Journal of Coastal Research 26 3 395402 West Palm Beach, Florida May 2010

Sediment Transport around AustraliaSources, Mechanisms,

Rates, and Barrier Forms
Andrew D. Short

Coastal Studies Unit

School of Geosciences
University of Sydney
Sydney NSW 2006, Australia
A.Short@usyd.edu.au

ABSTRACT
SHORT, A.D., 2010. Sediment transport around Australiasources, mechanisms, rates, and barrier forms. Journal
of Coastal Research, 26(3), 395402. West Palm Beach (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The Australian coast can be subdivided into three broad sedimentary provinces occupying the east, south, west, and
northwest coasts. The 11,978-km long eastern province extends from the western Gulf of Carpentaria along the entire
east coast to eastern Tasmania. It is characterized by tropical to temperate humid climates, quartz sediments, and
overall northerly sediment transport, with significant onshore transport where shoreline orientation and wave and
wind energy combine to produce massive coastal dune systems, including the worlds largest sand islands. The 9587-
km long south and west coast province has an arid to semiarid climate with little terrigenous sediment. Much of the
coast faces into the prevailing southerly winds and the high year-round Southern Ocean swell, resulting in massive
transfer of shelf and nearshore carbonate-rich sediments to the shore and into extensive coastal barrier-dunes systems,
the largest dunes extending 110 km inland. The 9106-km long northwest province has a tropical arid to monsoonal
climate with coral reefs fringing parts of the coast and has predominately offshore winds. While several large rivers
deliver substantial terrigenous sediment to the coast, little is deposited above sea level.

ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Australia, barriers, sediment transport.

INTRODUCTION
Australia has 30,000 km of open coast spanning tropical to
temperate latitudes (9!42!S) and humid to arid climates.
Tides range from 1 to 10 m and waves from low to amongst
the worlds largest, which in combination maintain a meso-
to megatidal tide-dominated northern coast and microtidal
wave-dominated southern coast. Coastal sediments are pre-
dominately terrigenous across the northeast and east, with
pockets of coral reef carbonate, while nearshore and shelf car-
bonates dominate along the south, west, and northwest, with
sections of fringing coral reef north of the Tropic of Capricorn.
The entire midplate coast is geologically stable, with some
areas of slight hydroisostatic uplift during the late Holocene.
The result is a suite of Holocene and often well preserved
Pleistocene and some Tertiary coastal sedimentary systems
ranging from extensive tidal flats and cheniers, through low-
to high-energy regressive and transgressive barrier systems
to the largest and highest sand islands in the world. In the
south, high-energy QuaternaryPliocene barrier systems on-
lap up to 400 km inland, while elsewhere they overlap up to
280 m in elevation.
A recently completed study of all Australian beach and bar-
rier systems has provided information on contemporary
coastal systems and their formative processes including
waves, tides, and winds, and the nature and scale of Holocene
DOI: 10.2112/08-1120.1 received 9 September 2008; accepted in re-
vision 20 January 2009.
and Pleistocene depositional units for the entire coast. Data
were acquired from large-scale topographic maps and vertical
and oblique aerial photography of the entire coast and from
site inspections of numerous sites where sediment samples
were collected. This article presents a broad continental-scale
overview of the 3 major sedimentary provinces and 17 sub-
provinces identified; their location, sediment sources, and
transport modes; beach and barrier characteristics; and es-
timated rates and volumes of Holocene onshore subaerial sed-
iment deposits, usually in the form of barrier-dune systems.
Results are presented for the 17 regional coastal systems
(Figure 1), which cover the entire 30,671 km of the coast and
incorporate data from 2467 barriers and 10,765 beach sys-
tems. Details of the beach studies have been presented in
Short (1996, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006b, 2006c, 2007), while an
overview of the continents carbonate sediments is presented
in Short (2002) and a review of the beach systems in Short
(2006a).
SEDIMENT TYPES AND SOURCES
The Australian coast has three major sediment provinces:
a quartz-rich eastern seaboard, a carbonate-dominated south
and west coast, and a mixed quartz-carbonate northwest
coast. Figure 2 illustrates the regional percentage of carbon-
ate sediments. The quartz-rich east coast sediments are the
product of a humid tropical to temperate climate with 890
rivers and streams supplying sediment to the 12,000-km long
coast. North of the Tropic of Capricorn the rivers actively
396 Short

Figure 1. Map of Australia indicating the three major sedimentary provinces and 17 subprovinces.

supply sediment to deltas and feed the longshore northerly
sand transport driven by southeast trade wind waves and
north-trending flood tide currents (Belperio, 1983). South of
the Tropic the rivers and streams are still infilling over 360
estuaries, with bed-load sediments only supplied to the con-
tinental shelf at low sea levels and reworked onshore during
sea level transgression to supply the beach-barrier systems
and contribute to longshore transport (Roy and Boyd, 1996).
Across the 9500-km long more arid south and west coasts,
there are 524 rivers and streams, including 179 estuaries.
Most of the streams are ephemeral and supply little terrige-
nous sediment to the coast, resulting in a dominance of car-
bonate sediments apart from the more humid southwest cor-
ner. The carbonate sediments are derived from two sources.
Along the high-energy open coast, temperate carbonate sed-
iments are produced on the shelf and reworked onshore from
the depth of wave abrasion, as deep as 70 m on the open shelf
(Boreen et al., 1993; James et al., 1999). The sediment is sup-
plied to the shore during and subsequent to the sea level
transgression, often in massive volumes along the highest en-
ergy sections of coast. James et al. (1993) coined the term
shaved shelf to describe this region: a shelf that has been
swept essentially bare of sediments. They found, This pat-
tern of active carbonate production but little accretion on the

Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010

 Sediment Transport around Australia
Figure 2. Distribution of carbonate beach sands around Australia. Num-
bers indicate mean regional percentage of carbonate beach sand, with
standard deviation in brackets. Note the dominance of carbonate sands
across the southern and western coast derived from continental shelf bi-
ota, and in low energy areas, from seagrass meadows, while in the north-
west, fringing reefs are a major source (Short, 2002).
wave-swept mid- to inner-shelf, is similar to that on other
parts of the southern Australian continental margin. Short
and Hesp (1984) found a similar sediment-depleted inner
shelf consisting of coarse lag deposits and/or exposed Pleis-
tocene mud along the high-energy section of the Coorong
coast of South Australia, a coast backed by transgressive
dunes extending on average 1 km inland. Along more pro-
tected parts of the coast, including the South Australia gulfs
and parts of the western Great Australian Bight, seagrass
meadows grow close to shore and provide an environment for
the production of carbonate epibiota, which is slowly supplied
to the shore to build wide sand flats and backing beach ridge
systems (Short, 2002).
Along the 9600-km northwest coast, there are 22 large riv-
er and 740 smaller rivers and streams, which have infilled
85% of the 683 estuaries, producing numerous deltas at the
coast to supply terrigeneous sediment directly to the shore.
This sediment is supplemented locally by carbonate derived
from fringing coral reefs. However, owing to a combination of
high tide range and low waves, much of the terrigenous sed-
iment remains subtidal, with only limited subaerial beach
and barrier development composed of a mixture of coral reef
carbonate and terrigenous sediments.
SEDIMENT TRANSPORT MODES
Three major processes affect sediment transport around
the coast, namely waves, tidal current, and strong onshore
winds. The east coast experiences northerly sediment trans-
port driven by predominately southerly swell waves south of
the Tropic and southeast trade wind waves in the Great Bar-
Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010
397
rier Reef Lagoon assisted by north trending flood tidal cur-
rents associated with meso- to macrotides. Likewise trade
wind waves also dominate transport in the Gulf of Carpen-
taria, with northerly longshore transport on the east-facing
eastern Arnhem Land coast and substantial dune transgres-
sion on eastern Groote Eylandt and at Cape Arnhem. Along
the 4400-km long microtidal southeast coast, from Fraser Is-
land down to Tasmania, southerly swell drives northerly
transport; however, it is interrupted by headlands in the
south and only becomes more continuous in northern New
South Wales (NSW) and southeast Queensland, and is esti-
mated to reach 500,000 m3 y"1 at the QueenslandNSW bor-
der (Dyson et al., 2002). North of Fraser Island, cells of north-
erly transport, supplemented by river sediments, continue
along straighter sections of the east Queensland coast all the
way to Torres Strait, where the sediment has accumulated
in a massive tidal delta. Along the entire length of the coast
the quartz-rich sediment supplies 1150 barrier systems and
several large transgressive dune fields, particularly between
Newcastle and Cape York, wherever the shoreline is orien-
tated into the southeast wave and wind fields. In addition
sediment is lost to flood tide deltas and offshore to the inner
shelf during high wave events. At Breaksea Spit, the sub-
aqueous northern tip of Fraser Island and terminus for the
1500-km long southeast littoral cell, the sand reaches the
edge of the continental shelf and cascades down the conti-
nental slope and out of the system (Boyd et al., 2008).
The microtidal south coast is dominated by persistent high
Southern Ocean swell, which delivers vast quantities of shelf
carbonate to the shore and strong south to southwest winds
that transport beach sand inland to build massive coastal
dune systems along hundreds of kilometres of coast. While
the winds do induce some offshore-directed downwelling, it is
insufficient to counteract the wave-induced onshore trans-
port. The high swell also reaches the west coast, where waves
are considerably attenuated by nearshore calcarenite reefs,
and further north, where they are attenuated by fringing cor-
al reef systems. The swell waves are replaced close to shore
by wind waves generated by the strong prevailing southerly
winds, including strong summer southerly sea breeze winds
and waves, which drive northward longshore sand transport
as far north as North West Cape, as well as producing more
than 70 north-trending transgressive dune fields.
The northwest coast is dominated by high tide ranges, low
wind waves, and predominately offshore southeast trade
winds. As a consequence, onshore transport is episodic, often
related to tropical cyclones, and limited, resulting in low-en-
ergy tide-dominated beaches, small barrier systems, and few
transgressive dunes.
SEDIMENT PROVINCES
Based on the previously described sources and types of sed-
iment, and the nature and scale of sediment transport, 3
broad sedimentary provinces and 17 associated subprovinces
can be identified around the Australian coast. The data for
each province are presented in Table 1 and are derived as
follows:
(1) coast lengthlength of province open coastline.
398 Short

Table 1. Characteristics of Australian sedimentary provinces and subprovinces.

