8 Deep sands and sand over clay on older dunes and reworked sediments on Quaternary aeolian sediments

These soils occur on the Bellarine Peninsula south of Portarlington as well as other coastal and inland locations.

These soils have a dark weakly structured sandy loam surface soil (10–20 cm) overlying a bleached apedal (unconsolidated) sand or loamy sand (to 30–60+ cm) abruptly overlying a coarse strongly structured red and yellow mottled medium clay grading into a mottled sandy clay (to 100 cm) and then into a clayey fine sand (to 150+ cm). Occasionally, a thin dark structured light clay may lie between the bleached subsurface horizon and the mottled medium clay, forming a weak organic argillic (clay) pan. The surface and subsurface horizons are strongly acidic with greater alkalinity with depth; the underlying clayey fine sand sediments being slightly alkaline (pH 7.7). The sand depth may be greater than 150 cm in many instances (i.e. dune crests).

Notable characteristics include: texture and consistency contrast, weak consistence of upper sandy soil, binding ability of surface soil organic matter, clay accumulation/pans at depth over older sediments, and strongly acidic sands over alkaline clayey sands.

Soil Sites

Site Code	Soil-landform unit	Component	ASC	FK	1:100 000 mapsheet
CLRA5	82	Lower dune slope	Eutrophic, Mottled-Subnatric, Yellow Sodosol	Dy5.41	T7821 - Sorrento
CLRA25	209	Mid slope	Mottled, ?, Red Chromosol, Podosol	Dr5.12	T7821 - Sorrento
OTR500	317	Mid slope	Acidic, Regolithic, Bleached-leptic Tenosol	Uc/Dy5.41	T7721 - Geelong
OTR608	74	-	Melacic, Humic/alsilic, Semiaquic, Podosol	Uc4.0	T7520 - Princetown
OTR737	76	-	Melacic-mottled, Petroferric, Brown Kandosol	Em5.42/Dy3.11	T7620 - Otway
OTR739	60	Upper slope	Melacic-parapanic, Humic/sesquic, Aquic Podosol	Uc4.0	T7520 - Princetown
OTR740	74	Mid slope	Fragic, subnatric, Aeric Podosol	Uc5.11	T7520 - Princetown