Southwest Bairnsdale No. 1 Well: Geological and Drilling Summary, Gippsland Basin

A detailed report on the Southwest Bairnsdale No. 1 exploratory well drilled in the Gippsland Basin, Victoria. The well was drilled to a total depth of 3926 feet between January 8 and February 14, 1963, by Woodside (Lakes Entrance) Oil Company N.L. and Arco Limited. It achieved its objectives of gathering stratigraphic data and testing hydrocarbon potential, but was plugged and abandoned as a dry hole with no shows of hydrocarbons found.

Use Cases

• Analyzing stratigraphic sequences based on the described Tertiary, Lower Carboniferous-Upper Devonian, and granite layers.
• Studying the outcomes of subsidized exploration under the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act 1959-1961.
• Modeling hydrocarbon potential in pre-Tertiary sediments based on the reported porosity, permeability, and formation test results.
• Correlating regional geology using the detailed depth intervals for different sediment layers.

Strengths

• Provides precise drilling dates (Jan 8 - Feb 14, 1963) and a specific total depth (3926 feet).
• Contains a clear geological summary with depth intervals for Tertiary (0-1408 ft), Lower Carboniferous-Upper Devonian (1408-3806 ft), and granite layers.
• Documents a specific formation test result over the interval 2522 to 2559 feet.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data freshness is uncertain; the last updated metadata is 2026-04-30, but the underlying data is from 1963.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Drilling operation with a full programme of coring and logging.

Time Range

1963-01-08 to 1963-02-14

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 15:16:20.770506; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Gippsland Basin, Victoria, Australia, approximately 15 miles west-south-west of Bairnsdale.