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Wall, Alexander Forster: Chronology and hydrological interpretations of tropical Australian environmental archives (0–130 ka) [dataset bundled publication]. PANGAEA, https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.989939 (dataset in review)

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Abstract:
This dataset contains a harmonised compilation of chronological and hydrological information from environmental archives across tropical Australia spanning the past ~130,000 years. The chronology dataset includes all radiocarbon, OSL, and related ages extracted from published sources, with metadata required for recalibration and age-depth modelling. The hydrological dataset synthesises interpretations of water availability, climate phases, and proxy evidence from the same archives. These datasets provide the input layer required to reproduce the analyses, age models, and figures in the associated publication.
Keyword(s):
age-depth model; Australia; Holocene; Hydroclimate; OSL; palaeoclimate; Radiocarbon
Source:
Allen, K J; Freund, M B; Palmer, J G; Simkin, R; Williams, L; Brookhouse, M; Cook, E R; Stewart, S; Baker, P J (2020): Hydroclimate extremes in a north Australian drought reconstruction asymmetrically linked with Central Pacific Sea surface temperatures. Global and Planetary Change, 195, 103329, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2020.103329
Bird, Michael I; Brand, Michael; Comley, Rainy; Fu, Xiao; Hadeen, Xennephone; Jacobs, Zenobia; Rowe, Cassandra; Wurster, Christopher M; Zwart, Costijn; Bradshaw, Corey J A (2024): Late Pleistocene emergence of an anthropogenic fire regime in Australia’s tropical savannahs. Nature Geoscience, 17(3), 233-240, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01388-3
Bird, Michael I; Brand, Michael; Comley, Rainy; Hadeen, Xennephone; Jacobs, Zenobia; Rowe, Cassandra; Saltré, Frédérik; Wurster, Christopher M; Zwart, Costijn; Bradshaw, Corey J A (2025): A 150,000-year lacustrine record of the Indo-Australian monsoon from northern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 366, 109504, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109504
Bowler, J M; Duller, G A T; Perret, N; Prescott, J R; Wyrwoll, Karl-Heinz (1998): Hydrologic changes in monsoonal climates of the last glacial cycle: stratigraphy and lumenescence dating of Lake Woods, N.T., Australia. Palaeoclimates, 3 (1-3), 179-207
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Denniston, R F; Asmerom, Y; Polyak, V J; Wanamaker, A D Jr; Ummenhofer, C C; Humphreys, W F; Cugley, John; Woods, David; Lucker, S (2017): Decoupling of monsoon activity across the northern and southern Indo-Pacific during the Late Glacial. Quaternary Science Reviews, 176, 101-105, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.09.014
Denniston, Rhawn F; Villarini, Gabriele; Gonzales, Angelique N; Wyrwoll, Karl-Heinz; Polyak, Victor J; Ummenhofer, Caroline C; Lachniet, Matthew S; Wanamaker, Alan D Jr; Humphreys, William F; Woods, David; Cugley, John (2015): Extreme rainfall activity in the Australian tropics reflects changes in the El Niño/Southern Oscillation over the last two millennia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(15), 4576-4581, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1422270112
Denniston, Rhawn F; Wyrwoll, Karl-Heinz; Asmerom, Yemane; Polyak, Victor J; Humphreys, William F; Cugley, John; Woods, David; LaPointe, Zachary; Peota, Julian; Greaves, Elizabeth (2013): North Atlantic forcing of millennial-scale Indo-Australian monsoon dynamics during the Last Glacial period. Quaternary Science Reviews, 72, 159-168, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.04.012
Dixon, Teresa; Rudd, Rachel; Kemp, Justine; Marx, Samuel K; Moss, Patrick T; Callow, John Nikolaus; Hall, Philip Anthony; Hua, Quan; McGowan, Hamish A (2025): Hydroclimate variability in the eastern Kimberley, Australia, since the last deglaciation. Journal of Quaternary Science, 40(5), 893-912, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3710
English, P; Spooner, N A; Chappell, J; Questiaux, D G; Hill, N G (2001): Lake Lewis basin, central Australia: environmental evolution and OSL chronology. Quaternary International, 83-85, 81-101, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1040-6182(01)00032-5
Field, Emily; McGowan, Hamish A; Moss, Patrick T; Marx, Samuel K (2017): A late Quaternary record of monsoon variability in the northwest Kimberley, Australia. Quaternary International, 449, 119-135, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.02.019
Field, Emily; Tyler, Jonathan James; Gadd, Patricia S; Moss, Patrick T; McGowan, Hamish A; Marx, Samuel K (2018): Coherent patterns of environmental change at multiple organic spring sites in northwest Australia: Evidence of Indonesian-Australian summer monsoon variability over the last 14,500 years. Quaternary Science Reviews, 196, 193-216, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.07.018
Fitzsimmons, Kathryn E; Miller, G H; Spooner, N A; Magee, John W (2012): Aridity in the monsoon zone as indicated by desert dune formation in the Gregory Lakes basin, northwestern Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 59(4), 469-478, https://doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2012.686171
Jennings, J N (1975): Desert dunes and estuarine fill in the Fitzroy estuary (North-Western Australia). CATENA, 2, 215-262, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0341-8162(75)80015-4
Kuhnt, Wolfgang; Holbourn, Ann E; Xu, Jian; Opdyke, Bradley N; De Deckker, Patrick; Röhl, Ursula; Mudelsee, Manfred (2015): Southern Hemisphere control on Australian monsoon variability during the late deglaciation and Holocene. Nature Communications, 6, 5916, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6916
Lees, Brian G; Hayne, Matthew; Price, David M (1993): Marine transgression and dune initiation on western Cape York, northern Australia. Marine Geology, 114(1-2), 81-89, https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-3227(93)90040-3
Lees, Brian G; Yanchou, Lu; Head, John (1990): Reconnaissance Thermoluminescence Dating of Northern Australian Coastal Dune Systems. Quaternary Research, 34(2), 169-185, https://doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(90)90029-K
Lees, Brian G; Yanehou, Lu; Price, David M (1992): Thermoluminescence dating of dunes at Cape St. Lambert, East Kimberleys, northwestern Australia. Marine Geology, 106(1-2), 131-139, https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-3227(92)90058-P
Mackenzie, Lydia; Heijnis, Henk; Gadd, Patricia S; Moss, Patrick T; Shulmeister, James (2017): Geochemical investigation of the South Wellesley Island wetlands: Insight into wetland development during the Holocene in tropical northern Australia. The Holocene, 27(4), 566-578, https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683616670219
Marx, Samuel K; Reynolds, William; May, Jan-Hendrik; Forbes, Matthew S; Stromsoe, Nicola; Fletcher, Michael-Shawn; Cohen, Timothy J; Moss, Patrick T; Mazumder, Debashish; Gadd, Patricia S (2021): Monsoon driven ecosystem and landscape change in the 'Top End' of Australia during the past 35 kyr. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 583, 110659, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110659
McGowan, Hamish A; Marx, Samuel K; Moss, Patrick T; Hammond, Andrew P (2012): Evidence of ENSO mega-drought triggered collapse of prehistory Aboriginal society in northwest Australia. Geophysical Research Letters, 39(22), 2012GL053916, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL053916
Miller, Gifford H; Magee, John W; Fogel, Marilyn L; Wooller, Matthew J; Hesse, Paul P; Spooner, Nigel A; Johnson, Beverly J; Wallis, Lynley (2018): Wolfe Creek Crater: A continuous sediment fill in the Australian Arid Zone records changes in monsoon strength through the Late Quaternary. Quaternary Science Reviews, 199, 108-125, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.07.019
Moss, Patrick T; Mackenzie, Lydia; Ulm, Sean; Sloss, Craig; Rosendahl, Daniel; Petherick, Lynda M; Steinberger, Lincoln; Wallis, Lynley; Heijnis, Henk; Petchey, Fiona; Jacobsen, Geraldine (2015): Environmental context for late Holocene human occupation of the South Wellesley Archipelago, Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. Quaternary International, 385, 136-144, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.02.051
