3.3.1 Dissected low hills plateaux of the Southern Uplands

The uplifted block of the Bellarine Peninsula forms a very weakly dissected undulating plain of low elevation (less than 150 m). Drainage from the remnant basalts of the Palaeogene Older Volcanics forms a vaguely radial pattern on the elevated plateau. A narrow strip of deeply weathered Cretaceous Otway Group rocks occurs in outcrop along the southern edge of the Curlewis Monocline, which forms the northern boundary of the peninsula. Landslides and narrow gullies have formed along the northern edge of the monocline. A sheet of marine sands of Late Neogene age covers the southern portion of the uplifted Bellarine block.

East of Colac the Pliocene sand has been uplifted along the Colac Monocline to form a gently undulating plateau fringing the southern edge of the volcanic plain and the north western edge of the Otway Ranges. The plateau had been dissected by the tributaries to the Barwon River south of Birregurra to Whoorel. Further south, this unit is transitional to the rolling hills geomorphic unit (3.3.2). Soil types include mottled (and occasionally sodic) texture contrast soils on the Neogene sediments and black self-mulching soils on the Palaeogene Older Volcanics.