PESA Branch Activities

WA Basin’s workshop to be held 1st-2nd Dec at Curtin University

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The 2025 Basins Workshop will take place on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 December 2025 at Curtin University, Perth in association with PESA WA Branch.  The aim of the workshop is to provide an informal forum for the exchange of insights and ideas regarding the evolution of sedimentary basins in Australia and around the world, and the diverse resources they contain, including hydrocarbons, minerals, geothermal energy, natural hydrogen, and the potential for CO2 and hydrogen storage.

Talks are limited to 10 minutes in duration, with ample time for discussion, so we are looking for thought provoking ideas, rather than polished conference presentations.

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PESA QLD Welcome Dr Brian Willis

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PESA Queensland were thrilled to host Dr Brian Willis for an evening lecture on his whistle-stop tour of the Australian states and territories.

Dr Willis is a recognised expert on fluvial systems, with more than four decades spent studying the sedimentology and stratigraphic organisation of these depositional systems.  This time, his focus was on the terminal end of the system with three-dimensional architecture of wave-dominated delta deposits the topic of the presentation.

Dr Willis, and his co-authors Tao Sun and Bruce Ainsworth, are using numerical models to challenge long-held rational for interpreting sea level variations in wave-dominated shallow-marine successions.

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WA evening talk – US Double act on fluvial systems

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A good crowd again assembled for Perth PESA evening talk on August 14, a double act on fluvial systems by John Holbrook (Texas Christian University) on the “Back-water Effect” on fluvial systems and Steve Hasiotis (University of Kansas) on the Neoichnology of the De Grey ephemeral river delta, Northwest WA

John Holbrook’s talk on the backwater effect provided an interesting discussion on fluvial architecture styles and an emerging tool and a work flow for predicting reservoir architecture, dimensions, volumes and heterogeneity in fluvial systems. 

Steve Hasiotis described the diagnostic patterns of plant and animal traces (and diversity),...

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PESA Symposium 2025 – Juggling the Energy Mix

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Symposium Chair Melanie Fitzell and the Queensland branch committee delivered another successful one-day symposium on Monday 1st September at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The conference opening address was delivered by the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, the Honourable Dale Last, who closed his speech with the words: “you drill, I sign”. This was followed by a Keynote address from Darren Moor, Executive Director Georesources from the same department, and a final Keynote from industry stalwart Rick Wilkinson of Energy Quest “Energy plan or just muddling through?”. 

A technical session featuring CCS and geothermal followed morning tea, three top quality presentations from Nikki Accornero (Accornero Advisory), Rachel Kieft (Santos) and Ray Johnson and Heinz-Gerd Holl (Novus).

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SA/NT Branch Winter Warmer

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Not to be outdone by WA Branch, SA/NT Branch held their Winter Warmer on 7 August at Prohibition Gin Distillery, in Adelaide’s CBD. Over 40 hearty souls braved the cold evening in the distillery’s tin shed to sample 3 different gins (Classic, Blood Orange & Field Blend Shiraz); cleansing ales were available for purchase as well. The proprietor  provided detailed information on each of the gins (and ales) and gave us suggested drinking instructions. Unsurprisingly, most members did not require much of the latter. Pizzas a-plenty were provided to sop up the drink.

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Exciting future events coming to WA

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We also have really exciting visitors coming to Perth during the coming months. On Thursday 2nd October Dr Brian Willis will be presenting an evening talk followed by a core workshop at Perth Core Library with Simon Lang and Tobi Payenberg. This trip is supported by Santos Ltd.

On the 6th and 7th November, we are delighted to be hosting Dr Henry Posamentier here in Perth. Henry is running a 2-day course entitled “Seismic Geomorphology and Seismic Stratigraphy: Fundamentals and Workflows”.

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WA June technical Lunch

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The Renaissance Tour: A revival of frontier basins with data-driven exploration.

By Lauren Found, Searcher.

Lauren Found of Searcher Seismic took us on a global magical mystery tour from the offshore Papuan Basin to the Scotia Basin offshore Canada on the northern Atlantic margin and the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia with its conjugate the Pelotas Basin offshore Brazil and showed us new insights from new data and interpretation in these basins that make them look more interesting than previously thought.

Lauren showed a new crustal model for the Gulf of Papua interpreted from long offset 2D seismic data suggesting the presence of new and previously overlooked depocenters and the possibility of the contin­uation of the oil provinces that are prolific in the onshore.

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SA/NT branch talk

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Sharon Tiainen (left) and Paul Strong (right), receive vote of thanks from Rob Kirk (centre) for their stimulating SA/NT branch luncheon talk

“New Geological Studies Leading to 2025 Acreage Release in the Polda and Otway Basins, SA” The July 31 meeting was attended by 35 participants

The Polda Basin is a 10,000 km2 Neoproterozoic to Jurassic basin covering the central western portion of the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia and extends westwards into the Great Australian Bight.

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WA Winter Warmer event (includes photo gallery)

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On 18th July, PESA-WA held their “Winter Warmer” networking event at The Globe Lounge Bar in Perth CBD, which this year featured a Jazz Quartet. Sophie Kerr and her band (WAPPA and ex-WAPPA students) played fantastic mellow as well as lively jazz tunes. The event was really well attended (62 people). It was a great opportunity to socialise with colleagues, friends and new members, particularly on a cold Winter’s evening. There was an open bar until 10pm, with fantastic food platters and raffle prizes.

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PESA Qld Technical Talk: Exploring for Hydrogen

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The Queensland branch July meeting returned to the Port Office Hotel for an interesting talk on Hydrogen exploration from Dr Josh Whitcombe, VP of Development and Operations at HyTerra.

Josh took time to introduce the audience to the different types of hydrogen and where they might be found. He then dived into more detail about the exploration and appraisal work Hyterra are doing at their Nemaha Project in Kansas, USA.

Nemaha is located between Kansas City and Wichita in the centre of a major industrial and manufacturing hub.

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