The Protection of Platforms, Pipelines and Submarine Cables under Australian and New Zealand Law

Offshore facilities by and large did not exist before the middle of the nineteenth century, when the first submarine cables were snaked across the world’s oceans. Likewise, platforms exploiting undersea resources, most notably oil and gas, did not exist until the middle of the twentieth century, with World War II providing the spur for states to overcome the technological challenges in exploiting the sea bed, and piping oil and gas across the ocean floor.1