Bittern Sand

Symbol: Bis

Geology - Tertiary period sediments.

Landform - Gently undulating rises. The original late Tertiary land surface is now weakly dissected and the present landscape consists of gently undulating rises to gently undulating plains with slopes generally less than 3 %.

Soils

These soils are similar to Toomuc sandy loam, but are arbitrarily separated from them on the basis of their landscape position. Toomuc sandy loam occurs lower in the landscape and is generally associated with low to very low dunes with Cranbourne sand.

The surface soils of Bittern sand are grey or dark grey loamy sands or sandy loams about 250 mm deep, overlying a bleached layer of similar texture. Nodules of iron oxide are common at the bottom of this layer. Mottled light grey and yellowish brown medium clays or sandy clays occur from about 700 mm and continue to at least 1500 mm depth. Red mottling generally occurs in the deep subsoil.

Typical profile of Bittern Sand

0 - 250 mm. Grey or dark brownish grey sandy loam to loamy sand. Clear transition to: 250 - 700 mm. Pale grey to pale brownish grey sandy loam to loamy sand. Concretions of ironstone gravel are common at the bottom of this layer. Sharp transition to: 700 mm - 1.4 m. Mottled light grey, yellowish brown and red light or medium clay generally becoming medium to sandy clay by about 1 m.