Compilation and re-interpretation of open file data from the Eucla Basin - southern Officer Basin region preceded exploratory and stratigraphic percussion drilling undertaken in an area north of the Trans Australian Railway (6 holes, total 1032 m). This drilling disclosed sub-bituminous coal and oil shale of subeconomic grade in the Cretaceous Madura Formation, plus lignite and fossil wood in the Tertiary Pidinga Formation, in Denman Trough drillhole 80EP5 within EL 730. Drill cuttings samples taken for coal analysis from the depth interval 86 to 168 m in this hole produced an average oil yield of 26 litres per tonne, peaking at 72 L/t between 94 and 96 m depth. Further percussion/rotary drilling (7 holes, total 1089 m), which included taking cores during a re-drill of the coal discovery location by hole 81EPR5, downgraded the Denman coal prospect in terms of thickness and areal extent. This was despite the cored Pidinga Formation depth interval 89-90 m returning an oil yield of 167 L/t, and averaging 56 L/t between 84 and 94 m depth. During a search for possible Mississippi Valley type Pb-Zn deposits or commercial oil shale within carbonate facies of the Cambrian Observatory Hill Formation, multi-element assay results from helicopter reconnaissance rock chip sampling and follow-up detailed auger and stream sediment sampling of pre-Cretaceous rocks that outcrop just west of Wyola Lake revealed anomalous Ba, As and V concentrations in lateritic sandstones, but no elevated base or precious metal values. Subsequent ground magnetic surveying and bedrock petrography did not give indication of a possible source for the observed geochemical anomaly.