The completion of marine boundary delimitation between Australia and Indonesia

• Published in: Geopolitics and international boundaries 1997-09, Vol.2 (2), p.132-149
• Main Author: Prescott, Victor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1362-9379
• DOI: 10.1080/13629379708407593

This study describes and analyses the 1997 maritime boundaries delimited by Australia and Indonesia. Apart from the Zone of Co-operation in the Timor Gap, which might be replaced eventually by one or more boundaries, the maritime delimitations between the two countries are now complete. The latest delimitations continue the pattern that these two countries use to produce imaginative solutions to overlapping claims. The treaty deals with boundaries between Christmas Island and Java and in the western Timor Sea and they were concluded as a whole package with nothing being agreed until everything was agreed. In the area north of Christmas Island, where a single boundary was drawn to divide the water-column and the seabed, Australia secured about one-third of the overlapping area. In the western Timor Sea, the countries continued the pattern of overlapping jurisdictions that had been effective since 1981 east of the Zone of Co-operation. In these overlapping zones Australia has jurisdiction over the seabed while Indonesia has jurisdiction over the water-column. The unusual configuration of the seabed boundary east of the Ashmore Islands is explained, including a unique use of a segment corresponding with Australia's Hedberg Line, and an assessment is made of the extent to which the boundaries might be considered to be equitable.