National Geological Maps

• Project description
• Project outcome
• Project outputs
• Related links

Project description

The National Geological Maps project compiles national scale information on Australian geology. The datasets are held within Geoscience Australia but draw heavily on data acquired from the State and Northern Territory geological surveys. Data coverage extends throughout the Australian jurisdiction including onshore, marine zones and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

The project consists of three components:

• The Australian Stratigraphic Units Database, which contains the names, descriptive attributes and source references of all units used in the country, including historical usage;
• The Surface Geology of Australia, which compiles the digital surface geology of Australia, largely from 1:250 000 scale sources, for use at 1:1 million scale. All units represented in the dataset, including unnamed and informal units, are linked to the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database; and
• The Australian provinces database provides boundaries and descriptions of rock packages related in space and time through a common geological history. At its simplest, a province may describe a basin and its fill (eg, the Eromanga Basin). However, provinces may also be defined by magmatic genesis or by more complex overprinting processes such as metamorphism, deformation and metallogenesis. Tectonic provinces may include rocks which formed over a wide timeframe but have been combined subsequently into a unified craton or block. Provinces have been compiled at a nominal 1:1 million scale for most of the marine jurisdictional area, but, at this stage, only parts of the onshore continent.
  
  ProvExplorer is a web-based mapping tool which enables interactive searches of provinces using text-based and spatial queries with results retrieved as reports, maps and links to other data tables. The province data can be integrated with other national datasets (e.g. geophysics, mineral deposits and petroleum wells) via the online map viewer.

These data can be accessed at the National Datasets Online GIS or downloaded from Geoscience Australia's free download page.

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Project outcome

An improved understanding of Australian geology to enhance promotion of the country's mineral and petroleum exploration investment potential as well as a variety of land use and resource evaluation issues.

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Project outputs

1:1 million surface geology of Australia

Digital surface geology data at 1:1 million scale is now available for the Northern Territory and all States except Western Australia. The datasets provide an invaluable tool for large-scale regional and national evaluation of resource potential, environmental issues and land use.

State datasets

• South Australia – First Edition (June 2008)
• New South Wales – Second Edition (December 2007)
• Queensland – Second Edition (December 2007)
• Tasmania – Third Edition (December 2007)
• Victoria – Third Edition (December 2007)
• Northern Territory – First Edition (February 2007)
• Western Australia – First Edition – to be released

Seamless dataset of eastern Australia - released March 2006

• Merged single seamless dataset of eastern Australia.
  Because of its large size, this dataset is available only on CD from our Sales Centre.

The digital datasets for South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales were compiled largely from current 1:250 000 geological data. The Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania datasets were compiled largely from regional 1:500 000 and 1:1 million scale map data, but have been extensively updated using recent 1:250 000 and 1:100 000 source data. The compilations involved extensive edge-matching of individual map areas and application of a consistent stratigraphic and regolith classification scheme across the country.

The digital data have a spatial accuracy of between 200 metres and one kilometre depending on the quality of the original source data. The datasets come with comprehensive metadata attached.

The individual State datasets can be obtained as a free download, or ordered on CD in ESRI coverage and shapefile formats from our Sales Centre.

* Users should note that Ordovician and younger units in the current South Australian data set have not been reviewed by Primary Industries and Resources SA staff and should be considered preliminary.

We acknowledge extensive collaboration with State and Territory Geological Survey staff including the provision of source data, advice and review of compiled data.

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Related links

• Australian Stratigraphic Units Database
• ProvExplorer
• National datasets online GIS
• Scanned 1:250 000 geological maps of Australia