[martyvis]

>the Australian government wants to put its northern boundary as the southern Australian coast (which reflects Australian cultural understandings of it.)

That's probably why as 57 year old Aussie, I'm wondering why this idea of the Southern Ocean is new. When I first went on a road trip 10 years ago on the Great Ocean Road, what I saw couldn't have been anything other than the Southern Ocean. The Pacific coast was a 1000km away to the east towards Sydney, and the Indian Ocean was what you saw when the sunset over Perth to the Far West.

[dhx]

If you're on the Great Ocean Road west of Cape Otway and can see the water, the water is internationally recognised as "Great Australian Bight". If you're on the Great Ocean Road to the east of Cape Otway, the water you see is internationally recognised as "Bass Strait". See sections 62, 62A and 63 of [1] for the detailed definitions of limits.

[1] https://iho.int/uploads/user/pubs/standards/s-23/S-23_Ed3_19...

[dwd]

Can't agree more, as a Warrnambool native* there nothing barmy or Indian about that Sou'Westerly wind that never stops blowing down that way.

*Currently living on the Pacific coast - or is it the Coral Sea?

[EdwardDiego]

That's interesting to me as a Kiwi, because to me the Southern Ocean is a rather rough piece of water south of the subantarctic islands.

Although I've never stared south from the Great Australian Bight.

[dhx]

From Waipapa Point[1] on Te Waipounamu, if you were looking west or south-west towards Rakiura, you'd be looking at the "Tasman Sea". Otherwise the waters are the "South Pacific Ocean". See sections 61 and 63 of [1] for more detail.

[1] https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/1074610331

[2] https://iho.int/uploads/user/pubs/standards/s-23/S-23_Ed3_19...

[postingawayonhn]

Yeah as a fellow Kiwi (living in Australia) I've always considered the Southern Ocean to start somewhere around the subantarctic islands (Auckland Island, Campbell Island, and Macquarie Island) below NZ.