LATE PLEISTOCENE DUNE CHRONOLOGY - NEAR-COASTAL NEW-SOUTH-WALES AND EASTERN AUSTRALIA

Late Pleistocene aeolian activity is manifested stratigraphically and geomorphically along the New South Wales coastline in six different ways: as barrier dunes, cliff-top and headland dunes, sand sheets on slopes, reworked barrier features, onlapping coastal sand bodies and 'dustings'. The majority of activity took place over the last 40 ka BP Paradoxically the present interglacial is characterised by extensive coastal dune fields while the last interglacial is not, a fact that cannot be solely attributed to the destruction of older deposits through time. The similarity in the degree of dune building between the Holocene and the last glacial under very different climatic regimes may be indicative of the interaction of a multitude of climatic factors. The effects of aboriginal occupation and burning also cannot be excluded. Australia-wide, aeolian activity has preferentially lingered over the northeastern and southern parts of the continent during the last glacial. In the north, this lingering reflects the progressive drying out of northern Australia with the demise of trade wind, cyclone and monsoon activities. In the southeast, it reflects the enhancement of stable, extensive, high pressure cells leading to the displacement of cold fronts and strong winds, either southward towards Tasmania: or offshore into the Tasman Sea.