Abstract
The southeast division commences at Fraser Island and extends down the southeast coast to Wilsons Promontory, across eastern Bass Strait and along the east Tasmanian coast down to South East Cape, a total shoreline distance of 4446 km. In doing so it shifts from a humid sub-tropical to a humid temperate climate, while the coast remains dominated by moderate to occasionally high southerly swell and micro-tides, resulting in predominately WD beaches. The Eastern Highlands parallel the mainland coast, and numerous small rivers and streams flow to the coast into estuaries building bayhead deltas with very limited modern bedload supply to the coast. Longer beaches in southeast Queensland and northern NSW give way to shorter embayed beaches in the south and Tasmania, apart from Gippsland’s Ninety Mile Beach. Sediment transport is to the north, interrupted and contained in the south while bypassing headlands in the north to its ultimate sink at Fraser Island and beyond. This chapter reviews the physical and biological processes operating along the coast together with the beach and barrier systems.
Keywords
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Boyd R, Ruming K, Goodwin I, Sandstrom M, Schroder-Adams C (2008) Highstand transport of coastal sand to the deep ocean: a case study from Fraser Island, Southeast Australia. Geology 36:15–18
Browning SA, Goodwin ID (2016) Large-scale drivers of Australian east coast cyclones since 1851. J South Hemisphere Earth Syst Sci 66:1250151
Bryant EA, Kidd RW (1975) Beach erosion, May–June, 1974, central and south coast, NSW. Search 6:511–513
Carolin R, Clarke P (1991) Beach plants of South Eastern Australia. Sainty & Associates, Potts Point, 119 p
Chapman DM, Geary M, Roy PS, Thom BG (1982) Coastal evolution and coastal erosion in New South Wales. Coastal Council NSW, Sydney, 341 p
Creese RG, Glasby TM, West G, Gallen C (2009) Mapping the habitats of NSW estuaries. Industry Investment NSW, Fisheries final report series No, 113, 95 p. http://www.ozcoasts.gov.au/geom_geol/nsw/DIIMappingNSWestuaries.pdf
DERM (2011) Queensland coastal processes and climate change. Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence, Department of Environment Resource Management, Brisbane, 49 p
Douglas JC, Ferguson JA (1976) Geology of Victoria, Special publication 5. Geological Society of Victoria, Melbourne
Doyle TB (2018) Foredune morphodynamics in southeast Australia: the roles of humans and vegetation. Ph.D. thesis, School Earth Environmental Science, University of Wollongong, 267 p
Ferland MA, Roy PS (1997) Southeastern Australia: a sea-level dependent, cool-water carbonate margin. In: James NP, Clarke JDA (eds) Cool-water carbonates. SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology, Tulsa, pp 37–52
Foster DN, Gordon AD, Lawson NV (1975) The storms of May–June 1974, Sydney, NSW. Proceedings of 2nd Australian conference on coastal engineering, Gold Coast, Institution of Engineers Australia, pp 1–11
Goodwin ID (2005) A mid-shelf, mean wave direction climatology for southeastern Australia, and its relationship to the El Nino-Southern oscillation since 1878 AD. Int J Climatol 25:1715–1729
Goodwin ID, Stables MA, Olley J (2006) Wave climate, sediment budget and shoreline alignment evolution of the Iluka-Woody Bay sand barrier, northern NSW, Australia, since 3000 yr BP. Mar Geol 226:127–144
Goodwin I, Freeman R, Blackmore K (2013) An insight into headland sand bypassing and wave climate variability from shoreface bathymetric change at Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Mar Geol 341:29–45
Goodwin I, Mortlock T, Browning S (2016) Tropical and extratropical-origin storm wave types and their influence on the East Australian longshore sand transport system under a changing climate. J Geophys Res Oceans. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JC011769
Hanslow DJ, Morris BD, Foulsham E, Kinsela MA (2018) A regional scale approach to assessing current and potential future exposure to tidal inundation in different types of estuaries. Sci Rep, published online. 8:7065. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25410-y
Harley MD, Turner IL, Short AD, Ranasinghe R (2011) A re-evaluation of coastal embayment rotation in SE Australia: the dominance of cross-shore versus alongshore sediment transport processes. J Geophys Res 116:F04033. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JF001989
Harley MD, Turner IL, Kinsela MA, Middleton JH, Mumford PJ, Splinter KD, Phillips MS, Simmons JA, Hanslow DJ, Short AD (2017) Extreme coastal erosion enhanced by anomalous extratropical storm wave direction. Sci Rep. nature.com
Helman P, Tomlinson R (2018) Two centuries of climate change and climate variability, east coast Australia. J Mar Sci Eng 6:3. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse6010003
James NP, Boreen TD, Bone Y, Feary DA (1994) Holocene carbonate sedimentation on the west Eucla Shelf, Great Australian Bight: a shaved shelf. Sediment Geol 90:161–177
Kinsela M, Taylor D, Treloar D, Dent J, Gaber S, Mortlock T, Goodwin I (2014) NSW coastal ocean wave model: investigating spatial and temporal variability in coastal wave climates. In: 23rd NSW coastal conference, Ulladilla, 19 p. http://www.coastalconference.com/project/papers-and-presentations/
Kinsela MA, Daley MJA, Cowell PJ (2016) Origins of Holocene coastal strandplains in Southeast Australia: shoreface sand supply driven by disequilibrium morphology. Mar Geol 374:14–30
