<div>This study was commissioned by Geoscience Australia (GA) as part of the Exploring for the Future program to produce a report on the organic petrology for rock samples from drill holes of the Birrindudu Basin, Northern Territory, Australia. A suite of 130 drill core samples from 6 drill holes was analysed using standard organic petrological methods to identify the types of organic matter present, assess their relative abundances and determine the levels of thermal maturity attained by the sedimentary organic matter using the reflectance of organoclasts present. </div>

<div>The groundwater and surface water systems associated with the Upper Darling River Floodplain (UDF) in arid northwest New South Wales form part of the Murray-Darling Basin drainage system, which hosts 40% of Australia’s agricultural production. Increasing water use demands and a changing regional climate are affecting hydrological systems, and consequently impacting the quality and quantity of water availability to communities, industries and the environment.</div><div>As part of the Australian Government’s Exploring for the Future program, the UDF project is working in collaboration with State partners to collect and integrate new data and information with existing hydrogeological knowledge. The goal is to provide analyses and products that assist water managers to increase water security in the region, with a focus on groundwater resources. </div><div>As part of this project we are assessing the occurrence of, and geological controls on, potable water resources within the Darling Alluvium (DA), which comprises unconsolidated sediments (<140 m thick) associated with the modern and paleo-Darling River. The DA’s relationship to the underlying Eromanga, Surat (Great Artesian Basin) and Murray basins is also important, particularly in the context of potential groundwater sources or sinks, and connection between low and high quality groundwater resources. At least one major fault system is known to influence groundwater flow paths and control groundwater-surface water interaction.</div><div>Data collection across the project area has commenced, with an airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey already complete, and new geophysical, hydrochemical and hydrodynamic data being acquired. Preliminary interpretation of the new AEM data in conjunction with existing geological and hydrogeological information has already revealed the major paths and geometries of the paleo-Darling River, given important insights into fault controls on groundwater flow paths, and shown variation in the thickness, distribution and character of the DA, which has direct implications for groundwater–surface water connectivity.</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.

<div>The groundwater and surface water systems associated with the Upper Darling River Floodplain (UDF) in arid northwest New South Wales form part of the Murray-Darling Basin drainage system, which hosts 40% of Australia’s agricultural production. Increasing water use demands and a changing regional climate are affecting hydrological systems, and consequently impacting the quality and quantity of water availability to communities, industries and the environment.</div><div>As part of the Australian Government’s Exploring for the Future program, the UDF project is working in collaboration with State partners to collect and integrate new data and information with existing hydrogeological knowledge. The goal is to provide analyses and products that assist water managers to increase water security in the region, with a focus on groundwater resources. </div><div>As part of this project we are assessing the occurrence of, and geological controls on, potable water resources within the Darling Alluvium (DA), which comprises unconsolidated sediments (<140 m thick) associated with the modern and paleo-Darling River. The DA’s relationship to the underlying Eromanga, Surat (Great Artesian Basin) and Murray basins is also important, particularly in the context of potential groundwater sources or sinks, and connection between low and high quality groundwater resources. At least one major fault system is known to influence groundwater flow paths and control groundwater-surface water interaction.</div><div>Data collection across the project area has commenced, with an airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey already complete, and new geophysical, hydrochemical and hydrodynamic data being acquired. Preliminary interpretation of the new AEM data in conjunction with existing geological and hydrogeological information has already revealed the major paths and geometries of the paleo-Darling River, given important insights into potential fault controls on groundwater flow paths, and shown variation in the thickness, distribution and character of the DA, which has direct implications for groundwater–surface water connectivity.</div><div><br></div>

<div> A key issue for explorers in Australia is the abundant sedimentary and regolith cover obscuring access to underlying potentially prospective rocks. &nbsp;Multilayered chronostratigraphic interpretation of regional broad line-spaced (~20&nbsp;km) airborne electromagnetic (AEM) conductivity sections have led to breakthroughs in Australia’s near-surface geoscience. &nbsp;A dedicated/systematic workflow has been developed to characterise the thickness of cover and the depth to basement rocks, by delineating contact geometries, and by capturing stratigraphic units, their ages and relationships. &nbsp;Results provide a fundamental geological framework, currently covering 27% of the Australian continent, or approximately 2,085,000&nbsp;km2. &nbsp;Delivery as precompetitive data in various non-proprietary formats and on various platforms ensures that these interpretations represent an enduring and meaningful contribution to academia, government and industry.&nbsp;The outputs support resource exploration, hazard mapping, environmental management, and uncertainty attribution.&nbsp;This work encourages exploration investment, can reduce exploration risks and costs, helps expand search area whilst aiding target identification, and allows users to make well-informed decisions. Presented herein are some key findings from interpretations in potentially prospective, yet in some cases, underexplored regions from around Australia.&nbsp;</div> This abstract was submitted & presented to the 8th International Airborne Electromagnetics Workshop (AEM2023) (https://www.aseg.org.au/news/aem-2023)

