Introduction
The New South Wales coast is essentially a partially submerged embayed coast in which the bays are fully or partially filled by sandy bay barriers, tidal flats, lagoons, and deltaic plains (Langford Smith and Thom 1969; Chapmen et al. 1982). Depositional sequences within embayments appear to increase in age, extent, and morphological as well as stratigraphical complexity, from Cape Howe in the far south of New South Wales into southern Queensland. Underlying estuarine mud sequences of late Quaternary age are also more complex in the larger embayments north of Newcastle. The nature and size of individual bays and their distance apart is influenced markedly by bedrock type and orientation, and the direction of approach of predominant waves. Many bay barriers have the shape of a half-heart or zeta, producing a distinctive offset coastal outline.
Langford-Smith and Thom (1969) divided the coast of New South Wales into two general categories: rugged, where the immediate...
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Thom, B. (2010). New South Wales. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_225
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