The Biogeography of the Australian North West Shelf: Environmental Change and Life's Response

1

Introduction

There are hotspots of biodiversity on our planet and the Australian North West Shelf is one of them. This continental shelf is a wide ramp, almost 2500 km long, forming the north-western margin of Australia. It has a long and varied geological history and a huge diversity of marine habitats that have led to the development over time of a marine fauna that is rich in species and distinctive in many ways. This chapter gives a summary of the marine environment and species-rich biota of this remote coast of north-western Australia and seeks to explain the distribution patterns of its species.

While our wonderful living planet is probably not unique in the universe, there is no doubt that, with its extraordinary abundance and diversity of life and complex ecosystems, it is a rare thing. There is broad recognition in our generation of our place as a derivative and participant in the life processes of our world. There is need for better understanding of the origins and diversity of life and the way the multitude of species organize themselves into integrated, functional, productive ecosystems that make our world livable. However, the spread of the kinds of plants and animals around the world is not uniform. There are places, mainly those that are ice-bound, near-waterless, or lightless, where conditions are not favorable for life and the diversity of life forms is low. There are other places, mostly moist, warm and sunlit, and with complex geomorphology and diverse microhabitats, where life thrives, the variety of species is large and the ecosystems they construct are beautiful, intricate, and so complex to be seemingly beyond comprehension. These, including Australia’s North West Shelf, are the planet’s hotspots of biodiversity.

The North West Shelf is defined by natural physiographic boundaries and comprises mainly carbonate sediments. It is one of the largest structures of its kind in the modern world and its distinctive character is of long standing through geological time. The history of the marine fauna of this huge structure is one of the untold stories of life on earth. During the past 50 million years, the shelf has seen the replacement of its original temperate marine fauna with a tropical one of quite different evolutionary origins. It has seen periods of mass extinction followed by evolutionary diversification and recovery and periods, like the present, when the region has supported an extremely rich marine fauna. During its periods of recovery and species richness, it has been a center of marine evolution, as well as a sink episodically receiving tropical species from the great Indo-West Pacific region, and a source of species that have established new evolutionary lines in the temperate waters of higher latitudes on the south-western shores of Western Australia.

Understanding the range of species diversity that inhabits our world, and the factors that create and maintain it, is a key to sustaining the habitats that support us. The way to begin such a study in any given region is to assemble what is known about the kinds of plants and animals that are present, the ways they arrange themselves in functional groups, how they are distributed ecologically and in space, and the environmental forces that determine these things. This is the branch of natural science known as biogeography that is the central theme of this chapter.

There are several aspects of biogeography that are vital. One is to understand how the biota of a region relates to that of adjacent regions, especially in regard to exchange of larval recruits and breeding adults (connectivity). Another is to understand that the patterns of distribution we see today are not constants but are highly dynamic and changeable. What we see is a snapshot in an ongoing process of evolutionary change. Very long ago, with little experience of the world but blessed with profound insights about how it operates, Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c. 2500 BP) wrote that nothing endures but change. This principle is the very essence of biogeography. The physical processes that control contemporary ecological and spatial distributions of plants and animals, especially geology and climate, are ever-changing and the evolutionary processes of life itself are the means by which life forms adapt to a changing environment. The patterns of life we see today are an outcome of everything that has happened before.

With a different human-oriented timescale, historians put this matter neatly with the phrase there can be no future without a past and of course there is no present without a past either. While contemporary biological distribution patterns can be described as they are, they cannot be understood without knowledge of the history of environmental change that caused them to be this way. And without that understanding, we cannot judge what may happen next and how we might arrange our own affairs accordingly.

The main drivers of the development of the modern North West Shelf and its diverse biota have been the sequence of tectonic and sedimentary events of the last 60 million years (the Tertiary) and especially the history of dramatic climate and sea level change during the last 2 million years (the Quaternary). Tectonic events established the position of the shelf in relation to the major climatic and biogeographic regions of the world. They also set up those basic structures of this part of Australia’s continental margin that enable and limit the connectivity of its biota with that of other regions. Within that framework, the modern marine biota has evolved in response to sedimentary and climatic events that happened in the Tertiary and Quaternary periods and those that are ongoing. Geological history and the history of climatic change provide essential context for biogeographical studies in our region.

