Chapter 2: History of petroleum exploration and development - PIRSA

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Petroleum geology of South Australia. Vol. 4: Cooper Basin.Some non-local Aboriginal words and placenames havebeen used (e.g. Lowanna, Mina and Pooraka). Other namesare derived from animals (e.g. toolache, brumby andperenty), plants (e.g. boxwood, mulga, beanbush andcorrea), geological and geographical connections (e.g.Namur, Nealyon and regolith), prominent people or industryidentities (e.g. Sir George Grey, Sir Sidney Kidman, W.Paxton, Sir Douglas Mawson, J. Lhotsky and R.C. Sprigg)and an assortment of miscellaneous origin.ABORIGINES, LAND EXPLORATION ANDPASTORAL SETTLEMENT IN THE‘CORNER COUNTRY’Archaeological and anthropological evidence (e.g.Fenner, 1936), together with contemporary data and oraltraditions, have helped designate several Aboriginal groupsin the Eyre region and that it was an important trade andceremonial centre (Fig. 2.2). Northeast South Australia andSouth-West Queensland ‘is the driest part of Australia (andthe only part without a seasonal pattern to its rainfall) andone of the warmest … The Aboriginal people … had alifestyle closely attuned to this most unpredictable ofAustralian environments. In good seasons large groupscould gather to harvest the food and hold ceremonies ... Inpoor seasons people lived in smaller groups, making use ofthe rare water sources such as mound springs and using skinwater-bags for travelling’ (Horton, 1994, p.350). LakeKopperamanna, ~70 km southeast of the Cooper Basin, wasa focal point for the distribution of pituri (a narcotic) fromnorthern Australia, stone for artefacts from the east and west,and pigments, particularly ochre from the Flinders Ranges,from the south.The principal group associated with the region is theDieri tribe (alternatively Diyari, Diyeri or Diari), fringedesert and desert peoples who have occupied land east ofLake Eyre and along the lower Cooper Creek towards theState border. There may be clans within the Dieri tribeaccording to regional affiliations: Berndt and Vogelsang(1939) divided the tribe into Ku´nari (Cooper Creek Dieri)98-1106ArrernteNorthern TerritoryArabanaWangkangurru(South)Kokatha0 100KILOMETRESLakeEyre(North)DhirariKuyaniQueenslandWangkamanaYarluyandiKaruwaliKaranguraNgaminiLIMIT OFCOOPER BASINDieriAndyamathanhaYawarawarkaWangkumaraYandruwandhaPirlatapaWadigaliMalyangabaBirriaNew South WalesFig. 2.2 Tribal groupings of Aborigines in the Eyre regionextending from the northeast of South Australia (after Horton,1994).and Oandu (Lake Hope Dieri). The Dieri’s neighboursinclude the Dhirari (or Thirrari) people adjoining Lake Eyre,whose country ‘was the southernmost point known to havebeen reached by pearl shell in its extraordinary trade fromCape York’ (Horton, 1994, p.278); the Ngamini people onthe Warburton Creek and Diamantina River, whose majormeeting place for trade and ceremonies was Goyder’sLagoon north of Lake Eyre (Horton, 1994, p.780); and theYawarawarka people who attended big corroborees at AnnaCreek, west of Lake Eyre (Horton, 1994, p.1221) althoughtheir area extended beyond South Australia.In European times the area where South Australia, NewSouth Wales and Queensland meet has been known as the‘Corner Country’. Early explorers associated with the areainclude: E.J. Eyre who travelled in 1840 south of LakeBlanche and through Dhirari country to the southern of thetwo lakes which bear his name (Eyre, 1845; Manning,1990); Captain C. Sturt in 1844–45; A.C. Gregory who camesouth from Queensland to the east of Lake Blanche whilesearching for the missing explorer L. Leichhardt in 1858;R.O’H. Burke and W.J. Wills, who crossed the continentfrom Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in thenorth, in 1860–61; and J. McKinlay and A.W. Howitt,leaders of search parties for Burke and Wills in 1861.Howitt made other journeys in the area. J.McD. Stuart, whohad accompanied Sturt as a draftsman and