Darling Basin hydrogeological inventory

This Darling Basin dataset contains descriptive attribute information for the areas bounded by the relevant spatial groundwater feature in the associated Hydrogeology Index map. Descriptive topics are grouped into the following themes: Location and administration; Demographics; Physical geography; Surface water; Geology; Hydrogeology; Groundwater; Groundwater management and use; Environment; Land use and industry types; and Scientific stimulus.

The geological Darling Basin, covering approximately 130,000 square kilometres in western New South Wales (with parts in South Australia and Victoria), is filled with over 8,000 m of mainly Devonian sedimentary rocks formed in various environments, from alluvial to marine. It sits atop regional basement structures, coinciding with boundaries between Late Paleozoic Kanmantoo, Lachlan, and Southern Thomson Fold Belts. The basin's outcrops are scarce, obscured by younger rocks and sediments.

Sedimentary rocks from Late Silurian to Early Carboniferous periods make up the basin, with marine shales and fluvial quartz-rich sandstones being the most common. The Menindee and Bancannia Troughs rest unconformably over Proterozoic and Lower Paleozoic basement rocks, while eastern sub-basins onlap deformed and metamorphosed Lower Paleozoic rocks.

A major tectonic shift at the end of the Ordovician transformed south-eastern Australia's palaeogeography from a marginal marine sea to deep troughs and basins. The Darling Basin's discrete sedimentary troughs formed in areas of maximum tectonic extension, including the Ivanhoe, Blantyre, Pondie Range, Nelyambo, Neckarboo, Bancannia, Menindee troughs, and Poopelloe Lake complex. Spatial variation in sedimentary facies indicates potential interconnections between the troughs.

The western basin overlies Proterozoic and Lower Paleozoic rocks of the Paroo and Wonominta basement blocks, while the eastern basin onlaps folded, faulted, and metamorphosed older Paleozoic rocks of the Lachlan Fold Belt.

The Darling Basin has seen limited hydrocarbon exploration, with wells mostly situated on poorly-defined structures. Indications of petroleum presence include gas seeping from water bores, potential source rocks in sparsely sampled Early Devonian units, and occasional hydrocarbon shows in wells. Reservoir units boast good porosity and permeability, while Cambrian to Ordovician carbonates and shales beneath the basin are considered potential source rocks.

Identification info

Date (Creation): 2023-09-01

Date (Publication): 2023-09-28T07:21:37

Citation identifier: Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/148719

Citation identifier: Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148719

Cited responsible party

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Publisher	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice

Purpose: A thematic summary of the Darling Basin. Part of a compendium of consistently compiled summaries that comprise the National Hydrogeological Inventory

Status: Completed

Point of contact

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Point of contact	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice
Point of contact	Carey, H.	MEG Internal Contact
Resource provider	Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division	External Contact

Spatial representation type

Topic category

Geoscientific information
Inland waters
Environment

Extent

Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

Resource format

Title: Product data repository: Various Formats

Website: Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf

GEOLOGY
Hydrogeology
Land Use and Environmental Planning
Sedimentology
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Environmental Management
Basin Analysis
EARTH SCIENCES
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ECOLOGY
Stratigraphy (incl. Biostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy)

Project

National Groundwater Sytems

Theme

Groundwater

Theme

Exploring for the Future

Theme

National Hydrogeological Inventory

Keywords

Published_External

Resource constraints

Title: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title: CC-BY

Edition: 4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints: License

Use constraints: License

Other constraints: (c) Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2023

Resource constraints

Title: Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date: 2018-11-01T00:00:00

Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification: Unclassified

Language: English

Character encoding: UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Distributor	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice facsimile

OnLine resource: Download the report (pdf) [572 KB]

Download the report (pdf) [572 KB]

Distribution format

Resource lineage

Statement

This document for the National Hydrogeological Inventory was created through the compilation and analysis of various national geospatial datasets and a range of supporting scientific and technical literature. In most cases, the spatial boundary (polygon) for the region was sourced from the Geoscience Australia Geological Provinces 2018 dataset. The geospatial data reported for the region of interest were selected by spatial queries of the region's polygon using Geographic Information System (GIS) applications. A variety of national-scale datasets were assessed for each region, with these data relevant to the study of groundwater, hydrogeology and related social, cultural or environmental characteristics. These data are published by various organisations (mostly Australian Government entities) and include fundamental Australian datasets such as the National Groundwater Information System (NGIS), National Aquifer Framework, Atlas of Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems and the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD). A complete list of all data used to develop the National Hydrogeological Inventory, and the various data processing and analysis methods used, will be released as part of a future Geoscience Australia publication focused on the hydrogeological inventory methodology.

The document also contains written summary information about the geology, hydrogeology and related features of the region of interest. These narrative summaries were compiled by Geoscience Australia researchers based on literature review and analysis of a range of scientific and technical publications about the region. The reports use similar document templates to ensure the consistency of information provided across the entire Australian continent.