Red Hill And Upper Basaltic Slopes
RED HILL SOUTH VIC 3937 - Property No L10080
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Statement of Significance
This landscape unit includes all the land between the Arthur's Seat Scenic Area and the recorded landscape area designated as "Southern basaltic slopes". The land surface slopes gently towards Bass Strait and has been dissected by stream action into a series of ridges and gullies. The original Messmate forests have been largely replaced by pasture and orchards producing a varied and pleasing mosaic of internal landscapes. For the most part road lines are treed, and glimpses of distant seascapes add to the aesthetic value of the area.
Soils within this area include the best type on the Mornington Peninsula, i.e. deep krasnozem which has developed from basaltic parent material. Combined with high annual rainfall and shelter from high levels of northern isolation, this soil originally carried the finest natural stands of forest in the region. They have been extensively cleared for agriculture, and only three notable stands of near-natural forest now remain.
These occur beside Main Creek Road, and beside Main Ridge Road, and on either side of upper Stony Creek close to its source near Red Hill South.
This last stand is of particular value in the region as it includes communities of four distinct plant associations which were once more widely distributed on the Mornington Peninsula, but are now very limited in extent. The communities along the banks of Stony Creek are of particular interest as remnants of associations which even naturally had very restricted distribution in the region.
This area was first crossed by Europeans in 1804 when Lt. Tuckey, of HMS Calcutta led an exploratory expedition from the site of the First Settlement (near Sorrento) to Western Port Bay. There he inspected the coastline between Flinders and a point north of Shoreham before returning across the basaltic slopes to the Settlement.
LOCATION:
On the north it is bounded by the Arthur's Seat Scenic Area and McIlroy Road to its junction with the Merricks North-Red Hill South Road, which forms part of the eastern boundary. From Red Hill South the boundary follows the ridge south-west of East Creek to Nolan Hill. The western boundary extends from the western-most corner of the Arthur's Seat Scenic Area, along the ridge which runs immediately north of Dulles Road then swings north-eastward to the junction of Waterfall Road and Purvis Road; the boundary then passes along Purvis Road to "Main Creek Lower (Greens Estate)". The southern boundary coincides with the boundaries of areas designated as "Main Creek Lower (Greens Estate)", "Southern basaltic slopes", and "Southwestern coast of Western Port Bay".
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Red Hill And Upper Basaltic SlopesNational Trust
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