Australia's Maritime Zones and Continental Shelf Limits, 2013 Edition

Edition 4 of Australia's Maritime Zones map supersedes the 2006 edition. The map is derived from Geoscience Australia's Australian Maritime Boundaries version 2.0 data and shows continental shelf limits confirmed in April 2008, including unresolved areas and boundaries with neighboring nations. It covers Australia's maritime jurisdiction from Heard and McDonald Islands to Norfolk Island and from the Torres Strait to the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Use Cases

• Visualizing Australia's territorial sea baseline and maritime limits based on the Sea and Submerged Lands Act 1973.
• Analyzing continental shelf limits confirmed by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2008.
• Studying maritime boundary arrangements with Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, France, and New Zealand as listed on the map.
• Mapping the extent of Australia's maritime zones from the Arafura Sea to the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Strengths

• Derived from Geoscience Australia's authoritative Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) version 2.0 data.
• Incorporates continental shelf limits confirmed by an international commission in April 2008.
• Explicitly lists maritime boundary arrangements with five neighboring nations or territories.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data currency is listed as 2013, which may not reflect the most recent legal or geographic changes.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Derived from Geoscience Australia's Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) version 2.0 data.

Time Range

Currency 2013; incorporates limits confirmed in 2008.

Freshness

2013 (web map); last metadata update 2026-04-30.

Geography

Australia's maritime zones, including external territories and Antarctic claim.