<div><strong>Output Type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short Abstract: </strong>Geoscience Australia’s headquarters in Canberra welcome over 11,000 visitors each year to learn about the relevance of geoscience in their everyday lives and view the National Mineral and Fossil Collection. After substantial public consultation, a new exhibit, <em>Rocks that Shape Australia</em>, was installed in 2023 to help to contextualise the <em>Exploring for the Future </em>(EFTF)<em> </em>program and Geoscience Australia’s work. The exhibit showcases the importance of understanding and mapping Australia’s geological features, highlighting their value and prompting visitors to consider which rocks might ‘shape’ Australia into the future. <em>Rocks that Shape Australia </em>sets a benchmark for the use of contemporary interpretive practices in Geoscience Australia’s public spaces. It will enable the thousands of future visitors to Geoscience Australia to explore geoscience and its importance in society as well as setting new best-practice standards for visitor-focused development of new public exhibits in Geoscience Australia’s public spaces.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Ryder, A., Soroka, L., Petkovski, S., Kennett, R. &amp; Hill, S., 2024. Connecting Australians with geology through a new exhibition, Rocks that Shape Australia. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts. Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://doi.org/10.26186/149409 </div>

This animation shows how passive seismic surveys Work. It is part of a series of Field Activity Technique Engagement Animations. The target audience are the communities that are impacted by our data acquisition activities. There is no sound or voice over. The 2D animation includes a simplified view of what passive seismic equipment looks like, what the equipment measures and how the survey works.

<div>As part of the Exploring for the Future Geoscience Knowledge Sharing project, a mobile laboratory was designed and built to help with field work and enhance opportunistic outreach experiences for communities in the areas where field work is taking place. This seminar explores some of the lessons learned from outreach programs planned and evaluated during 2023. The presenters will describe how the craft of stakeholder engagement can be improved by well researched and designed models and engagement exhibits. Outreach not only promotes the field program but also the work an agency does more broadly and can help scientists to better understand the general community who are consumers of data. This in turn can help with future planning of field and other work programs.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div>

This animation shows how borehole geophysical surveys are conducted. It is part of a series of Field Activity Technique Engagement Animations. The target audience are the communities that are impacted by GA's data acquisition activities. There is no sound or voice over. The 2D animation includes a simplified view of what borehole geophysics equipment looks like, what the equipment measures and how scientists use the data.

The Exploring for the Future program Showcase 2023 was held on 15-17 August 2023. Day 2 - 16th August talks included: Highways to Discovery and Understanding Session AusAEM - Unraveling Australia's Landscape with Airborne Electromagnetics – Dr Yusen Ley Cooper Exploring for the Future Data Discovery Portal: A scenic tour – Simon van der Wielen Towards equitable access to regional geoscience information– Dr Kathryn Waltenberg Community engagement and geoscience knowledge sharing: towards inclusive national data and knowledge provision – Dr Meredith Orr Foundational Geoscience Session The power of national scale geological mapping – Dr Eloise Beyer New surface mineralogical and geochemical maps of Australia – Dr Patrice de Caritat Imaging Australia’s Lithospheric Architecture – Dr Babak Hejrani Metallogenic Potential of the Delamerian Margin– Dr Yanbo Cheng You can access the recording of the talks from YouTube here: <a href="https://youtu.be/ZPp2sv2nuXI">2023 Showcase Day 2 - Part 1</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/dvqP8Z5yVtY">2023 Showcase Day 2 - Part 2</a>

Explore important concepts about groundwater using this comprehensive teaching resource. This mini unit includes case studies of Australian groundwater topics, First Nations Australian perspectives about water use and groundwater are also included. This mini unit included four files - the guide, 2 x student activities and a kml file. The guide includes educator tips as well as answers to the student activities. Suitable for upper primary to lower secondary students.

<div>The Exploring for the Future program, led by Geoscience Australia, was a $225 million Australian Government investment over 8 years, focused on revealing Australia’s mineral, energy, and groundwater potential by characterising geology.&nbsp;&nbsp;This report provides an overview of activities, results, achievements and impacts from the Exploring for the Future program, with a particular focus on the last four years (2020-2024). &nbsp;</div>

<div>A document outlining how geoscience data can be useful for natural resource managers and engagement tool for geoscientists interacting with these people.</div><div><br></div>

<div><strong>Output Type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short Abstract:</strong> Under the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, Geoscience Australia staff and collaborators engaged with land-connected stakeholders that managed or had an interest in land comprising 56% of the total land mass area of Australia. From 2020 to 2023, staff planning ground-based and airborne geophysical and geological data acquisition projects consulted farmers, National Park rangers and managers, Native Title holders, cultural heritage custodians and other land-connected people to obtain land access and cultural heritage clearances for surveys proposed on over 122,000 parcels of land. Engagement did not always result in field activities proceeding. To support communication with this diverse audience, animations, comic-style factsheets, and physical models, were created to help explain field techniques. While the tools created have been useful, the most effective method of communication was found to be a combination of these tools and open two-way discussions.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Sweeney, M., Kuoni, J., Iffland, D. &amp; Soroka, L., 2024. Improving how we engage with land-connected people about geoscience. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. https://doi.org/10.26186/148760</div>

Australia remains underexplored or unexplored, boasting discovery potential in the mineral, groundwater, and energy resources hidden beneath the surface. These “greenfield” areas are key to Australia’s future prosperity and sustainability. Led by Geoscience Australia, Australia’s national government geoscience organisation, the Exploring for the Future program was a groundbreaking mission to map Australia’s mineral, energy, and groundwater systems in unparalleled scale and detail. The program has advanced our understanding of Australia’s untapped potential. Over the course of 8 years, the Exploring for the Future program provided a significant expansion of public, precompetitive geoscience data and information, equipping decision-makers with the knowledge and tools to tackle urgent challenges related to Australia’s resource prosperity, energy security, and groundwater supply.