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194. Cunningham Bay - Jessie Island

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 section of the Geological Society of Australia website (external link) for details of geological heritage reports, and a bibliography.


Location:
Pyramid Rock – 463362 to 456350. Coastal area extending approximately 2 km south of The Gap.
Image: Sites of Significance Westernport Bay
Undercut active cliff in Older Volcanics tuff, Cunningham Bay, Site 194

Access:
The Gap Road.

Ownership:
Crown land

Geology/Geomorphology:
The coastal cliffs here are formed in an unusual array of volcanic materials and include red and purple and brown tuffs and agglomerates. In places a cliff base notch has developed in these materials and large irregular blocks fall from the overhang. The cliff base frequently has a sloping platform with a veneer of gravels including numerous pebbles of granite. A small dyke, excellent examples of corestone formation and terraces 3 to 4 m above high water mark add to the significance of the site. Jessie Island is a large rock stack of tuff with a basalt base. 600 m to the south-west, a headland with a basement of hard basalt overlain by tuff that dips landward is in the process of being isolated to form a cliff stack.

Significance:
Regional. The site includes unusual coastal forms, such as the notched cliffs, and a range of colour and weathering patterns in the tuff beds of the Older Volcanics not recorded elsewhere in the study area. The developed and the incipient cliff stack make interesting contrasts in rates of shoreline change.

Management:
Class 3. Construction of shore protection works is not needed or warranted as these would obscure significant features. Any construction or roadworks on adjacent private land that would generate waste materials on the area of the site should be prohibited.

Image: Sites of Significance Westernport Bay
 Small headland in the process of being
isolated (arrowed) to from a cliff stack south
of Jessie Island, Site 194
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