Arafura Basin Hydrogeological Inventory for Northern Australia

Over 90% of the Arafura Basin occurs offshore in the shallow Arafura Sea. This dataset provides descriptive attribute information for spatial groundwater features, grouped into themes like Hydrogeology, Groundwater Management, and Land Use. The sedimentary record spans more than 250 million years, from the late Neoproterozoic to the early Permian.

Use Cases

• Map groundwater management zones based on administrative and hydrogeological boundaries described.
• Study the relationship between surface water features and aquifer systems based on the grouped descriptive themes.
• Model groundwater flow in fractured sandstone aquifers based on the described Marchinbar Sandstone and Elcho Island Formation units.
• Assess land use impacts on groundwater resources based on the inventory's land use and industry data.

Strengths

• Descriptive information is organized into 11 distinct thematic groups, including Hydrogeology and Groundwater Management.
• The dataset covers a sedimentary basin with a rock record spanning more than 250 million years.
• It references specific geological units like the Wessel Group and Marchinbar Sandstone, which are likely groundwater sources.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Compilation of descriptive attribute information for spatial groundwater features.

Time Range

Sedimentary record from late Neoproterozoic to early Permian; inventory references studies from the 1980s and 1990s.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 05:12:47.965391; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Arafura Basin, northern Australia, including onshore Arnhem Land and offshore Arafura Sea.