Coastal dunes (Symbol: cd)

Geology
Recent aeolian sediments

Landform
Longitudinal dunefield parallel to the coastline.


Coastal dunes near the Snowy River mouth, Marlo

Previous maps and reports
This map unit was mapped as Booran 1 Land System by Aldrick et al. (1992). In the previous reports on ‘Major Agricultural Soils of West Gippsland’ by Sargeant and Imhof (2000), all of the dunes fronting the coast are grouped under coastal dunes.

Native vegetation
Coastal dune scrub/coastal dune grassland mosaic.

Soils
All of the soils are sands and variations in surface colour are mainly due to differences in organic matter content. The subsoil sands generally range in colour from pale brownish grey to brownish yellow and occasionally light reddish brown. Although the surface soils are generally non-calcareous and neutral to slightly acidic, the subsoils are always moderately to strongly alkaline and frequently highly calcareous.

This map unit is intrinsically unstable, with youthful, often mobile, unconsolidated materials and droughty soils susceptible to wind erosion and loss of nutrients through leaching.