Geoscience Australia headquarters located in the Canberra suburb of Symonston | |
Agency overview | |
---|---|
Formed | 2001 |
Preceding agencies |
|
Jurisdiction | Australia |
Headquarters | Symonston, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 35°20′36″S 149°09′30″E / 35.34333°S 149.15833°E |
Employees | 671 (as at 30 June 2023)[1] |
Annual budget | A$207.30 million (2020)[2] |
Minister responsible | |
Agency executive |
|
Parent department | Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources |
Website | portal |
Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowledge of the nation.
On a user pays basis it produces geospatial products such as topographic maps and satellite imagery. It is also a major contributor to the Australian Government's free, open data collections such as data
YouTube Encyclopedic
-
1/2Views:1 102902
-
Geoscience Australia Building Tour
-
Open Data on a Continental Scale - Digital Earth Australia, Geoscience Australia
Transcription
This building was designed specifically to be the headquarters of Australia's largest geoscience organization. Geoscience Australia. Housing a wealth of information about the Australian continent and our offshore area. Providing geoscientific information and advice to government and the community to assist with: Management of our natural resources and the environment; The search for new mineral and petroleum provinces; Planning for land use and regional development; And protecting our urban environments from natural hazards. The building has been designed to support the scientific research and analysis activities which form the basis of the Australia-wide geoscience and spatial data that we provide to,mineral and petroleum industries, primary producers, all levels of government, environmental protection agencies, the telecommunications industry, emergency services, border protection and law-enforcement agencies, map and satellite-image distributors. As befits the headquarters of a scientific organization, the building has also been designed to feature ecologically sustainable development principles. Look around, you will notice shapes and features that you would not expect to see in more traditional buildings Each of these design features has a practical purpose -- and it starts one hundred metres beneath your feet -- with the largest geothermal heat system in Australia. More than two hundred geothermal heat pumps circulate water through three hundred and fifty bore holes, using the constant seventeen degree temperature underground to heat and cool the building, with almost twenty per cent greater efficiency than traditional systems. Above ground, great attention has been paid to the use of natural light. The building's orientation on the site makes maximum use of the sun, and skylights and cowls on the curved roof bring the daylight inside, to all parts of the complex. Light shelves are incorporated into the window systems, to maximize light transmission into the building, and internal glass walls further improve the flow of natural light through the building. Artificial light is controlled by movement sensors which automatically switch off lights when rooms are unoccupied. Two linked buildings comprise Geoscience Australia's headquarters, built at a cost of more than one hundred million dollars. Seventeen thousand cubic meters of concrete and one thousand two hundred tones of structural steel were used in the buildings construction. The official opening was in 1998. About five hundred scientific, support and technical staff work in a range of areas Including almost thirty specialized laboratories served by vital features, such as deionised water and un-interruptible power supply. These laboratories include the Sedimentology & Palaeontology Labs, the Oil and Gas Geochemistry Labs, the Minerals Geochemistry Labs, and the Marine Lab. Between them, the Main and Support buildings comprise about forty thousand square metres of floor space and, in the design, great attention was paid to the creation of a sympathetic workplace. Glass walls and internal layout foster the idea of a single organization, rather than a number of "teams" that never interact. And whole environments have been created to add light, character and beauty. The walkway between offices and laboratories is known as The Street and features both natural and street-style lighting. One of the internal garden areas is known as The Rainforest, where automatic sprinklers ensure that the palms and ferns thrive. The library houses the second internal garden area, the Arid Courtyard, where water drips onto palms and cycads. Geoscience Australia is proud that its headquarters has won national and international recognition for innovation in building techniques and for the use of ecologically sustainable principles. Look around: what we do as an organization is of huge national and international importance -- and we think that where we do it is also pretty interesting.
Strategic priorities
The agency has six strategic priority areas:[4]
- building Australia's resource wealth in order to maximise benefits from Australia's minerals and energy resources, now and into the future;
- ensuring Australia's community safety so that Australian communities are more resilient to natural hazards;
- securing Australia's water resources in order to optimise and sustain the use of Australia's water resources;
- managing Australia's marine jurisdictions in order to maximise benefits from the sustainable use of Australia's marine jurisdiction;
- providing fundamental geographic information in order to understand the location and timing of processes, activities and changes across Australia to inform decision-making for both natural and built environments; and
- maintaining geoscience knowledge and capability in order to maintain an enduring and accessible knowledge base and capability to enable evidence-based policy and decision-making by government, industry and the community.
