Quaternary chronology of Goulburn Valley sediments and their correlation in Southeastern Australia

Radiocarbon dates from the Goulburn Valley, Victoria, throw new light on the age of Quaternary tectonics, ancestral streams, fluviatile sediments and associated soils.

Sand dunes were formed during glacial times from ancestral rivers in which discharges were higher than at present. Tectonic movement occurred on the Cadell Fault between 13,000 and 20,000 B.P.

Stratigraphic correlation between the various units currently in use on the Riverine Plain is sometimes ambiguous, whereas wider correlation based on ground‐surface similarities in the valleys of the Goulburn, Maribyrnong and Shoalhaven rivers is invalid.

The sediments dated provide limiting ages for the red‐brown earth and minimal prairie soils developed on them in this area.