Early oil exploration in WA

From my first visit in 1968 to the Canning Basin in the Kimberley region of WA’s north, I was fascinated by its vast and unique landscape and drawn to the romance of the early oil exploration there. That interest spread State-wide as I worked in other regions and spent hours looking at the old exploration reports in the WAPET library.

After I returned to Australia and the Kimberley in 1978 I began to collect old photos and to research early exploration ventures such as the Okes-Durack drilling, using the records in the archives of the Battye Library in Perth.  This interest deepened while writing about the early exploration for the PESA Canning Basin, North West Shelf and WA Basins volumes and, as I came to better understand the growing importance of the oil and gas exploration industry to our State and country, I saw the need for a systematic effort to capture that history before it was lost.

Pioneers such as Jim Parry, Doug Smith and John Veevers gave me some of their old photos and an appeal to PESA members in 1995 drew wonderful photo sets from Arthur Lindner and others. This was, however, far short of the systematic collecting needed. Hence I was delighted when the State Library announced the Save Our Century program in 1999 and very pleased to represent the oil and gas industry on the Library Foundation Board, which raised funds to support the program. Chevron’s generous gift of the WAPET archives to the State Library was an important achievement. In 2018 the State Library proposed a new program, Treasuring the Minerals and Energy History of WA, but this did not proceed.   

The papers and files of legendary WA geologist Murray Johnstone were entrusted to me after Murray’s death and in 1918 the extensive files were presented to Battye Library as the Murray Johnstone Collection. In addition to the many photos of exploration by WAPET during the 1950s to 1970s, the collection includes a long film, The Dinkum Oil, which Murray made of the historic Rough Range oil discovery in 1953, and now viewable online at the State Library website. Unfortunately, the final climactic moment when oil and gas flowed  from the well, is missing, presumably on a second reel which has not been located by Murray’s partner. 

Attachments

Save Our Century: It’s Your Story, PESA News, Dec1999/Jan 2000. — 229.2 KB PDF File Download
Save Our Century Fund, APPEA’s Flowline October 1999. — 690.1 KB PDF File Download
By The Thousands Please, PESA News April/May 1995. — 331 KB PDF File Download
Introduction to the North West Shelf. — 1 MB PDF File Download
The Sedimentary Basins of WA - An Introduction. — 1.2 MB PDF File Download
Early Mapping at Rough Range, PESA News. — 1.8 MB PDF File Download
A Fateful Meeting Remembered, PESA News. — 550 KB PDF File Download
The Other Rough Range Strike, PESA News. — 1.5 MB PDF File Download