Geoscience Australia, in collaboration with state governments, will be carrying out airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys in western South Australia, southern NT and eastern WA during 2022. This scientific research is being carried out to obtain data that will enhance understanding of geology and natural resources of the region. This information will support future resource management decision-making. This survey has been expanded into Western Australia with funding from the Geological Survey of Western Australia, combined with valuable in-kind support from the South Australian and Northern Territory geological surveys. <p>

<div>Non-technical summaries of groundwater in the remote communities of Warburton, Kaltukatjara (Docker River), Warakurna, Wingellina, Wanarn, Mantamaru (Jameson) and Papulankutja (Blackstone). These summaries are based on research undertaken as part of the Musgrave Palaeovalley Project and full results are available in the Musgrave Palaeovalley Project Synthesis Report (https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/149406).</div>

Geoscience Australia commissioned reprocessing of selected legacy 2D seismic data in the Pedirka-Simpson Basin in South Australia-Northern Territory as part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program. 34 Legacy 2D seismic lines from the Pedirka Basin were reprocessed between May 2021 and January 2022 (phase 1). An additional 54 legacy 2D seismic lines (34 lines from Pedirka Basin, South Australia and 20 lines from Simpson Basin, Northern Territory) were reprocessed between November 2021 and June 2022 (phase 2). Geofizyka Toruń S.A. based in Poland carried out the data processing and Geoscience Australia with the help of an external contractor undertook the quality control of the data processing. The seismic data release package contains reprocessed seismic data acquired between 1974 and 2008. In total, the package contains approximately 3,806.9 km of industry 2D reflection seismic data. The seismic surveys include the Beal Hill, 1974; Pilan Hill, 1976; Koomarinna, 1980; Christmas Creek, 1982; Hogarth, 1984; Morphett, 1984; Colson 2D, 1985; Etingimbra, 1985; Fletcher, 1986; Anacoora, 1987; Mitchell, 1987; Bejah, 1987; Simpson Desert, 1979, 1984, 1986, 1987; Forrest, 1988; Eringa Trough, 1994; Amadeus-Pedirka, 2008 and covers areas within the Amadeus Basin, Simpson Basin, Pedirka Basin, Warburton Basin and Cooper Basin in South Australia and Northern Territory. The objective of the seismic reprocessing was to produce a processed 2D land seismic reflection dataset using the latest processing techniques to improve resolution and data quality over legacy processing. In particular, the purpose of the reprocessing was to image the structure and stratigraphic architecture of the Neoproterozoic to Late Palaeozoic Amadeus Basin, Triassic Simpson Basin, Cambrian–Devonian Warburton Basin, Permian–Triassic Pedirka Basin and Cooper Basin. All vintages were processed to DMO stack, Pre-stack Time Migration and Post-Stack Time Migration. <b>Data is available on request from clientservices@ga.gov.au - Quote eCat# 146309</b>

The document summarises new seismic interpretation metadata for two key horizons from Base Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous strata across the western and central Eromanga Basin, and the underlying Top pre-Permian unconformity. New seismic interpretations were completed during a collaborative study between the National Groundwater Systems (NGS) and Australian Future Energy Resources (AFER) projects. The NGS and AFER projects are part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF)—an eight year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and precompetitive information acquisition program to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This will help support a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. The EFTF program is supporting Australia’s transition to a low emissions economy, industry and agriculture sectors, as well as economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. Further details are available at http://www.ga.gov.au/eftf. The seismic interpretations build on previous work undertaken as part of the ‘Assessing the Status of Groundwater in the Great Artesian Basin’ (GAB) Project, commissioned by the Australian Government through the National Water Infrastructure Fund – Expansion (Norton & Rollet, 2022; Vizy & Rollet, 2022; Rollet et al., 2022; Rollet et al., in press.), the NGS Project (Norton & Rollet, 2023; Rollet et al., 2023; Vizy & Rollet, 2023) and the AFER Project (Bradshaw et al., 2022 and in press, Bernecker et al., 2022, Iwanec et al., 2023; Iwanec et al., in press). The recent iteration of revisions to the GAB geological and hydrogeological surfaces (Vizy & Rollet, 2022) provides a framework to interpret various data sets consistently (e.g., boreholes, airborne electromagnetic, seismic data) and in a 3D domain, to improve our understanding of the aquifer geometry, and the lateral variation and connectivity in hydrostratigraphic units across the GAB (Rollet et al., 2022). Vizy and Rollet (2022) highlighted some areas with low confidence in the interpretation of the GAB where further data acquisition or interpretation may reduce uncertainty in the mapping. One of these areas was in the western and central Eromanga Basin. New seismic interpretations are being used in the western Eromanga, Pedirka and Simpson basins to produce time structure and isochore maps in support of play-based energy resource assessment under the AFER Project, as well as to update the geometry of key aquifers and aquitards and the GAB 3D model for future groundwater management under the NGS Project. These new seismic interpretations fill in some data and knowledge gaps necessary to update the geometry and depth of key geological and hydrogeological surfaces defined in a chronostratigraphic framework (Hannaford et al., 2022; Bradshaw et al., 2022 and in press; Hannaford & Rollet, 2023). The seismic interpretations are based on a compilation of newly reprocessed seismic data (Geoscience Australia, 2022), as part of the EFTF program, and legacy seismic surveys from various vintages brought together in a common project with matching parameters (tying, balancing, datum correcting, etc.). This dataset has contributed to a consolidated national data coverage to further delineate groundwater and energy systems, in common data standards and to be used further in integrated workflows of mineral, energy and groundwater assessment. The datasets associated with the product provides value added seismic interpretation in the form of seismic horizon point data for two horizons that will be used to improve correlation to existing studies in the region. The product also provides users with an efficient means to rapidly access a list of core data used from numerous sources in a consistent and cleaned format, all in a single package. The following datasets are provided with this product: 1) Seismic interpretation in a digital format (Appendix A), in two-way-time, on key horizons with publically accessible information, including seismic interpretation on newly reprocessed data: Top Cadna-owie; Base Jurassic; Top pre-Permian; 2) List of surveys compiled and standardised for a consistent interpretation across the study area (Appendix B). 3) Isochore points between Top Cadna-owie and Base Jurassic (CC10-LU00) surfaces (Appendix C). 4) Geographical layer for the seismic lines compiled across Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory (Appendix D). These new interpretations will be used to refine the GAB geological and hydrogeological surfaces in this region and to support play-based energy resource assessments in the western Eromanga, Pedirka and Simpson basins.

Following the publication of Geoscience Australia record 2014/09: Petroleum geology inventory of Australia's offshore frontier basins by Totterdell et. al, (2014), the onshore petroleum section embarked upon a similar project for onshore Australian basins. The purpose of this project is to provide a thorough basis for whole of basin information to advise the Australia Government and other stakeholders, such as the petroleum industry, regarding the exploration status and prospectivity of onshore Australian basins. Eight onshore Australian basins have been selected for this volume and these include: the McArthur, South Nicholson, Georgina, Amadeus, Warburton, Wiso, Galilee and Cooper basins. This record provides a comprehensive whole of basin inventory of the geology, petroleum systems, exploration status and data coverage for these eight onshore Australian basins. It draws on precompetitive work programs by Geoscience Australia as well as publicly available exploration results and geoscience literature. Furthermore, the record provides an assessment of issues and unanswered questions and recommends future work directions to meet these unknowns.