Geoscience Australia has completed the first phase of an areal map of Australia's coastal geomorphological units. Utilising pre-existing GIS datasets procured from local, state and federal government agencies, this national scale map conforms to a coastal geomorphology classification scheme developed at Geoscience Australia. Phase one consists of a geodatabase containing a series of state wide feature datasets that have been reclassified into the national coastal geomorphology classification scheme.

Understanding the patterns and characteristics of sedimentary deposits on the conjugate Australian-Antarctic margins is critical to reveal the Cretaceous-Cenozoic tectonic, oceanographic and climatic conditions in the basin. However, unravelling its evolution has remained difficult due to the different seismic stratigraphic interpretations on each margin and sparse drill sites. Here, for the first time, we collate all available seismic reflection profiles on both margins and use newly available offshore drilling data, to develop a consistent seismic stratigraphic framework across the Australian-Antarctic basins. We find sedimentation patterns similar in structure and thickness, prior to the onset of Antarctic glaciation, enabling the basin-wide correlation of four major sedimentary units and their depositional history. We interpret that during the warm and humid Late Cretaceous (~83-65 Ma), large onshore river systems on both Australia and Antarctica resulted in deltaic sediment deposition offshore. We interpret that the onset of clockwise bottom currents during the Early Paleogene (~58-48 Ma) formed prominent sediment drift deposits along both continental rises. We suggest that these currents strengthened and progressed farther east through the Eocene. Coevally, global cooling (<48 Ma) and progressive aridification led to a large-scale decrease in sediment input from both continents. Two major Eocene hiatuses recovered by the IODP site U1356A at the Antarctic continental slope likely formed during this pre-glacial phase of low sedimentation and strong bottom currents. Our results can be used to constrain future paleo-oceanographic modelling of this region and aid understanding of the oceanographic changes accompanying the transition from a greenhouse to icehouse world.

This record describes a single aggregated dataset of the geomorphic habitat environment (facies) for Australia's 7 states and territories: New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia. The classification system contains 12 easily identifiable and representative environments: Barrier/back-barrier, Bedrock, Central Basin, Channel, Coral, Flood- and Ebb-tide Delta, Fluvial (bay-head) Delta, Intertidal Flats, Mangrove, Rocky Reef, Saltmarsh/Saltflat, Tidal Sand Banks (and Unassigned). These types represent habitats found across all coastal systems in Australia. For the New South Wales region, 134 coastal waterways are described. Most of the estuaries of New South Wales are under intense land use pressure with approximately 80% of the State's population living near an estuary (NSW Dept of Land and Water Conservation) For the Victorian region, 54 coastal waterways are described. Most of the 54 coastal waterways have a "Modified" environmental condition (as opposed to "Near Pristine"), according to the National Land and Water Resources Audit definition. For the Tasmanian region, 88 coastal waterways are described. The majority of near pristine estuaries in Tasmania are located in the south and west of the State and on Cape Barren Island, according to the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment. For the Queensland region, 213 coastal waterways are described. Southern and central Great Barrier Reef lagoon coasts have a broad spectrum of river, tide and wave- dominated estuaries. For the Northern Territory region, 63 coastal waterways are described. Estuaries on the northern Arnhem Land, Gulf of Carpentaria coasts are predominantly tide-dominated estuaries, which vary greatly in size and floodplain characteristics. For the South Australia region, 36 coastal waterways are described. Most of the 36 coastal waterways have a "Modified" environmental condition (as opposed to "Near Pristine"), according to the National Land and Water Resources Audit definition. For the Western Australia region, 103 coastal waterways are described. Western Australia has a diverse range of Estuaries due to different climates. Ranging from mostly "near pristine" and tide influenced estuaries in the north to "near pristine" wave dominated estuaries in the southwest region.

The Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Reserve complements the Port Davey Marine Reserve (encompassing Port Davey, Bathurst Channel and Bathurst Harbour), which was proclaimed by the Tasmanian Government in 2005. It spans the continental shelf, continental slope and deeper water ecosystems south of Tasmania, and is scored by steep canyons. It also encloses other geological features, including steep escarpments and troughs, saddles, basins, and part of a plateau that is over 400 km long and rises up to 3 km above the sea floor. The reserve includes a number of undersea peaks rising to less than 1500 m below the sea surface that provide habitat to deepwater hard corals. These corals provide a structure and habitat for a rich diversity of marine invertebrate animals that live attached corals. This record describes a geomorphology map for the Tasman Fracture CMR that was prepared using bathymetry and backscatter data sourced from CSIRO and Geoscience Australia.