Australia is one of the world’s largest gas producers. Yet gas companies have plans to open up large parts of Australia to further gas exploration.

Massive gas projects are also planned across Australia’s offshore waters from Western Australia to Victoria.

Gas is a polluting fossil fuel that is bad news on many fronts: it’s driving climate change, worsening asthma in children, driving up power bills and is increasingly unnecessary as Australia transitions to cleaner, cheaper sources of power.

This map pulls together information from each Australian state and territory to identify which parts of the country have been handed over to gas companies for exploration. For more information on these projects, check out our article Where does Australia’s gas come from?.

Which parts of Australia are being opened to gas exploration?

Enter your postcode on the map to find out if your area is at risk from gas exploration

The areas on this map are called ‘tenements’ – areas that governments have provided or are considering providing to gas companies to look for and produce gas. You can identify the three different tenements on this map using the key and the colours.

There are three broad categories of tenements shown on this map:

• Production licences (red): These are areas where gas companies have permission to actively produce gas for sale. In most cases, production licences last for decades, enabling them to operate until they run out of gas.
• Exploration permits (yellow): These are areas where gas companies have been given a fixed period of time to search for gas and drill exploratory wells.
• Retention leases (blue): These are areas that gas companies have reserved the right to develop in the future but are not currently being searched for gas.

There are also two other areas shown on this map:

• Applications (purple): These are areas that gas companies have asked the government for the rights to explore or produce gas. A government will either reject or approve these applications.
• Release areas (green): These are areas the government is offering to gas companies to bid for the rights to explore for gas. This process is called an ‘acreage release’. 

This map focuses on gas exploration and does not include all gas infrastructure, such as pipelines, power stations and liquified gas export and import facilities, whether planned or existing.

You can search this map by typing in your suburb, town or postcode in the search box in the top right hand corner. As you zoom into the map, you will be able to see the tenement name and the names of the companies that are searching for gas.

This map was last updated in July 2022. 

Acknowledgement: This map was developed by Martin von Wyss, vW Maps Pty Ltd, vwmaps.com. Any errors in this map are the responsibility of the Climate Council.

For the latest information on gas exploration in your state or territory, view the following government websites:

• Offshore gas: NEATS Public Portal Map
• Western Australia: GeoView.WA Map
• New South Wales: MinView NSW Map
• Northern Territory: POINT NT Map
• Queensland: GeoResGlobe QLD Map (must zoom in to see exploration areas)
• South Australia: SARIG SA Map
• Victoria: Earth Resources GeoVic VIC Map (this website is very clunky and difficult to use)
• Tasmania: MRT TAS Map