Geomorphology of a dryland fluvial system: the Lower Balonne River, southern Queensland

The floodplain of the Lower Balonne River is in the upper reaches of the Murray–Darling Basin. The region has been extensively developed for agriculture, in particular irrigated cotton, and is highly productive. Multidisciplinary investigations to inform land management generated extensive sets of remotely sensed data including Landsat TM, airborne gamma-ray radiometrics, aerial photography, ASTER imagery and digital elevation models. These datasets provided the basis for regolith and geomorphic mapping. The wealth of data has allowed characterisation of the Lower Balonne River system, which is typical of many of the dryland rivers of southern Queensland. The geomorphic map of the Lower Balonne floodplain has eight major units based on landform and geomorphic processes. Bedrock consists of the slightly deformed and extensively weathered marine Cretaceous Griman Creek Formation. Coincident with erosion and weathering, Paleogene quartz gravels were deposited and are now extensively cemented and preserved as...