83 White Cliffs - Soil Pipes

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.

Location	087510. Cliffed headland 1 km west of the Rye Jetty.	Site 83, White Cliffs
Access	Nepean Highway. Parking area opposite White Cliffs Road.
Ownership/Managing Authority	Crown land, Shire of Flinders.
Site Description	These are high calcarenite cliffs at the end of a ridge of dune calcarenite, and were at one time probably a cliff stack isolated from the main body of calcarenite of the Nepean Peninsula. They show cavernous weathering and deflation hollows in the upper layers, and there are some striking exposures of red-brown soil pipes filling solution cavities in the upper calcrete bed. This bed is bleached, hard calcarenite and lies between beds of different texture and colour.
Significance	Regional. This is the best display of soil pipes and complex calcrete development on the Port Phillip Bay coast of the Nepean Peninsula. The outcrop is the most northerly coastal exposure of calcrete in the Bay and marks the geological beginning of the Nepean Peninsula, which is composed almost entirely of this dune rock.
Management Considerations	Class 2. The site is an important and accessible teaching site to show weathering modification of the calcarenite beds. The upper horizons should not be covered or reclaimed but left as geological exposures.

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