<p>In this study, a total of 53 surface outcrop samples were analysed for both inorganic and organic whole-rock geochemistry as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, a government initiative undertaken by the Australian Government to boost investment in resource exploration and development in northern Australia. The samples were collected during two EFTF funded field seasons conducted in May 2017 (18 samples, GA job number 33004) and May 2018 (35 samples, GA job number 33228). <p>This data release contains the results of elemental analyses including X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Inductively Coupled Plasma- Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), iron titration (FeO), Loss-On-Ignition (LOI) and Rock-Eval pyrolysis on 53 outcrop samples collected across two seasons of fieldwork in the South Nicholson region. This data release are provided to facilitate establishment of important baseline assessments and whole rock characterisation of regional sedimentary rocks for insight into the resource prospectivity of northern Australian basins. These data was generated at the Geochemistry Laboratories at Geoscience Australia as part of the Exploring for the Future program

NDI Carrara 1 is a deep stratigraphic drill hole completed in 2020 as part of the MinEx CRC National Drilling Initiative (NDI) in collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey. It is the first test of the Carrara Sub-Basin, a depocentre newly discovered in the South Nicholson region based on interpretation from seismic surveys (L210 in 2017 and L212 in 2019) recently acquired as part of the Exploring for the Future program. The drill hole intersected approximately 1100 m of Proterozoic sedimentary rocks uncomformably overlain by 630 m of Cambrian Georgina Basin carbonates. A comprehensive geochemical program designed to provide information about the region’s resource potential was carried out on samples collected at up to 4 meter intervals. This report presents part 1 of the data from Rock-Eval pyrolysis analyses undertaken by Geoscience Australia on selected rock samples to establish their total organic carbon content, hydrocarbon-generating potential and thermal maturity.

Collection of mineral, gem, meteorite, fossil (including the Commonwealth Palaeontological Collection) and petrographic thin section specimens dating back to the early 1900s. The collection is of scientific, historic, aesthetic, and social significance. Geoscience Australia is responsible for the management and preservation of the collection, as well as facilitating access to the collection for research, and geoscience education and outreach. Over 700 specimens from the collection are displayed in our public gallery . The collection contains: • 15,000 gem, mineral and meteorite specimens from localities in Australia and across the globe. • 45,000 published palaeontological specimens contained in the Commonwealth Palaeontological Collection (CPC) mainly from Australia. • 1,000,000 unpublished fossils in a ‘Bulk Fossil’ collection. • 250,000 petrographic thin section slides. • 200 historical geoscience instruments including: cartography, geophysical, and laboratory equipment." <b>Value: </b>Specimens in the collection are derived from Geoscience Australia (GA) surveys, submissions by researchers, donations, purchases and bequests. A number of mineral specimens are held on behalf of the National Museum of Australia. <b>Scope: </b>This is a national collection that began in the early 1900s with early Commonwealth surveys collecting material across the country and British territories. The mineral specimens are mainly from across Australia, with a strong representation from major mineral deposits such as Broken Hill, and almost 40% from the rest of the world. The majority of fossils are from Australia, with a small proportion from lands historically or currently under Australian control, such as Papua New Guinea and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

As part of the Exploring for the Future Programme this study aims to improve our understanding of the petroleum resource potential of Northern Australia. As a component or this project, collaboration between the Onshore Energy Branch, Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS) is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the petroleum prospectivity of onshore Northern Territory basins. This report characterises the organic richness, kerogen type and thermal maturity of source rocks in the Velkerri, Barney Creek, Wollogorang and McDermott formations of the McArthur Basin based on Rock-Eval pyrolysis data analysed at Geoscience Australia in the 2017 to 2018 financial year. This data is provided in preparation for future work to generate statistics quantifying the spatial distribution, quantity and quality of McArthur Basin source rocks, providing important insights into the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the basin.

