Heard Island and McDonald Islands

About

The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands is an Australian external territory in the southern Indian Ocean. Discovered in the mid-19th century, the territory is a group of sub-Antarctic volcanic islands that lie on the Kerguelen Plateau. It is about 4000 kilometres (2500 mi) south-west of the Australian mainland and 1700 kilometres (1100 mi) north of Antarctica. The territory contains Australia's only active volcanoes and is home to its highest point outside the Australian Antarctic Territory, Mawson Peak. The islands are uninhabited and have been described as one of the most remote places on Earth. The first confirmed sightings of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands took place in 1853 and 1854, respectively. Heard Island was occupied by sealers between 1855 and 1882 and saw occasional scientific visits in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The territory was claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908 and was transferred to Australia in 1947. Between 1947 and 1955, the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) occupied a research station on the island. Since the closure of the ANARE research station, the islands have been visited by occasional scientific and...

The first confirmed sighting of Heard Island took place in 1853 when the island was spotted by the American captain John Heard aboard Oriental. Other sailors had reported observing land south of the Kerguelen Islands during the 1830s and 1840s, but whether they in fact sighted Heard Island is unclear. Heard named the island Heard Island and claimed it for the United States, but its government declined to endorse the claim. In 1854 the British captain William McDonald sighted the McDonald Islands aboard Samarang ; he likewise named the islands after himself. A party of sealers led by the American captain Erasmus Darwin Rogers of the ship Corinthian made the first recorded landing on Heard Island in 1855.

Heard Island was occupied by sealers from 1855, with more than 40 vessels collectively making over 100 visits to hunt elephant seals and process their blubber into oil. Between 1855 and 1880 more than 100,000 barrels of oil were produced on the island. At the peak of production in 1859, there were 24 vessels stationed at Heard Island. The majority of the sealing companies were American and were based out of ports in New England, although some of the sealers were from Cape Verde. The island was also exploited by Australian sealers, including James William Robinson, who conducted an expedition on behalf of the Tasmanian merchant William Crowther in 1858. Robinson wrote a memoir about the expedition, which is now held by the W. L. Crowther Library. During the sealing period 14 ships were wrecked near the island. According to one estimate, 30 sealers died on Heard Island between 1857 and 1881 and 30 died on their way to the island, largely after being washed overboard. By the 1880s the elephant seal population on the island had been severely depleted and sealing activity declined substantially.

Brief scientific expeditions to Heard Island took place in 1874, 1902, and 1929, with their observations limited to the north-western side of the island. The first two expeditions were undertaken by the ships Challenger and Gauss in 1874 and 1902 respectively; each remained at Heard Island for just a few hours. Two scientific parties landed on the island in 1929 and remained for eight days: one was led by the Swiss geologist Edgar Aubert de la Rüe, while the other was composed of members of the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) party. The BANZARE party had planned to spend just three days on the island, but were forced by poor weather to remain for an additional five days. Between 1907 and 1930, some sealing activity resumed on the island and whaling ships made occasional visits.

Heard Island and the McDonald Islands were claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908. The British flag was raised on Heard Island in 1910 and 1929, and between 1910 and 1926 the British government issued licences for sealing and whaling on the island. A British company was allowed to lease the islands in 1926, but by 1930 it was no longer exercising its lease. The British government felt that Australia's proximity to its Antarctic possessions would provide a firmer claim to sovereignty, particularly over sectors of the Antarctic continent, and would reduce the logistical complexity of administering the territories. After Britain's transfer of the Australian Antarctic Territory to Australia in 1933, the Australian government began preparing to also take possession of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands.

On 11 December 1947 a party of 14 men from the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE), led by Stuart Campbell, landed at Atlas Cove on Heard Island and established a research station. They raised the Australian flag and conducted weather observations, performed geological and wildlife surveys, and mapped the island over the next 14 months. The station was occupied until 1955 by a rotating series of seven ANARE parties, each of which spent 12–14 months on the island. On 19 December 1950 the territory was transferred from Britain to Australia via an exchange of notes, with the transfer backdated to December 1947. The Australian government passed the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act in 1953 to establish a mechanism for the administration of its newly acquired territory.

