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Commonwealth legislation
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
This is the management plan for the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, a 6.5‑million‑hectare strict‑nature reserve. It sets out access, permit and biosecurity rules and bans extractive activities to protect the Reserve’s islands, territorial sea and surrounding marine areas.
It affects scientists, visitors, vessel operators and the Australian Antarctic Division by regulating research, low‑impact visits and transit. The plan preserves one of Earth’s most pristine ecosystems—active volcanoes, retreating glaciers and huge wildlife colonies—while allowing controlled science to monitor environmental change.
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Direct links to the current provisions in Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve Management Plan 2005.
Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
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Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Australian Antarctic Division
and
Director of National Parks
2005
© Commonwealth of Australia 2005
Draft Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve Management Plan
Australian Antarctic Division
ISBN 1 876 93408 5
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Australian Antarctic Division.
Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to:
The Director
Australian Antarctic Division
Department of the Environment and Heritage
Channel Highway
KINGSTON TAS 7050
Photography credits
Front cover
Curved crevasses – Eric Woehler
Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella – Eric Woehler
Subantarctic skua Catharacta lonnbergi and chick – Kieran Lawton
Black-browed albatross Thalassarche melanophrys – Kieran Lawton
Kelp Durvillaea antarctica – Kieran Lawton
Big Ben from Stephenson Lagoon – Kate Kiefer
Back cover
Light-mantled sooty albatross Phoebetria palepebrata – Kieran Lawton
Rockhopper penguins Eudyptes chrysocome – Eric Woehler
Elephant seal pups Mirounga leonina – Kate Kiefer
Heard Island cormorant Phalacrocorax atriceps – Kate Kiefer
Callitriche antarctica – Kate Kiefer
Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve
The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve is a truly wild and naturally dynamic area of the world.
Spectacular geographical features and natural processes and ecosystems make it a uniquely inspiring place of immense value to current and future generations.
This outstanding place will be accorded the utmost respect and protection and will be managed, on the basis of sound understanding, as a place where humans are thoughtful, responsible and privileged visitors.
Isolated in subantarctic waters approximately 4000 km south-west of Perth, Western Australia, the Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) Marine Reserve is Australia’s most remote Commonwealth reserve. Heard Island, the nearby McDonald Islands and the surrounding marine areas of the Reserve have an incredibly dynamic environment dominated by natural processes such as vulcanism, glacial action, major ocean currents and seasonal influxes of abundant wildlife.
The HIMI Territory—comprising the islands, offshore rocks and shoals, and the territorial sea—has been managed as an IUCN category 1a strict nature reserve since 1996, in accordance with the provisions of the Heard Island Wilderness Reserve Management Plan made under the Territory’s Environment Protection and Management Ordinance (the EPMO). In October 2002, the Territory and parts of the surrounding marine area were declared a Commonwealth reserve under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act). This meant that those areas—which together now comprise the HIMI Marine Reserve—are to be managed in accordance with the EPBC Act and the regulations made under it. This is not to say that the EPMO will no longer apply. As explained in this Plan, the EPMO will continue to be relied upon as a management and conservation tool to protect the Territory and its values.
The islands provide important breeding locations for seabird and seal species such as the southern giant petrel and southern elephant seal, listed because of their conservation status under the EPBC Act and under international conventions. The surrounding waters provide valuable foraging grounds for land-based marine predators including king penguins, macaroni penguins, black-browed albatross and Antarctic fur seals. The marine areas of the Reserve also contain important benthic habitats and unique and vulnerable marine species that collectively make an outstanding contribution to Australia’s National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas.
As well as HIMI’s great value to the people of Australia, recognised through the islands’ inclusion on the Register of the National Estate in 1983 and through the declaration of the Reserve, Australia also manages the outstanding natural universal values of the Territory on behalf of the global community. In recognition of these values, the Territory was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997. Consideration is also being given to nominating the Territory as a wetland of international importance under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (the Ramsar Convention).
This draft management plan includes measures to ensure that the Reserve’s values are identified, protected and communicated to the public, most of whom will never visit this remote, wild and special place. In particular the Plan includes comprehensive measures designed to prevent the introduction of alien species from human activities, to ensure protection of important terrestrial and marine species, habitats and ecosystems, and to interpret the cultural heritage values associated with 19th century sealing activities and the earliest Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition.
This draft plan was prepared by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) of the Department of the Environment and Heritage, and takes into account submissions received during an initial public comment period from March to May 2003. The Director of National Parks has delegated his responsibilities under the EPBC Act in respect of the Reserve to the AAD. This is in recognition of the AAD’s considerable Antarctic and subantarctic experience and expertise, its lead role in the region’s environmental management and conservation to date, and its continuing responsibilities for the administration of the Territory on behalf of the Australian Government.
The extreme isolation and severe climate have meant that human visitation and associated environmental disturbance has been minimal, resulting in the Reserve being one of the most biologically pristine areas in the world. The Australian Government is committed to maintaining this important quality of the Reserve; this draft management plan describes how human activities will be managed over the next seven years with the aim to ensure that it does.
AJ Press
Director, Australian Antarctic Division
This Plan was prepared by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) of the Department of the Environment and Heritage. The AAD is grateful for the support of many organisations and individuals who provided information and assistance during the preparation of this Plan, including:
Staff of the Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment and Heritage
Staff of the Approvals and Wildlife Division, Department of the Environment and Heritage
Staff of the Heritage Division, Department of the Environment and Heritage
Staff of the Land, Water and Coasts Division, Department of the Environment and Heritage
Staff of Parks Australia, Department of the Environment and Heritage
Members of the Commonwealth Marine Protected Areas Committee
Members of the Subantarctic Fisheries Management Advisory Committee
Prof Steven Chown, Terrestrial Ecologist, Department of Zoology, University of Stellenbosch
Max Downes, Historian
Dr Andrew Forbes, CSIRO Marine Research
Dr Penny Greenslade, Entomologist
Prof Patrick Quilty, University of Tasmania
Dr Jenny Scott, University of Tasmania
Prof Rod Simpson, National Marine Science Centre
Robert Vincent, Cultural Heritage Officer
The submissions received were incorporated into the Plan where appropriate, and AAD also gratefully acknowledges the input from these submissions.
Note: Larger, more detailed versions of the maps include in this Plan are available by contacting the Australian Antarctic Division, or by visiting www.heardisland.aq
Figure 1. Location of Heard Island and McDonald Islands
(not to scale)
Figure 2. HIMI Marine Reserve boundaries
The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve (the Reserve) is a Commonwealth reserve under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The Reserve was declared by Proclamation under s.344 of the Act on
This is an opening excerpt, not the complete document.