri­

fy Darwin’s theory of coral reef formation. The success

of this investigation gave David international stature,

a Fellowship of the Royal Society, and the Bigsby Medal

of the Geological Society of London. David had been accom­

panied by one of his students, W.G. Woolnough, and Charles

Hedley, a conchologist with the Australian Museum, who later became Scientific Director of the Barrier Reef Committee.

As a consequence of his international repute and his interest in glaciation, David was invited in 1908 by

Sir Ernest Shackleton to join his Antarctic Expedition. On this occasion, David took two of his students with him, L.

C. Cotton and Douglas Mawson.

After his return from Antarctica, David became a public figure in Australia, and this was reinforced by his role in World War I as Chief Geologist to the British

Armies on the Western Front, where his knowledge of land- forms was applied to many aspects of military engineering.

David’s international standing also made him an influential figure, which made it possible for him to place his students into suitable positions and to be instrumental in the establishment of a Department of Geography at the

University of Sydney.

95 7.3 Geomorphological studies by David1s students

Professor David’s personality and ability en­ abled him to stimulate his students and broaden their intellectual horizon beyond the demands set by their occu­ pations as geologists. This is particularly exemplified by the interest of these students in geomorphology, and their becoming leading geomorphologists in Australia in the first quarter of the twentieth century.

The first of these was E.C. Andrews, who studied geology under David from 1891. After some years as a school teacher, Andrews was recommended by David to Professor J.L.

R. Agassiz of the Harvard Museum, who appointed him to collect coral material in Fiji in 1898. As a result of this work, Andrews saw the need for further studies in geology and chemistry, which he undertook at the University of Sydney,

David then recommended him for his appointment to the Geolo­ gical Survey of New South Wales from 1899 - a post he was to occupy until his retirement as Government Geologist in 1931.

It was probably his contact with Agassiz that now led Andrews to an acquaintance with American geology and in particular, with the then new emphasis on landform develop­ ment in the work of W.M. Davis of Harvard University, and with the earlier geomorphological theories of G.K. Gilbert.

Thus when Andrews engaged in regional studies on the New

England Plateau in connection with tin deposits in 1903-4, he was particularly struck by its level skyline and its val­ leys and gorges, and interpreted their origins in terms of

96 Four academics from the University of Sydney, who were significant in fostering an interest in landform studies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Tannatt William Edgeworth David. Professor of Geology and Physical Geography, William Hilton Hovell Lecturer in Physical Geography, University of Sydney, 1891-1924. Was responsible for an emphasis on physical geography in his Department. Stimulated his students to undertake geomorphic research - the most active to do so between 1900 and the 1930s.

Walter George Woolnough. An early student of David. Professor of Geology, University of Western Australia, 1912. Commonwealth Geological Adviser, 1927-41. Best known for theory of duricrust formation, which stimu­ lated landform investigations. Studied physiography of Western Australia. Was a pioneer in aerial photography.

William Rowan Browne. An early student of David. Demonstrator, 1911, Lecturer, 1913-23, Associate- Professor, 1923-39, Reader, 1939-50, in the Depart­ ment of Geology, University of Sydney. Main contri­ bution was in the fields of glaciation, denudation chronology and regional geology.

Thomas Griffith Taylor. An early student of David. Physiographer, Australian Weather Service, 1910-20, Associate-Professor of Geography, Department of Geo­ logy and Physical Geography, University of Sydney, 1921-28, Senior Professor of Geography, University of Chicago, 1929-35, Foundation Professor of Geography, University of Toronto, 1935-51. Important for conti­ nuing emphasis on physical geography at the University of Sydney. Fostered this interest among students. Founder and first President of the N.S.W. Geographical Society and first Editor of 'The Australian Geographer’, 1927. Foundation President, Institute of Australian Geographers, 1958. (Photographs by courtesy of the Trustees of the

Mitchell Library, of the Library of New South

Wales, Sydney.) 97 staged erosion surfaces of multicyclic origin as /the Davisian theory of landform development. This inter­ pretation was well in advance of its time in Australia,

and hence not fully accepted by Andrew's contemporaries.

In 1908, Andrews was invited to America as a

result of his lengthy paper on glacial corrasion in the

fjord region of New Zealand published in the Journal of

Geology in 1906. While in America, he met Gilbert,and

Douglas Johnson, a student of Davis. A major consequence

of this visit was that it led him to re-interpret his

1903-4 findings of the upland surfaces of eastern Australia in terms of the tectonic displacement of a single level erosion surface as discussed in his paper of 1910 ,

Geographic Unity of Eastern Australia, etc. This was the first major study of erosion surfaces on a continental scale in Australia, and a stimulus to other geologists to

study erosion surfaces in Australia, as will be discussed in Chapter Eight.

A further example of David's influence on the

professional interests of his students is shown by C.A.

Sussmilch, who was introduced to field studies in the

Southern Tableland of New South Wales by David and Andrews.

"...it was this visit and the discussions which took place during it, that fixed my interest on this fasci­ nating branch of geology." (Sussmilch, 1909, p. 332)

As a consequence, Sussmilch applied Andrews's

(1910) concepts to Australian landforms in a series of stu­

dies, in which he associated himself with Andrews’s approach,

98 the tectonic displacement of master erosion surfaces.

T'.G. Taylor, like Andrews and Sussmilch, be­ came interested in landforms as a result of his geologi­ cal studies and field work under David between 1899 and

1904. In 1905 David appointed Taylor as a Demonstrator in the Department of Geology at the University of Sydney, where he was responsible for the teaching of geomorphology as part of the geology courses.

Taylor, like Andrews, and under David's in­ fluence, was keenly aware of the active geological control of landforms, as seen from his papers in 1907 and 1923.

Taylor emphasized the relationship between structure and drainage, as seen from the following papers: Taylor and

W.G. Woolnough (1906), and Taylor (1911).

In 1907, Taylor went to Cambridge for further studies, and while there met Davis, who was visiting

England at the time. Together they made a field trip to the Continent, during which Taylor's interest in glacial landforms first began.

It was on David's recommendation that Taylor was appointed as the first (and only) Commonwealth Physio­ grapher, a position attached to the Meteorological Bureau in Melbourne which Taylor occupied from 1909 to 1921.

During this time Taylor took part in the survey of the

Australian Capital Territory, and published his findings

(Taylor, 1910, 1914). It was also David who was able to

99 obtain for Taylor the position of Senior Geologist on

Scott’s Antarctic Expedition in 1910-1912.

Another of David’s students at the University of Sydney was to make an important contribution to Aust­ ralian geomorphology in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. This was W.G. Woolnough, who had accompanied David to Funafuti as a student in 1895. From 1898 to 1901 he was Demonstrator in the Department of Geology, from 1905-12 Assistant Lecturer in Mineralogy and Petrology, and

Demonstrator in Geology, in 1908 Acting Professor, and in 1912-13 Assistant Professor in Geology. Between 1902 and

1904 he was Lecturer in Mineralogy and Petrology at the University of Adelaide, and from 1913 to 1926 Foundation Professor of Geology at the University of Western Australia.

As a result of this latter appointment and his friendship with J.T. Jutson, of the Geological Survey of Western Australia, Woolnough became interested in landforms in Western Australia, and made a major contribution to Aust­ ralian geomorphology with his papers in 1918 and 1927 on the relationship between duricrust and landsurface evolution.

These studies gained him world-wide recognition.

Further influence by David on the research and career of students in the Department of Geology at the Uni­ versity of Sydney can be traced in the work of W.R. Browne.

Browne’s interest in physiography originated with his field excursions to the Maitland area as a student between 1907 and 1909, when David pointed out the close relationship

100 between geological structure and landforms (personal com­ munication, Browne). This influence is reflected in his earliest paper on landforms (Browne, 1921).

Browne was Junior Demonstrator in Geology in

1911-12, Assistant Lecturer and Demonstrator in 1913-15,

Lecturer and Demonstrator in 1916-23, Lecturer in Economic

Geology from 1924 to 1926, and again in 1929, Assistant

Professor of Geology in 1923-38, and Reader in Geology between 1939 and 1949.

Browne’s main interest in geomorphology - Pleisto­

cene glaciation - was first stimulated in 1922, when David

asked him, together with Taylor and Fitzroy Jardine, a stu­ dent in geology and geography under David and Taylor, to visit the Kosciusko region for the purpose of making a model

of the area. Browne’s subsequent papers on the area ini­ tiated the still current controversy on the areal extent of

Pleistocene glaciation here. These studies also influenced

the course work and research of the Department of Geology

at the University of Sydney. Two weeks’ annual excursions

to the Kosciusko area were undertaken by staff and students,

resulting in many joint papers by Browne and J.A. Dulhunty,

W.M. Haze, and T.G. Vallance.

It was also Browne on whom the arduous yet compel­

ling task fell to complete the partly finished book,The Geo­ logy of the Commonwealth of Australia, after David’s death in 1934. His task was made more difficult and publication was delayed till 1950, due firstly by the rapidly expanding

101 research and exploration in Australian Geology, and secon­

dly by the intervention of World War II. The significance

of this major work here is that it shows the interaction

between teacher and student, and later colleague, as

Browne was the most obvious choice to complete the book.

Secondly, Volume 2 of this publication has seven chapters

devoted to the geomorphology of Australia, arranged by regional States, and still comprising the only systematic/study em­ bracing the whole of Australia.

This interaction between geologists and geomor­

phology at the University of Sydney was unique in Aust­ ralia, and attributable to David’s initial influence. In

addition, the appointment of some former students of the

Department to other Australian universities was not the general pattern, and can also be traced to David’s standing

in the scientific community, since it was customary for staff to be recruited within a university’s own Department,

and local graduates were familiar with local geology and therefore considered to be the most competent to teach it.

7.4 The establishment of the first Department of Geography

at the University of Sydney

Professor Edgeworth David was instrumental in establishing the teaching of geography for the first time at an Australian university, although still within his De­ partment of Geology. This was possible in 1921, when he allocated his portion of the Sir Samuel McCaughey bequest to a Lectureship in Geography rather than in Palaeontology.

102 David considered both Fenner and Taylor for the position of lecturer. The former was reluctant to move from Adelaide to Sydney. Taylor was well established in Mel­

bourne, but accepted the position after David was able to

upgrade it to that of Associate-Professor. This gave

greater independence to the appointee, and hence allowed

for greater scope to develop Geography as an independent

discipline. Despite Taylor's efforts, however, Geography

did not become an autonomous Department separate from the Department of Geology until 1945. (This lack of autonomy was one reason that /led Taylor to accept a position as Professor of Geography

at the University of Chicago in 1928.)

Taylor's appointment came at a time when the

first topographic maps of Australia began to be made. These enabled him to construct three-dimensional models

to show the interrelationships between topography and drainage, and to suggest fresh interpretations of the

origins of landforms in the areas he studied, such as the Sydney region (see Figure 7.1). During his appointment

as Associate-Professor at the University of Sydney, Taylor made three major contributions to geomorphology. The first

was research in the Sydney region which has not been super­

seded to the present time. The second contribution was

the role he played in establishing the first specialized

journal in geography. The third was the impact of his

teaching on his students.

In his personal research, for example, Taylor

(1923) presented a view of the origin of the

103 FIGURE 7.1 Block diagram of the region between Sydney and Jenolan, illustrating the low Wianamatta stillstand, the upwarped monocline west of the Nepean River (after G. Taylor 1958)

104 which emphasised earth movements Sydney region/ Here for the first time he made extensive use of the newly published topographic and geo­ logical maps of the Sydney area, which made it possible

for him to express his talent for seeing certain patterns of landform development which he interpreted according to

their altitude and structural relationship (see Figure 7.2).

He regarded the Sydney region as consisting of eleven physiographic regions, some of which owe their ori­ gin to upwarping, and others to what he termed stillstands,

depending largely on their relationship to what he saw as

an east-west axis from Botany Bay in the east to Wallerawang

in the west, which acted as a hinge, upwarping the areas to

the north and south in the Pliocene Epoch.

The second contribution by Taylor was his initia­ tive in 1927, in establishing the Geographical Society of New South Wales and its journal The Australian Geographer, which was the first specialized geographical journal in Aust­

ralia. The Geographical Societies in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia had published their proceedings prior

to this date, but these had comprised mainly general accounts,

such as exploration and other non-scientific papers. It was

unfortunate that Taylor left Australia in the same year as

the first issue of the journal was published, with the

result that only a very few geomorphological studies were published by the Society prior to the post-war period.

Taylor’s third contribution was that he brought to his position as teacher his dynamic personality, physical

105 five about are margins warped

The

Sydney. around coastlands

1923). warped

the

Taylor of

G. regions

(after

wide

Geographical miles

2

7.

FIGURE

106 energy, and like David, the ability to imbue his students with his interests. This, for example, can be seen from the work of Jardine, his first post-graduate student, whose interest in Queensland landforms was stimulated by

Taylor's early work in the State.

The last of Taylor's research students before his departure for the United States of America, and the one to make the greatest impact on geomorphology at that time, was F. A. Craft, whose major contribution was in establishing the modern point of view of the landform history of the Southern and Central Tablelands of New South Wales, as will be discussed in Chapter Nine.

107 Expected page number 108 is not in the original print copy. CHAPTER EIGHT

Early Studies of Denudation Chronology

Overseas thought concerning landform develop­ ment has always influenced Australian landform studies. Initially this influence came from Britain; for example, earlier in this thesis Lyell's influence was traced to

Darwin’s interpretation of marine erosion of the Blue

Mountain canyons. In the early part of the twentieth century, however, it was American influence, especially the writing and lecturing of W.M. Davis on the cycle of erosion and its stages, which made a significant impact on Australian landform studies.

Apart from the stimulus of Davis’s writing, two other main factors are evident in the early landform studies. The first was the enthusiastic interest in geo^ morphology passed on by David to his students.

"Only the new school of geologists, thoroughly trained in physiography - mostly in the Institute (sic) of professor (sic) David, University of Sydney - very eagerly took up all problems concerning the physiogra- phical evolution of the pacific (sic) margin of the continent." (Danes, 1911, p. 3)

The second was the nature of the landscapes, especially those of New England, New South Wales, which consist of a series of staged plateau surfaces, and further west the broad plains of central and western

Australia. 8.1 Studies of upland surfaces in eastern Australia

It was not until 1903 that the upland surfaces

in eastern Australia were studied in the context of a

cyclic denudation chronology. This came as a result of the inifeLuence of Davis, and particularly his paper of 1899 ,

which introduced the concept of erosion cycles leading

to the development of peneplains.

By contrast, the nineteenth century geologists,

who had attempted to interpret episodic history in the

context of the geological records, suffered from the lack of a geomorphological framework into which they could place their observations. This situation is exemplified in Stirling’s (1887) investigation of north-eastern Victoria. Although his observations were as keen as those of Andrews

in New England sixteen years later, he lacked the necessary framework and technology to apply his conclusions to other

areas.

"The great break in the continuity of the geological record between the Devonian and Tertiary formations is at once an evidence of the enormous erosion to which the Australian Alpine chain has been subject, and its great antiquity as a mountain range. The Cainozoic formations which have been involved in the great upraisings, flexures and plications of the European Alps are here conspicuously absent. That a vast table-land existed in Miocene times stretching from Mt. Muller to Mt. Kosciusko, and of which the Omeo plains and Maneroo table-land in N.S. Wales are visible remnants, seems to have been abundantly proved...Powerful erosion has sub­ sequently excavated deep valleys which now break up these once extensive table-lands, and has also altered the surface configuration of the higher points to a proportionate extent." (Stirling, 1887, p. 48)

Davis's terminology of stages within the cycle

offered a descriptive framework for geomorphologists con-

110 cerned with the evolution of landsurfaces.

"Its value to the geographer is not simply in giving explanation to land forms; its greater value is in enabling him to see what he looks at and to say what he sees. His standards of comparison, by which the unknown are likened to the known, are greatly increased over the short list included in the terminology of his school days. Significant features are consciously sought for; exploration becomes more systematic and less haphazard. 'A hilly region' of the unprepared traveler becomes (if such it really be) 'a maturely dissected upland' in the language of the better prepared traveler; and the reader of travels at home gains greatly by the change. 'A hilly region' brings no definite picture before the mental eyes. 'A maturely dissected upland' suggests a systematic association of well-defined fea­ tures: all the streams at grade, except the small head­ waters; the larger rivers already meandering on flood- plained valley floors: the upper branches ramifying among spurs and hills, whose flanks show a good beginning of graded slopes; the most resistant rocks still cropping out in ungraded ledges, whose arrangement suggests the structure of the region." (Davis, 1909, pp. 270-271, ed. Johnson D.W.)

The first interest in the upland surfaces of eastern Australia within the framework of cyclic develop­ ment was exercised by Andrews (1903) with reference to the

New England area of New South Wales. He studied this area in connection with tin deposits as part of his work for the Geological Survey of New South Wales. He became convinced that

"The undulations of the plateau, the stately outlines of the mountains, the tumultuous profiles of the canons, and the curves of the coast have no fortuitous origins, but express the action of well-ordered processes operating through long periods of time.

By the study of topographic forms much may be ascertained concerning the history of a land surface,..." (Andrews, 1903a, p. 142)

Andrews (1903) further saw the area as one that had under­ gone

"Repeated elevation of subaerially carved and successfully-formed peneplains, combined with a long period of erosion post-dating the last great uplift, (which) is the key to the history of New England since early Tertiary or late Cretaceous time. The elevations imposed a flattened dome-shaped surface upon the area under con­ sideration, the axis of the dome being drawn out in a meridional

111 direction. The rocks acted upon comprise masses of such varying resistance to the agencies of erosion as granites, columnar basalts, vertically-bedded Palaeozoic and hori­ zontally-bedded Triassic sandstones and shales." (Andrews, 1903a, p. 140)

In his acceptance of the view of Davis, Andrews rejected Archibald Geikie’s interpretation of summit levels as ancient uplifted surfaces of marine erosion in favour of their interpretation as uplifted peneplains.

"The American school of geologists claim that sculpturing by the forces of subaerial denudation, rather than by those of marine erosion, accounts for the formation of plains of erosion. Their position is strengthened by a study of New England forms. The whole of the plateau has remained above sea-level since Triassic times. Various peneplains have been developed in the area since such time, the plains themselves rising one above the other in terrace form. Not even on the latest peneplain, in its unreduced portions, have any sign of marine strata been found. On the other hand, the broad valleys of the upland are seen to coincide with the weaker belts of rocks obtaining in the area. The evidence goes to prove a subaerial origin for these Cretaceous and Tertiary peneplains." (Andrews, 1903a, p. 144)

established Andrews (1903) also / the criteria which could be used to establish the existence of peneplains in

Australia, and the means of correlating and dating them.

Since no fossil evidence exists to date these surfaces, he proposed a number ofcriteria to indicate the relative ages of multiple erosion surfaces.

