Bellbrae Land System

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Below the lateritized plateaux to the east of the Otway Range lie a series of rolling hills have formed by dissection along the valleys of Spring Creek and Jan Juc Creek. Weathering of limestone and marl exposed along these valleys has resulted in calcareous soils. Fertility is moderate, and thus contrasts with the surrounding impoverished soils of the lateritic plateaux and acid sands and clays.

The red soils, or those deeper profiles transitional to the red soils, are the most favoured for agriculture and are used or cropping as well as dairy-farming. Grazing of sheet and beef cattle is also common. Agricultural use is decreasing, however, as the township of Torquay extends its urban limits. Subdivision int small farmlets in other parts of the valleys also tends to decrease agricultural production.

Sheet erosion occurs on some of the cropped steeper slopes, while gully erosion and slumping are problems of the dispersible duplex soils.

A Study of land in the catchments of the Otway Range and adjacent plains - bellbrae

Wide drainage lines and rounded hills typify this landscape,
as it rises to the lateritic plateau in the distance

Area: 25 km²	Component and its proportion of land system
Area: 25 km²	1 25%	2 40%	3 20%	4 15%
CLIMATE Rainfall, mm	Annual: 600 – 650, lowest January (30), highest August (65)
Temperature, 0^oC	Annual: 14, lowest July (10), highest February (18)
	Temperature: less than 10^oC (av.) July
	Precipitation: less than potential evapotranspiration early October – early April
GEOLOGY Age, lithology	Miocene limestone and marl
TOPOGRAPHY Landscape	Rolling hills dissected out below the lateritic plateaux
Elevation, m	5 – 70
Local relief, m	60
Drainage pattern	Dendritic
Drainage density, km/km²	3.0
Land form	Hill
Land form element	Upper slope	Middle slope	Steeper slope	Lower slope, drainage
Slope (and range), %	5 (3-9)	11 (5-14)	15 (7-20)	7 (1-9)
Slope shape	Linear	Linear	Convex	Concave
NATIVE VEGETATION Structure	Open forest	Open forest	Open forest	Open forest
Dominant species	E. viminalis, E. sideroxylon, E. obliqua	E. leucoxylon. E. sideroxylon, E. viminalis	E. viminalis, E. ovata, Acacia melanoxylon	E. viminalis, E. sideroxylon, E. leucoxylon, E. ovata
SOIL Parent material	Truncated lateritic remnants	Calcareous clay and deeply weathered limestone	Limestone	Colluvial limestone, clay, lateritic material
Description	Brown duplex soils, coarse structure	Yellow-brown calcareous sodic duplex soils, coarse structure	Red calcareous gradational soils	Yellow sodic duplex soils
Surface texture	Fine sandy loam	Fine sandy loam	Fine sandy clay loam	Loamy sand
Permeability	Low	Moderate	High	Moderate
Depth, m	>2	>2	0.7	>2
LAND USE	Cleared areas: Dairy farming; beef cattle grazing; residential; cropping Minor uncleared areas: Forest grazing; active and passive recreation; hardwood forestry for fuel, posts and poles
SOIL DETERIORATION HAZARD Critical land features, processes, forms	Dispersible subsoils receiving seepage water are prone to gully erosion, slumping and rilling.	Highly dispersible subsoils are prone to gully erosion and slumping.	Steeper slopes are prone to sheet erosion.	Highly dispersible subsoils are prone to gully erosion and tunnel erosion.

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