Australian Maritime Boundaries 2014a: Territorial Sea Limits and Zones

Geoscience Australia delineates Australia's domestic and international maritime limits and boundaries. This GIS data product provides a digital representation of territorial sea baselines, outer limits of maritime zones, and boundaries established under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 and related legislation. The dataset covers Australia's marine jurisdiction, including waters adjacent to the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories.

Use Cases

• Mapping territorial sea baselines and maritime zone limits based on the legal framework described.
• Analyzing offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage scheduled areas based on the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Visualizing international maritime boundaries determined by treaties with neighbouring countries.
• Determining state and Northern Territory coastal waters limits based on the Coastal Waters Acts mentioned.

Strengths

• Published by Geoscience Australia in consultation with Commonwealth Government agencies including the Attorney-General's Department.
• Contains technical amendments made on the basis of user feedback, including harmonisation of datasets in block SC51.
• Coordinates are supplied in the GDA94 datum, functionally equivalent to WGS84.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is limited; column-level documentation is absent.
• Data currency is May 2014; freshness should be verified for current applications.
• In the event of an inconsistency between this data and legislative limits, the latter prevails.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Developed as part of the primary role in delineating maritime limits and boundaries.

Time Range

Currency May 2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 02:40:49.913116; data currency is May 2014.

Geography

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