2-10 Cliff top dunes - Cape Bridgewater and Cape Duquesne

This information has been developed from the publications:

An assessment of the Geological/Geomorphological Significance of Private Land in the Shire of Portland (1981) by N. Rosengren, J Mallen, T Shepherd.

Geological heritage sites, including sites of geomorphological interest and volcanic heritage sites, are under regular revision by the Geological Society of Australia, especially in the assessment of significance and values. Reference should be made to the most recent reports. See the Earth Science Heritage section of the Geological Society of Australia website (external link) for details of geological heritage reports, and a bibliography.

Locality:	7121-345536. Four kilometres south-east of Bridgewater.
Access:	Cape Bridgewater Road.
Ownership:	Mainly private land with a small strip of Crown Land Reserve along the coast.
Geomorphology:	Cape Bridgewater is a basalt peninsula overlain by dunes of the Bridgewater Formation. The contact is well exposed in cliffs on the western shore line. The northern part of the peninsula is largely covered by a well-defined set of stabilised parabolic dune ridges oriented east-west. The entire dune system consists of a nested series of tapering or converging ridges. Unlike the Cape Nelson dunes, the Bridgewater dunes are mostly stabilised. The areas displaying large rhizo-concretions ("petrified forest") are located almost entirely on public land adjacent to this site.
Significance:	State. The site comprises one of the best cliff top dune sequences in Victoria. The contact between the dunes and the older underlying sands and volcanics is particularly well-displayed north of the "Petrified Forest".
Management:	Large-scale extractive industries or construction work should be prohibited as these would ultimately destroy the major dune ridge patterns and could lead to further mobilisation of the dunes.

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