History
Geoscience Australia came into being in 2001 when the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group (AUSLIG) merged with the Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO). Its history dates back almost to Federation in 1901 when it was decided to set aside land for the national capital. This decision led to the establishment of the Australian Survey Office in 1910, when surveying began for the Australian Capital Territory.
AUSLIG's main function was to provide national geographic information. It was formed in 1987, when the Australian Survey Office joined with the Division of National Mapping, which was formed in 1947. Another important component of AUSLIG was the provision of satellite imagery to industry and government, started by the Australian Landsat Station in 1979, renamed the Australian Centre for Remote Sensing (ACRES) in 1986.
AGSO's predecessor organisation the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics[5] (BMR) was established in 1946; with the name changing to AGSO in 1992.
The BMR was a geological survey with the main objective was the systematic geological and geophysical mapping of the continent as the basis for informed mineral exploration.[6]
Geoscience Australia's activities have expanded and today it has responsibility for meeting the Australian Government's geoscience requirements. This role takes the Agency well beyond its historic focus on resource development and topographic mapping to topics as diverse as natural hazards such as tsunami and earthquakes, environmental issues, including the impacts of climate change, groundwater research, marine and coastal research, carbon capture and storage and vegetation monitoring as well as Earth observations from space. Geoscience Australia's remit also extends beyond the Australian landmass to Australia's vast marine jurisdiction.[7][6]
Summary of predecessor agencies
Facilities
It has a free place name search[10] and its earthquake monitoring services can be freely accessed.[11] The Library is the premier geoscience library in Australia providing services to geoscience organisations, universities, research centres, the mining and petroleum industries and the public.[12]
Economic Demonstrated Resources
Geoscience Australia defines Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) as
resources for which profitable extraction or production under defined investment assumptions is possible
— [13]
For EDR, tonnages and grades are computed from samples of the resource taken from points spaced to provide assured resource continuity.
See also
- Geological Survey of South Australia
- Geological Survey of Western Australia
- List of national mapping agencies
References
- ^ "Geoscience Australia Annual Report 2022-23 Earth sciences for Australia's future". Annual Report, Geoscience Australia. Australian Government. 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
- ^ "Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Annual Report 2020-21". Annual Report, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. Australian Government. 2020. p. 186. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
- ^ A search on the http://data.gov.au catalogue revealing many thousands of Geoscience Australia datasets: [1]
- ^ "Strategic Priorities". Geoscience Australia Strategic Priorities. Geoscience Australia. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
- ^ Townley, K. (1976) History of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics pp.101 - 111 - in Johns, R. K. (Robert Keith); Johns, R. K. (Robert Keith), (ed.); Australia. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics (1976), History and role of government geological surveys in Australia, A. B. James, Govt. printer, ISBN 978-0-7243-2497-2
{{citation}}
:|author2=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Geoscience Australia National Library of Australia, Trove, People and Organisation record for Geoscience Australia
- ^ "Our history". Geoscience Australia. Australian Government. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
- ^ Whyte, Brendan (2020). "Lists of British, Australian and New Zealand Surveyors-General, Government Geologists, Printers, Ministers, etc useful to cataloguers and researchers for the dating of Australian and New Zealand maps" (PDF). Australian and New Zealand Map Society.
- ^ "Agency details for: CA 7605". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ "Gazetteer of Australia place name search". Geoscience Australia. Australian Government. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
- ^ "Earthquakes". Geoscience Australia. Australian Government. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
- ^ "N H (Doc) Fisher Geoscience Library". Geoscience Australia. Australian Government. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
- ^ https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=isr/resexp/chapter2.pdf[bare URL PDF]
External links
- Geoscience Australia home page.
- Geoscience Australia Data Discovery Portal.
- Geoscience Australia Geological Digital Twin.
- Community and Education Geoscience Discovery Digital Atlas.
- Australian Mines Atlas.
- Atlas of Australian Mine Waste.
- Australian Fundamental Gravity Network (AFGN).
- AusSeabed Marine Data Portal.
- Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative.
- Geochronology and Isotopes Data Portal.
- Geophysical Archive Data Delivery System (GADDS).
- AusH2 - Australia's Hydrogen Opportunities Tool.
- MinEx CRC National Drilling Initiative.
- Positioning Australia National Positioning Infrastructure.
- Geoscience Australia in Google Cultural Institute.
- As the cocky flies distance calculator
- International Map of the World
- XNATMAP's home page preserving NATMAP's (The Division of National Mapping) history and maintaining contact with the people who were part of that history.