Early European settlement was initially focused on survival rather than the economic prosperity that followed the later discoveries of coal, tin, iron and gold ore. Food was needed to feed the settlers and convicts; however, the land around Port Jackson proved infertile prompting exploration west to the Parramatta area where better soils yielded successful crops, principally wheat — a different kind of gold.

But the discovery of gold drove the development of Australia’s enormous mineral wealth and the ensuing population explosion of the 1850s.

Gold finds were reported as early as 1839 by the explorer Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki and in 1841 by the Reverend W.B. Clarke. Clarke is known as the father of Australian geology because he was a pioneering geologist, who explored the countryside on horseback and covered vast distances in a time when there were no maps, few landmarks and fewer roads. Coal also played, and continues to play, a critical part in the state's mineral history. Like many discoveries, Lieutenant Shortland's 1797 discovery of coal in the area that was to become Newcastle, was accidental. A seam of coal near Port Kembla south of Sydney was also reported around the same period. Further finds including tin, copper and iron ore prompted the colony’s governor to establish the official position of Geological Surveyor.

Clarke served as a geological surveyor from 1851 to 1853 and worked alongside Samuel Stutchbury, who took up the post of government geologist from 1850 to 1855. Their geological and mineralogical surveys laid the foundations for the systematic work of the Geological Survey of New South Wales and were the basis for the first New South Wales geological map issued in 1880 by the Department of Mines.

The need to find and map further mineral resources in the young colony resulted in the New South Wales Government establishing the Geological Survey of New South Wales in 1875. Charles Smith Wilkinson, the first government geologist of Victoria, became the inaugural head of the Geological Survey of New South Wales. His coloured map, compiled in 1874 and published in 1878, of the Hartley–Bowenfels–Rydal area, was the first geological map to be issued by the Department of Mines. Further exploration continued with T.W. Edgeworth David who mapped the state's tin and coal fields between 1882 and 1891, discovering the rich coal deposits of the Hunter Valley.

Wilkinson and David were followed by many geologists who profoundly influenced our understanding of the state's geology and mineral resources. These included the tireless J.E. Carne, who joined the Geological Survey in 1879, and whose comprehensive documentation of the mines and prospects of his era were to prove indispensable many decades later in preparing modern mineral occurrence databases and metallogenic maps.

Discovery of the Broken Hill ore deposit in 1883 significantly changed mineral exploration emphasis from gold to base metals and other ores. In 1893, O. Trickett, a draftsman at the Geological Survey, published a new edition of the state’s geological map which won a medal at the Chicago Exhibition. Other influences such as the extensive droughts of the late 1880s expanded the Geological Survey’s work to include the investigation and mapping of underground water supplies. Tourism also played a part and inspired the exploration and mapping of limestone caves such as Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains. Trickett even prepared a guidebook to the caves, used for many years by interested visitors. Later, the Prospector's Guide was directed at the unemployed affected by the economic depression due to successive droughts, floods and the slump in the price of base metals.

World War I made heavy demands on resources and a response to this was the production of another edition of the state’s geological map in 1914 by Trickett and resurveying of the Broken Hill mining field in 1918. E.C. Andrews, the Government Geologist of NSW between 1920 and 1930, published The Geology of the Broken Hill District and The Mineral Industry of NSW. Water continued as a focus, as it does to this day, with five ‘Interstate Conferences on Artesian Water’ being held between 1912 and 1928. The conferences, instigated by New South Wales, also included geologists from Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

Technological developments and increasing technical resources after the 1920s changed the way geological mapping was conducted. The new science of geophysics meant that geological interpretations could be extended to below the surface. The use of aerial photographs allowed the Geological Survey to expand the detail of its mapping to include areas that could not easily be covered by foot.

World War II led to a demand for strategic materials such as tungsten, molybdenum, bismuth, quartz crystal, coal and copper and the Geological Survey provided research and advice to the government. The massive worldwide development and population increases which followed the war in the 1950s resulted in record mining figures. Immigration in Australia stretched its infrastructure and the Geological Survey’s geologists conducted extensive mapping in the Mount Kosciuszko region for dam sites for the NSW Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority.