Kinsela MA, Morris BAS, Linklater M, Hanslow DJ (2017) Second-pass assessment of potential exposure to shoreline change in New South Wales, Australia, using a sediment compartments framework. J Mar Sci Eng 5:61. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5040061
Kulmar MA (1995) Wave direction distribution off Sydney, New South Wales. In: 12th Australasian conference on coastal and ocean engineering, Melborune, Institution of Engineers Australia, pp 175–182
Lord D, Kulmar M (2000) The 1974 storms revisited: 25 years experience in ocean wave measurements along the south-east Australian coast. In: Proceedings of international coastal engineering conference, Sydney
McLean RF, Thom BG (1975) Beach changes at Moruya 1972–74. Coastal Ocean Engineering, Institution of Engineers Australia, National Conference Publication 72, 2:1–11
Morim J, Cartwright N, Etemad-Shahidi A, Strauss D, Hemer M (2016) Wave energy resource assessment along the southeast coast of Australia on the basis of a 31-year hindcast. Appl Energy 184:276–297
Mortlock T (2016) Impacts of enhanced Central Pacific ENSO on wave climate and headland-bay beach morphology. Cont Shelf Res 120:14025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2016.03.007
Mortlock TR, Goodwin ID (2015) Directional wave climate and power variability along the southeast Australian shelf. Cont Shelf Res 98:36–53
Mortlock TR, Goodwin ID, McAneney JK, Roche K (2016) The June 2016 Australian east coast low: importance of wave direction for coastal erosion assessment Water 9, 121. https://doi.org/10.3390/w9020121
Oliver TSN, Tamura T, Short AD, Woodroffe CD (2017) Changing rates of sand deposition at Pedro Beach, southeastern Australia: implications for compartment-based management. Proceedings NSW Coastal Conference, Port Stephens. http://www.coastalconference.com/papers.php
Patterson DC (2007) Comparison of recorded Brisbane and Byron wave climates and implications for calculation of longshore sand transport in the Region. In: 18th Australasian conference on coastal and ocean engineering, Melbourne, Institution of Engineers Australia
Roy PS (1998) Cainozoic geology of the coast and shelf. In: Scheibner E (1998) Geology of New South Wales, Geological Survey NSW, Sydney, vol 2, pp 361–385
Roy PS, Thom BG (1981) Late quaternary marine deposition in New South Wales and southern Queensland – an evolutionary model. J Geol Soc Australia 28:471–4898
Roy PS, Cowell PJ, Ferland MA, Thom BG (1995) Wave-dominated coasts. In: Carter RWG, Woodroffe CD (eds) Coastal evolution: late quaternary shoreline morphodynamics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 121–186
Shand TD, Goodwin ID, Mole MA, Carley JT, Browning S, Coghlan IR, Harley MD, Pierson WL, Kulmar MA (2010) NSW coastal storms and extreme waves. 19th NSW Coastal conference, Batemans Bay, 14 p. http://www.coastalconference.com/2010/papers2010/Tom%20Shand%20full%20paper.pdf
Short AD (1996) Beaches of the Victorian coast and Port Phillip Bay. Sydney University Press, Sydney, 298 p
Short AD (2000) Beaches of the Queensland coast: Cooktown to Coolangatta. Sydney University Press, Sydney, 360 p
Short AD (2006) Beaches of the Tasmanian coast and islands. Sydney University Press, Sydney, 353 p
Short AD (2007) Beaches of the New South Wales coast, 2nd edn. Sydney University Press, Sydney, 398 p
Short AD (2010) Sediment transport around Australia – sources, mechanisms, rates and barrier forms. J Coast Res 26:395–402
Short AD, Masselink G (1999) Embayed and structurally controlled beaches. In: Short AD (ed) Beach and shoreface morphodynamics. Wiley, Chichester, pp 230–250
Short AD, Trembanis A (2004) Decadal scale patterns in beach oscillation and rotation Narrabeen Beach, Australia- time series, PCA and wavelet analysis. J Coast Res 20:523–532
Short AD, Trenaman NL (1992) Wave climate of the Sydney region: an energetic and highly variable ocean wave regime. Aust J Mar Freshwat Res 43:765–791
Short AD, Woodroffe CD (2009) The coast of Australia. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 288 p
Short AD, Bracs MA, Turner IL (2014) Beach oscillation and rotation: local and regional response at three beaches in southeast Australia. J Coast Res 70:712–717
Thom BG (1974) Coastal erosion in eastern Australia. Search 5:198–209
Thom BG, Keene JB, Cowell PJ, Daley M (2011) East Australian marine abrasion surface. In: Bishop P, Pillans B (eds) Australian landscapes, Special Publication 346. Geological Society, London, pp 57–69
Veevers JJ (ed) (2000) Billion-year earth history of Australia and neighbours in Gondwanaland. Gemoc Press, Sydney, 388 p
Veevers JJ (2015) Beach sand of SE Australia traced by zircon ages through Ordovician turbidites and S-type granites of the Lachlan Orogen to Africa/Antarctica: a review. Austr J Earth Sci 62:385–408
West RJ, Thorogood CA, Walford TR, Williams RJ (1984) Mangrove distribution in New South Wales. J Coast Wetland Soc 4:2–6
You ZJ, Lord D (2005) Influence of the El Nino southern oscillation on storm severity along the NSW coast. In: 17th Australasian conference on coastal and ocean engineering, Adelaide, Institution of Engineers Australia, pp 389–392
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Short, A.D. (2020). Southeast Division. In: Australian Coastal Systems. Coastal Research Library, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14294-0_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14294-0_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14293-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14294-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)