PRE-QUATERNARY LANDFORMS IN THE LOW-LATITUDE CONTEXT - THE EXAMPLE OFAUSTRALIA

Direct effects of Quaternary glaciation and periglacial activity affec ted only comparatively small areas of southeastern Australia. Certainl y, volcanicity continued in a few districts, extensive new planation s urfaces were formed, dunefields were widely developed, and there were important developments at the coastline and offshore, during this peri od, but many pre Quaternary terrains persist in the contemporary lands cape. Tertiary volcanic plains and plateaux are widespread in the East ern Uplands and duricrusted (ferruginised, silicified) remnants, some of them folded, are characteristic of many parts of the central and we stern sectors of the continent. Drainage systems of similar age are al so increasingly recognised. Older, Gondwanan elements also feature pro minently but especially in the Eastern Uplands and on the Craton. Some of these ancient elements are exhumed but others are epigene and etch ed, though the so-called epigene surfaces are mostly of etch type. The survival of the ancient epigene and etch forms is attributed to resis tance of bedrock through drainage, unequal activity and reinforcement mechanisms.