Several seismic surveys were made by the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Delhi Australian Petroleum Ltd, -Phillips Petroleum Company, and L. H. Smart Oil Exploration Company Ltd during the period from 1959 to 1963 between Eula and the Queensland/South Australia border area of the Eromanga Basin. This report covers the seismic work done by the Bureau of Mineral Resources in 1962 and 1963 and also incorporates the results of the work done by the private oil exploration companies. It aims at providing information on the nature and structure of the rocks underlying the Mesozoic sediments of the Eromanga Basin. The seismic results have been interpreted with reference to the geology as known from the Delhi-Santos Orientos No. 1 and Dullingari No.1 wells near the Queensland/South Australia border and the Smart Oil Orient No. 2 well on the Grey Range.

Seismic reflection studies in the Perth Basin, between the coast and the Darling Range, 30 miles north of Perth, were conducted in an attempt to derive a suitable recording technique for obtaining reflections when shooting on the Coastal Limestone formation, to investigate geological structure in the basin,and to supplement hydrological studies being madeby the Geological Survey of Western Australia. Experimental work occupying half of the survey period failed to yield a technique for obtaining seismic reflections on the Coastal Limestone, but led to reflections being obtained across the major part of the basin, Record quality with a fairly heavy technique was poor to fair in the western half of the basin off the Coastal Limestone but improved considerably to the east. A complex geological section in the west gave way to a more concordant thick synclinal section in the east, terminated at its eastern end by the Darling Fault. Of interest is an apparent anticlinal reversal of dip in beds lying deeper than 7000 ft,with the reversal axis near the centre of the major gravity 'low' of the basin.

In November 1964, the Bureau of Mineral Resources Seismic Party No. 1 carried out a velocity survey in CBMR 12 (Cockroach) Well, Northern Territory, which had been drilled to 4000 feet and logged using sonic and other logging methods. The time/depth values obtained in the velocity survey were in good agreement with those obtained by integration of the sonic log. A curve showing the variation with time-of'the coefficient of reflection calculated from the sonic log showed an outstanding feature, which appeared to correlate with the best reflection recorded on an experimental seismic traverse nearby. According to the geological interpretation of the well log, this reflection arises from velocity changes near the boundary of the ArrinthrungaTormation and the Marqua Beds at a depth of 2,721 feet.

The Vibroseis method of seismic exploration was first introduced into Australia during 1963. In accordance with the programme for accelerated oil search, the Bureau of Mineral Resources employed a Vibroseis seismic party to demonstrate the performance of the method in various problem areas within the Otway and Sydney Basins, the locations of which are indicated on the regional map. The Experimental Vibroseis Seismic Survey was conducted by Seismograph Service Limited. Party 243. on behalf of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics during the period from 11th May to 3rd October, 1964. The broad objective of the survey was to demonstrate the capabilities of the Vibroseis method in selected areas where previous conventional seismic surveys had experienced difficulties in obtaining results and where various seismic problems had been defined. The main aim of the survey was to obtain good quality results rather than a high production rate yielding poorer quality data. However, as a secondary objective, some short production traverses were recorded USing the optimum field technique developed during the course of the survey for comparison e with normal shot hole production techniques.

In the severi months from the beginning of May to the end of November 1966, the Bureau of Mineral Resources carried out a seismic survey on the Flinders Regional Gravity Low in north-central Queensland. The first six months of the survey were spent in investigating the sedimentary section between Richmond and Julia Creek, particularly to determine whether there was any appreciable thickness of Palaeozoic sediments. The seismic results proved that basement was reasonably shallow and that no appreciable thickness or Palaeozoic sediments can be expected in the area. One month of the survey was then devoted to seismic work near Bowen Downs Homestead, north of Aramac, in an effort to determine the location of the western margin of the Drummond Basin. This work demonstrated that sediments of the Drummond Basin increase in thickness rapidly to the east in the area surveyed.

