The coverage of this dataset is over the Taree region . The C3 LAS data set contains point data in LAS 1.2 format sourced from a LiDAR ( Light Detection and Ranging ) from an ALS50 ( Airborne Laser Scanner ) sensor . The processed data has been manually edited to achieve LPI classification level 3 whereby the ground class contains minimal non-ground points such as vegetation , water , bridges , temporary features , jetties etc . Purpose: To provide fit-for-purpose elevation data for use in applications related to coastal vulnerability assessment, natural resource management ( especially water and forests) , transportation and urban planning . Additional lineage information: This data has an accuracy of 0.3m ( 95 confidence ) horizontal with a minimum point density of one laser pulse per square metre. For more information on the data's accuracy, refer to the lineage provided in the data history .

This Fossils booklet will take you through concepts of geological time and fossilisation. It also provides fact sheets on important animals and plants in the fossil record. Each fact sheet contains a description of the organism to aid in identification, information on when, where and how the organism lived as well as interesting facts to grab your students' attention. Students activities are also included.

Part-page item on matters relating to stratigraphy. This column discusses type section locations and the need to update old location co-ordinates. ISSN 0312 4711

The 2012 Australian offshore acreage release includes exploration areas in four southern margin basins. Three large Release Areas in the frontier Ceduna Sub-basin lie adjacent to four exploration permits granted in 2011. The petroleum prospectivity of the Ceduna Sub-basin is controlled by the distribution of Upper Cretaceous marine and deltaic facies and a structural framework established by Cenomanian growth faulting. These Release Areas offer a range of plays charged by Cretaceous marine and coaly source rocks and Jurassic lacustrine sediments. In the westernmost part of the gas-producing Otway Basin, a large Release Area offers numerous opportunities to test existing and new play concepts in underexplored areas beyond the continental shelf. Gas and oil shows in the eastern part of the Release Area confirm the presence of at least two working petroleum systems. In the eastern Otway Basin, several Release Areas are offered in shallow water on the eastern flank of the highly prospective Shipwreck Trough and provide untested targets along the eastern basin margin southward into Tasmanian waters. To the south, a large Release Area in the frontier Sorell Basin provides the opportunity to explore a range of untested targets in depocentres that formed along the western Tasmanian transform continental margin. Two Release Areas offer exploration potential in the under-explored eastern deepwater part of the Gippsland Basin. Geological control is provided by several successful wells indicating the presence of both gas and liquids in the northern area, while the southern area represents the remaining frontier of the basin.

Broadband and long period magnetotelluric (MT) sounding data have been acquired along 12 deep seismic reflection transects throughout Australia, which consist of more than 640 sites over 3700 km in distance. These MT surveys have been completed by Geoscience Australia in collaboration with relevant state and territory geoscience agencies and universities, as part of the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (2006-2011). The MT data provide new free pre-competitive data to industry and researchers. They have provided new information for assessing mineral, petroleum, and geothermal energy prospective in these frontier areas. The electrical resistivity characteristics of MT models derived from the data provided information for regional geological interpretation. These resistivity characteristics can help determine geological features from near-surface to the upper mantle, for example, fluids, melts, fault zones, sedimentary basins and lithological boundaries. The MT data have provided complementary information to deep seismic reflection, refraction, gravity, and other geophysical and geological data used for multi-disciplinary investigations of crustal architecture in these survey regions. The multi-disciplinary data have reduced uncertainties and limitations of the data considered separately. They have significantly improved the understanding of the tectonic process and regional geology, as well as the mineral and energy potential in these survey regions.

The National Wind Risk Assessment (NWRA) has developed a computational framework to evaluate both the wind hazard and risk due to severe wind gusts. A combination of tropical cyclone, synoptic and thunderstorm wind hazard estimates is used to provide a revised estimate of severe wind hazard across Australia. A national assessment of localised wind speed modifiers including topography, terrain and the built environment (shielding), has also been undertaken to inform the local wind speed hazard that causes damage to structures. Wind speed modifiers are incorporated through a statistical modification of the regional wind speed. The regional hazard modelling utilises both current-climate information and also simulations forced by IPCC SRES climate change scenarios, which are employed to determine how wind hazard will be influenced by climate change. We report on a national assessment of severe wind impact and risk to residential housing (quantified in terms of annualised loss). Results from the current climate regional wind hazard assessment are compared with the hazard based on the existing understanding as specified in the Australian/New Zealand Wind Loading Standard (AS/NZS 1170.2, 2011). Regions where the design wind speed depicted in AS/NZS 1170.2 is significantly lower than the hazard analysis provided by this study were mapped. These regions are discussed in the context of the minimum design standards in the building code regulations, where the development of adaptation options is likely.