Beginning in 1950 the ANARE parties on Heard Island bred and trained sled dogs, many of which eventually supported Australian stations on the Antarctic continent. They also operated a radio outpost and weather monitoring station, and conducted research. On 26 May 1952, two members of the ANARE party were killed during an expedition after one was swept away by the waves and another froze to death during a storm. The ANARE station, which eventually grew to about 25 buildings, was closed in 1955 to fund the establishment of Mawson Station on the Antarctic continent. Much of the equipment on Heard Island was also transferred to Mawson Station.

Nineteen short research expeditions to the island took place between 1956 and 2004. In 1992, one of these expedition parties remained on the island over the winter for the first time since the closure of the ANARE station in 1955. Infrequent visits by tourists and private expeditions have also taken place since 1963. The island was the site of the 1991 Heard Island feasibility test, which tested whether transmission of acoustic signals through the ocean could be used to study changes in ocean temperatures. The islands were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997. In the same year, the Australian ship Austral Leader began commercial fishing in the surrounding waters. The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve was established in 2002 and was the world's largest marine protected area at the time. In October 2025 and January 2026 the Australian Antarctic Division conducted voyages to Heard Island on RSV Nuyina, marking the first environmental management visits to the island in more than two decades. The visit provided scientists with confirmation that H5 bird flu had reached the island.

The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands is one of seven Australian external territories. The islands and the surrounding waters form an uninhabited strict nature reserve managed by the Australian Antarctic Division, part of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Unauthorised entry to the territory has been prohibited since May 2014, and all visitors to the islands are required to complete a training program and comply with quarantine procedures. Despite these restrictions, some unauthorised landings on the islands are known to have taken place. The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve was established in October 2002 and was expanded in 2014 and 2025. It now covers an area of about 380,000 square kilometres (150,000 sq mi) and sits within the 410,722-square-kilometre (158,581 sq mi) Australian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) generated by the islands.

The Australian parliament passed the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act in 1953 to establish a legal framework for the administration of the territory. This was followed by the 1987 Heard Island and McDonald Islands Environment Protection and Management Ordinance and then by the first Heard Island Wilderness Reserve Management Plan in 1995. The territory is governed by the non-criminal laws of the Australian Capital Territory and by the criminal laws of the Jervis Bay Territory. Commonwealth laws apply to the territory only if it is explicitly included within their jurisdiction. The Governor-General of Australia is also able to issue ordinances for the administration of Heard Island and McDonald Islands under the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act 1953. The Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 serves as the main legislative framework for the environmental conservation of the territory.

In 2025, a ten percent tariff was imposed on the territory by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. This was attributed to erroneous data indicating that the United States had imported 1.4 million U.S. dollars in goods (largely machinery and electrical imports) from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022. At the time of the tariff imposition, there had been no known visits to the islands by humans in approximately ten years.

The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands includes a territorial sea extending to a radius of 12 nautical miles from the islands. This is surrounded by an Australian EEZ with a radius of 200 nautical miles, which borders the French EEZ generated by the Kerguelen Islands to the north-west. The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, which covers about 90 percent of the Australian EEZ, includes a marine sanctuary zone ( IUCN 1a ) that encompasses the islands' territorial seas and a portion of the EEZ waters to the north of the islands, as well as a 140,000-square-kilometre (54,000 sq mi) national park zone (IUCN II) and a 170,000-square-kilometre (66,000 sq mi) habitat protection zone (IUCN IV). In 2012 Australia proclaimed an extended continental shelf covering an area of 1,130,000 square kilometres (440,000 sq mi) surrounding Heard Island and McDonald Islands, thereby claiming exclusive rights to harvest its seabed resources.

While fishing is prohibited within the territorial waters of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, commercial fishing takes place elsewhere within the surrounding EEZ. The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Fishery is managed by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA), which sets quotas on fishing catches and monitors compliance with the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The species targeted are the Patagonian toothfish and the mackerel icefish. There are typically about 1–3 vessels harvesting Patagonian toothfish, primarily using longlines, and about 2–5 vessels gathering mackerel icefish, largely through trawl fishing, each year. Two AFMA observers are required to be present on each vessel. Bycatch of protected species has been identified as a possible threat to the sustainability of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Fishery.

