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Australia is arguably situated within one of the most remote far-field regions, which are influenced mainly by hydro-isostatic effects but limited glacio-isostatic effects due to being remote from previous ice sheets of the Northern Hemispheres (Dutton & Lambeck 2012; Conrad 2013). Thus, the last interglacial sea-level records along the Australian coastline potentially reflect the palaeosea-level that is closer to approximate ice-equivalent sea level during the Last Interglacial Maximum (MIS 5e). A detailed description of the last interglacial Glanville Formation and its sedimentary facies evolution, in response to relative sea-level changes, along the coastline of Yorke Peninsula, southern Australia, is presented in this thesis. Yorke Peninsula is located on the eastern margin of the tectonically stable Proterozoic Gawler Craton. The thesis documents evidence for the maximum sea-level elevation and sea-level trend attained during the Last Interglacial Maximum (Marine Isotope Substage 5e; MIS 5e) within the region. Palaeontological analysis of the last interglacial molluscs and foraminifers from the Glanville Formation was undertaken to reconstruct the palaeoenvironments and palaeogeography of the Yorke Peninsula coastline during MIS 5e.

Yorke Peninsula in southern Australia is an important region for reconstructing relative sea-level histories due to its location on the eastern margin of the tectonically stable Gawler Craton and in one of the world's geographically most remote far-field locations from the Pleistocene ice sheets. Richly fossiliferous, skeletal carbonate sands of the last interglacial (125 ka) Glanville Formation crop out in the coastal cliffs along large sectors of southern Yorke Peninsula. Sedimentary facies include deepening-upward intertidal to shallow subtidal facies, relict storm beach facies and cobble and boulder beach deposits in more exposed, higher energy locations. During deposition of the Glanville Formation, southern Yorke Peninsula had a different coastal geography with two prominent marine corridors extending across the southern-most portion of the entire peninsula. In a 3 km long coastal cliff section in southern Hardwicke Bay, the Glanville Formation crops out as an upward-deepening intertidal-subtidal succession capped by supratidal and subaerially-exposed sediments with pervasive calcrete development. The sedimentary succession passes upwards from a basal unit of intertidal sand flat facies with abundant gastropods (Batillaria diemenensis) near the upper bounding (disconformity) surface, upwards into richly fossiliferous shelly sands (coquina) representing a shallow subtidal facies formed by sediment aggradation in response to a relative sea-level rise. The subtidal facies is dominated by the bivalve molluscs Katelysia sp. and Amesodesma angusta, signifying a water deepening event. The subtidal facies is in turn overlain by pedogenically modified skeletal carbonate sands with pervasive calcrete development signifying a relative sea level fall at the end of the Last Interglacial Maximum. The upper-bounding surface of the shallow-water subtidal facies ranges from 2.4 to 3.0 m Australian Height Datum (AHD) and by analogy with modern sedimentary environments suggests