The Surface Hydrology Points (Regional) dataset provides a set of related features classes to be used as the basis of the production of consistent hydrological information. This dataset contains a geometric representation of major hydrographic point elements - both natural and artificial. This dataset is the best available data supplied by Jurisdictions and aggregated by Geoscience Australia it is intended for defining hydrological features.

The Stavely Project is a collaboration between Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Victoria. During 2014, fourteen pre-competitive stratigraphic drill holes were completed in the prospective Stavely region in western Victoria in order to better understand subsurface geology and its potential for a variety of mineral systems. Prior to drilling, existing airborne magnetic data were analysed and new refraction seismic, reflection seismic and gravity data were acquired as part of a pre-drilling geophysical acquisition program. The aim of this geophysical program was to provide cover thickness estimates at the drill-site locations prior to the drilling program commencing, in order to reduce the geological and financial risk. Passive seismic data were acquired post-drilling for benchmarking with the other methods against the completed drilling in order to assess a potential tool kit of geophysical methods for the explorer to predict reliably the cover thickness at the tenement scale.

Geoscience Australia has been providing estimates of felt and potential damage radiuses for all earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 since 2002. Similarly, over the last decade, using the hazard modelling software EQRM, GA has produced scenario MMI maps for most Australian cities and several cities in our region. The former uses Empirical relations developed from measuring MMI III, IV, V and VI radiuses from the isoseismal map of ~150 Australian earthquakes. The later using various GMPEs to generate the hazard field and PGA/PGV to MMI conversions to estimate MMI. These two approaches have not previously been directly compared. We have tested the fit with between the empirical MMI areas and the scenario models for several combinations of GMPEs and PGA/PGV to MMI conversions. We also investigate the possible importance of site effects in biasing the empirical data, for which only the minimum and maximum epicentral distance was measured, particularly at low MMI. A scenario model that more accurately reflects the empirical data should be more robust than the current method, for both real-time earthquake advice and scenarios. It should also enable the conversions used to estimate the magnitude of pre-instrumental earthquakes to be tested. Additionally the GMPEs that give the best fit to the empirical data might provide guidance when selecting GMPES for PSHAs and future scenario products.

Abstract for 2015 Conference of the Specialist Group of Tectonics and Structural Geology. Presentation of 3D Models in the Grampians-Stavely Zone, western Victoria. 3D geological models have been produced for two major geological units in the Grampians-Stavely Structural Zone in western Victoria. The Grampians-Stavely Zone is located on the eastern limit of the Cambrian-aged Delamerian Orogen in Victoria (VandenBerg et al., 2000; Crawford et al., 2003; Miller et al., 2005) and several belts of Cambrian igneous rocks with arc affinities have been recognised within this zone (Crawford and Keays, 1978; Buckland, 1987; VandenBerg et al., 2000; Crawford et al., 2003); including the exposed Mount Stavely Volcanic Complex (Buckland, 1987). The Mount Stavely Volcanic Complex, together with other belts of Cambrian igneous rocks, have been interpreted as fault slices of a now mostly buried magmatic arc system referred to as the Stavely Arc (Schofield et al., 2015; Cayley et al., in prep.). In order to address the outstanding geological questions and challenges to exploration in the Grampians-Stavely Zone, Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Victoria established the collaborative Stavely Project in 2013. The Stavely Project forms part of the broader UNCOVER initiative (Australian Academy of Science, 2012) and aims to provide the fundamental framework for discovery in the Grampians-Stavely Zone. This is done using a mineral systems-based approach (Wyborn et al., 1994) through the provision of pre-competitive geoscientific data. This approach involves characterising the subsurface geology, recognising favourable geological environments for the formation of major mineral systems, identifying important elements that demonstrate mineral systems potential, and understanding the depth and nature of cover across the region. This study will focus on understanding the depth and nature of specific cover units across the region.

