<div>The Australian Government's Trusted Environmental and Geological Information (TEGI) program is a collaboration between Geoscience Australia and the CSIRO that aims to provide access to baseline geological and environmental data and information for strategically important geological basins. The initial geological focus is on the north Bowen, Galilee, Cooper, Adavale, and their overlying basins. This paper presents seven stratigraphic frameworks from these basin regions that underpin groundwater, environmental and resource assessments, identify intervals of resource potential, and can assist in management of associated risks to groundwater resources and other environmental assets. The construction of stratigraphic frameworks for this program builds upon existing lithostratigraphic schemes to capture the current state of knowledge. The frameworks incorporate play divisions for resource and hydrogeological assessments. A total of 33 play intervals are defined for the north Bowen, Galilee, Cooper, Adavale, and their overlying basins, using chronostratigraphic principles. Where possible, unconformities and flooding surfaces are used to define the lower and upper limits of plays. Data availability and temporal resolution are considered in capturing significant changes in gross depositional environments. The results from this work enable the consistent assessment of shared play intervals between basins, and also highlight uncertainties in the age and correlation of lithostratigraphic units, notably in the Galilee and north Bowen Basins.</div> This presentation was given at the 2023 Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC) 13-18 March, Brisbane (https://2023.aegc.com.au/)

<div>The Australian Government's Trusted Environmental and Geological Information program is a collaboration between Geoscience Australia and CSIRO. Part of this program includes baseline geological and environmental assessments. </div><div> Hydrogeological information has been collated for the Adavale, Cooper, Galilee and north Bowen basins and overlying basins, including the Eromanga and Lake Eyre basins. This information will provide a regionally-consistent baseline dataset that will be used to develop groundwater conceptualisation models.</div><div> Publicly-available data within these basin regions have been compiled from over 30&nbsp;000 boreholes, 120 stream gauges, and 1100 rainfall stations, resulting in revised hydrostratigraphic frameworks. From the published literature, 14 major hydrostratigraphic units are recognised within the basin regions. For each of these major hydrostratigraphic units, we determined the salinity, Darcian yield, specific yield/storativity, groundwater reserve volume for unallocated groundwater, groundwater levels/hydrological pressure, likelihood of inter-aquifer connectivity, rainfall, connectivity between surface water and groundwater, and water-use volume statistics, where relevant, for each basin, hydrogeological province and aquifer. We then adopted a play-based approach to develop holistic hydrostratigraphic conceptualisations of the basin regions. </div><div> Within the Adavale Basin we have defined a new hydrogeological province including two new aquifers defined as the moderate salinity and moderately overpressured Buckabie-Etonvale Aquifer, and the hypersaline and hyper-overpressured Lissoy-Log Creek-Eastwood Aquifer. Similarities between the upper Buckabie-Etonvale Aquifer of the Adavale Basin and lowermost Joe Joe Group of the Galilee Basin suggests connectivity between the upper Adavale and lower Galilee basins. Hydraulic pressures (up to 1500 m of excess freshwater head) calculated for the Lissoy–Log Creek–Eastwood Aquifer indicate that if the aquifer was to be breached, there is potential localised risk to overlying aquifers and surface environments, including infrastructure.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Author Biography:</strong></div><div>Dr. Chris Gouramanis is a hydrogeologist working in the Trusted Environmental and Geological Information program, in the Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division of Geoscience Australia. Chris was awarded his PhD from The Australian National University in 2009 and has held several water and environmental policy positions within the Australian Government. He worked for 10 years as an academic at the Earth Observatory of Singapore and the Geography Department at the National University of Singapore. He is also Australia’s National Focal Point to the Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.</div><div><br></div>This Abstract was submitted/presented to the 2022 Australasian Groundwater Conference 21-23 November (https://agc2022.com.au/)

Publicly available baseline surface water data are compiled to provide a common information base for resource development and regulatory decisions in the Adavale Basin region. This data guide captures existing knowledge of the catchments and watercourses overlying the Adavale Basin, including streamflow quality and quantity, inundation, and climatological data. The Adavale Basin underlies 3 main surface water catchments that contribute to Cooper Creek, including the Barcoo, Bulloo and Warrego rivers. The Adavale Basin geological boundary also intersects the upper parts of the Paroo River catchment and a small part of the Condamine-Balonne catchment. The data on the catchments overlying the Adavale Basin have been summarised at a point in time to inform decisions on resource development activities. Key data sources are the Water Monitoring Information Portal (Queensland Government), Water Data Online (Bureau of Meteorology), DEA Water Observations (Geoscience Australia) and Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network.

