Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

This is a small volcanic lakeon the Atherton Tableland of northeastern Queensland. Until about n78,000 BP there were rainforest conifers, mostly Araucaria and Podocarpus that increased during cooler, drier periods, while in the interglacials angiosperms predominated (Kershaw, 1986; Moss & Kershaw, 2000). Sclerophyll forests of mixed eucalypt and acacia replaced the rainforests at about 46,000 BP, the speed of change increasing between 40,000 and 35,000 BP (Turney et al., 2001). Immediately prior to the LGM there was an increase in Poaceae,, indicating increasing swamp grass as the water level of the lake dropped. The Poaceae declined at the LGM, indicating the lake may have dried completely. Prior to 46,000 BP charcoal was practically absent from the record, but there was a sharp rise of charcoal at 46,000 BP (Turney et al., 2001).

• The Moist Tropics
• Southeastern Australia
• The Arid Zone
• The Carpentaria Plain - New Lands
• The Bassian Plain

Sites where pollen has been recovered in cores

• Banda Sea
• Lombok Ridge
• Site GC17, off Western Australia
• ODP820, marine sediment core 45 km off Cairns
• Lynchs Crater, Atherton Tablelands (Kershaw et a., 1993; Moss & Kershaw, 2000)
• Old Lake Coomboo, Fraser Island
• Cuddie Springs, New South Wales
• Lake George
• Lake Wangoom
• Site E55-6
• Wyelangta
• Egg Lagoon
• Lake Selina, Tasmanis
• Darwin Crater, Tasmania

Sources & Further reading

1. Mary E. White, The Greening of Gondwana, the 400 Million Year story of Australian Plants, Reed, 1994
2. Chris Johnson, Australia's Mammal Extinctions, a 50,000 year history, Cambridge University Press, 2006