<div>Groundwater is a finite and largely hidden resource. Enhancing scientific understanding of groundwater systems improves decisions about its planning, allocation and use. This benefits all Australians through improved water management.</div><div>Australia’s groundwater resources underpin billions of dollars of economic activity, provide safe and reliable drinking water for millions of people, and sustain life and cultural values across the country. Sustainably managing our critical groundwater resources is vital to improving water security and protecting the environment.</div><div>Geoscience Australia and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) collaborate on initiatives funded by the Australian Government. We work together to deliver innovative solutions to nationally significant issues affecting Australia’s groundwater resources.</div><div>With world‑class expertise and facilities, we are at the forefront of groundwater science. Our combined hydrogeological capabilities are best applied to regional and national-scale challenges that extend beyond the remit of individual jurisdictions or private industry.</div><div>This publication highlights the scientific approaches, technologies, and methods that we apply to better understand and characterise Australia’s groundwater and includes case studies that demonstrate the unique value of our collaboration.</div><div><br></div>

Australia is well-positioned to remain a global energy supplier and be a leader in driving efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Australia has the potential to produce a range of low emissions energy commodities such as geothermal energy, natural and manufactured hydrogen, and natural gas linked with carbon capture and storage. Our ample solar and wind energy resources also support the deployment of renewable energy technologies across the country. Our geological systems supply the raw materials — such as several of the critical minerals and strategic materials — that are needed to develop the infrastructure and manufacture the batteries and technologies that will support the energy transition. New and emerging opportunities have been identified for energy storage for energy produced from renewable sources, such as through manufacturing hydrogen, hydrogen storage in underground salt caverns, and compressed air energy storage. Australia is recognised for having a large potential to geologically store carbon dioxide. Carbon capture and storage technology can support industries that find it difficult to abate their emissions, including efforts to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere through use of direct air capture technology. Understanding the prospectivity for these resources and the current and emerging energy storage technologies will help to accelerate Australia's journey to a net-zero economy. As Australia’s national public sector geoscience organisation, Geoscience Australia continues to undertake national and regional research and data acquisition, to provide precompetitive data that underpins decision-making by governments and industry and attracts future investment.

Geoscience Australia's value to the nation, outlined in its Strategy 2028 decadal plan, is through its science. However, the way that the organisation applies its science and achieves impact cannot be taken for granted. Science Strategy 2028, launched in late-2021, presents a guiding strategic framework for delivering the science that underpins our core business. This Science Strategy outlines the organisation's longstanding Science Principles as a business imperative and as key tenets for maintaining Geoscience Australia's standing as the nation’s trusted advisor on Australia’s geoscience and geography. Through the Science Strategy, Geoscience Australia will continue to integrate and achieve the six Science Principles through its business: to deliver relevant, collaborative, quality, transparent and communicated science, with a view to sustain our scientific capability.

This brochure gives an overview of Geoscience Australia's priority programs: Exploring for the Future, Digital Earth Australia and Positioning Australia;

The Science Strategy 2028 Implementation Plan outlines the activities and actions across Geoscience Australia, led by the Chief Scientist, to operationalise the 'key implementations' of Science Strategy 2028. The discrete activities articulated in this Implementation Plan stem from mapping the six Science Principles against Geoscience Australia's Strategy 2028 Core Commitments. The Implementation Plan outlines the context and strategic rationale for a range of Geoscience Australia's activities led through the Office of the Chief Scientist, including the Science Evaluations, scientific capability and capacity mapping, and geoscientific engagement with First Nations communities and perspectives.

<div>Sander Geophysics Limited (SGL) conducted a fixed-wing high resolution airborne gravimetric survey over two survey blocks, Pilbara Northwest and Pilbara Southeast in Northwestern Australia for Geoscience Australia and its partner the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA). </div><div>The traverse lines were oriented east-west in the Pilbara Northwest block and north-south in the Pilbara Southeast block and spaced at 2500 m. A limited number of control lines flown exclusively in the Pilbara Northwest block were oriented north-south and spaced at 50,000 m. A drape surface was created taking into account the terrain and the performance of the aircraft at the expected altitudes and estimated temperatures. The survey was flown with a target clearance of survey 160m above ground level. </div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><strong>Survey details </strong></div><div>Survey Name: Pilbara WA airborne gravity surveys 2019</div><div>State/Territory: Western Australia (WA)</div><div>Datasets Acquired: Airborne gravity</div><div> Geoscience Australia Project Number: P1314</div><div> Acquisition Start Date: April 23, 2019</div><div> Acquisition End Date: June 16, 2019</div><div> Flight line spacing: 2500m</div><div> Flight line direction: 270deg / EW (Pilbara NW); 180deg / NS (Pilbara SE)</div><div> Control line spacing: 50,000m – Pilbara NW only</div><div> Control line direction: 180 deg / NS – Pilbara NW only</div><div>Total line kilometers: 69,943</div><div> Nominal terrain clearance (above ground level): 160m</div><div> Aircraft type: Cessna Grand Caravan 208B</div><div>Data Acquisition: Sander Geophysics Limited </div><div> Project Management: Geoscience Australia</div><div> Quality Control: Geoscience Australia</div><div> Dataset Ownership: GSWA and Geoscience Australia</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>This data package release contains the final survey deliverables received from the contractor SGL, and peer reviewed by Dr Mark Dransfield.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><strong>1.</strong> <strong><em>Point-located Data / line data</em></strong></div><div>ASCII XYZ and ASEG-GDF2 format with accompanying description and definition files.</div><div><br></div><div><strong><em>2.Grids</em></strong> in General eXchange Format (.gxf) and ERMapper format (.ers)</div><div> Datum:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;GDA94</div><div>Projection:&nbsp;&nbsp;MGA 50</div><div>Grid cell size:&nbsp;500m</div><div>A full wavelength spatial filter of 5000m was applied to all the gravity grids. See details in the readme files.</div><div><br></div><div> <strong>3. Readme files</strong></div><div>- PNW-readme-grav.txt </div><div>- PSE-readme-grav.txt</div><div><br></div><div><strong>4. Reports</strong> </div><div> - Final survey logistic report (Pilbara SE and NW) from the contractor: P1314_Pilbara_2019_TR-878-000.pdf </div><div>- Pilbara NW survey QC report by M Dransfield: Pilbara NW AG QC report.pdf </div><div>- Pilbara SE survey QC report by M Dransfield: Pilbara SE AG QC report.pdf</div><div><br></div><div> The data from this Pilbara survey are also available for download from https://geoview.dmp.wa.gov.au/GeoView under reference number 71470.</div>

