Reg Sprigg was born at Stansbury, York Peninsula, South Australia on 1st of March 1919. He graduated B.Sc in Geology and Zoology at Adelaide University in 1940 followed by B.Sc(Hons) and M.Sc. in Geology in 1941. He enlisted in the Royal Engineers in 1940, was transferred to Munitions Department from 1941-42, then to the CSIRO Soils Division from 1942-43.

In 1939 as a student of Prof Douglas Mawson he first visited the Arkaroola sheep station in the northern Flinders Ranges with five other final year geology students. On his first visit to Arkaroola, he fell in love with the wild mountain country with its diverse minerals and rock types and decided it was perfect for annual student field trips. Mawson asked Sprigg to do what he could to find a means to protect Arkaroola in the long term.

In 1944 Reg was seconded to the South Australian Geological Survey to reactivate the Radium Hill Uranium Mining field and to regionally map the Mt Painter Uranium field. Later he established the State Geological Mapping Division and undertook a wide range of mineral, hydrological, petroleum and engineering surveys. 

In 1946 he discovered the world’s oldest (620 mya) ‘Edicarian’ fossil animals and, in 1947, the first submarine canyons in the Southern Hemisphere, south of Kangaroo Island.

He married Griselda Paterson in 1951, with whom they had two children – Margaret (born 1952) and Douglas (born 1954). In 1954 he set up his own consulting and contracting geological and geophysical companies, Geosurvey of Australia P/L, and its subsidiaries and in the same year he took a leading part in setting up SANTOS Ltd and subsequently spear-headed oil exploration widely across Australia. Reg, Griselda, Marg (9 years old) and Doug (7 years old) were the first to cross the Simpson Desert in a motor vehicle. 

Geosurveys was the first Australian contractor in regional and submarine gravity studies and also land and marine seismic studies.  Which built its own Oceanographic Research Vessel, M.V. SAORI, and the country’s first deep-sea Diving Chamber which saved many lives during the building of Port Stanvac. Along with diving team mates, Reg Sprigg shares the offshore SCUBA diving depth record for southern Australia at 90 metres.

While still in his teens, he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of SA. He later became Foundation Chairman of the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association (1959-65). Councillor until 1982, and then became Emeritus Chairman and Life Member. He was also a Fellow of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Geological Society of America, Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the Geological Society of Australia and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences. He was awarded the Tate Verco and Weeks Gold Medal for achievement.