Australian Maritime Boundaries 2020: Territorial Limits and Zones

Australia's maritime jurisdiction, including external territories, is represented in this geospatial dataset. Geoscience Australia developed the data, which delineates territorial baselines, maritime zones, and international treaty boundaries under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973. The data was updated in August 2019 to reflect the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty and covers latitudes from 7°S to 70°S and longitudes from 40°E to 175°E.

Use Cases

• Mapping maritime zones for legal and regulatory compliance based on the described territorial sea baselines and outer limits.
• Analyzing offshore resource management areas based on the representation of limits under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Visualizing international maritime boundaries for diplomatic and treaty analysis based on the included treaty data with neighboring countries.

Strengths

• Data is the official digital representation of Australia's maritime limits as established under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973.
• Coverage includes the entire Australian marine jurisdiction, from the mainland to offshore islands and External Territories.
• Developed by Geoscience Australia in consultation with other Commonwealth agencies like the Attorney-General's Department.

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.
• The data includes a legal disclaimer that the source legislation prevails in case of inconsistency with the digital representation.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, developed in consultation with the Attorney-General's Department, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Australian Hydrographic Office.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Currency August 2019, reflecting treaties up to the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty.

Freshness

Data currency is August 2019, with a platform record last updated on 2026-04-16.

Geography

Australian marine jurisdiction, including waters adjacent to the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories (approx. 7°S to 70°S, 40°E to 175°E).