The Origin of Foredunes on the Coast of Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Foredunes are ridges of wind-deposited sand built at the back of a beach, whereas beach ridges are wave-built features (berms that persist). Evidence of the initiation of foredunes has been obtained from successively surveyed transverse beach profiles at points along the Victorian coastline. Some have formed where wave-built beach ridges became colonised by strandline vegetation that trapped wind-blown sand: others were initiated when the seaward margins of backshore sand terraces or hummocky dune topography were cut back by storm waves. Sand-trapping vegetation may germinate in zones of seed-bearing strand litter on a beach, but these are usually deposited on, or as part of, a wave-built beach ridge.