Australian Maritime Boundaries Under Seas And Submerged Lands Act

Geoscience Australia's Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) data is a digital representation of Australia's maritime limits and zones as established under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973. The dataset covers the entire Australian marine jurisdiction, with a geographical extent from approximately 7°S to 70°S latitude and 40°E to 175°E longitude, and was updated in August 2019 to reflect the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty.

Use Cases

• Analyze the territorial sea baseline and outer limits of maritime zones for jurisdictional mapping and legal compliance.
• Model the limits for State and Northern Territory coastal waters under the Coastal Waters Acts and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 for resource management.
• Integrate the GIS data on maritime boundaries determined by treaties with neighboring countries for international relations and policy analysis.

Strengths

• Provides authoritative digital representation of Australia's maritime limits developed by Geoscience Australia in consultation with key Commonwealth agencies.
• Covers the whole Australian marine jurisdiction, including waters adjacent to the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories.
• Coordinates are supplied in the GDA94 datum, which is functionally equivalent to the widely used WGS84 standard.

Limitations

• The data reflects the coastline location based on source material available at the time of production (August 2019), which may be outdated for dynamic coastal areas.
• Legal disclaimer states that in the event of inconsistency, the limits under the actual legislation prevail over the digital data.

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 maritime limits and boundaries under Australian legislation and international treaties.

Time Range

Legal framework based on the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973, with data currency as of August 2019.

Freshness

Data currency is August 2019, with a platform record last updated in March 2026.

Geography

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