What it does
This Schedule defines the geographic extent and internal zoning of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve. Mechanically it does four things.
First, it fixes the coordinate reference system for every coordinate and geodesic instruction in the Schedule. Clause 2 requires the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (2000) at epoch 1 January 2000 as the standard, and explicitly notes that this is taken to be equivalent to WGS84 for the purposes of the instrument (cl 2). That means every latitude and longitude pair in the Schedule must be interpreted in that datum.
Second, it identifies by reference the external maritime delimitation line that forms part of the reserve boundary. Clause 1 defines the Australia‑France maritime delimitation line by reference to point identifiers HMI‑CS‑1 through HMI‑CS‑8 in Part 1 of Schedule 3 to the Seas and Submerged Lands (Limits of Continental Shelf) Proclamation 2012 (cl 1). The Schedule therefore anchors part of the reserve boundary to an external legal instrument rather than listing all intermediate coordinates itself.
Third, it establishes the outer boundary of the Reserve in relation to Australia’s maritime limits. Clause 3 describes the Reserve as an area that is enclosed by the boundary of the outer limit of Australia’s exclusive economic zone adjacent to Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Australia‑France maritime delimitation line, and that includes the land that forms Heard Island and McDonald Islands as well as the nine internal zones described in clauses 5 to 13 (cl 3(a)-(c)). In short, the outer edge of the Reserve follows Australia’s EEZ outer limit in the relevant sectors and the bilateral delimitation line where that is relevant.
Fourth, it creates nine named zones within the Reserve and assigns each zone an IUCN category. Clause 4 divides the Reserve into the zones set out in clauses 5 to 13 (cl 4(1)). Clauses 4(2) to 4(4) allocate IUCN categories to them: zones in clauses 5 to 8 are IUCN category Ia, zones in clauses 9 to 12 are IUCN category II, and the zone in clause 13 is IUCN category IV (cl 4(2)-(4)). Each clause 5 to 13 then contains precise, metes‑and‑bounds style spatial descriptions using coordinates, geodesics, parallels, meridians and references to the outer limit of the territorial sea or exclusive economic zone.