What it does
This instrument is a proclamation made under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) that formally constitutes the Macquarie Island Marine Park as a Commonwealth marine reserve in the Southern Ocean. Mechanically, it does three things. First, it defines the outer boundary of the park by reference to two pre-existing legal lines: the outer limit of Australia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) adjacent to Macquarie Island, and the seaward limit of the coastal waters around Macquarie Island (clause 3). This means the park occupies the band of ocean between those two limits, placing it squarely in Commonwealth-controlled waters rather than waters subject to Tasmanian coastal jurisdiction. Second, it divides the total area into three spatially distinct zones, each assigned a different IUCN protection category, producing a graduated regulatory regime across the one park (clause 4). Third, it fixes the precise metes-and-bounds coordinates of each zone in legally binding tables expressed in the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 (GDA94), making the boundaries exact and enforceable rather than descriptive (clauses 5, 6, 7 and the note to clause 2).
The practical effect is that anyone who enters or undertakes any activity within the park's waters is subject to the management regime that flows from its IUCN classification and from the EPBC Act. Different zones carry materially different default permission states. The sanctuary zone (Zone 1) receives IUCN category Ia, the most restrictive category in the international classification system, under which commercial and recreational extraction is effectively excluded. The national park zone (Zone 2) receives IUCN category II, which allows limited non-extractive use consistent with a national park purpose. The habitat protection zone (Zone 3) receives IUCN category IV, which permits more active habitat and species management interventions.