Australia, World Heritage Areas

There are currently twenty (20) Australian properties on the World Heritage List . A single Australian World Heritage Areas database has been created by combining data which was historically stored as a separate set of data for each property. World Heritage Area buffer zones are also included in this dataset for relevant properties.

The Great Barrier Reef, the Tasmanian Wilderness, the Wet Tropics of Queensland and Shark Bay meet all four World Heritage criteria for natural heritage, with Kakadu National Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Willandra Lakes Region and the Tasmanian Wilderness being listed for both natural and cultural criteria. The 2010, 2012 and 2013 extensions to the Tasmanian Wilderness have been incorporated. The Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Naracoorte/Riversleigh), Lord Howe Island Group, Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, Fraser Island, Macquarie Island, Heard and McDonald Islands, the Greater Blue Mountains Area and Purnululu National Park are listed under the World Heritage criteria for natural heritage. The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, Melbourne were inscribed in the World Heritage List against Cultural criterion (ii): exhibit an important interchange of human values over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning or landscape design. The Sydney Opera House was inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2007 against Cultural criterion (i) (see http://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria ) The Australian Convict Sites was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 31 July 2010. There are 11 sites that make up the World Heritage Australian Convict Sites against Cultural criterion (iv) and (vi). The Ningaloo Coast was inscribed on the World Heritage List in June 2011 against Natural criteria (vii) and (x).

The coastline of Queensland was produced under specific contract for Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) by AUSLIG in 1984. Originally engineered by AUSLIG from datasets produced by the Division of National Mapping and RAN Hydrographic Service; Queensland coastal information produced by AUSLIG at 250k scale with 100k elements from developing technology at the time of genesis; Island information is specific to the Great Barrier Reef Region as produced from RAN Hydrographic Service data at 100k scale. Updated against satellite imagery during the RAP process (2003-2004) to 25k scale, especially in Cairns, Whitsundays and Hinchinbrook Regions. This coastline is used to represent the coastal boundary of the Great Barrier Reef WHA, and is supplied by GBRMPA Spatial Data Centre.