Product catalogue
Arafura Basin hydrogeological inventory
This Arafura 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 Arafura Basin is a large intracratonic sedimentary basin along the northern continental margin of Australia. Over 90% of the basin occurs offshore in relatively shallow marine waters of the Arafura Sea, with the basin extending northwards beyond Australia's territorial claim. The southern part of the basin is onshore in northern Arnhem Land. Older Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic rocks of the northern Macarthur Basin underlie most of the onshore basin, whereas Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments of the Money Shoal Basin unconformably overlie the offshore basin.
The sedimentary record of the Arafura Basin spans greater than 250 million years, from the late Neoproterozoic to the early Permian. However, subsidence was episodic and restricted to four main phases of regional subsidence interspersed with relatively long periods of tectonic quiescence. Consequently, the entire sedimentary succession of the basin is relatively structurally conformable. The oldest rocks are the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian Wessel Group. These are overlain by the Middle Cambrian to early Ordovician Goulburn Group, followed by the Late Devonian Arafura Group. The uppermost sequence is Late Carboniferous to early Permian (an equivalent of the Kulshill Group from the neighbouring Bonaparte Basin).
The sedimentary rocks of the Arafura Basin are clastic-dominated and include sandstone, shale, limestone, dolostone and minor coal and glacial deposits. Most of the Arafura Basin formed within shallow marine environments, with evidence for fluvial conditions largely restricted to the Carboniferous to Permian rocks.
There are no detailed basin-scale studies on the hydrogeology and groundwater systems of the Arafura Basin. Previous hydrogeological investigations by the Northern Territory Government during the 1980s and 1990s focused on groundwater supplies for remote communities such as Maningrida, Galiwinku and Millingimbi. Groundwater for these communities is sourced from fractured rock sandstone aquifers, most likely units of the Arafura Basin such as the Marchinbar Sandstone and Elcho Island Formation of the Wessel Group. The aquifers are fractured and extensively weathered up to 100 metres below surface.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2023-09-01
- Date (Publication)
- 2023-09-28T07:21:33
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/148708
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148708
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- Purpose
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A thematic summary of the Arafura Basin. Part of a compendium of consistently compiled summaries that comprise the National Hydrogeological Inventory
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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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
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- Geoscientific information
- Inland waters
- Environment
Extent
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
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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
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Basin Analysis
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EARTH SCIENCES
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GEOLOGY
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Land Use and Environmental Planning
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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
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ECOLOGY
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Stratigraphy (incl. Biostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy)
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Hydrogeology
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Sedimentology
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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Environmental Management
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- Project
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National Groundwater Sytems
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- Theme
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Groundwater
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- Theme
-
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Exploring for the Future
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- Theme
-
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National Hydrogeological Inventory
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- Keywords
-
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Published_External
-
Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
-
CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
- Other constraints
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(c) Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2023
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice facsimile
- OnLine resource
-
Download the report (pdf) [326 KB]
Download the report (pdf) [326 KB]
- Distribution format
-
-
pdf
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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
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/b71b8538-471e-4300-b0e0-7454096909b8
- 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
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GA publication: Arafura Basin hydrogeological inventory
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/148708
- Date info (Creation)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
- Date info (Revision)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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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