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BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES – MOUNT GULAGA
AUSTRALIA'S COASTAL WILDERNESS
Australia’s Coastal Wilderness extends from Montague Island off Narooma in NSW to Lakes Entrance in Victoria. It features one of the largest tracts of intact temperate forest coastal wilderness in the world. Over 90% of these coastal forests are protected in perpetuity as national parks. This provides rare geotourism opportunities for visitors to experience the beauty, solitude and grandeur of remote untouched beaches and rugged coastal scenery.
According to Bruce Leaver, a key architect of the former ‘Australia’s National Landscape Program’, the area has a fascinating earth history. The backdrop to the region is the steep coastal hinterland escarpment of the Great Dividing Range, cutting into the elevated inland Cretaceous plain. The escarpment retreated from its coastal origins marking the back-arc rifting that created today’s east coast of Australia and the Tasman Sea from 90 to 50 million years ago.
The rugged mountains and ranges on the coastal side of the escarpment are residual erosion features that remained after the heavy stream and river erosion during the Paleogene when the region was some 3000 km to the south.
One of the most prominent mountains is Gulaga, as named as Mount Dromedary by Captain Cook in 1770. The current name is increasingly used, reflecting the outstanding cultural significance of the mountain to the Yuin people. Today it is a national park, co-managed with the traditional owners.
Gulaga is a large intrusion, part of a volcanic complex that includes Montague Island. The complex is part of the huge mid-Cretaceous Whitsunday Siliceous Large Igneous Province that heralded break up and the formation of the Tasman Sea.
The older earth history of the region is part of the Silurian - Devonian elements of the Lachlan Fold Belt. Granites of the Bega Batholith dominate much of the landscape, intruded into the Ordovician turbidites that previously covered the region. These turbidites can be readily seen on many coastal headlands and the forested ridges overlooking areas of younger granite, being more resistant to erosion.
As the Lachlan Orogen waned, a late Devonian back-arc rift dissected the landscape. The Eden-Comerong-Yalwal Rift extends from under the Sydney Basin to Gabo Island in Victoria. The rift includes volcanics, granite, and sedimentary sequences. It is particularly interesting as it displays a range of typically Devonian features - the Merimbula Red Beds, a tetrapod walkway in the Genoa River, ancient shark fossils and fossils of early forests.Post is under moderationStream item published successfully. Item will now be visible on your stream. -
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GEOREGIONS ON THE MOVE!
In accordance with the National Geotourism Strategy, the Australian Geoscience Council has recommended (and the State/Territory Geological Surveys has recently confirmed) that groups wishing to establish a potential geopark, using the mechanism of ‘GeoRegions’, should explore various alternative options for geotourism development. The concept of GeoRegions underpinning an initial exploratory step is also now accepted by the Australian government geoscience agencies to establish the merits of potential geopark development, to gain a high level of community awareness, and to gain support from government agencies.
An approved GeoRegion is defined as an area that is recognised as an area of special natural and cultural heritage highlighting outstanding geoheritage features within which proposed geotrail and potential geopark projects can be developed in support of geotourism. https://youtu.be/FqnsbEcp62E
As a first step, a full audit of natural and cultural heritage attributes in the proposed GeoRegion as well as early discussions with state/territory based Geological Surveys, Planning and Environment agencies, and any other state/territory government agencies responsible for land and resource management is strongly recommended.
The GeoRegion mechanism therefore provides a framework to undertake comprehensive consultation with a full range of interested or impacted community groups (including Aboriginal communities) and to resolve any identified land tenure conflict issues that may arise.
The commencement of the GeoRegion assessment process is defined by a proponent (which might include for example Local Government (LGA), or a Regional Development Authority (RDA) having completed preferably an approved tourism Destination Management Plan, or alternatively a community or special interest group interested in geotourism development.
In developing global geopark proposals, UNESCO appreciates that each Nation State can implement its own procedures for assessment. In the case of Australia, the concept of establishing a GeoRegion as a strategy is an important first step for geopark proponents to use, and is of local relevance only and would fall away if a GeoRegion project supported by the relevant State/Territory Government is morphed into a Geopark nomination. UNESCO is comfortable with what is being developed in Australia in this respect as it is clearly understood that this concept is only a ‘domestic construct.’
Early consultation with relevant state/territory agencies that have land and resource management responsibilities and/or planning and environment responsibilities within the proposed GeoRegion, and this should include the relevant Geological Survey as well as those LGAs with jurisdictional responsibilities.
To date, Australia has three approved GeoRegions – Murchison (WA) and Ku-ring-gai and Glen Innes (NSW).
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