Home  |  Location  |  Geology & Climate Change  |  History & People  |  Common Interest  |  Landscapes  |  The Views welcome to the Town Common learnscape geology & climate change: the only certainty is variability Geological Time The Townsville Town Common and the wetlands are part of a landscape sculpture created by climate change, wind, water, waves, weathering and erosion. The main visible player in this landscape formation story is climate change. Climate change impact is much easier to see over geological time than within human generations.  Climate change is part of the carbon energy cycle powered by the sun and influenced by natural forces, geologic and geographic features, living organisms and, more recently, by the industrial revolution. ‘Natural’ climate change forces were creating the events and changing the face of the planet before there were enough people on the planet to influence global climatic patterns. If we went on a time trip and looked at recent geological time the starting point would be around 120,000 years ago. A brief history of landscape changes to the greater Town Common is provided below. ~120,000 years ago The (Pleistocene) shoreline was three to six kilometres inland of its current location and backed by low, broad foredunes with tidal flats to seaward. At this time Many Peaks Range was an island and Castle Hill was partly surrounded by water. At that time the Town Common would have been really, really wet i.e. underwater. ~20,000 years ago At the peak of the last ice age the sea level was 100m to 160m lower than it is today. The coastline was 40 to 50 kilometres east of the present coast. Magnetic Island would have been an isolated mountain range on a broad coastal plain. At that time the Town Common was really, really dry. ~6,000 years ago Around this time the sea level rose to about its present level. This happened over a period of about 14,000 years as the ice age ‘thawed out’. At this time the shoreline was around two to three kilometres further west than the current shoreline. The Town Common could have been wet and dry depending on tidal influences. Today Over the last 6,000 years there has been a gradual build up of sand ridges between Castle Hill and Many Peaks Range to form the current coastline. The Burdekin River has provided the bulk of the sand and sediment with long-shore currents moving the material northwards. Sometime between then and now the features of the Town Common were formed by the action of waves, tides, wind and water flow from the Louise Creek, Mundy Creek and surrounding catchments. Reference: Trezise, D.L., and Stephenson, P.J. 1990, Rocks and Landscapes of the Townsville District, Department of Resource Industries, Queensland.