| Heard and MacDonald Islands ((in)Heard Island and McDonald Islands) | |
 | |
| Flag | |
| Information | |
| Capital city | no value |
|---|---|
| Area | 372 km² |
| Population | 0 hab. |
| Density | 0 inhab./km² |
| Internet suffix | .hm |
| Spindle | UTC 05:00 |
| Location | |
 53 ° 5 ′ 37 ″ S 73 ° 31 ′ 1 ″ E | |
| Official site | |
The Heard and MacDonald Islands form a territory outside theAustralia. it is made up of a small archipelago, the McDonald Islands, and an isolated island, Heard Island. Located in the Indian Ocean, 4,100 kilometers southwest of Australia, two-thirds the distance between Madagascar and theAntarctic, the territory is uninhabited and administered by the Department of the Environment and Water Resources. These islands of volcanic origin are located on the plateau of Kerguelen.
Understand
Geography
The territory is made up of the McDonald Islands, including McDonald Island, Heard Island, and a group of islets and rocks measuring approximately 1,1 km2 in area, located about ten kilometers north of Heard Island and made up of Shag Islet and Morgan Island and Sail Rock and Black Rock.
Story
The first person likely to have sighted Heard Island was Peter Kemp, a British seal hunter who discovered it on during a trip on the Magnet from the Kerguelen Islands to Antarctica. He would have recorded this observation in his logbook.
Captain John Heard, an American seal hunter traveling the Oriental between Boston and Melbourne, observes Heard Island again on . He reports his discovery the following month and the island is named after him. Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang discovers the McDonald Islands on .
The first known landing on Heard Island dates back to March 1855 when Corinthian seal hunters led by Captain Erasmus Darwin Rogers landed there at a location called Oil Barrel Point. Between 1855 and 1880, a number of American seal hunters spent a year or more there in appalling conditions. At most, the community has 200 people. In 1880, the seals were largely wiped out and hunters deserted the island. In total, over 100,000 barrels of seal oil are produced.
The islands returned to Australia in 1947. Until the 1950s, Heard Island was visited by scientific teams at Atlas Cove. In 1971, it was the turn of McDonald Island to Williams Bay. The territory is inscribed on the list of Unesco World Heritage in 1997.
To go
Visiting these islands requires careful planning and preparation, as there are no permanent inhabitants. To get there, you will either have to mount an expedition or join an expedition. Due to the islands' status as a nature reserve, permission to land from the Australian Antarctic Division will be required; landings can only be made on the McDonald Islands for "compelling scientific reasons".
To buy
There is no economic activity on Heard and the McDonald Islands.