Barrier Total Barrier Unstable Barrier Mean Barrier Holocene Rate

Coast Length Length Number of Area Area Unstable Volume Volume Supply
Province (km) (km) Barriers (km2) (km2) (%) (km3) (m3 m"1) (m3 m"1 y"1)

Eastern
1 W Gulf Carp 1750 579 144 413 41 10.0 2.7 4658 0.8
2 E Gulf Carp 1469 913 67 2624 18 0.7 14.7 16,096 2.7
3 E Cape York 1032 582 91 1702 70 4.1 19.8 10,272 1.7
4 E Queensland 3325 1198 310 1435 43 3.0 10.0 8335 1.4
5 SE Queensland1 854 410 25 2910 196 6.7 29.1 70,968 11.8
6 NSW 1590 924 278 815 78 9.5 7.3 7848 1.3
7 E Victoria 440 408 49 991 197 19.9 10.7 50,737 4.4
8 N and E Tasmania 1518 486 186 246 48 19.5 2.2 4424 0.7
11,978 5500 1150 11,136 691 9.2 96.5 21,667 3.1
South and West
9 W Tasmania 717 178 77 238 41 17.3 4.4 24,719 4.1
10 W Victoria 744 337 85 1270 128 10.1 17.5 51,991 8.7
11 S Australia 3273 1580 197 1926 670 34.8 29.3 18,529 3.1
12 Kangaroo Is 458 113 15 500 19 3.8 7.5 66,404 11.1
13 S West Aust 1930 1335 157 4681 723 15.5 93.6 70,077 11.7
14 SW West Aust 2465 1261 135 2123 396 18.6 26.8 21,222 3.5
9587 4626 589 10,738 1936 16.7 174.7 42,157 7.0
Northwest
15 Pilbara 1421 770 123 936 55 5.9 7.2 9417 1.6
16 Kimberely 4333 456 368 223 66 17.8 1.0 2205 0.4
17 W North Territory 3352 823 246 422 17 4.0 1.6 861 0.1
9106 2049 737 1581 138 9.2 9.8 4161 0.7
Total 30,671 12,175 2476 23,455 2765 11.7 281 22,662 3.6
1
Includes Fraser, Moreton, & Stradbroke islands.

(2) barrier lengthlength of all barriers in province.
(3) numbernumber of barrier systems in province.
(4) total barrier areaarea of all barriers, including backing
dune systems.
(5) unstable (km2)area of bare unstable dunes in barrier
systems.
(6) unstable (%)percentage of bare unstable dunes on bar-
riers.
(7) volumetotal volume of barrier above mean sea level.
(8) mean volumevolume of barrier per metre of shore
(point 7/length of barrier).
(9) Holocene ratevolume of barrier per metre of shore di-
vided by 6000 (years) (point 8/6000).
Eastern Australia
The 11,978-km long eastern province is dominated by hu-
mid tropical to temperate climates, Quaternary supply of ter-
rigenous sediments to the coast, and generally south to south-
east waves and winds. Tides are meso to macro in the tropical
north and micro in the temperate south. The Gulf of Carpen-
taria system (1 and 2, Table 1) has 3219 km of coast and is
a micro- to mesotidal shallow epicontinental sea, with gen-
erally low-moderate wind waves generated by the dominant
southeast trades and lighter summer northwest monsoon to-
gether with occasional more energetic tropical cyclone winds,
waves, and surges. Beaches are wave-dominated on exposed
sections of the western gulf and tide-dominated elsewhere (1
and 2, Table 2). Abundant fine sediments, a low gradient
coastal zone, and a 12 m hydroisostatic uplift has produced
a suite of depositional systems. They range from inter- to
supratidal flats up to 50 km wide in the protected south, with
increasing wave exposure, to prograding cheniers and beach
ridge plains backed by similar Pleistocene systems (see
Rhodes, 1982). A total of 211 barrier systems occupy 1492 km
(46%) of shoreline and 3037 km2 of the coastal zone. Pleis-
tocene and Holocene transgressive dune systems have only
developed on the more exposed east-facing locations on
Groote Eylandt and eastern Arnhem Land. A total of 17.4
km3 of sediment has been delivered to the shore at a rate of
between 0.8 m3 m"1 y"1 in the west and 2.7 m3 m"1 y"1 in the
east.
The east Cape York Peninsula-Queensland system extends
for 4357 km from Cape York to Hervey Bay (3 and 4, Table
1) and is dominated by the prevailing southeast trade winds
and seas because ocean waves are blocked by the Great Bar-
rier Reef. Tide ranges from micro to macro, and beaches are
a mixture of tide-modified and tide-dominated (3 and 4, Table
2). Four-hundred and fifty eight rivers and streams rising in
the humid eastern highlands have infilled most of the estu-
aries, building deltas and supplying sediment directly to the
shore. Depositional systems depend on exposure to the trade
winds. In protected north-facing embayments with no to low
waves, mangrove-covered tidal flats and cheniers dominate.
With increasing exposure to the trades, these flats and chen-
iers grade northward within embayments to beach ridges and
foredune ridges, and in places on southeast facing shores, Ho-
locene and Pleistocene transgressive dunes, usually in the
form of long-walled parabolics up to 25 km long (Pye, 1983).
The most notable are at Cape Grenville, Cape Flattery, Cape
Bedford, and Nine Mile Beach. In all there are 401 barrier

Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010

 Sediment Transport around Australia 399

Table 2. Australian beach systemsnumber, length and type.