Illegal fishing has historically been reported near the islands, particularly by fishers targeting the valuable Patagonian toothfish. In October 1997 a vessel was arrested for unlicensed fishing within the Heard and McDonald Islands Australian Fishing Zone for the first time. That year, it was estimated that up to 70 vessels may have been operating illegally in the region. By 2004 eight vessels had been arrested near the islands, with seven of those arrests involving the Australian Defence Force. Australian civilian and military vessels have conducted patrols in the waters surrounding the islands to deter and respond to illegal fishing. Australia signed a treaty with France in 2003 to enable cooperation in surveilling and patrolling the waters around the islands, as well as the nearby Kerguelen Islands. Since the mid-2000s, illegal fishing has reportedly been eliminated from the waters surrounding the Heard and McDonald Islands; as of 2019 there had been no reports of illegal fishing activity since 2006–2007.

The first known human-made structures on Heard Island were rudimentary shelters dug into the ground by sealers in the 1850s. By the 1860s, sealers had begun to build above-ground shelters out of rocks, the remains of which are still visible on the island. A wooden hut may also have been constructed on the island by a shipwrecked party in the late-19th century. Some sealers constructed rudimentary stone platforms on which to work, while others modified lava caves to use as shelters.

One of the first conventional structures erected on Heard Island was Admiralty Hut, built in 1928 by the crew of the whaling ship Kildalkey under commission by the British Admiralty. The hut has been degraded by the weather over time and is now in ruins. The remains of the research station occupied by ANARE expedition parties between 1947 and 1955 have largely been cleared from the site by the Australian Antarctic Division, with only the ruins of the recreation hut still standing. More recent expeditions have used temporary fibreglass shelters that were removed after use, as well as modified water tanks. Five of these modified water tank shelters remain at Spit Bay, while two are present at Atlas Cove.

The island contains various pieces of machinery and equipment that have been left by past research expeditions, including the wreckage of a landing craft, a bulldozer, diesel generators, fuel barrels, and water tanks. Wooden debris from the wreckage of sealing vessels can be found on the shores of the island. There are also various artefacts on the island left by sealers, including try pots (large pots used for processing blubber into seal oil) and barrels. Some of these sealing artefacts have been taken to Australia, and a blubber press from the island is now held by a museum.

The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands is one of seven Australian external territories. The islands and the surrounding waters form an uninhabited strict nature reserve managed by the Australian Antarctic Division, part of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Unauthorised entry to the territory has been prohibited since May 2014, and all visitors to the islands are required to complete a training program and comply with quarantine procedures. Despite these restrictions, some unauthorised landings on the islands are known to have taken place. The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve was established in October 2002 and was expanded in 2014 and 2025. It now covers an area of about 380,000 square kilometres (150,000 sq mi) and sits within the 410,722-square-kilometre (158,581 sq mi) Australian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) generated by the islands.

The Australian parliament passed the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act in 1953 to establish a legal framework for the administration of the territory. This was followed by the 1987 Heard Island and McDonald Islands Environment Protection and Management Ordinance and then by the first Heard Island Wilderness Reserve Management Plan in 1995. The territory is governed by the non-criminal laws of the Australian Capital Territory and by the criminal laws of the Jervis Bay Territory. Commonwealth laws apply to the territory only if it is explicitly included within their jurisdiction. The Governor-General of Australia is also able to issue ordinances for the administration of Heard Island and McDonald Islands under the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act 1953. The Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 serves as the main legislative framework for the environmental conservation of the territory.

In 2025, a ten percent tariff was imposed on the territory by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. This was attributed to erroneous data indicating that the United States had imported 1.4 million U.S. dollars in goods (largely machinery and electrical imports) from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022. At the time of the tariff imposition, there had been no known visits to the islands by humans in approximately ten years.