St Leonards is a coastal township near Geelong, Victoria, at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula and the northern end of Swan Bay. It is Situated 33 kilometres east of Geelong.
The town is surrounded by salt marsh wildlife reserves which provide habitat for hundreds of birds, including the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot of which there are less than 200 in the wild. Salt marshes are one of the most biologically productive habitats on the planet, rivalling tropical rainforests.
This site is a large, often dry, coastal lagoon with a clay/salt floor. There is a main southern basin connected by a narrow channel to a smaller northern extension. To the west and south there is a well-defined, generally continuous bluff that appears to mark the shoreline of a former marine embayment. Relict beaches, spits and islands occur in both basins. There is no obvious former tideway to connect the lagoon to Port Phillip Bay, but there are two sites where such a connection seems likely. One is at the southeastern edge of the lagoon where there is a low sandy ridge only 40 m wide separating the lagoon from the bay, and the other is a marshy area north of Dossetor Road.
The site is the only such feature on the coast of Port Phillip Bay to retain many recognizable elements of a former marine embayment now isolated by coastal deposition. The extent and age of marine influence on the site is unknown, and there is no information about its geomorphological evolution. It is an important site in determining the history of sedimentation on the southeastern coast of Port Phillip Bay and comprises a suitable research site.
Clay
Clay is a fine-grained natural rock or soil material that combines one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Clays are plastic due to their water content and become hard, brittle and non–plastic upon drying or firing. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure. Depending on the content of the soil, clay can appear in various colors, from white to dull gray or brown to a deep orange-red.
Q1 Describe the colours and the texture of the salt/clay lagoon.
Q2 Is there an obvious former tideway to connect the lagoon to Port Phillip Bay? (read notes)
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