<div>Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential.</div><div><br></div><div>The Paleo to Mesoproterozoic Birrindudu Basin is an underexplored frontier basin located in northwestern Northern Territory and northeastern Western Australia. The Birrindudu Basin is a region of focus for the second phase of the EFTF program (2020–2024) as it contains strata of similar age to the prospective McArthur Basin, South Nicholson region and Mount Isa Province, but remains comparatively poorly understood.</div><div><br></div><div>Geoscience Australia have undertaken (via the service provider, FIT, Schlumberger) Fluid Inclusion Petrography and Microthermometry analysis of samples for the drillhole 99VRNTGSDD1, Birrindudu Basin, located in the northwest Northern Territory (Company reference number MT#F1230005c).</div><div><br></div><div>This eCat Record accompanies the report containing the results of fluid inclusion stratigraphy on this drillhole (eCat record 148973).</div>

Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. The Paleo to Mesoproterozoic Birrindudu Basin is an underexplored frontier basin located in northwestern Northern Territory and northeastern Western Australia. The Birrindudu Basin is a region of focus for the second phase of the EFTF program (2020–2024) as it contains strata of similar age to the prospective McArthur Basin, South Nicholson region and Mount Isa Province, but remains comparatively poorly understood. Geoscience Australia have undertaken (via the service provider, FIT, Schlumberger) stratigraphic reconstructions of bulk volatile chemistry from fluid inclusions from an mineral exploration drillhole LBD2, Birrindudu Basin, located in the northwest Northern Territory This ecat record releases the final report and raw data files (*.LAS) by FIT Schlumberger. Company reference number FI230005a.

The Exploring for the Future program is an initiative by the Australian Government dedicated to boosting investment in resource exploration in Australia. As part of the Exploring for the Future program, this study aims to improve our understanding of the petroleum resource potential of northern Australia. This data release presents the bulk kerogen kinetics of 21 potential source rocks from the McArthur Basin and the Lawn Hill Platform to understand the rate of hydrocarbon conversion. Kerogen was isolated from bulk rock, and analysed by a Rock-Eval 6 (Vinci Technologies, France) using four different temperature ramps. All sample preparation and analyses were carried out in Geoscience Australia’s in-house laboratories. The results of this study can be used to improve our understanding of the hydrocarbon generative potential of Proterozoic aged source rocks in northern Australia.

Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. The Paleo to Mesoproterozoic Birrindudu Basin is an underexplored frontier basin located in northwestern Northern Territory and northeastern Western Australia. The Birrindudu Basin is a region of focus for the second phase of the EFTF program (2020–2024) as it contains strata of similar age to the prospective McArthur Basin, South Nicholson region and Mount Isa Province, but remains comparatively poorly understood. Geoscience Australia (in collaboration with the Northern Territory Geological Survey) acquired around 700 line-kms of deep crustal reflection seismic data across northwest Northern Territory encompassing not only the frontier Birrindudu Basin but adjacent highly prospective regions, such as the Tanami. This ecat record releases the final survey route shapefiles, noting that some segments were not acquired due to site access restrictions. Seismic field data will be published in the near future release following completion of in-house QA/QC protocols

<div>Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential.</div><div><br></div><div>The Paleo to Mesoproterozoic Birrindudu Basin is an underexplored frontier basin located in northwestern Northern Territory and northeastern Western Australia. The Birrindudu Basin is a region of focus for the second phase of the EFTF program (2020–2024) as it contains strata of similar age to the prospective McArthur Basin, South Nicholson region and Mount Isa Province, but remains comparatively poorly understood.</div><div><br></div><div>Geoscience Australia have undertaken (via the service provider, FIT, Schlumberger) Fluid Inclusion Petrography and Microthermometry analysis of samples for the drillhole LBD2, Birrindudu Basin, located in the northwest Northern Territory (Company reference number MT#F1230005a).</div><div><br></div><div>This eCat Record accompanies the report containing the results of fluid inclusion stratigraphy on this drillhole (eCat record 148975)</div>

