Episodic Late Palaeozoic to Cenozoic denudation of the southeastern highlands of Australia: Evidence from the Bogong High Plains, Victoria

Abstract

The Bogong High Plains of eastern Victoria occur as plateau remnants in a highly dissected region of the Australian Alps. Results from apatite fission track analyses indicate that the Bogong region experienced multiple episodes of rapid low‐temperature cooling, most of which can be tentatively linked to a tectonic cause. Early episodes of cooling occurred during the Middle to Late Devonian (ca 400–370 Ma) and Late Carboniferous to Early Permian (ca 310–290 Ma), presumably during different stages of deformation associated with the development of the Lachlan Fold Belt and glacial erosion. Rapid cooling occurred during the Late Permian to Early Triassic (ca 260–240 Ma), presumably in response to the Hunter‐Bowen orogenic event along the eastern Australian continental margin. Since the Triassic, two major episodes of fault reactivation have further displaced fission track ages between sample groups on different structural blocks. The first episode occurred during the middle Cretaceous at ca 110–90 Ma, probably in response to initial extension and denudation along the eastern Australian passive margin prior to breakup. Subsequently during the Early to mid‐Tertiary at ca 65–45 Ma, large‐scale fault reactivation occurred along the Kiewa Fault, possibly in response to changes in intraplate stresses which occurred during the middle Tertiary.