The Sea Level Monitoring Project was initially developed in the early 1990's (known at that time as the South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project) as a response to concerns expressed by South Pacific Forum Leaders about the potential impacts of global warming on sea levels and climate in the South Pacific. This Australian aid project was established with the goal of providing an accurate, long term record of sea levels in the South Pacific both for Forum countries and for the international scientific community that need such information to better understand how the Pacific oceanographic and meteorological environment is changing. During the 1990's a network of high resolution sea level and climate monitoring stations was established in the South West Pacific and observations from those stations were made available to stakeholders. In 2001, a Continuous Global Positioning System (CGPS) monitoring component was added and CGPS instruments were established near and linked to the sea level tide gauges stations in all partner countries so as to enable the measurement of vertical land movements. Vertical land motion at sea level stations can be equal or larger than the local absolute sea level signal, thus masking sea level change related information recorded at those stations. Therefore, the CGPS network is a crucial component for reliably determining absolute sea level change. This document reports the analysis results of CGPS coordinate time series from 2001 to 2013.

An Australian-wide certification campaign of positions in accordance with Regulation 13 of the National Measurement Regulations 1999 and the National Measurement Act 1960 has been run from 00:00:00 (UTC time) Sunday 07 September 2014 to 00:00:00 (UTC time) Sunday 14 September 2014 (GPS week 1809). The primary objective of this campaign was to improve the consistency of legally traceable CORS positions across Australia, and confirm that CORS stations with a valid Regulation 13 Certificate conform to their stated uncertainties. As of 30 November 2014, twelve applications for verification of a reference standard of measurement under Regulation 12 of the National Measurement Regulations 1999 have been received for verification of GDA94 position on their owned or managed station monuments. This report documents the processing and analysis of the national Regulation 13 campaign GPS data for the stations to satisfy the position verification requirements.

The period between 480 Ma and 410 Ma in the Lachlan Orogen of southeastern Australia is the most important metallogenically in eastern Australia, having contributed over half of the mineral wealth in the Tasman Element (or Orogen). The period of intense mineralisation is interpreted to be related to the development of the Lachlan Orocline at the very end of the Ordovician and into the Silurian. Formation of this orocline was triggered by the oblique accretion of the VanDieland crustal fragment, which includes the present day Melbourne Zone in Victoria and western Tasmania. Prior to this event, eastern Australia was characterised by a west-dipping convergent margin with associated small- to moderate-sized volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS: Girilambone, Mount Windsor and Balcooma) and calc-alkaline porphyry Cu-Au deposits (Copper Hill, Marsden) with ages of 480 Ma to 450 Ma. Orocline development was initiated by the accretion of the VanDieland at ~445 Ma, which was accompanied orogenic gold mineralisation in Victoria (Bendigo, Ballarat, etc). Importantly, because of the geometry of interaction, gold mineralisation did not extend into present-day New South Wales. As accretion of this block continued, the Tasman continental margin began to wrap around VanDieland to form the Lachlan Orocline. At this time, extension associated with orocline formation to the north initiated low degree partial melting and post-collisional alkaline magmatism. Alkaline porphyry Cu-Au deposits in the Macquarie volcanic province (Cadia and Northparkes) formed during this extension at ~435 Ma. Continued extension and the re-establishment of west-dipping subduction in the Silurian saw a second phase of VHMS mineralisation at 425-415 Ma, and granite-related Sn and Mo mineralisation at 430-410 Ma. The concept of the Lachlan Orocline can be used to identify new areas of mineral potential and the extension of known areas undercover.

