Waukarlycarly 1 is a stratigraphic well drilled in the southern part of the Canning Basin’s Waukarlycarly Embayment under Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Western Australia to provide stratigraphic data for this poorly understood tectonic component. The well intersects a thin Cenozoic section, overlying Permian–Carboniferous fluvial clastics and glacial diamictites, with a thick pre-Carboniferous succession (855–2585 mRT) unconformably overlying the Neoproterozoic metasediments. Three informal siliciclastic intervals were defined based on the data from core lithology, well logs, fluid inclusions, chemical and mineral compositions; an Upper Sandstone (855–1348.1 mRT), a Middle Interval (1348.1–2443.4 mRT) and a Lower Sandstone (2443.4 –2585 mRT). The Middle Interval was further divided into six internal zones. Conventional methods were applied to interpret effective porosity, water saturation and elastic properties (Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus). Artificial neural network technology was employed on well logs to interpret the total organic carbon (TOC) content, pyrolysis products from the cracking of organic matter (S2), permeability, and mineral compositions. In the Upper Sandstone, average sandstone porosity and permeability are 17.9% and 464.5 mD and, 6.75 % and 10 mD in the Lower Sandstone. The Middle Interval claystone has an average porosity and permeability of 4.17 % and 0.006 mD, and average TOC content and S2 of 0.17 wt% and 0.047 mg HC/g rock with maximum values of 0.66 wt% and 0.46 mg HC/g rock. Average Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus of the claystone are 0.154 and 9.81 GPa. Correlations of mineral compositions, petrophysical, geomechanical and geochemical properties of the Middle Interval have been conducted. Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio are well correlated with the contents of key minerals, including Quartz, carbonates and TotalClay. Although TOC content is low at Waukarlycarly 1, hydrocarbon generation and migration have occurred elsewhere in the Waukarlycarly Embayment. The helium response just above the Neoproterozoic basement in the FIS profile is not associated with the hydrocarbon responses implying that these fluids have different sources.

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) enhances recharge to aquifers. As part of the Exploring for the Future Southern Stuart Corridor project, remotely sensed data were used to map regolith materials and landforms, and to identify areas that represent potential MAR target areas for future investigation. Nine areas were identified, predominantly associated with alluvial landforms in low-gradient landscape settings. The surface materials are typically sandy, or sandy and silty, with the prospective areas overlying newly identified groundwater resources associated with Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of the Wiso and Georgina basins. The workflow used here can be rapidly rolled out across broader areas, and can be supplemented by higher-resolution, longer time-series remote-sensing data, coupled with data analytics, modelling and expert knowledge. Such an approach will help to identify areas of the arid interior that may be suitable for MAR schemes that could supplement water for remote communities, and agricultural and other natural resource developments. <b>Citation:</b> Smith, M.L., Hostetler, S. and Northey, J., 2020. Managed aquifer recharge prospectivity mapping in the Northern Territory arid zone using remotely sensed data. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

<p>The East Tennant Gravity Survey P201901 is a gravity survey funded under Geoscience Australia’s (GA) Exploring for the Future program. Atlas Geophysics was commissioned by GA to support the Tennant Creek-Mt Isa drilling program to be undertaken at a later date. <p>The survey infills existing 4km gravity coverage to 2km coverage. The data package consist of 2,552 gravity stations as a point located dataset and grids of the newly acquired gravity data. <p>This survey is the first of two surveys. The second survey is the South West McArthur, Barkly Gravity Survey (eCat number 132968). Together the two surveys can be called the Tennant Creek Mount Isa (TISA) Gravity Surveys, P201901.

<p>This package contains airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data from the "SkyTEM helicopter EM Howard East region" survey which was flown over Howard East region, Northern Territory during July - August 2017. The area is comprised of 2073.6 line kilometres in total. <p>The aim of the survey is to provide at a reconnaissance scale: <p>a) trends in regolith thickness and variability <p>b) variations in bedrock conductivity <p>c) conductivity of key bedrock (lithology related) conductive units under cover <p>d) the groundwater resource potential of the region <p>This report lists the SkyTEM system information and specifications relevant for this survey, and describes the processing carried out on the data. <p>Geoscience Australia commissioned the survey as part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program. The EFTF program is led by Geoscience Australia (GA), in collaboration with the Geological Surveys of the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, and is investigating the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources in northern Australia and South Australia. The EFTF is a four-year $100.5 million investment by the Australian Government in driving the next generation of resource discoveries in northern Australia, boosting economic development across this region (https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf).