In the present context, while being one of the world’s hotspots of marine biodiversity, until now the North West Shelf has been remote from centers of scientific research and its marine flora and fauna are inadequately studied. Nevertheless, there is a rapidly growing body of information and it is timely for us to assemble and review what we know about the life forms, life assemblages, and ecological processes of this biologically rich and diverse marine bioregion. This is the purpose of this chapter in regard to marine habitats and the distribution of marine plants and certain invertebrate animals that play key ecological roles on the North West Shelf. Following the Introduction, it is arranged with three main subject areasâ€"a brief description of the physical environment (Chapter 2), an account of the main kinds of marine habitats and invertebrate associations (Chapters 3–7) and a discussion of the biogeographic processes that operate in the region and their outcomes (Chapters 8 and 9).

It is not possible for one author to deal effectively with the details of subject matter of such a wide scope. In this study, a broad outline of the physical characteristics of the region and its habitats and biota is given and the analysis of biogeographic patterns and evolutionary history focuses on corals and especially molluscs, taxa that are within the experience of this author. Like the evolution of species and faunas, knowledge grows and develops over time. The information and ideas presented here are intended as a framework, imperfect of course, that may encourage others to explore the matters discussed. The aim is a better understanding of the processes that determine and sustain the biodiversity and ecology of this resource-rich and extremely interesting part of the Australian coastline.

1.1 The Geographic Scope of This Study

Krummel¹ introduced the term North-West Australian Shelf for the north-western continental margin of Australia. The whole region is most commonly referred to now as the North West Shelf (Figure 1.1) and is defined as the continental shelf and marginal terraces and platforms (to depths of 2000 m) of the north-western coast from North West Cape to Melville Island, a distance of about 2400 km.²,³ In this study, it is noted that the north-western continental shelf margin actually continues on across the Arafura Sea and terminates on the southern side of the so-called Bird’s Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya.

Figure 1.1 The North West Shelf with its two parts (Rowley Shelf and Sahul Shelf), marginal terraces (Rowley Terrace and Ashmore Terrace), and marginal plateaux (Exmouth Plateau and Scott Plateau). Modified after Ref. 3.

In recent years, it has become common practice in the Australian petroleum and gas industry to restrict the term North West Shelf to the offshore Carnarvon Basin, distinguishing that resource-rich area from the Browse and Bonaparte Basins further north. This report does not limit the concept of the North West Shelf in that way but follows the area designation based on geological and geomorphological criteria.

The North West Shelf was subdivided by Fairbridge⁴ into two parts, the south-western Rowley Shelf and north-eastern Sahul Shelf, a division that is maintained here. The Sahul Shelf is that part east of the longitude of Ashmore Island (123°E) that lies within the Arafura and Timor Seas, bordering the Timor Trough and the waters of Indonesia. The Rowley Shelf is that part, west of Ashmore Island, facing international waters of the north-eastern Indian Ocean and includes the marginal Exmouth and Scott Plateaux.

The North West Shelf, as so defined, does not correspond with the North-west Marine Region subject to a planning study by Commonwealth agencies. That region is an administrative unit comprising waters under Commonwealth jurisdiction (i.e., from the State 3-mile territorial baseline to the 200 nm EEZ boundary) and extends from off Kalbarri on the West Coast of Western Australia to the Northern Territory border. It does not extend to the northern limit of the North West Shelf but does extend beyond its southern limit to include the Dirk Hartog Shelf. Nevertheless, this biogeographic review of the North West Shelf has direct relevance to the North-west Marine Region and draws heavily on material published for that bioregional planning study.⁵

1.2 The Intent and Utility of Biogeography

The objectives and usefulness of historical biogeography complement those of taxonomyâ€two aspects of biology that are often studied by the same practitioners. Both disciplines are descriptive initially, seeking to recognize and describe common patternsâ€of similarities among an array of organisms in the former and geographical distribution in the latterâ€"and they provide a classificatory framework that supports the development of knowledge in other branches of marine science. Both may lead to explanatory and predictive interpretations with significant scientific utility.

