ABSTRACT
Quaternary sand deposits of marine, aeolian or fluviatile origin cover an extensive area in the Port Phillip Bay coastal region and extend eastward towards the Cranbourne-Lang Lang and Grantville areas. The Port Melbourne Sand forms the uppermost beds of Quaternary Yarra Delta sediments and consists of well bedded, in parts cross-bedded, moderately silty to moderately clayey fine to medium sand. A series of low lying sand ridges run northwesterly parallel to the present coast line from Brighton to the north of the Beaumaris Monocline, and extend inland almost to the line of the Melbourne Warp. An extensive system of sand ridges and dunes occurs as a coastal strip between Cheltenham and Frankston. Cranbourne-Langwarrin dune sands overlie the Tertiary Older Volcanics, the Baxter Sandstone and Silurian shale and sandstone. The sand typically is fine-grained, well sorted yellow quartz with fineness modulus between 1.0 and 2.0, and contains very minor amount of heavy minerals.
