Gippsland Basin hydrogeological inventory

This Gippsland 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 Gippsland Basin is an asymmetrical east-trending rift structure that originated during rifting in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, as Australia and Antarctica began to separate. Over time, it developed into a continental passive margin basin, with sedimentation continuing to the present day. The basin is characterized by four main phases of tectonic evolution, interspersed with eustatic sea-level variations: initial rifting and extension, mid-Cretaceous contraction, renewed extension, and cessation of rifting in the middle Eocene.

The basin's geological structures consist of mainly east to north-east trending features, with the west dominated by north-east structures due to the influence of basement trends. Major fault systems are prominent, compartmentalizing the basin into platforms and depressions separated by bedrock highs.

The basin's complex stratigraphic succession reveals fluvial, deltaic, marginal marine, and open marine depositional environments. The sedimentary sequence includes terrigenous siliciclastic sediments from the Upper Cretaceous to Eocene, followed by post-rift sands, clays, coals, and limestones/marls of Oligocene to Holocene age. The Gippsland Basin's sediments are subdivided into four main stratigraphic groups: the Strzelecki, Latrobe, Seaspray, and Sale groups.

The Strzelecki Group, dating from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, consists of non-marine sedimentary rocks deposited in fluvial and lacustrine environments. The Latrobe Group, from Late Cretaceous to early Oligocene, contains siliciclastic sediments deposited in various non-marine to marginal marine settings, showing significant lateral lithofacies variations. The Seaspray Group, dating from Oligocene to Pliocene, formed during a post-rift phase, characterized by marine limestone and marl units and continental clastic sediments. Lastly, the Sale Group consists of Miocene-to-Recent continental clastic sediments forming a thin veneer over the onshore portion of the basin.

The Gippsland Basin also contains several basaltic lava fields, with two notable volcanic units—the Thorpdale Volcanics and Carrajung Volcanics—part of the Older Volcanics in Victoria.

Overall, the Gippsland Basin's geological history and diverse sedimentary deposits make it a significant area for various geological and geophysical studies, including its hydrocarbon resources concentrated in offshore Latrobe Group reservoirs.

Identification info

Date (Creation): 2023-09-01

Date (Publication): 2023-09-28T07:21:36

Citation identifier: Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/148724

Citation identifier: Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148724

Cited responsible party

Role	Organisation / Individual Name	Details
Publisher	Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)	Voice

Purpose: A thematic summary of the Gippsland 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

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

ECOLOGY
Stratigraphy (incl. Biostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy)
GEOLOGY
Hydrogeology
Land Use and Environmental Planning
Sedimentology
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Environmental Management
Basin Analysis
EARTH SCIENCES
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

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) [558 KB]

Download the report (pdf) [558 KB]

Distribution format

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.