WHAT EXACTLY IS GONDWANALAND?
In paleogeography, Gondwana also Gondwanaland, is the name given to the more southerly of two supercontinents (the other being Laurasia) that were part of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago (Mya).
Gondwana formed prior to Pangaea, then became part of Pangaea, and finally broke up after the break up of Pangaea. Gondwana is believed to have sutured between about 570 and 510 Mya, thus joining East Gondwana to West Gondwana.[3] It separated from Laurasia 200-180 Mya (the mid-Mesozoic era) during the breakup of Pangaea, drifting farther south after the split.
Gondwana included most of the landmasses in today’s Southern Hemisphere, including Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, and the Australian continent, as well as the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Subcontinent, which have now moved entirely into the Northern Hemisphere.
The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia is a serial property comprising the major remaining areas of rainforest in southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales. It represents outstanding examples of major stages of the Earth’s evolutionary history, ongoing geological and biological processes, and exceptional biological diversity. A wide range of plant and animal lineages and communities with ancient origins in Gondwana, many of which are restricted largely or entirely to the Gondwana Rainforests, survive in this collection of reserves. The Gondwana Rainforests also provides the principal habitat for many threatened species of plants and animals.
Border Ranges Rainforest photo by Caldera Productions
Antarctic Beech [Nothofagus Moreeii] photo by Caldera Productions
Antarctic Beech [Nothofagus Moreeii] photo by Caldera Productions
MOUNT WARNING
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The Tweed Shield erosion caldera is possibly the best preserved erosion caldera in the world, notable for its size and age, for the presence of a prominent central mountain mass (Wollumbin/Mt Warning), and for the erosion of the caldera floor to basement rock. All three stages relating to the erosion of shield volcanoes (the planeze, residual and skeletal stages) are readily distinguishable. Further south, the remnants of the Ebor Volcano also provides an outstanding example of the ongoing erosion of a shield volcano.
-UNESCO, World Heritage Listings
‘Gondwana Cloud Forests’ by Robert Price, 2013
David Attenborough visited and filmed Lamington Park while making the 1979 television series Life on Earth in which Antarctic beech trees and bowerbirds were featured.
Rugged mountain scenery, cascading waterfalls, caves, rainforest, wildflower heaths, tall open forests, picturesque creeks, varied wildlife and some of the best bushwalking in the world are protected in The Tweed Valley’s five surrounding World Heritage National Parks. The Tweed Caldera Shield Volcano remnants make up the core of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves Australia World Heritage Area .
The Border Ranges National Park and within it’s local region there are 108 conservation reserves, including: 31 national parks, 38 nature reserves, 21conservation parks, 3 aboriginal areas, 9 forest reserves, 1 historic site and 5 state conservation areas. There are 50 private conservation properties and The Border Ranges region also contains 33 state forests, 2 Commonwealth reserves and 55 crown reserves.
Mount Warning Central Complex forms the plug to this extinct eroded shield volcano. All part of the Clarence-Morton Basin which existed around 360 million years ago in an ocean trench off the coast of Gondwana.
Around 225 million years ago, in the Triassic Period, a volcanic belt, the Chillingham Volcanics, opened up to form a giant basin, from Beenleigh to Brunswick.
Dinosaur evidence for the Tweed Volcanic Region is almost non existent. That is what happens when Triassic-Jurassic-Cretaceous sediments are burnt and buried in 1000 meters of Miocene volcanics.
Tweed Shire Council Crest The Coat of Arms
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Tweed Shire Council Crest The Coat of Arms has a central shield displaying symbolic representations of the sea, Captain Cook’s ship “Endeavour”, the shire’s most prominent geographical feature, Mount Warning, and the rising sun. For six months of the year Mount Warning is the first place on the Australian mainland to receive the sun’s rays. The shield is supported on each side by Albert’s Lyrebirds, which are endemic to the shire. The shield is surmounted by an armorial helmet topped with the seedpod of the Diploglottis campbellii, commonly known as the “Small-leaved Tamarind”, and a sprig of blue knob orchid. Below the shield is a ribbon in the Shire’s colours of green and gold with the motto “In pursuit of Excellence”.
The design has been approved by the Kings of Arms of the Royal College of Heralds, Council has received the Letters Patent, the final deed of grant, which hangs in the Council Chambers in Murwillumbah. Tweed Shire Council’s Floral Emblem is the Coolamon Tree Syzygium moorei which is a rare subtropical rainforest tree, growing on volcanic soils in the Mount Warning area of north east New South Wales and south east Queensland, Australia. Common names include Coolamon, Watermelon Tree and Durobby.