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

Geoscience Australia delineates Australia's maritime jurisdiction under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973. This digital product, updated in May 2014, covers a geographical extent from approximately 7°S to 70°S latitude and 40°E to 175°E longitude. The data includes territorial baselines, outer limits of maritime zones, and boundaries from treaties with neighboring countries.

Use Cases

• Delineating maritime zones for legal and jurisdictional purposes based on the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973.
• Mapping offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage areas under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Analyzing maritime boundaries established by treaties between Australia and neighboring countries.
• Visualizing Australia's maritime limits adjacent to the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories.

Strengths

• Developed by Geoscience Australia in consultation with Commonwealth agencies including the Attorney-General's Department and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
• Provides a digital representation of legally established limits, harmonizing boundaries, scheduled areas, and graticular blocks.
• Coordinates are supplied in the GDA94 datum, which is functionally equivalent to WGS84.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is limited; column-level documentation is absent and field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The data reflects the coastline location based on source material available at the time of production (May 2014).
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia

Collection Method

Primary delineation of Australia's domestic and international maritime limits and boundaries.

Time Range

Currency: May 2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 04:30:13.555689; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia's marine jurisdiction including waters adjacent to the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories.