At the request of the Vacuum Oil Company Pty. Ltd. responsibility was undertaken for the submission of a report on the physical and engineering properties of the soils from the proposed oil refinery site north of O’Sullivans Beach, Hundred Noarlunga South Australia. A considerable amount of soil mechanics data was available, for the surface and near surface layers, on neighbouring deposits within the Christies Beach area. A preliminary survey of the Refinery site showed that the upper layers were similar to those at Christies Beach and further investigation and testing confirmed this similarity. As a result many of the properties of the Christies Beach soils are applied to identical soils of the refinery area. The properties of the deeper layers were determined from tests on selected sealed tube samples as taken by the Mines Department of South Australia. A test programme was drawn up by officers of the soil mechanics section of the C.S.I.R.O. and the programme was carried out in conjunction with Soil Engineering Laboratories of Adelaide and Foundation Engineering Pty. Ltd. of Melbourne.