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Tectonic and Stratigraphic History of the Perth Basin

Created 20/01/2026

Updated 20/01/2026

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The tectono-stratigraphic development of the southwestern corner of Australia is illustrated in a plate reconstructed setting with a series of palaeogeographic maps based on a newly compiled structural elements map and chronostratigraphic section for the Perth Basin.

The area is complicated by at least two periods of extensional faulting, one in the Late Carboniferous Early Permian and a second in the Late Jurassic Early Cretaceous, separated by sag basin development in the Late Permian to Middle Jurassic. Depositional centres migrated through time and appear to have suffered oblique extension, with the most structuring associated with the Late Jurassic Early Cretaceous rifting episode. In addition, extensive volcanism leading up to breakup at about 132.5 Ma in the Valanginian has obscured the continent-ocean transition. The resulting basin structure comprises separate NS to NNW/SSE oriented rifted sub-basins, which were rotated and shifted westwards through time. Barremian/Albian oceanic crust then grew in a northwesterly direction in the Perth Abyssal Plain and was followed after ~100 Ma by fast spreading in a NNW direction in the NE Indian Ocean. Strata deposited during the Barremian to Recent sag phase of the Perth Basin are relatively thin and unstructured.

Known or inferred source rocks in this complex basin include gas and minor oil-prone coals in the Lower Permian (Irwin River Formation), Upper Permian (Sue Group), Lower Jurassic (Cattamarra Coal Measures) and Upper Jurassic (Yarragadee Formation). Marine shales, which developed anoxia at flooding surfaces in the Lower Permian (Carynginia Formation, Holmwood Shale) and basal Triassic (Kockatea Shale) became oil-prone source rocks. In addition, there is the possibility of a further speculative oil-prone source in the Bajocian (Cadda Formation) in deep water areas.

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Field Value
Title Tectonic and Stratigraphic History of the Perth Basin
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/0ae8c2b0-6e43-420c-be40-62d9e187b86c
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        106.0,
        -36.0
      ],
      [
        120.0,
        -36.0
      ],
      [
        120.0,
        -25.0
      ],
      [
        106.0,
        -25.0
      ],
      [
        106.0,
        -36.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal data.gov.au

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on data.gov.au "Tectonic and Stratigraphic History of the Perth Basin". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/tectonic-and-stratigraphic-history-of-the-perth-basin4