Across Australia, groundwater is a vital resource that supports and strengthens communities, culture, the environment and numerous industries. Movement of groundwater is complicated, taking place horizontally, vertically and across different timescales ranging from weeks to millions of years. It is affected by changes in climate, human use and geological complexities such as the type, geometry and distribution of rocks. Understanding how all these factors interact is known as a groundwater conceptual model and it is an important first step. This groundwater conceptualisation is for the shallow groundwater in the north Bowen Basin as well as surface-groundwater interactions. Figure 1 shows the location of the cross sections used to conceptualise groundwater in the north Bowen Basin region. It also shows the combined (stacked) confidence for both salinity and water levels for the shallow (<50 m below ground surface) groundwater system in the north Bowen Basin. There is no publicly available geological model for the north Bowen Basin extended region. As a result, only the shallow groundwater system is included in this conceptualisation (Wainman et al., 2023). Confidence was calculated for both salinity and water levels (Hostetler et al., 2023) and combined to show overall confidence. The level of knowledge across the extended region is medium to low. The groundwater conceptualisations show the average value of the shallow groundwater, salinity and confidence over an area of 50 km along the cross section line.

Statements of existing knowledge are compiled for known mineral, coal, hydrocarbon and carbon capture and storage (CCS) resources and reserves in the Galilee Basin region. This data guide illustrates the current understanding of the distribution of these key resource types within the Galilee Basin region based on trusted information sources. It provides important contextual information on the Galilee Basin and where additional details on discovered resources can be found. The Galilee Basin region contains 6 known metallic mineral deposits, with most of these containing the critical mineral vanadium. There are 17 coal deposits found in the basin containing thermal and metallurgical coal. The primary form of coal in the deposits is thermal coal. The Galilee Basin hosts large coal tonnages, with known black coal resources of approximately 33 billion tonnes. The Galilee Basin and overlying basins are known to contain significant hydrocarbon resources. The majority of the known hydrocarbon resources are found in the Julia Creek oil shale deposits located in the Eromanga Basin above the Galilee Basin. Moderate coal seam gas (CSG) resources have also been identified in the basin; however, conventional gas resources are more limited. At this time, there are no active or planned Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects in the basin.

Publicly available geology data are compiled to provide a common information base for resource development, environmental and regulatory decisions in the Cooper Basin region. This data guide gives examples of how these data can be used and supports the data package that provides the existing knowledge of the key geological intervals of the Cooper Basin and the overlying Eromanga and Lake Eyre basins. The key geological intervals identified by the Trusted Environmental and Geological Information (TEGI) Program for resource assessment and groundwater system characterisation are termed play intervals and hydrostratigraphic intervals respectively. The Cooper Basin includes 7 plays, which are consolidated into 1 hydrostratigraphic interval. Overlying the Cooper Basin are 9 play intervals of the Eromanga Basin, which are consolidated into 7 hydrostratigraphic intervals and 1 Cenozoic play interval and 1 hydrostratigraphic interval for the Lake Eyre Basin. The geological groups and formations included in the play and hydrostratigraphic intervals are summarised in the stratigraphic charts of Wainman et al. (2023). Gross depositional, depth structure and thickness maps are provided with 3D model and cross-sections summarising the geology of the Cooper Basin and the overlying basins. The mapped depths and thicknesses of the key intervals are used to inform resource assessments and provide the framework for assigning groundwater data to hydrostratigraphic intervals.

