It extended its Australian activities to oil exploration, petrochemicals and coal mining, and became a leading partner in Australia's largest resource development project, the North West Shelf Venture.

[3] Shell's involvement in Australia began in 1901 when bulk fuel handling facilities commissioned by the 'Shell' Transport and Trading Company of London at Gore Bay, Sydney and on leased land in Melbourne, near Williamstown railway station.

[1] In 1903, the tanker SS Petriana – owned by the Shell/Royal Dutch joint venture Asiatic Petroleum Company – was wrecked outside of Port Phillip Bay, causing Australia's first major oil spill.

The hull of the vessel was completed in December 2013 and the Prelude was scheduled to start producing LNG in 2016—analysts estimated the total cost of construction at more than US$12 billion.

In July 2011, the Federal Government gave approval for the company to drill an exploration well 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the west of the Ningaloo Marine Park.

[12] In February 2019, Royal Dutch Shell was granted leases for $10 billion (AUS) towards the Surat project, which it will undergo with PetroChina under the joint venture of Arrow Energy.

[14] It will use infrastructure from the company's QCLNG project do develop the biggest coal seam gas resource in the country, which is predicted to speed up the process and reduce the environmental impact.