"In the absence of old life forms, the evidence as to the geological age of associated peneplains is confined to that yielded by a knowledge of the rock structures of the district, the amount of elevation for each surface, the degree of approximation to base-level for each, and the volume of material lost to each plateau by planation forces." (Andrews, 1903a, pp. 187-188)

Among such criteria, adjustment to structure

112 used in the Davisian sense was to be very important.

Andrews considered the relationship between surface form and structure to embrace not only the altitude of the rocks, but the nature of the rocks, their relative hardness and per­ meability, the dip of the beds, and their folds and faults.

"In this connection# one must carefully take into consideration the importance of rock structure and composition. Faults, flexures, and joints assist materially in the work of degradation; the adjust­ ment streams to structure is attended by the occu­ pation of anticlines and soft strata by length-wise valleys, and of synclines by hills: the excavation of a V-shaped canon in massive quartzites may occupy more time than that required for the production of a broad canon in soft incoherent masses; the superimpo­ sition of hard horizontal strata over soft-yielding beds avail little against the onslaught of lateral corrasion succeeding to the establishment of a channel through the resistant layers by vertical corrasion, wholesale destruction of the hard layers then occurring through rapid removal of the softer beds." (Andrews, 1903a, pp. 187-188)

After his investigation of the New England area, Andrews (1903a) established the following denudation chronology,

"The plateaus as now determined in the position of maximum elevation are - The Stannifer, about 3,000 feet; the Mole, varying from 3,650 to 3,750 feet; the Bolivian, varying from 4,300 to 4,600 feet; and the Capoompeta, evidenced by peaks rising from 5,000 to 5,300 feet above sea level." (Andrews, 1903a, p. 282) and dated these surfaces.

"In addition the consideration of the various peneplains, and divisions of the canon period, throws light on ques­ tions of geological age, since it is more than probable that cycles such as the Bolivian, Mole, Stannifer, and Canon periods here described are the geographical equiva­ lents of periods of sedimentation, such as the Upper Jurassic, Lower and Upper Cretaceous, and Tertiary." (Andrews, 1903a, p. 300)

113 After his investigation of and conclusions about the deep leads in the New England area, it was only natural for him to attempt to correlate the staged series of peneplains of New England (see Plate 8.1) with those of the Darling Downs in the north, and the Blue Mountains and Monaro region in the south (Andrews, 1903b).

"Plateaus once coextensive with New England lower level are the Darling Downs, the Blue Mountains, the Illawarra Mountains, and Monaro." (Andrews, 1903a, p. 165)

Among other workers, Gregory (1903), argued convincingly that the area in

Tasmania which he had termed the Henty Peneplain had re­ sulted from subaerial rather than marine erosion, in terms which reflect an awareness of Davisian landform interpretation.

"The eastern part of the Henty pene-plain, between the lower King River and the Professor, has the features of the lower valley of a large river. This aspect of the country is especially well seen from Mount Lyell. The slopes on either side have the contours characteristic of the sides of an old river valley, and not of cliffs formed by marine denudation. If the pene-plain had been formed by the sea, some remains of old cliffs and beaches might be expected to occur round it, and some traces of marine deposits on its floor. I am not aware that any such have been found or recorded, while I am told by Mr. Huntley Clarke, Engineer of Supplies at Mount Lyell, that some of the hills are capped by river gravels." (Gregory, 1903, p. 179)

Somewhat later, T.S. Hart (1908), a geologist, also interpreted the plateau of the Great Dividing Range in western Victoria as the result of subaerial rather than marine erosion. Like Andrews (1903a), he stressed the importance of adjustment to structure when recognising the origin of erosion surfaces as the product of long-term and

114 PLATE 8.1

a. The Blue Mountains Peneplain is shown here, with Mt. Tomah in the background being part of an older and more dissected peneplain. The simila­ rity between this area and New England led Andrews (1903a) to correlate the two surfaces with one another.

(Photograph taken by the writer.)

b. A photograph taken by E.C. Andrews (1903a), showing the even sky line of the Stannifer Peneplain near Wilson's Downfall, on the New England Plateau, to illustrate the first appli­ cation of W.M. Davis's theory to Australian land- forms.

(Photograph by courtesy of the Trustees of the Mitchell Library, of the Library of New South Wales, Sydney.) 115 continuous subaerial denudation.

"From almost any eminence one of the first features of the landscape which attracts attention is the occurrence of long lines of nearly level-topped or undulating ridges. Occasionally these ridges may abruptly end or be continued at a lower level. Here and there an isolated volcanic hill rises and ranges of other appearance. The general charac­ ter is that of a plateau which has been deeply trenched by a series of valleys. Between these valleys are the residual ridges, the remnants of the old high plain...

The plain clearly does not conform to the folds of the under­ lying rocks, and is a plain due to excavation, not accumula­ tion of material. As the superficial deposits of the plain are of terrestrial origin we may regard the plain as due to sub­ aerial denudation, and as representing a peneplain formed by long continued erosion." (T.S. Hart, 1908, pp. 254-255)

However, unlike Andrews, neither Gregory nor

Hart attempted to establish a denudation chronology for the areas they examined, nor did they seek to correlate the landforms with those observed elsewhere. The significance of their contribution however lay in their recognising the subaerial origins of uplifted peneplains.

8.2 Emphasis on tectonic disruptionJof upland surfaces

This alternative form of explanation as to the origins of the peneplains observed in the eastern Australian uplands was expressed concurrently with the staged peneplain concept of Andrews (1903a), as some geologists saw the evolu­ tion of the eastern Australian uplands differently. They saw the Paleozoic fold structures of eastern Australia as having been truncated by erosion during the Miocene epoch and uplifted in the Pliocene or Pleistocene epoch (Kosciusko uplift).

116 • As well as that, some post-Kosciusko movement had occurred along the Paleozoic structural lines. Therefore

the geological setting of the eastern Australian uplands

was ideal for the birth of this controversy between the

alternative theories as to the age and origin of the

peneplains at different altitudinal levels. One theory states that the escarpments separating planation levels are the result of erosional exploitation of Paleozoic

structural contrasts; the other theory states that they

are a direct expression of tectonic- movements guided by

the Paleozoic structural lines.

One of the earliest supporters for the latter theory was Taylor (1907), who studied the Lake George area,

seventeen miles north-east of Canberra. Taylor regarded the area as affected by faulting in recent geological times. He interpreted the Cullarin Scarp on the western side of Lake George towards Geary's Gapfas}lhr8wnPdown by on the E some 300 feet/. Taylor also interpreted Geary's Gap as a wind gap, and as evidence that a river draining the Lake

George area had flowed in a west-north-west direction. He supported this by means of the gravel deposits on the

Cullarin Scarp near Geary's Gap, which, he thought, had been deposited by the stream.

"Lake George, the largest lake in New South Wales, occupies an area of subsidence (senkungsfeld) bounded on the west by a fault plane of about 400 ft drop. The fault is approximately parallel to the strike of the Palaeozoic slates and phyllites. It runs north and south for thirty miles, and constitutes the Cullarin Range. The violent tectonic changes have entirely altered the drainage-system of the district." (Taylor, 1907, p. 339)

117 A further application of the latter theory of the origin of peneplains , but in a larger area than that of Lake George, was undertaken by Sussmilch (1909) in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales (see Plate 8.2)

"The Southern Tableland of New South Wales consists of a number of fault-blocks produced by the differential uplift of an extensive peneplain, this uplift varying in amount from 2,000 to 6,000 feet. The strains pro­ duced by this unequal movement developed a number of faults, the more important of which have an approxi­ mately meridional strike. During the uplift several portions of this area lagged behind and now appear as relatively depressed segments or 'Senkungsfelder.' " (Sussmilch, 1909, p. 352)

In 1910 this concept now gained the support of Andrews, who in 1903 had formulated the concept of staged erosion surfaces. This volte-face by Andrews can be attributed to his visit to North America in 1908, and his conviction that a similarity existed between the block faulting of western North America and the upland areas of eastern Australia. '

"(b) The topography of the western side of the United States is similar in a general way to that of Eastern Australia, the elevation, the block faulting, and the dissection of the North American area being on a grander scale, however, than that of Australia." (Andrews, 1910, p. 421)

Andrews (1910), in his publication the Geogra­

phical Unity of Eastern Australia in Late and Post

Tertiary Time, with Application to Biological Problems, of a single master surface introduced the concept /into the evolution of the eastern

Australian landforms.

"The site of Eastern Australia appears to have been occupied at the close of Miocene time by a peneplain. At a later period the peneplain surface was elevated and definite channels of moderate depth were cut in PLATE 8.2

This photograph of the Monaro Peneplain near Yass, on the Southern Tableland of New South Wales, shows the area to which C.A. Sussmilch (1909) applied W.M. Davis's theory of cyclic landforms.

(Photograph by courtesy of the Trustees of

the Mitchell Library, of the Library of New

South Wales, Sydney.) 119 its surface by streams. Gold and tin were carried down from the neighbouring hills and deposited in the coarse stream gravels. Valuable 'leads' were thus formed. The land then sank and the channels became gradually filled with sand, clay, pebbles, and lignite. Basalt at this stage commenced to make their appearance, and flood after flood of such basic lava buried thousands of square miles of the country. The 'leads' thus, in turn, became buried. Erosive activities supervened and wide valleys or plains were formed both in the basaltic masses and in the associated geological complexes.

The Tertiary closed with a vigorous uplift. Forces appeared to have been directed both from Central Austra­ lia radially outward, and from the southern oceanic re­ gions towards Australia. In this way the continental edges were upwarpeduntil incoherence was established. At this stage relief of the marginal strains on the conti­ nent was obtained by faulting and flexing in arcs parallel to the oceanic depths. Tasmania acted as a horst, and against it and the suboceanic creep the Victorian mountains and the mountain knot at the south-eastern angle of Austra­ lia were formed. In this region the faulting and flexing were most pronounced. For this period of plateau formation the name 'Kosciusko' or 'Plateau' Period is suggested." (Andrews, 1910, pp. 468-469)

By attributing the variation in elevation of the Miocene /peneplain to differential uplift through block faulting, Andrews now showed that he had changed his opinion since his 1903 paper, as at that time he saw the New England area

as a series of staged peneplains owing their present alti- • tude to slow, staged upwarping.

"In a previous paper (Tertiary History of New England) the writer considered certain levels, such as the Bolivia Plain, to be peneplains of two distinct ages. These, however, merely represented faulted and flexed blocks of the late Tertiary peneplain in New England. There are, it is true, traces everywhere throughout eastern Australia of two dis­ tinct surfaces of erosion, but the number of true peneplain surfaces cannot be indefinitely extended, the highest members almost without exception being block faults. It would appear, in fact, that wherever in eastern Australia two unreduced plateau masses exist side by side at variable altitudes fault or sharp fold separates them." (Andrews, 1910, p. 433)

Having accepted the concept of one peneplain of

120 Miocene age being uplifted in the Pliocene epoch, it was a natural extension for Andrews (1910) to formulate the concept of a geographical unity for eastern Australia.

"...By the term geographical unity...the writer wishes to convey the idea that during the Pliocene, Pleistocene and Historic Periods, the whole eastern side of the con­ tinent moved in the main as a unit, thus giving rise to tectonic and erosional forms practically identical, when considered in strips parallel to the coastline from Thursday Island to the Murray River in Western Victoria. The inference from this is not that each strip has arisen or subsided exactly in the same degree, but rather that the movement of the eastern continent, as a whole, has been similar during each successive period. For example, it is not here considered that the Miocene shoreline cor­ responded with the present one. On the other hand the idea is here advanced that Eastern Australia was a peneplain raised but little above sea level toward the close of the Miocene, ...Again, the peneplain of Eastern Australia was so warped and faulted at the close of the Pliocene, or the commencement of the Pleistocene, as to be carried upwards to heights va­ rying from 1,500 to 7,300 feet above sea level, with the pro­ duction of great block faulting in its south-eastern knot;..." (Andrews, 1910, p. 421)

Although the idea of structural unity in the geological history of eastern Australia had been expressed previously by Murchison (1845), Clarke (1876), and Wilkinson (1882), Andrews (1910) was the first to express the unity of landforms.

The concept that one peneplain had existed in the Miocene which had been uplifted in the Pliocene epoch was now applied in South Australia by Howchin (1913), who came to similar conclusions to those of Andrews in 1910.

"The original plateau of uplift has been greatly modified by subaerial denudation and by faulting. The old peneplain is clearly distinguishable in the flat-topped hills which in the Mount Lofty Ranges have an average elevation of about 1,500 feet, and from which rise the greater heights of Mount Lofty (2,334 feet) and Mount Barker, as monadnocks. This old plateau has been greatly incised by river action, that has, in places, exposed the pre-Cambrian basement.

121 The streams are small, but numerous, and flow through gorges 300 feet to 500 feet deep, and are mostly in a juvenile stage of development...This modern period of uplift in South Australia probably coincided, in the main, with similar movements in eastern Australia, which Mr. E.C. Andrews suggests should be called the Kosciusko Period. The associated phenomena, in both the geographi­ cal areas, possess much in common, and there is a cor­ responding evidence of the juvenility of the erosion features in each case." (Howchin, 1913, pp. 160, 176)

This ready acceptance by geologists in Australia of a Tertiary peneplain and extensive faulting in eastern

Australia can be attributed in part to the structural in­ terests of geologists at this time. They were also working in an area of Paleozoic faulting, which they misinterpreted as Tertiary faulting. Hence they used block faulting rather than staged development to explain the variations in alti­ tude of the peneplain.

8.3 The duricrust landsurfaces of interior and western Australia

The interest in eastern Australia aroused after the publication of Andrews’s (1910) paper was also applied to the area west of the Divide, in the Northern Territory and in Western Australia. Here the denudation chronology was also established in the framework of one peneplain of

Miocene age uplifted in the Pliocene epoch. However, the with upland areas here are in sharp contrast / those of eastern

Australia, firstly in that they form a plateau, the "Great Plateau", with a general elevation between 300 to 500 metres, above sea level, with little surface relief and generally capped with a duricrust. Secondly, the climate varies from

122 tropical monsoon in the north, to arid in the centre, and arid, semi-arid and humid in the south. This present-day marked climatic variation, which is not as pronounced in eastern Australia, did not deter early twentieth century geomorphologists from invoking a uniformly humid climate for the area in the Miocene.

The earliest studies 11 to the possible existence of peneplains west of the Eastern Uplands were made in the Northern Territory by Woolnough (1912), who saw the area in the north of the Northern Territory as representing an uplifted peneplain.

"The most striking feature in the physiography of the Territory is the extent and uniformity of its plateau areas...some 1000 feet or less above sea level...This vast upland is, in fact, a peneplain of the most per­ fect type, and was formed by subaerial erosion at a time when the country stood much lower than it does at present." (Woolnough, 1912, pp. 44-45)

Woolnough also supported Andrews’s (1910) assump- . . f rom tion that this peneplain dated / the Miocene epoch, and saw a close similarity between the coastal regions of the Territory and those of the east coasts, thereby implying a similar history for both areas.

"The form of the outline of the very numerous inlets of the north coast is strongly suggestive of an origin similar to that of the east coast of Australia, (sic) namely the drowning of a number of fairly youthful river valleys." (Woolnough, 1912, p. 45)

A particularly important aspect for the establish­ ment of a geographical unity and a denudation chronology for

123 the area west of the Eastern Uplands is the duricrust capping, which developed at the top of a weathered profile including either a ferruginous, or a siliceous, or a calcareous crust, for which the terms ferric- rete, silcrete, and calcrete have been used.

Duricrust was first given prominence in the denu­ dation studies of Woolnough for two reasons: firstly for the light it throws on the formation and environment of landforms, and secondly for the fact that it serves as a surface marker and means of correlation.

Woolnough (1918) recognised that the deep weathering of land-surface was consistent with the Davisian scheme of peneplanation. The scheme proposed that in the later stages of peneplation, corrasion becomes subordinate to chemical weathering and indicates surface stability. In the light of contemporary paleoclimatic knowledge, the climate during the final stages of peneplanation is seen as one of marked wet and dry seasons which led to a fluctuating water table.

Capilllary action drew iron and aluminium in solution from a lower pallid horizon towards the surface, where they were deposited and where they formed an indurated crust.

"The thesis I wish to establish is that the laterite was produced under peneplain, not plateau, conditions, that is, when the land surface stood at a very slight elevation above sea-level. Youthful streams cut down their valleys to base-level before they begin to widen them at all sensibly. Hence the development of maturity of river erosion, that is, the evolution of a peneplain, can be completed only at a slight altitude above base-level, which in this case was un­ doubtedly sea-level.

With a very gentle gradient mechanical transportation of sediment would be insignificant, and even in solution the

124 lateral movement of material would be extremely slow. Chemical weathering, however, would be strongly favoured, and, given alternations of wet and dry seasons, the con­ ditions for laterite formation, postulated by Simpson, would be ideally fulfilled." (Woolnough, 1918, p. 390)

Woolnough postulated that duricrust is associated with a surface of low relief and can therefore be used to

establish the unity of the surface on which it is found,

even if that surface has subsequently been uplifted. Hence

duricrust serves as a valid stratigraphic marker.

"...the duricrust residuals show every possible sign of being portions of a very extensive peneplain surface. What I claim is that they are all portions of one and the same peneplain surface...Hence it follows that the laterite capping serves as a stratigraphic horizon of no mean value." (Woolnough, 1927, p. 41)

Woolnough also showed that duricrust marks an important stage in the structural history of Australia because it implies a period of great stability and similar conditions over the entire continent.

"If my contention is correct that the Duricrust consti­ tutes a once-continuous formation of approximately Miocene age, it follows that this era must have been one of extraordinary crustal stability, in the western half of Australia at all events, to permit of the per­ fection of peneplanation requisite for the development of the chemical crust and its decomposed substratum. Conditions in eastern Australia need not have shown any marked sympathy, since, as Andrews has repeatedly pointed out, diastrophism has been progressively more recent as we pass from south-west to north-east. Even in eastern Australia, however, the great era of base-levelling which produced the continuous peneplain extending from northern Queensland to Tasmania must have been one of minimum diastrophism." (Woolnough, 1927, p. 42)

The different facies of the duricrust Woolnough saw as a reflection of lithological differences, not en-

125 vironmental ones. He therefore regarded the duricrusts as homotaxial.

"I venture as my second thesis that, not only have these rocks (duricrust) been developed under similar conditions, but that they have been produced homotaxially over a very large part of Australia, during an era of highly perfect peneplanation, combined with a climate in which alternation of intensely dry seasons with very wet ones was the charac­ teristic feature. These rocks constitute, therefore, a definite geological formation, recognition of which, as such, clears up a number of points in the geology of the continent, which were previously very obscure." (Woolnough, 1927, pp. 25-26)

This interpretation of a single, deeply weathered surface tectonically displaced in marginal areas, provided a basis for landform studies in Western Australia for the next twenty-five years.

