Australian Maritime Boundaries 2020: Territorial Limits and Treaties

Geoscience Australia's Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) 2020 dataset is a digital representation of Australia's maritime limits and boundaries as established under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973. The data includes territorial baselines, outer limits of maritime zones, and international treaty boundaries, updated to reflect the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty. Coverage spans the Australian marine jurisdiction from approximately 7°S to 70°S latitude and 40°E to 175°E longitude.

Use Cases

• Mapping maritime zones for legal and administrative purposes based on the defined territorial baselines and outer limits.
• Analyzing offshore resource management areas based on the limits referenced in the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
• Visualizing international maritime boundaries for diplomatic or treaty analysis based on the included treaty data.
• Supporting coastal and marine spatial planning using the geospatial representation of Australia's marine jurisdiction.

Strengths

• Data is the official digital representation of Australia's maritime limits, produced by the authoritative government agency Geoscience Australia.
• Includes updates from specific international agreements, such as the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty.
• Provides coverage for the entire Australian marine jurisdiction, including external territories.

Limitations

• The description states that in the event of an inconsistency, the legal limits under the legislation prevail over the digital data.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The data reflects the coastline location based on source material available at the time of production (August 2019 currency).

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, developed in consultation with other Commonwealth agencies including the Attorney-General's Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Currency August 2019, with updates for specific treaties like the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 19:21:46.807353; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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