In today’s circumstance of increasing human impact on the marine environment, along with changing climate and accompanying sea level and oceanographic changes, a biogeographic classification of Australian waters, based on causal factors with a predictive capacity, becomes a crucial tool in environmental management. In Australia, marine biogeography has found recent application in the field of resource and environmental management and conservation. The idea is that designation of sections of the marine environment as distinct biogeographic units allows representative parts of them to be selected as special management regimes, for example, for conservation reserves. The importance of this is clear from recent efforts internationally and in Australia to identify bioregions that facilitate the selection of representative marine conservation reserves.⁶–¹⁰

The utility of a biogeographic classification is diminished if key terminology is poorly defined and if classification units are inconsistently applied, which is presently the case in Australian biogeographic studies. A three-level biogeographic area classification is adopted in this report, using terminology that is consistent with the broadly accepted, contemporary view.

The three levels are as follows:

Level 1. Realm. The largest biogeographic spatial unitâ€"internally coherent at high taxonomic levels as a result of shared and unique evolutionary history; with high levels of endemism at generic and higher rank.

The term Region has been used at this level by many marine biogeographers (following Ekman¹¹) but Realm is preferred here for the sake of conformity with common practice in terrestrial biogeography. Region is used as a generic term for biogeographic categories of any rank. The marine shelf and biota of northern Australia, including the North West Shelf, are regarded as a subunit of the vast Indo-West Pacific Realm (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 The Indo-West Pacific Realm.

Level 2. Province. Places where species endemism has developed to the extent that, over time, the fauna has taken on a definite provincial character as a result of restricted gene flow and regional speciation. (Definition derived from Briggs.¹²)

Identification of geographic (or oceanographic) features (biogeographic barriers) that restrict gene flow and promote speciation is an important step in designation of biogeographic provinces. Biogeographers generally recognize two criteria that may be used to delineate between provinces, level of endemism and faunistic similarity measured in terms of species and higher taxa. Ideally, both these criteria should be quantified, but the level of taxonomic knowledge does not often allow this to be assessed objectivity. There is no general agreement on the degree of faunistic similarity that is required or on how it should be measured.

In this biogeographic study of the North West Shelf, a concept of biogeographic province is applied that is based on the following criteria:

• an area clearly delimited by geomorphic characteristics that are explainable in terms of its geological and climatic history

• an area that is bounded by geographic barriers that are thought to apply to at least some marine organisms, i.e., as an impediment to dispersal and a driver of vicariant speciation

• an area that exhibits 10% or more species endemism

• an area that exhibits a significant (undefined) level of faunistic dissimilarity to that of the neighboring areas under consideration.

Level 3. Bioregion. An area distinguishable from other areas within a province by distinctive ecosystems, biotic assemblages, and habitats.

The presence of endemics is not essential to the diagnosis of a bioregion, although they may be present. Emphasis is on habitat and ecological factors rather than on speciation history. Faunistic dissimilarities between the bioregions of a province often may be explained by habitat differences alone.

Biogeographic units of this level (or levels) are variously named. Three terms that have been used, each with a slightly different emphasis, are biotic province,¹³,¹⁴ bioregion,¹⁵ and ecoregion.¹⁶

The term bioregion has come into common usage, as a subcategory of province and sometimes as a replacement of it, in the context of conservation and natural resource management planning. In Australia, the Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA) bioregion definitions¹⁰ are based on faunistic, habitat, and physical criteria. They are a useful planning tool as a guide for selecting representative areas for reservation and other management decisions. In this study, the IMCRA bioregions are treated as a third tier of biogeographic area, subordinate to province.