126 CHAPTER NINE

Later Studies on the Evolution of the Eastern Uplands

In his personal correspondence, Andrews gave

some indication of modifying his 1910 landform interpreta­ tions. In 1918 C.A. Fenner wrote

"Mr. Andrews, however, among much generous advice tendered to the writer by letter, states that his more mature views are that 'Epeirogenic uplifts and differential erosion have been the key to the ter­ tiary history of Eastern Australia, with block faulting as a subordinate feature.'" (Fenner, 1918, p. 212)

This was also to become increasingly the view

reached by two investigators who carried out more detailed

investigations in the late 1920s and early 1930s in the

south-eastern uplands, namely F.A. Craft in New South Wales

and E.S. Hills in Victoria. It is of interest that both

these workers conducted their early investigations under the influence of the diastrophic interpretation discussed

in the previous Chapter. Only after some detailed examina­

tion of the area did they come to interpret the landforms as

staged uplifted erosion surfaces, with the emphasis on war­ ping rather than block faulting. This is seen from Hills

(1934) who wrote

"In Gippsland, particularly, the evidence for extensive late Tertiary faulting is conclusive and illuminating, but in the Eastern Highlands such is not the case, and no undoubted Tertiary fault has yet been identified. My own reference (1932) to the 'tilted blocks of a broken peneplain,' occurring west of the Black Hills, Taggerty, is incorrect. Indeed, a preconceived idea of the domi­ nance of block faulting in this region for long prevented the author from realizing what is actually the chief topo-

12 7 graphic control over extensive areas, and that is, geological structure, etched out by the long con­ tinued attack of erosive agents." (E.S. Hills, 19 34 , p. 172)

This change in emphasis on the origin of land- forms can be attributed to their realization that the landforms they examined represented much more complex forms than had been thought previously. The realization came with the more detailed studies within the regional erosion system, the greater sophistication in the use of basalt evidence to interpret landform history, and the linking of depositional stratigraphy with erosional records.

Furthermore, they now realized that the landform history of the south-eastern uplands extended back over a much longer period of time than had been thought previously, and that instead of one major uplift having occurred in the Plio- Pleistocene (Kosciusko Uplift), they saw the uplift of the upland areas as a multiple one over a much longer period of duration.

9.1 Newer interpretations by F.A. Craft and E.S. Hills

These newer interpretations are characterised by the use of three methods: firstly, a more detailed regional approach with a limited support by topographic and geologi­ cal maps; secondly, the use of evidence of basalt sheets to show that the south-eastern uplands consist of a series of staged peneplains of different ages; thirdly, the use of correlative stratigraphy, linking the erosional history with the sedimentary record in the adjacent sedimentary basins.

1 ? 8 The greater regional detail of these landform studies is seen especially well in the work of Craft, whose work is of two types : those papers dealing with individual drainage basins, and those which deal with larger areas and are of a more general nature. The former group of papers has established a considerable body of detailed landform history, as seen from his six papers on the Shoalhaven area (Craft, 1931a, b, c, d,

19 32a, b) , containing a detailed study of the region from the Great Bend and Tallong gorge upstream to the source streams of the main divide. It was these detailed studies which made it possible for Craft to draw conclusions which would also be applicable to other areas of the eastern up­ lands in New South Wales. This is seen from his second group of papers, such as his paper on the Monaro region, or the one dealing with coastal tableland streams (Craft, 1933a,b), which were more general, with an emphasis on the development and correlation of erosion surfaces. The em­ phasis in this Chapter will be mainly on his general papers.

The regional studies of Hills (1936, 1939a, b, c) were of a more general nature and comparable to Craft’s second group of studies. By contrast, Hills made use of studies carried out by other geologists in Victoria, which enabled him to reach overall conclusions on the development and denudation chronology of Victoria (Hills, 19 34) , which Craft did not attempt for New South Wales.

These detailed regional studies made Craft and

Hills and others aware that a careful examination of the

129 basalts could help to reveal part of the landform evolution.

They recognised that if basalt occurred on a plain adjacent to uplands bounded by erosional escarpments, one could assume that the upland-plain relationship had existed when the basalt was poured out; that if basalt flows had occurred on a surface of low relief, the present differential ele­ vation at the base of the basalt could give a measure of the subsequent uplift after the basalt had been deposited.

Craft (1933b) made use of the basalt flows to help him understand the landform history of the eastern uplands of New South Wales. Until then it had been generally thought (Walcott, 1920) that the basalt flows of New South Wales from dated / the upper Miocene and lower Pliocene. Craft (1933b) by contrast, through the use of the topographic relationship of the basalts recognised three groups of flows, as well as a greater age difference for these flows. Craft regarded the first group of basalt flows, those of the coastal plain, as the youngest; the second group, comprising the basalt flows which had occurred inland but conformed to the existing topo­ graphy, such as along the edge of the Shoalhaven gorge,

Monaro and New England areas, were older than the coastal basalts; the third group are those basalt flows which do not conform to the existing topography, such as those of the

Central Tableland, and Craft regarded them as the oldest and as dating to the early Tertiary.

Craft used the relationship of the different basalt flows to one another to show firstly that the pre-basalt sur­ face was not a peneplain, as had been thought previously, but

130 a dissected and undulating surface; secondly, from the relationship between the upland and coastal basalt, that little differential uplift of the latter had taken place, but rather that the region was differentially upwarped along the length of the upland belt; thirdly, he estab­ lished from the altitude of the base of the basalt the amount of uplift since the Tertiary basalt flow.

"...it may be stated that at the time of basaltic extrusion the Central Plateau or Blue Mountains formed a low region between the higher masses. Its general elevation probably did not exceed 1,000 feet, with a maximum of 2,000 feet, whilst the higher mass of New England rose to 3,500 feet, and the Monaro-Kosciusko region to 4,500 or 5,000 feet, as a maximum. There appears to have been little subsequent deformation in the higher regions, but the Central Plateau may have been warped considerably." (Craft, 1933b, pp. 449-450)

This enabled Craft to deduce that the post-ba­ saltic uplift in the upland area in the Tertiary was in the vicinity of some 2 ,000 ft, and that the areaswhere basalt was found below 700 ft, such as the coastal areas, had remained relatively stationary.

In Victoria, Hills was more fortunate as here two distinct basalt flows of different age had been established.

The Older Basalts, dating from the Oligocene to the lower

Miocene, and the Newer Basalts, dating from the mid-Pliocene to the Recent. On the basis of these two distinct basalts

Hills (1934) was able to construct a landform history for the whole of Victoria. He showed that the pre-Older Basalt landscape was not a peneplain but a dissected landscape.

"It may be seen around the Dandenong Ranges that the land surface at the time of extrusion of the Older Basalts was of diversified relief, the resistant Devonian lavas rising above the general level of the surrounding country. With a topography such as this, the possibility exists that at the

131 summits of the monadnocks of resistant rocks, we might find relics of the former land surface, which upon ele­ vation and dissection gave rise to the later surface upon which the Older Basalts were poured out." (Hills, 1934, p. 160)

Secondly, he used the evidence of the Older

Basalts to show that no major uplift had occurred in

Victoria between the outpouring of the Older Basalts and the lower Pliocene. Hills based this argument on the evi­ dence that lower Pliocene fossil marine sands were uplifted before being covered by flows of Newer Basalts, which therefore dated the uplift as Pliocene (Kalimnan movement).

"We have no evidence that any major period of uplift, such, for instance, as might have raised the Eastern Highlands to their present elevation, took place between the extrusion of the Older Basalts and the end of Kalimnan times in Victoria. It is the post-Kalimnan movements which have determined the major topographic features of the State.

Evidence for a general Pliocene uplift antedating by some time the Newer Basalts is afforded by the uplifted marine Kalimnan sands of the Melbourne district. (Hills, 1934, pp. 165-166)

Thirdly, it was shown by Hills on the basis of the altitudinal relationship of the remnants of Older Basalts east of Melbourne, that the area had been warped rather than faulted in the Pliocene.

"As we pass eastwards from the Melbourne district, the Older Basalts residuaJs become, in the Eastern Highlands, progressively more elevated. At the same time, the inter­ fluves of the pre-Older Basaltic streams become continuously more eroded and reduced, so that we pass from a region where the Older Basalt may still occupy lower ground than the old interfluves (more especially than the old divides) to a region where the residuals now occupy the highest land, and where ex­ tensive relics of the monadnocks and interfluves of Older Basaltic times no longer exist. This explains why relics of Cretaceous Terrain...are more easily recognizable nearer Melbourne than in the Alps. The pre-Older Basaltic land surface has been differentially elevated, being tilted up to the east about an axis in the Melbourne district chiefly as a result of post-Kalimnan movements." (Hills, 1934, p. 161)

132 Correlative sedimentary evidence was used by

both Craft and Hills to give added support to their fin­

dings that the landforms of the south-eastern uplands were

much older than had been thought previously.

In his detailed studies of the Shoalhaven area Craft became aware that the landforms in this area and to the south were also much older than had been thought pre­ viously. Here Craft made use of the stratigraphic record of the southern edge of the Sydney Basin to show as far as

possible the erosional history of the upland areas in the

west and south with the corresponding depositional history

in the east. Craft (1932b) saw the landforms of the area

as dating back to the Paleozoic, as consisting of what he termed a master surface in the pre-Permian which is now lo­ cated at an altitude of 4,000 ft to the south of the Sydney Basin, and as significant since it formed the basis for future landform development in the area. With some uplift in the Permian, a new surface was initiated, the upper sur­ face of the Upper Marine Series, with residuals of the for­ mer surfaces standing on this new plain. From the sedimentary evidence of the Sydney Basin, Craft saw the restriction of the coal measures in the south as indicating elevations

around their margins, which resulted from the depression of the areas in which these sediments were being deposited.

Since the Permian the area has undergone three phases of planation, one in the Triassic, where the planation

surface was co-extensive with the surface of deposition of

133 Triassic rock, and two subsequent phases. The last phase Craft (1932b) saw as developing in the Tertiary, and named it the Shoalhaven Plain. The Kosciusko uplift initiated new phases of landform development.

In Victoria, by contrast, Hills did not use cor- • relative sedimentary history to establish the denudation chronology of an area to the same degree as Craft, but he did make use of sedimentary evidence, as already shown by the use of the Kalimnan sands in the Melbourne area to date uplift. He also used evidence in the Gippsland Basin to show that the Older Basalts occur below the Cainozoic sediments, and thus pre-date the coal measures. He inter­ preted the "Torrent Gravels" and their irregular bedding in east Gippsland to show that they were deposited by tor­ rential streams, which brought this material from the eastern highlands when preliminary movements of uplift took place in the Pliocene. As some of the gravels are at an altitude of some 700 ft above the present sea-level on the south-eastern margins of the highlands, he indicated that the

Pliocene uplift had continued after these gravels had been deposited.

9.2 Post-war substantiation of this work

In the light of post-World-War-II research, the work of Craft and Hills can be seen as an essentially modern interpretation of landform development in the south-eastern uplands. Both Craft and Hills established that Andrews's (1910) concept of a Miocene peneplain, near sea-level and

134 uplifted in the Pliocene by what he termed the Kosciusko uplift, was too simple an explanation once a more detailed study of the areas had been made. By using the pre-basaltic surface, Craft and Hills showed that not one major peneplain of Miocene age had existed, but rather that a series of staged peneplains of a much greater age were present in the landscape. Hills (1934) showed that more than one major uplift had occurred during the Tertiary.

These findings have been essentially substantiated by post-World-War-II research in the south-eastern uplands. Voisey(1942) for example showed that the pre-basaltic sur­ face of New England, New South Wales, had an altitudinal pre- basaltic relief of some 1400 ft , and that some of this altitudinal relief was due to older residuals standing on the pre-basaltic surface. He thereby recognised that two surfaces were present in the pre-basaltic landscape. R.F. Warner (1970) re-examined the New England area, and on the basis of the different altitudes of the pre-basaltic sur­ face came to the conclusion that four surfaces existed. The dating of the basalt flow in the Armidale region as 20.7 million years (- 1), refuted the theory of Andrews

(1910), and supported the findings of Craft (1933b).

Galloway (1967), in his study of land surfaces and basalts in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, used the local evidence of tectonic displacements of the

sub-basalt surface to establish the contours of the pre

-basalt surface which he described as 'undulating to accidented'.

135 Further weight was added to Craft’s (1933b) assumptions by the extensive radiometric dating of basalt in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales by Peter Wellman and Ian McDougall (1974). They saw the older basalt flows of Craft as essentially Eocene, and the Caoura flow

above the Shoalhaven gorge as Oligocene, with the basalts Oligocene at the coastal plain as being also of / age. This finding led Wellman and McDougall to conclude that as the upland valley and coastal basalts are of the same age, this can only be explained by an upwarping along the coastal axis, with the coastal plain remaining fairly stationary, thereby justi­ fying Craft's (1933b) assumption that differential movement had occurred along the length of the uplands, although

Craft's (1933b) assumption that the coastal basalt was of a different age to that in the upland areas was disproved.

"There is considerable evidence to support Craft's (1933) view that there has been differential uplift along (north- south) as well as across (east-west) the highlands. In the Oxley Basin-Hunter River area near the axis of the Eastern Highlands the Oligocene to Miocene lavas occur near present river level; so this region has presumably undergone little or no uplift during the Cainozoic. Similarly some middle Miocene lavas in the Nandewar and Warrurnbungle Moun­ tain areas, and near Dubbo and west of Orange, are near present river level and suggest little or no post-middle Miocene uplift of the western margin of the Eastern Highlands. At the eastern margin of the Eastern Highlands Oligocene (26- 29 m.y.) subaerial basalts occur at sea level near Moruya and near Ulladulla. There can therefore have been no net uplift of the coastal strip since the Oligocene." (Wellman and McDougall, 1974, p. 268)

Wellman and McDougal (1974), on the basis of the age and present day altitudinal range of the basalt in the

Monaro region, also supported the stratigraphic evidence used by Craft (1932b) to show that the landform history of the south-eastern uplands of New South Wales is much older

136 than thought previously.

"We concur with Craft (1933), who used arguments based upon the distribution and age of the nearly flatlying Late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sediments of the region, that the present highlands probably had lowest relief in the Late Mesozoic, and the major uplifts were younger." (Wellman and McDougall, 1974, p. 267)

R.W. Young (1970) supported the assumption by

Craft (1933b) that the south-eastern uplands of New South

Wales had considerable relief in the Miocene. Young based this assumption on the location of laterite near sea level

near Nowra on the New South Wales coast and on the adjacent plateau, but not on most of the coastal fall. Gill (1971)

however suggested that the coastal laterites might be of Pliocene age, on the basis of the evidence from the Melbourne area, but this was rejected by Young (1971) on

the evidence of their degree of development.

The denudation chronology established by Hills (1934) for Victoria has also been substantiated for

southern New South Wales by E. D. Gill and K. R. Sharp

(1957), who associated the basaltic flow with maximum

tectonic activity, and found that in Victoria the major

Tertiary tectonic activity occurred in the Oligocene, as dated from the Older Basalts, and in the Pliocene, as dated from the Newer Basalts.

137 CHAPTER TEN

Post-War Growth of Academic Geomorphology

The remarkable level of activity in geomorpho- logical studies in the 1930's, including those by Craft and

Hills referred to in the preceding Chapter, fell somewhat throughout the War and during the early 1950's. This however was followed by a steady increase at first, and later a rapidly increasing scale of activity, much of which was associated with the appointment of geo­ morphologists to Departments of Geography, particularly from the mid-1950s onwards. Bearing in mind the almost non-exis­ tent level of activity beforehand, it was clear that most of these appointments in geomorphology had to come from over­ seas, especially Britain. These geomorphologists brought with them a number of concepts, influences, and experiences, and these interacted to some extent with the local environment, which in turn gave rise to diversification, and at times to a revision of established views.

At the same time, there was a continuing contri­ bution to landform studies by academic geologist-geomorpho­ logists, though in the more traditional fields of investi­ gation .

10.1 The growth and specialization in Departments of Geography

seven In 1945 there were / universities in Australia,

138 one in each State Capital, as well as university colleges and at Canberra. at Armidale in northern New South Wales/ During the next fifteen years, three more universities and another university college were established. Fourteen years later, the number had almost doubled with the foundation of seven more univer­ sities and two university colleges, as shown on Table 10.1.

In the same period, there was a fivefold increase in the number of undergraduate students, from 15,586 in 1945, to 28,000 in 1953, 62,059 in 1959, and 133,126 in 1973.

The growth in the number and size of Australian universities was accompanied by an even more striking inc­ rease in the number of Departments of Geography. In 1946, the only such departments were at the Universities of Sydney and Adelaide and at Armidale University College. This reflected the low priority given to Geography in tertiary studies at that time. With the general expansion taking place after this date, however, the number of Departments of Geography grew to eighteen by 1971, if one includes the interdiscip­ linary School of Earth Sciences at Macquarie University, and the three Departments of Geography within the Australian National University in Canberra. The number of teaching positions at these Depart­ ments of Geography has seen a slightly greater growth than that of the number of departments, from 5 in 1946 to 115 in

1971. Furthermore, this disproportionate growth of Geography as a discipline at most Australian universities reflects the growing importance of Geography in secondary education, since the main function of Departments of Geography has been the

139 Table 10.I1 The establishment of Departments of Geography at Australian

Universities and the introduction of geomorphology.

University Date of Date of Introduction establishment establishment of of university of Department Geomorphology of Geography as a subject

Sydney 1850 19 217 1921 2 Helbourne 1853 1960 ft Adelaide 1874 19 308 1960 Tasmania 1890 1952 1956 Queensland 1909 1950 1964 . Western 1912 1964 1964 Australia A.N.U.23 1946 A.N.U. P.S.4 1951 1952 G . S .5 1959 1963 1963 New England 6 1938 1939 1939 New South Wales 1949 1967 1967 Monash 1958 1963 1964 Newcas tie6 1965 1954 1954 Flinders 1966 1966 1968 Macquarie 1967 1967 1968 James Cook 6 1961 1961 1965 Wollongong 6 1962 1969 1971

Data obtained from questionnaires sent to staff at Departments of Geography 2 No data made available, despite repeated requests. 3 Australian National University, Canberra. Research school of Pacific Studies: includes departments of Human Geography 5 School of General Studies. and Biogeography and Geomorphology.

6 First established as a University College. 7 Sub-Department within Department of Geology till 1945. 8 Geography I was offered from 1930, Geography II was added in 1939. Both included some geomorphology.

140 training of geography teachers for secondary schools.

At the same time, there has been an accompanying

increase in specialization at the expense of general courses.

This fundamental change in course structure is typified at

the University of Queensland, as shown on Table 10.2 .

Table 10.2

Subjects in the Geography course at the University of

Queensland before and after 1964.

