LOCATION: YARRA 5000/04.09 E209500 N21650

Left bank of Merri Creek between 50 and 100 m south of the footbridge (2nd footbridge south of Carr Street). The site is a cliff above Coburg Lake.

ACCESS: Carr Street, De Chene Reserve. The site is not directly accessible but may be viewed from the southern side of Coburg Lake.

OWNERSHIP & MUNICIPALITY: Public Land, City of Coburg, Lake Reserve.

SITE DESCRIPTION: The site exposes a contact between Melbourne Formation sediments and the overlying Newer Volcanics basalt. Between the two formations is a buried clayey soil. Beneath the basalt, the surface of the Silurian rocks dips towards the west indicating this to be one side of a pre-basaltic valley now filled with lava.

SIGNIFICANCE RATING: LOCAL

The site is an example of the contact between basalt and Silurian rocks and is a clear example of the ancestral valley of the Merri Creek now filled with lava. The site however is very overgrown and very little of the contact can be seen.

SITE SENSITIVITY, THREATS, POTENTIAL UTILISATION

CLASS 2. The site is inaccessible due to the steep and overgrown bank of Coburg Lake. To increase the geological utility of the site, extensive vegetation removal would be required.

REFERENCES:

Schleiger, N. W. 1988, Coburg, in Clark, I., Cook B. & Cochrane, G.C. (eds.) Victorian Geology Excursion Guide, Aust. Acad. Sci., Canberra.

Photograph 28. Overgrown bank obscures the unconformity between Basalt and Silurian at Site 18 (Photo by Neville Rosengren approx 1993).