Later in this report (Chapter 4), the term coral reef bioregion is used for areas where there are coral reefs that have distinctive biogeomorphic characteristics that derive from different geological histories and oceanographic conditions. They equate roughly with the IMCRA mesoscale bioregions for this part of the Australian coastline.

An aim of this biogeographic study is to consider whether or not the North West Shelf meets the criteria for designation as a distinctive province within the Northern Australian Subrealm and to review evidence for subdivision at the level of bioregion.

Recent designations of major planning areas on the Australian coast refer to the major units as Regions, for example, the North-west Marine Region that includes most of the North West Shelf.⁵ These areas are based on administrative, jurisdictional boundaries, and only approximately on biogeographic criteria. The term Region applied to them should not be used in the sense of traditional biogeography. The areas are not equivalents of the Regions (Realms) or Provinces currently recognized in the biogeographic literature.

1.3 Biogeographic Classification of the Northern Australian Coast

1.3.1 The Indo-West Pacific Realm

In 1856, Forbes¹⁷ designated a marine Indo-Pacific Province extending from the east coast of Africa to the eastern-most islands of Polynesia, including the northern coast of Australia, describing it as the realm of reef-building corals (Figure 1.2). Subsequently, marine biogeographers have adopted that concept though usually amending the term to Indo-West Pacific, recognizing that the coastal faunas of the eastern Pacific (western coast of the tropical Americas) are distinctively different.¹¹,¹²,¹⁸ This vast biogeographic realm is the most species-rich marine area on earth.

In Australia, marine biogeographers have long acknowledged that the tropical northern marine fauna is part of the Indo-West Pacific biogeographic realm, usually ranking it as a subrealm or subregion, and that it is quite different to that of the temperate southern coast which is regarded as a distinct biogeographic realm.¹¹,¹²,¹⁹–²² There is a very high level of species endemism on the southern coast of Australia and many taxonomic differences at subgeneric and generic level between it and the northern coast, resulting from the different evolutionary histories of the two biogeographic regions.²¹ While the tropical marine fauna of the Indo-West Pacific, including northern Australia, had its origins in the pan-tropical, early Tertiary Sea of Tethys, the temperate fauna of the south had very different origins in high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. The tropical northern and temperate southern marine faunas overlap on the east and west coasts (Figure 1.3). This circumstance came about as a result of the repositioning of the Australian continent astride the Tropic of Capricorn in the Miocene.²¹

Figure 1.3 The primary Australian biogeographic regions. After Ref. 20.

1.3.2 Australian Coastal Marine Biogeographic Provinces

Australian coastal marine biogeographic provinces, both north and south, have been delineated by many authors, not always in the same way.²³–³⁰

Several authors have recognized the presence of many endemic species in the tropical marine fauna of the north-west coast, not seen on the tropical eastern Australian coast or elsewhere in the Indo-West Pacific realm. Hedley²⁴ designated the region from Shark Bay to the Gulf of Carpentaria as a distinct biogeographic area that he named the Damperian Province (Figure 1.4). Whitley²⁶ and Clark²⁷ followed this arrangement. However, not all later authors were convinced that separate provincial status was justified. In a study of the bivalve family Cardiidae, Wilson and Stevenson³¹ found little support for recognition of this region [Damperian] as a distinct faunal province even though they listed four endemic species (15%) of a total of 27 cardiid species in the region. On the basis of gastropod distributions, Wells³²,³³ considered that the waters of tropical Australia should be considered as a single Tropical Australian Province. This matter is further considered later in this report.

Figure 1.4 The biogeographic provinces of tropical northern Australia proposed by Whitley.²⁶

1.3.3 The IMCRA Bioregions

IMCRA Version 4.0¹⁰ introduced a third-tier classification of Australian waters involving both benthic and pelagic bioregions. The pelagic bioregions are beyond the scope of this report. The benthic bioregions included two categories referred to as

• provincial bioregions that reflect biogeographic patterns in distributions of bottom-dwelling fish and

• mesoscale regions on the continental shelf (Figure 1.5).

