Oil shale in Australia

Deposits with the greatest potential for commercial development are the Rundle, Stuart and Condor sites located near Gladstone, Mackay and Proserpine in Queensland.

[1] The marine-type oil shale tasmanite, located in Tasmania, of Permian age,[1] occurs mainly in the north-western districts, particularly in Latrobe–Railton area.

[4] The marinite of the Toolebuc Formation, Eromanga and Carpenteria basins in Queensland and neighbouring states is from the Early Cretaceous era.

[1] The organic matter in this formation, composed largely of bituminite, liptodetrinite and lamalginite, has a hydrogen:carbon ratio about 1.1 ±0.2, which makes it highly aromatic and relatively resistant to conventional retorting technologies.

[3] Oil shale in Australia was referred to for the first time by François Péron, et al., in Voyage de Découverte aux Terres Australes [5] which was published in Paris in 1807, describing what was probably torbanite from the Newnes deposit.

[6] The first shale oil was extracted by the Pioneer Kerosene Works at America Creek in Wollongong district in December 1865 by utilizing the "D" retort.

In 1910, the British Australian Oil Company erected a retort at Murrurundi, New South Wales, but it closed shortly afterwards.

[7] In the 1920s Vidler & Co. installed a Stockhausen retort at Crown Ridge, Capertee, the Torquay & Anglesea Oil Company erected a Schultz retort at Torbane Siding, and the Australian Imperial Shale Oil Company began operations at Wollar, all of which failed after a short period.

In addition to Glen Davis, three NTU retorts were operated by Lithgow Oil Proprietary at Marangaroo, New South Wales, during the war.

[2] Under pressure from a sustained campaign by the environment group Greenpeace and facing financial difficulties the project was sold by receivers to the newly formed Queensland Energy Resources.

[2][3][11] In August 2008, Queensland Government announced a review to study environmentally acceptable ways for the oil shale development.

[12] Australian Thermal Solution, a subsidiary of Blue Ensign Technologies, was planning to build a demonstration plant at Julia Creek to test its Rendall Process.

OilCorp is progressing to development of its oil shale resource located north of Julia Creek within the Toolebuc Formation.

Greenvale Mining, a developer of the Alpha deposit, reviewed the viability of the South Africa-developed Vertical Retort Torbanite processing technology.