Phillip Island Adventures 3

Mineral Matters #523

Back at home from Phillip Island. A very enjoyable three days.

Peter Hall and I had a look at Kennon Head, Kitty Miller Bay, Redcliff Head (twice), Cape Woolamai, and (off the island) Lavers Hill near Fish Creek.

On Phillip Island, tides are important. And dangerous. Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a swell which meant that we could visit some of the locations even at high tide.

At Kennon Head, there are a couple of dykes intruding the basalt. The main minerals to look for are ferro-kaersutite and fluorapatite.

At Kitty Miller Bay, just past the wreck of the SS Speke, there is an outcrop of Cambrian greenstone. In this, there are veins of epidote and prehnite.

Redcliff Head has heulandite, chabazite, calcite and barite, but we did not find any of the elusive rare zeolite, ferrierite.

The whole of the Cape Woolamai peninsula is underlain by Devonian granite, which also outcrops over most of it. We walked to the granite quarry and were able to see many pegmatites. Walking along the cliff tops provided some spectacular views.

Lavers Hill is a phosphate locality. Unfortunately, it is now completely rehabilitated.

Below: Redcliff Head near high tide! Peter Hall for scale, standing on an outcrop towards the left hand side.

Below: Pink granite, the Pinnacles on the western side of Cape Woolamai.