What it does
The Coastal Waters (State Title) Act 1980 is one half of the legislative package that implemented the Offshore Constitutional Settlement between the Commonwealth and the States. Its central operative provision is s.4(1), which states that, by force of the Act and subject to the qualifications that follow, each State receives "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."
The vesting occurs automatically on the date of commencement fixed by Proclamation (s.2). The expression "coastal waters of the State" takes its meaning from the companion Coastal Waters (State Powers) Act 1980 (s.3(1)), which in turn refers to the area extending from the baseline to the outer limit of the 3-mile territorial sea. Section 3(2) expands the reference to the sea-bed so that it includes the subsoil, all minerals, and any structures or things attached to the sea-bed.
The vesting is expressly made subject to three categories of exception set out in s.4(2). First, pre-existing rights or titles of any person, including the Commonwealth, are preserved unless they arose solely from the Commonwealth's sovereignty asserted in the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 (s.4(2)(a)). Second, the Commonwealth and its authorities retain a right to use the sea-bed and superjacent space for communications, navigation safety, quarantine or defence, and to place, construct and maintain equipment and structures for those purposes (s.4(2)(b)). Third, the Commonwealth may authorise the construction and use of pipelines to transport petroleum (including gas) recovered under Commonwealth law from areas beyond the coastal waters (s.4(2)(c)).