Land Degradation in South West Victoria

A Study of the Land in South-Western Victoria was prepared by Frank Gibbons and Geoff Downes of the Soil Conservation Authority in 1964.

Different types of land degradation were found to have occurred in various land system components and these can be viewed in the original scanned document together with an outline of environmental characteristics (Gibbons and Downes, 1964). A general discussion of the incidence and processes involved the land systems is located in the section on `Present Condition of the Land` (pp. 95-98).

A summary of these types of degradation for each land system is presented in the following table.

Summary of Land Degradation in south-western Victoria as reported by Gibbons and Downes (1964).

Land System	Main Forms of Land Degradation
Discovery Bay	Wind erosion
Long Swamp	Wind erosion
Nelson Bridgewater sub-system Kentbruck sub-system William sub-system Follet/Nelson Moleside sub-system	Wind erosion Wind erosion Wind erosion Wind erosion
Strathdownie	None to very low
Heywood Heywood sub-system Dunmore sub-system Fitzroy sub-system Margaret Rose sub-system Codrington sub-system	None to slight
Follett Tooloy sub-system Malanganee sub-system Wanwin sub-system Kanawinka Richmond sub-system Kentbruck Heath sub-system Kanawinka sub-system	None to low None to low, slight water erosion
Dundas Brim Brim sub-system Dundas sub-system Winyayung sub-system	Sheet and gully erosion, salting Sheet erosion, salting Sheet and gully erosion
Glenelg Stapylton sub-system Dergholm sub-system	Sheet, rill, gully and streambank erosion, siltation, earthflows, salting
Casterton	Sheet, gully and streambank erosion, sand deposition, siltation, earthflows, slumping, solifluction
Hamilton Hamilton sub-system Monivae sub-system	Loss of surface soil structure, surface sealing, sheet and gully erosion, salting
Branxholme	Sheet and gully erosion, slumping, siltation, salting
Dunkeld	Sheet erosion, salting
Girringurrup	Sheet erosion
Eccles	None
Condah Swamp	Flooding, possible siltation, loss by humification and burning after drainage, possible incipient salting eventually
Cobbobboonee Cobbobboonee sub-system Gorae sub-system Portland sub-system	Roadside erosion of krasnozems on steeper slopes
Greenwald Crawford sub-system Springbourne sub-system	Sheet, roadside and gully erosion, siltation, salting, earthflows
Drumborg	Sheet erosion, gully erosion especially along roadsides
Lowan	Gully erosion
Grampians	Gully erosion
Condah

Reference

Gibbons, F.R. and Downes, R.G. (1964) `A study of the land in south-western Victoria'. Soil Conservation Authority of Victoria Technical Communication No. 3. (Government Printer: Melbourne).