Australia's Maritime Jurisdiction and Continental Shelf Map

Australia's Maritime Jurisdiction wall map depicts the nation's maritime boundaries, including those of external territories and the Australian Antarctic Territory. The map is part of a 27-map series published by the Australian Ocean Data Network, with the extended continental shelf boundaries approved in April 2008. It is available as an A0-sized PDF for download.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial extent of Australia's exclusive economic zone using the depicted maritime boundaries.
• Reference the approved limits of the continental shelf for legal or environmental impact studies.
• Integrate the background bathymetry data from Geoscience Australia and Smith & Sandwell for oceanographic modeling.
• Use the map's jurisdictional layers as a base for plotting marine protected areas or shipping routes.

Strengths

• Part of a standardized series of 27 constituent maps providing consistent coverage.
• Includes continental shelf limits formally approved by the UN Commission in April 2008.
• Background bathymetry combines data from Geoscience Australia's 2009 grid and the 1997 Smith & Sandwell grid.

Limitations

• Data is static and reflects the jurisdictional situation as of the 2008 CLCS approval.
• The primary deliverable is a PDF map, requiring extraction for quantitative geospatial analysis.
• Sample data and underlying tabular/vector data files are unavailable for direct machine processing.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, likely originating from Geoscience Australia and government legal instruments.

Collection Method

Cartographic compilation of legal maritime boundaries and synthesized bathymetric grids.

Time Range

Maritime jurisdiction boundaries, particularly the continental shelf, are current as of the April 2008 CLCS approval.

Freshness

Metadata was last updated on 2026-04-04, but the core jurisdictional data is from 2008.

Geography

Covers all of Australia's maritime jurisdiction, including external territories and the Australian Antarctic Territory.