Attention is drawn to unusual features of red earth and red-brown earth soils associated with layered parna deposits in the Eastern Riverina, N.S.W., which facilitate identification and tracing of individual layers, modern soils, and paleosols in different landscapes, and subsequent elucidation of distribution, stratigraphic relations, and relative age of these and associated deposits and soils. These features include mechanical composition, subplasticity, and the occurrence of secondary calcite, magnesian calcite, barytes, dolomite, and palygorskite.