Relying on private industry has created the supply line we have now.
We know that there are 5-15 billion barrels of sweet light crude in the comparatively shallow Townsville trough.
An off the shelf oil rig would set us back around a billion.
Extraction rates of around 300,000 barrels per month, would pay back the outlays and fund two more rigs, inside a year.
The others located a little further out in deeper water, where there are some interesting anomalies, that are also likely to be oil bearing.
Albeit, containing significantly larger reserves, at least ten times as large!?
Nearby gas reserves, would allow costless treatment of the sweet light crude with fairly basic chill filtering, all that's required to produce a superior sulphur free diesel, from traditional Australian sweet light crude.
This lack of refining, produces a product, that from well head to exhaust, produces 75% less carbon emission, than fully imported fuel!
Given the fact that these reserves are relatively close to tectonic plates, active fault lines and movement.
Simply leaving them there is not an option, particularly the possibly massive gas reserves. That would do 21 times less harm to the environment, if extracted and burned.
Waiting for someone else to do it for us, is likely to result in more of the same, huge reliance on foreign debt, massive profit exodus and monumental tax avoidance.
None of which serves us!
Current mineral extraction, is subject to the law of diminishing returns, and a point beyond which any further extraction becomes uneconomic, say in around thirty years or ten Parliaments?
Not very much lead time to convert our economy to an endlessly sustainable and prosperous one!
Rhrosty.

Our problem in particular is that neither of the major parties are
prepared to acknowledge that there is a problem.
Even when a government body, BITRE study 117 warns that our oil
security is at risk the governments response is to quickly remove it
from the government web site.
It is believed that Minister Martin Ferguson well understands what our
true situation is but he has been silenced by cabinet.

The report fortunately was downloaded by a French journalist and so got
propergated around the world.

Here is the report itself which the govt does not want you to read.;

http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/References/Bruce/BITRE-Report-117-Oil_supply_trends-2009.pdf

The government refused to acknowledge the report in parliament.

http://tinyurl.com/b5aq249

This attitude is very similar to US & other government attitudes.
Probably too hard and after the next election.

If you are interested in just what is the situation with the shale oil
business, here is a long and technical article that sets out the future
of these shale deposits.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/9748#more

Well this thread may be dead, but here is an article that shows how
temporary shale oil and gas is as a supply.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-01-15/crude-by-rail-does-it-really-make-sense

Not worth building a pipeline !