This Record provides details of the specifications of gravity surveys held in the Australian National Gravity Database (ANGD). These surveys have been conducted by or for the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments, private industry, educational institutions and other research organisations. There are more than 2,100 gravity surveys in the database which together contain more than 1,260,000 stations. The open file data are available to the public either through Geoscience Australia (GA), or through the relevant State and territory Geological Surveys. Prior to 1990 most of the surveys had a spacing of 10km or more and many were conducted as part of the Bureau of Mineral Resources' (BMR - the forerunner of the Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO)) first pass reconnaissance gravity survey of Australia. From 1990 surveys have usually been conducted employing spacings of 4 km or less. The surveys have been undertaken under a number of auspices. AGSO/BMR (the forerunner of GA) conducted its own surveys between 1946 and 1998. Surveys have also been conducted by geophysical contractors operating under contract to Geoscience Australia and State and Territory Geological Surveys, either separately or in joint projects. A number of other surveys, carried out for the private sector, have been purchased or acquired by GA, some under the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act (PSSA). A few of the surveys were conducted under the Petroleum Submerged Lands Act (P(SL)A). The specifications of all surveys in the ANGD are held in an Index of Gravity Surveys. The basic metadata for each survey contained in the Index is published here as the first in a series of Geoscience Australia Records. These will contain regularly updated information as the specifications of new surveys are added to the ANGD. For open file gravity surveys over continental Australia, data referred to in this Index are available free on-line via the Geophysical Archive Data Delivery System at http://www.ga.gov.au/gadds.
