Zircons Traced From the 700–500 Ma Transgondwanan Supermountains and the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains to the Ordovician Lachlan Orogen, Cretaceous Ceduna Delta, And Modern Channel Country, Central-southern Australia

Zircons traced from the 700–500 Ma transgondwanan supermountains and
the gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains to the Ordovician Lachlan Orogen,
cretaceous Ceduna Delta, and modern channel country, central-Southern
Australia
J.J. Veevers, E.A. Belousova, A. Saeed
PII: S0037-0738(16)00022-1
DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.sedgeo.2016.01.014
Reference: SEDGEO 4974
To appear in: Sedimentary Geology
Received date: 8 October 2015

Revised date: 18 January 2016
Accepted date: 20 January 2016
Please cite this article as: Veevers, J.J., Belousova, E.A., Saeed, A., Zircons traced
from the 700–500 Ma transgondwanan supermountains and the gamburtsev Subglacial
Mountains to the Ordovician Lachlan Orogen, cretaceous Ceduna Delta, and mod-
ern channel country, central-Southern Australia, Sedimentary Geology (2016), doi:
10.1016/j.sedgeo.2016.01.014
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VBS TextRev18Jan16 PLAINAll Accepted
Zircons traced from the 700–500 Ma Transgondwanan Supermountains and the

Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains to the Ordovician Lachlan Orogen, Cretaceous
Ceduna Delta, and modern Channel Country, central-southern Australia
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J.J. Veevers*, E.A. Belousova, A. Saeed
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ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (CCFS) and GEMOC,
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109,
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Australia
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________
*Corresponding author
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E-mail address:john.veevers@mq.edu.au (J.J. Veevers).
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ABSTRACT
We test the hypothesis that the Transgondwanan Supermountains at the collision of

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East and West Gondwanaland were the provenance of a vast turbiditic fan that stretched
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alongside the East Gondwanaland margin to eastern Australia which, in turn, became the
provenance of sediment shed into interior Australia to the Cretaceous Ceduna Delta in
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central-southern Australia and the modern Channel Country of central Australia. We employ
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an integrated analysis (U–Pb, Lu–Hf isotopes and trace elements) of detrital zircons in the
Ceduna Delta and Channel Country. The main properties of the detrital zircons are U–Pb
ages of 700–500 Ma (model ages TDMC 2.5–1.0 Ga; εHf +10 to -20) and 1300–1000 Ma ages
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(TDMC 2.7–1.3 Ga; εHf +4 to -17), in hosts of mafic granitoids with alkaline affinity. Zircons
with these properties can be traced back through the drainage/paleo-slope to the intermediate
provenances of the Ordovician turbidites and S-type granitoids of the Lachlan Orogen, then
up-paleoslope to the primary or secondary provenance of the ancestral Gamburtsev
Subglacial Mountains, and finally to the primary provenance of the Transgondwanan
Supermountains atop the 700–500 Ma East African-Antarctic Orogen. Another primary
provenance, the 140–95 Ma Whitsunday Volcanic Province /New Caledonia arc in
northeastern Australia, also shed sediment across Australia to the Ceduna Delta.
We suggest that the primary sediment from the 700–500 Ma East African-Antarctic
Orogen and the ancestral Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains was shed into a deep-sea super-
fan to (1) Ordovician turbidites in southeast Australia, recycled by melting of the turbidites to
(2) 450 Ma S-type granites in the Lachlan Orogen, and (3) finally deposited, together with
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volcanogenic sediment from northeast Australia, in the Ceduna Delta. Zircons in the Channel
Country and the Ceduna Delta have essentially the same properties, and indicate that the
northeastern Australian provenance was largely unchanged over the past 100 Ma.
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Keywords:
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U–Pb detrital zircon age, Hf-isotopes, SE Australia, Provenance, Gamburtsev
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Subglacial Mountains, East African-Antarctic Orogen
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1. Introduction
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We test the hypothesis that early Paleozoic sediment in eastern Australia came from
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the Transgondwanan Supermountains of East Africa /Antarctica (Squire et al., 2006) by
making isotopic analyses of detrital zircons from the modern Channel Country and late
Cretaceous Ceduna Delta (Fig. 1). We test also the hypothesis that sediment in eastern
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Australia additionally came from the Whitsunday Volcanic Province, which erupted during
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the ~100 Ma re-orientation of plate vectors with cessation of subduction in the East
Gondwanaland margin and terminal climax of the arc (Veevers, 2000; Matthews et al., 2012)
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(Fig. 1). The following extension led to the re-shaping of Australia by uplift of the Eastern
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Highlands and the flow of sediment into the internal Ceduna Delta (Jones and Veevers,
1983). At the same time, an uplift in southern Australia contributed further sediment to the
Ceduna Delta (MacDonald et al., 2013), which amassed ~1 x 106 km3 of sand.
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Detrital zircons in the Ceduna Delta reflect the ~100 Ma extensional magmatism and
the collisional magmatism at 700–500 Ma and 1300–1000 Ma. Sircombe (1999) determined
the U–Pb ages of detrital zircon in Quaternary and Neogene littoral sands and Triassic
sandstones from eastern Australia, and found that most samples reflect the older events. The
700–500 Ma peaks, already recognised by Ireland et al. (1994, 1998) in early Paleozoic
turbidites in Marie Byrd Land, New Zealand, and in the Australian Delamerian (Kanmantoo)
and Lachlan Orogens, were termed the ―Pacific–Gondwana igneous component‖. The
inferred provenance was ice-covered Antarctica, since confirmed by southerly paleocurrents
in the Kanmantoo Group (Haines and Flöttmann, 1998; Haines et al., 2001, 2009) and in
Lachlan Orogen turbidites (Powell, 1984). Other potential provenances are the 490–310 Ma
magmas in the Lachlan Orogen, 300–200 Ma magmas in the New England Orogen, and 140–
90 Ma volcanics along the eastern Australian margin. In particular, Sircombe (1999)
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suggested that the 700 to 500 Ma cluster in the central NSW coastal sands was recycled from
the proximal Triassic Hawkesbury Sandstone of the Sydney Basin, and the 175 to 100 Ma
cluster in the Cenozoic Murray Basin was derived from the 1200-km-distant volcanic rocks
in the northeast. Veevers et al. (2006) analysed five of Sircombe‘s (1999) samples for Hf-
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isotopes and trace elements to provide zircon Hf-isotope crustal model ages (TDMC) (2.0 to
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1.0 Ga) and host-rock affinities (alkaline) of the zircons in the 700 to 500 Ma cluster. This
cluster, called d+ (700–500 Ma) (letter symbols explained in Table 1), together with 1300–
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1000 Ma (c) ages, dominate throughout eastern Australia, whether in second-cycle early
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Paleozoic sediments, or in third-cycle granites, and fourth-cycle Triassic, Pliocene, and
Quaternary sands, including deep-water turbiditic sands in the Capricorn Sea Valley off
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Queensland (Boyd et al., 2008; Veevers, 2015).
These zircons were postulated to have been derived in the early Paleozoic from the
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Mozambique Belt (Williams and Chappell, 1998) or East African-Antarctic Orogen (EA-AO)
(Squire et al., 2006; Williams and Pulford, 2008), and not from Australia. Squire et al. (2006)
developed this idea, as follows. Detrital zircons with 650–500 Ma and 1200–950 Ma U–Pb
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ages were sourced from either side of a >8000-km-long and generally >1000-km-wide
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mountain chain (the Transgondwanan Supermountains), which formed following oblique

collision between East and West Gondwanaland, commencing at ~650 Ma. The Super-fan
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System spilled during the early Paleozoic on either side of the mountain chain, to the east
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across East Gondwanaland (Antarctica, Zealandia, and Australia) in a deep-sea fan.

Veevers and Saeed (2008) and Veevers et al. (2008a) postulated that the Gamburtsev
Subglacial Mountains (GSM) of East Antarctica are a source of d+ (700–500 Ma) and c
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(1300–1000) zircons. The Lambert Rift is co-existent with the Lambert Glacier, which heads
in the GSM, and contains Permian-Triassic, Cretaceous, Eocene, and Pleistocene sediment
with d+ (700–500 Ma) and c (1300–1000) zircons. The inferred GSM zircons are either
primary, from an orogen of the same age as the East African-Antarctic Orogen (EA-AO), or
secondary, recycled from sediment deposited from the EA-AO (cf. Ordovician turbidite in
the Lachlan Orogen).
The d+ (700–500 Ma) cluster in detrital zircons comprises a more populous sub-
cluster 600–500 Ma (d1) and a less populous 700–600 Ma one (d2) (Veevers, 2015).
In sample 95-141+150 of the Permian-Triassic Amery Group, Lambert Glacier, East
Antarctica (Veevers and Saeed, 2008, p. 330), the combined d+ (d1 + d2) has a
composite εHf of +9 to -28 but, as pointed out by Nathan Daczko (pers. comm.,
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2015), this is composed of negative (0 to -28) εHf in d1 and positive (+9 to 0) εHf in
d2. These values are taken to represent those of the GSM.
Primary zircons of d2 age are unknown in eastern Australia and Antarctica
outside the East African-Antarctic Orogen. In fact, the recognition of any primary
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zircons in the 600–500 Ma sub-cluster older than 522 Ma (eastern Australia) or 540
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Ma (Antarctica) (Foden et al., 2006) depends on the sole occurrence of the 586 Ma Mt
Arrowsmith Volcanics (Table 1).
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The provenance of the youngest group of ages (g) lies in eastern Australia.
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Apatite, sphene, and zircon in the volcaniclastic sediment in the early Cretaceous
(~130–100 Ma) Otway Group of the Otway Basin (Fig. 1), dated by fission-track
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analysis, were postulated as derived from juvenile dacitic volcanism within the
continental rift system or from a volcanic arc to the east (Gleadow and Duddy, 1981).
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Bryan et al. (1997) described the 140–95 Ma Whitsunday Volcanic Province (WVP)
of silicic volcanics in northeastern Queensland as a source of sediment in the
Cretaceous Great Artesian Basin, and the southward extension of the WVP off
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Victoria as a source of the Otway sediments. Bryan et al. (2012) showed that detrital
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zircons in the ~100 Ma Winton Formation of the Great Artesian Basin have a peak
age ~100 Ma and probably came from the WVP or from within the basin, a
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conclusion reinforced by Tucker et al.‘s (2013) study of 388 detrital zircons from the
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Winton Formation.
MacDonald et al. (2013) U–Pb dated 786 detrital zircons from the late
Cretaceous (post-Cenomanian) Ceduna Delta, and argued that the source was
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sediment and basement from a proximal contemporaneously exhumed arcuate South

Australian margin. This challenged the idea that the Ceduna Delta was deposited by a
SW-flowing, continent-scale river system delivering erosional detritus from the
Eromanga Basin (King and Mee, 2004) or from the >2000 km distant Eastern
Highlands (Veevers, 1984, p. 176–179; Veevers, 2000, p. 53, 105) (Fig. 2A). An
arrow (MHSM) indicates the southerly to southwesterly paleocurrent of the fluvial Mt
Howie Sandstone (Wopfner, 1963), recognised as part of the Cenomanian Winton
Formation (Alley et al., 2011), a second arrow indicates the early Cretaceous
paleoslope in eastern Queensland (Hawlader, 1989, 1990), and a third the slope of the
Eocene Garford paleovalley in South Australia (Reid et al., 2009). The shading
indicates (1) a southwestern (SW) lobe of Cenomanian drainage in Queensland and
adjacent South Australia through to Gnarlyknots-1, and a Cenozoic lobe of drainage at
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Garford and Beverley that terminates in South Australia; and (2) a western (W) lobe
of Pliocene and Quaternary drainage in NSW and Victoria that terminates at Lake
Alexandrina (LA). The only other drainage shown is that from the Musgrave Block.
Complementing this paper, Veevers (2015) described the flow of sediment on
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the eastern side of the Eastern Highlands in the beaches of southeastern Australia, and
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traced the beach sand by zircon ages and Hf-isotopes through Ordovician turbidites
and S-type granites of the Lachlan Orogen to Africa/Antarctica.
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Here we extend this work by integrated analysis (U–Pb, Hf-isotopes, trace
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elements) of detrital zircons from Mt Howitt and Gnarlyknots-1 in the Ceduna Delta
derived from the interior slope of the Eastern Highlands to test further the hypothesis
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of the primary provenance of the zircons in East Africa-Antarctica. First, we
document the primary and secondary zircons in bedrock in the Eastern Highlands
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provenance, and describe the setting of the samples.
1.1. Geological background

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The provenance of the modern Mt Howitt sand is demonstrably the western slope of
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the Eastern Highlands in Queensland (Fig. 2B). The Great Western Plateau (GWP) and
Eastern Highlands (EH) (watershed indicated by broken line) border the Central Eastern
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Lowlands (CEL). The central drainage terminates in Lake Eyre (LE); the drainage of the
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Murray-Darling system (MDS) bends through a right-angle at the South Australian

Highlands (SAH) to debouch into the coastal Lake Alexandrina (LA). Detrital zircons from
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modern sand and their age clusters are shown (crosses) in the interior (Mt Howitt, Lowan)
and on the southern coast (Lorne). We show below that the detrital zircons of the Mt Howitt
sand are almost identical to those in the late Cretaceous sand of the Gnarlyknots-1 well in the
Ceduna Delta, and hence from the same provenance. For direct comparison we document the
primary and secondary zircons in bedrock in the Eastern Highlands provenance in terms of
the characteristics of the detrital zircons: U–Pb age, Hf-isotopes, host-rock type, and whole-
rock εNd.
The principal bedrock-age provinces of Australia (Fig. 2C) are divided by the Tasman
Line into Precambrian to the west, and Phanerozoic to the east. In Fig. 2C, boxed data detail
ages of bedrock and contained detrital zircons (DZ). For example, the Lachlan Orogen (LO)
with primary zircons e (490–310 Ma) contains detrital zircons (DZ) predominantly of d+
(700–500 Ma) age. Broken lines indicate the postulated eastward extension of the c (1.3–1.0
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Ga) Albany-Fraser and Musgrave Provinces to the 0.6 Ga continental margin potentially to
shed sediment into the Cape River and Anakie Provinces (Fergusson et al., 2007). New
Caledonia (NC) is restored to its ~100 Ma position.
In the mid-Cretaceous (~100 Ma), the bedrock in the east was exposed in bands
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within the Tasmanides younging from the 586–480 Ma primary zircon-bearing Kanmantoo
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(Delamerian) Orogen, 490–310 Ma Lachlan Orogen, 300–287 Ma Sydney–Bowen Basin, and
300–200 Ma New England Orogen. All the bands contain significant amounts of detrital
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zircons of 700–500 Ma (d+) age and 1300–1000 Ma (c) age (Table 1).
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Subsequent to the Tasmanides are the 140–95 Ma WVP and 135–80 Ma NC, and the
~100 Ma magmas of the eastern Australian margin, all of which contributed substantial
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quantities of sediment to Gnarlyknots-1 and Mt Howitt.
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1.1.1. Whitsunday Volcanic Province
The Whitsunday Silicic Large Igneous Province (LIP) extends southward from the
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Whitsunday Volcanic Province along the margin of East Gondwanaland behind the magmatic
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arc (Fig. 1). The northern part of the >105 Ma magmatic arc of the Median Batholith (MB) of
New Zealand (Mortimer et al., 2006; Rey and Müller, 2010) extends through New Caledonia
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(NC) (Cluzel et al., 2011; Nicholson et al., 2011). Subduction along the trench, placed
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parallel to the magmatic arc, ceased after ~105 Ma except north of NC (Nicholson et al.,
2011). The onset of seafloor spreading became younger from south to north (Müller et al.,
2000; Eagles et al., 2004). The broad shaded arrows on Australia indicate MacDonald et al.‘s
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(2013) postulated drainage system, with the very broad arrow the Cenomanian river that fed
their unit D2, and the other arrows Santonian-Maastrichtian input to D1 (penetrated by
Gnarlyknots-1) from the 1–2 km exhumed southern Australian arcuate uplift. Exhumation
(1–3 km) of the ancestral eastern Highlands and Winton Formation (0.5 km) (Veevers, 2000,
p. 105–107) provided abundant sediment that flowed down the paleoslopes of eastern
Queensland (Hawlader, 1989, 1990), southeastern Australia (Bryan et al., 1997), and western
Queensland (Wopfner, 1963).
1.1.2. Tasmanides and older provinces
Fig. 3 constitutes a census of ages of zircons, primary and detrital/inherited, in eastern

