Australian Maritime Boundaries 2014a: Territorial Sea Limits and Offshore Zones

Geoscience Australia's Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) data is a digital representation of Australia's domestic and international maritime limits and boundaries. The data includes territorial baselines, outer zone limits, and boundaries from treaties, covering waters adjacent to the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories. This version, published in May 2014, incorporates technical amendments based on user feedback.

Use Cases

• Map maritime jurisdiction for legal or policy analysis based on the described limits from the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973.
• Delineate offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage areas based on the representation of limits from the OPGGSA 2006.
• Visualize treaty-determined international maritime boundaries between Australia and neighbouring countries.
• Analyze coastal state powers and scheduled areas under the Coastal Waters Acts mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Developed by the authoritative national agency Geoscience Australia in consultation with other Commonwealth departments.
• Covers a broad geographical extent from approximately 7°S to 70°S and 40°E to 175°E.
• Provides coordinates in the GDA94 datum, which is functionally equivalent to the widely used WGS84.

Limitations

• Data currency is May 2014; legal or coastal changes after this date are not reflected.
• The description notes that in any inconsistency with legislation, the legal limits prevail over the digital data.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, published via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Delineation of legal maritime limits and boundaries under Australian legislation.

Time Range

Currency: May 2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 22:25:13.763249; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian marine jurisdiction including the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories.