This progress report from South Australian Department of Mines and Energy, Water Resources Commission of New South Wales, Geological Survey of New South Wales, Rural Water Commission of Victoria, Department of Industry, technology and Resources Victoria, and Bureau of Mineral Resources. This project is a long-term study which is being under taken jointly by the bodies listed above. It is coordinated by a Steering Committee comprising members of those organisations. The primary aim of the Project is to improve the understanding of the groundwater regime of the Murray Darling basin by examining it as a single entity, unencumbered by State boundaries. Since a knowledge of the geology of an area is basic to the understanding of groundwater occurrence, a geological study of the basin is an essential part of the Project and, as a consequence, it will also be possible to make an assessment of other mineral resources.

Legacy product - no abstract available

The hydrogeology of a 68 000 km2 region of arid central Australia has been assessed and mapped at 1:500 000 scale using a GIS to interpret various spatial data sets and compile statistics of water bore information. This work forms a part of the Western Water Study, a collaborative venture between Federal, Territory and Aboriginal representative agencies, which has the objective of improving access to groundwater information for Aboriginal people on their land. The study area is underlain by Proterozoic basement (Arunta Block), pre-Mesozoic sedimentary basins (Amadeus and Ngalia Basins) and Cainozoic sediments. Based on the analyses of 850 water bores , the study area is mapped as seven different aquifer systems to cover regional variations in hydrogeology. Palaeodrainages act as a sink along which groundwater drains to associated internal discharge playas. Statistical groundwater data for these systems and the individual geological formations drilled provide a starting point for further groundwater assessment in other areas of central Australia that have similar geology. Only one aquifer system representing about 3% of the study area in Cainozoic sediments along a mountain range consistently provides low salinity « 1000 mg/L) potable groundwater, though potable water can occasionally be found elsewhere throughout the region. Large individual bore yields of over 20Us can be found in the pre- Mesozoic and Cainozoic systems while a lack of storage precludes sustained high yield production from bores in the Proterozoic.

Final demonstration site report for the Murchison region completed as part of the Palaeovalley Groundwater Project

Geoscience Australia (GA) has developed an interactive 3D virtual globe viewer to facilitate effective communication of geoscience data and scientific findings to a wide range of stakeholders. The interactive virtual globe is built on NASA's open source World Wind Java Software Development Kit (SDK) and provides users with easy and rich access to geoscientific data. The tool has been used to launch a number of national and regional datasets, including sub-surface seismic and airborne electromagnetic data (AEM) in conjunction with other relevant geoscience data. For the Broken Hill Managed Aquifer (BHMAR Project, there was a requirement to further develop the existing viewer platform in order to display complex 3D hydrogeological, hydrogeophysical and hydrogeochemical data (points, lines, 2D surface and 3D shapes). The final product includes support for a variety of geo-referenced raster data formats, as well as vector data such as ESRI shapefiles; native support for a variety of GOCAD data types including TSurf, SGrid, Voxet and PLine. It also supports well and borehole data including attribute-based styling of log features and the ability to include legends and descriptions of data within the user interface. An easy-to-use interface has been customised for navigation of data in 3D space using a virtual globe model, with powerful keyframe based animation tools used to generate flythrough animations for use in knowledge communication workshops. The products will be distributed as data layers via the internet and as a stand alone DVD package.

The final technical report for the Ti-Tree Basin Demonstration site for work undertaken as part of the Palaeovalley Groundwater Project

Final report on project activities for the Paterson demonstration site for the Palaeovalley Groundwater Project

Available as copy of original only.

Technical report on operational activities, including data, analysis and interpretation, for the Paterson demonstration study site conducted for the Palaeovalley Groundwater Project. This work was funded by the National Water Commission and managed by Geoscience Australia.

Mallacoota Inlet is a drowned river valley that is almost cut off from the sea by a barrier-beach complex. Additionally, a flood-tidal delta chokes the mouth of the estuary. Except for fluvial sand in the upper reaches of the estuary, sandy sediments are restricted to the seaward end where hydrodynamic activity is greatest. Muds are confined to basinal and deep-channel environments; silts occur where fresh-water discharge contributes to water circulation, and clays where circulation is restricted. In the coarse fraction of the sediments, feldspar and mica contents are highest, and quartz and carbonate are lowest, where fresh-water discharge contributes. The clay mineral assemblage in the estuarine sediments is generally similar to that of the soil and stream sediments in the source area. Geochemical results show that Fe, V, Cr, Ni, Zn, Cu, and P2O5 levels are highest in stagnant areas where organic-rich clay prevails, whereas Mn and Ti are highest in silts where fluvial discharge is dominant and water circulates relatively freely. The results of the study suggest that the restricted basinal areas of the estuary are similar to fjords in terms of physical and chemical controls on sedimentation. The coastal barrier at Mallacoota was evidently formed by landward progradation during the Holocene, and overlies apparent remnants of a similar Pleistocene barrier. Many similar restricted estuaries exist along the south coast of New South Wales.