Australia. The zircons became available as a potential provenance during the ~100 Ma uplift
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of the Eastern Highlands and the reversal of drainage back to the interior of East
Gondwanaland to the Ceduna Delta and subsequently to the present-day drainage to Lake
Eyre and Lake Alexandrina (Fig. 1; 2A, B).
The 2000–1000 Ma detrital zircon clusters (dotted lines in Fig. 3D, I to IV) in bedrock
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have a potential source in Australia (Fig. 2C) including cluster a (1800–1500 Ma) from the
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proximal Georgetown Inlier and Mt Isa Province, and c (1300–1000 Ma) from the distal
Musgrave Province. Cluster d+ (700–500 Ma), with no primary provenance in Australia, was
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deposited first in the Cambrian Kanmantoo Group (Haines and Flöttmann, 1998; Ireland et
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al., 1998; Haines et al., 2001, 2009;), and then in Ordovician turbidites of the Lachlan
Orogen, including the Argentine Metamorphics and sediments of the Anakie Province. The
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d+-bearing Kanmantoo Group was involved in the ~500 Ma Delamerian Orogeny, and could
have supplied d+ sediments to the Ordovician turbidites of the Lachlan Orogen but in much
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smaller amounts that those from the GSM/EA-AO. The Lachlan deposits, in turn, became the
provenance of d+ in <200 Ma sediments. The younger half of d+, cluster d1 (600–500 Ma),
is derivable from the Delamerian (Kanmantoo) Orogen, e (490–310 Ma) from the granites of
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the Lachlan Orogen, f (300–200 Ma) from the granites of the New England Orogen, and g
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(140–90 Ma) from the WVP. The Tasmanides granitoids are potential provenances of
primary zircons <600 Ma (d1 and younger) and the Tasmanides detrital/inherited zircons
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≥600 Ma are the potential provenance of reworked zircons in the older half of the d+ (700–
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500 Ma) cluster, called d2 (700–600 Ma). As noted above, this fact led Sircombe (1999) and
Veevers and Saeed (2011) to postulate a primary provenance of the d2 zircons in conjugate
Antarctica, and Williams and Chappell (1998) and Squire et al. (2006) to suggest East
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Africa-Antarctica. Kemp et al. (2009) confirmed the reworked nature of the zircons in the
Delamerian and Lachlan Orogens by showing that the Cambrian to Ordovician turbidites of
the Delamerian and Lachlan Orogens were shed from cratonic sources of substantial crustal
residence ages, as suggested by the strongly negative whole rock εNd values and Hf isotope
composition (Kemp et al., 2006) of detrital zircons.
Information about the zircons of SE Australia, is provided by U–Pb, Hf-isotope, and
oxygen-isotope analyses of detrital and inherited zircons in the Lachlan Orogen (Kemp et al.,
2006). The U–Pb ages of the Ordovician (~450 Ma) Lachlan Orogen samples match those of
the reworked ~240 Ma (Triassic) Hawkesbury Sandstone within the clusters of d+ (700–500
Ma), c (1300–1000 Ma), aa (2330–1950 Ma), and aaa (2900–2600 Ma) (Veevers, 2015).
Another match is that between the age-distribution of the zircons in the Lachlan Orogen in
southern NSW and that of detrital zircons from the late Ordovician Fork Lagoon Beds and
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late Cambrian Argentine Metamorphics, ~2000 km northward in northern Queensland

(Veevers, 2015). The probability density plots of <1150 Ma zircons are co-extensive, with
almost identical peaks (Fig. 3C), and are interpreted as showing the continuity of the turbidite
fans in eastern Australia from the GSM/EA-AO provenance. The εHf distribution in d+
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differs slightly (Veevers, 2015): in the ~240 Ma Hawkesbury Sandstone, εHf is clustered
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about 0, with a long tail of evolved values down to -40; in the Lachlan Orogen, it is
concentrated about -5, with a tail to -30; and the TDMc model ages in the Hawkesbury
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Sandstone (1.0 – (peak 1.4) – 2.1 Ga, 2.7– (3.0) – 3.1 Ga) are similar to those Nd T2DM (2-
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stage model) ages in the Tasmanides but slightly younger than those in the Lachlan Orogen
(1.5 – (1.9) – 2.5 Ga, 3.1 – (3.3) – 3.6 Ga) The small differences may reflect differences
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within the GSM/EA-AO provenance.
Squire et al. (2006) show the ubiquity of d+ (700–500 Ma) and c (1300–1000 Ma) detrital
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zircons in 525 Ma (early Cambrian) to 390 Ma (middle Devonian) sedimentary rocks of the
Delamerian, Kanmantoo, and Lachlan Orogens in South Australia and Victoria.
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1.1.3. Eastern arc and back-arc

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The eastern arc extends from the Median Batholith of Zealandia though NC (Fig. 1).
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In NC, the mid-Cretaceous epoch is marked by an angular unconformity between (1) the
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amalgamated Permian–early Cretaceous terranes formed during a period of

subduction/accretion along the East Gondwanaland margin and (2) the late Cretaceous
―Formation à charbon‖ and other rocks formed during post-subduction extension of the
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margin. Ages range from 135 to 80 Ma (Cluzel et al., 2010, 2011) (Table 1). The > 88 Ma
zircons are interpreted as being sourced from a volcanic arc at the margin of East
Gondwanaland, and the < 88 Ma zircons as sourced from magmas erupted during extension.
Peak ages at 101 Ma, 119 Ma, and 132 Ma indicate the abundance of these aged rocks with a
continental-arc signature in NC (Nicholson et al., 2011), shown in its palinspastic position in
Fig. 2C.
In a back-arc position, the WVP (Fig. 1) comprises dacitic-rhyolitic and lithic-rich
ignimbrite and mafic dyke swarms, sills, and lavas, with ages 140–90 Ma (Bryan et al., 1997,
2012) (Table 1). According to Bryan et al. (2012), the calc-alkaline and arc-like signatures of
the WVP have been inherited from the crustal source, and do not provide any constraints on
the tectonic setting in which these magmas were produced. At the time of eruption, the WVP
was several hundred kilometres inboard of the arc along the continent margin in an
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appropriately within-plate or back-arc position, in a zone of protracted extension, with a final

phase of more intense rifting and more widespread eruption along the south-eastern part of
Australia, Zealandia, and Marie Byrd Land (Veevers, 2000, p. 105).
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1.1.4. Southern Rift System
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The Southern Rift System developed during the late Jurassic–early Cretaceous between
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Australia and Antarctica, and extended through the Gippsland, Bass, and Otway Basins in
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Victoria westward to the Great Australian Bight Basin (Fig 1). In the Ceduna Delta of the
Great Australian Bight Basin, faulted early Cretaceous quartzose sediment is unconformably
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overlain by the late Cretaceous quartzose sediment of the Ceduna Delta. The inception of
rifting along the southern margin is indicated by the basal sediment in Jerboa-1, which
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contains the late Jurassic (Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian, 164–152 Ma) Murospora florida
spore-pollen zone (Morton and Drexel, 1995). In the Ceduna Delta, on the southern side of
Potoroo-1 and the main rift boundary fault, subsidence of 100 m/Ma in the early Cretaceous
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jumped to 300 m/Ma in the late Cretaceous and decreased to 20 m/Ma in the Cenozoic
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(Veevers, 1991, p. 8).

In Victoria, the rift is filled with early Cretaceous alternating quartzose and volcanogenic
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sediment unconformably overlain by late Cretaceous quartzose sediment (Duddy, 2003). The
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volcanogenic sediment comes from a presumed volcanic centre located east (and up-
paleoslope) of the Gippsland Basin and related to the magmatic arc along the margin of East
Gondwanaland.
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2. Methods
We now describe the geological setting of the zircon samples, and the methods of
analysis: U–Pb age; Hf isotopes for (i) Hf , which discriminates between host magmas
derived in part from juvenile mantle (fertile) sources and those from older (recycled)
crustal material, and (ii) crustal model age (TDMC); and, from trace-element analysis,
the rock type of host igneous rock.
2.1. Samples
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The Mt Howitt sample is surface sand from a meandering sandy paleochannel

in the eastern side of the 70-km-wide floodplain of Cooper Creek in the Channel
Country of SW Queensland (Fig. 2A, B). Further details are given online in the
Supplementary Data Files.
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Three late Cretaceous samples of ditch cuttings in Gnarlyknots-1 in the
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Ceduna Delta were analysed. The Ceduna Delta forms a conspicuous bathymetric
bulge that extends for 700 km along the southern Australian margin (Fig. 1), and
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covers an area of 126 000 km2, with the late Cretaceous sedimentary succession
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reaching an estimated 12–15 km in thickness and a volume of ~1 x 106 km3,
comparable in size to the modern Niger Delta (MacDonald et al., 2013). The Delta is
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subdivided into two structurally distinct lobes, a Cenomanian lobe in the west (D2;
thickness >5000 m) and a Coniacian–Maastrichtian lobe in the east (D1; thickness
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≤5000 m). The two delta lobes are separated by Turonian–Santonian intercalated
deltaic material and marine mudstone of varying thickness. Gnarlyknots-1 (Figs. 1,
Fig. 2A), drilled in 2003 by Woodside Petroleum, penetrated 3000 m of D1, and
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provided samples GN-D, GN-E, and GN-F aged Coniacian, Santonian, and
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Maastrichtian in the late Cretaceous.

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2.2. Methods of analysis

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Zircon separates were prepared from crushed samples using standard

techniques. Zircon grains were picked under the binocular microscope (with UV light
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attachment), mounted in epoxy blocks, and polished for further analysis. The selection
of grains was designed to include all visually recognised populations in approximate
proportion to their abundance in the sample, without attempting a statistically
representative selection. It is our view that such ―statistical representation‖ is unlikely
to be geologically meaningful, given the wide abundance of zircon in different rocks
and the vagaries of transport survival.
We aimed to analyse at least 50–60 grains of zircon from each sample;
analysis of 60 grains provides a 95% probability of finding a population comprising
5% of the total (Dodson et al., 1988). In our case, the attempt to include all
recognisable populations would improve the probability that such minor populations
have been included. Internal structure (inherited cores, resorption events,
metamorphic rims) was revealed by cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy and back-
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scattered electron (BSE) imaging on the electron microprobe (EMP) (Fig. 4). The
electron microprobe was also used for precise analysis of Hf and Y in individual
grains. The Hf data allow Yb/Hf and Lu/Hf ratios collected during Hf-isotope analysis
(see below) to be converted to concentrations. These elements, together with U and
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Th data collected during the U–Pb analysis, provide discriminants that can be used to
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recognise broad categories of magmatic rocks from which the zircons crystallised
(Belousova et al., 2002).
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2.2.1. U–Pb analysis
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U–Pb analysis was carried out using a New Wave Research 213 nm laser-
ablation microprobe (LAM) attached to a Hewlett Packard 4500 inductively coupled
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plasma mass spectrometer (LAM–ICPMS). Zircon cores of igneous origin were
analysed. Techniques are described by Griffin et al. (2000, 2002). A well-
characterised zircon standard (GEMOC GJ-1; 608 Ma with near-concordant Pb) is
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ablated under the same conditions. Spatial resolution is 30–40 µm. This method gives
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U–Pb ages with precision (≤2%) comparable to those of ion-probe data; accuracy has
been demonstrated by repeated analyses of standard zircons from several sources
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(Belousova et al., 2001; Andersen et al., 2004; Jackson et al., 2004). Comparison of
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count rates between sample and standard also yields concentration values for U and
Th. We have used the more precise 206Pb/238U ages for grains with 207Pb/206 Pb ages
<1000 Ma, and 207Pb/206Pb ages for older grains. Because most grains were
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concordant as analysed, no common-lead corrections have been applied (e.g.,

Andersen 2002). We have discarded grains that are discordant by more than 20%
(i.e., where the 206Pb/238U age is less than 80% of the 207Pb/206 Pb age). This cutoff is
more generous than is typically applied in dating individual rock samples. However,
in the study of detrital samples, where one aim is to pick up small populations, the
exclusion of mildly discordant grains risks the loss of information on the age structure
of the sample. We follow Gillis et al. (2005) in admitting grains ≤20 % discordant, but
stricter than Gehrels‘ (2006) ―discordance (typically 30% cutoff).‖ Some reversely
discordant grains with unusually low 208Pb/232Th ages imply multistage disturbance of
the U–Pb systematics and also have been discarded. The age spectra have been
deconvoluted using an in-house program that models the data as a series of Gaussian
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distributions; the associated uncertainties are given as the full width half maximum of
each peak.
Age data alone give a one-dimensional picture of provenance, and cannot
distinguish between two provenances of similar age but different geological history.
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It is now possible to obtain U–Pb ages, trace-element data, and Hf-isotope
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measurements from single grains of zircon (Knudsen et al., 2001; Belousova et al.,
2001, 2002; Griffin et al., 2000, 2002; O‘Reilly et al., 2008). Time-resolved analysis
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methods were used for the collection of U–Pb and Hf isotope data.
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2.2.2. Hf isotopes
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Hf isotopes were analysed on a laser ablation microprobe multi-collector
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inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (LAM–MC–ICPMS) (Griffin et al.,
2000) in separate ablations, and CL images were used to ensure that the same portion
of the zircon grain was analysed. Only zircon cores of igneous origin were analysed.
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Trace elements were analysed on an electron microprobe (EMP) and LAM-ICPMS.