Following the successful outcomes of the Tennant Creek-Mt Isa (TISA) mineral potential assessment (Murr et al., 2019; Skirrow et al., 2019), the methodology has been expanded to encompass the entire North Australian Craton (NAC). Like its predecessor, this assessment uses a knowledge-based, data-rich mineral systems approach to predict the potential for iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineralisation. With their high metal yield and large alteration footprint, IOCG mineral systems remain an attractive target in directing exploration efforts towards undercover regions. This mineral potential assessment uses a 2D GIS-based workflow to map four key mineral system components: (1) Sources of metals, fluids and ligands, (2) Energy to drive fluid flow, (3) Fluid flow pathways and architecture, and (4) Deposition mechanisms, such as redox or chemical gradients. For each of these key mineral system components, theoretical criteria representing important ore-forming processes were identified and translated into mappable proxies using a wide range of input datasets. Each of these criterion are weighted and combined using an established workflow to produce a models of IOCG potential. Metadata and selection rational are documented in the accompanying NAC IOCG Assessment Criteria Table. Two scenarios were modelled for this assessment. The first is a comprehensive assessment, targeting pre-Neoproterozoic mineral systems (>1500 Ma), using a combination of interpreted, geological and geophysical datasets. As geological interpretations are subjective to the geological knowledge of the interpreter, well-documented areas, such as shallow pre-Neoproterozoic basement, have a greater density of data. This increase in data density can create an inherent bias in the modelled result towards previously explored shallow terrains. The second assessment utilises only datasets which can be mapped consistently across the assessment area. As such, these are predominately based on geophysical data and are more consistent in assessing exposed and covered areas. However, far fewer criteria are included in this assessment, and observations are reflective of only the modern geological environment. Both assessments highlight existing mineral fields in WA, NT and QLD, and suggest that these regions extend under cover. Furthermore, regions not previously known for IOCG mineralisation display a high modelled potential, offering exploration prospects in previously unknown or discounted areas.

<div>These videos provide tutorials on how to use the Geoscience Australia Data portal in the classroom. They include a guide for basic navigation, how to load 2D map data sets (elevation, surface geology and critical minerals) as well as accessing a 3D data model (earthquakes).&nbsp;Additionally, they demonstrate how to directly compare multiple data and how to share collated data through a shareable link.</div><div>Videos included:</div><div>-&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Introduction to using the Geoscience Australia Data Portal (2:15)</div><div>-&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;How to access elevation, surface geology and critical minerals data in the Geoscience Australia Data Portal (4:26)</div><div>- How to view the global distribution of earthquakes using the Geoscience Australia Data Portal (2:51)</div><div><br></div><div>These videos are suitable for use by secondary students and adults.</div>

This web service provides access to datasets produced by the mineral potential assement of iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineral systems in the Tennant Creek – Mt Isa region. The mineral potential assessment uses a 2D, GIS-based workflow to qualitatively map four key mineral system components: (1) Sources of metals, fluids and ligands, (2) Energy to drive fluid flow, (3) Fluid flow pathways and architecture, and (4) Deposition mechanisms, such as redox or chemical gradients. For each of these key mineral system components theoretical criteria, representing important ore-forming processes, were identified and translated into mappable proxies using a wide range of input datasets. Each of these criteria are weighted and combined using an established workflow to produce the final map of IOCG potential.

The Australian Geoscience Data Cube has won the 2016 Content Platform of the Year category at the Geospatial World Leadership Awards. The awards recognise significant contributions made by champions of change within the global geospatial industry and were presented during the 2017 Geospatial World Forum held in Hyderabad, India. The Data Cube was developed by Geoscience Australia in partnership with the CSIRO and the National Computational Infrastructure at the Australian National University, and is a world-leading data analysis system for satellite and other Earth observation data. Visit www.datacube.org.au to find out more including the technical specifications, and learn how you can develop your own Data Cube and become part of the collective.