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Helen

Perth building stones walking tour

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Write up by Helen Debenham. Photos from Helen Debenham and Karen Pandya.

On Friday night (6th February) a group of PESA members, led by Stephen Molyneux, and ably assisted by Peter Haines and Leon Normore from the geological survey, wandered through the streets of Perth looking at building stones and other geological wonders.

If you are sad to have missed this, you can take a look at the guide below that talks you through a self guided similar tour.

https://dmpbookshop.eruditetechnologies.com.au/product/stepping-stones-two-self-guided-geology-trails-in-the-city.do

Our intrepid walkers met up in the Melbourne Hotel on Hay street, where, as you can see in the image below, there is some lovely amygdaloidal basalt in the passageway down towards the toilets.

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Carbon Loop #017

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Read the full newsletter here

Hello and welcome to The Carbon Loop — a newsletter by the CCUSNA dedicated to highlighting the Australian carbon capture, utilisation and storage industry

A quick plug to begin with.

On 19 and 20 February, the CCUSNA will host an invite-only, two-day workshop to consider the question: What are the opportunities and challenges associated with developing a multi-user CCUS hub in WA?

And in the lead up to the workshop in February the CCUSNA has been putting together a series of webinars to explore and set up the background to that central theme.

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Vale David (Dave) Roy McDonald (10.05.1932 – 26.11. 2025)

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Compiled by Don Poynton with thanks to Andrew Thompson, Stephen Keenihan and Michael Chaney AO.

Our industry has been blessed with many outstanding leaders but few better than Dave McDonald, WA PESA President 1974-75, Distinguished Member of PESA 1981, Chairman of APPEA 1987-89, Honorary Life Member of APPEA 1990 and APPEA Reg Sprigg Gold Medal 1998.

Dave grew up as a hard-working farm boy in Clandeboye, Manitoba surrounded by his large extended family. He moved to Alberta to work in the oil industry after earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Manitoba in 1952.

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WA PESA-ASEG Golf day 2025 at Wanneroo

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The annual ASEG-PESA golf classic event was held on 4th December in glorious weather at Wanneroo Golf club where nearly 92 golfers turned out to compete for glory and prizes.

We are happy to announce that the results were:

Team Winners

1st – Kurt Chambers, Rodger Edgecombe, Murray Burling, Blair Berglin

2nd – John Coffin, Peter Chia, Darren Lee and Edward Coffin

3rd – Alex Karvelas, Kevin Moran. Aaron Pederson, Adam Vonk

Individual Winners

Nearest to Pin sponsored by Xcalibur – Greg Turner

Nearest to Pin sponsored by Delft Inversion – David Christianson

Nearest to Pin sponsored by NRG – Aaron Pederson

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PESA WA Technical talk and Core Workshop with Brian Willis

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PESA WA October Technical Evening Talk —  

By Matt Fittall

A core group of PESA geoscientists gathered at The Globe on the evening of October 2nd to learn about the impact of new numerical modelling of deposition in wave influenced deltas in the interpretation of deltaic sequences and their facies distributions. Dr Willis and his co-workers showed how this work challenges the paradigm of a prograding equilibrium shoreface profile and a gradual upward- coarsening facies progression with a sharp-based shoreface succession generated by a relative sea-level fall.

In his presentation Brian Willis demonstrated that differences in...

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PESA WA October Technical Lunch — Fault Timing & Depocentre Development in the Northern Perth Basin

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The Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA WA) held its October Technical Lunch on 16 October 2025 Parmelia Hilton Perth, featuring a presentation by Chris Watts. The event attracted around 50 attendees from across the upstream sector, including representatives from Shell, Woodside, Santos, Chevron, and other leading energy companies in the Perth Basin.Chris delivered an informative and well-structured presentation highlighting the geological evolution of the Northern Perth Basin and the implications for exploration and resource development. His talk generated strong interest and engagement among participants.

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WA YP event

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PESA hosted a very successful YP event after the Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC) conference in Perth in September jointly with AIG, SPE and ASEG.

With over 70 attendees from both Perth and interstate, it was a wonderful evening of networking with both familiar and new faces.

A big thank you to our panellists who all volunteered their time after a packed week presenting at the conference: Ishtar Barranco (CCS Geologist, Chevron), Donna Sewell (Consulting Geologist, AIG WA Brach Chair) and Richard Lilly (Exploration Geologist, The University of Adelaide)

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Vale Rowley Butters

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Article prepared by Don Poynton who first met Rowley in 1972

(Accompanying photo from PESA News No 75, April/May 2005)

PESA Meritorious Service Awardee, Rowley Edward Butters passed away peacefully on Sunday 12 October, aged 87.

In the April/May 2005 issue of PESA News, newly elected PESA Federal President Dave Cliff wrote, “The biggest change for PESA will be the retirement of Rowley Butters as the society’s Secretariat. Rowley has been with the organization since its inception as the APEA Profession Division in 1968 when he was press-ganged into being WA Branch Treasurer”.

Rowley joined the industry as accountant with WAPET in the mid-1960s.

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VIC/TAS Meeting Updates

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PESA VIC/TAS branch is actively working on its schedule of meetings and will bring some in-house events to the membership ASAP. Meanwhile, some of the branch membership are able to access meetings of our sister geoscience societies in Melbourne. On Friday 10th October, a few PESA Victorians attended the SPE lunchtime talk given by the SPE Distinguished Lecturer Mike Byrne, of Elemental Energies. Mike spoke on the topic of CO2 injection well design with the subtitle "The same, but different".

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Australian Natural Hydrogen Conference 2025

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It’s a crucial year for the potential commercialisation of natural hydrogen, and the second Australian Natural Hydrogen Conference October 21-23 in the Adelaide Hills promises to shed new light on this emerging energy source.

With a handful of companies worldwide having confirmed high levels of natural hydrogen in the ground, all are now racing to prove they can commercialise the zero-carbon resource, and the conference, put on by the Natural Hydrogen Association of Australia, has some of the industry’s heavyweights fronting attendees.

Since the inaugural Natural Hydrogen Association of Australia conference in 2024, the game has changed.

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