<p>In the South Nicholson region of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the Paleoproterozoic Isa Superbasin and the Mesoproterozoic South Nicholson Basin have the potential to host both conventional and unconventional petroleum systems (Gorton & Troup, 2018). The region remains poorly explored however with only 19 petroleum wells drilled in total (Carr et al., 2016). Although nine stratigraphic intervals are described as potential source rocks, data coverage is extremely limited and a large proportion of the available data is old and of poor quality. To more comprehensively characterise these organic rich source rocks, higher resolution coverages of pre-competitive geochemical data is required (Jarrett et al. 2018). <p>This report contains the total organic carbon (TOC) content and Rock-Eval pyrolysis data of 674 samples selected from twelve drill cores housed in the Geological Survey of Queensland’s Brisbane core repository including Amoco DDH 83-1, Amoco DDH 83-2, Amoco DDH 83-3, Amoco DDH 83-4, Argyle Creek 1, Armraynald 1, Burketown 1, Desert Creek 1, Egilabria 1, Egilabria 2 DW1, Egilabria 4, Morstone 1, MORSTONE DDH1. This data was generated at the Isotope and Organic Geochemistry Laboratory at Geoscience Australia as part of the Exploring for the Future program.

<p>The Exploring for the Future program is an initiative by the Australian Government dedicated to boosting investment in resource exploration in Australia. The four-year program led by Geoscience Australia focusses on northern Australia and parts of South Australia to gather new data and information about the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources concealed beneath the surface. As part of the Exploring for the Future program, this study aims to improve our understanding of the petroleum resource potential of northern Australia. As a component of this project, collaboration between the Onshore Energy Systems Branch, Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS) is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the petroleum prospectivity of onshore Northern Territory basins. <p>Proterozoic basins of northern Australia including the McArthur Basin, the Isa Superbasin and the Isa Superbasin have the potential to host conventional oil and gas, in addition to unconventional shale gas and oil plays (Muir et al., 1980; Munson, 2014; Revie, 2016; Revie, 2017; Gorton & Troup, 2018). To date, work on the prospective petroleum systems in the McArthur Basin has focused principally on source rocks within the McArthur and Roper groups in the southern parts of the basin. However due to limited data availability, the spatial variability in source rock quality, type and thermal maturity remains poorly constrained across the region. In the South Nicholson region of Queensland and the Northern Territory, data from the Paleoproterozoic Isa Superbasin and the Mesoproterozoic South Nicholson Basin is extremely limited and a large proportion of the available data is old and of poor quality. To more comprehensively characterise these organic rich source rocks, higher resolution coverages of pre-competitive geochemical data is required (Gorton & Troup, 2018; Jarrett et al. 2018). <p>This data release contains the total organic carbon (TOC) content and Rock-Eval pyrolysis data of 314 samples selected from nine drill cores from the McArthur Basin, South Nicholson Basin and Isa Superbasin that are housed in the Northern Territory Geological Survey’s Darwin core repository. The wells include Glyde 1, Lamont Pass 3 (McArthur Basin), Brunette Downs 1, CRDD001, NTGS 00/1, NTGS 01/1, NTGS 02/1 (South Nicholson Basin), in addition to ND1 and ND2 (Isa Superbasin). This data was generated at the Isotope and Organic Geochemistry Laboratory at Geoscience Australia as part of the Exploring for the Future program. The results show that the McArthur Basin samples analysed contain source rocks with poor to fair oil and gas generative potential with variable thermal maturity from immature to early oil mature. The Isa Superbasin samples analysed have poor to good gas generative potential and the South Nicholson samples analysed have poor to excellent gas generative potential. Samples from the Walford Dolostone and the Mullera Formation are overmature and petroleum potential cannot be assessed from the results of this study. This data release provides additional information that can be used to characterise the organic richness, kerogen type and thermal maturity of source rocks in the Teena Dolostone, Barney Creek Formation and Lynott Formation of the McArthur Basin, the Walford Dolostone and Mount Les Siltstone of the Isa Superbasin, in addition to the Constance Sandstone and Mullera Formation of the South Nicholson Basin. This data is provided in preparation for future work to generate statistics quantifying the spatial distribution, quantity and quality of source rocks, providing important insights into the hydrocarbon prospectivity of northern Australian basins