Total Beach Wave- Tide- Tide- R# R#

Province Number Length (km) Dominated Modified Dominated Rock Reef Coral Reef

Eastern
1 W Gulf Carp 544 779 102 60 226 156
2 E Gulf Carp 213 938 7 37 145 7 1
3 E Cape York 427 571 4 114 243 49 20
4 E Queenslandc 887 1380 10 524 353
5 SE Queensland 106 771 73 9 24
6 NSW 721 974 721
7 E Victoria 106 363 106
8 North and East Tasmania 870 656 757 37 70 6
South and West
9 W Tasmania 399 220 398 1
10 W Victoria 453 774 453
11 S Australia 1454 2030 948 44 462
12 Kangaroo Island 218 156 191 27
13 S West Australia 618 1309 649 6 6 28
14 SW West Australia 986 1637 714 214 10 32
Northwest
15 Pilbara 458 809 75 87 252 32 5
16 Kimberley 1360 711 15 46 1155 172 163
17 W North Territory 944 1123 106 555 246 34
Total 10,764 15,201 5223 1070 3732 707 255
R indicates reflective high tide beach.
Bold indicates dominant beach type.

systems occupying 1780 km (41%) and 3127 km2 of coast. Net
northerly sand transport terminates in Torres Strait where
a massive flood tidal delta extends for tens of kilometers into
the Gulf of Carpentaria. The barrier systems have a mean
volume between 8335 and 10,272 m3 m"1, supplied at rates
between 1.4 and 1.7 m3 m"1 y"1 and a total volume of 29.8
km3.
The southeast system covers 4402 km of coast and includes
the southeast Queensland sand islands, all of NSW, and the
coasts of east Victoria and north and east Tasmania (58,
Table 1). It is dominated by a humid subtropical to temperate
climate, moderate to high southerly ocean swell, microtides,
and southeast through southwest winds. Beaches are exclu-
sively wave-dominated on the open coast (58, Table 2).
Drowned coastal valleys are occupied by infilling estuaries
with bedload sediments only supplied to the coast during low
sea levels. Open coastal systems are dominated by embayed
beaches (mean length 1.6 km) backed by foredune ridges and/
or transgressive dune systems depending on exposure (see
Roy and Thom, 1981). In NSW there are smaller barriers
with an average size of 7848 m3 m"1. Net northerly sand
transport throughout the Quaternary, together with moder-
ate to high waves and onshore winds, has resulted in the
accumulation of large sand islands along 400 km of the south-
east Queensland coast, at the northern terminus of the sys-
tem. The five sand islands represent Australias largest bar-
rier system and have an average volume of 70,968 m3 m"1,
supplied at an average rate of 11.8 m3 m"1 y"1. The largest
NSW transgressive dunes are at Myall Lakes-Stockton Bight,
together with Cape Howe in Victoria, and Waterhouse Bay
and Boobyalla Beach on the north Tasmanian coast. In total
the southeast coast barrier occupies 2228 km (51% of coast),
with an area of 4962 km2 and a total volume of 49.3 km3.
Southern Western Australia
The south and west coast province includes west coast Tas-
mania and on the mainland extends from Wilsons Promon-
tory, the southern tip of mainland Australia, across central-
western Victoria, South Australia, including Kangaroo Is-
land, and along the southern and western Western Austra-
lian coasts north to North West Cape, a total distance of 9587
km (914, Table 1). The 6405-km long southern system (913)
is the worlds longest midlatitude eastwest trending coast.
It has microtides and is exposed to the full force of the South-
ern Ocean waves and winds. Wave-dominated beaches dom-
inate the open coast, with substantial tide-dominated beach-
es in protected South Australian gulfs and bays (913, Table
2). Subprovinces 11 and 13 are also arid to semiarid, result-
ing in most of this section of coast receiving no terrigenous
sediments since the Tertiary. Sediments are largely derived
from shelf carbonates and in protected embayments from sea-
grass meadows. The exposed coastline is dominated by high-
energy wave-dominated carbonate beaches and massive
dunes, with any back barrier depressions occupied by salt
lakes. There are 7 dune systems larger than 10,000 ha and
96 systems greater than 1000 ha in area. Coasts protected by
orientation and/or calcarenite reefs are fringed by seagrass
meadows, which supply carbonate sediment to build chenier
through beach ridge to low foredune ridge systems. The south
coast, including west Tasmania, contains 531 barrier systems
that occupy 3543 km (50%), cover an area of 8615 km2 and
have a total volume of 147.9 km3, with mean subprovince
volumes between 18,000 and 70,000 m3 m"1, supplied at rates
between 3.1 and 11.1 m3 m"1 y"1.
The 2465-m southwest coast from Cape Naturaliste to
North West Cape is largely protected from ocean waves by

Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010

400
extensive shore parallel calcarenite reef systems in the centre
and fringing coral reefs north of Shark Bay. Wave refraction
and attenuation over the reefs induces numerous sandy sa-
lients and embayments along the coast (Sanderson and Eliot,
1996), and a shoreline dominated by low energy reflective
beaches (Hegge, Eliot, and Hsu, 1996), including the tide-
dominated beaches in sheltered Shark Bay (14, Table 2).
Aridity increases northward with desert climates bordering
the northern section. Strong southerly winds maintain long-
walled parabolic dunes fields on most southerly facing shores.
This system includes the 365-km long, 100250-m high Zuyt-
dorp cliffs composed of multiple lithified Pleistocene dunes,
much of it capped by Holocene long-walled parabolic dunes
up to 40 km long. This is equivalent in latitude and size to
the southeast Queensland sand islands. The southwest coast
(subprovince 14) has a total of 135 barrier systems, occupying
1261 km (50%) of the coast, covering an area of 2123 km2,
with a total volume of 25.3 km3, supplied at an average rate
of 5.3 m3 m"1 y"1.
Northwest Australia
The northwest province extends from the low-energy Ex-
mouth Gulf along the arid, often islandsheltered, Pilbara
coast; the indented bedrock dominated and monsoonal Kim-
berley coast; and much of the tropical Northern Territory
coasta distance of 9600 km. This coast is dominated by bed-
rock geology, fringing coral reefs, and in the Territory, lat-
erite reefs as well. Monsoonal summer rainfall supplies 760
rivers and streams. Tides are meso to macro, reaching 11 m
in King Sound, and waves generally low short seas. Extensive
tidal flats and mangroves systems fill protected bays with
generally low-energy meso-macrotidal tide-dominated em-
bayed beaches in areas exposed to the ocean waves and seas
(1517, Table 2), with minor transgressive dunes only form-
ing where exposed to the southeast trade winds. The 1421-
km Pilbara coast is fed by nine intermittent river systems
that rise in the Pilbara highlands which are activated by ep-
isodic tropical cyclones. Each supplies braided deltaic sys-
tems with northerly trending river mouth spits feeding ad-
jacent barriers. One hundred and twenty-three barriers oc-
cupy 54% of the Pilbara coast (15, Table 1) with an area of
936 km3 and volume of 7.2 km3, supplied at a low rate of 1.6
m3 m"1 y"1. While there are 614 barrier systems along the
7685-km long Kimberley and Territory sections (16 and 17,
Table 1), they are usually small, averaging 860 to 2205 m3
m"1. They occupy only 2282 km (30%) of the coast, with a
total volume of 2.6 km3, supplied at the lowest rates on the
continent of between 0.1 and 0.4 m3 m"1 y"1.
DISCUSSION
Average Holocene rates of onshore sediment transport onto
the Australian coast range from a low of 0.1 m3 m"1 y"1 in
the tide-dominated northwest to a high of 1112 m3 m"1 y"1
along the wave-dominated southeast Queensland sand is-
lands and parts of the exposed southern Australian coast.
The resulting barrier systems range in volume from a mean
of 860 m3 m"1, where low cheniers and beach ridges domi-
nate, to a massive 70,000 m3m"1, where sands are piled up
Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010
Short
to 300 m high and tens of kilometers wide in massive trans-
gressive dune systems, with the largest systems attaining
volumes of 500,000 m3 m"1. The extreme variation in the na-
ture and size of the barrier systems is a product of both sed-
iment availability and coastal transport processes.
The tide-modified and tide-dominated northern and north-
western coastal systems (14, 1517, Table 2) are all associ-
ated with the smallest barrier systems. Yet most of these
systems are located in the region of highest terrigenous sed-
iment yield (Figures 1 and 2). While sediment is abundant in
the nearshore, as evidenced by the dominance of extensive
sand and tidal flats associated with tide-dominated beach
systems (Table 2), the low waves are insufficient to mobilize
much of this sand and move it onshore. In the few areas
where the combination of abundant sand and direct exposure
to strong southeast trade wind and wind waves occurs, some
large-nested long-walled parabolic dunes systems have de-
veloped during the Pleistocene and the Holocene sea level
high stands, the largest extending up to 25 km inland. Such
areas occur on northern Cape York Peninsula, eastern Groote
Eylandt, and east Arnhem Land. Seventy four percent of the
coast, however, has no barriers, being composed of either bed-
rock or fringed by mangroves.
Along the southeast and southern Australian coast, Short
and Hesp (1982) and Short (1987) found a strong relationship
between the level of wave energy; beach type and backing
foredune stability; and dune type and volume. This relation-
ship is supported by the results of this study that show the
dominance of wave-dominated beaches across southeast and
southern Australia (Table 2) and the corresponding high
rates of sand supply and large barrier volumes, averaging
38,000 m3 m"1 along the entire 8000-km long south and
southwest coast, where barriers occupy 52% of the coast.
Within this region there is a consistent relationship between