Prior to 1964 1964 - 1970 1973-(I semester units)

Geog.I Geog.I Geog.I Geog.II Geog.II Geog.Techniques Geog.III Geog.of the Phys.Wld.* Geomorphology Eco.Geog.I Geog.of the Eastern Wld.* Biogeography Eco . Geog. II Geog. IIIaCAust. phys ,/regn’l) Eco . Geography or Urban Geography Geog. IIIb(Aust. urban/regn’l) Geog.of S.E. Asia Geography IV Geog.of Australia Environmental conserv. Geog. of India,China, Japan Geog. of Queensland Spatial Analysis Honours in any of the above

* 2nd and 3rd year course

This specialization led to the introduction of geomorphology (as seen from Table 10.1) and to the appoint­ ment of geomorphologists on the teaching staffs of all De­ partments of Geography in Australia (as seen from Table 10.3).

The result has been that it is possible for at least one specialised course in geomorphology to be taken at most

Australian Universities.

141 Table 10.31

Total number of geomorphologists at Australian University

Departments of Geography since 1945 .

University 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1972

Sydney 1 1 0 1 2 3 5 Melbourne - - - 1 1 1 1 Adelaide 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 Tasmania 0 0 1 1 2 3 3 Queensland - 0 0 0 1 1 1 Western Australia 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 A.N.U. P.S.2 - 1 1 1 2 3 4 G.S. 3 - - - - 2 1 1 New England 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 New South Wales _ _ —__ 4 4 Monash - - - 0 3 3 3 Newcastle - - - 1 1 2 3 Flinders - - - - - 1 1 Macquarie - - - - 1 3 4 James Cook - - - - 1 1 . 1 Wollongong

College ------2

1 Data obtained from questionnaires sent to staff at Departments of Geography. 2 School of Pacific Studies. 3 School of General Studies. - Department of Geography not established.

142 10.2 The recruitment of overseas geomorphologists to

Departments of Geography at Australian Universities

and their impact on the study of geomorphology in

Australia

The demand for geomorphologists in Departments of

Geography from the mid-1950s could not be met by the one department then in existence in Australia. The result was that geomorphologists had to be recruited from overseas, mostly from Britain. These new appointees brought with them a diversity of background and interests, based partly on current geomorphic concepts, partly on their teachers' in­ fluence, and partly on their experience of landforms in

Britain and Europe. This led to transfer of those interests developed in an European environment to the Australian setting.

To some extent these interests were stimulated and diversi­ fied, at times they had to cease or be modified, and at times they led to conflict with the established point of view.

It is significant for the development of Australian geomorphology that in the 1950s two geomorphologists of in­ ternational repute were appointed to senior positions at two of Australia's prestigious Universities. This introduced into Australian landform studies a much needed vitality which had not been felt here since the early part of the twentieth century.

The first of these was J.N. Jennings, appointed as

Reader in Geomorphology at the Australian National University

143 in Canberra in 1952. Prior to his arrival, Jennings had with differing degrees of vigour pursued four main types

of landform studies. One of these, alluvial stratigraphy, had been stimulated by his teacher J.A. Steers, of the University of Cambridge, as exemplified by his studies of

the Norfolk Broads.

Jennings’s interest in and contribution to British

glacial and periglacial studies can be attributed to acti­

vities at Cambridge, which was then the centre of glacial

and periglacial studies in Britain under Frank Debenham (of

Scott’s last expedition to the South Pole), W.V. Lewis, L.

Fleming, J. Wordie, and others, all of the University of

Cambridge. Jennings, who accompanied Lewis to Iceland in 1937, conducted a survey of glacial features and glaciers. In the following year, he accompanied an expedition to Jan Mayen island as a glaciologist, and undertook a mass-balance study of its South Glacier.

Jennings’s other two main interests-coasts and karst-were less actively pursued at this time. His interest in coastal geomorphology, particularly in flat coasts, can be traced to Steers and Lewis at the University of Cambridge, but he undertook no specific coastal research while in

Britain. An interest in karst dated to his youth in Yorkshire

and school excursions in the Pennines, but he maintained an interest in this only on a general and recreational level.

Once in Australia, however, Jennings had to abandon

144 his major research activity into alluvial stratigraphy, which he had intended to continue here, because the taxonomic and

ecological basis in Australia and New Guinea was at that time

inadequate to support the employment of pollen analysis in

such studies. Since he was the only full-time academic

geomorphologist, he felt obliged to follow those of his

landform interests which were poorly represented in Australian geomorphological studies before that period.

One of his first areas of diversification was in

coastal geomorphology. At the time, the established view

concerning the alignment of Australian beaches was that tidal currents were responsible, as expressed by

David and Browne (1950). Following the

work of Lewis (1938), which was mainly concerned with

shingle beaches, Jennings (1955) came to the conclusion that the formation and alignment of Australian sand beaches de­ pend on wave fetch, which was contrary to the established Australian view. The problem of sand beach alignment was

further studied by Davies (1958b), who expanded on the work

of Jennings (1955), and showed that the important aspect is

the direction of wave approach as a whole, not fetch, es­

pecially the refracted pattern of the ocean, swell.

A second example showing Jennings's introduction of new ideas into Australian geomorphology is his study of

the alignment of parabolic or U-Dunes, related to resultant onshore winds (Jennings, 195 7) , which followed the work of

Landsberg (1956) in Britain and Denmark. This interest in

dune development was extended during a South-East Asian

145 I.G.U. Conference in 1962 when Jennings went to the east and west coast of the Malay Peninsula. He observed poor coastal dune development here (Jennings, 1964a), in cont- with rast / the substantial dune development of mid-latitude coasts, and suggested that rainy conditions might prevent dune formation by causing material to remain moist and therefore resistant to aeolian activity. This exemplifies further the research opportunities available as a result of the Australasian climate, which enabled Jennings to de­ velop his interest in coastal geomorphology further than in Britain where it had been of general interest only.

Jennings’s third area of research interest, glaciation, was pursued both in the Australian Alps in con­ junction with Ritchie (Ritchie and Jennings, 1955) and in Tasmania in conjunction with N. Ahmad (Jennings and Ahmad, 1957), and was to contribute to the initiation of important revisions of the nature and extent of glaciation in these areas. Jennings brought to these studies his overseas ex­ perience, which enabled him to recognise not only the fresh­ ness of the glacial evidence, but also to analyse the origins of the cirques in the Grey Mare Range region , and to distin­ guish between glacial and periglacial evidence.

Jennings's fourth area of study, karst, which until his arrival in Australia had been only of recreational in­ terest, was to become one of his most significant contribu­

tions to Australian geomorphology, which can be attributed largely to the opportunities the Australian environment

146 offered for research over widely differing climatic regions.

His contribution was not only by way of his personal re­ search into karst landforms, but also by his influence and drive in the development of the Australian Speleological

Federation, and the establishment of the specialised publi­ cation Helictite. A feature of Jennings’s karst research has been the wide range of climatic settings in which he was able to undertake this research: from Mole Creek in

Tasmania (Jennings and M.M. Sweeting, 1959) to the arid Nullarbor Plain (Jennings, 1961 , 196 3a), to the tropical semi-arid west Kimberleys (Jennings and Sweeting, 1963a, b) and the periglacial environment of the Cooleman Plain

(Jennings, 1963b).

The second senior academic geomorphologist ap­ pointed from overseas was G.H. Dury, Professor of Geography at the University of Sydney from 1960 to 1968. Prior to his arrival in Australia, Dury’s main activity was concerned with the regional and (particularly) Quaternary geomorphology of the Northhampshire uplands and the adjoining regions, which can be attributed to the influence of his teacher S.W.

Wooldridge, University of London, and to the fact that he was born and bred in the area. Dury also came under the influence of Professor Shotton of the University of Birmingham, who was at that time one of the foremost Quaternary geologists in

Britain. As a result, Dury became interested in glacial lakes, overflow channels and drainage development. The second of his interests was fluvial geomorphology and parti­ cularly his work on underfit streams and their implication for past climates. This interest in quantitative geomor- phology was extended in 1959 through his twelve-month stay at the Water Resource Division of the United States Geolo­ gical Survey, where he came under the influence of L.P.

Leopold and M.G. Wolman. As a result of this influence,

Dury published three papers dating to his work during this period (Dury, 1964a, b, 1965).

When Dury arrived in Australia in 1960, geomor­ phology had already begun to be actively pursued again, so that there was a small body of geomorphologists engaged in research. After his arrival, Dury fostered quantitative fluvial geomorphological studies, firstly by the study of underfit streams. The Colo River of New South Wales was classified by Dury (1966a) as an underfit stream of the Osage type. He also carried out studies on the channel characteristics of the Hawkesbury River in relation to dis­ charge (Dury, 196 7a, 19 70a). His bankfull investigations (Dury et al., 1963, Dury 1968) were not particularly fruit­ ful in the Australian setting, as Australian streams, un­ like American streams, are slightly incised into their flood plain, and it is therefore possible that bankfull discharge is well above the mean annual flood, so that overseas fin­ dings do not apply here.

Dury’s interest in fluvial studies waned towards the mid-1960s, and was replaced by planation surfaces asso­ ciated with duricrusts (Langford-Smith and Dury, 1965, Dury

1966c), which provides a good example of the influence of the Australian environment on the research activities of

148 geornorphologists trained overseas. This is further seen from Dury’s studies of pediments, and gibbers (Dury, 1966b, 1970b) in which he merged his interest in quanti­ tative studies with the opportunities offered by the Aust­ ralian environment.

Not only were senior appointments made from among overseas geornorphologists to Departments of Geography at

Australian Universities, but appointments were also made at a more junior levelwhich were to influence Australian geo­ morphology. One such appointment for example was that of

J.L. Davies, who before his arrival in Australia had com­ bined his interest in the coastal geomorphology of south­ eastern England with his interest as a naturalist and zoo­ geographer. This interest in natural history is reflected in his preoccupation with the total environment, particular­ ly within the environmental dimensions of geomorphology.

When he arrived in Tasmania, Davies continued his interest in coastal geomorphology, and became interested in the beach alignment of the Tasmanian coast, as this was in with complete contrast 7 what he had observed in England. Here the beaches comprise sand, while those he had observed in

Britain comprised shingle. Here there is only a moderate tidal range, and shoreline curves are in a multitude of direc­ tions, with a variety of possible lengths of fetch. In

Britain, Lewis (1938) had found that shoreline curves re­ sulted from wave action and direction and that each section of a beach is oriented at right angles to the dominant waves for that section. This finding did not apply to Tasmania,

149 and Davies (1958b) therefore returned to first principles by observing the relationship of wind direction and beach alignment. He found that what was important here was not dominant wave action as determined by the direction of fetch, but the refractive swell.

Following his Sabbatical Leave in Britain in

1961, where he was able to study the wide range of coastal environments of Europe, and with his experience of the

Australian coastal environments, he evolved the morphoge­ netic concept that the local environment is significant in shoreline development (Davies, 1964 , 19 72 ) and not as thought previously, that all coastlines have a uniform development.

In addition to these studies, there were some other facets which were encouraged by the Tasmanian environment, for example his denudation chronology study of the island as a whole, which was based on morphometric analysis, and very much in line with similar studies undertaken in Britain somewhat earlier (Davies, 1959 ). A second area of interest was his study of periglaciation and cryoplanation on Mount

Wellington (Davies, 195 8a), as well as his later studies of the environment, as seen by his part in compiling the Glacial

Map of Tasmania (Derbyshire et al., 1965).

10.3 The recruitment of C.S.I.R.O. geomorphologists to

Departments of Geography at Australian universities and

their impact on the study of geomorphology in Australia

Not all the academic staff was recruited directly

150 from overseas or Australia, but some were recruited in­ directly through the C.S.I.R.O. (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), so that in their case they brought not only their prior interests and ex­ perience, but also the interests acquired during their work on resource surveys; these include interests in regional geomorphology in the lesser known areas of the arid and seasonally arid north, west and central Australia, and an interest in the extensive landsurfaces, plains, and duricrust development in these areas.

In 1959, C.R. Twidale was appointed Lecturer, and later, Reader in the Department of Geography at the Univer­ sity of Adelaide, after a period of three years with the

Division of Land Research in C.S.I.R.O., which was fol­ lowed by a period of post-graduate research at McGill Uni­ versity on a C.S.I.R.O. scholarship. The research interests that he developed in relation to his regional surveys, par­ ticularly in north-western Queensland, included denudation chronology, weathering, climatic change and the sequence and mode of formation of planation surfaces. A second area of interest comprised neotectonism, lineament analysis, structural geomorphology, and the effect of these on land­ scape development. A third field involved him in volcanic landscape development.

Most of these interests are exemplified in his subsequent work at the University of Adelaide's Department of Geography, for example his study of granite inselbergs and weathering (Twidale, 1962, 1964, 1965), his studies of

151 the development of longitudinal sand dunes (Twidale, 1972 ) or his studies on erosion surface chronology (Twidale? 1966) .

One of the main aspects of Twidale’s work has been his suc­ cessful use of the Adelaide hinterland as far north as the

Simpson Desert in his research.

A somewhat similar appointment was that of J.A.

Mabbutt as Foundation Professor of Geography at the Univer­ sity of New South Wales in 1966. His interest in dune and pediment landforms can be traced back to earlier experience in South Africa, but other aspects such as denudation chro­ nology, deep weathering, the application of geomorphology in regional surveys, microrelief and patterned ground were the result of very much/the influence of his C.S.I.R.O. survey experience, and aided by his continuing activities in Central Australia.

Since coming to the University, Mabbutt has res­ tricted his research to the arid zone and denudation chrono­ logy, such as his dune-form studies in central Australia

(Mabbutt, 1968), his study on longitudinal dunes (Mabbutt and M.E. Sullivan, 1968), and his denudation chronology stu­ dies in central Australia (Mabbutt, 1967).

Somewhat differing from the others, Langford-

Smith was not from overseas, but trained at the University of Sydney’s Department of Geography and later at the Univer­ sity of Adelaide's Department of Geology, but like Twidale and Mabbutt, he had earlier experience with the C.S.I.R.

(later the C.S.I.R.O.) Division of Soils, which was to in-

152 fluence his interest in soil studies.

As a research scholar at the Australian National University Langford-Smith began work on the prior streams of the Riverine Plain, where he used the established correlations between meander belt width and channel width to infer higher discharges in the past, which was to result in a controversy concerning the former climates of the area (Langford-Smith,

1959, 1960a, b, 1962). In 1956, Langford-Smith was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Sydney, where he later became Senior Lecturer, Professor, and

Head of the Department. Here he was influenced by Dury, and joined with him in studies on duricrusts (Langford-Smith and Dury, 1965), pediments and pediplains (Dury and Langford-Smith, 1964, 1965). A third area of interest which Langford-Smith developed at the University of Sydney was coastal geomorphology, which has since become his special area of research

(Langford-Smith and B. G. Thom, 1969).

10.4 The development of post-graduate studies and the

emergence of later generations of geomorphologists

The growth of an active post-graduate research programme in geomorphology is a post-World-War-II phenomenon, and one closely allied with the growth and staffing of De­ partments of Geography at Australian Universities. The rapid expansion in post-graduate research can be attributed to three influences: the first is the unprecedented demand

153 in Australia for tertiary education, the equally rapid expansion of universities, the large-scale recruitment of academic staff, and the specialization in subjects inclu­ ding geomorphologv. A second influence was the encourage­ ment given to potential students by the Commonwealth Govern­ ment, initially by A.N.U, research scholarships and later on a larger scale through the post-graduate award scheme estab­ lished in 1959 with 100 scholarships, with an increase to

700 by 1972. At the same time, research grants for post­ graduate study were made to the universities themselves.

A third influence was the increase in employment opportuni­

ties for post-graduate students within university departments, government departments, and industry.

The two Departments of Geography which have been the most active in promoting post-graduate studies in geo­ morphology are those at The Australian National University and at the University of Sydney. At The Australian National

University, the Department of Biogeography and Geomorphology, the only one of its kind in Australia, and the only one con­ cerned with geomorphology solely in post-graduate studies, is of interest here. The bulk of the post-graduate students come from overseas, generally Britain. Once they completed their studies, some returned to Britain to take up lecturing appointments at British Universities. After a short period several of these in Britain, / returned to Australia to take up senior appointments at Australian Universities. They have thereby contributed towards establishing a second generation of over­ seas staff members at Australian Universities. This is exem­ plified by E.C.F. Bird who came to Australia in 1957 from

154 Expected page number 155 is not in the original print copy. Britain to undertake studies in coastal geomorphology, and completed his Doctor of Philosophy Thesis at The Australian

National University’s Research School of Pacific Studies in 1960, whereupon he returned to Britain in 1960 to take up a Lectureship in Geography and Conservation at the Univer­ sity College, London. In 1963 he returned to Australia to take up a position as Senior Lecturer in Geography at the

School of General Studies in The Australian National Univer­ sity, and in 1966 he took up an appointment as Reader in

Geography in the Department of Geography at University of

Melbourne. A second example is I. Douglas who came to Australia from Britain in 1963 to undertake studies on karst processes in a tropical environment. However, for logistic reasons, Douglas undertook a study of the rates of denuda­ tion in North Queensland and south-eastern New South Wales, and completed his Doctor of Philosophy studies in 1966 at The Australian National University’s Research School of

Pacific Studies and returned to Britain to take up a lecture­ ship in Geography at the University of Hull. In 1971 Douglas returned to Australia to take up the appointment of Professor of Geography at the University of New England.

Strangely, the influence of the research interests of staff at The Australian National University’s Department of Biogeography and Geomorphology on its post-graduate stu­ dents is not as marked as that at other Australian universi­ ties , however, as seen from the following analysis of post­ graduate theses. Of the thirteen research projects under­ taken since the Department’s inception, only six reflect

156 the specialization of Jennings: one thesis in perigla- ciation, three on lakes and sediments, and two on karst.

Because the Research School of Pacific Studies was conceived as having wider geographical interests, the University’s location in relation to post-graduate research is not as marked as in other Departments. Only two of the thirteen investigations fall into the local category - that of R. M.

Frank (1972) on the caves of eastern New South Wales, and

R. J. Coventry's (1973) on the abandoned shorelines of Lake George.

By contrast, at the University of Sydney’s Department of Geography there was not the extensive recruit­ ment of overseas students as was the case at the Australian National University. Many of the post-graduate students had been under-graduates in the Department. They have not. yet secured senior positions in Australian Universities on the same scale as the post-graduate students from the

Australian National University, but they have made substantial contributions to establishing a second generation of teaching geomorphologists in Australian Universities. Unlike the

Department of Biogeography and Geomorphology at the Australian

National University, there exists at the University of Sydney a much closer connection between the research activities of staff and those of the post-graduate students, as seen from the following analysis of post-graduate theses. Between 1960 and 1970, of the eleven theses produced in that period, five were con­ cerned with fluvial geomorphology at the time when Dury was

157 actively pursuing this aspect in Australia. When however, he began to undertake work in semi-arid landforms, there were two theses which reflect this change of activity.