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The electron microprobe was used for precise analysis of Hf and Y in individual
grains. The Hf data allow Yb/Hf and Lu/Hf ratios collected during Hf isotope analysis
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to be converted to concentrations.
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During the period in which the data were collected, repeated measurements of
reference zircons demonstrate the accuracy and precision of the technique. Analysis
of the Mud Tank zircon gave 176Hf/177Hf = 0.282511 ± 5.4 (2sd, n = 95), which is
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within error of the long-term value obtained in the laboratory of 0.282522 ± 42 (2sd,
n = 2335) (Griffin et al., 2007). Analysis of Harvard 91500 zircon gave values of
0.282310 ± 7 (2sd, n = 56), which is within error of the long-term value in the
laboratory of 0.282307 ± 58 (2sd, n = 632) (Griffin et al., 2007). All these values are
within error of values from other methods (Griffin et al., 2006a):
S-TIMS 0.282284 ± 60 (2sd, n = 6) (Wiedenbeck et al., 1995)
S-MC-ICPMS 0.282302 ± 8 (2sd, n = 59) (Goolaerts et al., 2004).
For the calculation of εHf values, which give the difference between the sample
and a chondritic reservoir in parts/104, we have adopted the chondritic values of
Blichert-Toft et al. (1998). To calculate model ages (TDM) based on a depleted-mantle
source, we have adopted a model with (176Hf/177Hf)i = 0.279718 and 176Lu/177Hf =
0.0384 to produce a value of 176Hf/177Hf (0.28325) similar to that of average MORB
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over 4.56 Ga. Precision on 176

Hf/177Hf is ± 0.00003 (2σ) or ± 1 Hf. Hf values and
model ages used in the figures were calculated using the value of the 176Lu decay
constant of 1.865 x 10-11 yr-1 (Scherer et al., 2001). As in Zheng et al. (2006), we use
a plot of U–Pb vs 176Lu/177Hf for finding the age of extraction of the source of the host
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rock from the depleted mantle.
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In the plot of Hf vs age, with the Chondritic Unfractionated Reservoir
(CHUR) reference line at zero, zircons that plot above the line had host magmas
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derived in part from juvenile mantle (fertile) sources and those below the line from
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older (recycled) crustal material. Zircon populations that plot above and below the
line had host magmas generated by mixing of juvenile mantle and old crustal sources.
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The same relations apply in the plot of 176Hf/177Hf vs age, with the higher reference
line of the Depleted Mantle (DM).
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2.2.3. Crustal model age: TDMC
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TDM model ages, which are calculated using the measured 176Lu/177Hf of the
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zircon, give a minimum age for the source material of the magma from which the
zircon crystallised. These model ages are comparable to Nd–Sm model ages.
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Precision is regarded as ± 5%.

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For zircons <2500 Ma, we have calculated a ―crustal‖ model age (TDMC),
which assumes that the protolith from which the host magma of a given zircon was
derived came from an average continental crust (176Lu/177Hf = 0.015) originally
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derived from the depleted mantle. Finally, regardless of the geochemical inferences,
the various measurements provide a basis for detailed comparison of the zircon
populations.
2.2.4. Rock type of host

According to Belousova et al. (2002), trace-element abundances in igneous
zircons, as determined by electron microprobe and laser-ablation microprobe ICPMS
analysis, are shown to be sensitive to source-rock type and crystallisation
environment. The concentrations of 26 trace elements in zircons from a wide range of
different rock types reveal distinctive elemental abundances and chondrite-normalised
trace-element patterns for specific rock types. Trace-element abundance in zircons
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increases from ultramafic through mafic to granitic rocks. Average content of REE is
typically less than 50 ppm in kimberlitic zircons, up to 600–700 ppm in carbonatitic
and lamproitic zircons, and 2000 ppm in zircons from mafic rocks, and can reach per
cent levels in zircons from granitoids and pegmatities. Relatively flat chondrite-
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normalised REE patterns with chondrite-normalised Yb/Sm ratios from 3 to 30
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characterise zircons from kimberlites and carbonatites, but Yb/Sm is commonly over
100 in zircons from pegmatites. Th/U ratios typically range from 0.1 to 1, but can be
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100–1000 in zircons from some carbonatites and nepheline syenite pegmatites. The
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geochemical signatures characteristic of zircon from some rock types can be
recognised in bivariate discriminant diagrams, but multivariate statistical analysis is
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essential for the discrimination of zircons from most rock types.
Belousova et al.‘s (2002) classification and regression tree (CART) of zircons
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has a branch interpreted as coming from alkaline rocks and carbonatites (ARCs), with
these discriminants: Lu < 20.7 ppm and Ta <0.5 ppm characterise syenite; Lu < 20.7
ppm, Ta > 0.5 ppm, then Lu > 2.3 ppm characterise carbonatite. In place of the
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inferred rock-type names, we refer to zircon grains with these characteristics by the
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general descriptive term ―low heavy-rare-earth-element (low-HREE) group‖. We

discriminate further by ―low-HREE-s‖ for those classified as syenite, and ―low-
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HREE-c‖ for those classified as carbonatite.

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This combination of techniques makes it possible to determine for each grain

not only the U–Pb age but the nature and source of the host magma, whether crustal or
juvenile mantle, and model age (TDM). The integrated analysis, applied to suites of
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detrital zircon, gives a more distinctive, and more easily interpreted, picture of crustal
evolution in the provenance area than age data alone. TDM model ages are expressed
in Ga (e.g., 2.0–1.8 Ga), and the implicit 0.1 Ga signifies the level of precision. U–Pb
zircon ages are given in Ma (e.g., 1068 Ma) except where space considerations, as in
some figures, require abbreviation (e.g., 1.07 Ga).
The data are presented in probability density plots (PDPs) (Ludwig, 2001). The
analytical data are available as Excel files in the Supplementary Data Files in the online
version.
3. Results
3.1. Analysis of Quaternary sand at Mt Howitt
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The U–Pb clusters (shaded in Fig. 5A) are 125–160 Ma, which overlaps g (90–140
Ma), 220–365 Ma (f), 520–675 Ma (d+), including low-HREE-c zircons (white), and 1130–
1200 Ma (c). TDMC has major peaks at 0.54 and 1.7 Ga.
esdecribed the flow mof sedcimentg to the e
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3.2. Analyses of late Cretaceous sand of the Ceduna Delta
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Three late Cretaceous samples of ditch cuttings (Fig. 6A) were analysed (Fig. 6B–D).
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In the pooled samples (Fig. 5B), the U–Pb ages cluster at 90–140 Ma (g), 205–335 Ma (f),
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500–700 Ma (d+), 1000–1235 Ma (c), and 1500–1800 Ma (a), and have a minor cluster at
140–205 Ma (g-f). TDMC has major peaks at 0.6 and 1.8 Ga, and a minor peak at 2.45 Ga. The
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arrow tips indicate that (1) the g cluster came from a host magma derived 0.5 Ga from
juvenile crust (positive εHf), (2) the f cluster came from a host magma derived 0.7 Ga from
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juvenile crust (mainly positive εHf) and from a host magma derived 1.6 Ga from juvenile and
older recycled crustal material (positive and negative εHf), (3) the ~550 Ma cluster (d+)
came from a host magma derived 1.4 and 2.0 Ga from juvenile and mainly older recycled
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crustal material (positive and negative εHf), and (4) the ~1180 Ma cluster (c) came from a
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host magma derived 1.75 Ga mainly from juvenile crust (positive εHf). Of the 34 grains in
the 500–700 Ma cluster analysed for rock-type, 50% are from mafic granitoids and 28% from
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low-HREE-c rocks (shown in white).

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The individual samples are shown in Fig. 6B–D. The U–Pb ages are shown within the
general clusters (Table 1) at g (140–95 Ma), g-f (183–147 Ma), f (300–200 Ma), d+ (700–
500 Ma), and c (1300–1000 Ma). The TDMc Hf model ages have peaks (1) at 0.55 and 0.62
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Ga in GN-D–F, (2) at 1.8 Ga in GN-D and E, and (3) 2.45 G in GN-D and -F. The peak at
1.42 Ga in GN-F possibly signifies a change in provenance input of the d+ zircons. With this
exception, the properties of the zircons in the three samples remain uniform from the
Coniacian–Santonian (86 Ma) to the Maastrichtian (~68 Ma), signifying an unchanged
provenance during the 86–68 Ma interval.
3.3. MacDonald et al.’s (2013) analyses
MacDonald et al. (2013) analysed detrital zircons from ten ditch-cuttings samples of
the late Cretaceous sandstones in Gnarlyknots-1 (Fig. 6A) for U–Pb (LA-ICPMS) ages. The
PDP of the pooled samples (n = 770) is shown in Fig. 5C. The ages are clustered into
prominent peaks at g, f, and d+, and contain a deep valley at e, all matching the <1000 Ma
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part of the PDP of the pooled data D+E+F (Fig. 5B) and of Mt Howitt except the two peaks
in e (Fig. 5A). In Fig. 5C, low rises >1000 Ma are identified as c and a.
4. Interpretation of the provenances
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We now interpret the results of the analyses in terms of the provenances.
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4.1. Mt Howitt and Gnarlyknots-1 sands in the context of the southwestward and westward
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drainages
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The Mt Howitt and Gnarlyknots-1 sands are compared in the context of their position
in the drainage systems from the modern (Fig. 2B) and ancestral Eastern Highlands to the
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SW and W (Fig. 2A). The Mt Howitt sand today is in the SW system, with actual provenance
in eastern Queensland; the late Cretaceous Gnarlyknots-1 sand is inferred to have been
downslope in both SW and W systems. In Figs. 7 and 8, the Gnarlyknots-1 sand (K, L) is
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placed in both W (full lines) drainage and SW drainage (broken lines) (Table 2).
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As shown in Figs. 7 and 8, the Winton Formation (B) is both a deposit from the g-
aged (140–90 Ma) primary zircons of the WVP (A) and the provenance of secondary g
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zircons in the SW drainage, including the Mt Howitt sand (C), the Beverly Sands (D), the
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Pidinga Formation (E), and the Gnarlyknots-1 sand (K, L).

Cluster g-f ages (183–147 Ma) are lacking in both Queensland and NSW provenances
and in the SW drainage, except Mt Howitt (Figs. 7, 8C) (162–141 Ma, Table S8) and
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Gnarlyknots-1 (K, L) (192–155 Ma, Table S8), and in the W drainage (G, H, I, J). The 158–
152 Ma Ma I-type granitoids of New Zealand (Table S8) projected northward in the arc are a
potential source of these zircons.
Cluster f ages (300–200 Ma) are prominent in the New England Orogen in both
Queensland (Figs. 7A, 8A) and New South Wales (F), and, not surprisingly, are found in all
the samples except the Winton Formation (B).
Cluster e (490–310 Ma) has a U-shaped PDP, with peaks e2 (360–330 Ma) and e1
(450–425 Ma) (Table 1) on either side of a gap in ages. Peak e2 (360–330 Ma) reflects the
Kanimblan Cycle (380–310 Ma) of the Lachlan Orogen, e1 (450–425 Ma) the Benambran
Cycle (490–440 Ma) (Table 1). Peaks e2 and e1 are found in bedrock (A, F), defined in the Mt
Howitt sand, and found in all samples except the Winton Formation (B), Robinvale (J),
Gnarlyknots-1 (J, K), and Lorne (L).
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Cluster d+ is prominent in the NSW provenance of Lachlan Orogen detrital/inherited

zircons (F), and less prominent in Queensland. It is the prominent feature in all the samples
except the Winton Formation (again), and the Beverley Sands (D). Many of the zircons in Mt
Howitt (C), Robinvale (J), and Gnarlyknots-1 (K) have the distinctive low-HREE-c hosts of
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this cluster (Veevers et al., 2006). In the Mt Howitt sample, of the 20 grains in the 675–520
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Ma (d+) cluster, an exceptionally high number (60%) are from low-HREE-c rocks, and 20%
each from granitoids and mafic rocks.
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Cluster c (1300–1000 Ma) is identified in both Queensland and NSW provenances as
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detrital/inherited zircons, and in central Australia as primary (magmatic and metamorphic)
zircons (c predominantly, with a few older detrital and inherited ones) (Howard et al., 2015;
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Smithies et al., 2015) but not in the Gawler Craton (except in the TerraneChron sample, Fig.
7D), which contains a, 1800–1500 Ma, aa,~2000 Ma, aaa, and ~3100 Ma. Cluster c,
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prominent in Queensland bedrock (A) and in the Musgrave Province (Table S2, Fig. 2C, Fig.
7E), is reflected in Mt Howitt (C) and Gnarlyknots-1 (K, L). Cluster a is prominent in the
Gawler Craton (E) but barely present in Gnarlyknots-1 (K, L).
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Other parameters, such as TDMC and εHf/εNd will be treated in detail below. It
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suffices to say here that the TDMC peaks at ~0.55 Ga and ~1.7 Ga (vertical pattern) are found
in Mt Howitt (Fig. 7F) and Gnarlyknots-1 (K), as well as in the detrital/inherited zircons of
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the Lachlan Orogen (F) and at Robinvale (J).

