This web service provides access to groundwater raster products for the Upper Burdekin region, including: inferred relative groundwater recharge potential derived from weightings assigned to qualitative estimates of relative permeability based on mapped soil type and surface geology; Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) used to map vegetation with potential access to groundwater in the basalt provinces, and; base surfaces of basalt inferred from sparse available data.

The Exploring for the Future program is an initiative by the Australian Government dedicated to boosting investment in resource exploration in Australia. The initial phase of this program led by Geoscience Australia focussed on northern Australia to gather new data and information about the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources concealed beneath the surface. The northern Lawn Hill Platform is an intracratonic poly-phased history region of Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozic age consisting of mixed carbonates, siliciclastics and volcanics. It is considered a frontier basin with very little petroleum exploration to date, but with renewed interest in shale and tight gas, that may present new exploration opportunities. An understanding of the geochemistry of the sedimentary units, including the organic richness, hydrocarbon-generating potential and thermal maturity, is therefore an important characteristic needed to understand the resource potential of the region. As part of this program, Rock-Eval pyrolysis analyses were undertaken by Geoscience Australia on selected rock samples from 2 wells of the northern Lawn Hill Platform.

The hyperspectral HyLoggerTM instrument for collecting high resolution spectra data of drill core and drilling chips is a widely used and powerful in mineral and energy exploration, including sediment hosted mineralisation and hydrocarbons. It enables mapping of hydrothermal, diagenetic, and weathering assemblages, clarification of stratigraphy, and determination of primary mineralogy. This report presents key results of hyperspectral data from the HyLogger-3TM instrument collected from drilling in the Southern Stuart Corridor (SSC) project area in the Northern Territory conducted as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF)—an eight year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and information acquisition program focused on better understanding the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources across Australia. The results show that HyLogger plots are in most cases in the most effective means of identification of stratigraphic contacts. HyLogger plots are also especially effective and determining the depth and mineralogy of weathering and distinguishing provenance in shallow transported material such as palaeovalley fill and alluvium. Geological observations are however still crucial, especially in determining texture, which cannot be determined by the HyLogger scans or from photographs of chips and core, and in cases where contamination obscures or confuses the spectral signals. Weathering in the SSC can be determined by the appearance of dickite and poorly crystalline kaolinite. This allows a better determination of base of weathering than visual means: generally based of the presence of oxidised iron phases such as goethite and haematite (which are not definitive where the rocks already contained these prior to weathering), or where oxidised iron deposition has not occurred. This aids in depth of weathering mapping from regional AEM data. The ability of the HyLogger to discriminate between swelling (montmorillonite) and non-swelling (kaolinite, dickite) clays is potentially significant in the prediction of aquifer properties and the validation of borehole MR methods. The detection of zones of potential dolomitisation and dedolomisation through mineralogy (presence of dolomite and possible secondary calcite and magnesite, respectively) in carbonate units has the potential to similarly predict properties in carbonate units, through the potential increase in porosity/permeability of the first and decreased porosity/permeability of the second.

This double-sided A4 flyer promotes EFTF chronostratigraphic work in the NT, as well as the EFTF newsletter

This report presents groundwater levels results from the Upper Burdekin Groundwater Project in North Queensland, conducted as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF)—an eight year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and information acquisition program focused on better understanding the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources across Australia. The Upper Burdekin Groundwater Project is a collaborative study between Geoscience Australia and the Queensland Government. It focuses on basalt groundwater resources in two geographically separate areas: the Nulla Basalt Province (NBP) in the south and the McBride Basalt Province (MBP) in the north. This report describes a data release of water levels measured in monitoring bores in both provinces by Geoscience Australia during the EFTF project. It includes: - A full description of how water levels in metres relative to Australian Height Datum (m AHD; where zero m AHD is an approximation of mean sea level) were calculated from manual dips and electronic dataloggers for this project. - A series of tables in Appendix A containing sufficient information for each bore and datalogger file to reproduce the water levels reported in Appendix B and Appendix C. - A series of hydrographs in Appendix B showing how water levels (in m AHD) interpreted from manual dips and datalogger files varied during the EFTF project. - A series of electronic files in Appendix C that include (i) Data files from dataloggers in CSV file format that can be used with the information contained in this data release to regenerate the water levels shown on hydrographs in Appendix B, and (ii) Data files in CSV file format reporting the final water levels used to generate the hydrographs in Appendix B. This data release report does not include hydrograph interpretation, which is undertaken in detail in: Cook, S. B. & Ransley, T. R., 2020. Exploring for the Future—Groundwater level interpretations for the McBride and Nulla basalt provinces: Upper Burdekin region, North Queensland. Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/135439.

Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is a $225 million initiative by the Australian Government conducted in partnership with state and Northern Territory government agencies and universities that aims to boost northern Australia's attractiveness as a destination for investment in resource exploration. A complementary initiative, the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) is a Western Australian State-Government initiative that aims to encourage exploration in Western Australia for the long-term sustainability of the State’s resources sector. The Kidson Sub-basin seismic survey (18GA-KB1 or L211) was acquired as part of EFTF and the EIS, as a collaboration between Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (Resource Strategy Division). The 872 km long seismic line was acquired in an east-southeast to west-northwest orientation, on the road between the Kiwirrkurra community in the east, to approximately 20 km from Marble Bar, near the West Australian coast. The primary aims of the seismic survey were to better understand the subsurface geology, crustal architecture and spatial extents of basin and basement terrains. Crucially, the seismic survey was planned to address a lack of coherent seismic data across the Kidson Sub-basin, onshore Canning Basin and to increase the resource prospectivity of the region. The seismic survey imaged the following subdivisions of the Canning Basin: the Wallal Embayment Barnicarndy Graben, Anketell Shelf, and the Kidson Sub-basin, The survey also imaged several pre-Phanerozoic basement terrains, and several seismically distinct, mid to-lower crustal tectonic provinces. This report comprises a summary of the basement and basin geology, mineral and energy systems of the area, and an interpretation of the newly acquired seismic data.

Communities and ecosystems along the Darling River face critical water shortages and water quality issues including high salinity and algal blooms due to a reliance on declining surface water flows, which are impacted by extraction and drought, exacerbated by increases in temperature driven by climate change. The Darling River, characterised by highly variable flows, is the primary water source for the region and our understanding of the spatial extent and character of lower salinity groundwater within the surrounding Darling Alluvium, which could provide an alternative water source, is limited. Scientific understanding of the highly variable groundwater-surface water system dynamics of the Darling River is also an integral part of the evidence base required to manage the water resources of the wider Murray-Darling Basin, which has experienced critical water shortages for domestic and agricultural consumptive use and serious ecological decline due to reduced flows. Other relevant groundwater systems in the study area include aquifers of the underlying Eromanga and Surat Basins in the north, aquifers of the Murray Basin in the south, and fractured rock aquifers of the Darling Basin in the south-central area. Understanding of connectivity between these systems and the groundwater systems within the Darling Alluvium, and surface water of the Darling River, is also limited. Here we present the findings of a desktop analysis combining previous research with new analysis on water level, hydrochemistry, and Airborne Electromagnetic depth sections. This integration suggests that basement geometry and hydrostratigraphy within the Darling Alluvium are key structural controls on surface-groundwater connectivity, and the occurrence of a saline groundwater system within the lower part of the alluvium which impacts the quality of surface water and shallow alluvial groundwater resources. Further data acquisition and integrated analysis are planned to test these relationships as part of the Upper Darling Floodplain project. <b>Citation:</b> Buckerfield S., McPherson A., Tan K. P., Kilgour P. & Buchanan S., 2022. From Upper Darling Floodplain groundwater resource assessment. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/146847

The Exploring for the Future program Showcase 2022 was held on 8-10 August 2022. Day 1 (8th August) included a talk on: - Exploring for the Future - The value of precompetitive geoscience - Dr Andrew Heap Showcase Day 1 https://youtu.be/M9jC_TyovCc

This grid dataset is an estimation of the relative surface potential for recharge within the McBride Basalt Province. This process combined numerous factors together as to highlight the areas likely to have higher potential for recharge to occur. Soil permeability and surface geology are the primary inputs. Vegetation and slope were excluded from consideration, as these were considered to add too much complexity. Furthermore, this model does not include rainfall intensity – although this is known to vary spatially through average rainfall grids, this model is a depiction of the ground ability for recharge to occur should a significant rainfall event occur in each location. The relative surface potential recharge presented is estimated through a combination of soil and geological factors, weighting regions that are considered likely to have greater potential for recharge (e.g. younger basalts, vent-proximal facies, and highly permeable soils). Near-surface permeability of soil layers has been considered as a quantified input to the ability for water to infiltrate soil strata. It was hypothesised that locations proximal to volcanic vents would be preferential recharge sites, due to deeply penetrative columnar jointing. This suggestion is based on observations in South Iceland, where fully-penetrating columnar joint sets are more prevalent in proximal facies compared to distal facies in South Iceland (Bergh & Sigvaldson 1991). To incorporate this concept, preferential recharge sites are assumed to be within the polygons of vent-proximal facies as derived from detailed geological mapping datasets. Remaining geology has been categorised to provide higher potential recharge through younger lava flows. As such, a ranking between geological units has been used to provide the variation in potential recharge estimates. <b>References</b> Bergh, S. G., & Sigvaldason, G. E. (1991). Pleistocene mass-flow deposits of basaltic hyaloclastite on a shallow submarine shelf, South Iceland. Bulletin of Volcanology, 53(8), 597-611. doi:10.1007/bf00493688

Presentation from the Exploring for the Future Roadshow on the Energy prospectivity of the South Nicholson region, regional geochemical data acquisition and shale gas prospectivity analysis.