Australian Maritime Boundaries 2014a: Territorial Sea Baselines and Limits

Geoscience Australia's Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) 2014a data provides a digital representation of Australia's maritime zones established under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973. The data includes territorial sea baselines, outer limits of maritime zones, and boundaries from treaties with neighboring countries, 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 zones for legal and jurisdictional purposes based on the digital representation of the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973.
• Determining offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage areas under the OPGGSA based on the included scheduled area limits.
• Visualizing Australia's international maritime boundaries with neighboring countries based on treaty data.
• Analyzing coastal and marine spatial planning using the geographic extent covering approximately 7°S to 70°S and 40°E to 175°E.

Strengths

• Developed by Geoscience Australia in consultation with other Commonwealth agencies including the Attorney-General's Department and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
• Covers the entire Australian marine jurisdiction, including external territories.
• Provides coordinates in the GDA94 datum, which is functionally equivalent to WGS84.

Limitations

• Data currency is May 2014; maritime boundaries may have been updated since.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data structure and attributes require inspection after download.
• In the event of an inconsistency between this data and legislation, the latter prevails, as stated in the disclaimer.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Delineation of legal maritime limits and boundaries under Australian legislation.

Time Range

Snapshot as of May 2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 20:53:56.519083; however, the data itself reflects the location of the coastline as of May 2014.

Geography

Australian marine jurisdiction, including mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories, approximately between 7°S to 70°S and 40°E to 175°E.