Deep seismic reflection profiling confirms that the Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic Mount Isa mineral province comprises three vertically stacked and partially inverted sedimentary basins preserving a record of intracontinental rifting followed by passive margin formation. Passive margin formation commenced around 1670 Ma and concluded at 1655 Ma before being followed by plate convergence, crustal shortening and basin-wide inversion at 1640 Ma in both the 1730-1640 Ma Calvert and 1790-1740 Ma Leichhardt superbasins. Rifting was re-established no later than 1635 Ma with formation of the 1635-1575 Ma Isa Superbasin and continued up to ca. 1615 Ma when extensional faulting ceased and a further episode of basin inversion commenced. The 1575 Ma Century Pb-Zn ore-body is hosted by syn-inversion sediments deposited during the initial stages of the Isan Orogeny with basin inversion accommodated on east- or northeast-dipping reactivated intrabasinal extensional faults and footwall shortcut thrusts. These structures extend to considerable depths and served as fluid conduits during basin inversion, tapping thick syn-rift sequences of immature siliciclastic sediments floored by bimodal volcanic sequences from which the bulk of metals and mineralizing fluids are thought to have been sourced. Basin inversion and fluid expulsion at this stage were entirely submarine consistent with a syn-sedimentary to early diagenetic origin for Pb-Zn mineralisation at, or close to, the seafloor. Farther east, a change from platform carbonates to deeper water continental slope deposits (Kuridala and Soldiers Cap groups) marks the position of the original shelf break along which the north-south-striking Selwyn-Mount Dore structural corridor developed. This corridor served as a locus for strain partitioning, fluid flow and iron oxide-copper-gold mineralization during and subsequent to the onset of basin inversion and peak metamorphism in the Isan Orogeny at 1585 Ma. An episode of post-orogenic strike-slip faulting and hydrothermal alteration associated with the subvertical Cloncurry Fault Zone overprints west- to southwest-dipping shear zones that extend beneath the Cannington Pb-Zn deposit and are antithetic to inverted extensional faults farther west in the same sub-basin. Successive episodes of basin inversion and mineralization were driven by changes in the external stress field and related plate tectonic environment as evidenced by a corresponding match to bends in the polar wander path for northern Australia. An analogous passive margin setting has been described for Pb-Zn mineralization in the Paleozoic Selwyn Basin of western Canada.

Following extreme flooding in eastern Australia in 2011, the Australian Government established a programme to improve flood information at the national scale. As a result a project was launched to map the extent of surface water across Australia using the multi-decadal archive of Landsat satellite imagery. This was achieved by using a robust water detection algorithm based on a decision tree classifier and a comparison methodology using a logistic regression to provide an understanding of the confidence in the water observation results. This has created a continental-scale mapping of surface water over an entire continent based on a time series of 27 years of satellite observations. The Water Observation from Space (WOfS) product provides insight into the behaviour of surface water across Australia through time, demonstrating where water is a usual occurrence, such as in permanent water bodies, and where it is unusual, such as during a flood. In addition WOfS has been found to be important for wetland studies, aquatic species behaviour, hydrological models, land surface process modelling and groundwater recharge research. This paper describes the WOfS methodology as implemented on the National Computation Infrastructure high performance computing facility at the Australian National University and shows how similar analyses of nationally significant environmental variables might be conducted at the continental scale.

We describe a surface cover change detection method based on the Australian Geoscience Data Cube (AGDC). The AGDC is a common analytical framework for large volumes of regularly gridded geoscientific data initially developed by Geoscience Australia (GA). AGDC effectively links geoscience data sets from various sources by spatial and temporal stamps associated with the data. Therefore, AGDC enables analysis of generations of consistent remote sensing time series data across Australia. The Australian Reflectance Grid 25m is one of the remote sensing data sets in the AGDC. The data is currently hosted at the high performance computational cloud at the National Computational Infrastructure. Our change detection method takes advantage of temporally rich data in the AGDC, applying time series analysis to identify changes in surface cover. To detect change we apply a series of modules, which are independent of each other. The modules include: - a pixel quality mask and time series noise detection mask, which detects and filters out noise in data; - classification modules based on a random forests algorithm, which classifies pixels into specific objects using spectral information; - training modules, which create classification modules using known surface cover data; - time series analysis modules, which model and reduce time series data into coefficients relevant to change detection targets; - temporal and spatial classification modules, which classify pixels into predefined land cover classes. This paper summarises development of the work flow and the initial results from example applications, such as reforestation / deforestation detection and coastal zone mapping.