the nature and size of the dune systems and the exposure to
waves, with all moderate to large transgressive dune systems
located to the lee of high-energy beaches or former beaches
in the case of clifftop dunes. Some of the dunes are massive;
the largest Holocene dune system, in the Great Australian
Bight, extends 110 km inland; the longest active dune sys-
tem, near Steep Point, extends 38 km inland; and highest
cliff-top dunes sit atop 250 m high vertical cliffs, the former
sand ramps since eroded. The dune systems, however, typi-
cally average about 12 km in width and reach elevations of
2030 m. The cliff-top dunes occupy hundreds of kilometers
of cliffs, with most of the cliffs composed of Pleistocene dune
calcarenite, deposited during each sea level maxima. They
occupy 640 km (40%) of the Eyre Peninsula coast and 110 km
(50%) of the south and west coasts of Kangaroo Island, both
in subprovince 11. Short (1988a) found that along the South
Australian coast, the cliff-top dunes are more likely to be veg-
etated, with only 5% unstable compared with 32% of dunes
originating at sea level. The reason for the greater stability
is that the vast majority of the cliff-top dunes were deposited
during the early to mid-Holocene and are now disconnected
from their former beach sand supply ($95%) and are there-
fore not reactivated by subsequent episodes of dune trans-
gression.
The southwest Western Australian coast between Cape Na-
 Sediment Transport around Australia
turaliste and North West Cape (subprovince 14) responds dif-
ferently to the south coast. While high deepwater waves pre-
vail, inshore wave attenuation across calcarenite reefs in the
south-centre and fringing coral reefs in the north produce low
waves and reflective beaches at the shore. The refraction also
forms numerous sandy salients along all reef-controlled
coasts (see Sanderson and Eliot, 1996). Inside the reef sys-
tems strong southerly winds induce southerly wind waves
and northward longshore transport, and on the south-facing
sides of the salients, north-trending transgressive dune sys-
tems. The dunes are predominately nested to long-walled
parabolics and include sections of cliff-top dunes.
Australia-wide Holocene barriers occupy 12,175 km (40%)
of the coast. An additional 3026 km (10%) of the coast is oc-
cupied by sandy beaches with no associated barrier develop-
ment, bringing the total of beach coastline to 15,210 km
(50%). The remaining coastline is dominated by bedrock in
the east and southeast, calcarenite bluffs and cliffs across the
south and west, and a mixture of bedrock and mangroves
across the tropical north. In addition rock platforms and in-
tertidal calcarenite and laterite reefs fringe an additional 707
beaches primarily in the west and north, while 255 of the
tropical beaches are fringed by coral reefs (Table 2). The
fringing reef beaches do not include those fronted by barrier
reefs often several kilometers off the Western Australian
Ningaloo coast, to tens of kilometres offshore in lee of
Queenslands Great Barrier Reef. The barriers have accu-
mulated at an average rate of 3.6 m3 m"1 y"1, have an aver-
age volume of 23,000 m3 m"1, with a total volume of 281 km3.
Most of the Holocene barriers occur in association with Pleis-
tocene barriers, either onlapping on lower energy and low
gradient shores and/or where slight uplift has occurred, or
overlapping on moderate to higher energy systems.
While the foregoing reports on the extent, volume, and av-
erage rates of Holocene sand supply, it does not attempt to
discuss the chronology of the barrier deposits. At present
there is reasonable barrier chronology for southeast Australia
(see Thom, 1984), but only a few scattered studies from else-
where (e.g., Knott, 2006; Lees, 2006; Murray-Wallace, 2002;
Semeniuk, 1996; Short, Buckley, and Fotheringham, 1989;
Woodfroffe and Grime, 1989). The vast majority of the barrier
systems, including entire regions, have received no system-
atic investigations. Until more detailed investigations are un-
dertaken on the chronology of the prograded foredune and
beach ridge plains and the episodes of transgressive dune de-
velopment, we cannot make definitive statements about in-
dividual and regional barrier evolution.
It is apparent however that around much of the coast there
has been considerable change during the Holocene in the na-
ture of the shoreline and associated beaches and barrier sys-
tems. Generally around the high wave energy southern half
of the continent, most sediment was delivered to the present
coast during and soon after the Holocene sea-level transgres-
sion 105 ka (Short, 1988b), with few systems experiencing
modern progradation. Cliff-top dunes occupy hundreds of
kilometres of coast with the few dated systems deposited be-
tween 125 ka (Pye and Bowman, 1984). Most are truncated
from the beaches and sand ramps that once supplied the
dunes, with many of the source beaches completely eroded.
Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010
401
Roy et al. (1997) suggest that along the NSW coast, the Ho-
locene inner shelf sand bodies that lie in water depth of 30
80 m off steep high energy sections of usually rocky coast
have been supplied by erosion of former beach-dune systems
