Geophysics survey 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. These surveys use uncommon techniques.

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. Map blocks and map units are used in New South Wales to define certain types of titles. Petroleum exploration titles (PELs) are applied for and granted as a series of map blocks (Map sheet, block number), and mineral exploration titles, which tend to be smaller in size, are defined as a list of map units.

Locations of geotechnical reports, plans and heritage documents compiled from NSW Public Works records. These reports are considered historic records.

In 2016, the Geological Survey of NSW (GSNSW) published a state-wide depth to basement 3D model (Robinson 2016, 2017). Since then, new geological and geophysical data have been released and used for the construction of basin-scale 3D geological models for the southern Thomson Orogen and the Sydney, Gunnedah and Bowen basins (Davidson 2019; Oliveira and Davidson 2019; Oliveira et al. 2019). The basement topography under these regions was modelled using constraints from drillholes, seismic, Seamless Geology, magnetics and gravity data. The results have now been incorporated into the updated Statewide 3D Basement Elevation Model reported herein.

The petrophysics database contains petrophysical (rock physical properties) data managed and acquired by the Geological Survey of NSW (GSNSW). Petrophysical properties recorded are: magnetic susceptibility (volume normalised); principal axes and degree of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility; natural remanent magnetisation (NRM) intensity and direction; remanent magnetisation component directions; Koenigsberger (Q) ratio; saturated density; dry density; grain density; porosity. Vector and tensor magnetic properties (remanence and AMS) are oriented to in-situ (geographic) and fold-corrected (stratigraphic) coordinates where sample and bedding orientation are known.

The NSW Seamless Geology Project was originally a five-year initiative of the Geological Survey of New South Wales which commenced in late 2013 and aimed to provide a statewide compilation of the best available digital geological mapping data in an internally consistent format. The overarching aims of the NSW Seamless Geology Project were to: (i) compile the different original scales, formats and rock unit naming conventions into a consistent, statewide format; (ii) edge-match the geology across existing map sheets; and (iii) interpret the basement geology under cover. The resulting geodatabase comprises a series of layers which include: (i) solid basement geology; (ii) cover rocks (defined as undeformed and unmetamorphosed); (iii) Mesozoic igneous rocks; and (iv) Cenozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks. Due to the size of the project, the work was divided into UTM zones, starting in the east with Zone 56, then moving west to Zone 54, and finishing with Zone 55. The western half of Zone 55 was completed in 2018, after which the results were merged with the previously completed Zones to produce version 1 of the NSW Seamless Geology dataset. Completion of this stage saw the end of phase 1 of the Seamless Geology Project, but it is intended that the Seamless Geology dataset will be continually updated and refined as new digital geological mapping data becomes available. Updates to the Seamless Geology dataset generally occur on an annual basis. Version 2.6 is the 8th major update to the NSW Seamless Geology and was released in 2026. This release includes major remapping of the northern Rockley–Gulgong Volcanic Belt; a significant upgrade to the mapping of Broughton Island; significant updates to the Lachlan Orogen and Cenozoic Sedimentary Province in the Canbelego 1:100,000 map sheet area; and attribute updates, data additions, and minor error fixes to all layers. Murray Basin During editing for version 2.1 of the Seamless Geology, the Cenozoic Murray Basin of southwest NSW was divided into its constituent units (formation or group level), with particular emphasis on the Loxton Sands, an economically significant unit containing numerous heavy mineral sand placer deposits and a number of mines producing rutile, zircon, and ilmenite. The Murray Basin linework was edited to reconcile the data with mapping in the existing NSW Seamless Geology dataset. See the lineage section for further details.

This layer shows a depth slice from a 3D resistivity model of the crust derived from an inversion of the AusLAMP NSW long period MT data.

Pseudocolour image of the percentage of potassium (K%) in the upper 20 centimetres of the ground. Cooler colours indicate lower abundances of potassium and warmer colours represent higher abundances. Variations in potassium values are caused by varied mineral compositions in host rocks and soils. This statewide image was generated by merging many individual airborne radiometric surveys.

Depth contours derived from the NSW Basement Elevation Model.

Pseudocolour image of the ratio between uranium and potassium within the upper 20 centimetres of the ground. This image was generated using normalised input grids to avoid ‘divide by zero’ errors. Cooler colours indicate lower abundances of uranium relative to potassium and warmer colours represent the opposite. Variations in U/K ratio are caused varied mineral compositions in host rocks and soils. This statewide image was generated by merging many individual airborne radiometric surveys.