Data through to information – Australia’s digital marine commons

As an island continent, Australia has a clear need for ocean information. Since 2005, the national marine science community has recognised that by sharing data, software, and computational resources, and providing open access to structured datasets, silos can be overcome to create a digital marine commons that functions as a public good. Significant progress has been made from 2015 to 2025 through collaboration between Australian Government institutions, continued development of the federated Integrated Marine Observing System and Australian Ocean Data Network, and emergence of complementary programs addressing key data and information gaps in bathymetry, habitat mapping, and marine imagery. Building on these strengths, a series of recommendations is made to enable full realisation of an Australian digital marine commons by 2036. Key priorities include: Endorsing national marine data and product repositories; Establishing trusted data and information supply chains across government and industry information systems used in policy and management decision making; Focusing effort using critical use cases on matters of national significance; Accelerating progress by requiring all new marine data collection activities to utilise standard operating procedures and lodge data collected in endorsed repositories; and, Developing sector-wide approaches to working with sensitive and restricted data including Indigenous Knowledge Systems.