This project prepared the technical case supporting the definition of the outer limit of Australia's extended Continental Shelf under article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Australia's Continental Shelf Submission was lodged with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) on 15 November 2004 and was initially considered by the Commission at its 15th Session in April 2005.

Since then, an Australian delegation has made numerous presentations to the Commission and on 9 April 2008 the Commission adopted recommendations that confirmed the location of the outer limit of Australia's continental shelf in nine distinct marine regions. This decision gives Australia jurisdiction over an additional 2.5 million square kilometres of continental shelf that extends beyond 200 nautical miles from its territorial sea baseline.

More information on Australia's Continental Shelf is given in the Executive Summary of the Australian Submission on the Commission's website.

The submission was prepared in collaboration with the Attorney-General's Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Australia has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that extends beyond the 12 nautical mile territorial sea to a distance of 200 nautical miles (one nautical mile is internationally defined as 1.852 kilometres) in most places.

The EEZ gives Australia jurisdiction over the water column, seabed and subsoil in a marine area of some 10 million square kilometres. This area is considerably larger than that of the Australian continent (7.7 million square kilometres). In some places, Australia's continental margin extends further out than the 200 nautical mile limit.

In such places, under article 76 of UNCLOS, Australia has the right to make a submission to the CLCS to delineate the outer limits of these areas of "extended" Continental Shelf that provides sovereign rights to the natural resources of the seabed and what lies beneath it. Although this delineation was largely a scientific task undertaken within Geoscience Australia's Law of the Sea and Maritime Boundary Advice Project, the preparation of the submission involved the integration of scientific, legal and diplomatic matters requiring close collaboration with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Attorney-General's Department, the then Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, the Department of Finance and Deregulation and the Australian Hydrographic Service (Department of Defence).

This image shows the morphology of the Australian region with the boundary of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone in white and the outer limit of the areas of extended continental shelf in magenta.