AIM:This reconnaissance reflection seismic survey was conducted by OEL 26 licensee Haematite Explorations (a subsidiary of BHP Ltd) in three separate offshore areas of southeastern Australia, after receiving persuasive advice on the region's likely prospectivity for discovering commercial petroleum fields tendered by the company's US-based technical consultant Lewis G. Weeks following a visit to Australia in late 1961. The survey, the first such conducted over the southern continental shelf zone, was designed to: (1) verify the presence of an appreciable thickness of sedimentary section, as interpreted from magnetic data; (2) obtain further control to delineate the shape and extent of sedimentary basins; (3) locate any structural features favourable for the accumulation of oil and/or gas.METHODS: Survey dates: 12/2 - 22/3/63 (SA portion of survey). Energy source: explosives. CDP coverage: 100% and 200% (dually recorded on a single streamer). Recording mode: 24 channel analogue - Western FA-32 recorder. SP interval: 1968 feet; group interval: 328 feet and 164 feet.RESULTS:17 lines totalling 657.2 miles were recorded in South Australian offshore waters by Party 86 of Western Geophysical Co. of America, who were contracted by Haematite Explorations on a turnkey basis, and used their seismic M/Vs Oil Creek and Bluff Creek as recording and shooting boats respectively. The data was then processed and interpreted in Los Angeles, California, by that company. Shoran positional support was provided by Offshore Navigation, Inc., of New Orleans, Louisiana.Data quality achieved from the South Australian portion of the survey was only rated as poor to fair, mainly due to signal deterioration caused by the effects of extensive faulting at deeper (i.e. pre - base Tertiary) levels. Only two reflective horizons could be mapped across the entire SA survey area with confidence: by tenuous correlations made with onshore well picks they are regarded as corresponding to a shallower intra-Tertiary (?Oligocene) event, and a more definite, probably base Tertiary seismic marker. North of Cape Jaffa a comparatively shallow, flat shelf with approximately 2500 feet of section near the shore extends seaward to the west and north; in places, though, it contains troughs and grabens with possibly more than 5000 feet of sediments.south of the Lucindale Fault trend, a basin approximately 16 miles wide is mapped, bounded on the north by the fault and on the south by an east-west basement high centred around Beachport. Depth of fill in this basin is believed to exceed 10,000 feet. South of the basin a series of fault folds are mapped roughly paralleling the coast. In general, the shallow horizons here tend to dip towards the south or southeast, while the deeper horizon tends to dip towards the land (northeast) and is faulted down towards the sea. Block faulting on a large scale has apparently taken place during Cretaceous time over the southern part of the surveyed area, with faults trending parallel to the coast and downthrown towards the sea This faulting, however, dies out rapidly in the Tertiary section. Between Beachport and Robe the sedimentary section, as indicated by the depth of reflection data obtained, thickens considerably across a compound fault zone, with up to 5000 feet of throw suggested.18 discrete anomalous structural features are described in this report, relating to the South Australian seismic programme, and all are thought to warrant further detailing, with up to 6-fold coverage recommended to try to improve record quality at shallower levels. Any future surveys would also produce better results if they are oriented more perpendicular to the now seen general fault strike trend.