Geological Sites of Eurobodalla

Introduction

Our 4.6 billion year-old planet has the most fantastic story to tell, and a part of that story is right here in Eurobodalla. It’s been said ‘if only these walls could talk,’ well the rock-walls and cliffs along this beautiful coastline, and inland in the great dividing range, are full of chatter, of ice ages and sea level rises; ancient continents; volcanic eruptions; early life forms and inland seas.

This world-class gallery of amazing formations and folds of sandstone, siltstone, shale, granite and basalt along Eurobodalla’s coast in some places date back as far as 510 million years, while the coastline itself was shaped around 90 to 70 million years ago when the Lord Howe Rise rifted away from what is now the south-east coast. In recent times geologically speaking, that is over the last two to three million years, there has been extensive variation in the sea-level along the east coast relating to northern hemisphere glacial periods.

From the stunning sandstone in the north at the edge of the Sydney Basin at Durras, to the dramatic chert and mudstone rocks, with their angular faults and folds, that arise out of the sea at Mystery Bay, with Montague Island a backdrop and the unpredictable Tasman Sea lapping insistently at your heels, a trip along Eurobodalla’s coast and into the mountain wilderness is a journey through time you’ll never forget.

Many thanks to Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University Of Wollongong, Chris Fergusson; to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Narooma branch and to the Geological Society of Australia, for cooperation and help with this project.

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