The POOLOWANNA 1:250 000 sheet area is located about 1000 km north of Adelaide, in the extreme north of the South Australian part of the Great Artesian Basin. It is entirely covered by the central southern end of the Simpson Desert. The oldest mapped exposed sediments are un-named Pleistocene fluviatile strata which outcrop on the eastern side of the area. The only other sediments exposed on POOLOWANNA are Recent dune and salina deposits. The French Petroleum Company (Australia) oil exploratory/stratigraphic well Mokari 1, drilled during 1966 a few km to the west on DALHOUSIE, intersected bedrock comprising Tertiary (159 m thick), Cretaceous (1076 m), Jurassic (563 m), Permian (451 m) and ?Ordovician (>132 m) rocks. Airborne magnetic surveys and ground gravity and seismic surveys were carried out on the map area in the early 1960s for the purpose of oil exploration, but no drilling was undertaken there subsequently. The geophysical surveys indicated approximately north- south orientated bedrock structural trends similar to those described as being present elsewhere in the Pedirka Basin to the west and south.