Australia's Submarine Cable Locations and Protection Zones, 2021

Three cable protection zones declared by the Australian Communications and Media Authority safeguard critical international telecommunications links. The dataset details the locations of cables within zones off Perth and Sydney, which stretch from shore to a depth of 2,000 metres and extend one nautical mile either side of the cable. Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Communications and Media Authority) published this information in 2021.

Use Cases

• Map critical undersea infrastructure for risk assessment based on the defined protection zones.
• Analyze maritime activity restrictions based on the described prohibitions within the cable zones.
• Visualize the geographic path of major international cable networks like SEA-ME-WE3 and Australia Japan Cable.

Strengths

• Data is current as of 2021 and sourced directly from the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
• Specific geographic zones are defined with clear boundaries (e.g., from shore to 2000m depth, one nautical mile wide).
• Explicitly names the protected cable networks: SEA-ME-WE3, Australia Japan Cable, and Southern Cross Cable.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified as the underlying data reflects a 2021 snapshot.

Provenance

Source

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)

Collection Method

Location information compiled from spreadsheets provided to Geoscience Australia from ACMA.

Time Range

2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 09:58:37.186684; freshness should be verified

Geography

Coastal waters of Perth (Western Australia), Northern Sydney (New South Wales), and Southern Sydney (New South Wales), Australia.