Some discharge standards under MARPOL require you to be a specified distance from the nearest land before you can make a discharge at sea. For Australia the nearest land boundary runs outside of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), which means higher discharge standards generally apply within the GBR area.

MARPOL definition for nearest land

The term 'from the nearest land' means from the baseline from which the territorial sea of the territory in question is established in accordance with international law, except for the purposes of the present Convention 'from the nearest land' off the north-eastern coast of Australia shall mean from a line drawn from a point on the coast of Australia in:

• latitude 11°00' S, longitude 142°08' E
• to a point in latitude 10°35' S, longitude 141°55' E
• thence to a point latitude 10°00' S, longitude 142°00' E
• thence to a point latitude 9°10' S, longitude 143°52' E
• thence to a point latitude 9°00' S, longitude 144°30' E
• thence to a point latitude 10°41' S, longitude 145°00' E
• thence to a point latitude 13°00' S, longitude 145°00' E
• thence to a point latitude 15°00' S, longitude 146°00' E
• thence to a point latitude 17°30' S, longitude 147°00' E
• thence to a point latitude 21°00' S, longitude 152°55' E
• thence to a point latitude 24°30' S, longitude 154°00' E
• thence to a point on the coast of Australia in latitude 24°42' S, longitude 153°15' E.

Find more in our visual maps of the nearest land area off the north-eastern part of Australia PDF659.22 KB.