The offshore renewable energy sector is rapidly developing in southern Australia, with offshore wind energy areas proposed or declared offshore of the Hunter, Illawarra, Gippsland, Bass Strait (Tasmania), Southern Ocean (Victoria) and Bunbury regions. These areas extend across ~36,740 sq/km of outer continental shelf and slope waters. Research is underway to understand the key environmental factors for consideration in the development of offshore wind projects, impact pathways on these factors, and approaches to estimating impacts and risks of installing offshore infrastructure in Australian waters. A key component of this is developing an understanding of impact pathways and trusted data supply to inform modelling and assessment of impacts on benthic fish assemblages and habitats. This includes an inventory of available benthic data, evaluating data pipelines, and scoping modelling requirements to quantify components of impact pathways. The presentation will provide details of the developing offshore renewables sector that is adding to the increasingly crowded marine environment across southern Australia. This will include details on the current research on offshore renewable energy activities that aim to progress key steps of an integrated approach to improve sustainable development of this emerging marine sector.