Australia has a thriving oil and gas industry with expanding infrastructure and many exploration opportunities. Geologically the country contains potential for large oil and gas discoveries with extensive sedimentary basins. Australia is also one of the world leaders in providing low cost geological data with an open Acreage Release process and competitive taxation regimes. Politically Australia is very stable with a very high standard of living and a long-standing democratic culture based on the rights of the individual and the rule of the law. There is a free market philosophy which welcomes foreign investment - Australia has no mandatory local equity requirements and has no government owned oil companies. Government facilitation of investment includes fast-tracking of approvals processes for major projects. This CD provides some basic Australia data including: Oil and Gas Resources of Australia 2003 This publication is the definitive reference on exploration, development and production of Australia's petroleum resources. It covers exploration, reserves, undiscovered resources, development, coalbed methane resources, production, crude oil and shale oil and supporting information and statistics. It includes a forecast of Australia's crude oil and condensate production up to the year 2020, and sustainability indicators for petroleum resources. Information on Australia's petroleum data availability is also included. An estimate of Australia's undiscovered oil and gas potential and a review of geological sequestration of carbon dioxide in Australia is included. Australian Research and Promotional Material Australian research includes research papers for Australia, Australia regions (Northwest Shelf and the Southern Margin) and CO2 Sequestration. Promotional materials refer to pamphlets which outline geological products available from Geoscience Australia and contacts for obtaining these products. This material is grouped by region with the research papers. Geoscience Australia Online Databases Demonstration The Geoscience Australia Petroleum Databases Demonstration is a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation containing instructions on how to use Geoscience Australia's online Petroleum Databases located at: www.ga.gov.au/oracle/apcrc/ This output represents the data which is considered open file and commercial-in-confidence. Petroleum Databases available at Geoscience Australia include: the Australian Geological Provinces Database, the Petroleum Information Management System (PIMS) GIS , the National Petroleum Wells Database and the National Geoscience GIS

The world's first satellite-derived mineral maps of a continent, namely Australia, are now publicly available as digital, web-accessible products. The value of this spatially comprehensive mineral information is readily being captured by explorers at terrane to prospect scales. However, potentially even greater benefits can ensue for environmental applications, especially for the Earth's extensive drylands which generate nearly 50% of the world's agricultural production but are most at risk to climate change and poor land management. Here we show how these satellite mineral maps can be used to: characterise soil types; define the extent of deserts; fingerprint sources of dust; measure the REDOX of iron minerals as a potential marine input; and monitor the process of desertification. We propose a 'Mineral Desertification Index' that can be applied to all Earth's drylands where the agriculturally productive clay mineral component is being lost by erosion. Mineral information is fundamental to understanding geology and is important for resource applications1. Minerals are also a fundamental component of soils2 as well as dust eroded from the land surface, which can potentially impact on human health3, the marine environment4 and climate5. Importantly, minerals are well exposed in the world's 'drylands', which account for nearly 50% of Earth's land area6. Here, vegetation cover is sparse to non-existent as a result of low rainfall (P) and high evaporation (E) rates (P/E<0.65). However, drylands support 50% of the world's livestock production and almost half of all cultivated systems6. In Australia, drylands cover 85% of the continent and account for 50% of its beef, 80% of its sheep and 93% of its grain production7. Like other parts of the world, Australia is facing serious desertification of its drylands6. Wind, overgrazing and overstocking are major factors in the desertification process8. That is, the agriculturally productive clay-size fraction of soils (often includes organic carbon) is lost largely through wind erosion, which is acerbated by the loss of any vegetative groundcover (typically dry plant materials). Once clay (and carbon) loss begins, then the related break down of the soil structure and loss of its water holding capacity increases the rate of the degeneration process with the final end products being either exposed rock or quartz sands that often concentrate in deserts.

The Australian Maritime Boundaries Web Service is a web based interactive mapping and decision support system that improves access to integrated government and non-government information in the Australian Marine Jurisdiction. The Australian Maritime Boundaries Web Service contains many layers of information displayed in themes of Maritime Boundaries. The data has been sourced from Geoscience Australia, other Australian government agencies and some industry sources. Information in this application should not be relied upon as the sole source of information for commercial and operational decisions. The Australian Maritime Boundaries Web Service should not be used for navigational purposes.

Australia magnetic anomaly pixel map

SPOTMaps are seamles, uniform, orthorectified territorial coverages produced with 2.5 metre colour imagery acquired by the SPOT 5 satellite. Spectral mode: Colour (3 bands) Location accuracy: 10 to 15 metres RMS, depending on the country Preprocessing level: Ortho (DEM used: Reference 3D or SRTM DTED-1 according to availability) Projection: UTM WGS 84 Format: GeoTiff

This keynote address was presented at the Australian Nickel Conference held in Perth, 13-14 October 2004. Nickel-sulphide deposits in Australia are mainly associated with Archaean komatiites and Archaean Proterozoic mafic intrusions, but some unusual Phanerozoic deposits occur in eastern Australia. The majority of Australia's nickel production (~80%) is derived from komatiite deposits in the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. The Eastern Goldfields Province of this craton hosts one of the greatest concentrations of Archaean komatiite-hosted nickel deposits in the world, several of which are world class (>1 Mt Ni). Exploration activities in Australia are currently focussed on mafic-ultramafic rocks in Late Archaean and Proterozoic provinces. Exploration has been stimulated by the discovery of new deposits (Flying Fox, Daybreak, Armstrong, Daltons, McEwen, Nebo-Babel), recognition of different styles of mineralisation (Avebury), and the protracted period of elevated nickel metal prices. There is considerable potential for finding new deposits associated with komatiites and mafic intrusions, particularly under shallow cover. Geoscience Australia has undertaken new research initiatives that define favourable mineralising elements, exploration strategies, and new nickel metallogenic provinces.

Legacy product - no abstract available

The data set provides outlines for the maximum extent of Australian geological provinces and their components, including sedimentary, igneous and metallogenic provinces, both onshore and offshore. These data were compiled as part of Geoscience Australia's integrated digital information system to provide improved accessibility and knowledge relating to the petroleum and minerals geology and prospectivity, and to provide a national stratigraphic and tectonic framework for Australia. The current dataset is not complete for Australia, and covers only offshore sedimentary provinces and a selection of sedimentary, igneous and metallogenic provinces in onshore Australia.

All available processed seismic data and well completion reports relevat to the 2007 Acreage Release. Datasets available in Geofrrame, Kingdom and Landmark workstation formats.

The product is a digital representation of the boundaries and names of Surface Water Management Areas defined by State and Territory water management agencies for use in national water resources reporting. Surface Water Management Areas generally correspond to Australia`s River Basin boundaries, however in some States and Territories the Areas are a sub-set or a major part of Australia`s River Basins. The dataset is produced by the National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) and distributed by Geoscience Australia. The data is suitable for GIS applications. Free online. Available in ArcInfo Export, ArcView Shapefile and MapInfo mid/mif. Product Specifications Coverage: Australia Currency: November 2000 Coordinates: Geographical Datum: GDA94 Format: ArcInfo Export, ArcView Shapefile and MapInfo mid/mif Medium: Free online and CD-ROM (fee applies)