The Gulf of Carpentaria (14°S 139°E / 14°S 139°E / -14; 139Coordinates: 14°S 139°E / 14°S 139°E / -14; 139) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is generally defined as a line from Slade Point (the northwestern corner of Cape York Peninsula) in the northeast to Cape Arnhem (the easternmost point of Arnhem Land) in the west.
At its mouth, the Gulf is 590 km wide, and further south, 675 km. The north-south length exceeds 700 km. It covers a water area of about 300,000 km². The general depth is between 55 and 66 metres (30 and 36 fm) and does not exceed 82 metres (45 fm). The tidal range in the Gulf of Carpentaria is between two and three metres. In geological terms, the Gulf is young; the Sahul Shelf that underlies it was dry land as recently as the last ice age.
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