located at the base of the adjacent cliffs.
Along the central Western Australian coast, Sanderson
(2000) found that beach and barriers located to the lee of
eroding calcarenite reefs were being exposed to increasing
wave energy as the reefs diminished, resulting in associated
shoreline changes. At the same time shorelines in lee of grow-
ing fringing and barrier coral reef systems were being afford-
ed increasing protection from wave attack as the reefs ex-
panded. Along the Queensland coast in lee of the Great Bar-
rier Reef, Hopley (1984) found evidence of a mid-Holocene
higher energy wave window when the reefs were lower. The
window was closed as the barrier reef grew upward, catching
up during the sea level still stand and closing the window for
ocean wave attack, resulting in lower-energy late Holocene
mainland coastal systems.
Along the humid tropical northern shores, there are nu-
merous sites where embayment and nearshore infilling by
terrigenous sediments delivered by local streams and rivers
has led to greater wave attenuation and a switch from higher
energy mid-Holocene beaches to lower energy late Holocene
systems, often fringed by mangroves (Woodroffe et al., 1989).
The Australian coast provides a wide range of coastal en-
vironments, with approximately 40% of the coast backed by
barrier systems. This study provides a continental-scale over-
view of the location, extent, volume, and rate of Holocene
supply to these systems. The scale of the barrier systems is
considerable and provides insight into regional variability in
the formative processes, sediment sources and rates of sup-
ply. It would be interesting to compare these rates and vol-
umes with those from other regions and continents.
CONCLUSION
Fifty percent of the Australian coast is composed of sandy
beach systems, of which the majority are backed by Holocene
and, in many places, Pleistocene barriers. This study of the
Holocene beach-barrier systems found that the continent can
be divided into 3 broad provinces and 17 subprovinces, based
on sediment sources and general barrier size and forms. The
eastern seaboard is dominated by terrigenous quartz-rich
sediment derived from the humid hinterland. The tropical
northeast has lower energy tide-modified and tide-dominated
beaches and generally stable barriers fed by local terrigenous
supply with low rates of onshore supply. The 7576 km of coast
has a total barrier volume of 47.2 km3. The subtropical to
temperate southeast receives higher waves and is dominated
by higher energy beaches and in places massive transgressive
dune systems. It has a comparable barrier volume of 47.1 km3
delivered to a coast that is half the length (4302 km).
The south and southwest coast are exposed to the full force
of the Southern Ocean waves and onshore south to southwest
winds. The waves have delivered massive volumes of shelf
carbonate to the shore and to massive transgressive dune sys-
tems, as well as carbonate from seagrass meadows in more
protected locations. The result is the world largest and lon-
402
gest temperate carbonate province, extending along 8870 km
of shore and totaling 170 km3 in volume.
The northwest region ranges from tropical arid to mon-
soonal climates, with low seas and Australias highest tides.
Low energy tide-dominated beaches prevail, as well rock and
reef-fringed beaches. While this region contains 737 barrier
systems, they are generally small in size and have a com-
bined volume of only 2.6 km3.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study and fieldwork has been funded by various Aus-
tralian Research Council Collaborative, SPIRT, and Linkage
grants in collaboration with Surf Life Saving Australia. Julia
Short assisted in much of the land-based field work, and Gra-
ham Lloyd in the boat-based northern Australian field work
using the research boat CSU 3.
LITERATURE CITED
Belperio, A.P., 1983. Terrigenous sedimentation in the central Great
Barrier Reef Lagoon: a model from the Burdekin region. BMR
Journal Australia Geology and Geophysics, 8, 179190.
Boreen, T.; James, N.; Wilson, C., and Heggie, D., 1993. Surficial
cool-water carbonate sediments on the Otway continental margin,
southeastern Australia. Marine Geology, 112, 3556.
Boyd, R.; Ruming, K.; Goodwin, I.; Sandstrom, M., and Schroder-
Adams, C., 2008. Highstand transport of coastal sand to the deep
ocean: a case study from Fraser Island, southeast Australia. Ge-
ology, 36, 1518.
Dyson, A.; Lawson, S.; Victory, S.; Boswood, P.; Mahon, B.; Trucchi,
L., and Cummings, P., 2002. Tweed River entrance sand bypassing
project post-commissioning coastal behaviour. In: Proceedings of
the 28th International Conference on Coastal Engineering (Cardiff,
ASCE), pp. 37483752.
Hegge, B.; Eliot, I., and Hsu, J., 1996. Sheltered sandy beaches of
southwestern Australia. Journal of Coastal Research, 12,748760.
Hopley, D., 1984. The Holocene high energy window on the central
Great Barrier reef. In: Thom, B.G. (ed.), Coastal Geomorphology
in Australia. Sydney, Australia: Academic Press, pp. 135150.
James, N.P.; Boreen, T.D.; Bone, Y., and Feary, D.A., 1993. Holocene
carbonate sedimentation on the west Eucla Shelf, Great Austra-
lian Bight: a shaved shelf. Sedimentary Geology, 90, 161177.
James, N.P.; Collins, L.B.; Bone, Y., and Hallock, P., 1999. Subtrop-
