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Heard and McDonald Islands

Australian external territory

image by António Martins, 28 November 2005

Heard and McDonald Islands

See also:

Australia

Heard and McDonald Islands

Heard and McDonald Islands are far to the southwest of mainland Australia, in the south of the Indian Ocean (near Kerguelen Island, approximately 73 degrees east, 53 degrees south -- reference: The Times Atlas of the World)

There was a scientific base on Heard Island in the 1950s but it is not currently staffed. There are occasional visits by the Australian Antarctic Division (see their web site)
Ron Heard, 26 February 2002

They fly the Australian (blue) flag if anything.
Christopher Vance, 23 December 1995

As this is an Australian external territory, the Australian flag is used. The territory comprises a group of mostly barren Antarctic volcanic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall area is 372 km2.

An American sailor, John Heard, on the ship Oriental, sighted Heard Island on 25 November 1853, en route from Boston to Melbourne. He reported the discovery one month later and had the island named after him.

William McDonald aboard the Samarang discovered the nearby McDonald Islands six weeks later, on 4 January 1854.

From 1855 to 1882 a number of American sealers spent a year or more on the island, living in appalling conditions in dark smelly huts. At its peak the community consisted of 200 people. By 1880, sealers had wiped out most of the seal population and then left the island. In all, the islands furnished more than 100,000 barrels of elephant seal oil during this period.

The islands were formally claimed by the United Kingdom in 1910 and transferred to Australia on 26 December 1947. The transfer was confirmed in letters exchanged on 19 December 1950. The archipelago became a World Heritage Site in 1997.

The islands have no permanent population. There were at least five private expeditions to Heard Island between 1965 and 2000. Several amateur radio operators have visited Heard, often associated with scientific expeditions.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands