AGY-80 | Geological Survey of New South Wales

Full description

The Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) is believed to have commenced on 16 July 1874 with the appointment of C.S. Wilkinson as Geological Surveyor initially within the Department of Lands. (1) The Branch subsequently grew to include additional surveyors, field assistants, clerks and draftsmen, and campmen. (2)

On 12 June 1877 Mr John McElhone (Member for the Upper Hunter) requested in the Legislative Assembly that a detailed statement of the work of the Geological Surveyor and several other officers of the Department of Mines together with a statement of the salaries and expenses paid to them from the government, individuals or companies be tabled. The member also requested that a detailed statement of surveys, inspections, plans, sections and similar material made by the Geologist, and the cost of these from the time of Mr Wilkinson's appointment be also tabled in the House. (3)

The role of the surveyor was to survey Crown Lands and to make a report which recommended any areas which should be set aside for mining purposes. The surveyor reported annually on the work of his branch and appended detailed reports on particular areas surveyed during the year other major undertakings of the survey team, surveys of existing and newly developed mines, and research reports. (4)

Surveyors also reported at the request of various government agencies on the suitability of sites for dams, tunnels, underground water resources and similar purposes. The geologists frequently visited mines in other states to examine the lodes and/or the processing of the minerals. On occasion they also hosted international geologists who were escorted to some the major geological sites in New South Wales. The Surveyors were also responsible for the Mining and Geological Museum which consisted of samples collected by the surveyors in the field and donations from the public. In 1881 and 1882 the surveyor was responsible for the exhibition of the mineral resources of New South Wales which was prepared for the Melbourne International Exhibition. (5) The exhibits were being assembled at the Garden Palace in Sydney when it was destroyed by fire with the loss of 60,000 smaller exhibits arranged in cabinets, larger samples of minerals distributed around the room and many maps hung on the walls. Some thousands of the exhibits were retrieved from the rubble of the building and the collection was augmented with donations from within Australia and overseas. (6)

By 1884 assaying and analysis of samples of minerals was undertaken within the Mining and Geological Museum. The results of these analyses were published to promote interest in mining. That year payable deposits of silver were found in several places in New South Wales. A scientific library was developed to supplement the Museum. The Jenolan Caves (formerly called Fish River Caves) and other limestone caves were the responsibility of the survey from at least 1885 this enabled ongoing observation of the caves, further discoveries and stimulated public interest by tourism. (7) During the period 1885-1897 the surveyors also dealt with applications for aid from the prospecting vote by visiting the proposed mines and making observations regarding their viability. In 1898 this responsibility was transferred to the Inspectors of Mines. (8)

The surveyors were also called to report upon particular mines already in operation and to give opinions regarding whether the land adjacent to mines was suitable for conditional sale or other uses without adverse impact upon mining the deposits. By 1897 significant work had been undertaken on compiling an index of minerals in NSW by Mr O. Trickett. The index was updated as new discoveries were made. (9) During 1897 a series of pamphlets each on a particular mineral was commenced. The purpose of the series was to bring public attention to the mineral resources of the Colony. The publications proved popular and Publication No. 3 'Notes on Gold-Dredging' was reprinted in several journals and was believed to be the impetus for the program of dredging rivers which commenced shortly after the publication (10)

As the various areas were surveyed maps were prepared and many of them were published. Official reports of the survey were also published and in addition 'The Mineral Resources of New South Wales' was prepared by E.F. Pittman (the Government Geologist) in 1900. (11) By 1917 it had become government policy for the Survey to investigate every evidence of oil in the state and the survey geologists were frequently called to make observations and to test for deposits. (12) A new publications series - Bulletins - each devoted to a particular mineral commenced in 1922. (13) During 1923 much of the time of the Survey staff was occupied with co-ordinating and preparing the Australian mineral exhibit for the British Empire Exhibition in 1924. (14) The Government Geologist reported as follows in 1923 " All the geologists who attended the Pan-Pacific Science Congress paid visits to the Survey, and most of them also examined the collections in the Mining Museum. They were all impressed with the great mineral wealth of the State, especially in regard to coal, water, limestone, marble, building and ornamental stones, cement, clays, lead, zinc, and silver. The mineral and fossil collections in the Mining Museum also impressed the visitors most favourably." (15)

