ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines the structural setting of the Melbourne area concentrates on large-scale structural features with engineering significance. It deals with rocks of Palaeozoic and Tertiary age, since these underlie the majority of ground engineering sites in the Melbourne area. Within the Melbourne metropolitan area, the average wavelength of the folds is just over a kilometre. The direction of pitch of the folds is generally towards the south over much of the study area, but near the southern margin of the Melbourne zone the pitch is towards the north. Bassian Zone is bounded on the northeast by the Melbourne Warp, a broad gentle flexure which parallels and lies slightly east of the Dandenong to South Yarra railway and then continues through South Melbourne and Essendon. Within the study area, the two major faults closest to the Melbourne Metropolitan Area are the Rowsley Fault to the west and the Selwyn Fault to the east and both are seismically active.