<div>NDI Carrara 1 is a deep stratigraphic drill hole completed in 2020 as part of the MinEx CRC National Drilling Initiative (NDI) in collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey. It is the first stratigraphic test of the Carrara Sub-basin, a depocentre newly discovered in the South Nicholson region based on interpretation from seismic surveys (L210 in 2017 and L212 in 2019) acquired as part of the Exploring for the Future program. The drill hole intersected approximately 1120 m of Proterozoic sedimentary rocks unconformably overlain by 630 m of Georgina Basin carbonates.&nbsp;</div><div>Geoscience Australia has undertaken a range of investigations on the lithology, stratigraphy and geotechnical properties of NDI Carrara 1 as well as undertaking a range of analyses of about 500 physical samples recovered through the entire core. Analyses included geochronology, isotope studies, mineralogy, inorganic and organic geochemistry, petrophysics, geomechanics, thermal maturity and petroleum systems investigations.</div><div>Rock-Eval pyrolysis raw data undertaken by Geoscience Australia were reported in Butcher et al. (2021) on selected rock samples to establish their total organic carbon content, hydrocarbon-generating potential and thermal maturity. Interpretation of the Rock-Eval pyrolysis data concluded that a large portion of rocks within the Proterozoic section displayed unreliable Tmax values due to poorly defined S2 peaks resulting from high thermal maturity and low hydrogen content. In order to obtain more reliable Tmax values, Rock-Eval pyrolysis of selected isolated kerogens, where organic matter is concentrated and mineral matrix effects are removed, were conducted and the resulting data are presented in this report.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div>

The Officer Basin in South Australia and Western Australia is the focus of a regional stratigraphic study being undertaken by the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, an Australian Government initiative dedicated to increasing investment in resource exploration in Australia. This data release provides data from new digital photography, X-ray Computerised Tomography (XCT) scanning, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and tensile strength, laboratory ultrasonic testing, and gas porosity and permeability experiments for 41 samples from five legacy stratigraphic and petroleum exploration boreholes drilled within the Officer Basin. Additional low permeability tests were undertaken on select samples that were identified as being ultra-tight (permeability <1 µD). These samples were analysed at CSIRO Geomechanics and Geophysics Laboratory in Perth during April to June 2021.

NDI Carrara 1 is the first stratigraphic test of the Carrara Sub-basin, a newly discovered depocentre in the South Nicholson region that was identified on newly acquired seismic surveys undertaken as part of the Exploring for the Future program. NDI Carrara 1 intersected a thick sequence of Proterozoic aged siliciclastic and carbonate rocks, which host several intervals of interest to hydrocarbon explorers due to affinities with the known Proterozoic shale gas plays of the Beetaloo Sub-basin and the Lawn Hill Platform. These include two organic-rich black shale sequences and a thick sequence of interbedded black shales and silty-sandstones where numerous hydrocarbon shows are demonstrated. An extensive suite of wireline logs was acquired from total depth to the near surface, and continuous core was recovered through the Proterozoic interval. Geoscience Australia and partners are undertaking an extensive program of analytical work to understand the depositional, structural, and diagenetic history of the sediments intersected by NDI Carrara 1, alongside their resource potential. This study characterises petrophysical and geomechanical properties of the Proterozoic interval of NDI Carrara 1 through interpretation of wireline logging data and integration of some of this interpretation with results of geochemical analyses. High interpreted TOC content and a high calculated net shale ratio, alongside high estimated hydrocarbon saturations suggest a high potential for unconventional gas resources in the Proterozoic shale intervals of the Carrara Sub-basin; an assessment supported by gas peaks, particularly methane, measured in mud-logging gas profiles during drilling. Shale brittleness indices and interpreted present-day stresses highlight areas that are likely to be favourable for unconventional gas techniques and which may form attractive shale gas plays. Interpretation of the L210 and L212 seismic surveys suggests that the intersected sequences are laterally extensive and continuous throughout the Carrara Sub-basin, potentially forming a significant new hydrocarbon province and continuing the Proterozoic shale play fairway across the Northern Territory and northwest Queensland. This Abstract was submitted/presented to the 2022 Central Australian Basins Symposium IV (CABS) 29-30 August (https://agentur.eventsair.com/cabsiv/)

A `weighted geometric median’ approach has been used to estimate the median surface reflectance of the barest state (i.e., least vegetation) observed through Landsat-8 OLI observations from 2013 to September 2018 to generate a six-band Landsat-8 Barest Earth pixel composite mosaic over the Australian continent. The bands include BLUE (0.452 - 0.512), GREEN (0.533 - 0.590), RED, (0.636 - 0.673) NIR (0.851 - 0.879), SWIR1 (1.566 - 1.651) and SWIR2 (2.107 - 2.294) wavelength regions. The weighted median approach is robust to outliers (such as cloud, shadows, saturation, corrupted pixels) and also maintains the relationship between all the spectral wavelengths in the spectra observed through time. The product reduces the influence of vegetation and allows for more direct mapping of soil and rock mineralogy. Reference: Dale Roberts, John Wilford, and Omar Ghattas (2018). Revealing the Australian Continent at its Barest, submitted.