Australian Borehole Stratigraphic Units Compilation (ABSUC) 2026 Version 3.0 – Metadata statement

This dataset presents the third iteration of a national borehole stratigraphic unit compilation of existing source datasets from a range of federal, state and territory agencies. It builds on the previous Australian Borehole Stratigraphic Units Compilation (ABSUC) Version 2.0 (Vizy & Rollet, 2024) with new or updated stratigraphic interpretation on key boreholes. ABSUC aims to consolidate and standardise publicly available stratigraphic information, formation picks, and borehole collar data from petroleum, stratigraphy, minerals, and water bores. This compilation includes state and territory datasets, borehole logs and stratigraphic interpretations from published studies and new updated interpretations to standardise terminologies and provide consistent regional stratigraphy in key basins.


As our understanding of Australian groundwater systems grows, drawing on data from the 1970s to recent studies, it is clear that Australia is geological complexity. Recognising this complexity, there is a need to standardise diverse datasets, including borehole location and elevation, and variations in depth and nomenclature of stratigraphic picks across jurisdictions. This standardisation aims to create a consistent, continent-wide stratigraphic framework for better understanding groundwater systems to support decision-making for exploration, groundwater resource management and resource impact assessments.


This continental-scale compilation consolidates borehole data from 71 sources, refining 1,218,930 formation picks to 1,095,617 unique records from 178,004 boreholes across Australia. It provides a consistent framework for interpreting various datasets, improving the characterisation of 3D aquifer geometry and connectivity, and supporting geological mapping of groundwater and other resources across Australia. Each data source's reliability is weighted, prioritising the most confident interpretations. Geological units conform to the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database (ASUD) ensuring consistency across national datasets and enabling updates between ABSUC, ASUD and linked databases, such as Hydrochemistry. 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.


This dataset provides:

ABSUC_v3                                    Australian stratigraphic unit compilation dataset (ABSUC)

ABSUC_v3_TOP                           A subset of preferred top picks from the ABSUC_v3 dataset

ABSUC_v3_BASE                        A subset of preferred base picks from the ABSUC_v3 dataset

ABSUC_BOREHOLE_v3              ABSUC Borehole collar dataset

ASUD_2026                                  A subset of the Australia Stratigraphic Units Database (ASUD)


This study forms part of the Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative, a 35-year, $3.4 billion Australian Government geoscience program led by Geoscience Australia, to accelerate the discovery and development of critical minerals, energy, and groundwater resources, support Australia’s transition to net zero emissions, and enable responsible resource management (see https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/resourcing-australias-prosperity/about-the-program). Achieving these objectives requires nationally consistent precompetitive geoscience data and analysis to inform decision-making by government, industry, and communities. By compiling, analysing, and interpreting new and existing geoscience datasets, this work contributes to building a national-scale understanding of Australia’s subsurface geology and its resource potential

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2026-07-06
Date (Publication)
2026-08-28T00:36:09.014Z
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/151276

Identifier

Code
10.26186/151276
Codespace

doi.org

Description

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Author

Vizy, J.

 Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division Internal Contact
Author

Rollet, N.

 Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division Internal Contact
Author

Bishop, C.

 Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division Internal Contact
Purpose

The purpose of this product is to deliver a national borehole stratigraphy dataset aligned with the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database, providing up to date, standardised consistent stratigraphic information to support geological, groundwater, and subsurface investigations nationwide.

Status
Completed
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Resource provider

Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division

 Internal Contact
Point of contact

Rollet, N.

 Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division Internal Contact
Spatial representation type
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Vertical element

Minimum value
0
Maximum value
200

Identifier

Code
5111
Codespace

EPSG

Version

12

Description

AHD (EPSG:5111)

Maintenance and update frequency
As needed

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Protocol

FILE:DATA-DIRECTORY

Name of the resource

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Description

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

Keywords

  • Australia

Keywords

  • Stratigraphy

Keywords

  • borehole stratigraphic correlation

Keywords

  • national borehole compilation

Project

  • Resourcing Australia's Prosperity

  • Groundwater Mapping

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf

  • GEOLOGY

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf

  • Stratigraphy (incl. biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy and basin analysis)

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf

  • EARTH SCIENCES

Keywords

  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Addressee
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
User

Any
Use constraints
License
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2026

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security Classification System

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

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/pspf-annual-release

Classification
Unclassified
Classification system

Australian Government Security Classification System

Associated resource

Association Type
Was informed by
Title

Australian Borehole Stratigraphic Units Compilation (ABSUC) 2024 Version 2.0

Website

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

OnLine resource

Download Metadata Statement (pdf) [5.02 MB]

Download Metadata Statement (pdf) [5.02 MB]

Distribution format

  • pdf

Distribution Information

OnLine resource

Download Dataset (zip) [1.24 GB]

Download Dataset (zip) [1.24 GB]

Distribution format

  • gdb csv mdb

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice

Resource lineage

Statement

This product was undertaken as part of the National 3D Groundwater Systems Activity under the Resourcing Australia's Prosperity Groundwater Mapping Project.


Version 1 released May 2023 - <a href=" https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147641">eCat 147641</a>

Version 2 released May 2024 - <a href=" https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/149324">eCat 149324</a>

Reference System Information

Identifier

Code
6283
Codespace

EPSG

Version

12

Description

GDA94 (EPSG:6283)

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security Classification System

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

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/pspf-annual-release

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/5c8a0718-9c39-4c4d-9884-a4ef21c6c8cb

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Owner

Rollet, N.

 Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division Internal Contact
Point of contact

Rollet, N.

 Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division Internal Contact

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Name

Dataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/151276

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/api/records/5c8a0718-9c39-4c4d-9884-a4ef21c6c8cb

Date info (Creation)
2026-09-03T00:58:34.799Z
Date info (Creation)
2026-09-02T23:13:46.725Z
Date info (Creation)
2026-08-28T00:53:04.556Z
Date info (Creation)
2026-08-28T00:52:35.765Z
Date info (Creation)
2026-08-28T00:46:49.399Z
Date info (Creation)
2026-08-28T00:36:29.119Z
Date info (Creation)
2026-07-06T11:42:59.793Z
Date info (Revision)
2026-09-03T00:59:41.218Z

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Groundwater Mapping Resourcing Australia's Prosperity
theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
EARTH SCIENCES GEOLOGY Stratigraphy (incl. biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy and basin analysis)

Provided by

Access to the portal

Associated resources

Not available