During the latest Ordovician and Early Silurian there was uplift and erosion of the craton and deformation along the eastern margin of Australia. This event, the 'Benambran Orogeny', reflected the collision of lithospheric plates. Deep-water environments retreated to the east and sedimentation then resumed in isolated intracratonic basins.

Throughout the Silurian, central and western Australia were at a latitude corresponding to the present northern trade wind belt and the climate was probably arid. Some of the thick salt beds in the Canning Basin may have been formed at this time. Wind-blown sand was deposited in the Amadeus Basin.

In the Carnarvon Basin, detritus from the uplifted Yilgarn Block was deposited as alluvial fans, and is now preserved as strata at Murchison Gorge.

There were regions of mainly deep-water turbidite sedimentation in eastern Australia, some of which are probably 'terranes', tectonically transported to their present positions after the Silurian. A graptolite fauna flourished in the southeast Australian sea.

In eastern Australia, there was volcanic activity in some areas of marine deposition and granite emplacement commenced. Crustal extension began in New South Wales towards the end of Silurian 1. Western Tasmania appears to have remained a stable shelf.