O.D.N.L. Penola No. 1 Well, located in the north-east corner of Section 500, Hundred of Penola, South Australia, was drilled by Oil Development N.L. under a "farm-out" agreement with General Exploration Company of Australia Limited to a total depth of 4985 feet. Drilling was commenced on 7th February, 1961, and the well was abondoned as a dry hole on 5th May, 1961. The drilling contractor was Australian Tube Wells Pty Ltd, and the rig used was a Failing 2500 - Holemaster. The operation provided for a programme of electric and mud logging, testing and coring. The Penola Well was designed to test the petroleum potentialities of the Coonawarra subsurface structure, which was first detected by a single reconnaissance seismic reflection traverse made through the Penola area. Beneath a thin Pleistocene cover Penola No. 1 penetrated a sequence of marine and paralic Tertiary, and marine and non-marine Mesozoic rocks, ranging in age from Oligocene to probable Upper Jurassic. The Tertiary sediments consisted of 215 feet of Gambier Limestone (Oligocene); 160 feet of Compton Conglomerate (Oligocene); followed by about 630 feet of paralic sands and grits of the Knight Group (middle to upper Eocene). There is a marked discontinuity at l040 feet where the well passed abruptly from the Eocene to Cretaceous arkosic sandstones and siltstones of the Merino Group. The Upper Member of the Runnymede Formation of Albian to (?) Cenomanian age was 2380 feet thick, and of marine origin in at least the lower 800 feet, between 2586 and 3420 feet. The lower nonmarine member of the Runnymede Formation (? Aptian) was represented between 3420 and 4300 feet. A slight angular unconformity is interpreted at about 4300 feet, below which the well is considered to have entered non-marine mudstones and sandstones of the Mocamboro Member of probable Upper Jurassic age. Minor showings of gas were encountered at Penola No. 1, none being of commerial significance. No signs of live oil were observed in the well.

In late 1959, Union Oil Development Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Union Oil Company of California, and the Kern County Land Company, also of California, entered into an agreement with Australian Oil and Gas Corporation Limited to conduct an exploration programme on lands of Authority to Prospect 57P, Queensland, and Petroleum Exploration Licences E2, E6, E7, and EB, New South Wales. As part of the programme, surface geological studies were made of the concessions and adjoining areas. This report is concerned primarily with this aspect of the exploration. The surface reconnaissance was carried out intermittently from November, 1960 to October, 1961. The area reconnoitred, approximately 40,000 square miles, is bounded roughly by the towns of Rolleston and Banana in Queensland and Narrabri and Inverell in New South Wales (Fig. 1). The region is accessible by several major paved highways and a connecting network of dirt roads and stock trails. Department of the Army 1: 250 ,000 sheets were used as a base map for the work; planimetric control was by car odometer and elevation control, where required, by aneroid barometer. Field samples, both lithologic and palaeontologic, are indexed on the geological maps and are stored at the offices of Union Oil Development Corporation, Toowoomba, Queensland.

pt. 1. Igneous and metamorphic -- pt. 2. Sedimentary rocks -- pt. 3. Igneous and metamorphic

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The Overflow No. 1 Well was drilled on the South Moreton Anticline in Authority to Prospect 7lP, south-east Queensland, to a total depth of 2993 feet. The well drilled in Bundamba Sandstone to 310 feet, Ipswich Coal Measures from 310 feet to 1605 feet, and volcanic rocks of probable early Triassic or Upper Palaeozoic age from 1605 feet to total depth. Drilling operations commenced on 8th April, 1960, and the well was abandoned as a dry hole on 18th May, 1960. The drilling contractor was Mines Administration Pty Limited, Brisbane, and the rig used was a National Ideal 55. The operation provided for a programme of electric and mud logging, testing and coring. The well was abandoned short of the target depth of 6500 feet because of the hard drilling and poor petroleum prospects in the thick volcanic sequence. Minor oil and gas showings in the well were closely associated with coal seams.

Conorada Ooroonoo No. 1, located in the north-western part of Authority to Prospect 75P, Queensland, was drilled as an off-structure stratigraphic test by Conorada Petroleum Corporation. The contractor was Mines Administration Pty Ltd, and the rig used was a Sullivan 300A owned by the contractor. The well was spudded in on 20th July, 1960, and abandoned as a dry hole at total depth of 3852 feet on 23rd August, 1960. A complete section of Great Artesian Basin sediments was drilled and granitic basement penetrated at 3840 feet. The coring and sampling programme carried out enabled as much information to be obtained about the section as was possible.

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