Neogene-to-Recent deformation is widespread on and adjacent to Australia's ‘passive’ margins. Elevated historical seismic activity and relatively high levels of Neogene-to-Recent tectonic activity are recognized in the Flinders and Mount Lofty Ranges, the SE Australian Passive Margin, SW Western Australia and the North West Shelf. In all cases the orientation of palaeostresses inferred from Neogene-to-Recent structures is consistent with independent determinations of the orientation of the present-day stress field.Present-day stress orientations (and neotectonic palaeostress trends) vary across the Australian continent. Plate-scale stress modelling that incorporates the complex nature of the convergent plate boundary of the Indo-Australian Plate (with segments of continent–continent collision, continent–arc collision and subduction) indicates that present-day stress orientations in the Australian continent are consistent with a first-order control by plate-boundary forces. The consistency between the present-day, plate-boundary-sourced stress orientations and the record of deformation deduced from neotectonic structures implicates plate boundary forces in the ongoing intraplate deformation of the Australian continent.Deformation rates inferred from seismicity and neotectonics (as high as 10−16 s−1) are faster than seismic strain rates in many other ‘stable’ intraplate regions, suggestive of unusually high stress levels imposed on the Australian intraplate environment from plate boundary interactions many thousands of kilometres distant. The spatial overlap of neotectonic structures and zones of concentrated historical seismicity with ancient fault zones and/or regions of enhanced crustal heat flow indicates that patterns of active deformation in Australia are in part, governed, by prior tectonic structuring and are also related to structural and thermal weakening of continental crust. Neogene-to-Recent intraplate deformation within the Australian continent has had profound and under-recognized effects on hydrocarbon occurrence, both by amplifying some hydrocarbon-hosting structures and by inducing leakage from pre-existing traps due to fault reactivation or tilting.

Knowledge of the in situ stress field of the Australian continent has increased greatly since compilation of the World Stress Map in 1992, principally by analysis of borehole breakouts and drilling-induced tensile fractures in petroleum wells. Stress orientations are variable across the Australian continent as a whole. However, within 15 of 16 individual stress provinces defined in the Australian continent (of one to a few hundred kilometres scale), mean stress orientations are statistically significant. The stress provinces, and stress trajectory mapping, reveal that there are systematic, continental-scale rotations of stress orientation within Australia. Unlike many other continental areas, stress orientations do not parallel the direction of absolute plate motion. Nonetheless, the regional pattern of stress orientation is consistent with control by plate boundary forces, if the complex nature of the convergent northeastern boundary of the Indo-Australian plate, and stress focusing by collisional segments of the boundary, is recognized.

The tectonic forces controlling the present‐day regional intraplate stress field in continental Australia have been evaluated through a finite element analysis of the intraplate stresses in the Indo‐Australian plate (IAP). Constraint for the modeling is provided by an observed regional stress field based on observations in 12 stress provinces. A weighted “basis set” method has been employed to provide an efficient means to evaluate a very large number of tectonic force combinations and to make a quantitative assessment of the fit between the observed and predicted stress fields. Our modeling results indicate that the major features of the regional stress field in continental Australia can be explained in terms of a geologically plausible array of tectonic forces. While the results continue to substantiate that modeling of the Australian intraplate stress field is inherently nonunique, we are nevertheless able to draw a number of fundamental conclusions about the tectonic settings along the principal plate boundary segments including the following: (1) The Himalayan and New Guinea boundaries exert a compressional force on the IAP. (2) Fitting the stress field in the Bowen Basin requires compressional boundary forces along the Solomon and New Hebrides subduction zones directed toward the interior of the IAP. (3) East‐west compression in eastern Australia requires a small compressional force along the Tonga‐Kermadec subduction zone. (4) Fitting the stress field in southeastern Australia requires compressional forces along the New Zealand, Puysegur Trench, and Macquarie Ridge boundary segments. (5) Significant tensional slab‐pull forces exist only along the Java subduction zone.

New in situ data based on hydraulic fracturing and overcoring have been compiled for eastern Australia, increasing from 23 to 110 the number of in situ stress analyses available for the area between and including the Bowen and Sydney Basins. The Bowen Basin displays a consistent north‐northeast maximum horizontal stress (σH) orientation over some 500 km. Stress orientations in the Sydney Basin are more variable than in the Bowen Basin, with areas of the Sydney Basin exhibiting north‐ northeast, northeast, east–west and bimodal σH orientations. Most new data indicate that the overburden stress (σV) is the minimum principal stress in both the Bowen and Sydney Basins. The Sydney Basin is relatively seismically active, whereas the Bowen Basin is relatively aseismic. Despite the fact that in situ stress measurements sample the stress field at shallower depth than the seismogenic zone, there is a correlation between the stress measurements and seismicity in the two areas. Mohr‐Coulomb analysis of the propensity for failure in the Sydney Basin suggests 41% of the new in situ stress data are indicative of failure, as opposed to 13% in the Bowen Basin. The multiple pre‐existing structural grains in the Sydney Basin further emphasise the difference between propensity for failure in the two areas. Previous modelling of intraplate stresses due to plate boundary forces has been less successful at predicting stress orientations in eastern than in western and central Australia. Nonetheless, stress orientation in the Bowen Basin is consistent with that predicted by modelling of stresses due to plate boundary forces. Variable stress orientations in the Sydney Basin suggest that more local sources of stress, such as those associated with the continental margin and with local structure, significantly influence stress orientation. The effect of local sources of stress may be relatively pronounced because stresses due to plate boundary forces result in low horizontal stress anisotropy in the Sydney Basin.