The Lost City of North-west Queensland: A test of the model of giant grikeland development in semi-arid karst

Abstract

Jennings and Sweeting's (1963) model of landscape evolution in the Limestone Ranges of Western Australia has been proposed as a general scheme of semi-arid karstification by Williams (1978) and Ford and Williams (1989). The model involves an initial plateau surface which undergoes progressive karstic dissection. The resultant landscape is characterised first by giant grikelands, then by box valleys and finally by karst towers. The depth of dissection is governed by the altitude of successive levels of pediplanation adjacent to the karst, with each karst level representing the location of a former erosion surface. The Lost City, a giant grikeland in the Barkly karst of north-west Queensland, ..