diff --git a/src/utils.jl b/src/utils.jl
index 48e1cd7d..c3134568 100644
--- a/src/utils.jl
+++ b/src/utils.jl
@@ -385,6 +385,25 @@ function remove_overlapping_ticks!(scene, xpositions, xlabels, xvisible, ypositi
     return
 end
 
+################################################################################
+#                            Proj boundingbox utils                            #
+################################################################################
+
+function get_area_of_use(pj)
+    out_west_lon_degree = Ref{Cdouble}(NaN)
+    out_south_lat_degree = Ref{Cdouble}(NaN)
+    out_east_lon_degree = Ref{Cdouble}(NaN)
+    out_north_lat_degree = Ref{Cdouble}(NaN)
+    out_area_name = Ref{Cstring}(C_NULL)
+
+    res = Proj.proj_get_area_of_use(pj, out_west_lon_degree, out_south_lat_degree, out_east_lon_degree, out_north_lat_degree, out_area_name)
+
+    res == 0 && @warn "There was no area of use assigned to the input PJ pointer!"
+    out_area_name[] == C_NULL || println(unsafe_string(out_area_name[]))
+
+    return res == 0 ? nothing : Makie.BBox(out_west_lon_degree[], out_east_lon_degree[], out_south_lat_degree[], out_north_lat_degree[])
+end
+
 ############################################################
 #                                                          #
 #                      Useful macros                       #