RE PORT 
SECTION I. 
1. Introductory Consideration of Oil Possibilities in the State of New 
South Wales. 
The State of New South Wales covers ail area of 310.372 square miles. Geologically it 
may be divided into three almost equal parts. Upper Cretaceous Beds (desert sandstones) cover 
the north-western section of the State, overlying the Trias-. Jura Beds, which help to form the 
great artesian basin which takes in adjacent parts of Queensland. South Australia, and Northern 
Territory. 'Post- tertiary and tertiary sediments occupy the south-western section, sending a 
narrowing tongue to the north-east, along the outer rim of the great artesian basin, to the borders 
of Queensland. The third section is a broad belt some 200 miles in width, which runs parallel 
with the coast for the whole of its length. Avoiding technical terms as far as possible, this belt 
may be described as being fundamentally an area of fractured masses o! granite associated with 
crushed and contorted sedimentary rocks of Older Pakeozoic age, which are in consequence highly 
indurated and metamorphosed* This belt also sends out a tongue to the north-east dividing 
the tertiary and post-tertiary tongue from its main area in the south west. Two large basin-like 
depressions occur in this coastal* region. The larger, which occupies an immense tract of country 
around Sydney, is filled with a series of sedimentary deposits of great thickness, and of Triassic, 
Permian or Permo-carboniferous, and Carboniferous ages. r l he carboniferous rocks do not appear 
to completely cover the floor of the basin, but enormous thicknesses of them exist in its northern 
portion. These sediments have not, for the most part, been greatly disturbed, but they are 
depressed towards the centre of the basin near Sydney, and rise towards its rim showing that the 
basin-like form of this old depression has been largely formed or at least accentuated since these 
deposits were laid down. 
The smaller basin occupies an area which is drained by the Clarence River near the 
Queensland border. It is filled with fresh- water deposits which were laid down in what is believed 
to have been the Trias- Jura period. 
A certain amount of prospecting for oil. together with some boring, has been done in the 
State, but no positive evidence of its existence which is beyond suspicion has vet been brought 
to light. Mr. J. E. Came, the late Government Geologist for New South Wales, in referring to 
the first section, occupied by the great thicknesses of mesozoic rocks which form part of the 
great artesian basin, discounts the probability of finding oil in these beds, though the sedimentary 
types known to occur are not unsuitable to the formation of oil. He lays stress on the absence 
of certain physical conditions which have been proved govern the occurrence of oil and natural 
gas in America and elsewhere.* He refers to the undisturbed condition of the beds and the absence 
of folding. Large volumes of natural gas and some actual evidences of oil have been found during 
boring operations on the margins of this basin in the Queensland area.f No close geological 
survey has been made of this part of New South Wales, though a number of deep artesian bores 
has been sunk in it, and so far as the drilling records go no signs that would lead ns to suspect 
the presence of oil in these rocks have been noted in New South Wales. An examination of the 
area in detail would take considerable time, for the area is not well served by roads or railways, 
still I think that the area is deserving of some attention if only on account of its possibilities with 
regard to natural gas. The area is far from the more settled portions of the State, so that it would 
probably not pay to pipe gas away -from it nor would it pay to pipe oil if only small supplies were 
obtained. However, such finds might lead to greater local settlement and the foundation of 
industries at inland centres, and from these points of view it is worthy of consideration. 
Mr. Game’s objections also apply to the second section, that covered by post-tertiary 
and tertiary sediments in the south-western section of the State. So far as they have been examined 
these beds are practically horizontal and attain no very great thickness. In the neighbourhood 
of the Murray Biver fossiliferous tertiary deposits of marine types are known in New South Wales 
as in South Australia and Victoria, but up to the present nothing has been found in them that 
would suggest that they were structurally or otherwise favorable. 
* Geol. Mem. No. 3, Kerosene Shale Deposits, Gtol. Surv., Ts.S.W, lfaOu, pp. 105, 100. 
t A. ‘Wade. ” The Possibility of Oil Discovery in Queensland,” Commonwealth of Australia.— No, F.41QR p. J3, rt 
