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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.

Simple

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

Extent

N
S
E
W


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
  • pdf

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.

Metadata 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

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a046c438-a176-42b5-83b8-de3f56c61cd6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

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

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Point of contact

Carey, H.

MEG Internal Contact
Title

National Hydrogeology Inventory

Citation identifier
77a96e76-a39e-483d-976b-4137a79141f8

Citation identifier
148897

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

GA publication: Darling Basin hydrogeological inventory

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/148719

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5167d912-6784-4371-9938-3931e84ca6f1

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5beb1fcf-6669-4dcb-b8af-fd2f8cec55a5

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/b71b8538-471e-4300-b0e0-7454096909b8

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/4c9eab84-5deb-45f8-97ba-30d0f1e66b7e

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/fdc484c2-8f6e-46b7-9329-3d3d313af9e2

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a08d184a-299a-40de-b667-20e94b92e02b

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/d9a614cf-70be-432c-8795-e50dad0f1a60

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/de9145a4-84f9-4dee-8078-7d8d6488edf6

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/661f1d0e-37db-4a51-8a9d-2f3da98e3fc6

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/034f6694-cf7e-4df4-b941-be31f73c7de7

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/js/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/034f6694-cf7e-4df4-b941-be31f73c7de7

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a046c438-a176-42b5-83b8-de3f56c61cd6

Date info (Creation)
2019-04-08T01:55:29
Date info (Revision)
2019-04-08T01:55:29

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

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Exploring for the Future Groundwater National Groundwater Sytems National Hydrogeological Inventory
theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
Basin Analysis EARTH SCIENCES ECOLOGY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Environmental Management GEOLOGY Hydrogeology Land Use and Environmental Planning PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE Sedimentology Stratigraphy (incl. Biostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy)

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