A tangled issue now with allegations of spying and the ABC Four Corners show – Drawing the Line. In the transcript the word “trench” is not used and Alexander Downer says “continental shelf” once.
There are plenty of noisy GreenLeft groups in our media pushing the East Timor case for the border to be half way between the two countries. This map shows how various borders are at present – Australia’s Maritime Jurisdiction in the Timor Sea [PDF 39MB].
One factor that has long been considered in setting maritime borders is the submarine geology. In this case it is the destiny of East Timor to be very near the Timor Trench as this map shows. Whereas Australia has the broad continental shelf to claim – where the oil and gas deposits are.
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The group Timor Sea Justice Campaign ignores submarine topography in their map.
One of the backers of Timor wanting to take a larger share of the potential petroleum areas is a small US oil company -I think Occidental Petroleum, which has bribed some of the Timorese politicians and fed them lies about how much they would get. There is no precedent for dividing boundaries at half way. Indonesia should not be in New Guinea – it was just an accident of colonial rule. There is no natural barrier between Australia and New Guinea the distance between of one the Torres Straight Islands and PNG is only a few Kms not half way.
The Timor trench is a natural boundary which I think is part of the Weber line (east of the Wallis line) separating Asian fauna from Australian fauna.
This map shows how well defined the full area of Australia is both above and below sea level. Note too the Sunda – Timor Trench is the boundary of two colliding crustal plates – part of the global scheme of plate tectonics.
So the Australian Govt is on solid legal/philosophical ground by claiming – “Australia extends to the edge of the continental shelf”.
But hey – the lawyers and left wing media here pushing hard for East Timor have a nice prize to try for.
A court case today illustrates how thorny these territorial issues are.
‘Justice John Mansfield ruled via video link from Adelaide on Wednesday that boat owner and captain Sahring, 43, was not committing an offence when a Customs vessel approached his boat in Indonesian waters in April 2008 and boarded on the suspicion that he was illegally fishing for trepang, or sea cucumber.
The seabed there, and the marine life that rests on it beneath Indonesian waters, belong to Australia.’
www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/indonesian-fisherman-wins-compo-claim/story-e6frfku9-1226859469659
I never knew territorial waters and seabed rights weren’t contiguous.