<p>The South West McArthur, Barkly Gravity Survey P201901 is a gravity survey jointly funded under Geoscience Australia’s (GA) Exploring for the Future program and the Northern Territory Geological Survey's (NTGS) Resourcing the Territory 2018-2022 Initiative. Atlas Geophysics was commissioned by GA to conduct the survey, supporting both GA's and NTGS's programs. The survey supports GA's Exploring for the Future program, and NTGS's unlocking the resource potential of the Barkly Tablelands. <p>The survey infills existing 4km gravity coverage to 2km coverage. This is the second part of a larger gravity survey, the first being the East Tennant Gravity Survey P201901, NT, 2019 (eCat number 132968). Together the two surveys can be called the Tennant Creek Mount Isa (TISA) Gravity Surveys, P201901. <p>The data package consist of 3,303 gravity stations as a point located dataset and grids of the newly acquired gravity data

<p>This is a raster representing the base surface of the Nulla Basalt Province, inferred from sparse data available, dominated by private water bore records. This interpretation was conducted by a hydrogeologist from Geoscience Australia. <p>Caveats <p>• This is just one model, based on sparse data and considerable palaeotopographic interpretation <p>• This model relies on the input datasets being accurate. However it is noted that substantial uncertainty exists both in the location of private bores and the use of drillers’ logs for identifying stratigraphic contacts. <p>• The location of palaeothalwegs is imprecise, and often it is only indicative of the presence of a palaeovalley. <p>• The purpose of this model is for visualisation purposes, so should not be considered a definitive depth prediction dataset.

This is a raster representing the base surface of the McBride Basalt Province, inferred from sparse data available, dominated by private water bore records. This interpretation was conducted by a hydrogeologist from Geoscience Australia. Caveats • This is just one model, based on sparse data and considerable palaeotopographic interpretation • This model relies on the input datasets being accurate. However it is noted that substantial uncertainty exists both in the location of private bores and the use of drillers’ logs for identifying stratigraphic contacts. • The location of palaeothalwegs is imprecise, and often it is only indicative of the presence of a palaeovalley. • The purpose of this model is for visualisation purposes, so should not be considered a definitive depth prediction dataset.

Groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) rely on access to groundwater on a permanent or intermittent basis for some or all of their water requirements (Queensland Government, 2018). Remotely sensed data from Digital Earth Australia (DEA) (Geoscience Australia, 2018) were used to map potential aquatic and other GDEs and enhance understanding of surface water – groundwater interactions in the Upper Burdekin region. Two Landsat TM satellite products (Water Observations from Space (WOfS; Mueller et al. 2016) summary statistic and Tasselled Cap Index (TCI) wetness summary)) were used to investigate the persistence of surface water and soil moisture in the landscape to identify perennial streams, springs and other parts of the landscape that may rely on groundwater discharge. The WOfS summary statistic represents, for each pixel, the percentage of time that water is detected at the surface relative to the total number of clear observations. Due to the 25-m by 25-m pixel size of Landsat data, only features at least 25 m wide are detected and only features covering multiple pixels are consistently detected. The WOfS summary statistic was produced over the McBride and Nulla Basalt provinces for the entire period of available data (1987 to 2018). Pixels were polygonised and classified in order to visually enhance key data in the imagery, such as the identification of standing water for at least 80% of the time. The TCI is a method of reducing six surface reflectance bands of satellite data to three bands (Brightness, Greenness, Wetness) using a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Procrustes' Rotation (Roberts et al., 2018). The published coefficients of Crist (1985) are applied to DEA's Landsat data to generate a TCI composite. The resulting Tasselled Cap bands are a linear combination of the original surface reflectance bands that correlate with the Brightness (bare earth), Greenness and Wetness of the landscape. The TCI wetness summary (or Tasselled Cap Wetness (TCW) percentage exceedance composite), derived from the Wetness band, represents the behaviour of water in the landscape, as defined by the presence of water, moist soil or wet vegetation at each pixel through time. The summary shows the percentage of observed scenes where the Wetness layer of the Tasselled Cap transform is above the threshold, i.e. where each pixel has been observed as ‘wet’ according to the TCI. Areas that retain surface water or wetness in the landscape during the dry season are potential areas of groundwater discharge and associated GDEs. The TCW threshold is set at -600 to calculate the percentage exceedance. This threshold is based on scientific judgment and is currently in the research/testing phase. It is based on Australian conditions and conservative in nature. The dry season, when surface runoff to streams and rainfall are minimal, is particularly useful for identifying and mapping groundwater-fed streams, springs and other ecosystems that rely on access to groundwater during periods of limited rainfall. The Upper Burdekin region was especially dry between May and October 2013, with low rainfall totals in the months preceding this dry season and overall below-average rainfall conditions (i.e. decline in rainfall residual mass). The TCW exceedance composite was classified into percentage intervals to distinguish areas that were wet for different proportions of time during the 2013 dry season. Field validation of the remote sensing data products would be required to confirm the preliminary identification of parts of the landscape where groundwater discharges to the surface and potentially supports GDEs. This release includes the classified WOfS summary statistic and classified TCW percentage exceedance composite (May-October 2013) data products for the McBride and Nulla basalt provinces in the Upper Burdekin region, North Queensland. <b>References: </b> Crist EP (1985) A TM Tasseled Cap equivalent transformation for reflectance factor data. Remote Sensing of Environment 17(3), 301–306. Doi: 10.1016/0034-4257(85)90102-6. Geoscience Australia (2018) Digital Earth Australia. Geoscience Australia, http://www.ga.gov.au/dea. Mueller, N., Lewis, A., Roberts, D., Ring, S., Melrose, R., Sixsmith, J., Lymburner, L., McIntyre, A., Tan, P., Curnow, S. and Ip, A. (2016) Water observations from space: Mapping surface water from 25 years of Landsat imagery across Australia. Remote Sensing of Environment 174, 341-352, ISSN 0034-4257. Queensland Government (2018) Groundwater dependent ecosystems, WetlandInfo 2014. Queensland Government, Brisbane, https://wetlandinfo.des.qld.gov.au/wetlands/ecology/aquatic-ecosystems-natural/groundwater-dependent/. Roberts D, Dunn B and Mueller N (2018) Open Data Cube Products Using High-Dimensional Statistics of Time Series. International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Valencia, Spain: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society.

This compilation data release is a selection of remotely sensed imagery used in the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) East Kimberley Groundwater Project. Datasets include: • Mosaic 5 m digital elevation model (DEM) with shaded relief • Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) percentiles • Tasselled Cap exceedance summaries • Normalised Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) • Normalised Difference Wetness Index (NDWI) The 5m spatial resolution digital elevation model with associated shaded relief image were derived from the East Kimberley 2017 LiDAR survey (Geoscience Australia, 2019b). The Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) percentiles include 20th, 50th, and 80th for dry seasons (April to October) 1987 to 2018 and were derived from the Landsat 5,7 and 8 data stored in Digital Earth Australia (see Geoscience Australia, 2019a). Tasselled Cap Exceedance Summary include brightness, greenness and wetness as a composite image and were also derived from the Landsat data. These surface reflectance products can be used to highlight vegetation characteristics such as wetness and greenness, and land cover. The Normalised Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) and Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI) were derived from the Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. These datasets have been classified and visually enhanced to detect vegetation moisture stress or water-logging and show distribution of moisture. For example, positive NDWI values indicate waterlogged areas while waterbodies typically correspond with values greater than 0.2. Waterlogged areas also correspond to NDMI values of 0.2 to 0.4. Geoscience Australia, 2019a. Earth Observation Archive. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. http://dx.doi.org/10.4225/25/57D9DCA3910CD Geoscience Australia, 2019b. Kimberley East - LiDAR data. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. C7FDA017-80B2-4F98-8147-4D3E4DF595A2 https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/129985

Borehole induction conductivity (IC) and gamma logging are geophysical techniques that provide bulk electrical conductivity and natural gamma trends of geological formations. The measured unit of IC is millisiemens per metre, whereas natural gamma is either counts per second or American Petroleum Index (API). The data were acquired as part of the Exploring for the Future program at field sites within the East Kimberley area in Western Australia, and the northern and southern Stuart Corridor projects in the Northern Territory. Data may be downloaded as Log ASCII Standard (LAS) format files or viewed through the Geoscience Australia Portal, or accessed via Geoscience Australia’s WMS and WFS web services.