Flaxmans No. 1 Well was located within the south-eastern part of the Otway Basin, approximately 20 miles south-east of Warrnambool, on the Victorian coast. The well was drilled by Oil Drilling and Exploration Limited for Frome-Broken Hill Company Proprietary Limited, to a total depth of 11,528 feet. Drilling commenced on 3rd May, 1961 and was completed on 25th August, 1961. A full programme of logging, testing, and coring was undertaken.
The well penetrated Miocene-Oligocene sediments to a depth of 2008 feet, Eocene-Upper Cretaceous to 4833 feet, Upper Cretaceous to 6490 feet, Middle Cretaceous to 6876 feet, Lower Cretaceous to 7330 feet, and Lower Cretaceous - (?) Jurassic otway Group sediments to total depth of 11,528 feet.
Flaxmans No. 1 was drilled to test the hydrocarbon potential of the Tertiary and Mesozoic sediments in a closed seismic structure. Sixteen drillstem tests and ten production tests were undertaken but the maximum yield of 250 Mcf/D of gas from the interval 10,842 to 11,528 feet could not be maintained and the well was plugged and abandoned. Other possible reservoirs tested in the well yielded only small amounts of petroliferous gas, probably from solution in formation water.
The stratigraphic drilling operation at Flaxmans No. 1 was subsidized under the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act 1959, from 4833 feet to total depth.