A large area consisting of two separate sub-blocks that were centred ~90 km east and 110 km south-east of Port Augusta has been explored for possible economic Tertiary lignitic coal deposits that may have formed in the southern part of a now uplifted, ~50 km long x ~15 km wide intramontane sedimentary basin, the Walloway Basin, as well as for any other presumed higher rank brown coal accumulation that could perhaps be present at depth there within a concealed remnant Triassic basin, i.e. one similar to the known buried coal occurrences in the Springfield and Boolcunda basins located 75 km to the north-west. Prior to starting its work on the subject EL 4454, Linc Energy in 2009 had completed drilling 5 petroleum exploration wells on its spatially overlapping PEL 120, and then in early 2010 had there conducted a follow-up drilling campaign of 29 appraisal wells which were designed to further determine the lateral extent and thickness of the known lower Tertiary Walloway coal seam. Standpipe piezometers were installed in 16 of the 29 wells to enable investigation over time of the hydrostatic head behaviour and groundwater quality in the basin, and thus establish a baseline hydrogeological model. During the first licence year, activity comprised the drilling in September-October 2010 of 5 vertical rotary mud exploratory/stratigraphic holes for a total penetration of 1320.5 m, which included 84.7 m of PQ3 coring in the Oladdie 1b hole to obtain bulk samples of the Walloway coal seam to submit for physical and chemical assessment. Lignitic coal with an average content of 14.2% fixed carbon and 27.6% volatile matter was encountered in Oladdie 1a (a 12 m thick intercept) and Oladdie 1b (11.4 m); the other three holes, Oladdie 1 and 2 and Yatina 1, were barren of coal in their Tertiary sequences. A comprehensive wireline geophysical log suite (density, gamma ray, caliper, full wave sonic, magnetic deviation and resistivity) was run in all holes barring the abandoned Oladdie 1 at the completion of drilling. Oladdie 2 was drilled to TD 318.1 m in the northern sub-block of EL 4454 after it was discovered that a hole previously drilled in 2006 by Flinders Power on that particular site (FPR 04-1) had encountered carbonaceous material, including minor coal, at the end of the hole. This hole had been abandoned while it was still within the carbonaceous interval, and no geophysical logs had been run. Therefore Linc Energy decided to drill Oladdie 2 in the same area to try to determine the total thickness of the carbonaceous interval. The new hole was sited on a gravity low where the pre-Tertiary Adelaidean metasedimentary 'basement' was geophysically interpreted to lie at a depth of ~280 m. The Oladdie 1 - 1b set of holes were also drilled on a separate gravity low located 6.5 km to the south, where the metasedimentary basement was geophysically interpreted to lie at a depth of ~290 m. Yatina 1 was drilled to TD 313.1 m on a gravity anomaly in the southern sub-block of EL 4454, with the aim of testing either a shallow coal target or possibly a major change in basement depth/lithology. The whole drill core sedimentary rock samples which were taken from Oladdie 1b subsequently underwent laboratory measurements of their density, compressive strength and strain characteristics; the underburden was sampled every 3 m and the overburden likewise, from a distance of 5 m above the coal seams. A proximate analysis was performed on sixteen blended whole drill core raw coal plies taken from the hole depth interval 203.2-215.1 m in Oladdie 1b. Over the ensuing four years of tenure, no more work was done before a decision was made to fully surrender the licence.