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4.2 Mt Howitt and Gnarlyknots-1 sands compared

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The detrital zircons in the Mt Howitt sand (Figs. 7C, 8C) correlate with those in the
samples from Gnarlyknots-1 (K, L) (Table S9) in these ways.
(1) They have similar U–Pb age spectra, with clusters in g (140–90 Ma), g-f (183–147 Ma), f
(300–200 Ma), d+ (700–500 Ma) and c (1300–1000 Ma) (shaded). Only in g does Mt
Howitt‘s U–Pb age of 160–125 Ma differ from Gnarlyknots-1‘s 140–95 Ma.
(2) They have similar TDMc Hf model age spectra, with peaks about 2.4 Ga, 1.7 Ga, and 0.55
Ga.
(3) They have similar hosts in the clusters. Particularly distinctive is the exceptionally high
content of low-HREE-c hosts in d+ zircons: 60% in Mt Howitt, 28% in Gnarlyknots-1.
Zircons from low-HREE-c hosts are common in eastern Australian coastal sands―Stockton,
Coffs Harbour, Hummock Island, all derived from the Triassic Hawkesbury Sandstone
(Veevers, 2015)―and are matched by primary zircons in the potential provenance of a
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nepheline syenite at Radian Ridge, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica (Veevers et al., 2006,
p. 148), and in the potential provenance of 700–500 Ma alkaline rocks, including nepheline
syenite, in the East African-Antarctic Orogen (Veevers, 2007, p. 8).
(4) They have similar values of εHf: positive in g, mainly positive in f, mainly negative in
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d+, and mainly positive in c.
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We interpret the similar zircons in the modern sand of Mt Howitt and those in the late
Cretaceous sand of Gnarlyknots-1 as indicating an unchanged provenance in eastern
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Australia from the late Cretaceous to the present day. Moreover, since the provenance of the
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modern Mt Howitt sand is the modern southwestern slope of the Eastern Highlands in
Queensland (Fig. 2B), we may infer that the Eastern Highlands have existed in much the
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same form (but with much lower elevation today) since their inception in the late Cretaceous,
as shown independently by geomorphological studies (Nott, 2005).
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We turn now to detailed comparisons of the age clusters with those of the potential
provenances.
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4.3. Interpretation of the age clusters

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The age clusters of the detrital zircons are dealt with in order of increasing age.
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Clusters <1000 Ma are well populated, those >1000 Ma poorly populated and with larger
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errors, except for samples directly overlying the provenance, as for the modern
TerraneChron® samples (Fig. 7D) and the Eocene Pidinga Formation, with peaks matching
the primary ages in the Gawler Craton and Musgrave Province (Fig. 7E).
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4.4. Cluster g (140–90 Ma)
The correlations of the g zircons by the properties of U–Pb age, host rock type, TDMc,
and εHf in samples Mt Howitt and GN-D+E+F (Fig. 5) and igneous rocks from the WVP and
the Median Batholith of New Zealand (Tables 1, S8) are fairly strong (Fig. 9A). An
exception is Mt Howitt‘s narrow range of 160–125 Ma, which lacks the younger parts of the
150–95 Ma range of the compressional-extensional magmatic outburst in the arc. The older
part of the range (~160 Ma) is found in the silicic tuff in the Bathonian/ Callovian (~165 Ma)
Walloon Coal Measures of the Surat Basin (Bryan, 2013, p. 517) and the 162 ± 0.9 Ma
(40Ar/39Ar) alkali basalt in the offshore Marion Plateau (Kidane et al., 2010). The missing
125–95 Ma ages in Mt Howitt‘s range correspond with the main period of igneous activity in
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the WVP, as reflected in the PDP of the late Cretaceous Winton Formation (Fig. 8B) and that
of the Gnarlyknots-1 sand (Fig. 5B, C). Apparently, the ubiquitous 125–95 Ma zircons have
by-passed the modern sand at Mt Howitt (Fig. 8B, C).
The six youngest individual zircons in Gnarlyknots-1 (Fig. 5B), with a central value
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of 90.0 Ma ± 5.0 Ma, calibrated as latest Turonian/earliest Coniacian (Cohen et al., 2015),
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were deposited in the Coniacian (89.8–86.3 Ma) (Fig. 6A), soon after they crystallised. The
90.0 Ma ± 5.0 Ma age matches the youngest 88.4 ± 1.8 Ma U–Pb age of rhyolitic lava in NC
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(Cluzel et al., 2011; Nicholson et al., 2011), at the northernmost part of the magmatic arc on
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the Pacific margin of East Gondwanaland, in the magmatic upland that sloped southwestward
past the Winton Formation.
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Note that, as above, we express an age by radiometric means in Ma, with the
equivalent stratigraphical age in parenthesis, and vice versa.
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TDMc and εHf data are lacking from the igneous rocks of NC, and the only data of this
kind are εNd values of basement Mesozoic terranes and their cover rocks (Adams et al.,
2009, p. 1026, 1031): the εNd value of Albian (~105 Ma) greywacke (sample NCAL10) is
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+1.77; most of the older (Jurassic and Triassic) greywackes plot within a very narrow range
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of variation with positive εNd (+0.95 < εNd < +3) values, that are typical of magmatic rocks
derived from an undepleted mantle source. Adams et al. (2009) conclude that the sediment is
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locally derived from the East Gondwanaland fore-arc margin, and that rocks of the magmatic
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arc in this region had positive εNd, as in the New Zealand arc: the 132–122 Ma Inboard
zircons with εHf of +4.0 to +2.3 (and TDM ~0.85 Ga) indicate derivation from a more evolved
mantle than the 158–152 Ma and 125–105 Ma Outboard zircons with εHf = +11.1 to +8.4
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(and TDM ~0.45 Ga) from a primitive mantle (Scott et al., 2009).
These comparisons suggest that the WVP and New Zealand are provenances of the g
zircons.
4.4.1. Whitsunday Volcanic Province and New Caledonian arc as provenances
Based on the inferred stratigraphical relationships of Parianos (1993), the oldest dated
volcanic rock in the WVP has a U–Pb age of 134 Ma, and the youngest dated rhyolite 120
Ma (Tulloch et al., 2010). Since then, younger rocks have been U–Pb zircon dated (Jell,
2013, p. 549), including the Flagstaff Hill Granite (117.9 Ma) and the Wycarbah Volcanics
pyroclastics (108.5 Ma). Scott Bryan (pers. comm., 2014) points out that (1) large tracts of
the WVP remain to be dated; (2) exposed comagmatic plutons, sills and dykes indicate that
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up to 3 km of the younger section have been removed, as also recorded by apatite fission-
track studies along the length of the eastern Australian rifted margin (e.g., Raza et al., 1995,
2009) (Fig. 1). The younger, overlying missing section is presumably reflected in the detrital
zircons in the Cenomanian (~95 Ma) Winton Formation that peak at ~102 Ma and are as
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young as 93 Ma (Bryan et al., 2012; Tucker et al., 2013). In central Queensland, zircons from
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the Anakie-Rubyvale alkali basalt pyroclastics, dated by conventional U–Pb methods as 110–
102 Ma and 90–83 Ma (Worden et al., 1996), indicate that younger zircons were generated in
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onshore Australia, but these are minor in volume and restricted in extent.
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Zircons generated in the NC arc on the Andean-type continental margin have peak
ages at 102.7 ± 1.1 Ma and 88.4 ± 1.8 Ma (Cluzel et al., 2011, 2012; Nicholson et al., 2011).
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The arc potentially provided a copious additional or alternative primary potential provenance
of the g cluster.
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4.4.2. Higher-cycle sediments
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The 1st-cycle sediments of the Winton Formation are themselves the immediate
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provenance of the 2nd-cycle (modern) sands at Mt Howitt; and evidence (given below)
suggests that the Winton Formation was a contributing source of the sand in Gnarlyknots-1.
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The similar properties of the Mt Howitt and Gnarlyknots-1 zircons would seem to rule out
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any significant contribution to Gnarlyknots-1 from another source, such as the rift-valley
system of southeastern Australia.
The age spectrum of primary zircons in the WVP and other Queensland bedrock, in
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particular cluster g (140–90 Ma), is echoed in the spectrum of detrital zircons found in
sediments in the drainage SW of the WVP through the Winton Formation of the Eromanga
Basin (Figs. 1, 8B) to the Ceduna Delta (Fig. 8K, L). All five clusters in Queensland bedrock
(g, 140–90 Ma, f, 300–200 Ma, e2, 360–330 Ma, e1, 450–425 Ma, and d+, 700–500 Ma) are
recognised in the sediments of the SW drainage from the postulated margin cordillera and
successor Eastern Highlands (Fig. 8).
4.5. Context of East Gondwanaland
The margin of East Gondwanaland underwent a change from subduction to extension at

~100 Ma (105 Ma and 90 Ma, Table 3), as part of a change in global tectonics (Fig. 1). In
NC, subduction gave way at 90 Ma to extension to generate the NC Basin, and at 68 Ma to
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seafloor spreading. In Zealandia, subduction and head-on collision with the Pacific Plate
ceased at 105 Ma, extension during side-swipe started at 101 Ma and was renewed at 89 Ma,
and gave way to seafloor spreading at 83 Ma. In Marie Byrd Land, subduction ceased at 105
Ma, and was followed by extension, which gave way to seafloor spreading at 90 Ma. The
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three subdivisions of cluster g―g1 (140–128 Ma), g2 (122–110 Ma), both generated by
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subduction and extension, and g3 (104–90 Ma), by extension―are traceable throughout the
region.
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4.6. Cluster g-f (183–147 Ma)
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The properties (rock type, TDMc, and εHf) of the detrital zircons in samples Mt Howitt
and GN-D+E+F (Figs. 5A, B, 7C, K) and the igneous zircons from New Zealand are given in
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Table S8 and Table S10, and Fig. 9B. The New Zealand arc magmas are taken to represent
those of the northern arc in NC, a potential primary provenance of the detrital zircons.
Mt Howitt dolerite and felsic granitoid values are 162–141 Ma, TDMc 0.56–0.39 Ga,
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and εHf +12.9 to +10.1, and overlap Gnarlyknots-1 dolerite and granitoid with values of
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192–155 Ma, 0.68–0.38 Ga, and εHf +13 to +8. In turn, the combined values overlap those
of the New Zealand Outboard Median Batholith quartz diorite and granodiorite: 158–152 Ma,
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TDMC 0.52 and 0.44 Ga, and εHf +11.1 to +8.4.

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The correlations of the g-f zircons are exceptionally strong. All the samples have a
common age within the range of 160–150 Ma; a common rock type of granitoid; and all plot
within a 0.7–0.4 Ga range of TDMC and a +13 to +8 range of εHf.
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Felsic magmatic rocks of Jurassic age (202–145 Ma) are unknown in onshore eastern
Australia. Volcanogenic sediments of this age are abundant in the Maryborough, Surat, and
Eromanga Basins of Queensland and are presumed to have come from a magmatic centre
offshore Queensland (Jones and Veevers, 1983; Veevers, 1984, p. 265–267; Adams et al.,
2009). From the occurrence of silicic tuff in the Bathonian/Callovian (165 Ma) Walloon Coal
Measures of the Surat Basin and 162 ± 0.9 Ma (40Ar/39Ar) alkali basalt in the offshore
Marion Plateau (Kidane et al., 2010), Bryan (2013, p. 517) infers that the volcanism is
bimodal, a forerunner of the WVP.
4.7. Cluster f (300–200 Ma)
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The correlations of the f zircons by the properties of U–Pb age, host rock type, and
εHf, are fairly strong (Tables S11, S12; Fig. 9C). The distinctive low-HREE-c and syenite
hosts correlate with the A-type magmas in the northern New England Orogen (Jell, 2013, p.
484–491, 494–496); and the range of εHf, +13 to +2, is common. In terms of TDMC age, the
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extremes of 0.5 and 1.6 Ga ages of the detrital zircons are contained in the 0.4 to 3.2 Ga
IP
range of the Kennedy Igneous Association of the New England Orogen.
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4.8 Clusters d+ (700–500 Ma) and c (1300–1000 Ma)
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Clusters d+ and c are taken together here because they are associated in most samples
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and potential provenances. A preliminary step here is to examine the potential provenance of
the ancestral GSM of East Antarctica.
MA
Traces of the GSM are provided by detritus shed from the GSM into the northern
drainage today of the Lambert Glacier during the Cenozoic to Cretaceous (Veevers et al.,
2008a; Pierce et al., 2014) and in the Permian-Triassic Amery Group (Veevers and Saeed,
D
2008). A distinctive lithology found in moraine at the head of the Lambert Glacier is red
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siltstone with the Permian Glossopteris (Veevers et al., 2008b), providing a sample of the
presumed rift-valley system about the GSM (Ferraccioli et al., 2011; Veevers, 2011).
P
The Permian-Triassic Amery Group, deposited by the northward axial flow of a

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braided river system, reflects the GSM and the exposed rocks in the Prince Charles
Mountains (Phillips et al., 2005) and the Prydz Bay area (Veevers and Saeed, 2008, p. 318).
The inferred properties of the GSM from this sample and from other evidence are compared
AC
with the observed properties of the zircons in the Lachlan Orogen (LO) and Hawkesbury
Sandstone (HSS) in Table 4 and plotted in Fig. 9D, E. The properties of the Triassic HSS
(Veevers et al., 2006), a 3rd-cycle sediment derived from the 1st- and 2nd-cycle rocks of the
LO (Veevers, 2015), match those of the GSM (Veevers and Saeed, 2008, p. 330) in these
ways (Fig. 9D, E; Table 4):
(1) Cluster d+ (700–500 Ma) zircons with the distinctive low-HREE-c zircons of the HSS
match those of the GSM. Cluster c (1300–1000 Ma) zircons from mafic granitoid hosts
match those of the GSM.
(2) The TDMC ages (at the bottom of Table 4; Fig. 9D, E) are similar in both d+ and c.
(3) εHf is similar in d+ and c.
These similarities show that the GSM was a potential provenance of eastern
Australian early Paleozoic sediment as implied by the Cambrian paleocurrent arrows in the
22
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southern Transantarctic Mountains and Zealandia (Fig. 10): either a primary provenance, in
the form of an orogen formed at the same time as the EA-AO, or a secondary provenance,
part of the submarine fan from the Transgondwanan Supermountains. As shown in Fig. 10,
the Prydz-Leeuwin Belt (Veevers, 2000), the site of the 570–530 Ma Kuungan Orogeny
T
(Meert, 2003), contains the Leeuwin Complex (LC) aged 700–500 Ma and 1200–1000 Ma
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(Wilde and Murphy, 1990; Collins, 2003; Veevers et al., 2005, p. 251). Exposures of the
quartzose sandstones in West Gondwanaland, including the nearshore marine sediments
R
(interbedded red argillite and quartzite) of the Mount Twiss Member of the Howard Nunataks
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Formation, Ellsworth Mountains (Curtis and Lomas, 1999) and turbidites of the Super-fan in
the subsequently deformed Zealandia and the eastern Australian Kanmantoo and Lachlan
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Orogens, Eastern Australia, are shown in the present-day closed configuration – a
palinspastic view is given in Powell (1984, p. 295). The GSM is located in the middle of East
MA
Antarctica (Ferraccioli et al., 2011). Paleoflow vectors of early Paleozoic sediment in (1)
Zealandia are from the Cambrian/Ordovician Greenland Group (Cooper, 1989); (2) from
early Cambrian platform sediment of the Transantarctic Mountains (Goodge et al., 2004); (3)
D
Silurian-Devonian turbidites of the Mathinna Group (Powell et al., 1993; Black et al., 2004;
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Seymour et al., 2011); (4) the Cambrian Kanmantoo Group (Haines et al., 2009); (5) the late
Ordovician Lachlan Orogen (Powell, 1984; Jones et al., 1993; Fergusson and Tye, 1999); (6)
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marks the ≤510 Ma (≤ middle Cambrian) Wynyard Metamorphics (Fergusson et al., 2001)
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and the 495 Ma Argentine Metamorphics (Fergusson et al., 2007) of Queensland at the distal
end of the Super-fan; more proximal are the Cambrian/Ordovician Complex Point Formation
of Campbell island (CI) (Adams et al., 2014) and the Swanson Formation of Marie Byrd
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Land (MBL).
Possibly related to the GSM is the Prydz-Leeuwin Belt (PLB) (Fig. 10), including
granites intensely metamorphosed to granulite facies with zircons aged 700–500 Ma (d+)
with negative εNd (Wilde and Murphy, 1990) and TDM Nd of 1.6–1.1 Ga, and 1200–1000 Ma
(c) (Veevers et al., 2005, p. 251), all comparable with those of the GSM (Table 4).
The early Ordovician Mount Twiss Member in the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains
(EWM) block of West Antarctica, on the western flank of the TGSM, contains a similar set
of parameters (Table 4): 700-500 Ma (d+) with εHf of +2 to -26 and TDM of 1.6-1.1 Ga, and
1150-1000 Ma (c) with εHf of +12 to +2 and TDM of 1.5 to 1.1 Ga (Flowerdew et al., 2007).
The detrital zircons of the Mount Twiss Member most closely resemble those of the primary
DML (Veevers and Saeed, 2008, p. 318), which represents the the proximal provenance of
the TGSM.
23
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4.9. Reflection of the provenances in the GN and Mt Howitt samples
Fig. 9D shows the properties of detrital zircons in sedimentary deposits in eastern-
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central Australia compared with those in potential secondary provenances in Antarctica and
IP
Australia (box) and potential primary provenances in East Africa-Antarctica (heavy box). All
the zircons are detrital or inherited (as in the Lachlan Orogen), except those primary zircons
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in igneous rocks (crosses and Vs).
SC
The potential secondary provenances operated during the early Paleozoic, in
particular during the 100 million-year span (541–444 Ma) of the Cambrian and Ordovician.
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The GSM, whose composition is reflected in their detritus (Veevers and Saeed, 2011, p. 734),
may contain secondary zircons, as shown here, or primary zircons the same age as the EA-
MA
AO.
Within Australia, the primary zircons in the 430 Ma igneous rocks of the LO and the
586 Ma and 522–490 Ma (d1) igneous rocks of the Delamerian and Kanmantoo Orogens
D
cannot account (because of their restricted age range) for any of the 700–600 Ma (d2) sub-
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cluster of detrital zircons. This leaves the 700–500 Ma detrital and inherited zircons in the
Delamerian, Kanmantoo (including the Kanmantoo Group), and Lachlan Orogens as the
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potential secondary provenance of post-orogenic sediments (Veevers, 2015). The ultimate

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source of the d+ (700–500 Ma) zircons is shown by northerly paleoslope indicators in the
turbidites of the ~525 Ma Kanmantoo Group and the 480–440 Ma Ordovician fill of the
Lachlan Orogen (Fig. 10) to be the GSM or the East African-Antarctic Orogen (Squire et al.,
AC
2006), or both. As an example, the Triassic Hawkesbury Sandstone sample contains only
four ~425 Ma zircons (Table S13), the age of the proximal Lachlan granites, and the
dominant d+ zircons are regarded as sourced from detrital and inherited zircons in the
Lachlan Orogen (Veevers, 2015).
The correlations of the d+ zircons by the properties of age (U–Pb and TDMC), host
rock type, and εHf extend across all the columns from GN-DEF to the Mozambique Belt and
Arabian-Nubian Shield (Fig. 9D). All the samples occupy most of the 700–500 Ma range; all
but two of the samples contain the TDMC within the 2.4–1.3 Ga band; the distinctive low-
HREE-c hosts in all four detrital samples match those in the GSM and the alkaline granitoids
of the EA-AO and the Prydz-Leeuwin Belt; finally, all samples but one lie within the +10 to
-30 range of εHf , with values becoming increasingly negative in the secondary and tertiary
deposits. The correlation with the Ross Orogen is strong with its 700–500 Ma span of detrital
24
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zircons and weak with its 540–480 Ma span of granitoids (Goodge et al., 2004), which
nevertheless include alkaline types (Veevers et al., 2006) and similar TDM of 3.2 to 0.9 Ga
and εNd 0 to -12 (Borg et al., 1990; Borg and DePaulo, 1991, 1994). The 1200–900 Ma
(cluster c) detrital zircons in the Ross Orogen (Goodge et al., 2010) provide another example
T
of the ubiquitous distribution of zircons of this age.
IP
As noted above, paleogeographical studies, in particular downslope indicators (Fig.
10), and detrital-zircon studies of East Gondwanaland indicate a primary provenance now
R
situated in the EA-AO (Squire et al., 2006) or a primary or secondary provenance in the
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GSM (Veevers and Saeed, 2011) or both, that provided first- and second-cycle sediment to
eastern Australia during the ~525 and ~500 Ma early and late Cambrian and ~480 Ma
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Ordovician. These deposits in turn, together with early Cretaceous–Cenomanian deposits and
primary volcanic rocks, provided respectively third- and first- and second-cycle sediment to
MA
interior Australia during the late Cretaceous and Cenozoic. In turn, the Triassic Hawkesbury
Sandstone has been the dominant source of coastal and offshore sands to the north in central
coastal eastern Australia (Sircombe, 1999; Boyd et al., 2008; Veevers, 2015).
D
Examples of sediment shed back into interior Australia during the late Cretaceous and
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Cenozoic follow. TDMC model ages (vertical pattern) of the late Cretaceous Gnarlyknots-1
sand (Fig. 7K), of the Pliocene sand at Robinvale (J), and of the modern sand at Mt Howitt
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(C) have an older peak at 1.8 to 1.45 Ga within a range of 2.2 to 1.2 Ga, all reflecting the
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model ages of the detrital zircons in the Lachlan Orogen (F), with peak at 1.9 Ga (vertical
pattern). A younger peak, at 0.6 Ga, is seen also in both Gnarlyknots-1 (K) and the Mt Howitt
sand (C). TDM model ages of ~0.6 Ga are found in the Kennedy Igneous Association (1.1 to
AC
0.3 Ga), and in the WVP (0.6 to 0.4 Ga) (Table S3). These ages support the main derivation
of the three samples from the Lachlan and New England Orogens.
Cluster c 1300–1000 Ma zircons, attributable to the collisional assembly of Rodinia
(Li et al., 2008), are ubiquitous (e.g., Thomas et al., 2010; Boger, 2011), so that tracing
detrital zircons of this age to a specific orogen is especially difficult (e.g., Fergusson and
Henderson, 2015). The detrital zircons in cluster c (1300–1000 Ma) of the Hawkesbury
Sandstone and Lachlan Orogen have granitoid host rocks with TDMc and εHf similar to those
of DML and the Mozambique Belt (Fig. 9E).
The correlations within Australia of the c zircons by the properties of U–Pb age, host
rock type, and εHf (GN to LO in Fig. 9E) are fairly strong, and indicate the Lachlan Orogen
as a likely provenance of the three detrital samples. An additional potential provenance
(heavy border) from the geography of the Mt Howitt sample and paleogeography of the GN-
25
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DEF sample is the 1340–1000 Ma Musgrave Province, which lay in the South Australian
zone of uplift (Figs.1, 2C), and whose properties are similar (Table S2; dotted line box in Fig.
9E).
The distal potential provenances of the GSM, Dronning Maud Land, and the
T
Mozambique Belt/Nampula Complex have a range of parameters similar to those of the
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Hawkesbury Sandstone, and an only slightly less similar range of parameters to those of the
Mt Howitt and Gnarlyknots-1 samples.
R
SC
4.10. Cluster a (1800–1500 Ma)
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Cluster a (1800–1500 Ma) bedrock is common in the northern and south-central parts
of Australia (Fig. 2C). Zircon grains separated from modern sediments in drainages from the
MA
Mt Isa Inlier were analysed for U–Pb ages, Hf isotopes (εHf, TDMC), and trace elements (host
rock-type) (Griffin et al., 2006b). These data from the few zircons in cluster a (1800–1500
Ma) were compared with those of detrital zircons in drainages from the Gawler Craton and
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the Houghton Inlier (Belousova et al., 2006a). The data (εHf, TDMC) from Gnarlyknots-1
TE
zircons in cluster a (1800–1500 Ma) (Fig. 3E) are highly correlated with those of the
proximal Houghton Inlier and Gawler Craton; in particular, the U–Pb ages reflect the peak
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age of the proximal Gawler Craton (Fig. 7D, E) as found also in the overlying Pidinga
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Formation (Fig. 7E). The less proximal Broken Hill Block and the distal Mt Isa Inlier,
themselves highly correlated, and with higher εHf, are less highly correlated with the
Gnarlyknots-1 zircons (Fig. 3E).
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According to Reid et al. (2009), the Eocene Pidinga Formation (Fig. 7E) shows
clusters at (1) 2523 and 2450 Ma reflecting the Mulgathing and Sleaford Complexes of the
Gawler Craton, (2) 1586 Ma (a) reflecting the Gawler Range Volcanics and the Hiltaba Suite
of the Gawler Craton, (3) 1156 and 1061 Ma (c) reflecting these ages in the Pitjantjatjara
Supersuite and Giles Complex of the Musgrave Province, (4) 507 Ma (d) reflecting the
Delamerian Orogeny magmatism of the Adelaide Fold Belt, and (5) 122 Ma (g) reflecting
volcanogenic sediment of the Winton Formation in the Eromanga Basin.
4.11. Cluster aa (2330–1950 Ma)
Cluster aa (2330–1950 Ma) is poorly represented in primary bedrock― a rare

example is the 2000 Ma Miltalie Gneiss of the Gawler Craton reflected in a peak of 2021 ±
26
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30 Ma detrital zircons in the modern Gawler drainage (Belousova et al., 2009) (Fig. 7D, E).
A secondary example is provided by the detrital zircons of the Lachlan Orogen (Fig. 7F),
which provide the few grains in the Pidinga Formation (E), the Loxton-Parilla sand (G), and
the Robinvale sand (J).
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Slightly older than this range is a prominent ~2500 Ma peak in the Pidinga Formation
IP
(Fig. 7E) that matches the 2499 Ma Glenloth Granite and coeval volcanics of the Gawler
Craton (Payne et al., 2009).
R
SC
4.12. Cluster aaa (2900–2600 Ma)
NU
The aaa detrital zircons are again seen in the Gawler Craton and Lachlan Orogen
(Fig. 7E, F), both of which could have provided the detrital zircons in the Eocene Pidinga
MA
Formation (Fig. 7E) and the late Miocene Loxton-Parilla Sand at Spring Hill (G) and Loxton-
Parilla sand at Robinvale (J).
D
5. Early Paleozoic paleogeography of Gondwanaland

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The interpretations can now be placed in the setting of the early Paleozoic
P
paleogeography of Gondwanaland (Fig. 10). The numbered localities in Fig. 10 with d+ and
CE
c detrital zircons are explained, as follows.

(1) In Zealandia and Marie Byrd Land (Veevers, 2012, p. 304, 305), the early Ordovician
turbidite of the Greenland Group in the Westland Province of Zealandia (Cooper, 1989)
AC
contains flutes that indicate derivation from the SW (modern co-ordinates) (Laird and
Shelley, 1974). This direction is confirmed by the 40Ar/39Ar 515–490 Ma ages of detrital
mica in the Greenland Group that indicate provenance from the Ross Orogen of the
Transantarctic Mountains (Adams and Kelley, 1998). The d+ and c detrital zircons (Ireland
and Gibson, 1998) suggest a provenance older than the 550–490 Ma Ross Orogen,
presumably in interior Antarctica or East Africa. Other occurrences are in Campbell Island
(Adams et al., 2014) and in Marie Byrd Land, with d+ and c detrital zircons in the Mt
Murphy paragneiss and the Swanson Formation (Pankhurst et al., 1998).
(2) The early Cambrian Byrd Group of shallow-marine platform sediment in the central Ross
Orogen has a potential provenance in the region of the GSM (Goodge et al., 2004, p. 1276).
(3) The Silurian-Devonian turbidites of the Mathinna Group, with d+ and c detrital zircons
(Black et al., 2004; Seymour et al., 2011), flowed from the southwest (Powell et al., 1993).
27
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(4) The early-middle Cambrian (520–505 Ma) Kanmantoo Group of proximal turbidites has a
northerly paleoslope indicating potential provenance to the south and southwest (Haines et
al., 2009).
(5) The northerly paleoslope of the submarine fan system of Ordovician turbidites in the
T
Lachlan Orogen is indicated by minor sedimentary structures (Schleiger, 1968; Cas et al.,
IP
1980, p. 24; Powell, 1984, p. 296; shown in Veevers, 2000, p. 204, 205).
(6) The ≤510 Ma (≤ middle Cambrian) Wynyard Metamorphics (Fergusson et al., 2001) and
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the 495 Ma Argentine Metamorphics (Fergusson et al., 2007) contain detrital zircons aged
SC
d+, c, and a (Fig. 11, A, C). The spectacular matching of ages in these three clusters― d+, c,
and a― between northern metasediments and southern turbidites indicates continuity of the
NU
Super-fan from SE to NE Australia to form the extreme limit of the Super-fan from its source
in East Africa-Antarctica (Fig. 10). The late Ordovician Fork Lagoon Beds include shallow-
MA
marine carbonate and deep-water turbidite, and both contain detrital zircons of d+ and c age
(Fergusson et al., 2007). Those in the shallow-marine carbonate potentially came by
recycling local sources, such as the older Wynyard Metamorphics and Argentine
D
Metamorphics, but the d+ and c ages in the turbidite probably indicate a younger part of the
TE
Super-fan. The correlation of c zircons between the southern and northern turbidites indicates
a provenance in the GSM or EA-AO, or both, and not a provenance in an extension of the
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Musgrave Province (Fig. 2C), as suggested by Fergusson et al. (2007) and Fergusson and
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Henderson (2015).
The main flow of the thick turbidites in the fan from East Africa-Antarctica is
northerly, as indicated by the arrows in SE Australia and the continuation of the turbidites for
AC
some 2000 km to the north. The reciprocal bearings of the early Paleozoic paleoslopes at (1)
to (4) focus on the GSM, and indicate its uplift from the Cambrian through the Devonian,
consistent with initial uplift in the early-middle Cambrian (the ~520 Ma Kanmantoo Group)
following the major episode of orogenesis between 570 and 530 Ma (Kuunga Orogeny,
Meert, 2003), during which regions of Tanzania and Madagascar were involved in a
Himalayan-type orogen composed of partly doubly thickened crust (Fritz et al., 2013). In
Mozambique, the terrane juxtaposition event can be equated with the main, NW–SE-directed
collision phase of the East African Orogeny at 550 Ma. The resulting mountain belt rapidly
eroded and provided detritus for the two intra-mountain clastic sequences at 530 Ma,
probably during the early phases of extensional orogenic collapse (Thomas et al., 2010).
Another set of paleoslope indicators, in Permian sediment in Australia, India,
Antarctica (Lambert Glacier, and Dronning Maud Land) (Veevers, 1994; Veevers and Saeed,
28
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2007, 2008, p. 318) and the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains block (Collinson et al., 1994),
again focusses on the GSM. From an extensive geophysical survey of East Antarctica,
Ferraccioli et al. (2011) interpret renewed uplift as reflecting the formation of a 2500-km-
long rift-valley system with uplifted flanks surrounding the GSM, and a thick crustal root. In
T
light of the analysis of zircons shed from the GSM and from the red siltstone with
IP
Glossopteris in Lambert Glacier moraine, Veevers (2011) interpreted the GSM as a 1150–
850 Ma (c) craton surrounded by 650–500 Ma (d+) orogens, rifted in the Permian to form a
R
rift-valley system comparable in structure and size to the present East African rift system.
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6. Discussion
NU
6.1. Proximal volcanic source for the Winton Formation?
MA
We argue above that the WVP is a distal source of the Winton Formation. A different
view was advanced by MacDonald et al. (2013). They argued for a proximal (internal)
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volcanic source citing Bryan et al.‘s (2012) analysis of detrital euhedral zircons in the Winton
TE
Formation with 35% of the ages between 95 and 102 Ma, ages lacking in the WVP.
We question two points.
P
(1) The absence of 105–95 Ma ages in the WVP. We find that the WVP U–Pb zircon ages are
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overlapped by Rb–Sr and K–Ar ages, which are thus shown to be reliable as to be expected
in these rapidly cooled igneous rocks. In particular, the WVP has a 109–95 Ma peak
comprising U–Pb zircon with its youngest age of 108.5 ± 0.3 Ma and K-Ar ages from 108 ±
AC
3 Ma to 94.8 ± 1.1 Ma (Fig. 6A) (Ewart et al., 1992; Jell, 2013, p. 560, 561, 567).
(2) The euhedral nature of 105–95 Ma zircon grains in the Winton Formation does not
uniquely indicate a proximal source, as shown by these examples elsewhere.
(i) The ignimbrite eruption that produced the ~30 ka Neapolitan ash distributed fine sand
grains (≤ 125 µm) 850 km from source (Sparks and Huang,1980), and euhedral zircon grains
in Mississippi River deposits reveal the eolian contribution of ash from Caribbean volcanoes,
some 3,000 km distant (Otvos and Mange, 2002). (ii) Fine sand grains of euhedral zircon in
tonsteins are widespread in basins distant from contemporaneous volcanoes, e.g., in
Cretaceous/Tertiary coal basins in New Mexico (Bohor and Pillmore, 1976), in Permian
coals in Brazil (Guerra-Sommer et al., 2006), and in Permo-Carboniferous glacigene shale
with distal fallout tuffs in Namibia (Bangert et al., 1999).
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6.2. Southern Australian margin as the only or dominant provenance of Gnarlyknots-1

