THEORETICAL CONSTRAINTS AND CHRONOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF HOLOCENE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN NEW-SOUTH-WALES, AUSTRALIA

Holocene coastal evolution in New South Wales has been interpreted ess entially as the unfolding of the impact of marine transgression. Sea l evel on this coast supposedly reached its present height at 6-6.5 ka, and varied < 1 m since then. The early Holocene rise of the sea has be en considered the key factor (''forcing function'') in dune migration, coastal sand barrier development, and the evolution of estuaries. Epi sodic storminess during the late Holocene has been seen as an importan t, though secondary, factor in beach erosion and dune mobilisation. An alternate interpretation presented here challenges the concept of the marine transgression as the primary ''forcing function''. It (a) attr ibutes early Holocene dune mobilisation to climate rather than the ris ing sea; (b) shows that the sea reached its present level by 7 ka and rose to at least + 2 m until approximately 1.5 ka; (c) links late Holo cene dune activity to local disruption of vegetation rather than to re gional episodic storminess; (d) demonstrates a fall of 2-degrees-C in sea surface temperature after 3 ka that coincides with the onset of ba rrier erosion; (e) recognises the imprint of at least three tsunamis i n the coastal sedimentary record.