Australian Maritime Boundaries 2014a: Territorial Sea and Jurisdictional Limits

Geoscience Australia's Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) 2014a data is a digital representation of Australia's maritime zones. The data includes territorial baselines, outer 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

• Delineating maritime jurisdiction for legal and policy analysis based on the described limits from the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973.
• Mapping offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage areas based on the representation of limits from the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Analyzing coastal state powers and territory waters based on the inclusion of limits from the Coastal Waters (State Powers) Act 1980.
• Visualizing treaty-defined international maritime boundaries between Australia and neighbouring countries mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Developed by the authoritative national agency Geoscience Australia in consultation with other Commonwealth departments.
• Provides a complete digital representation of Australia's maritime jurisdiction, including external territories.
• Coordinates are supplied in the GDA94 datum, which is functionally equivalent to the widely used WGS84 standard.

Limitations

• Data currency is May 2014; coastline representation reflects source material constraints at that time.
• The description notes that in any inconsistency, legislative limits prevail over the digital data.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Delineation and digital development based on legislation and treaties.

Time Range

Currency May 2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 12:52:41.740967; freshness should be verified

Geography

Australian marine jurisdiction, approximately between 7°S to 70°S and 40°E to 175°E.