sediments?
From their analysis of 786 detrital zircons from the late Cretaceous (post
T
Cenomanian) Ceduna Delta, MacDonald et al. (2013) postulated that the source was exposed
IP
sediment and basement from the proximal contemporaneously exhumed arcuate southern
Australian margin. This challenged the idea that the post-Cenomanian late Cretaceous
R
Ceduna Delta was deposited by a SW-flowing, continent-scale river system delivering
SC
erosional detritus from the Eromanga Basin (King and Mee, 2004), as postulated by
MacDonald et al. (2013) for the Cenomanian part of the Delta, or from the >2000 km distant
NU
Eastern Highlands (Veevers, 1984, p. 176–179; Veevers, 2000, p. 53, 105) and confirmed by
this paper. As noted above, MacDonald et al. (2013) postulated a Cenomanian river that fed
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the basal lobe (at the tip of the broad arrow with serrated end in Fig. 1), but its headwaters
fell short of the ancestral Eastern Highlands, unlike our postulated rivers (lines), which would
have carried away the detritus from the exhumed highlands.
D
TE
6.2.1. Exhumed southern Australian uplift the only potential provenance?apid-

P
We argue above that the main (but not sole) potential provenance of the post-
CE
Cenomanian late Cretaceous sand of the Ceduna Delta came from exhumation of the Eastern
Highlands. MacDonald et al. (2013) argued for a narrower area of exhumation in the
immediate hinterland of the Ceduna Delta. Apatite fission-track analysis (AFTA) reveals a
AC
100–80 Ma exhumation event that resulted in 1–2 km of erosion across a broad arcuate-
shaped region of southern Australia, probably resulting in the erosion of presumed Permian,
Jurassic, and early Cretaceous sediments plus underlying basement, mainly the Gawler
Craton. In pointing exclusively to this proximal source of a lost section of indeterminate
thickness, MacDonald et al. (2013) seem to overlook the potential contribution of the uplift
along the eastern margin that led to deeper and wider exhumation.
Evidence of zircon εHf and TDMC in cluster a (1800–1500 Ma) of sample GN-DEF
(Fig. 3E) indicates a high correlation of the Gnarlyknots-1 zircons of this age with the
proximal Houghton Inlier and Gawler Craton. This evidence, however, is equivocal because
it favours zircons being sourced (1) during exhumation of the Gawler Craton within the
arcuate zone, or (2) by fluvial flow from the Eastern Highlands eroding the Gawler Craton, or
(3) both.
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6.2.2. Gnarlyknots-1 zircons from the ancestral Eastern Highlands
The overwhelming evidence for the bulk of the Gnarlyknots-1 zircons coming from
T
the ancestral Eastern Highlands is the match of properties of the modern Mt Howitt zircons,
IP
indubitably from the modern Eastern Highlands, and the late Cretaceous Gnarlyknots-1
zircons (Section 4.2.), a match which indicates the Eastern Highlands as their common
R
provenance. Only the g (140–90 Ma) zircons came as second-cycle zircons from the Winton
SC
Formation, which itself came as first-cycle zircons from the WVP/NC arc.
As noted, MacDonald et al. (2013) suggest that the Gnarlyknots-1 zircons, dominated
NU
by d+ (700–500 Ma) ages, were derived from postulated (since lost) Permian, Triassic, and
early Cretaceous sediments within the southern Australian arcuate zone of exhumation. This
MA
postulate is weakened by the likelihood that the volume of the hypothetical sediments would
have been insufficient to fill the Ceduna Delta. In the context of late Cretaceous Australia,
the ancestral Eastern Highlands satisfy the volume requirement by robust evidence of deep
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exhumation over a large upslope area at the appropriate time.

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6.3. Longest deep-sea fan?

P
CE
According to Squire et al. (2006), the Transgondwanan Supermountains were ~8000-

km-long and generally ~1000-km-wide, and formed following oblique collision between East
and West Gondwanaland, commencing at ~650 Ma and climaxing at ~500 Ma. The volume
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of detritus shed from the Mountains can be gauged from the seawater 87Sr/86Sr ratio, which
has a maximum value of 0.70920 at ~500 Ma, compared with the present-day 0.70917
(McArthur et al., 2012), indicating a tectonic scale comparable to that of the Himalayan
chain, which has spawned the Bengal Fan (Curray et al., 2002).
The Gondwana Super-fan alongside the East Gondwanaland margin stretched ~2000
km in eastern Australia, according to the data in Fig. 11, and another 5000 km to its main
source in the Transgondwanan Supermountains, so dwarfing the Bengal Fan.
7. Summary of interpretation
We summarise the interpretation (Figs. 10, 12), as follows.
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(1) The 500–450 Ma deep-sea Super-fan that filled the convergent margin of East
Gondwanaland from sources in the Transgondwanan Supermountains of East
Africa/Antarctica and the GSM.
(2) The flowlines of sediment transport from the primary (zeroeth) provenances of East
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Africa-Antarctica and the GSM to 1st-cycle sediments in eastern Australia (full lines), the
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flow of 2nd- and 3rd-cycle sediment from primary, secondary, and tertiary provenances in
eastern Australia to the W and SW (broken lines), and of 4th-cycle sediment from all the
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primary and higher-category provenances in eastern Australia. Small contributions of 1st-
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cycle sediment come from the primary provenances of the WVP/NC in the NE sector, and of
the Musgrave Province in the central-south region.
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7.1. Ages of the provenances and those in the Ceduna Delta
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From the NE sector (Fig. 12) come the g (underline signifies reworked zircons) (140–90
Ma) ages in the Ceduna Delta from the lost section of the Winton Formation, and g (140–90
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Ma) from the exhumed WVP and the NC arc; the f (335–205 Ma) ages come from the
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exhumed NEO at the headwaters of the system, and d+ (700–500 Ma) from the Lachlan
Orogen turbidites and granites and overlying sediments, including the Hawkesbury
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Sandstone, and from the southern Australian rise. The c (130–1000 Ma) ages come from the
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Lachlan Orogen and derived sediment, with a possible contribution from the Musgrave
Province. The a (1800–1500 Ma) ages could come from the NW to NE sector besides a
trickle from the Lachlan Orogen. Though near the Ceduna Delta, the a-aged Gawler Craton
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contributed very little.

The strikingly strong correlations between the eastern Australian provenances and the
late Cretaceous sands of the Ceduna Delta are manifest in the comparative columns of the
characters of rock type, εHf, and TDMc (Fig. 9D). Besides the high correlation of εHf and
TDMc, the distinctive low-HREE-c (alkaline) hosts (Veevers et al., 2006) in Gnarlyknots-1
correlate with the same hosts in the inferred GSM and with the alkaline granitoids of
Dronning Maud Land, the Mozambique Belt, and Arabian-Nubian Shield.
7.2. Flow lines of sediment transport
We identify three significant primary provenances of Australian sediment during the

Phanerozoic.
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(1) From ~520 Ma, the Transgondwanan Supermountains of East Africa-Dronning Maud
Land (DML) and the GSM (0) yielded (i) d+ (700–500 Ma) and minor c (1300–1000 Ma) 1st-
cycle detrital zircons to ~520 Ma (mid-Cambrian) and ~470 Ma (Ordovician) turbidites in
eastern Australia. The zircons were inherited as (ii) 2nd-cycle zircons in 440–400 Ma
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Lachlan Orogen granitoids, both (i and ii) of which, on exhumation, yielded (iii) 3rd-cycle
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zircons to, for example, the 235 Ma Hawkesbury Sandstone (HSS). The turbidites, granitoids,
and derived sediments, in turn, yielded (iv) 4th-cycle zircons during ~100 Ma exhumation of
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the ancestral Eastern Highlands to (a) the west and southwest to terminate in the Ceduna
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Delta, and (b) to Quaternary (~<2 Ma) northward coastal drift of sand that terminated in the
Tasman Abyssal Plain.
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(2) The primary provenance of the WVP, Maryborough Basin (MB), and NC magmatic arc
(boxed 0) yielded during ~100 Ma exhumation (i) 1st-cycle detrital g (140–90 Ma) zircons to
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the SW including the Cenomanian (≤100 Ma) Winton Formation (boxed 1), which, in turn,
yielded (ii) 2nd-cycle zircons (boxed 2) in late Cretaceous sediment to the Ceduna Delta and
in younger sediment to the Lake Eyre Basin.
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(3) The inferred volcanic centre off Victoria supplied 150–100 Ma sediment to the Gippsland
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and Otway Basins until the end of the early Cretaceous.

An example of a potential minor primary provenance is the Musgrave Province (0),
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which may have contributed 1st-cycle detrital zircons to the Ceduna Delta.
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7.3. Gondwanaland context

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The Transgondwanan Supermountains of East Africa-Dronning Maud Land, the

surface expression of the 700–500 Ma East African-Antarctic Orogen, and the GSM were the
primary source of the Super-fan of East Gondwanaland (Fig. 10). The East African-Antarctic
Orogen marks the collision of East and West Gondwanaland, and rivals the Alpine-
Himalayan Orogen in elevation and extent. The Transgondwanan Supermountains and the
lobes of quartzose sediment in the Super-fan characterise the early Gondwanaland, and
provide a sedimentary legacy that endures to the present day.
8. Conclusions
(1) The overwhelming bulk of detrital zircons in eastern Australia are aged 700–500 Ma and
1300–1000 Ma, came from the distal Transgondwanan Supermountains and GSM, and were
33
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entrained in the Ordovician deep-sea Super-fan that prograded ~7000 km along the East
Gondwanaland margin.
(2) The zircons were then inherited by ~430 Ma S-type granite (from melted parts of the
Super-fan) during the development of the Lachlan Orogen.
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(3) From about 300 Ma the exhumed Lachlan Orogen shed zircons aged 700–500 Ma and
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1300–1000 Ma on all sides.
(4) An Australian primary provenance arose during the 140–90 Ma Cretaceous in the form of
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the WVP of eastern Queensland and an inferred volcanic centre off the Gippsland Basin.
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Both provenances shed volcanogenic sediment respectively to the SW into the late
Cretaceous Ceduna Delta and to the W into the early Cretaceous rift system.
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(5) With the change in tectonics at ~100 Ma (mid-Cretaceous) and concomitant uplift and
exhumation of eastern Australia and extinction of the WVP and the volcanic centre off the
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Gippsland Basin, quartzose sediment with 700–500 Ma and 1300–1000 Ma zircons was
carried to the W and SW to the Ceduna Delta.
(6) The Eastern Highlands continue to spread quartzose sediment with 700–500 Ma and
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1300–1000 Ma zircons to the SW into the Channel Country of SW Queensland and

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ultimately Lake Eyre, to the W into the Murray-Darling System and ultimately Lake
Alexandrina, and in the northern drift of Quaternary sand that feeds the beaches on the south-
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east coast and ultimately the Tasman Abyssal Fan.

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Supplementary data to this article can be found online at doi:XYZ Manager please
supply. The contents are: (1) Location of the Mt Howitt sample. (2) Notes on TerraChron®.
(3) Tables S1-S18. (4) Excel files of the analyses of samples GN-D, GN-E, GN-F, and Mt
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Howitt.
Acknowledgements
We thank Woodside Australia Energy for providing the samples from Gnarlyknots-
1, and Gerald Nanson for the Mt Howitt sample. Lance Black, Chris Fergusson,
Russell Korsch, Keith Sircombe, and Ryan Tucker provided Excel files, Ian Duddy
supplied information about the ages of Otway Basin samples, and Peter Voice
provided access to his zircon data-base of Excel files. David Champion, Kara
Matthews, Ian McDougall, and Gordon Packham provided valuable discussion. For
further discussion and help with references we thank Scott Bryan, Ray Cas, Ian
34
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Duddy, Richard Glen, John Greenfield, and Malcolm Sheard. We thank Jasper Knight
and an anonymous reviewer for prompt reviews.
This study was supported by ARC FT110100685 and grants from Macquarie
University. The analytical data were obtained by the use of instrumentation funded by
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DEST Systemic Infrastructure Grants, ARC LIEF, NCRIS, industry partners, and
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Macquarie University. This is contribution 623 from the ARC Centre of Excellence
for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (http://www.ccfs.mq.edu.au) and contribution 1008 in
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the GEMOC Key Centre (http://www.gemoc.mq.edu.au).
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14, 316–342.
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Veevers, J.J., Saeed, A., 2011. Age and composition of Antarctic bedrock reflected by
detrital zircons, erratics, and recycled microfossils in the Wilkes Land–Ross Sea–Marie
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Byrd Land sector (100°–240° E). Gondwana Research 20, 710–738.

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Veevers, J.J., Saeed, A., 2013. Age and composition of Antarctic sub-glacial bedrock
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reflected by detrital zircons, erratics, and recycled microfossils in the Ellsworth Land–
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Antarctic Peninsula–Weddell Sea–Dronning Maud Land sector (240°E–0°–015°E).

