Australian Maritime Boundaries Coastal Waters and States Arc (3NM)

Coastal Waters is a belt of water between the limits of the Australian States and the Northern Territory and a line 3NM seaward of the territorial sea baseline*. Jurisdiction over the water column and the subjacent seabed is vested in the adjacent State or Territory as if the area formed part of that State or Territory. This, and other arrangements for the management of offshore resources such as fisheries and petroleum, are defined by the Offshore Constitutional Settlement (OCS). The principal legislation implementing the OCS (Coastal Water (State Powers) Act 1980, Coastal Waters (State Title) Act 1980, Coastal Waters (Northern Territory Powers) Act 1980 and the Coastal Waters (Northern Territory Title) Act 1980) entered into force in January 1982 and February 1983.

  • The TSB used to determine Coastal Waters does not include low tide elevations greater than 3NM from the coastline or islands.

Data from Geoscience Australia, Australian Maritime Boundaries (AMB) data.

Data and Resources

Additional Information

Field Value
Published (Metadata Record) 26/09/2023
Last updated 27/09/2023
Organisation Department of Primary Industries
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Category Spatial Data
Full metadata URL https://metashare.maps.vic.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/api/records/098c6fe0-1363-5255-8f66-140660852138/formatters/sdm-html?root=html&output=html