The university's location on the coast and Langford-Smith's

interest in coastal geomorphology resulted in a thesis on

this subject and two others on Quaternary geomorphology

jointly supervised by Langford-Smith and Dury. Since Dury's

departure in 1970, and Langford-Smith's appointment to the

Chair of Geography, the emphasis on fluvial geomorphology has inevitably declined, while more attention is now

focussed on coastal and arid landforms.

158 CHAPTER ELEVEN

Traditional Studies by Academic Geologists

The traditional geomorphological research by geologists in Australia continued in the period after

World War II, mainly in areas of investigations closely related to geology, such as regional, structural and

Quaternary geomorphology. The pre-war contribution to landform studies by geologists culminated in the publi­ cation by David and Browne (1950), The Geology of the

Commonwealth of Australia and of Hills (1940a), Physio­ graphy of Victoria, both written in the des­ criptive style of the pre-war period and based on contem­ poraneous concepts. It was particularly the older members of the Departments of Geology who were associated with these geomorphological studies, because from 1945 onwards there was associated with the greater specialization within geology a tendency for the younger post-graduate staff members of Departments of Geology to turn away from geomorphology. This turning away from geomor­ phology by post-World-War-II geologists was also expe­ rienced within the Geological Surveys of the various States , which in the first twenty-five years of the twentieth centu­ ry had made a major contribution to geomorphology. The emphasis on geomorphology was thus left with the older members of the university Departments of Geology.

159 11.1 W.R. Browne and others at the University of Sydney

The interest in landform studies in this Depart­ ment has already been attributed to David's interest in the subject, and his ability to foster it among his staff and students. One of these, Browne, was instrumental in his turn in fostering two particular types of landform studies within the Department: Pleistocene glaciation in the Kosciusko area, and Tertiary landforms. The latter interest was not pursued actively by Browne or the Depart­ ment in the post-World-War-II period and therefore will not be discussed here.

The interest in glaciation in the Kosciusko area originally stemmed from the investigations undertaken by David, Helms and Pittman (1901), and David (1908).

David's findings were based on both depositional evidence such as moraines and erratics, and erosional evidence such as cirques, roches moutonnees, and grooved pavements. From this evidence, he postulated that the Australian Alps had undergone three stages of glaciation: ice sheet, valley, and cirque glaciation.

This work formed the basis of further research by the Department, especially by Browne. In association with his colleagues and students, Browne's research spanned

forty-five years (1925 to 1970), and followed the same pattern as David's (Taylor, Browne, Jardine, 1925, Browne, 1945, 1952a, b, 1957, 1963, 1967, Browne, Dulhunty and Maze,

160 1944, Dulhunty, 1945, Browne and Vallance, 1955, 1957, 1963,

1970, Vallance, 1953). In essence, Browne saw the Kosciusko area as a horst uplifted during the Pleistocene to its present elevation (Kosciusko Uplift), and the structural pattern as influencing the shaping of many of the glacial features.

Like David, Browne realized that because of the low altitude of the area, the glacial evidence would be more subdued and

less spectacular than that of the European or New Zealand

Alps, which led him and his co-workers to keep adding to

the real extent of glaciation of the Kosciusko Uplands until

by 1957 it had reached a total of some 1000 km2, (Browne

and Vallance, 1957). Like David, he saw the area as having

undergone three stages of glaciation, and provisionally

associated these stages with the three glacial stages of Europe (Mindel, Riss and Wurm), and he was also influenced in this by the work of A.N. Lewis in Tasmania.

11.2__A.H. Voisey at the University of New England At the University of New England’s Department of Geology, Voisey, its first Lecturer, and Head from its in­

ception in 1939, maintained an active interest in physical

geography and played an important role in developing Geography

there, and indirectly in promoting geomorphology. In his own

geomorphological researches he followed a traditional pattern

of landform investigation, with an emphasis on denudation

chronology. This interest can be attributed firstly to his

contact with members of the Department of Geology at the Uni­

versity of Sydney during his undergraduate and post-graduate

studies, particularly with Browne; and secondly, to his contact with Woolnough, whom he assisted in the Aerial, Geological and Geophysical Survey of Northern Australia in 1935-36, as well 161 as to the stimulus afforded by the vast erosion surfaces of inland Australia (personal communication, Voisey). This interest was furthered after his appointment to the

University of New England, by the scenery and by the wri­ tings of Andrews (1903a, 1904) on the landform history of the New England area. But unlike Andrews, he con­ sidered the stratigraphy of the area, and examined the basalts in relation to the erosion surfaces, as shown by his (1942) paper establishing the pre-basalt surface of the New England area by his mapping of the contact zone.

From this, he was able to show that the inequalities of the basalt surface had resulted from erosion and not dif­ ferential uplift, as suggested by Andrews (1910). Voisey’s interest in erosion surfaces continued after World War II, as seen from his (1956) paper on erosion surfaces around Armidale, in which he established four erosion surfaces and attributed them to staged uplift.

11.3 The University of Western Australia

The interest in laterites which inspired Woolnough

(1918b, 1927) when he founded the Department in 1913, and became its first Professor, has been of continuing interest

in the Department. The most significant post-World-War-II

contribution made here has concerned the landscape relation­

ship of the laterites in the Darling Range east of Perth.

Woolnough (1918b, 1927) had been of the opinion that the laterite was associated with a peneplain, and that both had formed during the Miocene. These ideas dominated Australian

162 landform interpretation for the next forty years. It was only in the 1950s, in the same Department, that a peneplain pre-requisite for laterite was questioned. Playford (1954) examined the Darling Range and surrounding area, and claimed

that the laterite here had not formed on a peneplain prior to late Tertiary uplift, as Woolnough had stated, but and dissection had formed after uplift/. He based this conclusion on a study of the altitude variation of laterite on opposite sides of the Darling Scarp. Subsequently the work of M.J. Mulcahy (1959, 1961b) has shown that the laterites- at various

levels in the Darling Range were not of the same age, as had been thought by Playford (1954).

After World War II, the Department also undertook coral reef studies, as the result of the interest of R.W. Fairbridge in carbonate forms and coastal landforms. The former interest was a natural outcome of his interest in carbonate rock, the latter interest he acquired during the War when he was a pilot in the Pacific. These two interests led Fairbridge, in association with Carl Teichert, to embark upon a study of the significance of coral reefs as indicators of minor eusta- tic sea-level changes, particularly in the late Pleistocene and Recent Epochs (Fairbridge, 1948a, b, 1950, 1961, Fair- bridge and Teichert, 1947, 1950). These studies led to the

claims that a number of sea-level changes had occurred over the past 12,000 years B.P., and that1/!) ,000 years B.P. the sea-level was 3 to 4 m. above the present high-water mark.

These studies persisted at the Department after the departure of Fairbridge and Teichert for the United States of America, mainly by B.W. Logan, but only as a minor part of his re-

163 search, since interest in this aspect of landform study has generally declined.

11.4 The University of Melbourne

At the University of Melbourne the activities and interests of the Head of the Department of Geology,

E. S. Hills, in geomorphology stifled the growth of specialist studies in geomorphology in a Geography Depart­ ment in the Faculty of Arts, and much teaching of the subject persisted in the Geology Department.

Hills’s interest in landforms, resulting from from his work in structural geology, dates / the pre-World-War-

II period, when it followed the traditional pattern of acti­ vity in denudation chronology. After World War II, however,

Hillsbinterest in structural geology and its expression by landform landforms continued when he became interested in/lineaments as an expression of major tectonic patterns (Hills, 1946,

1956, 1961). His second area of contribution was his work with the Unesco Arid Zone Programme as a result of his in­ volvement with ground water and, culminating in his editor­ ship of Arid Lands(Hills , 1966 ), which summarized the Unesco effort at that time. A third area of contribution has followed since his retirement, and has been a return to his

164 pre-war interest in coastal landforms (Hills, 1940b, 1949, 1971, 1972) with a marked emphasis on structure and marine platform development.

Hills further contributed indirectly to geomor­ phology in 1959 when he established two new sub-departments within the Department of Geology at the University of Mel­ bourne: Geomorphology and Geophysics, and appointed C.D. Ollier to head the sub-Department of Geomorphology. Ollier was acceptable both to the Department of Geology and to the Faculty of Science, as he was trained both in geology and geo­ graphy and had experience in pedology, so that his geomorphologi- cal views were very much those of the modern geomorphologist. This is seen from his wide range of research interests in­ cluding volcanic landforms, weathering, slope, karst, and aspects of geomorphic methodology such as morphometry, and systems theory.

Ollier's second contribution was through his interest in and personal contact with his students, especially the post-graduate students. One example is J.M. Bowler, who was undertaking a Master's thesis on sedimentary geolo­ gy when Ollier first arrived. Subsequently, however, be­ cause of Ollier's interests and a growing rapport between them, Bowler became tutor and assistant-lecturer in geomorphology and carried out research in coastal geomor­ phology along Port Phillip Bay and on the Riverine Plain.

Another example is G.E. Williams, who undertook

165 an undergraduate course in geomorphology under Ollier.

His Master's thesis was in regional geology, but his Ph.D thesis at Reading University and later investigations in the Sahara showed a continued interest in landforms. Since his return to Australia, Williams has undertaken sedimentary studies in relation to fluvial geomorphology in central

Australia (Williams, 1968, 1969).

In 1967 Ollier resigned his position to take up an appointment at the University of Papua New Guinea. His place at Melbourne was taken by Bernard Joyce, whose spe­ cialization concerns volcanic landforms and remote sensing.

Contributions to geomorphology by the Department as a whole declined however.

The general level of new investigations in geomorpho­ logy by geologists has since increased due to increased use of airphoto interpretation and a recent concern with environmental geology. In the late 1950's and 1960's however, geomorphological studies were generally carried out by the older members of the staff of Geology departments, who interpreted landforms in the light of pre-war concepts. This is illustrated in the contri­ bution by Browne to the Quaternary section in The geology of New

South Wales, edited by G.H. Packham (1969), which shows his rela­ tively unchanged views and interpretations as late as 1969. It was therefore inevitable that with the influx of overseas geo­ morphologists, who brought with them new ideas, experience and training, there would be some revision of older ideas, which led to some of the controversies which will be discussed in the next Chapter.

166 CHAPTER TWELVE

The Conflict Between Newer and Traditional Views

The senior geologists working on landform problems in Australia tended to adhere to older-estab­ lished views which were inevitably subject to revision. A major factor here was the influx of geomorphologists from overseas who came with a new outlook and training, so that some aspects of the contro­ versies that occurred were influenced by this factor.

There was also a change in attitude, which resulted from the new ideas associated with the new personalities, their tendency to examine local evidence more critically in relation to the local environment, and the development of technology in the post-war period, such as the dating techniques which shed new light on the Pleistocene se­ quences .

These new trends gave rise to a number of con­ troversies in Australia between the traditional and revi­ sionist viewpoints. Two of these controversies will be discussed here, that of the extent and nature of glacia­ tion in the Australian Alps, and landform evidence of climatic change.

12.1 The extent and nature of glaciation in the Australian

Alps

The traditional view as to the number of glacial phases and the areal extent of glaciation in the Australian

167 Alps was expressed in the post-war period by Browne

(1952a, b, 1957, 1963, 1967), Browne and Vallance (1957,

1963, 1970), and Vallance (1953), all from the Department of Geology at the University of Sydney, who have presented a point of view consistent with that prior to World War II.

Browne and his co-workers regarded the upland areas of the Kosciusko Plateau as having undergone three stages of glaciation during the Pleistocene Epoch: the ice cap, the valley and the cirque stages; and he further pro­ visionally associated these stages with those of Europe, namely the Mindel, Riss, and Wurm. It was further con­ sidered by these traditionalists that the Kosciusko Plateau was uplifted during the Pleistocene (Kosciusko Uplift) to its present elevation, and was undissected by streams, and that subsequent dissection of the plateau was the result of ice action. The evidence Browne and his co-workers used to support this assumption of an ice cap was based on both erosional and depositional features such as roches moutonnees, benches, asymmetrical ridges, cols, grooved pavements, moraines and erratics. The second stage of glaciation, the valley stage, he regarded as less severe than the first, and mainly confined to the valleys of the upland areas, some of which had been formed by the ice sheet of the previous stage.

Evidence used to support this assumption comprised cirque heads, striated pavements, truncated spurs, U-shaped and hanging valleys, as well as moraines. The third and most glacial stage and the least severe, the cirque stage, was restricted to a small area at the highest altitude, and here

i fi R Browne based his assumptions on evidence such as cirques,

cirque lakes and lateral and terminal moraines (see Plate

12.1).

These assumptions of Browne and others were

reinforced by the pre-war work of Lewis in Tasmania, who

between 1921 and 1945 had established a chronology for

Pleistocene glaciation in Tasmania. He saw the glacial

history of the island as comprising three full glacial

periods which had decreased in intensity from ice caps to

valley to cirque glaciers. He tentatively named these

three phases, the Malanna, the Yolande, and the Margaret

respectively. 'Lewis further thought that the three

glacial periods were synchronous with the last three gla­

cial periods of Europe. As Browne did later, Lewis based these findings largely on erosional evidence while rele­ gating depositional features such as moraines to second place. \

The areal extent of glaciation in the Australian

Alps was also increased from the original estimate made by

David (1908) of some 259 km2, with glaciers reaching as low as 1370 m in altitude. This was slowly extended by Browne,

Dulhunty and Maze (1944) further north to include additional erosional and depositional evidence such as roches moutonnees , cols and moraines. Ritchie (1952) added further evidence such as cirques and moraines in an area of some 20 km2 be­ tween the regions established by David (1908) and Browne et

169 PLATE 12.1

a. Blue Lake, which is located at 1920 m on the Kosciusko Plateau, is one of the lakes which is accepted as being of glacial origin. (Photograph taken by the writer.)

b. David Moraine, located near Spencer Creek on the Kosciusko Plateau at an altitude of 1760 is now queried as being entirely morainic (Galloway, 1963). (Photograph taken by the writer.) 170 al. (1944), thereby supporting Browne's evidence further north. Browne and his co-workers continued to supplement and redefine earlier data, thereby extending the area of

Pleistocene glaciation even further, as seen from Browne

(1952), and Browne and Vallance (1957) when they proposed an areal extent of 1,000 km2 of past glaciation on the

Kosciusko Plateau.

This was extended south into Victoria, by S.G.M.

Carr and A.B. Costin (1955), and Costin (1957), who added 1,300 km2 to the areal extent of Pleistocene glaciation on the Australian mainland. They based their assumptions on evidence such as massive outcrops of granite bedrock at the head of Dickson's Falls Creek, on the Buffalo Plateau, which they attributed to glacial activities because of their asso­ ciation with a stepped profile and moraine. Costin and Carr (1955) further regarded the surface material on the Bogong High Plain as glacial in origin, and interpreted some features there as cirques or cirque-like, bringing the total to 2,300 km2 (see Figure 12.1). These assumptions were supported by Browne and Vallance (1957).

By the mid-1950s, with the arrival of geomorpho­ logists from overseas, these findings were soon questioned: firstly, that Australia had undergone more than one glacial phase and secondly, the areal extent of glaciation in the

Kosciusko area as well as in Tasmania.

The first doubt as to Australia's having had a

171 similar history of glaciation to that of Europe was raised in Tasmania by Jennings and Ahmad (1957). They examined the western part of the central plateau of the island and on the evidence of roches moutonn^es, moraines, small cirques and their high degree of preservation, they conc­ luded that only one glaciation had occurred in the form of an ice cap glaciation, which could not be attributed to the

Malanna period because these features were too fresh to from date / Lewis's oldest stage.

These assumptions were reinforced when Davies

(1958) established that Lewis’s Malanna moraines on Mt.

Wellington were the result not of glaciation but of peri- glaciation. Jennings and Banks (1958) pointed out further that Lewis had failed to be precise in what he regarded as typical features of the Yolande and Margaret periods in their respective type areas.

On the basis of these findings, and the carbon dating evidence by Gill (1956) of some varves at Gormanston near Queenstown as 24,480 ^ 800 years B.P., (which Lewis had attributed to the Malanna glaciation), Jennings and

Banks (1958) suggested that the three glacial periods of

Lewis should be discarded in future research, and that only one glacial period was more probable, with the possibility of a number of phases.

Similarly for the Australian Alps, Galloway (1963) on the basis of the freshness of the erratics, as well as

172 the preservation of the glacifluvial terraces of "Lake

Andrews", concluded that the maximum glaciation was recent, probably of middle Wurm age. However, Galloway (1963) did not rule out. an earlier glacial period entirely on the evi- Cirques dence of the size of Mawson and Blue Lake/(see Plate 12.1), which may have been started by small cirque glaciers during an earlier glacial period, and on the basis that the Wurm glaciation had removed all traces of earlier ice action - a concept diametrically opposed to that of the traditionalists, who regarded the Wurm glaciation as the least intensive.

The areal extent of glaciation in the Australian Alps as postulated by Browne and Vallance (1957), Carr and Costin (1955) and Costin (1957) was first questioned by Ritchie and Jennings (1955), who regarded all but two of the cirques located by Browne et al. (1944) and Browne (1952a) as nivation hollows. Galloway (1963) also questioned their findings on the basis that much of the evi­ dence was periglacial, with the exception of the thirteen cirques in the highest area of the Kosciusko Plateau (see Figure 12.1), as described by David (1901, 1908) and others, since they are associated with distinct moraines and glacial lakes (see Plate 12.1). The other cirques Galloway (1963) also saw as nivation hollows, including the two possible cirques in the Grey Mare Range identified by Ritchie and

Jennings (1955). As for the moraines ascribed to glaciation by David (1901, 1908), Taylor et al. (1925), Browne (1952a) and Ritchie (1952), Galloway interpreted these as periglacial blockfields and stone-banked terraces. He also pointed out

173 FIGURE 12.1

Glacial features in the Mount Kosciusko-Twynam-Upper Snowy valley area (after R.W. Galloway 1963). JP CIRQUES Numbered a* in Table I HUMMOCKY MORAINES 0LAKES CURRENT SUMMER SNOW PATCHES « ERRATICS ■** DIRECTION OF ICE MOVEMENT • •• TERMINAL AND LATERAL MORAINES

------POSSIBLE MAXIMUM EXTENT OF GLACIATION

------PROBABLE MAXIMUM EXTENT OF GLACIATION

Table l. Major Cirque*.*

Grid. No. on Approx. Fig. 5. Itcefrence Name Altitude Remarks (Mil.). of Floor, f

1 220982 Cootapatamba 0700 2 233991 — 6700 Poorly defined. 3 238990 — 6500 Poorly defined. 4 2101 Wilkinsons. 0500-6800 Pre-glacial valley form only slightly modified by ice action ; younger minor cirque at head. 5 228017 — 6300 Very distinct lateral moraine. 6 232032 Albina 6250 7 243027 Mawson. 0150 Largest cirque; younger, minor cirque on head- wall. 8 253020 Clarke (?). 0200 Younger, minor Cirque on headwall. 9 248043 Club Lake. 6500 10 250048 Carruther (?). 6500 Poorly defined ; may not be a true cirque. 11 272054 Blue Lake. 0150 12 100057 Upper Blue Lake. 6500 13 278000 Twynam. 6500 Not well shown on V to the mile Military map.

