COASTAL WATERS (STATE TITLE) ACT 1980 No. 77 of 1980 - SECT 4 Vesting of title in States

COASTAL WATERS (STATE TITLE) ACT 1980 No. 77 of 1980 - SECT 4

4. (1) By force of this Act, but subject to this Act, there are vested in each
State, 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 State, 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 State if
that sea-bed were the sea-bed beneath waters of the sea within the limits of
the State.

(2) The rights and title vested in a State under sub-section (1) are vested
subject to-

   (a)  any right or title to the property in the sea-bed beneath the coastal
        waters of the State 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 sub- section (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
        sub-section (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 State.

(3) The rights and title vested by sub-section (1) are vested subject to the
operation of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 and accordingly are
so qualified that nothing contained in, or done under, that Act shall be taken
to constitute an infringement of, or derogation from, any such right or title.

(4) 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 a State extend to
        an area to which they did not previously extend-sub-sections (1) and
        (2) have effect in relation to that area as if the references in those
        sub-sections 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 a State cease to
        extend to an area to which they previously extended-neither the State,
        nor any person claiming through the State, continues to have, by
        virtue of the operation of this Act, any right or title in relation to
        that area.

(5) It is the intention of the Parliament that, subject to sub-sections (2)
and (3), any right or title vested in a State by this section may be disposed
of or otherwise dealt with in accordance with the laws of the State.
(6) In this section "the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975" means that
Act as amended from time to time, in its application to any area that is, at
the date of commencement of this Act, part of, or capable of being prescribed
as part of, the Great Barrier Reef Region as defined in section 3 of that Act.