In the 1960s, the Geological Survey focused on supporting small to medium exploration companies, and individual explorers, in their search for mineral deposits to attract investment to NSW. Following concentrated efforts in 1962, the geological map of the state was published at 1:1 000 000 scale. Further regional mapping meant that by the end of the decade, most of the state was mapped in more detail at 1:250 000 scale and the first 1:500 000 series was published in colour. These maps were different from previous maps in that they correlated rocks across the map boundaries and over large areas. This resulted in a sophisticated understanding of the state’s geological history and became the basis for modern mineral exploration.

In the 1970s, the Geological Survey moved from a consultative role to a broader, regional, scientific role. Better communications encouraged cooperation between countries, government departments and universities and many programs were jointly sponsored. In 1973, using the new information gained from the 1:500 000 series, the Geological Survey published an improved edition of the 1:1 000 000 state geological map. This was followed in 1974 by a tectonic map at the same scale based on the new concept of plate tectonics, which showed the structural regions and tectonic history of the state for the first time. To further encourage exploration, Geological Survey geologists systematically mapped all known mines producing metallogenic maps at 1:250 000 and supported them with detailed explanatory notes and mine data sheets. The maps showed the locations of all mines and the relationship of the minerals deposits to rock types and geological environments using the geological science newly developed from plate tectonics and minerals systems studies.

The Geological Survey’s investigations became complex and multidisciplinary involving several specialised approaches. For example, at Tottenham, a project to determine the type and style of mineralisation in the Girilambone Beds of central NSW involved surface mapping, interpretation of coloured aerial photographs, underground mapping, aeromagnetic surveys (flown by the Bureau of Mineral Resources), diamond drilling and geochemical sampling of soils. It is not surprising that the increasing volume of information and complexity of problems led to the first computer terminal being installed in 1972.

Rapid developments throughout the 1970s and 1980s in computing power and storage allowed information to be analysed, compiled and displayed in greater detail. A symbiotic relationship developed between computing and geochemistry, satellite imagery and the geophysical sciences. In particular, the advent of more powerful yet compact computers enabled much more sophisticated analysis and modelling of seismic, magnetic, gravity and radiometric data and the use of computers in the field became a reality. During the 1990s, access to Global Positioning System (GPS) location data for both navigation and positioning revolutionised the acquisition of gravity and airborne geophysical data, and made the routine use of high-resolution geophysical surveys in geological mapping affordable. Combined with remote sensing satellite imagery, geophysics proved to be a powerful tool for interpreting regional geology at, and below, the Earth’s surface.

The need to integrate this information into a visual presentation led to developments in digital mapping. In 1993, the Geological Survey's last hand-drawn map was produced and by 1994 computer aided drawing (CAD) systems were in use. Map production changed from pen and paper to mouse and monitor. Large databases accumulated sets of geographic coordinates associated with descriptive information about rocks, structures and mineral deposit locations. By 2000, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were fully integrated into the Geological Survey's technical tool kit.

Today, maps, books and reports still occupy an important place in the spectrum of Geological Survey of New South Wales publications. Nevertheless there is an increasing need to respond to a world driven by the demands of online service delivery and the ready access to data promised by this technology. Field mapping is now carried out using weather-proof portable computers. The data collected is increasingly acquired only digitally and some of these data will never be expressed on paper. Increasingly the digital files used to make maps are far more informative than the paper map which used to be the final product. This is no more obvious than in the use of three-dimensional models to assist geological interpretations, which cannot be adequately represented in two dimensions.

The fact that there are so many underlying digital information layers behind each geoscientific map obliges the Geological Survey to develop more flexible and powerful online services for digital data delivery to ensure there is open and easy access. The Geological Survey’s ongoing geoscience information activities now include not only production of standard hardcopy maps, reports and publications but also ongoing structural reorganisation of its digital databases and delivery systems to improve open access to its valuable information resources via the internet.

References

Adrian J. 1974. History of the Geological Survey of New South Wales 1875–1974. Geological Survey of New South Wales, Report GS 1974/506, accessible via DIGS.

Hoogendoorn, B. (compiler) 1999. 1898–1998, Port of Port Kembla, Port Centenary Committee, Port Kembla.

Johns R.K. ed. 1976. History and Role of Government Geological Surveys in Australia. Government Printer, South Australia.

 

For more information on the Geological Survey of New South Wales and the geology of the state see: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/minerals/geological