Commonwealth Marine Planning Regions are areas within australian waters for which Marine Bioregional Plans will be established under section 176 of the commonwealth EPBC Act.

This dataset was created for the independent Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review and does not reflect government policy. In November 2012, the Australian Government established 44 new Commonwealth marine reserves (CMRs) in the South-west, North-west, North, Temperate East and Coral Sea marine regions, as part of the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). These reserves build on previous MPAs, including those in the South-east CMR Network declared in 2007, to form Australia’s system of Commonwealth marine reserves. An independent review of the CMRs proclaimed in 2012 was undertaken between September 2014 and December 2015, with a view to informing statutory management plans for the CMRs. This dataset contains spatial and contextual advice for zoning boundaries as recommended by the Bioregional Advisory Panel for the Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review. The dataset does not reflect Australian Government policy. It does not include data on MPAs in other Australian jurisdictions (e.g. the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, State/Territory parks), or terrestrial protected areas with marine components (e.g. Pulu Keeling National Park), nor does it include the South-east CMR Network which was not included in the Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review. More information on the review is available at: https://parksaustralia.gov.au/marine/management/background/review-reports/IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR MARINE USERSImportant information about management arrangements applying to the CMRs that have been subject to the review is available at www.environment.gov.au/marinereserves

Consistent with the Australian Government's commitment to develop a National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), networks of Commonwealth Marine Reserves have been proclaimed for Commonwealth waters across the South-west, North-west, North, Coral Sea and Temperate East Marine Regions. These networks build on previous Marine Protected Area proclamations, including the South-east network declared in 2007.\n\nThis dataset is released under Creative Commons by Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Australia (CC BY-NC 3.0).\n\nIMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR MARINE USERS\nTransitional arrangements apply to the South-west, North-west, North and Temperate East Networks and the Coral Sea reserve, until management plans come into effect. These arrangements involve NO CHANGES ON THE WATER for marine users. Note, there are no changes to management arrangements in the marine reserves that existed prior to the establishment of the new reserves, that is, the same restrictions on activities will continue to apply even where those reserves have been incorporated into new reserves. The South-east Network of Commonwealth Marine Reserves is managed under the South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserves Network Management Plan 2013-23, in place from 1 July 2013. More information is available at www.environment.gov.au/marinereserves \n\nThis data contains spatial and contextual information about Commonwealth Marine Reserves under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth governments Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which are managed by the Australian Government Department of the Environment. It does not include data on MPA's in other Australian jurisdictions (e.g. the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, State/Territory parks), or Terrestrial Protected Areas with marine components (eg Pulu Keeling National Park).

This dataset is a simplified version of the Australian Marine Parks dataset. It shows only the outer boundaries of the parks and does not include zoning. This data contains spatial and contextual information about Australian Marine Parks proclaimed under the Commonwealth Government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which are managed by Parks Australia, with the addition of Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, which is managed by the Australian Antarctic Division. The Australian Marine Parks include the North, North-west, South-west, South-east and Temperate East Networks, the Coral Sea Marine Park, and the Indian Ocean Territories Marine Parks. These parks were established in Commonwealth waters consistent with the Australian Government’s commitment to develop a National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. This dataset does not include data on marine protected areas in other Australian jurisdictions (e.g. the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, State/Territory marine parks), or terrestrial protected areas with marine components (e.g. Pulu Keeling National Park). More information can be found at https://parksaustralia.gov.au/marine Since this dataset was originally published in 2018 there have been the following updates: 1. A technical amendment was made on the basis of user feedback (April 30th 2019). Macquarie Island was the only marine park affected by this amendment. The area calculation for Macquarie Island Marine Park was previously under reported by 483km2. This will have affected statistical analyses that used the calculated area (KM2) as an input. This amendment is superseded by item 4 below. 2. A zoning boundary error identified at West Island in Ashmore Reef Marine Park was corrected (March 2022). 3. Two new Australian Marine Parks were added to this dataset in March 2022; Christmas Island Marine Park and Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park. 4. The addition of the expanded Macquarie Island Marine Park which came into effect on 1 July 2023, replacing the boundaries of the original marine park proclaimed in 1999. 5. The expanded Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve took effect on 24 January 2025. 6. The South-east Marine Parks zoning updates under the new management plan came into effect on 13 February 2025.

This data contains spatial and contextual information about Australian Marine Parks proclaimed under the Commonwealth Government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which are managed by Parks Australia, with the addition of Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, which is managed by the Australian Antarctic Division. The Australian Marine Parks include the North, North-west, South-west, South-east and Temperate East Networks, the Coral Sea Marine Park, and the Indian Ocean Territories Marine Parks. These parks were established in Commonwealth waters consistent with the Australian Government’s commitment to develop a National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas.More information can be found at:Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve – Australian Antarctic ProgramThis dataset does not include marine protected areas in other Australian jurisdictions (e.g. the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, State/Territory marine parks), or terrestrial protected areas with marine components (e.g. Pulu Keeling National Park). More information can be found at:Australian Marine Parks | Parks AustraliaMore information about the zoning and rules for activities for each of the networks can be found here:Coral Sea: Coral Sea Marine Park | Australian Marine Parks | Parks AustraliaIndian Ocean Territories: Indian Ocean Territories Marine Parks | Australian Marine Parks | Parks AustraliaNorth network: North Marine Parks Network | Australian Marine Parks | Parks AustraliaNorth-west network: North-west Marine Parks Network | Australian Marine Parks | Parks AustraliaSouth-east network: South-east Marine Parks Network | Australian Marine Parks | Parks AustraliaSouth-west network: South-west Marine Parks Network | Australian Marine Parks | Parks AustraliaTemperate East: Temperate East Marine Parks Network | Australian Marine Parks | Parks AustraliaSince this dataset was originally published in 2018 there have been the following updates:1. A technical amendment was made on the basis of user feedback (April 30th 2019). Macquarie Island was the only marine park affected by this amendment. The area calculation for Macquarie Island Marine Park was previously under reported by 483km2. This will have affected statistical analyses that used the calculated area (KM2) as an input. This amendment is superseded by item 4 below.2. A zoning boundary error identified at West Island in Ashmore Reef Marine Park was corrected (March 2022).3. Two new Australian Marine Parks were added to this dataset in March 2022; Christmas Island Marine Park and Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park.4. The addition of the expanded Macquarie Island Marine Park which came into effect on 1 July 2023, replacing the boundaries of the original marine park proclaimed in 1999.5. The expanded Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve took effect on 24 January 2025. 6. The South-east Marine Parks zoning updates under the new management plan came into effect on 13 February 2025.