Australian Maritime Boundaries 2020: Territorial Sea Baselines and Jurisdictional Limits

Geoscience Australia's 2020 Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) data is a digital representation of Australia's domestic and international maritime limits and boundaries. The data includes territorial straight baselines, outer limits of maritime zones, and treaty boundaries with neighboring countries, covering waters from 7°S to 70°S latitude and 40°E to 175°E longitude. It was developed under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 and related legislation, in consultation with other Commonwealth agencies.

Use Cases

• Delineating offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage areas based on the limits referenced in the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Mapping Australia's territorial sea baseline and exclusive economic zone for legal and regulatory compliance.
• Analyzing maritime boundaries established by treaties with neighboring countries for diplomatic or research purposes.
• Determining state and Northern Territory coastal waters under the Coastal Waters (State/Territory Powers) Acts.

Strengths

• Data currency is specified as December 2020, providing a clear temporal reference.
• Geographic coverage is explicitly defined as approximately 7°S to 70°S and 40°E to 175°E.
• Produced by the authoritative national agency, Geoscience Australia, in consultation with other government departments.

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.
• The data disclaimer states that in case of inconsistency, the legal limits in the legislation prevail over the digital representation.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia

Collection Method

Delineation and digital representation of legal maritime limits and boundaries.

Time Range

Currency December 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 14:44:14.892116; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia's marine jurisdiction, including mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories.