SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating of sedimentary, volcanic and subvolcanic-intrusive rocks from unconformity bounded sequences in the Eastern Goldfields Province defines maximum depositional ages for those sequences. The Kambalda Sequence, which records a backarc basin, was deposited prior to 2700Ma and from at least 2715Ma. The Spargoville Sequence, which records an arc-adjacent, volcano-bound basin, was deposited between 2700 and 2683Ma. The Kalgoorlie Sequence, which records an intra-arc rift basin, comprises two tectonic stages with depositional ages of 2681-2670 and 2661-2655Ma. Deposition of the Spargoville and Kalgoorlie Sequences overlapped with the intrusion of granitoids, and subvolcanic porphyries, thereby indicating that those granitoids were emplaced during crustal extension. Younger, submarine-fan (Kurrawang Sequence) and braided-fluvial (Merougil and Jones Creek Sequences) deposits of a remnant-ocean basin were deposited at <2655Ma, prior to regional compression and metamorphism, which apparently occurred between 2650 and 2630Ma.When coupled to palaeocurrent data, provenance dating of detrital zircon suites fingerprints southeast-oriented amalgamation of felsic detritus from multiple sources within longitudinal depositional systems, and longitudinal reworking of felsic detritus from single-sourced transverse systems. Most felsic detritus was recycled from coeval volcanoplutonic arcs and the orogen to the remnant-ocean basin sequences, with zircon ages ranging from ~2730 to ~2660Ma. Older felsic sources, with age ranges of 3570-3130, 3030-2900, 2870-2770 and ~2760Ma, could have been structural enclaves within the volcanoplutonic arcs or orogen, but were more likely within a distant cratonic basement. When coupled with stratigraphic data, it is concluded that detrital-zircon age distributions preserve evidence for the sedimentary recycling of coeval volcanoplutonic arc or orogenic sources, uplifted basin-floor and dissected-arc successions, and cratonic basement. Virtually all source terrains have apparently vanished, presumably through the combination of tectonic and sedimentary recycling, and tectonic severance. Increased use of detrital zircon suites from Archaean sedimentary sequences is advocated in order to quantify the balance between sedimentary recycling of felsic rocks from contemporaneous volcanoplutonic sources, which themselves document crustal growth in arc environments, and from relict volcanoplutonic and crustal-basement sources, which document the degree of crustal recycling.