In South Australia, Cambrian massive salt deposits of the eastern Officer Basin occur in troughs lying along the western and north-western margins of the Gawler Craton, and are considered to have been deposited in marginal to open marine environments. The salt deposits are interbedded with carbonates, and have been penetrated by several drillholes. New data on the bromine contents of 19 salt samples provides evidence that supports an involvement of normal marine brines in the salt formation. The nature of the water-insoluble residues in halite drill core samples examined from Manya 6 suggests that the salt deposits in the Relief Sandstone may have been deposited in oxidising conditions, owing to the occurrence of haematite, whereas the salt present in the younger Ouldburra Formation may have been deposited under reducing conditions. An abundant presence of fluid inclusions having two-phase compositions, and the poor preservation of primary inclusions in diagenetically-altered halite, together indicate that intensive post-depositional recrystallisation has taken place in the Cambrian evaporites. Temperature of homogenisation results for halite two-phase fluid inclusions from Manya 6 indicate that the upper part of the salt-bearing strata (Ouldburra Formation) was at some time post-deposition overheated to about 80°C, while the lower part of this salt sequence has been overheated to a even higher temperature. This heating event may be related to either the Devonian-Carboniferous age Alice Springs Orogeny, or to increased temperature and pressure caused within the parent brine by burial and decay of organic matter. The K, Mg and Ca values in Manya 6 and Wilkinson 1 drill core salt samples, as measured from both primary and secondary inclusion brines, indicate that their parent brines and thus the seawater in the Early Cambrian were typically Ca-rich and SO4-poor, which is a similar finding to those made in other studies of Early Cambrian halite from the East Siberia Basin and Silurian halite from the Michigan Basin. The eastern Officer Basin is still entirely a frontier realm for evaporite, Zn-Pb and petroleum exploration. The Early Cambrian salt-bearing Ouldburra Formation is considered to be a potential petroleum source rock (containing up to 1.9% TOC, and oil-prone Type II kerogen). Intercrystalline porosity and permeability of the dolostones in this formation varies from 6 to 23% and 23 to 1640 mD respectively. The post-Cambrian salt movement and heating event (80°C to 130°C) inferred herein may have helped to generate and migrate petroleum into nearby basinal structural traps.