Figure 1.5 The IMCRA coastal mesoscale bioregions of tropical north-western Australia. TWI, Tiwi; ANB, Anson-Beagle; BON, Bonaparte Gulf; CAB, Cambridge-Bonaparte; OSS, Oceanic Shoals; KIM, Kimberley; KS, King Sound; CAN, Canning; NWS, North West Shelf; EMB, Eighty Mile Beach; PIO, Pilbara Offshore; PIN, Pilbara Nearshore. Redrawn from Ref. 8.

The provincial bioregions, based on demersal fish data,³⁴ include two types defined as provinces and transitions (biotones). These data and the analysis of them are an important advance in knowledge of the little-known bottom fauna on the outer continental shelf and slope around Australia. Although provisional, they indicate that the distribution patterns displayed by the deep benthic fauna may be quite different to those of inner shelf and coastal species, a conclusion that should be no surprise. The environmental history of the outer shelf and slope, below the lowest Quaternary sea level, subject in places to shelf-edge subsidence, and populated by benthic species with different reproductive and dispersal strategies to those of the inner shelf, has resulted in different geographic distribution patterns.

Much more information is needed before an account of the historical biogeography of the outer shelf and slope component of the North West Shelf fauna can be attempted. Partly for this reason, partly because the two IMCRA benthic bioregion categories are contradictory (they overlap on the middle and outer shelf) the IMCRA provincial bioregions will not be considered further in this study. However, the IMCRA mesoscale regions, as a third level of biogeographic area, provide a useful classification of the inner shelf and coastal habitats of the North West Shelf and will be applied. They include 10 coastal bioregions between North West Cape and Melville Island based primarily on geomorphological criteria.

References

1. Krummel O. Handbuch der Ozeanographie. 2 vols 1897; Stuttgart.

2. Purcell PG, Purcell RR, eds. The North West Shelf of Australia. Perth: Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia; 1988.

3. Bradshaw MT, Yeates AN, Beynon RM, et al. Palaeographic evolution of the North West Shelf. In: Purcell PG, Purcell RR, eds. The North West Shelf of Australia. Perth: Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia; 1988;29–54.

4. Fairbridge RW. The Sahul shelf, northern Australia: its structure and geological relationships. J R Soc West Aust. 1953;37:1–34.

5. Department of the Environment, Heritage, Water and the Arts. The north-west marine bioregional plan Bioregional profile. Canberra: Australian Government; 2008.

6. Department of Conservation and Land Management. A representative marine reserve system for Western Australia. Report of the Marine Parks and Reserves Selection Working Group. Department of Conservation and Land Management, Perth; 1994.

7. Muldoon J, ed. Towards a Marine Regionalisation for Australia. Proceedings of a workshop held in Sydney, New South Wales, 4â€"6 March 1994. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority 1995.

8. Thackway R, Cresswell ID. Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia: an ecosystem-based classification for marine and coastal environments Version 3.3. Canberra: Environment Australia, Commonwealth Department of the Environment; 1998.

9. ANZECC Task Force on Marine Protected Areas. Guidelines for establishing the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. Australian and New Zealand Environment Council, Task Force on Marine Protected Areas. Environment Australia, Canberra; 1998.

10. Commonwealth of Australia. A guide to the Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia Version 4.0. Canberra: Department of the Environment and Heritage; 2006.

11. Ekman S. Zoogeography of the sea. London: Sidgwick and Jackson; 1953; 417 pp.

12. Briggs JC. Marine zoogeography. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1974; 475 pp.

13. Dice LR. The biotic provinces of North America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; 1943; 78 pp.

14. Matvejev SD. Biogeografija Jugoslavijeâ€"osnovni principi. Belgrad: Bioloski Institut NR Srbije; 1961.

15. Fisk P. Bioregions and Technologies. A new planning tool for stable state economic development. Unpublished report, Centre for Maximum Potential Building Systems, Inc. West Arizona State University; 1983.

