Western Australia – Coastal Tufa Studies
Forbes et al.
Foundational work (2010) on coastal tufa deposits in south-west Western Australia identified them as Threatened Ecological Communities, examining depositional facies, mineralogy, and water quality at five key sites MDPI.
Oscar Range, Kimberley
Four types of tufa occur along creeks draining the Oscar Range in the Kimberley; streambed tufa, tufa dams, stream-bed tufa waterfalls, and rimstone pools. Well-developed tufa dam and waterfall formations occur at significant breaks of slope within the channel long profile. This suggests that disruption of the hydraulic flow regime and increased turbulence at these points has an important role to play in determining the location of tufa deposits. However, the best-developed stream-bed tufa deposits are located immediately upstream of dam and waterfall formations, which indicates that the evaporation of water ponded behind these flow obstructions may lead to calcium carbonate precipitation during the dry season. The presence of plant and cyanobacterial communities on, and the incorporation of organic material into, the best-developed tufa formations indicates that biological activity may have an important role to play in determining both the rate of tufa deposition and the internal structure of the resulting accumulations.
Weston, Rishworth and Dodd
Recent studies (2018-2021) by Weston, Rishworth, and Dodd examined infaunal metazoan communities in Western Australian supratidal tufa deposits, identifying oligochaetes, amphipods, tanaidids and polychaetes as key bioturbators MarkTechPost.
Augusta Microbial Threatened Ecological Communities
A 2024 review paper in Biogeosciences discussed rock coast microbialites in South Australia and Western Australia, noting they have been recognised as “Augusta Microbial Threatened Ecological Communities” in south-western Western Australia Springer.
Garner in Sedimentology
A 2025 study by Garner in Sedimentology examined tufa barrages on rock coast shore platforms, including Australian occurrences with multiple facies including tufa stromatolite and bryophyte phytoherm tufa. Read more.
Gregory River, Queensland
Carthew et al. (2006) published research on fluvial tufas in the Barkly karst showing that tropical tufa systems are influenced by perennially warm temperatures, high evaporation, and monsoon-driven floods, with tufa facies preservation reflecting monsoon strength MarkTechPost.
A 2003 study examined whether current tufa sedimentary models are applicable to tropical systems like the Gregory River at Riversleigh, investigating how tropical depositional systems differ from cool temperate tufas ScienceDirect.
Northern Territory
Extensive tufa dam research has been conducted on the Flora River, Roper River, and Gregory River systems, all sustained by discharge from regional carbonate aquifers during the dry season.
Gregory National Park’s Limestone Gorge
Tourist literature mentions tufa formations and stromatolites.
Dalhousie Springs
Research on Dalhousie Springs in South Australia’s Great Artesian Basin (2011) investigated both fossil and active carbonate spring mounds as potential terrestrial analogues for Martian extreme environments, with tufa mounds proposed as analogs for similar landforms discovered on Mars MindatJppmglobal.