We describe a new framework for quantitative bushfire risk assessment that has been produced in the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre's (Bushfire CRC) research program. The framework is aimed at assisting state of the art fire research in Australia and fire risk managers in state and territory governments. There is a need for improved bushfire risk information to address the recommendations on bushfire risk management from the inquiries held after disastrous fires in the past decade. Quantitative techniques will improve this risk information however quantitative bushfire risk assessment is in its infancy in Australia. We use the example of calculating house damage and loss to describe the elements of the framework. The framework builds upon the well-defined processes in the Australian Risk Management standard (AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009) and the National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines.

CIMFR_area_under_management.shp: These data show the Christmas Island Minesite to Forest Rehabilitation Programme (CIMFR) areas - as used by staff at the Christmas Island National Park. CIMFR_area_buffer.shp: These data show a 50m buffer zone within the Christmas Island Minesite to Forest Rehabilitation Programme (CIMFR) areas - as used by staff at the Christmas Island National Park.

Coral reef assemblages at Moorea, French Polynesia have shifted in structure and composition due to multiple large-scale environmental extremes in recent decades, including thermally-induced coral bleaching events, cyclones, and Acanthaster planci outbreaks. Acroporid corals provide three-dimensional habitats for many reef organisms, and are often recognised as early colonisers following disturbance. Paradoxically, this coral genus can be highly sensitive to many natural and anthropogenic perturbations. This study examined patterns of sexual reproduction, embryogenesis, larval development, planulae metamorphosis and settlement competency of Acropora reef corals at Moorea, during 2002-2004. The spatial heterogeneity of consecutive coral bleaching events in 2002 and 2003 and their impact on Acropora gametogenesis were also examined. Coral bleaching patterns were genus specific, and differences in susceptibility among major genera were generally consistent between years, with Acropora showing the greatest level of susceptibility. Investigation of the effects of bleaching events on gametogenesis, oocyte and spermary size, and polyp fecundity in Acropora spp. in 2002 and 2003 demonstrated that partial bleaching can significantly reduce gamete sizes and the proportion of fertile polyps in some colonies through time, compared with non-bleached colonies. Conversely, the majority of heavily bleached Acropora colonies were devoid of gametes during post-bleaching sampling periods and were thus unable to complete gametogenesis. The diminished capacity of bleached Acropora colonies to reproduce following bleaching events has important implications for assessing the plasticity of Acropora assemblage patterns through time, and estimating the resistance and resilience capacity of this important coral genus to disturbance by bleaching events. These findings will be discussed in the context of ongoing research investigating the impacts of successive bleaching events on coral communities in Australasia.

The Georgina Basin is a Neoproterozoic to Lower Devonian sedimentary basin covering 325,000 km2 of western Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is a northwest-southeast-trending extensional basin, with prospective conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon targets within Cambrian and Ordovician carbonate and siliciclastic rock units. The unconventional gas and oil potential of the basin has led to considerable recent exploration interest, although the basin has been relatively underexplored in the past. At the southern end of the basin, depocentres contain up to 2.2 km of Cambrian to Devonian sedimentary rocks, overlying Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks over 1.5 km thick. The basin succession thins toward the north, where Cambrian sediments overlie the McArthur Basin sediments in the Beetaloo Sub-basin. Biostratigraphic interpretations of the prospective southern, central and eastern regions of the basin have been revised to reflect the 2012 Geological Time Scale (Gradstein et al. 2012), resulting in an updated chronostratigraphic framework for the basin. The revised biostratigraphic interpretations have implications for important hydrocarbon source rocks. For example, the limestone unit in the southern parts of the basin, generally regarded as the Thorntonia Limestone, is of a different age to the type section for this unit, located in the Undilla Sub-basin. Additionally, the basal 'hot shale' of the Arthur Creek Formation is diachronous across the Dulcie and Toko synclines, which may have ramifications for hydrocarbon exploration. This revised chronostratigraphic framework for the Georgina Basin provides a baseline for the first basin-wide assessment of the unconventional hydrocarbon potential of the basin, by Geoscience Australia.