The coal seam gas drillholes dataset stores information about CSG sites within NSW. The dataset has been developed to record summary data on CSG exploration and development drilling for holes drilled in New South Wales. The dataset contains summary information about each drillhole such as location, total depth, azimuth/dip, wireline logs, core availability and library location and DIGS references. This data is part of the New South Wales Geoscientific Data Warehouse (NSW GDW) series.

Gravity gradiometry data has been reported to the NSW government and released under the requirements of the NSW Mining Act 1992. Contained within this vector file is the location of surveys and acquisition parameters.

Drillhole sample geochemistry that has been reported by title holders to the department as part of the mineral exploration reporting requirements. The data is provided annually in the form of exploration data files and stored with the relevant tenement report in DIGS. Data mining of digital exploration data files stored in DIGS is largely complete for the period 2001 to present. Data mining continues for DIGS reports earlier than 2001 using OCR (optical character recognition) software to convert raster data into digital files for loading. Validation of data is an ongoing process. Data available to the public and industry is restricted to DIGS open file reports.

Many airborne surveys have been acquired by the NSW government through the NSW Exploration, Discovery 2000 and New Frontiers Initiative funding. Others have been acquired jointly with Geoscience Australia (formerly AGSO). Contained within this vector file are details on each of the surveys and some acquisition parameters, which will help locate survey data stored digitally.

Map blocks and map units are based on a system originally devised by the British Ordinance Survey. Each 1:1 million scale map sheet is subdivided into 3456 graticular map blocks, each measuring 5’ of latitude by 5’ of longitude. These map blocks are further subdivided into 25 1’ by 1’ map units. A map unit is approximately 3 square kilometres in size.

This data set is modified from the Australian Geological Provinces Database (Geoscience Australia) and contains descriptions and spatial extents of the fundamental geological elements of NSW. Province types include sedimentary basins, tectonic provinces such as cratons and orogens, igneous provinces, and metallogenic or mineral provinces. At its simplest, a province may describe a sedimentary basin and its fill (e.g. the Sydney Basin). However, provinces may also be defined by a complex history of tectonics, metamorphism, magmatism, or metallogenesis. Provinces outlines, including their subsurface extent, are compiled at around 1:1 million scale. Descriptions of the provinces include age and geological history, parent-child hierarchy, constituent stratigraphic units and relations to surrounding provinces.

The petroleum drillholes dataset stores information about conventional petroleum wells within NSW. The dataset has been developed to record summary data on petroleum exploration and development drilling for holes drilled in New South Wales. The dataset contains summary information about each drillhole such as location, total depth, azimuth/dip, wireline logs, core availability and library location and DIGS references. This data is part of the New South Wales Geoscientific Data Warehouse (NSW GDW) series.

Isostatic residual Bouguer gravity image overlain on tilt-filtered total magnetic intensity reduced to the pole (Tilt TMI RTP) image. The image is a partially-transparent pseudocolour layer of Isostatic residual Bouguer gravity, with a histogram-equalised colour-stretch, overlain on a greyscale intensity layer of the Tilt TMI RTP, with a histogram-equalised stretch. Bouguer gravity compensates for variations in latitude, 'free-air' elevation and Bouguer correction (assuming a crustal density of 2.67 T/m³). The isostatic correction removes the effect of variations in the thickness of the Earth’s crust due to changes in topography. The tilt-angle filter of total magnetic intensity produces a local positive maximum over a magnetic source and is zero near the edge of the source, and is useful for tracing geological structure below variable depths of cover.

The Geochemistry (Whole Rock) data set contains information about the chemistry of rocks sampled in New South Wales and held by the Geological Survey of NSW (GSNSW). The data has been captured from analyses conducted by the GSNSW and from other work including academic research & collaborative projects, mineral exploration reports and geoscientific publications. The database contains geochemical analyses on nearly 27,000 rock samples which have been collected from field work and drilling activities which date back to the nineteenth century. There are also a small number of assay & hydro-geochemical results. It is an important dataset as the whole rock analysis of rocks for major and trace elements allows classification of the lithology of a rock and provides insight into the conditions in which the rocks formed as well as their economic potential.

The New South Wales 1:1 500 000 scale geology has been compiled from numerous geological maps and regional geological synthesis datasets from the Geological Survey of New South Wales and Geoscience Australia. As part of a project to produce a surface geology map of Australia, Geoscience Australia (Liu et al. 2005) undertook substantial simplification and generalisation of these datasets to produce a seamless geology dataset of New South Wales at 1:1 000 000. This 1:1 000 000 geology dataset has been further simplified, generalised and updated by the Geological Survey of New South Wales to produce the present data set at 1:1 500 000