* ForFnr detailsHnf. of most of these cirques see David et al. (1901), Taylor, Browne and Jardine (1925), Browne, Dulhunty and Maze (1944), Dulhunty (1945), Brown (1952ft). t Based on coutours of 1' to the mile Military map and Geehl S.M.A. 1 mile series.

1 71 i that bores and seismic studies of the David Moraine (see Plate 12.1) suggest that the ridge is mainly weathered rock, on which there may be a thin morainic cover. Galloway there­ fore proposed a maximum glacial extent of 50 km2 and a probable minimum of 20 km2 (see Figure 12.2).

The assumptions of Carr and Costin have also been

challenged. The glaciated surface material found by Carr and Costin (1955) on the Bogong High Plains was considered by F.C. Beavis (1959) as periglacial. Similarly, J.A. Talent

(1965) questioned some of the findings by Costin (1957) by interpreting the stepped profile in the Mount Buffalo area as the result of jointing in the granite, and the moraine

in the same area as showing the retention of primary joint directions, which indicate that the moraine developed in situ. Also, the cirques claimed by Carr and Costin (1955) were seen by Talent (1965) as other than glacial, since he had located similar features at altitudes well below those formed by Pleistocene glaciation.

The question of the number of glacial phases

in Australia and the areal extent of Pleistocene glaciation

in the Australian Alps has been aggravated by the physical environment of the area.

The Australian Alps, unlike the Alps of Europe,

are low in altitude, and located at a lower latitude. Gla­

cial activity was therefore restricted to only a small area

at the highest altitudes. Galloway (1963) points out that

the resulting difficulty in interpreting glacial evidence

175

authors Landforms

landforms

various 1963).

glacial to

1971).

Galloway certain

according to

Peterson 1957,

J.A. Uplands

Costin

similarities (after

1955,

map

Southeastern

the proposed Costin

the of

and

with in

and Carr

portion features 1952,

shaded features,

the Ritchie

cirque-like

1952, within of

cirque-like

found than Browne

be

(e.g. may Distribution other

12.2

FIGURE

176 was additionally aggravated by the fact that the area is an uplifted peneplain, which gives the general appearance of having been levelled by ice action. In many cases, the river valleys are stepped and straight, and have catenary cross-profiles, and have thus been interpreted as glacial.

But these features, as well as hanging tributary valleys and truncated spurs in the Australian Alps can be attributed to the granite lithology. Valleys with similar features and shapes occur at lower altitudes regionally, in what must be unglaciated areas.

Furthermore, the granite is prone to weathering, which destroys glacial evidence such as striations and polished surfaces. On the other hand it produces rounded, mammillated forms, which can be falsely attributed to ice action. The granite was also deeply weathered in the Tertiary and then underwent periglaciation in the Pleistocene. The soliflucted weathered mantle can readily be mistaken for morainic material and wrongly regarded as evidence for glaciation.

In this controversy the backgrounds of the parti­ cipants must also be considered. On the traditionalist side,

Browne, Dulhunty, Vallance and Lewis had no experience of glaciated landforms in Europe. From their published material it also becomes clear that they did not consider Austra­ lian glaciation in the context of world glaciation, and worked in isolation from the studies undertaken in other

177 parts of the world. This is exemplified by considering a large ice cap of some 1000 km2 for the Australian Alps, not to mention the extension by Carr and Costin of gla­ ciation into Victoria. The marginal character of gla­ ciation in the Australian Alps must be attributed to the limited altitude and latitude, where the climate was only just suitable for glaciation, and a limited up­ land area to serve as an area for snow catchment, which made large-scale ice-cap glaciation very doubtful. Had a large ice-cap as proposed by Browne and his co-workers existed, one would expect not only large amounts of morainic material as a result of the ice scouring, espe­ cially on the eastern side of the divide, but also evidence of valley and cirque glaciers at lower altitude levels around the margins of the ice sheet. This has not been established, and reflects the main weakness of the tradi­ tionalists in that they were not familiar with a glacial environment, as distinct from glaciated landforms. By contrast, the new arrivals from Europe had this expertise, quickly recognised the problems of Australian glaciation, and equally quickly established a greatly modified glacial picture for the Australian Alps and Tasmania, which in turn led them into conflict with the traditionalists.

The reassessment of glacial evidence in Tasmania and on the Australian mainland has not yet come to an end.

For example, Edward Derbyshire (1972) showed from the study of morainic material and erratics, especially in the north­ western part of Tasmania, that the limited areal extent

178 of glaciation for Tasmania as mapped by Davies (1967) may be greater than indicated. In the Australian Alps also, the 50 km2 as maximum glacial extent may in the future be extended, but here, unlike Tasmania, the situation is less fluid. Similarly, evidence of more than one glaciation is being assembled in Tasmania. For example S. J. Paterson (1965) found evidence in the Lemonthyne Creek area of the Forth Valley of what seems to have been two glacial stages, which he inferred from the marked lithification of tillites as compared with the overlying till. This has been further supported by the work of Derbyshire (1968) but the extent of this has not been fully established. Similarly in the

Australian Alps, if the deposits at Island Bend are indeed morainic, their weathered state must indicate an earlier period of glaciation, more extensive than the last one, as it reached to lower altitudes.

12.2 Landform evidence of climatic change

Evidence for the concept that the Pleistocene

glacial phases were pluvial, and that the post-Pleistocene

period entered into an arid phase culminating in the mid- Recent arid phase, emerged from work immediately prior to

the pre-war period. The foundation for a correlation of

the Australian palaeoclimate with that of the Northern

Hemisphere was laid from evidence such as dunes, lunettes,

179 and fossil evidence. For example, Hills’s

(1939b) study of the development of sandridges in the

Great Victorian Desert made use of the calcareous layers

of the sandridges to show that a climatic change had oc­ curred - namely that the sandridges had formed in stages

during an arid climate - and dated to the Holocene.

Similarly, F.W. Whitehouse (1940) regarded the dune system from of south-western Queensland as dating / the late Pleisto­

cene, when the climate in Australia was becoming more arid. Browne (1945) further supported a Holocene arid

phase, which he regarded as ending 4,000 years B.P., as well

as hinting that a possible correlation exists between the

Australian arid period and the Northern Hemisphere climatic

optimum. Further evidence in support of this concept came

from R.A. Kebble (1947) based on sedimentary and aboriginal artifacts. He contended that the Australian post-glacial pluvial period came to an end about 8,000 years B.P., and that a period of aridity commenced which was to last until 2.000 years B.P. R.L. Crocker and J.C. Wood (1947) came to

a similar conclusion from ecological and pedological evi­ dence, and were the first to state that the Australian arid

phase culminated in the mid-Recent period which lasted from 6.000 years B.P. to 4,000 years B.P. on the assumption of its correlation /with the hypsithermal interval of the Northern Hemisphere.

These pre-war and early post-war concepts of a

pluvial Pleistocene and an arid Holocene' were readily

accepted, and for the next fifteen years were to become the

traditional form of interpretation of Australian palaeocli-

180 matic history, as exemplified by the writings of David and Browne (1950).

"...there is evidence that the general pluvial climate of the Great Ice Age gave place at the beginning of Recent time to a cycle of devastating dryness which may have been almost continent-wide, but which has since been ameliorated to a varying degree." (David, ed. Browne, 1950, Vol.2, p. 25)

This concept was pursued by Gill (1951, 1953a, b, 1955) whose palaeoclimatic studies in the 1950s and early 1960s can be regarded as reflecting the concepts held at that time (see Figure 12.3).

"It should be noted that a climatic warming in mid- Holocene times is a function of rising mean temperature. This does not necessarily result in a decrease in moisture, but the name at present given to this time in Australia, viz. the Arid Period, implies a decrease in moisture. Geological work in Victoria, supported by radiocarbon datings, now makes it possible to state that in this area the last glacial period was wetter than the present, the Arid Period was drier, and the succeeding period (the equi­ valent of Matches's 'Little Ice Age') was wetter than the present." (Gill, 1955, p. 205)

It was Crocker's and Gill's standing in the

Australian scientific community at this time that enabled

these concepts to be accepted and perpetuated v/ith little

opposition, with the exception of N.B. Tindale (1947, 1952)

and H.T. Condon (1954) who questioned whether such a mid-

Recent period of aridity existed on the grounds of ornitho­

logical and insect evidence. Nevertheless, the concept of

an arid period since the last glaciation was to influence

the thinking of most workers in Australian Palaeoclimatic studies, and was reinforced by the work of F.E. Zeuner

(1946) in Europe. The effect was that scientists had to

181 WORLD CLIMATE S.E. AUSTRALIA

WARMING

2 RIVER TERRACE (MARIBYRNONG T'CE) ' FORMATION 7 LITTLE ICE AGE' § HIGHER LAKE LEVELS DRY LAKES POSTGLACIAL I LOESS DUNE FORMATION THERMAL MAXIMUM < HIGHER SEA LEVEL I RIVER TERRACE IS-- L OXIDATION

WARMING

%

6” + RIVER TERRACE I (KEILOR T'CE) FORMATION

< LOWER SEA LEVEL GLACIATION /O- i + HIGHER LAKE LEVELS

-i- Directly dated by radiocarbon

FIGURE 12.3

Diagrammatic representation of climatic change in the post Pleistocene Epoch. (After Gill 1955)

182 compress Holocene landform development into a relatively short period. It also made objective landform interpre­

tations difficult, and prejudiced thinking on the strati­

graphic history of the Riverine Plain, setting the stage for the first major conflict of interpretation of landform history within this subject area.

The Riverine Plain consists of water-transported alluvium and lacustrine sediments deposited by a number of river systems flowing inland, as well as some secondary aeolian features. In the 1940s, when the area was having

its first soil surveys done, the linear patterns of soil and soil salinity, and the distribution of landforms and microrelief were attributed to the present stream systems.

With the availability of aerial photography of the area it became clear that soil and microrelief patterns were ac­ tually related to another and earlier stream system, which was termed the prior stream system. After further research in the area, a third set of streams younger than the prior streams was located and named the ancestral stream system.

It was the correlation of these various sediments and soil layers within an accepted framework of a wet Pleisto­ cene and an arid Recent epoch that led to a controversy between B.E. Butler and Langford-Smith.

Butler (1950, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, Butler and J.T. Hutton, 1956) argued from the evidence of soils stratigraphy, that the sediments had been laid down by the prior streams, which in the Holocene epoch had not reached the sea, and because of their reduced discharge, had

183 been incapable of carrying their load, which they had therefore deposited on the plain. This indicated to Butler that an increase in aridity had prevailed at the

time. This was further substantiated by the high degree of salinity associated with these sediments, as well as

by wind action which had resulted in an extensive sheet of parna which covered the plain, and the lee dunes on the north side of the Prior streams (see Figure 12.4). Butler recognized the stratigraphy of the Riverine Plain as con­ sisting of fluvial and aeolian deposits with little intervening development of soil horizons and hence of closely similar ages. From the stratigraphic record he proposed that the buried soils had formed during periods of stabili­

ty or pluvial phases, which had alternated with periods of instability or arid phases, when the deposits were formed.

He further saw the period of prior stream deposition as having comprised three phases, firstly the older phase of stream deposition (Quiamong), secondly a phase of aeolian deposition (Widgelli) and thirdly, superimposed on these, a younger phase of stream deposition (Mayrung). He saw

stream deposition as being associated with a ner>ind nf wide­ spread semiaridity, with the older stream deposits as having

formed during the period leading into the arid phase, marked by aeolian deposits, whilst the younger stream deposits dated to the semiarid period leading out of this period of aridity. This evidence made it possible for Butler to fit the chronology of the Riverine Plain into the then popular concept of a Holocene arid phase.

Langford-Smith (1959, 1960a, b, 1962), in a

184 PRESENT CLIMATE

MORE ARID CLIMATE MORE HUMID CLIMATE PRESENT TIME

PERIOD OF SOIL FORMATION POST-COON AMBIGAL

COONAMBIDGAL AND COLONGULAC DEPOSITS

PERIOD OF SOIL FORMATION) MAYRUNG STABLE PERIOD

MAYRUNG

DEPOSITION PHASES WIDGELLI

QUIAMONG

PERIOD OF SOIL FORMATION KATANORA STABLE PERIOD

KATANDRA DEPOSITION PHASES BOTH PARNA AND RIVERINE

FIGURE 12.4

Diogrammotic representation of the history of climatic conditions soil-forming intervals, and depositional systems indicated in the Riverine Plain. (After Butler 1958) series of exchanges, challenged Butler’s concept that the

Riverine Plain deposits had occurred during an arid phase and that soil formation had occurred during pluvial periods, by introducing a new line of argument based on fluvial geo­

morphology into the discussion, namely that a correlation exists between bankfull discharge, stream width and meander wavelength on flood plains. Since the prior stream channels have longer meander wavelengths they were wider than the

present system of channels and must have had higher discharges,

Langford-Smith was therefore of the opinion that sedi­

mentation had occurred during pluvial rather than arid phases. He further assumed that the pluvial periods had coincided with the glacial periods during the Pleistocene Epoch, and that the higher discharges had consisted of melt waters from the Australian Alps.

The dispute between Butler and Langford-Smith aroused comment from other scientists, including M.E.

Stannard (1962) who introduced the question of sedimentation

into the discussion. He questioned Langford-Smith's assump­

tion that stream discharge can be calculated from channel width and meander belts, since other factors are also

important in meander development apart from discharge, such as the variation of flow rate, the building of meander scrolls and depositional bars, the character of the flood plain alluvium, bankfullfloods, and overbank floods.

Stannard also disagreed with the concept of de­ position during maximum discharge, as the gradient of the Riverine

186 Plain at the time of the prior stream system.) was such that aggradation could have been caused by a decrease in discharge, an increase in load, or both.

Such conditions would have resulted from an increase in aridity, otherwise the rivers would have carried their loads across the plain, instead of depositing them on the plain as they did.

In the light of the new evidence, Langford-

Smith (1962) modified his earlier view and conceded the significance of stream aggradation during waning pluvials.

Nevertheless, he maintained that there would be extensive flooding and deposition at the onset of pluvials, with channel incision, and decrease in flooding as the pluvial continued. Langford-Smith’s continuing support for the high discharge and deposition at the onset of pluvial meander periods was based on the large /wave-lengths of the prior stream traces , and the flooding of present stream sys­ tems such as the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers when the snow melts in the Alpine regions.

Dury (1963) contributed to the discussion with the view that not only the gradient, but also the channel forms of the prior streams were significant in determining whether deposition had occurred during pluvial periods.

Since prior streams had wider and deeper channels than the present streams, he reasoned that they would have deposited sediment on the plain despite their higher discharge during pluvial periods.

187 The dispute, which had been mainly theoretical up to this point, now entered a phase of detailed studies in selected areas on the Riverine Plain. In one of these,

J.H. Bowler and L.B. Harford (1964) established the first chronology in the area, based on structural and geomorphic criteria. S. Pels (1964a, 1964b, 1966) also added a new dimension to the existing findings by dividing the prior streams into prior and ancestral streams. These ancestral streams post-date Butler's prior streams, and are related to the present stream pattern. Pels (1964b) further showed by the carbon dating of two wood samples that some

prior streams have an age in excess of

36,000 years B.P. and suggested that,

"...surface prior streams...were deposited during a period of continuous but gradually waning stream activity by streams which were frequently diverted. The stratigraphical position of the sand dunes also suggests that the climate changed gradually and cul­ minated in a period of relative aridity when sand dunes were formed overlying the prior stream courses in some locations." (Pels, 1964b, p. 114)

Pels thereby supported Butler's assumption that the prior stream sediments were laid down in an increasing phase of aridity, but carbon dating placed this aridity into the Pleistocene epoch, whereas Butler saw these sediments as dating from the Holocene epoch.

Because of the carbon dating of drift wood in one of the prior stream channels as 28,000 years B.P., Langford-

Smith (1966),like Pels (1964b), regarded the prior streams us dating from the Pleistocene. However, because of a lack

188 of carbon dates of prior streams between 11,140 years B.P. and 4700-3320 years B.P., he regarded this as reflecting an arid climate, and therefore still consistent with the concept of a mid-Recent arid phase.

It was not until S.A. Schumm came to Australia \ in 1965 that some reconciliation of the fluvial geomorphic views with those of pedologists became possible. From studies in the western United States of America of the morphology of stable alluvial channels,Schumm (196 3) came to the conclusion that several morphological characteris­ tics of these channels are largely dependent on the ratio of suspended sediment load to bedload, and that if the sediment load was altered, a change in channel morphology would occur. By applying these concepts to the Riverine Plain, Schumm was able to show from the channel morphology that the Murrumbidgee, the ancestral, and the prior stream systems are different.

Furthermore, from a study of the sediments in the three stream channels, the fine-grained sediments of the Murrumbidgee and ancestral streams, and the coarse sediments of the prior streams were contrasted. Schumm was thus able to classify the prior streams as bedload channels and the ancestral and Murrumbidgee River as suspended load channels, thereby establishing that a change in the hydrological regime of the Riverine Plain had occurred. Also, by applying

American drainage basin data on runoff and sediment yield to the Riverine Plain, Schumm was able to predict the climatic

189 conditions under which the prior and ancestral streams had operated. He saw the prior streams as reflecting a climate which was relatively drier then the present climate, and the ancestral streams as reflecting a change from a rela­ tively dry to a wetter climate. Schumm thereby supported

Butler's assumption to some degree, but was not prepared to establish a climatic chronology for the Riverine

Plain.

At the time that Schumm was establishing the flu­ vial chronology of the Riverine Plain, Galloway (1965) showed from periglacial evidence in the Snowy Mountains, and from the hydrological history at Tasmania, and/Lake George, that the concept of pluvial condi­ tions coincidental with glaciation was not correct, but that the evidence pointed to the late-glacial climate as being cold, windy and dry, with most of the precipitation occur­ ring in winter, and spring floods and annual runoff similar to or even exceeding that of the present day. Galloway also supports these assumptions from similar climatic evidence in North Africa, the Middle East, and South America.

The on-going question of the Mid-Recent arid phase was not solved until Bowler’s (1967) studies of the clay

lunettes in south-eastern Australia showed that they had been formed by the deflation of saline lake-floor deposits

to the margins of lakes as their level dropped during the transition from pluvial to an arid period.

