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Quaternary alluvial and colluvial sediments infill major river valleys and form alluvial fans and colluvium-filled bedrock depressions on the range fronts and within the Mount Lofty Ranges of south...

The last interglacial maximum (Marine Isotope Substage 5e [MIS 5e], 128–116 ka) is a distinctive event in recent Earth history. Shoreline successions of this age are important for calibrating climate models and defining the overall behaviour of the crust–mantle system to fluctuating ice and ocean-water volumes. In a global context, the recently intensified interest in last interglacial shoreline successions has revealed considerable variability in the magnitude of sea-level rise during this time interval and highlighted the need to examine paleosea-level evidence from tectonically stable, far-field settings. Situated in the far-field of continental ice sheets and on the tectonically stable Gawler Craton, the 300 km coastal sector of western Eyre Peninsula between Fowlers Bay and Lake Newland in southern Australia represents an important region for defining the glacio-eustatic (ice-equivalent) sea-level attained during the last interglacial maximum based on the relative sea-level observations from ...

Benthic foraminifera are abundant in surficial sediment of Gulf St Vincent and the distribution of many species is related to water depth. For example, Nubecularia lucifuga is most abundant in shallow northern waters while Ammobaculites reophaciformis is more common in deeper southern parts of the gulf. Elphidium crispum, a shallow‐water species, and E. macelliforme, favouring deeper water, provide a useful numerical ratio. Their logarithmic relative abundance in the sediment size fraction 0.50–0.25 mm correlates closely with water depth, particularly for southern Gulf St Vincent. Vibrocore SV23 recovered an undisturbed section of Quaternary strata from one of the deepest parts (40 m) of the gulf. Late Pleistocene sediment (oxygen isotope stage 3) was in turn overlain by rapidly deposited lacustrine and restricted marginal marine sediment before development of more open Holocene marine conditions. Using the Elphidium ratios and other supporting foraminiferal data on a framework of 14C dates, a palaeosea‐l...