Australian Maritime Boundaries 2020: Territorial Sea Limits and Zones

Australia's maritime jurisdiction, including waters adjacent to the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories, is represented in this GIS data product. Geoscience Australia developed this digital representation of territorial sea baselines and outer limits under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973, with currency in December 2020. The data includes limits for State and Territory waters under the Coastal Waters Acts and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.

Use Cases

• Mapping territorial sea baselines and maritime zones based on the legal definitions provided.
• Determining offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage areas under the OPGGSA based on the represented limits.
• Analyzing maritime boundaries between Australia and neighbouring countries based on treaty data.
• Visualizing the extent of Australian marine jurisdiction from latitude 7°S to 70°S and longitude 40°E to 175°E.

Strengths

• Data is the official digital representation developed by Geoscience Australia in consultation with Commonwealth agencies.
• Product coverage includes the entire Australian marine jurisdiction, with a defined geographical extent.
• Data currency is specified as December 2020, providing a known temporal reference.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• In the event of inconsistency, the legal limits under legislation prevail over the digital data.
• The coastline representation is constrained by the source material available at the time of production.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, developed in consultation with Attorney-General's Department, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Australian Hydrographic Office.

Collection Method

Delineation of maritime limits and boundaries under Australian legislation.

Time Range

Currency December 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 04:55:32.239634; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia including all external territories, approximately between latitude 7°S to 70°S and longitude 40°E to 175°E.