Fifty years ago Reg Sprigg, APPEA’s first chairman, and his six fellow APPEA founders passionately believed that Australia could supply its own oil and that it was nonsense to say the country was too old, geologically speaking, to have commercial deposits. With extraordinary energy, vision and a will to succeed they embraced the challenge and set out to prove their detractors wrong and that imagination can overcome entrenched mindsets.

That vision drove the development of an upstream oil and gas industry in Australia—an industry that today continues to contribute significantly to the nation's economy and growth. Despite this strong contribution to national security, it faced numerous challenges over the years to overcome legislative, fiscal and ideological hurdles. During its first five decades APPEA fought some epic battles, both internally and with government. In the process the Association moved from an uncoordinated group of crusading explorers to a sophisticated, thoroughly professional and influential body.

Most notable has been the Association’s lead in the huge changes of mindset in the industry on environmental matters and the approach to health and safety issues. When added to the plethora of technical innovations in the last 50 years, the overall result is an industry that has been a major contributor to Australia’s economic well-being.

To maintain that position in the future, APPEA and the industry face new challenges that will require the same vision, commitment and passion shown by the early pioneers—perhaps even more so. Oil will still be an important fuel, but the longer-term future lies in natural gas.

Today and tomorrow’s explorers still face the challenges of overcoming entrenched pre-conceptions, both within and outside the industry. The challenges remain of communicating the necessity of a strong, balanced and secure energy mix that can deliver solutions to emission reductions rather than exacerbate them. The challenges in the industry that Reg Sprigg and his compatriots faced in overcoming prevailing thinking on Australian geology remain. With the surge in North America and now worldwide on gas in unconventional reservoirs, we must redefine what exactly we mean when we talk of a reservoir.

Certainly over the next few decades we must learn to revisit Australia’s sedimentary basins with a new and bold outlook and pursue technical solutions with the same dogged persistence as the explorers of old.

Would that those who help form the world's financial markets adopt the same approach.