The Vegetation of Mount Piper, Central Victoria: A Study of A Continuum

Mount Piper rises like a solitary volcanic cone 230 m above an undulating plain between the Tallarook and Mt William ranges, 5 km south-west of Broadford in Central Victoria, Australia (Latitude 37? 12'S, Longitude 145? O'E). Its summit reaches 456 m above sea level and, except for a shoulder on the east-south-east aspect at 400 m, its profile resembles a 'normal curve' with maximum slopes of 30-33? (Plate 1 (a)). The form of the mountain is due to the protection from erosion offered by an indurated mass of quartz which trends NNW/SSE (Nicholas 1875). Such a cap of quartz is thought to have been mobilized from a thick sandstone bed during the synclinal folding of the Lower Devonian siltstone sequence (M. Garrett, personal communication). Exploratory shafts, sunk in search of gold in the 1930s, proved that the quartz cap was localized and did not originate at depth. Mount Piper was chosen for a detailed study because it provided a teaching demonstration of the subtle gradations of species in response to aspect and altitude. The senior ecology classes of the Botany School, University of Melbourne, contributed much of the primary data obtained in 1962-66.