From carbon dating of the Willandra Lake lunettes, an age for this of 15,000 to 17,000 years B.P. was established. Hence the

190 lakes were dry by this time, and the late-glacial phase

could therefore not have been 'pluvial', as had been sug­ gested by previous researchers. This meant that an

arid phase had commenced in the Pleistocene period, not in the Recent, making it impossible to correlate the Australian arid phase with the Hypsithermal Interval of

the mid-Recent period in the Northern Hemisphere. These

findings necessitated a reversal of thought concerning the climatic history of landform development in the Australian continent in the past 20,000 years B.P.

191 CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Application of Geomorphology in Australia

The application of geomorphology to practical

problems in Australia has generally been a post-World-

War-II development, which resulted from both Commonwealth

and State policies and was therefore implemented by sta­

tutory bodies such as the C.S.I.R.O. and the Soil Conser­

vation Commissions. These developmental policies have

focussed in the main on the sparsely settled regions comp­ rising northern and inland Australia. By reason of the lack

of information on these regions, investigations have taken the form of integrated reconnaissance surveys for the pur­ pose of establishing basic data which could later be used for more specialized studies. Because there were no topo­ graphic and geological maps, the method of the resource

surveys had to be based on air-photo interpretation, and as air-photo patterns reflect landform differences, from which soilcharactor and land use can be predicted, applied geomor­

phology became a useful tool in these large-scale surveys.

The two areas of applied geomorphology which have

made the greatest contribution to the knowledge of Australian

landforms and are discussed here are landform mapping as a basis for regional surveys and terrain evaluation, and soil-landform studies.

192 13.1 Terrain evaluation

13.11 The adoption and formulation of survey methods

In Australia, resource surveys were established after World War II because of the Federal Government’s policy of assessing the natural resources of northern Australia as a preliminary step towards future development. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (C.S.I.R.), as it was then known, was asked to undertake regional sur­ veys in that part of the country. In March, 1946, the

North Australia Regional Survey was commissioned to conduct a survey of the Katherine-Darwin region in the Northern

Territory, and to devise a methodology for large-scale resource investigation with the objective of recording sys­ tematically the inherent land characteristics as a basis upon which the potential productivity of the area might be assessed.

The scientific staff which was selected for the task understandably influenced its methodology. The leader of the survey was C.S. Christian, an ecologist and agrono­ mist from the Division of Plant Industry. His assistant was

G.A. Stewart, a pedologist from the Division of Soils who, after previous research in soil surveys, was familiar with a landscape approach. Because of the large scale involved in the survey, covering an area of 69,930 km2, cost factors, and the lack of suitable maps, the methodology was based on limited sampling in the field, together with air-photo in­ terpretation .

"The general procedure adopted was to examine maps and aerial photos and so obtain a broad picture of the natural

193 features before commencing field work. The amount of detail that can be recognized on aerial photos depends largely on the scale and quality of the photographic prints. The photos available were adequate to deter­ mine larger geological outcrops and structures, the general topography, and drainage systems. Details of vegetation are not recognizable as such but changes in vegetation are indicated by changes in the photographic pattern superimposed on the above detail. It was found that where two areas have similar photographic patterns the inherent land characteristics are also very similar provided that the areas are in the same geomorphological unit and are confined to a narrow climatic range. This fact made it possible to obtain information on inherent characteristics of relatively large areas in a limited time by use of traverses planned to cross-section and sample the various photographic patterns. Where recorded information on any of the land characteristics was avail­ able it was used in planning traverses and determining the degree of sampling necessary." (Christian and Stewart, 1953, p. 22)

The resulting method used a broad composite mapping unit called a "land system”, a term expressive of the genetic and functional linkages between its parts.

"In order that it might have some basic significance to future investigators, it was necessary that this composite mapping unit adopted should constitute a system, rather than a mere association of lesser units combined to form a convenient geographical entity. A considerable amount of thought was given to this prob­ lem and a new unit, which is a composite of related units, as an area, or groups of areas, throughout which there is a recurring pattern of topography, soils and vegetation. A change in this pattern determines the boundary of a land system. A land System may be Simple, Complex, or Compound." (Christian and Stewart, 1953, p. 21)

Having established a suitable methodology, with an understanding of the physiographic genesis of the land system, it was possible now to undertake predictive mapping and the description of land systems from field sampling of two types. Firstly, the overland traverse gave detailed observations made at selected sites at intervals of between 8 and 16 km., which gave the essential understanding of the

194 origin of the land system and the interrelationship of its units. Secondly, the inherent land characteristics were able to be correlated with air-photo patterns, and mapping was extended from the traverse records by means of air-photo interpretation.

Once this procedure had been established, it was applied in the northern and central Australian land system surveys carried out by the Division of Land Research, as these areas had much in common. All the areas surveyed in this part of the Australian continent were large, and used for pastoral activity, and thereby called for not only a rapid and low-cost reconnaissance survey, but a survey with an emphasis on pastoral properties. As these areas were seasonally dry or perennially arid, the terrain attributes such as landforms, geology, soils and vegetation were readily determined from air-photo patterns. This part of Australia consists generally of stable old plainlands, duricrust sur­ faces and inherited soil features , which have led to the in­ terpretation of landform characteristics through the genetic relationship of landform attributes, particularly through the chronological approach (Mabbutt, in Press).

The success of the landscape approach also sti­ mulated an international interest in resource surveys. This is seen first from the number of papers given at interna­ tional symposia, such as that by Christian (1957) in his outline of the C.S.I.R.O. resource survey methodology at the

9th Pacific Science Congress, by Christian and Stewart (1968)

195 at the 1964 UNESCO Conference in Toulouse, and by Stewart

(1968) at the UNESCO Land Evaluation Symposium in Canberra,

Australia.

Second, the success of the methodology can also be seen from its adoption by the British Directorate of

Overseas Surveys. In addition, it has been a longstanding policy of UNESCO to encourage integrated resource surveys in emerging nations. Many of these surveys are based on the C.S.I.R.O.’s land system concept, although the terminology has been changed, as in India, Africa, and South America.

13.12 The application of geomorphology to land system mapping

Landforms can be regarded as the expression of rock types acted on by a certain number of processes in a given geological and tectonic setting, implying a common history and thereby giving rise to the dependent variables of soil and vegetation. Although the early teams of survey scientists did not include geomorphologists, it can be seen from their reports eg. the Katherine-Darwin Area in 1946

(Christian and Stewart, 1953) and land system maps, that a strong geomorphological bias was present, firstly in the delineation of air-photo patterns and the mapping of the land systems, and secondly in the descriptive accounts of the smaller unmapped land units. It was soon realized therefore that geomorphologists could play a useful role in helping to carry out the resource surveys.

196 The Division of Land Research first began to employ geomorphologists in 1952 with the appointment of

Twidale, followed by Mabbutt in 1956. Since 1960 or five there have generally been four/geomorphologists on the staff of this Division, which indicates the role played by geomorphology in the surveys. The result has been a greater emphasis on geomorphology, as seen by the re­ finement of the report format illustrated by the reports after 1962. One difference between them is the greater emphasis placed on the land unit in the later ones, as reflected in the brief geomorphological description now given of each land system and land unit as shown in the l tables and block diagrams which had not been included previously. The second difference is that the land sys­ tems on the land system map now emphasize the geomorphology of the survey area, as they are grouped under a number of geomorphological criteria, including morphology, genesis, chronology, and dynamics (Mabbutt and Stewart, 1965). The emphasis on these varies from survey area to survey area, as indicated by the various reports.

The geomorphological criteria used in the sur­ veyed area led to a better understanding of the development of the landforms, and to a more accurate prediction of soil and vegetation relationships. Thus an emphasis on the genetic origin of the landscape, such as source rock, pro­ vides a basis for classifying the land by means of a common source, as well as for showing the interrelationship between the land units in the land system. Geomorphologists can

197 therefore contribute to pedology by being able to predict soil types. The principle of chronology on the other hand distinguishes land systems on the basis of age, and is therefore important in areas of old landscapes and their inherent soils. The use of process-the dynamic principle- is particularly sound in areas comprising younger, deposi- tional landscapes. Process also has a bearing on land use in that it helps to show the damage which can result from changes in land use.

In general, however, no single criterion is used exclusively in land system groupings, but rather a combi­ nation of chronology, dynamics, morphology and genesis, de­ pending on the area in the survey. In the Alice Springs report (Perry et al., 1962) for example, at the broadest level, the erosional land surfaces are divided on chronolo­ gical grounds according to whether they rise above, form part of, or have been eroded below the widespread weathered plains of Tertiary age, thereby giving weight to inherited features. This broad chronological division is subdivided again on morphological bases, as between mountains, hills etc. , incorporating the effects of relief , including degree and length of slope. The genetic criterion is seen in the broad distinction made between erosional and depositional land­ scapes , as also in the use of lithology to differen­ tiate erosional landscapes, and of , process complexes to define constructional surfaces, such as dunes and floodplains. The landscape dynamic, moreover, enables further subdivision to take place, as between active and stable alluvial plains.

198 13.13 The application of parametric stiffening to resource

s urveys

Parametric stiffening of the landscape approach involved the introduction of a set of criteria for des­ cribing the landform components within air-photo patterns, and a systematic guideline for checking the consistency of the geomorphic mapping employed.

The first introduction of parametric stiffening to the landscape approach in resource surveys came in 1962 when the Division of Applied Geomechanics, then a Section of the Division of Soil Mechanics, was requested by the

Federal and relevant State Governments to devise a method for the rapid construction of development roads in northern

Australia. Although the area lacked topographic maps and other scientific data suited to road design and construction, part of northern Australia had been surveyed by the Division of Land Research, and it was hoped that its reports would form the basis for the new investigations, since Christian and Stewart had stated at the Toulouse Conference in 1964 that the C.S.I.R.O. resource surveys were suited to a va­ riety of applications.

"The usefulness of a land system is determined by the land units which comprise it. On the basis of these units a land system can be discarded from further im­ mediate consideration or given specialist attention by agriculturalists, foresters, pedologists, geologists, hydrological engineers, or others." (Christian and Stewart, 1968, p. 248)

199 As a result, the Section of Soil Mechanics in

1964 tested the suitability of the resource survey reports

and the methodology employed, by holding a field conference

in terrain evaluation in the Darwin-Mount Isa-Cairns area, which had previously been assessed by the Division of Land

Research. The outcome however was that the land research

reports and methodology were shown to be unsuited to en­

gineering requirements.

"It was stated, bluntly, by the senior engineer responsible for the greater part of this complete network, that the land system unit basis of terrain description was inadequate for engineering purposes. In his opinion some engineering in­ terpretation was required prior to use in any such project." (Aitchinson and Grant, 1968, p. 135)

However, it was not the resource survey methodo­

logy which was unsuitable to the engineering requirements,

but the land system and land unit description, as seen from

the formulation of a "new” classification by Aitchinson and

Grant (196 8) and Grant (196 8 , 19 73) which, they claimed, was

more suited to the specific requirements of road construc­

tion but used the same basic air-photo interpretation tech­

niques as was the case for the resource surveys. The dif­

ference was that the landform description was based on four

levels: Terrain Province, Terrain -Unit, Terrain Pattern,

and Terrain Component in decreasing order of size and comp­

lexity. These became the basis for the pattern , unit ,

component and evaluation system known as P.U.C.E.

The parametric stiffening of the P.U.C.E. system,

unlike that of the resource surveys, is the result of its

design for a specific task, in this case civil engineering.

200 Specific terrain factors could therefore be included in the surveys, although the number of such factors would depend on the level of the classification. The system also introduced one new geomorphological criterion, stream frequency, and a diagrammatic illustration of the drainage net which was relevant to the civil engineer. As seen at the Terrain Pattern level, terrain factors such as stream frequency and relief amplitude are the two main criteria used for its boundary determination from both air-photo graphs and field sampling.

P.U.C.E. has been applied to a number of sparsely populated areas, mainly in South Australia, such as Gason, Marree, Kopperamana, and Pandie Pandie, all in 1970. P.U.C.E. has also been applied in urban planning, as in the 60,000km2 of the Port Phillip Planning District in 1972, but this urban application has added no further geomorphological criteria to the system.

The first application of parametric stiffening to resource surveys by the Division of Land Research occurred in Papua New Guinea as a result of the totally different with conditions prevailing there compared / mainland Australia,as tropical vegetation cover was diversified and youthful land­ scapes presented a new challenge for the geomorphologist in the team. These differences necessitated the scaling down of the survey areas from 372,900 km2 in the Alice Springs survey, for example, to 4,000-10,000 km2 in Papua New Guinea.

As well as this scaling down of areal extent, the denser vegetation cover made air-photo interpretation more dif-

201 ficult, and necessitated a much closer examination than that for the mainland surveys. This led to the questioning of some of the methods used on the mainland, including geo- morphological criteria such as chronology or dynamics, which resulted in greater emphasis on morphological criteria for mapping and describing land systems.

This break from the previous survey methods is shown in the survey of Bougainville and Buka Island (Speight et al., 1967), which introduced morphometric parameters to

describe and classify land systems and land units. Speight’s aim was to go beyond earlier reports in the Land Research

Series by quantifying and categorizing terrain information within the framework of the land system in order to check the consistency of the impressionistic approach, and to make the land system more applicable to civil and military engineering purposes. This was stimulated by the success of P.U.C.E. and subsequently by the waning interest by State and Federal Governments in large-scale resource surveys.

The terrain parameters used by Speight et al.

(1967) were morphological, including altitude, relief, slope, grain, and plan profile. Because of the greater altitudinal range, the hypsometric index was established together with the minimum and maximum altitude for each land system.

Relief differences were categorized for each land system, and the grain of the land system was classified from ultra- fine to very coarse. Slope categories were defined and landforms were divided into five orders, based on the work of J.R. van Lopik and C.R. Kolb (1959) for the purpose

202 of simplifying description into standardized terms. Since

this parametric stiffening was successful, it was used in a modified form in later surveys such as Lands of the Aitape-

Ambun Area, Papua New Guinea (H.A. Haantjens et al., 1972).

13.14 The formulation of landform parameters for resource

s urveys

The success of the parametric stiffening in Papua

New Guinea, and the continuing interest in this area of

research by Speight in particular, coincided with a decline

in the demand for resource surveys. This enabled Speight

and others to devote more time to experiments with land-

form parameters. In 1968, he established landform parame­ ters which made it possible to define landform elements quantitatively. Following F.R. Troeh (1965), parameters were chosen as being derivable from a rectangular grid of

x, y, z co-ordinates, including slope, change of slope, and contour curvature in plan. These were used to define

crests, hillslopes, concave and convex footslopes, swales,

plains and water courses and were supplemented by an

estimate of catchment area upslope from each point. Woodshed Creek, above Gladefield Homestead in the Australian Capital

Territory, was selected as a test area. It measured 3.7 km2,

and had a coverage of very detailed contour maps at a scale of 1:2',400 , with a contour interval of 1.52m. Speight emp­ loyed a 25m grid, and landform elements were identified at each grid point as a basis for interpolative mapping, using parameters of pattern such as ridginess, reticulation, and

203 crest orientation which were assessed for 600m squares centred at 300m intervals. This produced an artificial land system map which resembled that produced by conven­ tional mapping of the area (Mabbutt, in press).

This methodological development was expanded by R.M. Scott and Speight (1971) at Gold Creek, in the Australian Capital Territory also, in an attempt to eva­ luate the predictive value of landform element parameters for soils and to predict soil parameters from landform elements. This attempt has not been entirely successful, as the method fails to take into account the landform history, and more research into this aspect of resource surveys is currently being undertaken (Speight, personal communication).

From test-site results, Speight has been able to formulate a scheme which makes it possible to describe landforms from air-photos, and to delimit regions of dif­ ferent landforms by establishing two types of models: the relief unit model, and the landform component model. The relief unit model is three-dimensional, and assesses the relief of the landscape; the landform component model places landform components into toposequences.

Success in establishing a working quantitative model for resource surveys led the Division of Land Research to embark on a data-bank project in 1971, and to set new guidelines for air-photo mapping. These comprise the identi-

204 fication of many attributes of landforms and vegetation, and their delimitation on the basis of homogeneity and contrast in different areas. This identification and delimitation is assisted by the establishment of a des­ criptive proforma, which is designed so that the photo interpreter can make quantitative estimates of distance and angles, and qualitative judgment in answering multiple- choice questions concerning the presence or absence of components, toposequences, alignments and evidence of certain geomorphological processes.

The new method differs from the landscape approach, in that each mapped region is shown to be unique, while at the same time its degree of similarity to other regions is established by means of a comparison of the attribute values. A "Unique Mapping Area" (U.M.A.) may be linked with others in a number of alternative ways, de­ pending on the significance assigned to its various attri­ butes in a model designed for a particular land use, there­ by making this method of land evaluation more flexible. That is, the attributes of each U.M.A., unlike those of the landscape approach, are determined by the requirements of the user.

This methodology has been applied to two test areas, the Chimbu region of 5,000 km2 in New Guinea, and the south coast of New South Wales, an area of 6,000 km2.

Both surveys were aimed at developing a methodology which is both more objective and suited to data storage.

205 13.15 Individual research resulting from resource surveys

Three major fields of research resulting from the surveys in particular and the C.S.I.R.O.'s policy in general are aerial photography and interpretation,

improvements in resource surveys themselves, and investi­ gations of special concern to the scientists involved in the surveys. The individual research fostered by the resource surveys was naturally carried out mainly in areas where the resource surveys had been undertaken. This is attributable in part to the stimulus given to geomorpho­ logists by the areas already investigated, and in part to the emphasis on individual research in the Division of Land Research, allowing resource scientists nine months every two years to devote to their own work.

The individual research can be divided into five categories. The first of these is regional geomorphology, a natural consequence of the regional nature of the resource

survey. In the Alice Springs region, for example, the

1956-1957 resource survey drew attention to an area which had not been investigated since Madigan’s work in the 1930’s.

Mabbutt, then a geomorphologist with the Alice Springs Survey, became interested in the landform evolution of the region, and produced three papers on this topic. The Weathered Land Sur­ faces in Central Australia (1965) explained the weathering pattern in the area. In 1966 a study of a more specific area, Landforms of the Western Macdonnell Ranges, outlined

206 the regional geomorphic history of the area on the basis of its landforms, and interpreted these landforms in the

light of periodic climatic changes. A similar investiga­ tion in 1967, Denudation Chronology in Central Australia, was based on a wider areal extent.

The second category of individual research, prompted by the resource survey, took the form of soil- landform studies which predicted soil types on the basis of landforms.

