Don Bennett

The Australian Government has recently provided Aus$100.5M to Geoscience Australia over 4 years (2016-2020) to manage the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) programme designed to increase investment in minerals, energy and groundwater resources, primarily in Northern Australia. The programme includes Aus$30.8M for groundwater-specific investigations, recognizing that there are major gaps in our knowledge of Northern Australia’s groundwater systems and resources. The groundwater component of the EFTF programme is focused on addressing these knowledge gaps, with the aim of underpinning future opportunities for irrigated agriculture, mineral and energy development, and community water supply. The groundwater programme will include identification and assessment of potential groundwater resources and water banking options in priority regional areas, while also analyzing the salinity risk (including seawater intrusion). To rapidly map, characterise and assess regional groundwater systems and resources in the data-poor ‘frontier’ areas of Northern Australia, a multi-physics, inter-disciplinary approach has been developed. The programme involves the initial use of temporal remote sensing ‘data cube’ technologies for surface hydrology and landscape mapping, and acquisition of airborne electromagnetic (AEM) and Ground Magnetic Resonance (GMR) datasets. This provides a framework for targeted investigations including passive seismic, microgravity and GPR; borehole geophysics (Induction, gamma and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)); drilling and pump testing; hydrochemistry and geochronology (water, landscapes and geology); as well as soils, regolith and basin/bedrock geological, hydrogeological and structural mapping and modelling. This methodology has enabled rapid identification and assessment of potential groundwater resources, salinity and seawater intrusion hazards, and groundwater dependent ecosystems in several priority regions.

The Ord Bonaparte Plains area is a priority area for irrigated agriculture development as part of the Ord Stage 3 development in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Irrigated agriculture in this area will depend on access to groundwater resources in underlying bedrock aquifers. A program of airborne electromagnetics (AEM), drilling, ground and borehole geophysics and hydrogeological investigations is being undertaken to confirm the presence of suitable groundwater resources, map the connectivity between surface and groundwater systems, and identify potential risks to agriculture and water infrastructure including salt stores, groundwater salinity and seawater intrusion. Preliminary analysis shows that the AEM survey has successfully mapped key elements of the groundwater system, including aquifer and aquitard extent, groundwater quality (salinity) distribution, hydraulic properties, compartmentalisation and inter-connectivity, the seawater intrusion (SWI) interface in coastal zones, and key tectonic elements of regional hydrogeological significance. The survey has mapped significant faulting within the Cockatoo Sandstone and Point Springs Sandstone aquifers, while conductivity distributions suggest that faults within and bounding major stratigraphic units display both fault barrier and conduit behaviour. The survey has also found that fresh groundwater in the aquifer system continues offshore as discontinuous lenses. Initial inversions have been used to target drilling, hydrochemical investigations, and a program of ground geophysics (including Surface Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SNMR)). Further analysis and groundwater modelling is required to determine appropriate development and management of any groundwater resource and the potential risks to agricultural development.