Drillhole database

Geological Survey of Victoria's (GSV) drillhole database, also known as the borehole database, is a central store for geological information on holes drilled in Victoria. It's an important resource for mining; extraction and exploration of minerals and petroleum; and assessments of groundwater.

The database holds over 140,000 records in the following categories:

• petroleum
• groundwater
• coal
• mineral
• heavy mineral sands
• extractive industry
• engineering
• general.

Reports and data

GSV supplies non-confidential borehole data in MS Access, MapInfo and ArcView formats as part of the Geoscientific Data Package DVDs from Earth Resources Publications.

We also offer borehole information via the Geological Survey of Victoria Catalogue and as a map layer in GeoVic.

History of data capture

Before 1980, GSV recorded borehole data on 1 inch:1 mile plans and hard-copy borehole records.

This included:

• data for water boreholes drilled by both the public and private sectors
• all boreholes drilled by Minerals and Petroleum Division
• petroleum wells and some private-sector mineral exploration boreholes.

In areas where drilling was of particularly high density, locations were recorded on these plans as a single point or as occurring within an outlined area.

The parish was traditionally used as the primary classifier for numbering boreholes. Some minor anomalies exist where a borehole and parish boundary may be on one side of a road or the other, or where parish boundaries have been moved.

In 1980, GSV moved the location data to 1:100,000 AMG plans. Several years later, the survey started a program of electronic data collection.

• Borehole locations were digitised from the 1:100,000 plans with an accuracy of 300m.
• In areas of high borehole density, where boreholes were plotted on a single point, often only the first and last ten were recorded in the database.
• Boreholes whose parish was known, but exact location was unknown, were also recorded.
• Gathering mineral exploration borehole data from open-file exploration reports began in 2001 and is ongoing.
• Historic data is being captured 20m and 250m which is typically as accurate as the source allows.
• Assay data has been consistently captured but other downhole data hasn't.

For further information about the borehole database please contact us.

Page last updated: 02 Jun 2021