<div>This guide and template details data requirements for submission of mineral deposit geochemical data to the Critical Minerals in Ores (CMiO) database, hosted by Geoscience Australia, in partnership with the United States Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada. The CMiO database is designed to capture multielement geochemical data from a wide variety of critical mineral-bearing deposits around the world. Samples included within this database must be well-characterized and come from localities that have been sufficiently studied to have a reasonable constraint on their deposit type and environment of formation. As such, only samples analysed by modern geochemical methods, and with certain minimum metadata attribution, can be accepted. Data that is submitted to the CMiO database will also be published via the Geoscience Australia Portal (portal.ga.gov.au) and Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative Portal (https://portal.ga.gov.au/persona/cmmi).&nbsp;</div><div><br></div>

<div>GeoInsight was an 18-month pilot project developed in the latter part of Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future Program (2016–2024). The aim of this pilot was to develop a new approach to communicating geological information to non-technical audiences, that is, non-geoscience professionals. The pilot was developed using a human-centred design approach in which user needs were forefront considerations. Interviews and testing found that users wanted a simple and fast, plain-language experience which provided basic information and provided pathways for further research. GeoInsight’s vision is to be an accessible experience that curates information and data from across the Geoscience Australia ecosystem, helping users make decisions and refine their research approach, quickly and confidently.</div><div><br></div><div>Geoscience Australia hosts a wealth of geoscientific data, and the quantity of data available in the geosciences is expanding rapidly. This requires newly developed applications such as the GeoInsight pilot to be adaptable and malleable to changes and updates within this data. As such, utilising the existing Oracle databases, web service publication and platform development workflows currently employed within Geoscience Australia (GA) were optimal choices for data delivery for the GeoInsight pilot.&nbsp;This record is intended to give an overview of the how and why of the technical infrastructure of this project. It aims to summarise how the underlying databases were used for both existing and new data, as well as development of web services to supply the data to the pilot application.&nbsp;</div>

<div>Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This leads to a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. This includes supporting Australia’s transition to net zero emissions, strong, sustainable resources and agriculture sectors, and economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. The Exploring for the Future program, which commenced in 2016, is an eight year, $225m investment by the Australian Government.</div><div><br></div><div>This record contains geological notes on layered geology interpretation of twenty-nine 1:250 000 Sheet areas in eastern Queensland. The geology maps generated as part of this work were not released as a separate product but incorporated into the national layered geology product of Sanchez et al. (2024). There are five layers interpreted; pre-Neoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Preparation of these layers involved figuratively peeling off successively older rocks and identifying and outlining the rocks thereby revealed. The notes provide comments on the rocks comprising each layer, and explain how the identity of the revealed rocks was arrived at where this is not obvious. The Cenozoic time slice was extracted from the 1:1 000 000 scale outcrop geology (Raymond et al., 2012) after removing the surficial deposits and without further interpretation.&nbsp;</div>

Brumbys 1 was an appraisal well drilled and cored through Brumbys Fault at the CO2CRC Otway International Test Centre in 2018. The Otway Project is located in South West Victoria, on private farming property approximately 35 km southeast of Warrnambool and approximately 10 km northwest of the town of Peterborough. Total measured depth was 126.6 m (80 degrees). Sonic drilling enabled excellent core recovery and the borehole was completed as a groundwater monitoring well. Brumbys 1 cores through the upper Hesse Clay, Port Campbell Limestone and extends into the Gellibrand Marl. This dataset compiles the extensive analysis undertaken on the core. Analysis includes: Core log; Foram Analysis; Paleodepth; % Carbonate (CaCO3); X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF); Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS); X-Ray Diffraction (XRD); Grain Size; Density; Surface Area Analysis (SAA); Gamma. Samples were taken at approximately 1-2 m intervals.

<div>The recent Musgrave Palaeovalley Project set out to map the extent and characterise the palaeovalley architecture of several of these Cenozoic features that overlie the Musgrave Province in central Australia. To effectively model the palaeovalley architecture of these features we collected approximately 20 000 line km of new Airborne Electromagnetics (AEM) and combined it with an array of existing AEM datasets, including AusAEM and high resolution mineral exploration surveys. These older surveys were reprocessed and reinverted to produce a consistent and reliable interpretation throughout. Utilising surface geology and lithology logs to constrain this data set, we mapped the interface between Cenozoic sediments and underlying pre-Cenozoic rocks, producing a continuous three-dimensional model of this boundary throughout the study area.</div><div><br></div><div>Our three-dimensional model enhances the understanding of the West Musgrave palaeovalley system, redefining palaeovalley extents, revealing previously unmapped palaeovalleys and identifying areas with significant accumulations of Cenozoic sediments. This methodology was also extremely useful for investigating palaeovalley geometry, revealing southerly flowpaths consistent with regional expectations but also highlighting areas of palaeovalley deformation where neo tectonic forces have acted to alter historical flow regimes. This deformation is likely to cause groundwater compartmentalisation, mounding or connect different aquifer units. Presented at the 2024 Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG) Discover Symposium