Mapping Australia's Seabed

The AusBathyTopo 250m (Australia) Grid - A High-resolution Depth Model for Australia

Geoscience Australia, James Cook University, University of Sydney & Australian Hydrographic Office

October 23, 2023

A map of Australia with the land greyed out and the ocean coloured from red in coastal zones to purple in deeper areas. This map has been made available through AusSeabed's AusBathyTopo 250m Grid. AusSeabed is an initiative of Geoscience Australia

A bar indicating depth colours represent with purple at the deepest end and red at the shallowest — Depth colour map

The coastline and marine estate of Australia is vast. Most look across the surface of the ocean to the horizon, but don’t think too much about what is below that blue expanse.

We want to change that.

An image of the north western part of Australia depicting the ocean around Leveque Shelf and the north western side of the Kimberley

An image of the Great Barrier Reef north and south of Cairns and oceanwards showing Carnegie Ridge and the Queensland Plateau

Highlights around the country

01 / 06

What's new?

Clean and seamless 3D bathymetric surface for Australia’s underwater landscape. Added detail and clarity to the transition between land and sea through more precise datasets. Incorporated higher-resolution regional datasets that are also available as higher resolution 30 m products under the AusBathyTopo Series. These regional compilation datasets cover the Great Barrier Reef, Bass Strait, and Torres Strait areas.

New innovations such as the use of Earth observation data (satellite-based) produced by Digital Earth Australia to improve coastline definition and present a seamless transition between land and sea.

Slide the split panes below to see the improvements provided by the 2023 update.

“The 2009 AusBathyTopo dataset product has been very valuable for my mapping building. It has been the ‘“base’” dataset I use when making mosaics, with all higher resolution data incorporated into the base layer” Bathymaps (private company creating maps for fishermen)

Next steps

Geoscience Australia will regularly update this product, using new and archived data-sets, as part of the AusBathyTopo Series. Updates will leverage off the national coordination of seabed mapping activities through AusSeabed.

“Having access to a regularly updated national bathymetry grid will help ensure the reef classes of the Australian Marine Parks Ecosystems product are updated over time. A regularly updated multi-resolution product (reflecting the best available resolution for any area) would be an additional high-value product for the marine environmental management sector.” - Parks Australia

An image of the Torres Strait that also captures the northern most part of the Great Barrier Reef. The Strait is entirely red and orange with the reef moving to yellow as the water becomes deeper before turning to teal past the reef

An image of the Sharks Bay, Carnavon Terrace and continuing west over the ocean on the western coast of Australia. The coastal region and Sharks Bay are red moving to teal at Carnavon Terrace. As the ocean continues the depth moves though teal to dark blue then purple. Overlaying this picture are the logos for Geoscience Australia, James Cook University, the University of Sydney and the Australian Hydrographic Office.

Geoscience Australia acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country throughout Australia and acknowledges their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past and present. 