Australian Maritime Boundaries 2020: Territorial Baselines and Jurisdictional Limits

Geoscience Australia's digital representation of Australia's maritime zones, including territorial baselines and outer limits established under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973. This 2020 version updates the 2014 data to reflect the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty and covers the Australian marine jurisdiction from 7°S to 70°S and 40°E to 175°E. The data is published in consultation with the Attorney-General's Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Australian Hydrographic Office.

Use Cases

• Delineating maritime zones for legal or regulatory compliance based on the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973.
• Mapping offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage areas based on limits from the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Analyzing international maritime boundaries based on treaty data between Australia and neighboring countries.
• Visualizing coastal state powers and adjacent waters based on the Coastal Waters Acts.

Strengths

• Official data product from Geoscience Australia, developed in consultation with key Commonwealth agencies.
• Updated to reflect the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty, providing current treaty boundaries.
• Covers a broad geographical extent from 7°S to 70°S and 40°E to -175°E, including all external territories.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Delineation of legal maritime limits and boundaries under Australian legislation and international treaties.

Time Range

Legal framework as of August 2019, reflecting the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty.

Freshness

Data currency is August 2019, with metadata last updated in April 2026.

Geography

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