Academic literature on the topic 'Gippsland (Vic ) History, Military'

In 1981 Shell and its co-venturers were the successful applicants for gazettal block V80-3, now permit VIC/P19, on the north-eastern margin of the Gippsland Basin where, subsequently, 10 exploration wells were drilled. At the time of the award, the offshore Gippsland Basin had been explored for some 20 years, and the conventional 'Top Latrobe' play even then was considered to be largely exhausted although a few small traps of doubtful economic viability remained untested. Thus, from the outset, exploration in VIC/P19 also emphasised the intra-Latrobe play. While the existence of the intra-Latrobe play has long been recognised, its extent and limiting parameters are less well documented.Recent exploration results in the southern part of VIC/P19 indicate that the main phase (peak) of generation and expulsion of hydrocarbons from intra- Latrobe source rocks occurs at depths of 4 to 5 km for oil and 5 to 6 km for gas. Large-scale vertical migration of hydrocarbons (up to 2 km or more) is probably occurring in many parts of the central Gippsland Basin and has charged faulted intra- Latrobe traps, such as found at Basker-1 and Manta-1. These accumulations are characterised by multiple stacked reservoirs (fluvial and alluvial sandstones) and thin hydrocarbon columns. However, similar adjacent traps are dry, despite the presence of equivalent reservoirs (e.g. Basker South-I and Chimaera-I), probably due to inadequate lateral fault seals. Lateral sealing may occur along the fault plane itself or by favourable juxtaposition of lithologies, both cases being demonstrated in the Manta accumulation. The petrology and reservoir characteristics of Latrobe Group sandstones vary considerably, depending largely on sedimentary facies. Sands of fluvial or alluvial origin are generally inferior to those deposited in shoreline environments. An effective intra-Latrobe reservoir 'floor' lies at around 4 km burial depth for both fluvial and alluvial sandstones.

This thesis explores a new approach to writing the environmental history of settler societies through an explicit focus on ecological processes, as distinct from the more commonly used landscape or geographic units. In this case, I focus upon the hydrological cycle and four key processes that constitute it. The processes are precipitation; flow above and below ground in rivers, creeks and aquifers; stored or still water in lakes, ponds and wetlands; and evaporation. The work examines the impact of the ecological processes that make up the hydrological cycle within the context of the daily life of colonial settlers in the catchment of the Gippsland Lakes in south eastern Victoria, Australia, from the commencement of white colonization in the late 1830s up to the turn of the century. This time period was selected because by 1900, the principal changes which laid the foundation for the Lakes seriously compromised ecological health in the late 1980s and early 1990s were all in place. Inspired by gestalt psychology, it examines the interaction of those processes with settler knowledge of biophysical processes, their religious and cultural beliefs, economic and political forces at work in their world, work and leisure time, their language and expressions, values and aspirations for themselves and their families. Each of these aspects informed their perceptions of the ecology around them, and particularly, their perception of the significance of water. The findings confirms the critical importance of cultural values, generated through myth, story and action, to understanding environmental changes. Colonial Gippslanders were committed to: a belief in progress, or alternately, banishing wilderness; a belief that the world was made by God for human benefit; and the desire for certainty versus the actual uncertainty in hydrological conditions. Collectively, colonial Gippslanders believed in progress as much as they believed in God, believed themselves largely separate from nature and plumped for certainty. They set to re-plumbing the catchment to eliminate, as far as possible within their technical capabilities, the natural variations within the hydrological cycle. The tools which they applied to achieve this radical re{u00AD}plumbing included the application of engineering knowledge, supported by increasing amounts of technology and machinery and by sophisticated socio{u00AD}political lobbying.