Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

COASTAL WATERS (NORTHERN TERRITORY TITLE) ACT 1980 - SECT 4

(1)

By force of this Act, but subject to this Act, there are vested in the Territory, upon the date of commencement of this Act, the same right and title to the property in the sea-bed beneath the coastal waters of the Territory, as extending on that date, and the same rights in respect of the space (including space occupied by water) above that sea-bed, as would belong to the Territory if that sea-bed were the sea-bed beneath waters of the sea within the limits of the Territory.

(2)

The rights and title vested in the Territory under subsection (1) are vested subject to:

(a)

any right or title to the property in the sea-bed beneath the coastal waters of the Territory of any other person (including the Commonwealth) subsisting immediately before the date of commencement of this Act, other than any such right or title of the Commonwealth that may have subsisted by reason only of the sovereignty referred to in the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 ;

(b)

a right of the Commonwealth, or an authority of the Commonwealth authorized by the Commonwealth or by a law of the Commonwealth, to use the sea-bed and space referred to in subsection (1) for purposes in relation to communications, the safety of navigation, quarantine or defence, and to place, construct and maintain equipment and structures for the purposes of such use; and

(c)

a right of the Commonwealth to authorize the construction and use of pipelines for the transport across the sea-bed referred to in subsection (1) of petroleum (including petroleum in gaseous form), recovered, in accordance with a law of the Commonwealth, from any area of the sea-bed beyond the coastal waters of the Territory.

(3)

Where, after the commencement of this Act, a change takes place in the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea of Australia is measured:

(a)

if, by reason of the change, the coastal waters of the Territory extend to an area to which they did not previously extend—subsections (1) and (2) have effect in relation to that area as if the references in those subsections to the date of commencement of this Act were references to the date on which the change occurs; or

(b)

if, by reason of the change, the coastal waters of the Territory cease to extend to an area to which they previously extended—neither the Territory, nor any person claiming through the Territory, continues to have, by virtue of the operation of this Act, any right or title in relation to that area.

(4)

It is the intention of the Parliament that, subject to subsection (2), any right or title vested in the Territory by this section may be disposed of or otherwise dealt with in accordance with the laws of the Territory.