Gondwana Research 23, 296–332.
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Veevers, J.J., Saeed, A., Belousova, E.A., Griffin, W.L., 2005. U–Pb ages and source
composition by Hf-isotope and trace-element analysis of detrital zircons in Permian
sandstone and modern sand from southwestern Australia and a review of the
paleogeographical and denudational history of the Yilgarn Craton. Earth-Science
Reviews 68, 245–279.
Veevers, J.J., Belousova, E.A., Saeed, A., Sircombe, K., Cooper, A.F., Read, S.E., 2006.
Pan-Gondwanaland detrital zircons from Australia analysed for Hf-isotopes and trace
elements reflect an ice-covered Antarctic provenance of 700–500 Ma age, TDM of 2.0–
1.0 Ga, and alkaline affinity. Earth-Science Reviews 76, 135–174.
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Veevers, J.J., Saeed, A., O‘Brien, P.E., 2008a. Provenance of the Gamburtsev Subglacial
Mountains from U–Pb and Hf analysis of detrital zircons in Cretaceous to Quaternary
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12–32.
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Veevers, J.J., Saeed, A., Pearson, N., Belousova, P., Kinny, P., 2008b. Zircons and
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clay from morainal Permian siltstone at Mt Rymill (73°S, 66°E), Prince Charles
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Mountains, Antarctica, reflect the ancestral Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains-
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Wilde, S.A., Murphy, D.M.K., 1990. The nature and origin of Late Proterozoic high-grade
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Wade, B.P., Kelsey, D.E., Hand, M., Barovich, K., 2008. The Musgrave Province; Stitching
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D
Wiedenbeck, M., Alle, P., Curfu, F., Griffin, W.L., Meier, M., Oberli, F., Von Quadt,
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A., Roddick, J.C., Spiegel, W., 1995. Three natural zircon standards for the U–
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4.
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Williams I.S., Chappell B.W., 1998. Crustal evolution in southeastern Australia: a zircon
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848.
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Worden, J.M., Baadsgaard, H., Cracknell, D.N., Krstic, D., 1996. Major extensional events
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Geological Society of Australia Extended Abstracts 43, 569–57.
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Zheng, J., Griffin, W.L., O‘Reilly, S.Y., Zhang, M., Pearson, N., Pan, Y., 2006. Widespread
Archean basement beneath the Yangtze craton. Geology 34, 417–420.
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Figure captions
R
Fig. 1. Reconstruction of East Gondwanaland (Australia, Antarctica, Lord Howe
SC
Rise) in the Albian/Cenomanian (~100 Ma), with the eastern borderland shown in its
position before seafloor spreading in the Coral and Tasman Seas. Modified from
NU
Veevers (2000, p. 105). Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection. All ages in Ma.
B = Bass Basin; CD = Ceduna Delta; G = Gippsland Basin; GAB = Great Australian
Bight Basin; LIP = Large Igneous Province; MB = Median Batholith; NC = New
MA
Caledonia; O = Otway Basin.
Fig. 2. (A) Central-eastern Australia, showing the drainage (shaded) and location of samples.
D
The late Cretaceous rivers and watershed are sketched by full lines, the modern watershed by
TE
a dotted line. Map location at top left-hand corner. B = Beverley; BA = Bass Basin; CD =
Ceduna Delta; G = Garford; GA = Gippsland Basin; H = Hispanola; LA = Lake Alexandrina;
P
MHSM = Mt Howie Sandstone Member; MBa = Murray Basin; Mt H = Mt Howitt; NT =

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Northern Territory; NSW = New South Wales; O = Otway Basin; QLD = Queensland; R =
Robinvale; S = Spring Hill; SA = South Australia. TAS = Tasmania; VIC = Victoria. (B)
AC
Modern Australia east of ~133°E showing drainage from land over 300 m (shaded), and
location of selected samples. CEL = central-eastern lowlands; EH = Eastern Highlands; GWP
= Great Western Plateau; MDS = Murray-Darling System. (C) Principal bedrock-age
provinces of Australia, shown by the patterns in the lower left, from Veevers (2000, p. 111;
Veevers and Saeed, 2011, p. 717; Glen, 2013) with additions from this work. BHB = Broken
Hill Block; C = Canberra; CP = Curnamona Province; KO= Kanmantoo Orogen; LO =
Lachlan Orogen; M = Melbourne; MB = Maryborough Basin; MO = Mossman Orogen; NC
= New Caledonia; NEO = New England Orogen; TO = Thomson Orogen; WVP =
Whitsunday Volcanic Province.
Fig. 3. Ages of primary and reworked zircons in the potential provenances of eastern
Australia. (A) Potential provenances of eastern Australia with primary (igneous and
58
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metamorphic) and reworked (underline = detrital/inherited) zircons. (B) Boxed TDM and εHf
of cluster a (1870–1400 Ma) (Table S1), cluster c (Table S2), cluster d+ (the average of five
samples of Neogene and Triassic sand from NSW, Veevers et al., 2006, showing host rock
affinity, with low-HREE-c = low heavy-rare-earth-element group classified as carbonatite,
T
reflecting alkaline rocks), εHf and εNd of d, d+, and e (Kemp et al., 2009), and TDM and εNd
IP
(Table S3) and εHf and εNd (Kemp et al., 2009) of f (300–200 Ma) and g (140–90 Ma)
(Table S3), plotted in C. (C) Probability density plot (PDP) (n = 555) of U–Pb zircon ages of
R
222–380 Ma bedrock from eastern Queensland (Table S4), together with >435 Ma ages of
SC
detrital zircons from the Anakie Metamorphics and Cape Range Metamorphics and (Tables
S5, S6) (Fergusson et al., 2007), with clusters a, c, and (dominant) d+ (Table 1). The d+
NU
cluster is augmented by those in the south (Veevers, 2015): (1) the Hawkesbury Sandstone
(heavy line) and (2) the Lachlan Orogen (dotted line). (D) Ages of bedrock (bars) and
MA
included detrital zircons (dotted line) in (I) the Tasmanides (Kanmantoo, Lachlan, New
England Orogens) igneous zircons, and d+ detrital zircons; (II) the Georgetown Inlier (Table
S7), (III) Mt Isa Province (Table S1), (IV) Anakie Province (Table S6), and Cape River and
D
Argentine Metamorphics (Table S7). (E). εHf and TDMC of detrital zircons in cluster a (1800–
TE
1500 Ma) in the drainage from the Mt Isa Inlier (Griffin et al., 2006), Gawler Craton
(Belousova et al., 2006b), Broken Hill Block (Condie et al., 2005), and Houghton Inlier
P
(Belousova et al., 2006a), compared with coeval detrital zircons in Gnarlyknots-1 (GN-DEF),
CE
shown by the shaded heavy line.
Fig. 4. Back-scattered electron (BSE) – cathodoluminescence (CL) images of selected zircon

AC
grains from the various age clusters in Gnarlyknots-1. The smaller circle locates the U–Pb
laser ablation pit ~30 μm in diameter, the larger circle the Hf-isotope pit ~50 μm in diameter.
Each frame contains a scale bar, the grain number, the U–Pb age Ma), and the host rock type.
Fig. 5. U–Pb ages and TDMc Hf model ages of detrital zircons in the sand from Mt Howitt
and Gnarlyknots-1. (A) Mt Howitt sand. Above, PDPs of U–Pb and TDMC. Clusters are
shaded. The PDP of d+ low-HREE-c zircons is white. Below, εHf versus ages of zircons with
trace-element classification. Histograms show the distribution of rock types (75 = granitoid
with 70–75% SiO2; 65 = granitoid with <65% SiO2; M = mafic rocks; L = low-HREE-c
hosts). (B) Pooled sample GN-D+E+F of late Cretaceous sandstone from depths of 1825–
4610 m in Gnarlyknots-1 (Fig. 6A). Above, PDPs of U–Pb ages and TDMC. Clusters are
shaded. The PDP of d+ low-HREE-c zircons is white. Below, εHf versus ages of zircons with
59
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trace-element classification. Histograms show the distribution of rock types: S = syenite. (C)
PDP of U–Pb ages of detrital zircons in a pool of ten samples (located in Fig. 6A) from late
Cretaceous sandstones in Gnarlyknots-1 (MacDonald et al., 2013).
T
Fig. 6. (A) Left-hand side. Gnarlyknots-1 well log (depth in metres, m) with position of
IP
composite samples 74317 to 74326 (black vertical bars) (MacDonald et al., 2013) and GN-D,
E, and F (clear rectangles). Right-hand side. PDPs of U–Pb ages and TDMc Hf model ages of
R
detrital zircons in samples GN-D, E, and F. In reverse stratigraphical order, from top to
SC
bottom, (B) GN-F: Maastrichtian (MAAS) sandstone of the Hammerhead Supersequence
(Krassay and Totterdell, 2003; Totterdell et al., 2000; Tapley et al., 2005); (C) GN-E:
NU
Santonian (SANT)-Campanian (CAMP) sandstone of the Hammerhead Supersequence;
(D) GN-D: Coniacian (CONI)–Santonian (SANT) sandstone of the Tiger CENO =
MA
Cenomanian; TURO = Turonian.
Fig. 7. Stack of PDPs of 0–4000 Ma ages of zircons showing provenances (thick-line boxes)
D
feeding the two drainages from the late Cretaceous to the present (Fig. 2A, B, F): (1)
TE
southwestward drainage from North Queensland through Central Queensland provenances

(A, B) to deposits in southwest Queensland (C) and South Australia (D, E, K, L); and (2)
P
westward drainage from New South Wales (NSW), the New England (NEO) and Lachlan
CE
Orogens (LO) (F) to deposits of Cenozoic sands in NSW and Victoria and late Cretaceous
sands in the Ceduna Delta (G–M). Data 0–1000 Ma are given in Fig. 8. Detail in E: peaks in
the provenance (heavy outline) of the Musgrave Province (MP) black solid triangle (Table
AC
S3) and of the Gawler Craton (bars) (Reid and Hou, 2006), and the voluminous 1595–1575
Ma Gawler Volcanics/Hiltaba Suite and the 2525–2440 Ma Mulgathing Complex (both
thicker bar) (Veevers, 2012, p. 297), match a peak in the ages of detrital zircons of the
Pidinga Formation (Reid et al., 2009); in D: the provenance (heavy outline) of the Gawler
Craton is by TerraneChron® analysis (Supplementary Data) (Belousova et al., 2009) of 982
zircons.
Fig. 8. Stack of PDPs of 0–1000 Ma ages of zircons showing provenances (thick-line boxes)
feeding the two drainages from the late Cretaceous to the present (Fig. 2A, B, F), enlarged
from Fig. 7. Clusters are correlated by shading except d+ (500–700 Ma), clear between dark-
grey strips. Clusters newly distinguished here are: e1 = 450–425 Ma, and e2 = 360–330 Ma.
PDPs of those zircons further analysed for rock-type hosts with low-HREE-c characteristics
60
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in d+ (C, J, K) are shown by shading. The 600 Ma (dotted) line shows that a significant but
declining number of ages lies between 600 and 700 Ma (d2). PDPs of model ages (TDMC, in
Ga) are shown in C and K. Sources: (A) Queensland bedrock in the region between Mt Isa
and the New England Orogen (Fig. 3C). (B) The Cenomanian Winton Formation (Tucker et
T
al., 2013) is derived from A, and constitutes a provenance for C–E. (C) Mt Howitt sand (Fig.
IP
5A). (D) Beverley Sands unit of the middle Miocene Namba Formation in the Strzelecki
Basin (30.2°S, 139.6°E), east of Lake Frome (Cross et al., 2010). (E) Middle to latest Eocene
R
Pidinga Formation of fluvial and marginal marine sediments in the westward-draining
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Garford paleovalley (Reid et al., 2009). (F) Lachlan Orogen detrital/inherited zircons, with
εHf of +8 to -30 (Veevers, 2015) and primary zircons of LO and NEO (Table 1). (G) late
NU
Miocene (Tortonian, ~ 8 Ma) marine beach sand of the Loxton-Parilla Sand at Spring Hill
(Sircombe, 1999; Miranda et al., 2009). (H) late Miocene (Tortonian) marine beach sand of
MA
the Loxton-Parilla Sand at Hispanola (Sircombe, 1999). (I) Quaternary Lowan Sand, Mallee
Dunefield, 35.8°S, 140.8°E, Murray Basin (Pell et al., 2001; Bowler et al., 2006). (J) late
Miocene (Tortonian) marine beach sand of the Loxton-Parilla Sand at Robinvale (Sircombe,
D
1999). (K) late Cretaceous sand from Gnarlyknots-1 D-E-F (Fig. 5B). (L) late Cretaceous
TE
sand from Gnarlyknots-1 (McDonald et al., 2013) (Fig. 5C). (M) modern beach sand at
Lorne, 38.54°S, 143.97°E, Victoria (Sircombe, 1999).
P
CE
Fig. 9. Consanguinity of detrital and igneous zircons indicated by similar values of rock
types, U–Pb and TDMC ages, and εHf. (A) Cluster g (140–90 Ma) of the Gnarlyknots-1 and
Mt Howitt zircons (Table S15) and of the igneous zircons (thick-lined box) in rocks of the
AC
WVP (Table 1) and New Zealand (Table S8). The εHf values from the Winton Formation are
from Tucker (2014). Examples of cluster g and others <1000 Ma and zircon-generating
epochs in eastern Australia are shown in Fig. 8. gran = granitoid; MR = mafic rocks; NC =
New Caledonia; SV = silicic volcanics; WVP = Whitsunday Volcanic Province. (B) Cluster
g-f ( 200–150 Ma) of the Gnarlyknots and Mt Howitt detrital zircons (Table S8) and coeval
New Zealand igneous zircons, in thick-lined box, representing the magmatic arc off the WVP
(Table S8). (C) Cluster f (300–200 Ma) of the Gnarlyknots (GN-DEF) and Mt Howitt (Mt
H) detrital zircons and, in the thick-lined box, igneous zircons in the New England Orogen
(NEO) (Table S11, and Fig. 3). KIA = Kennedy Igneous Association. (D) Cluster d+ (700–
500 Ma) of detrital zircons in eastern-central Australian Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments
compared with zircons in potential secondary provenances in Antarctica and Australia (box),
and potential primary provenances in East Africa-Antarctica (heavy box). U–Pb ages of
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detrital zircons are in bars, of igneous and metamorphic zircons in crosses, TDMC model ages
in broken lines, wider in igneous and metamorphic zircons, likewise in εHf/εNd. The double-
shafted arrow indicates the flow of primary (1st-cycle) zircons to the secondary provenances,
the single-shafted arrows the continued flow to the 2nd -cycle .and 3rd-cycle sediments of
T
eastern-central Australia. The secondary zircons of the Lachlan Orogen are shown by slightly
IP
wider symbols. Data (from right to left): (1) Arabian-Nubian Shield (Kröner and Stern, 2004;
Squire et al., 2006; Stern, 2002; Stern et al., 2010; Fritz et al., 2013) 500 (few)–(600–625)–
R
680–800 Ma, with alkaline rocks, εNd 0 to +10, scattered values between 0 to -10, TDM Nd
SC
0.6–(0.75)–1.1 Ga, scattered values to 2.4 Ga (Table S14; Morag et al., 2011). (2)
Mozambique Belt: 500–900 Ma, 1000–1100 Ma (Fritz et al., 2013; Iizuka et al., 2013); TDM
NU
Nd from Table S14. Nampula Complex: Table S17. (3) DML (Dronning Maud Land) (Table
4): 712–( 530–515)–485 Ma, including alkaline rocks at 1080 Ma, 530–500 Ma, and 495 Ma
MA
(Veevers and Saeed, 2013, p. 317; Ravikant et al., 2008), TDM 1.17 to 1.01 Ga; εNd +6 to -15
(Grosch et al., 2007; Ramo et al., 2009). (4) PLB (Prydz-Leeuwin Belt): 700–500 Ma
alkaline granitoids, large negative εNd (Wilde and Murphy, 1990), TDM Nd 1.6 to 1.1 Ga
D
(Veevers et al., 2005, p. 251) (Table 4). (5) EWM (Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains block)
TE
early Ordovician Mount Twiss Member (Flowerdew et al., 2007) (Table 4). (6) the inferred
zircons in the GSM (Table 4). From Table S13: (7) Ross Orogen, (8) Kanmantoo Orogen, (9)
P
Delamerian Orogen; Kanmantoo Group (Haines et al., 2009). From Table S16: (10) Lachlan
CE
Orogen (primary) 430 Ma granitoids, (11) Lachlan Orogen (secondary), (13) Hawkesbury
Sandstone, (14) Robinvale sand, (15) Mt Howitt sand, (16) Gnarlyknots-1 sand. (E) Cluster c
(1300–1000 Ma) of detrital zircons in samples GN-DEF (GN), Mt Howitt (MtH), and
AC
Hawkesbury Sandstone (HSS) (data as for D) compared with the primary igneous and
metamorphic zircons in the Musgrave Province (MP) and Albany-Fraser Orogen
(AFO)(broken line box) (Table S2) on the left-hand side, and, on the right-hand side, those of
the detrital and inherited zircons in Lachlan Orogen rocks (LO) (light line box) (Table S18),
and (heavier box), the inferred zircons of the GSM, the detrital zircons of the Ellsworth-
Whitmore Mountains block, the igneous and metamorphic zircons of Dronning Maud Land
(DML) (Table 4) (Veevers and Saeed, 2013, p. 317-318), and in East Africa, the detrital
zircons in the Mecuburi and Ben Fica Groups (MF) and the Mozambique Belt/Nampula
Complex (MB) (Table S17), all in a very heavy box.
Fig. 10. Transgondwanan Supermountains of Squire et al. (2006, p. 120) at the suture
between East and West Gondwanaland atop the exhumed East African-Antarctic Orogen. CI
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= Cambrian/Ordovician Complex Point Formation (Adams et al., 2014); DML = Dronning

