Pliocene eustasy and the onset of sand barrier formation in Gippsland, Victoria

Abstract

GIPPSLAND possesses a classical development of coastal lakes formed behind a sand barrier system which achieved its present form during the Quaternary. New evidence is assembled here, showing that a transgressive–regressive–transgressive cycle in the late Miocene–Pliocene ended in an earlier phase of barrier formation and lacustrine deposition. Another period of regression in the late Pliocene completed the cycle. Sufficient remnants of the deposits of the Pliocene lake and sand barrier have survived Pleistocene erosion to establish their former existence.