The intertidal area was derived by aggregating and dissolving the boundaries of the 1 degree S57 file series for the Australian continental shelf and Lord Howe Island shelf (200 m) depicting depth area features.

The Marine Futures Project was designed to benchmark the current status of key Western Australian marine ecosystems, based on an improved understanding of the relationship between marine habitats, biodiversity and our use of these values. Approximately 1,500 km2 of seafloor were mapped using hydroacoustics (Reson 8101 Multibeam), and expected benthic habitats "ground-truthed" using towed video transects and baited remote underwater video systems. Both sources of information were then combined in a spatial predictive modelling framework to produce fine-scale habitat maps showing the extent of substrate types, biotic formations, etc. Surveys took place across 9 study areas, including Mount Gardner, a site located just off Two People’s Bay, 30km east of the town of Albany. The area is host to a number of human uses, including recreational and commercial fishing, diving, surfing, recreational boat use and shipping and mining. The marine environment at this location is different to the other three study locations on the south coast, in that it encompasses the protected Two Peoples Bay with seagrass and invertebrate communities and the more exposed rocky and macroalgal reefs around the Mt Gardner peninsula itself.

Six dredges were undertaken from the RV Investigator during voyage IN2016_E01 to obtain rock and sediment samples to constrain the crustal nature, age of formation and paleo-environment through time of the Cascade Seamount, located offshore Eastern Tasmania, Australia. This record lists the sample number, weights and rock types recovered. In total we collected 713 kg of rock samples, including basalts, conglomerates, sandstones, limestones and tuffs.

Voyage IN2019_V04 contributed an additional 29,000 kms2 of seafloor survey data to the Coral Sea knowledge base. From this new bathymetric data individual seamounts have been extracted and have been classified to the Geoscience Australia Geomorphology Classification Scheme. This dataset contains two layers representing the classification layers- 1) Surface (Plain, Slope, Escarpment) and 2) fine scale Geomorphology of the seamount for the Mellish Seamount. Ongoing research with this survey data will provide new insights into the detailed geomorphic shape and spatial relationships between adjacent seabed features. This information will be released in future publications to show the potential of how the scale of such seafloor data can be used for predictive habitat modelling when analysed with the biological data overlays.

This resource includes seabed backscatter data for South-west Corner Marine Park collected by Geoscience Australia during the periods 9 – 12 March 2020 and 27 January – 16 February 2021 on the charter vessel Santosha. The survey was undertaken as a collaborative project with the University of Western Australia, the University of Tasmania and the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (University of Sydney) and funded through the National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub, with co-investment by all partners and the Director of National Parks. The purpose of the project was to build baseline information for benthic habitats on the continental shelf in the marine park that will support ongoing environmental monitoring within the South-west Marine Park Network as part of the 10-year management plan (2018-2028). Data acquisition for the project included multibeam bathymetry and backscatter for an area covering 330 km^2 offshore from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin coast, with underwater imagery of benthic communities and demersal fish collected by University of Western Australia on separate field deployments. This backscatter dataset contains a 4 m resolution 32-bit geotiff file of the survey area produced from the processed Kongsberg EM2040C multibeam sonar system data using the CMST-GA MB Process v15.04.04.0 (.64) toolbox software co-developed by the Centre for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin University and Geoscience Australia. For further information see: Giraldo-Ospina, A. et al., 2021. South-west Corner Marine Park Post Survey Report. Report to the National Environmental Science Program, Marine Biodiversity Hub.

The principle aim of this project was to map the fine-scale spatial distribution of key abalone habitat impacted by urchins in < 25 m water depth using multibeam acoustic imagery. Detailed substrate type (Pavement Reef, Megaclast Reef, Mixed Consolidated Sediment/Reef and Sand), and kelp coverage maps have been produced for the east coast of Tasmania. Large urchin barrens have been predicted and the minimum quantifiable unit of which small incipient barrens can be detected has been identified using this acoustic water column technique. This data provides a snapshot of the 2021 distribution of seafloor habitats and associated vegetation distribution, and will assist in the facilitation of strategic decision making for urchin control and abalone management. Data for download has been split by fishing block (22-24, 27-30). This record describes *FISHING BLOCK 24*. The following data products are available for download, for each fishing block: • 50cm resolution bathymetry • 50cm resolution substrate type (Seamap Australia classification) • bathymetry derivatives (seabed slope, curvature, rugosity, 1 and 2m contours) • water column data - 1m mean signal • water column data - 9m2 raw block statistic • water column data - vegetation likelihood classification See associated records for access to data from other fishing blocks (22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30).