Maud Land; GSM = Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains; K = Kanmantoo Orogen; LC =
Leeuwin Complex; MB = Mozambique Belt; MBL = Marie Byrd Land; TAM =
Transantarctic Mountains.
T
IP
Fig. 11. PDPs of U–Pb ages of detrital zircons in the eastern Australian part of the Super-
fan. The age of deposition (the age of crystallisation in D) is marked by a broken line at the
R
edge of the horizontal line pattern. The PDPs are arranged with the northermost (three) at the
SC
top, and the southernmost, nearly 2000 km distant, at the bottom; the South latitude is shown
on the top left-hand corner of each panel. The depositional age, if determined by stratigraphy,
NU
is given in words followed (in brackets) by the calibrated radiometric age (Cohen et al.,
2015), and vice versa.
MA
Fig. 12. Flow lines of sediment transport, on a base from Fig. 2C, with the addition of the
440–400 Ma granitoids of SE Australia (solid black) (Veevers, 2000, p. 179), which occupy
D
20% of the area of the Lachlan Orogen (King et al., 1997). Underline indicates reworked or
TE
detrital zircons. Further details are explained in the text.

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CE
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IP
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SC
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MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 1
64
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IP
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SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 2
65
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IP
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SC
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MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 3
66
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IP
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SC
NU
MA
D
TE
Figure 4
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AC
67
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IP
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SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 5
68
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IP
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SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 6
69
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IP
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SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
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Figure 7
70
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IP
R
SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 8
71
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IP
R
SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 9abc
72
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IP
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SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
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Figure 9de
73
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IP
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SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
Figure 10
AC
74
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IP
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SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 11
75
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IP
R
SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
Figure 12
76
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D
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Graphical abstract
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Table 1. Clusters of ages of Australian bedrock, including ages of recycled sediment

in eastern Australia (d+, c, aa, aaa) (Veevers, 2015), and eastern Australian tectonic
cycles/felsic magmas in the range 0–800 Ma (italics), and ages of selected
Precambrian provinces.
T
Code Province/cycle/magma Ma Reference
New Caledonia 80–135 Cluzel et al. (2010, 2011)
IP
-
g Whitsunday Volcanic Province 90–140 Bryan et al. (1997); Bryan et
al. (2012)
R
g-f Jurassic volcanism 147–183 Sircombe (1999)
SC
f New England Orogen including 200–300 Glen (2005)
New England Late Triassic magmas 205–230
Sydney–Bowen Basin 287–300
New England Batholith 222–255
NU
New England Permian granites 265–300
e Lachlan Orogen 310–490 Glen (2005), Veevers (2013)
Kanimblan Cycle 310–380
MA
Tabberabberan Cycle 380–440
Benambran Cycle 440–490
e2 330–360 ≈ Kanimblan Cycle
e1 420–450 ≈ Benambran Cycle
D
d1 primary zircons known in Australia 500–600 Veevers (2015)

480–586 Scheibner and Veevers
TE
(2000)
490–514 Foden et al. (2006)
522
P
Mt Arrowsmith Volcanics 586 Crawford et al. (1997)

d2 primary zircons unknown in 600–700 Veevers (2015)
CE
Australia
detrital zircons originating from
East Africa/ ice-covered Antarctica
AC
d+ Lachlan Orogen and in derived 500–700 Sircombe (1999)

sands Veevers and Saeed (2011)
c 1000– Veevers and Saeed (2011)
1300
a 1500–
1800
aa 1950–
2330
aaa 2600–
2900
ages of selected Precambrian
provinces
c Musgrave Province 1000– Kirkland et al. (2013)
1340 Wade et al. (2008)
Smithies et al. (2015)
Albany-Fraser Orogen 1130–
1321
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a Gawler, Curnamona, Arunta, Mt Isa 1500– Veevers (2000)

1800
aaa Yilgarn, Pilbara 2600–
2900
T
R IP
SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
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Table 2. Properties of the age clusters of detrital zircons in Gnarlyknots-1 compared with those of
the eastern Australian provenance.The data of rock type, εHf, and TDMc and TDM are from the
relevant data tables.
code range Ma properties province properties
Gnarlyknots-1 East Australian provenance
T
g 140–90 granitoids, mafic rocks WVP silicic volcanics, mafic rocks
IP
εHf +15 to +3 εHf +7 to +2
TDMC 0.4 to 0.5 Ga TDM 0.25 to 0.6 Ga
R
f 335–205 granitoids, mafic rocks NEO granitoids
εHf +14 to -7 εHf +12 to -14
SC
TDMC 0.3 to 2.7 Ga TDM 0.5 to 1.2 Ga
d+ 700–500 mafic granitoids, LO S-, I-, A-type granitoids
low-HREE-c εHf +12 to -15, -30
NU
εHf +9 to -37 TDM 0.8 to 2.6, 3.1 to 3.6 Ga
TDMC 0.6 to 2.7, 3.0–
3.7 Ga
c 1235– mafic granitoids LO detrital and inherited zircons
MA
1000 εHf +5 to -17 εHf +4 to -28
TDMC 1.3 to 2.7 Ga TDM 1.3 to 2.6
a 1800– mafic granitoids - -
1500 εHf +7 to -7
D
TDMC 1.8 to 2.7 Ga

TE
LO = Lachlan Orogen; NEO = New England Orogen; WVP = Whitsunday Volcanic Province
P
CE
AC
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Table 3. End of subduction, onset of extension, and onset of seafloor spreading.

Onset Onset End Reference
seafloor extension subduction
spreading Ma Ma
Ma
New 68 90 90 Lafoy et al.
T
Caledonia (2005)
IP
SE Australia 68 ~100 uplift 105 Rey and Müller
N of 40° S E Highlands (2010)
SE Australia 83 - 105 Rey and Müller
R
S of 40° S (2010)
SC
Zealandia 83 89 (2) 105 Kula et al. (2007)
101 (1) Tulloch et al.
(2009)
Marie Byrd 83 98 (2) 105 Siddoway (2008)
NU
Land 90 105 (1) Eagles et al.
(2004)
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
81
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
Table 4. Properties of the GSM inferred from related detrital zircons in the Permian-
Triassic Amery Group (Veevers and Saeed, 2008, p. 338; Veevers et al., 2008, p. 28)
compared with primary zircons in the Prydz-Leeuwin Belt (PLB)(Wilde and Murphy,
1990; Veevers et al., 2005, p. 251) and DML (Veevers and Saeed, 2013, p. 317-318),
T
detrital zircons in the Early Ordovician Mount Twiss Member of the Ellsworth-
IP
Whitmore Mountains (EWM) (Flowerdew et al., 2007), Lachlan Orogen (LO) detrital
and inherited zircons, and Hawkesbury Sandstone (HSS) detrital zircons (Veevers,
R
2015).
SC
Age clusters Rock type TDMC εHf
Ma Ga
GSM d+ 660–475 mafic granitoid, 2.5 to 1.3 +9 to -28
NU
low-HREE-c hosts
PLB 700–500 alkaline granitoids 1.6 to 1.1 negative
εNd
MA
DML 715–485 alkaline granitoids 1.2 to 1.0 +6 to -15
EWM 700–500 - 1.6 to 1.1 +2 to -26
LO 680–446 - +5 to -30
HSS 700–500 granitoids, low- 2.9 to 1.5 +9 to -40
D
HREE-c hosts
TE
GSM c 1200–800 mafic granitoid, 1.8 to 1.3 +11 to -28

low-HREE-c hosts
DML 1170–1011 alkaline granitoids 3.1 to 2.6, 2.1 to 1.1 negative
P
εNd
CE
EWM 1150–1000 - 1.5 to 1.1 +12 to +2

LO 1300–1000 - - +6 to -19
HSS 1200–1000 mafic granitoid 2.6 to 1.2 +14 to +5,
-1, -7
AC
GSM aa 2200–1700 mafic granitoid 3.1 to 2.7 0 to -20

LO 2330–1950 - -2 to -9
HSS 2330–1950 mafic granitoid 2.3 +8 to +2
GSM aaa 2900–2600 granitoids 3.2 1 to -8

LO 2900–2600 - 0 to -6
HSS 2900–2600 +5
max (peak) min

GSM - - 3.5 (2.8) (2.2) (1.4)
1.0
LO 3.5 (3.3) (1.9) 1.3
HSS 3.5 (3.0 )(2.45)
(1.75) (1.4) 0.8
82
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
Highlights
● 700–500 Ma zircons in eastern Australia came from the Transgondwanan

Supermountains.
T
● ~100 Ma zircons came from the magmatic arc and LIP alongside East
IP
Gondwanaland.
R
● Both were shed west from the ≤100 Ma uplifted E Australia to fill the Ceduna
Delta.
SC
NU
MA
D
P TE
CE
AC
83

Zircons Traced From the 700–500 Ma Transgondwanan Supermountains and the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains to the Ordovician Lachlan Orogen, Cretaceous Ceduna Delta, And Modern Channel Country, Central-southern Australia

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Zircons Traced From the 700–500 Ma Transgondwanan Supermountains and the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains to the Ordovician Lachlan Orogen, Cretaceous Ceduna Delta, And Modern Channel Country, Central-southern Australia

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J.J. Veevers, E.A. Belousova, A. Saeed

To appear in: Sedimentary Geology

Received date: 8 October 2015

Zircons traced from the 700–500 Ma Transgondwanan Supermountains and the

We test the hypothesis that the Transgondwanan Supermountains at the collision of

mountain chain (the Transgondwanan Supermountains), which formed following oblique

across East Gondwanaland (Antarctica, Zealandia, and Australia) in a deep-sea fan.

sediment and basement from a proximal contemporaneously exhumed arcuate South

1.1. Geological background

Murray-Darling system (MDS) bends through a right-angle at the South Australian

1.1.2. Tasmanides and older provinces

Fig. 3 constitutes a census of ages of zircons, primary and detrital/inherited, in eastern

late Cambrian Argentine Metamorphics, ~2000 km northward in northern Queensland

1.1.3. Eastern arc and back-arc

amalgamated Permian–early Cretaceous terranes formed during a period of

appropriately within-plate or back-arc position, in a zone of protracted extension, with a final

(Veevers, 1991, p. 8).

The Mt Howitt sample is surface sand from a meandering sandy paleochannel

Maastrichtian in the late Cretaceous.

2.2. Methods of analysis

Zircon separates were prepared from crushed samples using standard

concordant as analysed, no common-lead corrections have been applied (e.g.,

Trace elements were analysed on an electron microprobe (EMP) and LAM-ICPMS.

over 4.56 Ga. Precision on 176

Precision is regarded as ± 5%.

2.2.4. Rock type of host

general descriptive term ―low heavy-rare-earth-element (low-HREE) group‖. We

HREE-c‖ for those classified as carbonatite.

This combination of techniques makes it possible to determine for each grain

3.1. Analysis of Quaternary sand at Mt Howitt

low-HREE-c rocks (shown in white).

3.3. MacDonald et al.’s (2013) analyses

4. Interpretation of the provenances

Pidinga Formation (E), and the Gnarlyknots-1 sand (K, L).

Cluster d+ is prominent in the NSW provenance of Lachlan Orogen detrital/inherited

the Lachlan Orogen (F) and at Robinvale (J).

4.2 Mt Howitt and Gnarlyknots-1 sands compared

4.3. Interpretation of the age clusters

4.4. Cluster g (140–90 Ma)

4.4.1. Whitsunday Volcanic Province and New Caledonian arc as provenances

4.5. Context of East Gondwanaland

The margin of East Gondwanaland underwent a change from subduction to extension at

TDMC 0.52 and 0.44 Ga, and εHf +11.1 to +8.4.

4.7. Cluster f (300–200 Ma)

The Permian-Triassic Amery Group, deposited by the northward axial flow of a

4.9. Reflection of the provenances in the GN and Mt Howitt samples

Fig. 9D shows the properties of detrital zircons in sedimentary deposits in eastern-

potential secondary provenance of post-orogenic sediments (Veevers, 2015). The ultimate

4.11. Cluster aa (2330–1950 Ma)

Cluster aa (2330–1950 Ma) is poorly represented in primary bedrock― a rare

5. Early Paleozoic paleogeography of Gondwanaland

c detrital zircons are explained, as follows.

6.2. Southern Australian margin as the only or dominant provenance of Gnarlyknots-1

6.2.1. Exhumed southern Australian uplift the only potential provenance?apid-

6.2.2. Gnarlyknots-1 zircons from the ancestral Eastern Highlands

exhumation over a large upslope area at the appropriate time.

6.3. Longest deep-sea fan?

According to Squire et al. (2006), the Transgondwanan Supermountains were ~8000-

We summarise the interpretation (Figs. 10, 12), as follows.

contributed very little.

7.2. Flow lines of sediment transport

We identify three significant primary provenances of Australian sediment during the

and Otway Basins until the end of the early Cretaceous.