<div>Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are useful in the earth sciences (e.g. recognising geological provinces, studying geological processes) as well as in archaeological (e.g. informing on past human migrations), palaeontological/ecological (e.g. investigating extinct and extant taxa’s dietary range and migrations) and forensic (e.g. validating the origin of drinks and foodstuffs) sciences. Recently, Geoscience Australia and the University of Wollongong have teamed up to determine 87Sr/86Sr ratios in fluvial sediments selected mostly from the low-density National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA; www.ga.gov.au/ngsa). Three regional projects were focussed on: inland southeastern, northern, and southwestern Australia, together covering over 2.5 million km2 of catchment area. Whilst results on <em>total</em> Sr isotopic analyses have been reported previously (Caritat et al. 2022, 2023, 2024), a pilot study targeting the isotopic composition of <em>bioavailable</em> (or labile) Sr was conducted in parallel and this dataset is released here. In contrast to the total Sr isotope analyses, which were conducted mostly on NGSA Bottom Outlet Sediments (BOS; taken on average from ~60-80 cm depth), the bioavailable Sr work used Top Outlet Sediments (TOS; taken from 0-10 cm depth) to make the results more relevant to soil-, plant- and animal-focused applications. Approximately 1 g of air-dried, coarse-sieved (<2 mm) soil sample was reacted with 2.5 M ammonium acetate (buffered to pH 7) for 24 hr on a mixing table, to extract operationally defined plant-available cations (after Stewart et al. 1998). The solution was filtered at 0.45 µm and dried down to incipient dryness. The residue was re-dissolved in 2M nitric acid. The Sr was separated by chromatography and its 87Sr/86Sr ratio determined by multicollector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Results for 278 samples across all three regions demonstrate a wide range of bioavailable Sr isotopic values (0.7050 to 0.7812, median 0.7191) across Australia, reflecting a large diversity of source rock lithologies, geological, pedogenic and biogeochemical processes, and, ultimately, bedrock ages. Modelling and interpretation of this dataset will be presented elsewhere. The resulting bioavailable Sr isoscape for Australia, although sparse at the moment, and models to be derived therefrom, may have applications in archaeological, paleontological and ecological studies that aim to investigate past and modern animal (including humans) dietary habits and migrations.&nbsp;The new spatial dataset is publicly available through the Geoscience Australia portal (https://portal.ga.gov.au/).</div><div><br></div><div>References cited</div><div>Caritat, P. de, Dosseto, A., Dux, F., 2022. A strontium isoscape of inland southeastern Australia, Earth System Science Data, 14, 4271–4286, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4271-2022 </div><div>Caritat, P. de, Dosseto, A., Dux, F., 2023. A strontium isoscape of northern Australia, Earth System Science Data, 15, 1655–1673, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1655-2023 </div><div>Caritat, P. de, Dosseto, A., Dux, F., 2024. A strontium isoscape of southwestern Australia and progress toward a national strontium isoscape, Earth System Science Data Discussion [non peer-reviewed preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-352 </div><div>Stewart, B. W., Capo, R. C., Chadwick, O. A., 1998. Quantitative strontium isotope models for weathering, pedogenesis and biogeochemical cycling, Geoderma, 82, 173–195, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7061(97)00101-8 </div>

<div>This data package contains interpretations of airborne electromagnetic (AEM) conductivity sections in the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program’s Eastern Resources Corridor (ERC) study area, in south eastern Australia. Conductivity sections from 3 AEM surveys were interpreted to provide a continuous interpretation across the study area – the EFTF AusAEM ERC (Ley-Cooper, 2021), the Frome Embayment TEMPEST (Costelloe et al., 2012) and the MinEx CRC Mundi (Brodie, 2021) AEM surveys. Selected lines from the Frome Embayment TEMPEST and MinEx CRC Mundi surveys were chosen for interpretation to align with the 20&nbsp;km line-spaced EFTF AusAEM ERC survey (Figure 1).</div><div>The aim of this study was to interpret the AEM conductivity sections to develop a regional understanding of the near-surface stratigraphy and structural architecture. To ensure that the interpretations took into account the local geological features, the AEM conductivity sections were integrated and interpreted with other geological and geophysical datasets, such as boreholes, potential fields, surface and basement geology maps, and seismic interpretations. This approach provides a near-surface fundamental regional geological framework to support more detailed investigations. </div><div>This study interpreted between the ground surface and 500&nbsp;m depth along almost 30,000 line kilometres of nominally 20&nbsp;km line-spaced AEM conductivity sections, across an area of approximately 550,000&nbsp;km2. These interpretations delineate the geo-electrical features that correspond to major chronostratigraphic boundaries, and capture detailed stratigraphic information associated with these boundaries. These interpretations produced approximately 170,000 depth estimate points or approximately 9,100 3D line segments, each attributed with high-quality geometric, stratigraphic, and ancillary data. The depth estimate points are formatted for compliance with Geoscience Australia’s (GA) Estimates of Geological and Geophysical Surfaces (EGGS) database, the national repository for standardised depth estimate points. </div><div>Results from these interpretations provided support to stratigraphic drillhole targeting, as part of the Delamerian Margins NSW National Drilling Initiative campaign, a collaboration between GA’s EFTF program, the MinEx CRC National Drilling Initiative and the Geological Survey of New South Wales. The interpretations have applications in a wide range of disciplines, such as mineral, energy and groundwater resource exploration, environmental management, subsurface mapping, tectonic evolution studies, and cover thickness, prospectivity, and economic modelling. It is anticipated that these interpretations will benefit government, industry and academia with interest in the geology of the ERC region.</div>