Australia has established a network of 58 marine parks within Commonwealth waters covering a total of 3.3 million square kilometres, or 40 per cent of our exclusive economic zone (excluding Australian Antarctic Territory). These parks span a range of settings, from near coastal and shelf habitats to abyssal plains. Parks Australia manages the park network through management plans that came into effect for all parks on 1 July 2018. Geoscience Australia is contributing to their management by collating and interpreting existing environmental data, and through the collection of new marine data. “Eco-narrative” documents are being developed for those parks, where sufficient information is available, delivering collations and interpretations of seafloor geomorphology, oceanography and ecology. Many of these interpretations rely on bathymetric grids and their derived products, including those in this data release. Bathymetry grids The bathymetry of the marine parks was created by compiling and processing Geoscience Australia’s bathymetry data holding gridded at the optimum resolution depending of the vessel’s sonar system. The bathymetry of the park is illustrated by a panchromatic geotiff image, developed by combining the bathymetric data with a hillshade image. Morphological Surfaces Geoscience Australia has developed a new marine seafloor classification scheme, which uses the two-part seafloor mapping morphology approach of Dove et al (2016). This new scheme is semi-hierarchical and the first step divides the slope of the seafloor into three Morphological Surface categories (Plain, <2°; Slope, 2-10°; Escarpment, >10°). Dove, D., Bradwell, T., Carter, G., Cotterill, C., Gafeira, J., Green, S., Krabbendam, M., Mellet, C., Stevenson, A., Stewart, H., Westhead, K., Scott, G., Guinan, J., Judge, M. Monteys, X., Elvenes, S., Baeten, N., Dolan, M., Thorsnes, T., Bjarnadóttir, L., Ottesen, D. (2016). Seabed geomorphology: a twopart classification system. British Geological Survey, Open Report OR/16/001. 13 pages. This research is supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub through Project D1.

The principle aim of this project was to map the fine-scale spatial distribution of key abalone habitat impacted by urchins in < 25 m water depth using multibeam acoustic imagery. Detailed substrate type (Pavement Reef, Megaclast Reef, Mixed Consolidated Sediment/Reef and Sand), and kelp coverage maps have been produced for the east coast of Tasmania. Large urchin barrens have been predicted and the minimum quantifiable unit of which small incipient barrens can be detected has been identified using this acoustic water column technique. This data provides a snapshot of the 2021 distribution of seafloor habitats and associated vegetation distribution, and will assist in the facilitation of strategic decision making for urchin control and abalone management. Data for download has been split by fishing block (22-24, 27-30). This record describes *FISHING BLOCK 30*. The following data products are available for download, for each fishing block: • 50cm resolution bathymetry • 50cm resolution substrate type (Seamap Australia classification) • bathymetry derivatives (seabed slope, curvature, rugosity, 1 and 2m contours) • water column data - 1m mean signal • water column data - 9m2 raw block statistic • water column data - vegetation likelihood classification See associated records for access to data from other fishing blocks (22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29).

Point data collected from video drops identifying benthic habitats such as seagrass, macroalgae and reef, collected during field work in 2007 to 2011. Used to support the Benthic Habitat Mapping project undertaken by DENR to map the nearshore benthic habitats of South Australia

This resource includes multibeam sonar backscatter data for Middleton Reef and Elizabeth Reef within Lord Howe Marine Park collected by Geoscience Australia during the period 31 January to 6 February 2020 on the Australian Maritime College vessel, TV Bluefin. The survey was undertaken as a collaborative project funded through the National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub, with the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies (University of Tasmania), NSW Department of Primary Industries, University of Sydney (Australian Centre for Field Robotics) and Parks Australia (Marine Park managers, Commonwealth Government). The purpose of the survey was to collect baseline information for benthic habitats within the National Park Zone (Middleton Reef) and Recreational Use Zone (Elizabeth Reef) of the marine park. These data will support ongoing environmental monitoring within the Temperate East Marine Park Network as part of its 10-year management plan (2018-2028). Data acquisition for the project included seabed mapping using multibeam sonar (Kongsberg EM 2040C HD, 300 kHz), seabed imagery acquisition by Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV Sirius and AUV Nimbus), sediment samples (grab) and imagery of demersal fish communities by baited remote underwater videos (BRUVs). This dataset comprises two bathymetry grids derived from multibeam sonar data gridded at 4 mspatial resolution. A detailed report on the survey is available on the Marine Biodiversity Hub’s website (https://www.nespmarine.edu.au/reports; Carroll, A et al., 2020,. Australian Marine Park Baseline and Monitoring Survey: Post Survey Report, Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs, Lord Howe Marine Park. This dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes. This dataset is published with the permission of the CEO, Geoscience Australia