Early Discoveries of the Effects of Ice Action in Australia

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Banks, Maxwell R., Colhoun, Eric A., Hannan, David
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1987
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Selwyn; Ramsay; Journal of Glaciology; Macquarie Island
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002214300000873x; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S002214300000873X

Abstract The effects of past glaciation in what is now Australian territory were first recognized on Macquarie Island, probably by David Ramsay, in 1821. The recognition by Darwin in 1836, and reporting by Milligan in 1848 of ice-transported pebbles and boulders in late Palaeozoic marine rocks in Tasmania, showed on the one hand participation in and on the other familiarity with the controversy in Great Britain at that time on the origin of erratics and drift currents. Reports by Clarke (1852), Daintree in 1859, Selwyn (1860), and Gould (1860) of the effects of land ice on Mount Koscuisko (New South Wales), Bacchus Marsh (Victoria), Inman Valley (South Australia), and the Central Highlands (Tasmania), respectively, reflect the increasing recognition in Great Britain of the erosional and depositional effects of glaciers. Daintree, Selwyn, and Gould were all closely connected with A.C. Ramsay, the main British protagonist of the glacial theory at the time, whereas David Ramsay and Milligan were probably influenced by Robert Jameson of Edinburgh.