Australasian INTIMATE: late quaternary environmental change in central Australia

As part of the Australasian INTIMATE palaeoclimate initiative, we have collated records of terrestrial environmental change in central Australia over the last 30,000 years. Several hundred samples of linear or source bordering dunes have been dated recently at the ANU using OSL, and this dataset includes many ages indicating deposition within this period. Fluvial sediments from ephemeral streams have also been dated, indicating periods of increased run-off. Published papers from other research teams present chronologies from many more dune, lake and fluvial contexts across Australia. Several significant and widespread peaks in activity are observed in the different records, indicating important environmental changes were affecting the continental interior during this period. However, the diverse nature of the physical records, differences in dating methods, and issues in interpreting the climatic meaning of the various contexts means that this is a very complex dataset. A significant peak in several records at around 14 ka suggests that this period is particularly important, and we present more detailed stratigraphic resolution for some locations where this event is observed. We will present a summary of the regional chronological patterns for the different sedimentary environments across central Australia within the last 30,000 years, with a commentary on the data sources, significance and the simplicity or complexity of palaeoclimatic interpretation. We will examine possible palaeoclimatic controls in different regions of the continent, and compare results from the different palaeoenvironmental records. These data allow an interesting comparison with palaeoenvironmental archives from more humid coastal Australia, in particular those based on vegetation and speleothem, besides records from elsewhere in Australasia, Antarctica and other parts of the Southern Hemisphere.