In June 1996 MESA commissioned the Centre for Petroleum and Environmental Organic Geochemistry at Curtin University with $30 000 to investigate the applications to the Cooper-Eromanga Basin system of new molecular geochemical concepts recently developed at Curtin. MESA provided a sample set of 10 core samples of Jurassic and Cretaceous ages, and 8 crude oils, taken from the SA sector of the basin system: for technical reasons these were supplemented with 3 oils of known provenance from the Curtin collection. The authors' experience in past studies of this basin system had indicated that conservative, more conventional geochemical approaches are of limited value. Accordingly the focus of the present study has been strictly innovative: in effect the authors have striven to develop new geochemical technology and concepts. This report demonstrates that the application of such new research developments to this basin system has been very rewarding, and has provided new insights. Geochemical parameters based on the relative abundances of selected compounds have been used to infer the sources of the hydrocarbons, depositional environments, maturity of the sources, and relative distances of migration of the crude oils.