A third category of individual research comprises joint studies by scientists involved in the same survey, generally of an interdisciplinary nature and generally carried out by geomorphologists and pedologists. The resource survey,

Lands of the Wiluna-Meekatharra Area, Western Australia

(Mabbutt etal, , 196 3), for example, gave rise to a joint paper on hardpan soils by W.H. Litchfield, a soil scientist, and Mabbutt, a geomorphologist (1962): Hardpan in Soils of

Semi-Arid Western Australia. In this study, they show that hardpans are widespread in Western Australia in a semi-arid

climate, and occur below a variety of other soils. Irregu­

larities in, or the absence of hardpans, are shown to be related to changes in the slope of local drainage. Once this relationship between landforms and hardpans had been estab­ lished, the soil scientist could predict hardpan in other areas.

207 A fourth field of individual study resulting from resource surveys is that concerned with relations between landforms and vegetation. After publishing Lands of the

Safia-Pongani Area, Papua New Guinea, Ruxton investigated

slope development under rain forest vegetation in northern Papua (B. P. Ruxton et al., 1967a; Ruxton, 1967b). Ruxton observed that raindrop erosion, which is limited

by the dense vegetation, gives rise nevertheless to uncon­

centrated wash on the slopes, since the raindrops fall

from the leaves which intercepted them, or trickle down

branches to reach the ground via the tree trunk. This unconcentrated slope wash results in producing a uniform erosion over the slope, thereby producing straight smooth

slopes.

A fifth field of individual study arising from resource surveys is that concerned with individual landforms.

One such study is the pediment formation in north-west

Queensland by Twidale (1956a) or his study of volcanic land-

forms in the same area (Twidale, 1956b), after his partici­

pation in the regional survey General Report of the Leich- hardt-Gilbert Area, Queensland, 1953-1954 (Perry et al., 1964).

Similarly, the studies on dune development by Mabbutt (1968a) and Mabbutt and Sullivan (1968) can be traced to the Alice Spring survey (Perry et al. , 1962 ).

A fifth category of individual research resulting

208 from resource surveys involves scientists of the

Division of Land Research who did not take part in the

actual survey, but who used resource survey data to test

certain theories. One such investigation was that of

K.D. Woodyer and Muriel Brookfield (1966), The Land System

and its Stream Net, dealing with drainage basin stream

net features in quantitative terms, and their correlation

with the land system. The study was intended to test whether land systems mapped in the Alice Springs survey could be used

to predict stream nets and other surface hydrologic characteristics

13.2 The application of geomorphology in reconnaissance soil studies

Geomorphological concepts have probably been applied more widely to soil studies in Australia than in most other

» regions in the world. One reason for this-, resulting from the fact that much /of the Australian continent has been tectonically stable

and subject to subaerial planation for a longer period of

time,*is that ancient landsurfaces of low relief have been here, and preserved / weathered profiles and soils have survived from past geological periods and climates. In such

areas, the distribution and properties of soils can often

be understood only by means of the history of the antece­ dent landforms.

"...within the continental pattern of Australian soils there is a notable portion of ancient, leached, and therefore impoverished soils. These have soil profiles quite distinct from those on younger landscapes. For these reasons Australian soil geography, whether on a continental or local scale, is best approached primarily by way of geomorphic analysis." (C.G. Stephens, 1961, p. 10)

209 In addition to the continent's tectonic stability the close relationship between soils and landforms in Aust­ ralia is also fostered by the aridity which plagues much of the continent. This aridity has made soil development more de­ pendent on parent material and topography ,^ . than on vegetation, as is the case in humid areas. As well, geo­ morphology has been applied to Australian soil studies be­ cause these are frequently of a reconnaissance nature, en­ tailing the deduction of soil properties from the patterns of landforms and vegetation shown on air photographs.

Most of the application of geomorphology in soil studies has been done by the C.S.I.R.O.'s Division of

Soils. Such studies include some of the earliest large- scale soil surveys, as exemplified by Soil Survey of King Island, Tasmania by Stephens and J.S. Hoskin (1932), which used landforms to predict soil types and expedited soil­ mapping in the area. This type of regional soil survey has become popular since World War II, and has led to the fruitful influence of geomorphological concepts on the work of pedologists at a time when the Division of Soils was con­ cerned with the surveys not so much as an end in themselves, but as a means of understanding the basis of soil distribu­ tion in Australia and of the soil properties in any one area.

This influence can be traced in the Soil Publication series and in the smaller-scale Atlas of Australian Soils (1960-1968). The two main aspects of the interaction between soil investi­ gation and geomorphology discussed here concern firstly,

210 soils as inherited phenomena, which have featured in the work in the stable western and northern half of the con­ tinent involving mainly the Tertiary history of the land­ scape; and secondly, soils as periodic phenomena, parti­ cularly in south-eastern Australia, where cycles of sta­ bility and instability were recognized in the depositional landscapes of central New South Wales and in the upland areas of south-eastern Australia.

13.21 Soils as inherited phenomena

One of the most significant soil studies in which geomorphology was used to interpret the origins and distribution of soils in relation to the Tertiary and Quaternary landscapes and subsequent events was the work of Stephens (1958, 1961). As a senior pedologist with the Division of Soils, C.S.I.R.O., in Adelaide, South Australia, Stephens initiated many of the pedological and landscape studies undertaken by the Division.

The long-standing interest by Stephens in land- form-soil relationships on a large regional scale can be seen from his early (1932) survey of King Island, Tasmania, and his subsequent work, where he shows that the morphology of Australian soils relates not only to the landscape and climate of the area where they developed, especially late- rites and silcretes, but also to subsequent climatic and geomorphological events.

211 The method Stephens used was to construct a number of cross-sections across Australia generally from west to east and at various latitudes, thereby showing the altitudinal relationship of one landform to another. Stephens then superimposed onto these cross-sections the types of soils which occurred in the areas covered. This information had been derived from published soil survey data and from his own work on Australian soil classifica­ tions at the Great Soil Group level (Stephens, 1952).

The result enabled Stephens (1958, 1961) to predict the type of soils on the basis of the landforms and their re­ lationship to each other found in areas which had not been surveyed previously, to show the relationship between the soils and the landforms, the primary and secondary soil de­ velopment which had taken place, and the frequency wi£h which the secondary soils had inherited characteristics from the primary soils.

A second example of the application of geomorpho­ logy to the investigation of soils in Australia ia Lo be found work of in the/Mulcahy (1959, 1960, 1961a, b, 1964, 1967, 1973) and

Mulcahy and F.J. Hingston (1961), in south-western Western

Australia. In contrast to the work of Stephens, that of

Mulcahy was carried out in a different environment, an area with increasing valley incision westward from the edge of the Western Australian Plateau. It is furthermore an area with a great deal more variety in landforms, as is the case in most marginal areas. It also reflects a complex history of weathering in relation to landform development, as ex-

212 posed in the different zones of the area (see Figure 13.1).

The recognition of these zones by Mulcahy reflects his understanding of the regional relationship associated with the progressive rejuvenation of the drainage system west­ ward from the Meckering Line.

From an examination of the landscape-weathering chronology, and the way this has influenced the soil-land- form relationship, Mulcahy established from a number of test areas (see Figure 13.2) that the various surfaces such as the Quailing, Kauring, and others (see Table 13.1) reflect not only an inherited form, but soil development at various layers within the old weathered zone.

To explain the stratigraphic relationship of these soils to one another, Mulcahy and Hingston (1961) found that the landform history of the area could not be explained entirely in the traditional way (Jutson, 1914,

1934, Woolnough, 1918, 1927), because the initiation of erosion cycles had resulted from epeirogenic uplift, which placed the area at two different base levels. The reju­ venation of the Avon Valley and the lower courses of its tributary can be interpreted as resulting from epeirogenic uplift, but the York and Avon surfaces upstream from the

Mortlock Valley, and the streams draining eastward into the Salt Lakes Valley, have their base level in the Mortlock

River. These features suggested that the downcutting here is not the result of epeirogenic movement, as there would t>e little relative earth movement along the courses of these

213 10 Km o ex < N O 0) «*- o c .-J ■2. ro 0) 2:

o

CO INI Q N c o 0) -o — ■*- “ c v O r V 0> j ’ P CD H d CP CO tp I I — — •H •H Q -P -P A -P 03 I P < 2 03 G o3 Cn S -p 03 I h 03 03 (U — -p M-l G 0 — -p c 0 p o -P i ■H O 03 > 1 C/3 g 03 G P I 03 03 I O G o

I 1

I

I

r-t 03 4-4 I x: S <3 — C/3 G O 03 & N 03 O G 03 C/3 03 P G u 05 >1 I 214 KAURING SURFACE sy (grey sand over maeeive ironstone)

H-V.v.V-^ Coarse detrital ironstone

Yellow sandy deposits

fjgflm Breakaway with ironstone cap

FP~p P I Pallid zone

[H—F ~F I Country rock

GR Valley laterite

S Valley-floor laterite and associated sandy soil

P Truncated laterite, pallid zone exposed on pediments

RB Red-brown earths and some yellow podsolics residual on relatively fresh rock

SB Solonised brown soils on fresh alluvium and colluvium

FIGURE 13.2. Landforms, parent mantles, and soils, (A) in the zone of younger laterites, and (B) in the drier, eastern part of the zone of detrital laterites. (After Mu/cahy 1967)

215 TABLE 13.1

Order and age of surfaces in south-western Western

Australia.

1. Quailing Elements of the old plateau. Laterites, 2. Kauring Spillways, derived by their of which destruction and modification, the older are multiple deposits, the have deep youngest of which may be pallid very recent zones ,absent or shallow 3. Belmunging The sides and floors res­ in the pectively of ancient valleys younger cut in the old plateau. Now profiles preserved as residual spurs and terraces

4. Balkuling A pediment growing headwards Truncated by the retreat of scarps, at laterites the expense of the older sur­ face above

5. Mobedine Produced by an early phase of Iron-oxide- the York-Avon cycle of valley coated scree rej uvenation deposits

6. York and The erosional and depositional Red-brown Avon phases respectively of the earths,solo- youngest cycle recognized nized brown and grey soils.

216 streams. One possible explanation proposed by Mulcahy and Hingston was climatic change, since this alters the rate of downcutting.

13.22 Soil periodicity and landscape dynamics

A second group of soil studies undertaken since

1945 has dealt with the relationship between soil stratig­ raphy and the dynamics of the landsurface as a means of interpreting the original pattern of the relic and buried soil, especially in the young Quaternary landscape of south­ eastern Australia. This first became possible when it was recognized that soil horizons could show past periods of slope stability and instability - namely, development of soil profiles during periods of stability, and soil trunca- or burial tion/during periods of instability. Each period of stabi­ lity and instability was regarded as representing a cycle of soil and landscape development. In south-eastern Aust­ ralia soil development is regarded as polycyclic, the cycles can be numbered, and a stratigraphy established.

This concept was first developed in the Riverine

Plain of south-eastern Australia (see Figure 13.3) by

Butler (1950, 1956, 1958, 1959), Butler and J.T. Hutton (1956) and extended by his co-workers van Dijk (1959, 1968),

Churchward (1961, 1963a, b, c) and Walker (1957, 1962a, b,

1963, 1970), to include sand dune development, river terraces, and undulating hill country outside the Riverine Plain.

Butler (1950) examined the present stream pattern and its relationship with the plain, and found that

the riverine deposits varied in particle size from the

217 DEL M. C COULLS 1949

SCALE OF MILES MOUNTAINOUS OR HILLY ARFAS KrWfl ______48______64

MAUEE AREAS______

FIGURE 13.3 Location map of the Riverine Plain of South-Eastern Australia and its chief physiographic features (after B.E. Butler 1949).

218 clays on the flood plains - that is, from the sandy loams

of the flood levels, to the coarser sands and gravels of

the stream bed - and that their depositional pattern bore no relationship to the present stream system. On the basis of this evidence, together with that of landforms and air- photographs, Butler postulated that a prior stream system had once existed, and had been responsible for the sedi­ mentary pattern of the plain. He named these earlier

streams "prior streams".

After further field work, however, it became

apparent to Butler that the soil and sediment stratigraphy

of the area could not be explained entirely by the prior

stream system, since a number of soil layers consisted of calcareous clay which is similar to loess and had covered much of the plain in the past. Butler named this clay

"parna". To establish whether this material was of aeolian origin, and what the source was, Butler and J.T. Hutton (1956) used stratigraphic criteria to show

that parna was in fact aeolian, since it covered the entire landscape, including hills and ridges, and thus could not have been deposited by water. Furthermore, the variation in the parna texture, from coarserin the west to finer’

in the east of the plain, indicated that the source of the material lay west of the plain and that it had been transported eastwards by wind.

Having established the stratigraphy of the plain to consist of fluvial and aeolian deposits interspersed with soil horizons, Butler (1958, 1959) evolved a chronology which

219 he based on complete cycles of deposition, soil formation, and erosion, each cycle having a ground surface separating one cycle from the other (see Figure 13.4a). Butler named these cycles MK cycles", from the Greek word "Kronos", meaning "time".

"The alternation between stable and unstable landscape conditions demonstrated by buried soils and formalized in the concept of the K cycles... entails an alternation in environmental conditions. In general terms these can be determined from the evidence on the one hand of the soils development and weathering zones of the stable phases. These two sets of evidence indicate an oscilla­ tion in environmental conditions which will generally amount to a proposition of climatic changes..." (Butler, 1959, p. 16)

"The five upper depositional layers in the Riverine Plain region of south-eastern Australia.. . comprising three riverine layers, one parna layer, and a lower layer which is a complex of both riverine and parna layers... There appear to have been three periods of more or less severely arid climate when riverine layers and parna sheets were deposited, and these were separa­ ted by long non-depositional periods of moist climate when soil development occurred." (Butler, 1958, p. 5)

Butler and his co-workers also applied these concepts to an upland area in south-eastern Australia.

They found that the hill slopes also showed an alterna­ tion of stability and soil formation, and instability removed from and when soil material is/deposited in zones which obscure correlation patterns, which Butler (1959) named "sloughing" .respectively and'hccreting zones"/. Van Dijk (1959) and Walker (1962a, b, 1963) showed the existence of a continuity of layers having an erosional origin and representing specific re­ gional cycles - five in the Canberra area (see Figure 13.5a), and three in the Nowra area (see Figure 13.5b). Each cycle was shown to comprise a period of erosion or instability,

220 FIGURE 13.4

a. Diagrammatic cross-section showing the common ground surface situation on the Riverine Plain (after Butler, 1967).

b. Diagrammatic longitudinal section of dune and swale at Swan Hill (after Butler, 1967) . 221 FIGURE 13.5

a. Diagrammatic cross-section showing the common ground surface situation at Canberra (after Butler, 1967).

b. Diagrammatic cross-section showing the common ground surface situation at Nowra (after Butler, 1967). SLOUGHING ZONE .ALTERNATING ZONE ACCRETING ZONE

222 followed by a ground surface and stability with soil de­ velopment. As Butler had done for the Riverine Plain, in somewhat similar fashion so van Dijk and Walker/proposed that periods of instability were associated with a more arid climate, and that soil development had occurred during the intervening humid phases.

Similar work in the semi-arid zone around Swan

Hill in north-western Victoria was undertaken by Churchward

(1961, 1963a, b, c) concerning the soil stratigraphy of seif dunes and swales (see Figure 13.4b). Churchward found evi­ dence that dunes had been eroded periodically on the upwind western margin, and deposition had occurred on the leeward side on the eastern side of the dune. Churchward also found fine material buried in the swales. By applying techniques similar to those of van Dijk and Walker on hill slopes, he distinguished four ground surfaces in the seif and swales. From boring data, ground surfaces were seen to reflect seif dune shapes, so that aeolian action was shown to have formed these features.

From the development of the soil, the leaching of the lime, and the movement of the clay of the ground sur­ faces, Churchward also concluded that long periods of stabi­ lity had occurred between each unstable phase. As he ex­ tended his work into the dune corridors and parts of the adjacent Riverine Plain, he correlated the ground surfaces of the dunes with those of the Riverine Plain, and confirmed

Butler's conclusions that periods of aridity had coincided with instability, and periods of humid climate with periods of stability.

These soil studies more than any others in Aus­ tralia have contributed to an understanding of the charac­ teristics of the lowlands and uplands of south-eastern

Australia, and the fluctuations of moist and dry periods during the Quaternary period. By itself, the K cycle prin­ ciple does not allow for correlation from one area to another, since the same soil layers in different areas need to be of the same age. When used in conjunction with carbon dating, however, the K cycle method gives the most satisfactory account to date of landscape development in this area.

The applied soil-landform studies have also given rise to a number of studies dealing with landform develop­ ment per se. For example, the studies of the inherent nature of soils and their landform relationship on the western margin of the Western Australian Plateau have given rise to studies defining the nature of old landscapes

(Mulcahy and E.Bet tenay , 19 71), and the concept of etchplains

(C.W. Finkle Jr. and H.M. Churchward, 1973).

224 APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAIRE

PART I

1. Name of the University: 2. Year in which Geography was introduced here: 3. Faculty or Faculties in which Geography is taught. (Please circle the appropriate answer(s).) Arts Science Commerce Economics 4. Year in which the first course of Geomorphology was introduced at this University: 5. Was this first course in Geomorphology introduced at First Second Third Fourth year standard? (Please circle the appropriate answer(s).) 6. Can Undergraduate Students at this University undertake a major sequence of courses in Geomorphology? Yes No 7. If so, in which year was this first possible? 8. If not, how many units of Geomorphology can be under­ taken? 9. Is Geology a prerequisite for Geomorphology? Yes No Desirable 10. The percentage of all Geography Students undertaking a course or courses in Geomorphology in the following years 1945: 1950: 1955: 1960: 1965: 1970: 1972: 11. Year in which the first Honours Thesis in Geomorphology was presented: 12. Year in which the first Master’s 'Thesis in Geomorphology was presented: 13. Year in which the first Ph.D. Thesis in Geomorphology was presented: 14. The percentage of Post-Graduate Students undertaking research in Geomorphology in the following years: 1945-1949: 1950-1954: 1955-1959: 1960-1964: 1965-1969: 1970-1972: 15. The number of Geomorphologists on the Staff (including full-time Tutors, Teaching Fellows etc.) in the following years: 1945: 1950: 1955: 1960: 1965: 1970: 1972:

225 QUESTIONNAIRE PART II

To be completed by individual Geomorphologists on the Staff, including full-time Tutors, Teaching Fellows etc.

1. Name (unless you object): 2. Position: 3. Year of your joining the Geography Department at this University: 4. Employment prior to your first appointment to a University (eg. CSIRO, BMR, etc.): 5. University (Universities) at which your Degrees were obtained: First Degree: Other: :

6. Country (Countries) in which field experience has been obtained: 7. Geomorphic research you have undertaken since your appointment to a University Department (eg. coasts).:

8. What prompted this research? (eg. previous employment, previous research for a higher degree etc.):

9. Any other comments you may think relevant to this Questionnaire.

226 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aitchison, G. C: and Grant, K. (1968), Terrain evaluation for engineering. Pp. 125-146 in Land Evaluation, G. A. Stewart (ed.). Macmillan, Melbourne.

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