Territory Stories

Report on the Land Units of the Coastal Plains

Details:

Title

Report on the Land Units of the Coastal Plains

Other title

Soils of the coastal plains, Northern Territory, Australia.

Creator

Land Conservation Section

Collection

E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT

Date

1970

Location

Coastal Plains of the Northern Territory.; Soils report

Description

These reports describes the land resource mapping over the Northern Territory coastal plains region. The surveyed area was mapped at a scale of 1:50,000. The mapped land units are described using the dominate soils, topography and vegetation. The potential land use and limitations for each land unit are also briefly described.

Notes

There are three different reports attached to this record: Report on the land units of the coastal plains / K.J.Day; Soils of the coastal plains, Northern Territory, Australia / A.D.L. Hooper; and Soils report (coastal plains survey 1968,69,70 / K.J. Day

Language

English

Subject

Coastal ecology - Northern Territory; Land Unit mapping; Coastal Plains

Publisher name

Animal Industry and Agriculture Branch, Northern Territory Administration

Place of publication

Darwin, N. T.

Format

3 volumes, various pagings.

File type

application/pdf

Use

Copyright

Copyright owner

Animal Industry and Agriculture Branch, Northern Territory Administration

License

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/257991

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/506887

Related items

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/506884; https://hdl.handle.net/10070/506885

Page content

8. (ii) Inland environment.- Runoff and sub surface drainage accumulates near the margin of the Kosher land system and in wide inland embayments of the plains. Standing water may be 3-4 feet deep in sedge and paperbark swamps and considerable areas are permanently inundated. Drainage channels are mostly ill defined and are not connected to the present river and channel system. Layer sequences are less uniform than in the riverine environment and vary with_ distance from the Kosher land system. Salt contents are low near the margin but increase to high levels further out in the Cyperus and Copeman land systems. Chloride contents are, however, less than 50fo of the total salts, reaction is mainly acid and gypsum is the only precipitated salt observed. The Aq layers of the Murrabibbi series (Fig. 1 .B) rapidly thicken to form the Abq and Ab layers of the Couna moul series. L and JYT layers common to these two soil series indicate the former extent of the sandy lowlands in which Lb and Lg are normally leached thin surface layers. The Oouna moul E phase is distinguished by an Ad layer and by the coming of a lens of an Ey layer. Salt contents increase sharply in each layer of this soil. Ground water salinity also rises and permeabilities in both the L and M layer show a marked decrease at this point. The major area of the inland embayments (which may be more than 3 miles across) is characterised by a sequence of A - E - F layers. A layers are of two sub types, the Ag and Ad layers forming a distinguishing feature between the Cairncurry series and the Wildman F phase soils respectively. Er layers which may also underlie Ag layers and contain thin (6-12 inches) lenses rich in gypsum show bright yellow and red mottles due to the oxidation of iron sulphides and reaction is characteristically acid. The Wildman F phase soils are