Onshore Energy Security Program: Geothermal Energy Project Scope and Progress

A 2006 initiative funded with $58.9 million over five years for Geoscience Australia to acquire pre-competitive geoscience data. The program, delivered in collaboration with States and Territories, aims to attract investment in onshore energy exploration, including geothermal, petroleum, uranium, and thorium. The description outlines the program's structure and the specific Geothermal Energy Project's focus on mapping crustal temperature distribution.

Use Cases

• Assessing geothermal resource potential based on described heat flow and temperature mapping efforts.
• Planning regional energy exploration based on the program's focus on greenfields areas like Georgetown-Isa and Gawler-Curnamona.
• Analyzing crustal stress state to reduce exploration risk, as mentioned in the project's geoscience inputs.
• Studying the integration of multiple geophysical datasets (seismic, gravity, EM) for national-scale energy commodity assessment.

Strengths

• Describes a nationally coordinated program with a $58.9 million budget over five years.
• Outlines a structured approach with national and regional-scale projects for multiple energy commodities.
• Identifies specific geological impediments, such as the lack of temperature distribution data, that the project aims to address.

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 and specific data formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Acquisition of new seismic, gravity, geochemistry, heat flow, radiometric, magneto-telluric and airborne electromagnetic data under a federal program.

Time Range

Program announced in August 2006, with work spanning five years from that point.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-04 23:27:52.122962; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia, with specific regional projects in Georgetown-Isa, Gawler-Curnamona, Northern WA, and the Northern Territory.