The Victorian naturalist . old outlet from Port Phillip Bay nearGunnamatta Beach: it was simply adepression between the older and theyounger dune topography of theNepean Peninsula. The extent of active, mobile duneson the Nepean Peninsula at thepresent time is due, at least in part,to the impact of mans the present relatively mild andhumid climate, one would expect thedune topography here to have becomestable beneath a natural vegetationmantle, the only blowouts and spiUingdunes being those immediately atoperoding ocean cliffs. It is possible thatthe natural vegetation was wea
The Victorian naturalist . old outlet from Port Phillip Bay nearGunnamatta Beach: it was simply adepression between the older and theyounger dune topography of theNepean Peninsula. The extent of active, mobile duneson the Nepean Peninsula at thepresent time is due, at least in part,to the impact of mans the present relatively mild andhumid climate, one would expect thedune topography here to have becomestable beneath a natural vegetationmantle, the only blowouts and spiUingdunes being those immediately atoperoding ocean cliffs. It is possible thatthe natural vegetation was weakenedby the effects of fires set by theAborigines, whose ancient kitchen-middens are found at various pointsalong the shore, for example on thecHffs near Jubilee Point, west of Dia-mond Bay. These middens originatedas feasting sites, where shellfish col-lected from adjacent shores werecooked and eaten. They persist aslayers or mounds of broken shellwaste, mixed with charcoal from the Plate 4 Stable dunelandscape July, 1975 139 fire. It is likely that man-made bush-fires resulted from these activities,and that dune instabihty ensued. The impact of modern man hasbeen more severe. Much of thenatural vegetation (evidently she-oakwoodland with a seaward fringe oftea-tree scrub, similar to that on theYanakie Isthmus, near WilsonsPromontory, at the present time) wascleared, burned, and modified bygrazing; introduced animals includedsheep, cattle, horses and 1839, limeburners cut areas ofwoodland to provide the fuel for thekilns in which they burned the locally-quarried limestone. In the eighteen-fifties there were sheep and cattle onthe pastoral holdings of Tootgarook,Boneo and Cape Schanck, and muchof the extensive dune erosion nearGunnamatta Beach probably datesfrom this phase. By the turn of thecentury, holidaymakers were visitingSorrento and Portsea, and the tramp-ling of dune vegetation increased. Lat-terly, motor vehicles, including trailbikes and dune
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