On 8 December 1924 a lecture was delivered by the Government Geologist at the Mining Museum in Sydney. This was to be the first in a series of lectures by Survey staff in this venue. Simultaneously a program of delivering lectures on mining subjects in centres throughout New South Wales also began. (16) The lectures supplemented the various publication series in the program aimed at providing public information about the mineral wealth of New South Wales. The lectures continued for some years. (16) In 1924 the Minister requested that the Department develop an emphasis on fuel and power research, becoming conversant with world-wide endeavours in order to achieve the efficient utilisation of the coal reserves of the State and to identify oil sources. The purposes for this research were to promote secondary industries; make available cheaper power, light and heat; and create employment opportunities. In 1929 GSNSW prepared a number of reports on this subject. (17)

A Fuel Technologist was appointed by 1933 and a Fuel Research Committee was established removing the major part of this responsibility from GSNSW. (18) The economic depression of the 1930's impacted on the work of the survey as the staff were diverted to assess applications for government relief whilst engaging in mining (particularly gold mining). The staff were also called upon to assess the suitability of areas for mining and to provide advice for applicants. The GSNSW lapsed for seven years owing to World War II, but resumed in 1946. The survey had however provided vital information to assist in Australia's war effort. (19)

Dr C.T. McElroy was appointed Director of the GSNSW in 1967. A restructure of the branch commenced with the appointment of a Deputy Director, Assistant Director (Field and Investigation Division) and Assistant Director (Common Services and Administration). (20) The re-structure was fully in place by the end of 1967:
The Field and Investigation Division comprised the Coal; Engineering Geology and Hydrology; Geophysics; Regional Mapping and Petroleum; Minerals Investigation and Special Investigation Sections. Most were divided into subsections. The Special Investigations section comprised the Geochemistry and Marine Geology Sub-sections; The Common Services and Administration Division comprised the following sections -Information and Publications; Information Services; Library Service; Abstracting and Indexing; Geological and Mining Museum; Cartographic; and Clerical Sections and the Core Library. (21)

Electronic bibliographic information retrieval was introduced to the survey in 1971 a thesaurus of geological indexing terms was developed and several reports were re-indexed using the new system. (22) While the survey had commenced in 1874 a small proportion of its objectives could be achieved because of the difficulty of procuring qualified geoscientists. The increase in availability of geoscientists by 1971 enabled the Survey to be almost fully staffed by 1972. Achievement of some of the annual objectives of the survey became more realistic and these plans could with some confidence be forwarded to relevant government and semi-government agencies and universities. The increase in establishment coincided with technological advances in information management making the results of the survey more generally available. (23)

In 1973 a series of major projects for the survey commenced, each expected to be completed in three to four years. By 1975 there were 17 major projects focussing on the particular areas of the State or individual minerals and other major developments for the agency such as automation. The first major project was the assessment of the geology of the Great Australian Basin in New South Wales. Soon after the commencement of the Survey much of its interest lay in the Broken Hill district, and a Regional Office of the Survey staffed by four geologists and a technical assistant was opened there in September 1974. The first major project of the Broken Hill office was the study of the Willyama complex (24) By 1976 there was a regional office in Armidale staffed by two geologists and a technical assistant. (25)

A major project was the mapping of Halls Creek. The Armidale Office closed on 13 January 1978. (26)

GSNSW was restructured again in 1984. One of the features of the structure was to move from sections dealing with a particular field of geology to regionally based sections. Five such sections were created - New England; Central and Coastal; Lachlan; North Western; and Far Western. However, some centres of expertise were retained to undertake special projects and other work which was not regionally based. These teams included industrial minerals; regional mapping; geophysics; and petroleum geology. Geophysicists could be transferred to the regions as required for relevant projects. The Mineral Economics, Environmental Geology; Specialist services and applied research, cartography and administration sections continued unaltered. (27)

By 1992 the GSNSW consisted of three senior and two principal research geologists. The work of GSNSW developed concepts and models in geology and geophysics that could be further developed by industry, universities or other research institutions, or used in the search for minerals in NSW. GSNSW also participated in co-operative research projects that contributed to the activities of the Department of Mineral Resources; and with universities and joint ventures with industry. Some projects of the survey were assisted by research grants which enabled hiring skilled staff to carry out the work, others received some financial assistance from the Australian Government or industry. (28)