Publicly available geology data are compiled to provide a common information base for resource development, environmental and regulatory decisions in the Adavale Basin region. This data guide gives examples of how these data can be used and supports the data package that provides the existing knowledge of the key geological intervals of the Adavale Basin and the overlying Galilee, Eromanga and Lake Eyre basins. The key geological intervals identified by the Trusted Environmental and Geological Information (TEGI) Program for resource assessment and groundwater system characterisation are termed play intervals and hydrostratigraphic intervals respectively. The Adavale Basin includes 8 plays, which are consolidated into 1 hydrostratigraphic interval. Overlying the Adavale Basin are 5 play intervals of the Galilee Basin, which are consolidated into 3 hydrostratigraphic intervals; 9 play intervals of the Eromanga Basin, which are consolidated into 7 hydrostratigraphic intervals; and 1 Cenozoic play interval and 1 hydrostratigraphic interval for the Lake Eyre and other Cenozoic basins. The geological groups and formations included in the plays and hydrostratigraphic intervals are summarised in the stratigraphic charts of Wainman et al. (2023a). Gross depositional, depth structure and thickness maps are provided with 3D model and cross-sections summarising the geology of the Adavale Basin and the overlying basins. The mapped depths and thicknesses of the key intervals are used to inform resource assessments and provide the framework for assigning groundwater data to hydrostratigraphic intervals.

Publicly available baseline surface water data are compiled to provide a common information base for resource development and regulatory decisions in the north Bowen Basin region. This data guide captures existing knowledge of the catchments and watercourses overlying the north Bowen Basin, including streamflow quality and quantity, inundation and climatological data. Most of the north Bowen Basin falls to the east of the Great Dividing Range within the Fitzroy River catchment. The basin also includes part of the Burdekin River catchment and small parts of the coastal catchments of Styx and Burnett river catchments. The data on the catchments overlying the north Bowen Basin have been summarised at a point in time to inform decisions on resource development activities. Key data sources are available from the Water Monitoring Information Portal (Queensland Government), Water Data Online (Bureau of Meteorology), DEA Water Observations (Geoscience Australia) and Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network.

Across Australia, groundwater is a vital resource that supports and strengthens communities, culture, the environment and numerous industries. Movement of groundwater is complicated, taking place horizontally, vertically and across different timescales from weeks to millions of years. It is affected by changes in climate, human use and geological complexities such as the type, geometry and distribution of rocks. Understanding how all these factors interact is known as a groundwater conceptual model and it is an important first step. This groundwater conceptualisation includes the Adavale Basin and the overlying Galilee Basin. Conceptualisation of the Galilee, Eromanga and Lake Eyre basins can be found in Hostetler et al. (2023). In the Adavale Basin this includes 1 aquifer in the Lake Eyre Basin, 5 aquifers in the Eromanga Basin, 3 aquifers in the Galilee Basin and 1 aquifer in the Adavale Basin (Wainman et al., 2023a, b). Confidence for each aquifer was calculated for both salinity and water levels (Gouramanis et al., 2023a, b, c, d). The confidence for each aquifer was added to show the overall confidence for the basin. The level of knowledge across all aquifers are moderate to low. The groundwater conceptualisations summarises the groundwater flow and potential connectivity between aquifers. Figures in this fact sheet show the distribution of the aquifers and aquitards, average salinity, potential aquifer yield and confidence over an area of 50 km along the cross section lines.

Across Australia, groundwater is a vital resource that supports and strengthens communities, culture, the environment and numerous industries. Movement of groundwater is complicated, taking place horizontally, vertically and across different timescales from weeks to millions of years. It is affected by changes in climate, human use and geological complexities such as the type, geometry and distribution of rocks. Understanding how all these factors interact is known as a groundwater conceptual model and it is an important first step. This groundwater conceptualisation includes the Cooper Basin and the overlying Eromanga and Lake Eyre basins as well as surface-groundwater interactions. Figure 1 shows the locations of the cross sections used to conceptualise groundwater in the Cooper Basin region. In the Cooper Basin this includes 1 aquifer in the Lake Eyre Basin, 5 aquifers in the Eromanga Basin and 1 aquifer in the Cooper Basin (Wainman et al., 2023a, b). Additional aquifers in the Permian sequence have not been included in this assessment, as they are yet to be fully investigated (Evans et al., 2020). Confidence for each aquifer was calculated for both salinity and water levels (Gouramanis et al., 2023a, b, c). The confidence for each aquifer was added to show the overall confidence for the basin. The level of knowledge across all aquifer is moderate to low. The groundwater conceptualisations summarises the groundwater flow and potential connectivity between aquifers. Figures also show the distribution of the aquifers and aquitards, average salinity, potential aquifer yield and confidence over an area of 50 km along the cross section lines.