Onshore Energy Security Program: Geothermal Energy Project Data for Australia

Geoscience Australia's Onshore Energy Security Program acquired pre-competitive geoscience data to support exploration for onshore energy resources. The program, funded with $58.9 million over five years from 2006, includes national and regional-scale projects focusing on geothermal, petroleum, uranium, and thorium commodities. Data acquisition involved seismic, gravity, geochemistry, heat flow, radiometric, magneto-telluric, and airborne electromagnetic methods.

Use Cases

• Modeling crustal temperature distribution based on heat flow and temperature-at-depth datasets.
• Assessing regional energy potential based on acquired seismic, gravity, and electromagnetic data.
• Reducing exploration risk by analyzing the stress state of the Australian crust.
• Prioritizing exploration areas using predictive heat maps based on geological models.

Strengths

• Program funded with a specific $58.9 million budget over five years.
• Data acquisition includes multiple geophysical and geochemical methods: seismic, gravity, geochemistry, heat flow, radiometric, magneto-telluric, and airborne EM.
• Project developed through consultation with State/Territory surveys and geothermal companies to address identified impediments.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the focused regional projects in areas like Georgetown-Isa and Gawler-Curnamona.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia (formerly Bureau of Mineral Resources), via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Acquired through the Onshore Energy Security Program, involving collaboration with States and Territory under the National Geoscience Agreement.

Time Range

Program announced in August 2006, with work spanning a five-year period.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 20:24:26.087220; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia, with national-scale projects and detailed regional assessments in Georgetown-Isa, Gawler-Curnamona, Northern WA, and the Northern Territory.