[1] The Wide Bay area is the northernmost extension of the Cooloola sand dune mass, deposited intermittently with changing sea levels, over the last 150,000 years.

The oldest dunes, in the central portion of the Wide Bay area, have been weathered and partially inundated to form a low lying undulating landscape.

These wetter areas are known as wallum, and are dominated by open sedgeland and Banksia heathland, which grade into patchy forests and woodland on the upper dune slopes and crests.

[1] The old dunes are underlain by coarse grained Triassic (200 million year old) sandstones which outcrop in the western section of the Wide Bay area in the form of dissected ridges of moderate relief.

[1] The eastern section of the Wide Bay area consists of recent dunes less than 10,000 years old and tidal channels and flats.

Salt pans, support water couch (Sporobolus viginicus), occur where tidal cover is very shallow and surface evaporation high.

The relatively young dunes of this area support species include Piccabeen Palms (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana), Coast Cypress (Callitris columellaria) and Brushbox (Lophostemon confertus).

The reserve is noted for being relatively weed free with only minor infestations of Lantana and Groundsel (Baccharis hamilifolia), both of which are rampant in many other areas throughout the region.

[7][1] Criterion D: Characteristic values The Wide Bay area contains a representative example in good condition of the coastal lowland complex described by Coaldrake (1961) and known as "Wallum".

[7][1] This Wikipedia article was originally based on Wide Bay Military Reserve, entry number 105285 in the Australian Heritage Database published by the Commonwealth of Australia 2019 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 15 May 2019.