whoseexpeditions to and across the centre of the continent in1860–63 rivalled that of Burke and Wills without thecatastrophic consequences, also made two trips west of LakeEyre in 1858 and 1859 in the proximity of Dhirari country.In 1863 S. White traversed an area from Lake Blanche toCooper Creek and Lake Hope while recording bird life incentral Australia. Major P.E. Warburton explored forpossible stock routes northeast from Lake Eyre alongCooper Creek in 1866. J. Lewis also ventured along CooperCreek in 1874–75 while leading a government party northand east of Lake Eyre to see the extent to which it could benavigated.On his journey from Adelaide to discover the fabledinland sea in central Australia, Sturt named the Great StonyDesert (now the Sturt Stony Desert), Strzelecki Creek afterthe Prussian-born Polish scientist and explorer P.E. deStrzelecki who had explored southeastern Australia, and‘Cooper’s Creek’ after South Australia’s Chief Justice, SirCharles Cooper. The latter was named in November 1845,three months after Sturt first discovered it, during whichtime he crossed it several times and confirmed that it was thesame river. Ten months later the New South WalesSurveyor-General, Major Sir Thomas Mitchell, anothernoted explorer, named the northeastern reaches of Cooper’sCreek, Victoria River, in honour of Queen Victoria(Mitchell, 1848). Gregory’s expedition in 1858 showed theywere the same river: from Sydney he had gone toQueensland and ventured south along the upper Cooper anddown Strzelecki Creek. Consequently, from May 1861 anAboriginal name, Barcoo, was adopted officially. By themid 1930s it was accepted that an Aboriginal name could notapply to the whole river and Barcoo was being consideredarchaic (Parker and Somerville, 1943). A local Aboriginalname for Cooper Creek was Kunadi (Mattingley andHampton, 1988), Ku´nari (Berndt and Vogelsang, 1939) orKunara (Johnston and Cleland, 1943). From 1944 Cooper8
Petroleum geology of South Australia. Vol. 4: Cooper Basin.Creek was applied to the stretch from the mouth of the creekto its junction with the Thomson River in Queensland andBarcoo was retained for the northeastern reaches (Parker,1944, p.100). Sixteen years after Sturt named it, CooperCreek achieved prominence in the annals of Australianexploration for its connection with the ill-fated Burke andWills expedition (Moorehead, 1963). Their main depot,with the famous tree upon which the party members waitingfor them to return from the Gulf had carved ‘DIG’ to indicateburied supplies, lies northeast of Innamincka on CooperCreek across the border with New South Wales. In theattempt to reach Adelaide from this depot, Wills died onCooper Creek to the west of Innamincka and Burke perisheddownstream. J. King, their companion, survived through thetimely intervention of the local Aborigines (Donovan andDonovan, 1996; Wilkinson, 1997).The only semblance of a sea that Sturt might havelocated was the drainage system associated with CooperCreek: it drains ~155 000 km 2 including the Diamantina andThomson Rivers originating in Queensland and its widestfrontage is 60 km in the south. In an arid desert zone, thecreek usually flows between April and July. On theoccasions when it has been in flood, for example in 1891,1906, 1989 and 1997, the region is inundated with water andspectacular scenes of fauna and flora are evident. Althoughbetween 1918 and 1949 flooding of the Cooper did notextend beyond the Birdsville Track at Kopperamanna(Bonython, 1963), some of the floods have reached LakeEyre North. Among the notable occurrences were the floodsof 1949 and 1950 when the lake was filled for the first timein more than 100 years of European history in the area(Fenner, 1952), 1974 when major flooding filled the lake fora second time (Vickery, 1974) and in 1984 when Lake EyreSouth filled and flooded into Lake Eyre North (Kotwicki,1986).The explorers did not consider the northeast suitable foragricultural or pastoral activities