
SUBDIVISION or PLEISTOCENE TIME 
in SOUTH AUSTRALIA 
By NORMAN B, TINDALE, B.Sc., Erunonocist, S.A. Museum 
Fie. 1. 
“The only sound approach to a study [of the early toals af man] is through 
those natural sciences which are concerned with the chronology of lhe Pleistocene,” 
Movius (1944), 
INTRODUCTION. 
'n1s paper brings together new evidence for, and recent work on, the subdivision 
of Pleistocene time, as it applies to South Australia, It is intended as a preliminary 
to a study of the advent of man on this continent; only geological information is 
made use of in establishing the subdivisions. 
Using index fossils Haug (1911) defined the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, 
with some precision, as that indicated by the appearance of the mammalian genera 
Elephas, Equus and Bos, the so-called Villafranchian fauna, Determined at first 
only for Europe this dividing line is coming to be accepted by other workers as 
applying equally well to Asia, However, such a correlation cannot be transferred 
directly to the Australian Region, which lies outside areas which were accessible to 
(he migrations of the later mammals. 
Arrival of a Villafranchian fauna in southern Asia was linked directly 
with a deterioration of climate, marking the onset of the Early (Giinz) Glacial 
Period. Further, from the Caucasus to Eastern Asia an angular unconformity 
is encountered, according to de Terra (1940), forming an abrupt structural 
break in the Cainozoic sequenee. This break was marked by widespread diastrophic 
events which in turn led to new cyclic processes of erosion and peneplanation of 
the first order of magnitude. 
Such diastrophic happenings may have been world-wide. They recall the 
Kosciusko plateau building movements of eastern Australia, which at one time 
were thought to be dated chiefly within the Pleistocene itself. Later opinions, 
commencing probably with Hills (1934) have tended to place the Kosciusko 
phase further back, cither at the beginning of the Pleistocene or earlier. 
A limited correlation between events in Asia and Australia might be sought 
by linking the late Pliocene diastrophism of the one with the plateau building of 
