A call for Australian loess

The term ‘loess’ for silty terrestrial deposits of aeolian origin is widely avoided in the Australian context. This seems to be linked to a prevailing notion among Australian geoscientists that loess is an inherently periglacial late Pleistocene sediment and hence negligible on the mainland. Addressing this conception, loess is presented here as a product of both cold and hot semi‐arid environments and therefore a widespread feature in Australia. The adoption of a non‐prescriptive definition of loess will align the variety of local descriptions with overseas terminology. More importantly, it will relate hitherto only vaguely defined wind‐blown dust occurrences to a broader palaeoenvironmental concept.