but the reports by leaders ofsearch parties for Burke and Wills resulted in sheep andcattle stations being established in the vicinity of the CooperCreek and Diamantina River: better pastoral land elsewherein South Australia had already been occupied (Donovan andDonovan, 1996; Wilkinson, 1997). Indicative of thetoughness of the country, however, was Professor J.W.Gregory’s description of the vicinity of Lake Eyre andcentral Australia as ‘the Dead Heart of Australia’ after histravels there in the summer of 1901–02 (Gregory, 1906).His view was reinforced by the published accounts of theornithologist Captain S.A. White’s (1914) trip to centralAustralia, Into the dead heart, and of Dr C.T. Madigan’s(1946) geological investigations from 1927 to 1939 in andaround the Simpson Desert, Crossing the dead heart.White’s father had explored around Cooper Creek in 1863and White himself participated in a South AustralianMuseum expedition in 1916.The initial tolerance by Aboriginal people of theinfrequent incursion by explorers onto their land changedwith the encroachment of the pastoral industry: incomingpastoralists met with ‘fierce resistance by everyone, fromthe Dieri in the south to the Kalkadoon in the north’ (Horton,1994, p.350; Mattingley and Hampton, 1988). After oneclash when the Dieri wanted to prevent the Europeans frommoving cattle into their country, a wounded station handThe blacks have caught me asleep at last, and all but killedme. They have been giving us a great deal of trouble forsome time, and seemed determined to do as they liked withus and with the cattle until we were compelled for thepreservation of our lives and property to put a stop to theslaughter of our cattle and attacks upon our men … Wemust have more men and arms to defend our position andour property, otherwise this country will have to beabandoned by the settlers. It is very hard; for we have doneour best to form a station and have uniformly treated theblacks with kindness and consideration.In December 1865 a party of nine Europeans from Sir ThomasElder’s Lake Hope Station were at Lake Perigundi (on theperimeter of the Cooper Basin) where they were attacked by theDieri. This extract is part of the station manager’s accountcontained in Dean (1866).wrote: ‘We shall not be able to settle the up-creek countryuntil we are stronger-handed, as I am afraid it is now openwar between the blacks and us’ (Horton, 1994, p.282). Thispattern gradually broke down. Two German religiousgroups, Lutheran and Moravian Brethren, establishedmission stations in 1867 at Lake Killalpaninna, 65 km east ofLake Eyre, and at Lake Kopperamanna, 12 km further east(Stevens, 1994). The latter ceased in 1868 but theKillalpaninna Lutheran Mission survived until 1914 and wasclosed as a ration depot in 1917. Once the pastoral industrygained a foothold, a change of equal significance came withthe employment of Aborigines. Harry Redford (aliasCaptain Starlight) drove stolen cattle overland down CooperCreek from Queensland in 1870 and this route was soonextended south by pastoralists down Strzelecki Creek toform the primitive Strzelecki Track. In 1883 SouthAustralia’s Government Geologist, H.Y.L. Brown, followedthe creek on his return from the first formal geologicalsurveying work, for minerals, in the northeast of SouthAustralia.Graves at Killalpaninna ruins, Cooper Creek, 1979. (Photo T014689)As unreliable as the water supplies were, the route downStrzelecki Creek became the ‘lifeline to the Corner Country’and was used for transporting food, supplies and mail: evenshearers travelled to and from Cordillo Downs by bicycle9
Page 1: HISTORY ofPETROLEUM EXPLORATIONand
Page 5 and 6: Petroleum geology of South Australi
Page 13 and 14: WAWAWAWAPetroleum geology of South
Page 15: Petroleum geology of South Australi
Page 24: Petroleum geology of South Australi

Chapter 2: History of petroleum exploration and development - PIRSA

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?