16. Spalding MD, Fox HE, Allen GR, et al. Marine ecoregions of the world: a bioregionalisation of coastal and shelf areas. Bioscience. 2007;57(7):573–583.

17. Forbes E. The physical atlas of natural phenomena. 1856.

18. Abbott RT. The genus Strombus in the Indo-Pacific. Indo-Pacific Mollusca. 1960;1(2):33–146.

19. Doderlein L. Ondopazifische Eurylae. Abh Bayr Akad Wiss Math Nat Abt 1927;31, Munchen [not seen].

20. Wilson BR, Gillett K. Australian shells. Sydney: Read; 1971; 168 pp.

21. Wilson BR, Allen GA. Major components and distribution of marine fauna. In: Dyne GR, Walton DW, eds. The fauna of Australia General articles. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service; 1987;43–68. [chapter 3].

22. Ponder WF, Wells FE. Distribution and relationships of marine and estuarine fauna. In: Beesley PL, Ross GJB, Wells A, eds. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing; 1998;77–80. Mollusca: the southern synthesis Fauna of Australia. vol. 5 Part B viii, p. 565â€"1234.

23. Hedley C. The effect of the Bassian isthmus upon the existing marine fauna; a study in ancient geography. Proc Linn Soc New South Wales. 1904;28:876–883.

24. Hedley C. Zoogeography. In: Jose AW, Carter HJ, eds. Sydney: Angas & Robertson; 1926;743–744. Australian encyclopedia 2. 2 vols.

25. Cotton BC. Fissurellidae from Flindersian Region, Southern Australia. Rec South Aust Museum. 1930;4:219–222.

26. Whitley G. Marine zoogeographical regions of Australia. Aust Nat. 1932;8:166–167.

27. Clark HL. The echinoderm fauna of Australia. Publ Carnegie Inst. 1946;566:1–567.

28. Bennett I, Pope EC. Intertidal zonation of the exposed rocky shores of Victoria, together with a rearrangement of the biographical provinces of temperate Australian shores. Aust J Mar Freshw Res. 1953;4:105–159.

29. Knox GA. The biogeography and intertidal ecology of the Australian coasts. Oceanograph Mar Biol Annu Rev. 1963;1:341–404.

30. Poore GCB. Biogeography and diversity of Australia’s marine biota. In: Zann LP, Kailola P, eds. The marine environment technical annexe 1, State of the Marine Environment Report for Australia. Townsville: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority; 1995;75–84.

31. Wilson BR, Stevenson SE. Cardiidae (Mollusca, Bivalvia) of Western Australia. Western Australian Museum Special Publication No. 9; 1977. 114 pp.

32. Wells FE. Comparative distributions of the mudwhelks Terebralia sulcata and T. palustris in a mangrove swamp in northwestern Australia. Malacol Rev. 1980;13:1–5.

33. Wells FE. Zoogeographic affinities of prosobranch gastropods on offshore coral reefs in northwestern Australia. Veliger. 1986;29:191–199.

34. Last P, Lyric V, Yearsley G, et al. Validation of the national demersal fish datasets for the regionalisation of the Australian continental slope and outer shelf (> 40 m depth). Australia: Department of Environment and Heritage and CSIRO Marine Research; 2005.

Chapter 2

The Contemporary Physical Environment

2.1 Geology, Origins, and History of the Northwest Continental Margin

The major controls on paleographic development of the North West Shelf region have been climatic sea level change and tectonism.¹ The contemporary outcomes of these forces, the sedimentary history of the region and its changing oceanography, have been fundamental to the historical biogeography of the North West Shelf and its marine biota. The origins, geology, and sediments of the North West Shelf have been reviewed by Carrigy and Fairbridge,² Jones,³,⁴ Stagg and Exon,⁵ Bradshaw et al.,¹ Exon and Colwell,⁶ James et al.,⁷ and Baker et al.⁸

