Australian Maritime Boundaries And Treaties Geodatabase

Australia's maritime jurisdiction, including external territories, is defined by this geospatial dataset. Geoscience Australia produced this digital representation of territorial baselines, zone limits, and international treaty boundaries. The data was updated in August 2019 to reflect the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty.

Use Cases

• Analyze maritime jurisdiction for legal disputes using territorial straight baselines and outer zone limits.
• Map offshore resource exploration areas using limits defined under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Model international maritime relations using treaty boundaries between Australia and neighbouring countries.
• Calculate coastal state powers for States and the Northern Territory using limits from the Coastal Waters Acts.

Strengths

• Coverage spans the entire Australian marine jurisdiction from 7°S to 70°S latitude and 40°E to 175°E longitude.
• Data is produced by Geoscience Australia in consultation with Commonwealth agencies like the Attorney-General's Department.
• Coordinates are supplied in the GDA94 datum, functionally equivalent to WGS84 for broad compatibility.

Limitations

• The data reflects coastline location based on source material available at production time, which may be outdated.
• In case of inconsistency, the legal limits from the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 prevail over the digital data.
• Specific row counts, feature counts, and update frequency beyond the August 2019 currency date are not provided.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, in consultation with Commonwealth Government agencies.

Collection Method

Digital delineation and representation of limits established under Australian legislation and treaties.

Time Range

Data currency is August 2019.

Freshness

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Geography

Australian marine jurisdiction, including mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories.