Adelaidean (late Proterozoic) time is represented by the Precambrian portion of the thick sequence in the Adelaide geosyncline (its stratotype basin) in South Australia. Comparable Adelaidean sedimentation, including the deposition of glaciogenic sediments, is recorded in other intracratonic and epicratonic basins extending northwards across Australia. In the Adelaide geosyncline, which lies to the east of the Gawler craton and its cratonic platform cover (the Stuart shelf), up to 15 km of mainly shallow-water sediments accumulated, partly in intracratonic troughs and perhaps partly on a miogeoclinal continental shelf. The earliest sedimentation is associated with rifting and basic volcanism, with an estimated age of ca. 1100 Ma. It commenced with basal blanket sands, shelf carbonates and basaltic volcanics, followed by mixed carbonate, clastic and evaporitic beds (Callanna Beds). The overlying Burra Group consists of a number of west-derived, possibly deltaic cycles and magnesite-bearing platform carbonates. The unconformably overlying late Adelaidean Umberatana Group contains the lower glacial beds (including the Sturt Tillite), interglacial siltstone (dated at about 750 Ma) and carbonate, and the upper glacial beds. The post-glacial Wilpena Group commences with a distinctive ‘cap’ dolomite above the upper glacials, and contains mainly fine to medium clastics and the Ediacara metazoan assemblage. Late Adelaidean sedimentation patterns are sufficiently similar in the Officer, Amadeus, Ngalia and Georgina basins of central Australia, and in the Kimberley Region, Western Australia, to suggest interconnection with the Adelaide geosyncline to the south. In the Amadeus basin, the early Adelaidean sequence is younger than about 1050 Ma, but cannot be directly correlated with the early Adelaidean formations of the Adelaide geosyncline. However, the late Adelaidean glacial and younger sequences are readily correlated; they include the lower glacial Areyonga Formation, and the Arumbera Sandstone I containing elements of the Ediacara assemblage. In the Georgina and Ngalia basins, mainly late Adelaidean sequences, including thick glacials, can mostly be correlated with the Amadeus basin. In the Kimberley Region, earliest Adelaidean clastics may be represented, but only the late Adelaidean glaciogenic and associated sediments can be correlated with confidence. The tillites commonly overlie glaciated pavements. The lower glacials are represented only in a graben, while the upper glacials and succeeding sequence are more widespread. Post-glacial shales have been dated at ca. 670-640 Ma. The dominantly carbonate and clastic sequences of the Bangemall basin, Western Australia, cannot be directly correlated with any type Adelaidean, but geochronology suggests an earliest Adelaidean age (ca. 1050 Ma).