The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea proclaims that a country may claim mineral exploration and fishing rights over its continental shelf. In Australia, this is a 200 kilometre-wide zone around the continent, extending to a depth of around 150 metres. Such a claim would hardly have surprised those living 17 000 years ago. In those cold days, the surf broke at the edge of the continental shelf and the hunting rights of early Aboriginal peoples certainly covered all of that 200-kilometre band beyond our present shoreline.

Sea-level rise is one inevitable consequence of global warming, so it is worthwhile knowing what is possible. If the polar ice sheets melt entirely, the Australian shoreline will look like it did in the age of the dinosaurs, 115 million years ago. Then, the ocean covered much of western Queensland and northern South Australia (see Figure 7.1a).