This Bowen Basin dataset contains descriptive attribute information for the areas bounded by the relevant spatial groundwater feature in the associated Hydrogeology Index map. Descriptive topics are grouped into the following themes: Location and administration; Demographics; Physical geography; Surface water; Geology; Hydrogeology; Groundwater; Groundwater management and use; Environment; Land use and industry types; and Scientific stimulus.
The Bowen Basin is part of the Sydney–Gunnedah–Bowen basin system and contains up to 10,000 m of continental and shallow marine sedimentary rocks, including substantial deposits of black coal. The basin's evolution has been influenced by tectonic processes initiated by the New England Orogen, commencing with a phase of mechanical extension, and later evolving to a back-arc setting associated with a convergent plate margin.
Three main phases of basin development have been identified; 1) Early Permian: Characterized by mechanical extension, half-graben development, thick volcanic units and fluvio-lacustrine sediments and coal deposits. 2) Mid Permian: A thermal relaxation event led to the deposition of marine and fluvio-deltaic sediments, ending with a regional unconformity. 3) Late Permian and Triassic: Foreland loading created a foreland basin setting with various depositional environments and sediment types, including included fluvial, marginal marine, deltaic and marine sediments along with some coal deposits in the late Permian, and fluvial and lacustrine sediments in the Triassic. Late Permian peat swamps led to the formation of extensive coal seams dominating the Blackwater Group. In the Triassic, fluvial and lacustrine deposition associated with foreland loading formed the Rewan Formation, Clematis Sandstone Group, and Moolayember Formation. The basin is a significant coal-bearing region with over 100 hydrocarbon accumulations, of which about one third are producing fields. The Surat Basin overlies the southern Bowen Basin and contains varied sedimentary assemblages hosting regional-scale aquifer systems.
Cenozoic cover to the Bowen Basin includes a variety of sedimentary and volcanic rock units. Palaeogene and Neogene sediments mainly form discontinuous units across the basin. Three of these units are associated with small eponymous Cenozoic basins (the Duaringa, Emerald and Biloela basins). Unnamed sedimentary cover includes Quaternary alluvium, colluvium, lacustrine and estuarine deposits; Palaeogene-Neogene alluvium, sand plains, and duricrusts. There are also various Cenozoic intraplate volcanics across the Bowen Basin, including central volcanic- and lava-field provinces.
