July 2007

• Seeking your opinions
• Resources Minister opens Data Room
• Geologi short film competition
• UN duties continue for geoscientist
• Minerals Map has new dimensions

---

Seeking your opinions

We are currently re-developing our website and would greatly appreciate receiving your feedback through a survey. The survey will take about five minutes and the results will help us to improve our online services.

Please click on the link below to take part in the survey, which is open until 14 August 2007.

Start our survey

[back to top]

---

Resources Minister opens Data Room

Minister for Industry, Tourism & Resources, The Hon Ian Macfarlane MP, officially opened the Geoscience Australia Offshore Acreage Release Data Room in Canberra on 17 July 2007.

The new Data Room, created through the Government's $75m Offshore Energy Security Initiative, enables Australian and international petroleum exploration companies to scrutinise geological and geophysical datasets supporting the Australian Government's annual acreage release.

With Australian use of petroleum increasing and further domestic sources required, the Offshore Energy Security Initiative will provide exploration companies with new pre-competitive information and accelerated access to acreage release data.

"The global oil exploration community is showing significantly increased interest in Australia following initiatives by Geoscience Australia to accelerate access to offshore petroleum exploration datasets", Minister Macfarlane said while opening the new Data Room.

"The long term aim of the Offshore Energy Security Initiative is to secure Australia's domestic oil supply for the future, which is essential to ensure Australia's current economic boom continues", Mr Macfarlane said.

"Unless new discoveries are made, current projections for Australia anticipate a self-sufficiency rate of about 33 per cent by 2015, leaving us two-thirds dependant on foreign supply", Mr Macfarlane said.

"The Offshore Acreage Release Data Room has already attracted numerous bookings and inquiries along with high praise from exploration companies", Mr Macfarlane said.

Link to Minister's media release.

[back to top]

---

Geologi short film competition

Secondary students from around Australia are invited to take part in the Geologi short film competition as part of international Earth Science Week 2007.

Geoscience Australia hosts Australia's Earth Science Week celebrations every year and encourages members of the Australian community to get involved with the earth sciences.

This year, Geoscience Australia has partnered with the National Geographic Channel to provide an opportunity for future earth scientists and film makers to come together and capture the science of planet Earth on film.

The competition calls for short documentary style entries with an earth science theme. Entrants will need to register by 31 July, and submit entries by 31 August 2007. All entries will be judged on the accuracy of information, creativity, originality and innovation.

Members of the judging panel will be from Geoscience Australia and the National Geographic Channel. The winning documentaries will be aired during Earth Science Week 2007 which runs from 14 to 20 October.

Download a Geologi short film information pack, or contact Earth Science Week for more details.

[back to top]

---

UN duties continue for geoscientist

The senior advisor on Science and Law of the Sea with Geoscience Australia, Phil Symonds, who has been a member of the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf since April 2002, has been elected to serve another five years.

His re-election came during voting in New York by 153 countries which are party to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The 21 member Commission is a scientific and technical organisation which facilitates the establishment of the outer limit of the extended continental shelf by considering data and other materials submitted by countries before making recommendations on the proposed outer limit.

The extended continental shelf is determined by a UNCLOS formulae requiring information on water depth, the shape of the sea-floor and the thickness of sediment which is obtained from geological and geophysical surveys over the continental margin.

Mr Symonds, who has extensive experience in the collection and analysis of continental margin data, has been closely involved in technical aspects of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea since the late 1970s, and has worked in Geoscience Australia's Law of the Sea project since its inception in 1994.

His Commission work has required frequent travel, including several trips annually to the United Nations offices in New York where he has been involved in examining submissions from numerous countries.

He also is involved in providing ongoing assistance to small-island and developing countries to help them meet their May 2009 deadline for lodging submissions with the Commission.

Mr Symonds led the scientific team which prepared Australia's November 2004 submission to the Commission seeking extension of the country's jurisdiction beyond the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone to outer limit of the extended continental shelf.

The Commission's recommendations on the submission, which are expected later this year, could result in Australia gaining almost three million square kilometres of seabed and subsoil over which it will have environmental and resource management responsibilities.

[back to top]

---

Minerals Map has new dimensions

Geoscience Australia has expanded the scope of its familiar 1:5 million scale map, Mines and Mineral Deposits - Selected Commodities and Operating Status which is updated annually.

As was the case with the geo-regions map issued in June 2005, the new edition highlights the deposit name, location and type of mineral extracted from specific mines around Australia. It also contains the locations of historic mines and other, so far untapped deposits.

However, the latest edition includes two additional maps with entirely new formats. They are maps with deposit information overlain on magnetic and gravity images of Australia, two geophysical characteristics which are important tools for mineral exploration in Australia.

There are six maps free to download under the Mineral Deposits heading on this page.

[back to top]

---