ical carbonates in a temperate realm: modern sediments on the
southwest Australian shelf. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 69,
12971321.
Knott, J., 2006. Tropical cyclones and the evolution of the sedimen-
tary coasts of northern Australia. Journal of Coastal Research, 22,
4977.
Lees, B.G., 2006. Timing and formation of coastal dunes in northern
and eastern Australia. Journal of Coastal Research, 22, 7889.
Murray-Wallace, C.V., 2002, Pleistocene coastal stratigraphy, sea
level highstands and neotectonism of the southern Australia pas-
sive continental margin. Journal of Quaternary Science, 17, 469
489.
Pye, K., 1983. Formation and history of Queensland coastal dunes.
Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie. N.F. Suppl.-Bd. 45, 175204.
Pye, K. and Bowman, G., 1984. The Holocene marine transgression
as a forcing function in episodic dune activity on the eastern Aus-
tralian coast. In: Thom, B.G. (ed.), Coastal Geomorphology in Aus-
tralia. Sydney, Australia: Academic Press, pp. 179196.
Rhodes, E.G., 1982. Depositional model for a chenier plain, Gulf of
Carpentaria, Australia. Sedimentology, 29, 201221.
Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010
Short
Roy, P.A. and Boyd, R., 1996. Quaternary geology of southeast Aus-
tralia: a tectonically stable, wave dominated sediment-deficient
margin. Geological Survey of NSW and Department of Geology,
University of Newcastle, 174p.
Roy, P.S. and Thom, B.G., 1981, Late Quaternary marine deposition
in New South Wales and southern Queenslandan evolutionary
model. Journal Geological Society Australia, 28, 471489.
Roy, P.S.; Zhuang, W-Y.; Birch, G.F.; Cowell, P.J., and Li, C., 1997.
Quaternary geology of the Foster-Toncurry coast and shelf, South-
est Australia. Geological Survey Report GS 1992/201, NSW De-
partment of Mineral Resources, 405p.
Sanderson, P.G., 2000. A comparison of reef-protected environments
in Western Australia: the central west and Ningaloo coasts. Earth
Surface Processes and Landforms, 25, 397419.
Sanderson, P.G. and Eliot, I., 1996. Shoreline salients, cuspate fore-
lands and tombolos on the coast of Western Australia. Journal of
Coastal Research, 12, 761773.
Semeniuk, V., 1996. Coastal forms and Quaternary processes along
the arid Pilbara coast of northwestern Australia. Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Paleoecology, 123, 4984.
Short, A.D., 1987. Modes, timing and volume of Holocene cross-shore
and aeolian sediment transport, southern Australia. Coastal Sed-
iments 87 (ASCE, New Orleans), 19251937.
Short, A.D., 1988a. The South Australian coast and Holocene sea-
level transgression. Geographical Review, 78, 119136.
Short, A.D., 1988b. Holocene coastal dune formation in southern
Australiaa case study. Sedimentary Geology, 55, 121142.
Short, A.D., 1996. Beaches of the Victorian Coast and Port Phillip
Bay. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press, 298p.
Short, A.D., 2000. Beaches of the Queensland Coast: Cooktown to Coo-
langatta. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press, 360p.
Short, A.D., 2001. Beaches of the South Australian Coast and Kan-
garoo Island. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press, 346p.
Short, A.D., 2002. Distribution and impact of carbonate sands on
southern Australian beach-dune systems. In: Magoon, O.T.; Rob-
bins, L.L., and Ewing, L. (eds.), Carbonate Beaches 2000, Key Lar-
go, Florida: U.S. Geological Survey and American Society of Civil
Engineers, pp. 236250.
Short, A.D., 2005. Beaches of the Western Australian Coast: Eucla to
Roebuck Bay. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press, 433p.
Short, A.D., 2006a. Australian beach systemsnature and distri-
bution. Journal of Coastal Research, 22, 1127.
Short, A.D., 2006b. Beaches of the Tasmanian Coast and Islands.
Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press, 353p.
Short, A.D., 2006c. Beaches of Northern Australia: The Kimberley,
Northern Territory and Cape York. Sydney, Australia: Sydney Uni-
versity Press, 463p.
Short, A.D., 2007. Beaches of the New South Wales Coast, second edi-
tion. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press, 398p.
Short, A.D.; Buckley, R.C, and Fotheringham, D.G., 1989. Prelimi-
nary investigation of beach ridge progradation on the Eyre Pen-
insula and Kangaroo Island. Transactions Royal Society South
Australia, 113, 145161.
Short, A.D., and Hesp, P.A., 1982. Wave, beach and dune interac-
tions in southeast Australia. Marine Geology, 48, 259284.
Short, A.D. and Hesp, P.A., 1984, Beach and Dune Morphodynamics
of the South East Coast of South Australia. Coastal Studies Unit
Technical Report 84/1, Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney,
142p.
Thom, B.G., 1984. Transgressive and regressive stratigraphies of
coastal sand barriers in eastern Australia. Marine Geology, 56,
137158.
Woodfroffe, C.D. and Grime, D., 1999. Storm impact and evolution
of a mangrove-fringed chenier plain, Shoal Bay, Darwin, Austra-
lia. Marine Geology, 159, 303321.
Woofroffe, C.D.; Chappell, J.; Thom, B.G., and Wallensky, E., 1989.
Depositional model of a macrotidal estuary and floodplain, South
Alligator River, northern Australia. Sedimentology, 36, 737756.