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Sedimentary basins

Over 60 per cent of the state is covered by sedimentary basins. In the east, the coal rich Permian to Triassic Sydney–Gunnedah–Bowen Basin system is partially overlain by the Jurassic to Cretaceous Great Australian Basin, comprising the Surat Basin and Eromanga Basin. The Triassic to Jurassic Clarence–Moreton Basin extends from north eastern NSW into southern Queensland. To the west, the largely Devonian Darling Basin is overlain by the Great Australian Basin and the Cenozoic Murray Basin.

The basins are separated into layers/provinces that form geological time-slices in the NSW seamless geology dataset:

  • Western Devonian Basins (e.g. Darling Basin)
  • Permo-Triassic Basins (e.g. Sydney and Gunnedah basins)
  • Great Australian Basin (e.g. Eromanga, Surat and Clarence-Moreton basins)

Figure 1 Outcropping sedimentary basins in NSW

Sedimentary basins