This is a list of shale oil operations in Australia. Operations include mining of oil shale, extraction of crude shale oil, and refining of oil products. As there is no shale oil production in Australia currently and little development work underway, this list is mainly of historical interest. The list is grouped first by state and then by location, in alphabetical order. If there was more than one operation at a location, the operations there are listed in approximate chronological order.
Oil shale outcrops at places over a wide area of New South Wales, to the east of the watershed of the Great Dividing Range.
Shale oil operations in New South Wales can be divided into these periods:
The list below shows shale oil operations that have been recorded in New South Wales; it may not be a complete list.
Queensland has the largest deposits of oil shale in Australia. Aside from limited activities around the time of the Second World War, there was little done to exploit those resources, until after the 1973 oil crisis. Activity decreased after the fall in oil prices, . After that time, the adverse environmental consequences of mining and processing the shale became increasingly significant to public acceptance and government approval. As of 2023, the only active work is on the deposit at Alpha.
The list below shows shale oil operations that have been recorded in Queensland; it may not be a complete list.
Deposits of Tasmanite oil shale were identified in the valley of the Mersey River, in Northern Tasmania, in the 1860s. Oil shale operations took place in this area, between and 1935, producing a total of only . Despite much effort and time, and experiments with different retorting processes, the industry in Tasmania proved not to be economically viable, under the prevailing circumstances and without the government support that did not eventuate.
The list below shows shale oil operations that have been recorded in Tasmania; it may not be a complete list.
Operations in Victoria were confined to refining of crude oil from shale. The is no record of oil shale being mined in Victoria.
The list below shows shale oil operations that have been recorded in Victoria; it may not be a complete list.
There are no recorded commercial shale oil operations that were outside New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, and Victoria.
Victoria does have small uneconomic deposits of oil shale. However, there are deposits of oil shale, in other states and territories of Australia, with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory. In the past, there has been some exploration work on the deposits in South Australia, Western Australia, and in the Northern Territory.