<div>This dataset represents the second version of a compilation of borehole stratigraphic unit data on a national scale (Figure 1). It builds on the previous Australian Borehole Stratigraphic Units Compilation (ABSUC) Version 1.0 (Vizy &amp; Rollet, 2023a) with additional new or updated stratigraphic interpretation on key boreholes located in Figure 2. Its purpose is to consolidate and standardise publicly accessible information from boreholes, including those related to petroleum, stratigraphy, minerals, and water. This compilation encompasses data from states and territories, as well as less readily available borehole logs and interpretations of stratigraphy.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>This study was conducted as part of the National Groundwater Systems (NGS) Project within the Australian Government's Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program. Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This leads to a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. This includes supporting Australia’s transition to net zero emissions, strong, sustainable resources and agriculture sectors, and economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. The Exploring for the Future program, which commenced in 2016, is an eight year, $225m investment by the Australian Government. More information is available at http://www.ga.gov.au/eftf and https://www.eftf.ga.gov.au/national-groundwater-systems.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>As our understanding of Australian groundwater systems expands across states and territories, including legacy data from the 1970s and recent studies, it becomes evident that there is significant geological complexity and spatial variability in stratigraphic and hydrostratigraphic units nationwide. Recognising this complexity, there is a need to standardise diverse datasets, including borehole location and elevation, as well as variations in depth and nomenclature of stratigraphic picks. This standardisation aims to create a consistent, continent-wide stratigraphic framework for better understanding groundwater system for effective long-term water resource management and integrated resource assessments.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>This continental-scale compilation consolidates borehole data from 53 sources, refining 1,117,693 formation picks to 1,010,483 unique records from 171,396 boreholes across Australia. It provides a consistent framework for interpreting various datasets, enhancing 3D aquifer geometry and connectivity. Each data source's reliability is weighted, prioritising the most confident interpretations. Geological units conform to the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database (ASUD) for efficient updates. Regular updates are necessary to accommodate evolving information. Borehole surveys and dip measurements are excluded. As a result, stratigraphic picks are not adjusted for deviation, potentially impacting true vertical depth in deviated boreholes.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>This dataset provides:</div><div>ABSUC_v2&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Australian stratigraphic unit compilation dataset (ABSUC)</div><div>ABSUC_v2_TOP&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A subset of preferred top picks from the ABSUC_v2 dataset</div><div>ABSUC_v2_BASE&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A subset of preferred base picks from the ABSUC_v2 dataset</div><div>ABSUC_BOREHOLE_v2&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ABSUC Borehole collar dataset</div><div>ASUD_2023&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A subset of the Australia Stratigraphic Units Database (ASUD)</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Utilising this uniform compilation of stratigraphic units, enhancements have been made to the geological and hydrogeological surfaces of the Great Artesian Basin, Lake Eyre Basin and Centralian Superbasin. This compilation is instrumental in mapping various regional groundwater systems and other resources throughout the continent. Furthermore, it offers a standardised approach to mapping regional geology, providing a consistent foundation for comprehensive resource impact assessments.</div>

Zircon and xenotime U–Pb SHRIMP geochronology was conducted on samples from the South Nicholson Basin, and western Mount Isa Orogen. These samples were collected from outcrop and core from the Northern Territory and Queensland. The age data indicate the South Nicholson Basin was deposited after ca 1483 Ma but deposition most likely had ceased by ca 1266 Ma; the latter age likely represents post-diagenetic fluid flow in the area, based on U–Pb xenotime data. Geochronology presented here provides the first direct age data confirming the South Nicholson Group is broadly contemporaneous with the Roper Group of the McArthur Basin, which has identified facies with high hydrocarbon prospectivity. In addition, geochronology on the Paleoproterozoic McNamara Group provides new age constraints that have implications for the regional stratigraphy. The data obtained in this geochronological study allow for a comprehensive revision of the existing stratigraphic framework, new correlations and enhances commodity prospectivity in central northern Australia.

NDI Carrara 1 is a deep stratigraphic drill hole completed in 2020 as part of the MinEx CRC National Drilling Initiative (NDI) in collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Geological Survey. It is the first test of the Carrara Sub-basin, a newly discovered Proterozoic depocentre in the South Nicholson region, based on interpretation from new seismic surveys (L210 in 2017 and L212 in 2019) acquired as part of the Exploring for the Future program. The drill hole intersected approximately 1120 m of Proterozoic sedimentary rocks unconformably overlain by 630 m of Cambrian Georgina Basin carbonates. Continuous cores recovered from 283 m to a total depth of 1751 m. Geoscience Australia conducted an extensive post-drilling analytical program that generated over 30 datasets which the interested reader can find under the EFTF webpage (under the "Data and publications" drop down menu) at https://www.eftf.ga.gov.au/south-nicholson-national-drilling-initiative This record links to the Exploring for the Future 'borehole completion report' for NDI Carrara 1 and access to all on-site downhole geophysical datasets.

The Proterozoic alkaline and related igneous rocks of Australia web map service depicts the spatial representation of the alkaline and related rocks of Proterozoic age.

The ca. 1.4 billion years (Ga) old Roper Group of the McArthur Basin, northern Australia, is one of the most extensive Proterozoic hydrocarbon-bearing basins deposited in a large epeiric sea known as the Roper Seaway. Black shales from the Velkerri Formation were deposited in a deep water shoaling sequence and are well preserved in the Altree 2 drillcore in the Beetaloo Sub-basin. These shales were analysed to determine their organic geochemical (biomarker) signatures which were used to interpret the microbial diversity and palaeoenvironment of the Roper Seaway. The results were integrated with published inorganic geochemistry and microfossil distributions. The indigenous hydrocarbon biomarker assemblages describe a water column dominated by bacteria with large scale heterotrophic reworking of the organic matter in the water column or bottom sediment. Evidence for microbial reworking includes a large unresolved complex mixture (UCM) and high ratios of monomethyl alkanes relative to n-alkanes—features characteristic of indigenous Proterozoic bitumen. Steranes, biomarkers for single-celled and multicellular eukaryotes, were below detection limits in all extracts analysed, despite eukaryotic microfossils having been previously identified in the Roper Group. These data suggest that eukaryotes, while present in the Roper Seaway, were ecologically restricted and contributed little to the net biomass. The combination of increased dibenzothiophene in the middle Velkerri Formation and low concentrations of 2,3,6-trimethyl aryl isoprenoids throughout the Velkerri Formation suggest that the water column at the time of deposition was transiently euxinic. As a comparison we reanalysed extracts from the 1.64 Ga Barney Creek Formation of the McArthur Basin. The biomarker assemblages differ between the Velkerri and Barney Creek Formations between is a biomarkers and water column chemistry, demonstrating that the microbial environments and water column geochemistry were variable in the Proterozoic.