The Geological Survey of NSW developed a Seamless Geology of UTM Zone 56 during 2014 as part of a project to develop a seamless vector geology dataset of the best available geological mapping data covering the whole of NSW.The overarching aims of the Statewide 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. The project was divided into 3 major stages corresponding to the UTM zones which divide New South Wales. This dataset includes the seamless geology layers from the NSW portion of UTM Zone 56 (ie.east of 150 degrees longitude to the coast).

Marine protected areas are parts of the NSW marine estate managed to conserve marine biodiversity and support marine science, recreation and education. The NSW system of marine protected areas includes: marine parks – six multiple use marine parks cover around one third (approximately 345,000 hectares) of the NSW marine estate aquatic reserves – 12 aquatic reserves cover around 2,000 hectares of the NSW marine estate national parks and nature reserves – include around 20,000 hectares of estuarine and oceanic habitats.

Please view Matthews and Sheldon (2024) for full description and instructions: Contact Sam at samuel.matthews@regional.nsw.gov.au if you have any difficulty accessing the paper.

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.

AEM curtains are a set of cross-sections generated using geophysical inversion to convert AEM data to conductivity (m/S) versus depth below surface (m). These data represent the conductivity of soil and rocks to a depth of about 400 m. A pseudocolour-stretch has been applied to the data. Blue represents low conductivity values and red represents high values. The colours vary due to; (1) natural variations in the electrical properties of soils, rocks, minerals and groundwater, (2) man-made structures, radio-transmissions and lightning strike and (3) AEM system artefacts.

All airborne geophysics 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.

Elevation is a pseudocolour layer with a histogram-equalised colour stretch. Cooler colours indicate lower values and warmer colours represent increasingly higher elevation. Elevation is derived from 5 metre LiDAR coverage of NSW and has been resampled to a uniform 25 metre grid cell size.

Depth to the Mohorovičić discontinuity (Moho) interpreted and modelled by Geognostics with support from government and industry. The Moho surface is the boundary between the Earth's crust and the upper mantle. The depth to moho is a representation of the thickness of the Earth's Crust. This moho surface is derived from seismic, gravity and other geophysical datasets.

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.

Depth contours derived from the NSW Basement Elevation Model.