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87 Observatory Point - Cuspate Foreland

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 for details of geological heritage reports, and a bibliography.

Location970575. 3 km west of Portsea.
Image: Sites of Significance Port Phillip Bay
Site 87, Observatory Point (A), viewed eastward toward Point Nepean and The Rip. The zone of accretionary ridges is shown by the arrows
AccessNepean Highway.
Ownership/Managing AuthorityCrown land (Commonwealth Department of Defence, Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands).

Site Description
Observatory Point is the outer edge of a broad rounded foreland built of a succession of parallel sandy ridges. A long history of progradation is evident at the site with the foreland having been built forward several hundred metres in front of a former low cliffed shoreline cut into the Pleistocene dune calcarenite. On the western side of the point, these ridges are undergoing minor erosion but new, low ridges are being built on the eastern side.

Significance
State. The site is one of very few localities on the coast of Port Phillip Bay to show sustained sandy accretion. It contains the least disturbed sequence of sandy ridges and associated vegetation in the bay and comprises one of the best such localities on the coast of Victoria. It is an important site to determine sand budgets and former depositional sequences as well as providing opportunity to monitor morphological and vegetative development of sand ridges. Observatory Point is the eastern Port Phillip Bay equivalent of Swan Island, and indicates the sedimentation regime related to the tidal and wave movement of sand through Port Phillip Heads.

Management Considerations
Class 1. Minimal disturbance of the site is recommended, including the maintenance of the vegetation of the developing ridges. Visitor facilities and car access should be restricted to the far western edge of the site.

References
Bird, E.C.F. (1980)

Image: Sites of Significance Port Phillip Bay
 Site 87, Accretionary ridges on the eastern
side of Observatory Point
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