Prospecting far Oil in Australia

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6625, 11 August 1931, Page 7

Prospecting far Oil in Australia

An interesting controversy has developed in Australia between scientists concerning the search for oil. Dr. Woolnough, the Commonwealth geologist, in a recent speech said that if intensive search on a scientific basis were made, there was little doubt that commercial oil would bo found in Australia within three years. He went on to criticise tho present methods by saying that the possibility of finding oil by blind stabbing was remote. This comment, inferring that searchers for oil conducted operations in an aimless way and hoped by a lucky stroke to strike a supply, was vigorously resented by the Director of Geological Survey in Victoria, who showed that' the search for oil in that State was scientifically methodical. Aerial photographic siirveys recommended by- the Commonwealth Geologist, he said, were absolutely useless where the country was flat, and the trial bores in Victoria on the edge of the great lignite deposits were not blind stabbing in any way.