Mulrennan, M E; Woodroffe, Colin D (1998): Holocene development of the lower Mary River plains, Northern Territory, Australia. The Holocene, 8(5), 565-579, https://doi.org/10.1191/095968398676885724
Nanson, Gerald C; Price, David M; Short, Stephen A; Young, Robert W; Jones, Brian G (1991): Comparative Uranium-Thorium and Thermoluminescence Dating of Weathered Quaternary Alluvium in the Tropics of Northern Australia. Quaternary Research, 35(3-Part1), 347-366, https://doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(91)90050-F
Nott, Jonathan; Price, David (1999): Waterfalls, floods and climate change: evidence from tropical Australia. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 171(2), 267-276, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(99)00152-1
Nott, Jonathan F; Price, David M; Bryant, Edward A (1996): A 30,000 year record of extreme floods in tropical Australia from relict plunge‐pool deposits: Implications for future climate change. Geophysical Research Letters, 23(4), 379-382, https://doi.org/10.1029/96GL00262
Prebble, Matiu; Sim, Robin; Finn, Janet; Fink, David (2005): A Holocene Pollen and Diatom Record from Vanderlin Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Lowland Tropical Australia. Quaternary Research, 64(3), 357-371, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2005.08.005
Proske, Ulrike (2016): Holocene freshwater wetland and mangrove dynamics in the eastern Kimberley, Australia. Journal of Quaternary Science, 31(1), 1-11, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2827
Proske, Ulrike; Heslop, David; Haberle, Simon G (2014): A Holocene record of coastal landscape dynamics in the eastern Kimberley region, Australia. Journal of Quaternary Science, 29(2), 163-174, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2691
Reeves, Jessica M; Chivas, Allan R; García, Adriana; Holt, Sabine; Couapel, Martine J J; Jones, Brian G; Cendón, Dioni I; Fink, David (2008): The sedimentary record of palaeoenvironments and sea-level change in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, through the last glacial cycle. Quaternary International, 183(1), 3-22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2007.11.019
Rehn, Emma; Rowe, Cassandra; Ulm, Sean; Gadd, Patricia S; Zawadzki, Atun; Jacobsen, Geraldine E; Woodward, Craig; Bird, Michael (2021): Multiproxy Holocene Fire Records From the Tropical Savannas of Northern Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 771700, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.771700
Rehn, Emma; Rowe, Cassandra; Ulm, Sean; Woodward, Craig; Bird, Michael (2021): A late-Holocene multiproxy fire record from a tropical savanna, eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. The Holocene, 31(5), 870-883, https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683620988030
Rhodes, E G (1982): Depositional model for a chenier plain, Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Sedimentology, 29(2), 201-221, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3091.1982.tb01719.x
Rivera-Araya, Maria; Rowe, Cassandra; Levchenko, Vladimir; Ulm, Sean; Bird, Michael I (2022): A radiocarbon chronology for Sanamere Lagoon, Cape York Peninsula, using multiple organic fractions. Quaternary Geochronology, 70, 101273, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101273
Rivera-Araya, Maria; Rowe, Cassandra; Ulm, Sean; Bird, Michael I (2023): A 33,000-year paleohydrological record from Sanamere Lagoon, north-eastern tropical savannas of Australia. Quaternary Research, 113, 146-161, https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2022.59
Rowe, Cassandra; Brand, Michael; Hutley, Lindsay B; Wurster, Christopher M; Zwart, Costijn; Levchenko, Vlad; Bird, Michael I (2019): Holocene savanna dynamics in the seasonal tropics of northern Australia. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 267, 17-31, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2019.05.004
Rowe, Cassandra; Wurster, Christopher M; Zwart, Costijn; Brand, Michael; Hutley, Lindsay B; Levchenko, Vladimir; Bird, Michael I (2021): Vegetation over the last glacial maximum at Girraween Lagoon, monsoonal northern Australia. Quaternary Research, 102, 39-52, https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2020.50
Rudd, Rachel; Dixon, Teresa; Callow, John Nikolaus; Gadd, Patricia S; Maizma, Sabika; Jacobsen, Geraldine; Moss, Patrick T; McGowan, Hamish A (2025): A record of monsoon rainforest variability from the Kimberley region in northwestern Australia. Journal of Quaternary Science, 40(2), 243-256, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3693
Saynor, Mike; Wasson, Robert; Erskine, Wayne; Lam, Daryl (2020): Holocene palaeohydrology of the East Alligator River, for application to mine site rehabilitation, Northern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 249, 106552, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106552
Shulmeister, James (1992): A Holocene Pollen record from Lowland Tropical Australia. The Holocene, 2(2), 107-116, https://doi.org/10.1177/095968369200200202
Shulmeister, James; Lees, Brian G (1992): Morphology and chronostratigraphy of a coastal dunefield; Groote Eylandt, northern Australia. Geomorphology, 5(6), 521-534, https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-555X(92)90023-H
Shulmeister, James; Lees, Brian G (1995): Pollen evidence from tropical Australia for the onset of an ENSO-dominated climate at c. 4000 BP. The Holocene, 5(1), 10-18, https://doi.org/10.1177/095968369500500102
Stevenson, Janelle; Brockwell, Sally; Rowe, Cassandra; Proske, Ulrike; Shiner, Justin (2015): The palaeo-environmental history of Big Willum Swamp, Weipa: An environmental context for the archaeological record. Australian Archaeology, 80(1), 17-31, https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2015.11682041
Torgersen, T; Luly, J; De Deckker, Patrick; Jones, M R; Searle, D E; Chivas, A R; Ullman, W J (1988): Late quaternary environments of the Carpentaria Basin, Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 67(3-4), 245-261, https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-0182(88)90155-1
van der Kaars, Sander; De Deckker, Patrick; Gingele, Franz X (2006): A 100 000‐year record of annual and seasonal rainfall and temperature for northwestern Australia based on a pollen record obtained offshore. Journal of Quaternary Science, 21(8), 879-889, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1010
van der Kaars, W A (1989): Aspects of late quaternary palynology of Eastern Indonesian deep-sea cores. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 24(4), 495-500, https://doi.org/10.1016/0077-7579(89)90127-0
Wende, R; Nanson, G C; Price, D M (1997): Aeolian and fluvial evidence for late Quaternary environmental change in the east Kimberley of Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 44(4), 519-526, https://doi.org/10.1080/08120099708728331
Wyrwoll, Karl-Heinz; Miller, Gifford H (2001): Initiation of the Australian summer monsoon 14,000 years ago. Quaternary International, 83-85, 119-128, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1040-6182(01)00034-9
Funding:
Australian Research Council (ARC), grant/award no. CE170100015: ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage
Australian Research Council (ARC), grant/award no. CE230100009: ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures
Australian Research Council (ARC), grant/award no. DE240100340: Identifying key fire drivers in Australia; biomass, climate or people
Australian Research Council (ARC), grant/award no. FT180100524: Climate extremes and landscape responses across continental Australia
Coverage:
Median Latitude: -16.685432 * Median Longitude: 130.255056 * South-bound Latitude: -22.920000 * West-bound Longitude: 113.500000 * North-bound Latitude: -8.790000 * East-bound Longitude: 145.240000
Date/Time Start: 2001-05-03T21:05:00 * Date/Time End: 2005-10-01T04:42:00
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0) (License comes into effect after moratorium ends)
Size:
2 datasets

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Datasets listed in this bundled publication

  1. Wall, AF (in review): Harmonised chronological data from tropical Australian environmental archives. https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.989982
  2. Wall, AF (in review): Hydrological interpretations from tropical Australian environmental archives. https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.989983