Your gateway to a wide range of natural resources information and associated maps

Victorian Resources Online

8. Bunyip Gap - Wind Gap

This information has been developed from one or more of these publications:

  • Sites of Geological and Geomorphological Significance in the Westernport Bay Catchment (1984) by Neville Rosengren.
  • Sites of Geological and Geomorphological Significance in the Western Region of Melbourne (1986) by Neville Rosengren
  • Sites of Geological and Geomorphological Significance on the Coast of Port Phillip Bay (1988) by Neville Rosengren.
  • Sites of Environmental Significance in the Flood Plain of the Upper Yarra Valley Region (1983) by Neville Rosengren, Douglas Frood and Kim Lowe (as part of a study of Sites of Environmental Significance by the University of Melbourne for the then Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Authority).
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 (external link) section of the Geological Society of Australia website for details of geological heritage reports, and a bibliography.

Location:Spion Kopje – 933002. Fifteen kilometres west of Neerim.
Image: Sites of Significance Westernport Bay
Bunyip Gap (A), Tarago River (B), Tin Creek (C)

Access:

Bunyip Road and Forest Road.

Ownership:

Crown Land.

Geology/Geomorphology:

The site is a low wind gap between Tin Creek, a tributary of the Bunyip River, and the Tarago River. The streams are on a similar alignment and probably follow a major joint system in the granite bedrock. The gap is an example of an incipient stream capture site as the stream channels are separated vertically by less than 30 metres. The gradient of Tin Creek is 1 in 9 compared with 1 in 28 for the Tarago River, so that a breaching of the divide would result in diversion of part of the Upper Tarago into the Bunyip stream system.

Significance:

Regional. The Bunyip gap is a prominent topographic feature and displays an unusually obvious example of incipient stream capture.

Management:

Class 3. The time scale for channel and valley change here in the order of thousands of years and changes in land use at this site will not seriously reduce its significance.

8 Bunyip Gap - Wind Gap
Bunyip Gap
Page top