In the same year a Geological Survey Advisory Committee was established. The Committee consisted of seven members - the Director of the GSNSW and six industry representatives. The role of the Committee was to advise the Minister concerning priorities and objectives for GSNSW, of industry needs for Geological Survey products and services; to facilitate communication between the Survey and mining industry and to promote the products of the Survey (29)

In 1993 the Australian and state governments established a National Geoscience Mapping Accord in which the parties (usually the Australian and one or more state governments) agreed on high priority mapping projects and worked co-operatively to carry out the projects. (30) The Department of Mineral Resources also sought to increase the area of the State covered by geological and geophysical maps at 1:100,000 scale. (31)

In April 1996 the Department signed a contract for an imaging system (to be known as DIGS) to which the Department's 18,000 technical and exploration reports (known as the GS Reports) would be stored digitally. The reports were those created by the GSNSW many of which were in excess of a century old together with reports of mineral exploration prepared by mining companies and the Department's 'most significant' geological publications. (32) The DIGS database was available for searching at offices of the Department of Mineral resources via its intranet in 1999 (33) and became publicly available on the internet in 2000. (34)

In October 1995 AEROFIND, an interactive digital database of airborne geophysical surveys on NSW, was released. The product stimulated renewed interest in using the data. (35) In 1996 a flatter administrative structure was introduced into the Department of Mineral Resources. The Director of the GSNSW became an Assistant Director of the Department, reporting to the Director- General. (36) Immediately prior to this the Survey had reported to the Director-General via the Director, Minerals. (37)

An external review of GSNSW by Drs Ross Fardon, Andrew White and Ian Whan was carried out in June - October 2001. The Review strongly indicated that the Survey should continue because of its contribution to the mineral, coal and petroleum exploration industries to Government land-use planning and other government processes. Feed-back from clients suggested that the maps, publications, advice and information services provided by the Survey filled the information needs of their recipients. (38)

On 1 July 2004, the Department of Mineral Resources was abolished and its branches were transferred to the Department of Primary Industries [I] into the Mineral Resources Division. Within the Division, the GSNSW undertook geological mapping and resource assessment, audited private sector mineral exploration performance, promoted exploration investment, and coordinated and assessed land use planning issues affecting exploration and mining. (39)

From 1 July 2009 when the Department of Primary Industries was abolished the Mineral Resources Division combined with the Energy component of the former Department of Water and Energy to become the Minerals and Energy Division within the new Department of Industry and Investment. (40)

On 1 July 2015 the Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services was abolished and GSNSW was transferred to the Department of Industry, Skills and Regional Development, later renamed to Department of Industry in 2017. (41) GSNSW began the NSW Seamless Geology project in 2015 which joined the best-available geological mapping (on a variety of scales) across NSW and formed an integral part of ongoing work such as 3D, mineral potential and metamorphic mapping across NSW. (42)

From 1 July 2019 the Department of Industry was abolished and GSNSW was transferred to the new Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. (43) GSNSW was further transferred to Regional NSW on 2 April 2020. (44) Within Regional NSW, the GSNSW was apart of the Mining, Exploration and Geoscience (MEG) group. (45)

In 2023, the GSNSW was undertaking a wide range of projects covering geological mapping, mineral systems studies, geophysical surveys and interpretations, basin studies, energy resource assessments, geochronology, palaeostratigraphy, database development and 3D mapping. Geophysical surveys collected included open file geophysical survey data from exploration companies. Surveys conducted included airborne magnetic and radioelement surveys, airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys, gravity surveys, Magnetotelluric (MT) surveys and Seismic surveys. All surveys are archived for public access following title relinquishment. (46)