The North West Shelf forms Australia’s northwestern continental margin. It evolved as a set of overlapping rim basins from a Mesozoic rifted-arch system that developed in high southern latitudes along the margin of the Tethyan Ocean and Gondwanaland.⁹ Rifting in the Early Cretaceous ruptured Gondwanaland creating the Indian and Australasian land masses, separated by a rift valley that became a major sedimentary depocenter (antecedent of the modern Perth and southern Carnarvon Basins). With subsequent sea floor spreading, the Indian and Australasian land masses drifted apart, the eastern side of the rift valley forming the western margin of the new Australian continent. In this way, the northwestern and western continental margins (North West Shelf and Rottnest-Dirk Hartog Shelves, respectively) developed as a continuous, curved, open-sided sedimentary super basin referred to as the Westralian Superbasin.¹⁰

In the mid-Tertiary, there was no clear division between a northwestern continental shelf and a western one (Figure 2.1), but in the Late Tertiary, uplift of the Cape Range Peninsula at the northwest corner created a narrow restriction partially separating the North West Shelf from the continental shelf of the West Coast.

Figure 2.1 The approximate position of the northwestern shoreline in the Miocene, showing the wide continental shelf (pale blue), a cluster of outer shelf bioherms (antecedents of the modern shelf-edge atolls and platform reefs) and the absence of a shelf constriction where the Cape Range Peninsula is now located. After Ref. 1

The present separation of Australia and New Guinea by the shallow shelf waters of the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria has not been a permanent feature in recent geological history. The northwestern side of the Australasian continental margin and outer shelf benthic habitats are continuous between northern Australia and West Irian. During Quaternary periods of low sea level, the coastline was also continuous and New Guinea and Australia were connected by a wide land bridge. The Indonesian islands of Aru were part of the Australasian land mass, and relict populations of marsupials and other typical Australian and New Guinea animals may be found there. We may think of the North West Shelf in those times as extending all the way from North West Cape to the south coast of West Irian, the northern end of it in close proximity to the antecedent of the modern East Indies Triangle with its immensely high biodiversity (Section 9.1) and without any direct connectivity with the east coast of Australia.

2.1.1 The Main Geological Elements of the North West Shelf and Adjacent Shores

Coastal geomorphology, marine habitats, and the distributions of marine organisms are hugely influenced by the very different geological regimes along the modern North West Shelf coastline (Figure 2.2). The main onshore geological elements of the North West Shelf region are two Pre-Cambrian blocks, three sedimentary basins that have onshore and offshore parts extending across the width of the shelf to the continental margin, and, off the Kimberley coast, an offshore sedimentary basin that does not extend to the coast.

Figure 2.2 General geological features of the North West Shelf region. Drawn by Environmental GIS.

2.1.1.1 Pre-Cambrian Blocks

In the north of Western Australia, the Kimberley Block comprises two elements, the Kimberley Basin and the King Leopold-Halls Creek Orogen (Figure 2.2).

The Kimberley Basin is formed mainly of Proterozoic rocks of the Kimberley Group comprising undeformed but metamorphosed sandstones and siltstones, basic volcanics, and intrusive basalts. There are also areas of shallow Quaternary alluvial and colluvial sediments and, in the Bonaparte Archipelago and on the coast of the adjacent mainland, Cainozoic laterite deposits. The contemporary terrestrial surface of the basin is a plateau, primarily a very ancient subaerial erosion surface developed on flat-lying rocks.¹¹–¹³ Its deeply dissected northwestern side is submerged, and the margin of the basin lies 50 km or more seaward of the present coastline where it is overlapped by sediments of the Browse basin. On this part of the Kimberley coast, the seabed of the inner shelf is an inundated terrestrial land surface with highly irregular bathymetry and superficial marine and terrestrial sediments over the Proterozoic basement.¹⁴ On the northeastern side, the margin of the Kimberley Basin is also submerged but not dissected and the submerged area is much