b'Seismic window Seismic windowMichael Micenko Associate Editor for Petroleummick@freogeos.com.auAustralias early oil discoveriesFigure 2.Seismic line M-2 recorded in 1979 near Moonie-1. The line is 6 fold and unmigrated making it The Kingfish story in the last issue ofdifficult to pick the subcropping geology below the Precipice reflection at 1.1 seconds.Preview prompted me to look into other discoveries that led to commercialdiscovery well flowed oil at 1765 barrelTen years earlier, on the other side developments and the spawning ofper day and the field peaked at a rateof the country, Rough Range1 a successful Australian oil industry. Iof ~9000 barrels per day shortly afterwas drilled by WAPET in 1953 and intend to give a brief description ofit began production in 1964 (Figure1).intersected an 8.6m oil column these discoveries, one in each stateCumulative production from the(Figures 3 and 4) in the Birdrong except NSW over the next few issues.subcropping Evergreen Formation andSandstone. This well produced at I will start with the Moonie oil field inPrecipice Sandstone (Figure 2) is over 24550 barrels per day when completed Queensland because the discovery ofmillion barrels. in 1955, and caused unprecedented this field had such an impact it was taught in Primary school back in the 1960s. Primary school was different back then - we used ink and pens to write with, young children were let loose with an axe to chop firewood for the classroom stove and everyone was given a free bottle of milk every day. Primary school was often the last formal schooling for some people so at the end of Grade 7 we received a graduation certificate.Moonie is located 262 m above sea level in the Surat Basin, 280 km west of Brisbane. The Moonie discovery well was drilled in 1961 by a Union Oil led joint venture and was the first commercial oil field in Australia. The Figure 1.Detail on monument in Brisbane commemorating the construction of the MoonieFigure 3.Seismic section across Rough Range illustrating the complex structure and limited oil column Brisbane pipeline. (from Rough Range -1 well completion report).AUGUST 2022 PREVIEW 34'