Endnotes
1. NSW Government Gazette No.126, 29 May 1874, p.1627.
2. Public Service List, 1878 p. 92.
3. Department of Mines Work performed by certain officers - cost of surveys, &c Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly during the session of 1876-7 Volume 3 p. 575.
4. Report of Progress of the Geological Survey during the year 1881 in NSW Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly during the session of 1882 Volume 4 pp.739-754.
5. Ibid., p.739.
6. Annual report of the Department of Mines New South Wales for the year 1882. In NSW Votes and Proceedings 1883-84 Volume 4 pp.6-7.
7. Annual report of the Department of Mines New South Wales for the year 1884, p.155 in Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly Second Session 1885 Volume 3, p.523.
8. Annual report of the Department of Mines and Agriculture for the year 1898, p.147 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 3rd Session 1899 Volume 3 p.361.
9. Annual report of the Department of Mines and Agriculture for the year 1897, p.134 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1898 Volume 2 p.210.
10. Annual Report 1898, op. cit.
11. Annual report of the Department of Mines and Agriculture for the year 1900, p.78 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1901 Volume 4, p.1304.
12. Annual report of the Department of Mines for the year 1917, p.152 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1918 Volume 3, p.534.
13. Annual report of the Department of Mines for the year 1923, p.77 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1924 Volume 4, p.81.
14. Loc. cit.
15. Loc. cit.
16. Annual report of the Department of Mines for the year 1924, p.82 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1925, Volume 1, p.108.
17. Annual Report of the Department of Mines for the year 1929, p.76 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1929-30 Volume 3, p.246.
18. Annual Report of the Department of Mines for the year 1933, p.581 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1937-38 Volume 1, p.581.
19. Annual report of the Department of Mines for 1946 p.62 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1950-51-52 Volume 3, p.698.
20. Annual report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales for the year 1967, p.106 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1968-69, Volume 3, p.1466.
21. Annual report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales for the year 1968 pp.141-160, in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1969-70-71 Volume 6, pp.971-990.
22. Report of the Department of Mines for the year ended 30 June 1971, p.133 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1971-72, Vol 3, p.1519.
23. Report of the Department of Mines for the year ended 30 June 1972, p.112 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1972-73, Vol. 3, p.1490.
24. Report of the Department of Mines for the year ended 30 June 1975, p.84 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1975-76 Vol. 4, p.238.
25. Report of the Department of Mines for the year ended 30 June 1976, p.86 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1976-77-78, Vol. 9, p.264.
26. Report of the Department of Mines for the year ended 30 June 1978, p.105 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1978-1979 Vol. 4 p.253.
27. Department of Mineral Resources annual report for the year ended 30 June 1984, p.35.
28. NSW Department of Mineral Resources Annual Report 1991-1992, pp.81-82.
29. Ibid., p.74.
30. Report of the Department of Mineral Resources for the year ended 30 June 1993 pp.12-13.
31. Ibid., p.31.
32. Report of the Department of Mineral Resources for the year ended 30 June 1996, p.12.
33. Report of the Department of Mineral Resources for the year ended 30 June 1999, p.15.
34. Report of the Department of Mineral Resources for the year ended 30 June 2000, p.15.
35. Report for the year ended 30 June 1996, op. cit., p.14.
36. Ibid., p.72.
37. Report for the year ended 30 June 1993, op. cit. p. 55.
38. Report of the Department of Mineral Resources for the year ended 30 June 2002, p.14.
39. NSW Government Gazette Special Supplement No.100, 18 June 2004, p.3817; Department of Primary Industries, Annual Report 2004-2005, p.16.
40. Public Sector Employment and Management (Departmental Amalgamations) Order 2009 (2009 No 352) cls. 16; notified on NSW Legislation Website, 27 July 2009.
41. Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes–Public Service Agencies) Order (No 2) 2015 (2015 No 250) cls.5, 6; notified on NSW Legislation Website, 29 May 2015.
42. Geological Survey of NSW website, Seamless Geology Project, https://meg.resourcesregulator.nsw.gov.au/geoscience/projects/seamless-geology-project (accessed 31 May 2023).
43. Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes - Public Service Agencies) Order 2019 (2019 No 159), clause 9 (2); notified on NSW Legislation Website, 2 April 2019 as amended by Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes--Public Service Agencies) Order 2019 (2019 No 180), Schedule 1 [1]; notified on NSW Legislation Website, 1 May 2019.
44. Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes—Regional NSW and Independent Planning Commission) Order 2020 (2020 No 121); cl. 4; notified on NSW Legislation website, 2 April 2021. Department of Regional NSW, ‘Our Work’, 01 November 2022, downloaded from https://www.regional.nsw.gov.au/our-work (accessed 01 November 2022).
45. Mining, Exploration and Geoscience Website, Our Structure. Published 7 July 2023. Accessed 18 April 2024. https://meg.resourcesregulator.nsw.gov.au/about-us/our-structure 46. Geological Survey of NSW website, Geophysical Surveys, https://meg.resourcesregulator.nsw.gov.au/geoscience/geophysical-surveys (accessed 31 May 2023).