The seismic survey was carried out at the request of the U.K. Ministry of Supply. The purpose of the survey was to disclose the geological structure and, if possible, the physical rock characteristics at the Maralinga testing ground. The 11,000 ft/sec layer at a depth of about 200 ft, probably a sandstone-shale formation, and the 19,000 ft/sec formation at a depth of about 1350 or 1800 ft (according to the method of computation used) were successfully mapped. The subsurface information to a depth of about 200 ft was derived mainly from shallow drill holes and up-hole shots. An experimental spread indicated a very low Poisson ratio for the sandstoneshale formation.

A deep crustal seismic reflection survey, conducted at Gundary Plains near Canberra, to test a digital seismic recording system, produced additional data for interpretation of seismic refraction profiles in the Lachlan Fold Best. Good reflections were recorded down to the probable Moho, at an estimated depth of 41 km. The intracrustal reflections are characterised by bands of seismic energy, which probably represent velocity transition zones within the crust.

A hybrid high-resolution seismic survey was undertaken adjacent to the Eurabba State Forest near Quandialla, Western NSW between June 29 and July 3 2003 acquiring both refraction and reflection data. The Australian National Seismic Imaging Resource (ANSIR) carried out the field work in conjunction with University of Canberra and Dryland Salinity Hazard Mitigation Program (DSHMP) research staff and students. Processing of the acquired refraction information was performed with the assistance of ANSIR staff. This survey was designed to collect and compare a shallow, high-resolution seismic dataset against nearby regional scale seismic datasets and other complementary sources of spatial information including NanoTEM, drill hole data, satellite imagery and regolith-landform mapping. The multi-disciplinary approach is designed for imaging shallow sedimentary structures and determining depth to bedrock. The combined aim of utilizing the multidisciplinary approach is to understand shallow fluid flow within the Booberoi-Quandialla Transect area and how this relates to observed outbreaks of dryland salinity. These observations will aid in the development of a shallow fluid flow model for the Bland catchment, especially over the Booberoi- Quandialla Transect area. Raw data for this survey are available on request from clientservices@ga.gov.au

Some experimental geophysical work was undertaken by the Bureau of Mineral Resources at the Moura Coalfield in Queensland in order to investigate the structure of coal seams which lie within 1000 feet of the surface. The aim of the survey was to evaluate the use of geophysical techniques for locating faults of small displacement. Most of the effort was concentrated on shallow seismic reflection techniques but additional techniques (magnetic, gravity, resistivity, electromagnetic and induced polarization) were used. The whole area of the survey was covered with a close-spaced grid of gravity and magnetic stations. A lesser effort was devoted to resistivity, electromagnetic, and induced polarization methods, the object being to take advantage of the opportunity to tryout these relatively inexpensive methods in the hope that they might give some indications of fault locations. These methods will be evaluated in a separate Record; this one deals- with the results of the seismic work. Encouraging results were obtained from seismic reflection work. The uppermost economic coal seam was mapped to within 300 feet of the surface and areas of faulting could be deduced from time differences and lack of continuity in reflections.

Current geological surface mapping of the Officer Basin, W.A., by BMR has given an incomplete picture because the area is largely covered by flat-lying Permian fluvioglacials or lateritized Cretaceous rocks and the outcrops give no indication of the structure and composition of the sediments in most of the basin. The geological boundaries within the basin and at its margins are ill-defined, and the only reliable shallow subsurface information available from geophysical and well data is along the northern part of the basin near Warburton Mission. A seismic survey in the Officer BaSin, W.A., is planned to operate from mid-July to December 19720 The survey is to be conducted along a NE-SW line roughly following the road between Lake Throssell and Warburton Mission at the two margins of the basin. It will consist of a series of combined refraction and reflection probes located along the road. The operations will start with two probes near the centre of the basin, and the location of subsequent probes will depend on the progressive assessment of results. The results will be tied to those from the earlier seismic surveys in the northern part of the basin.