Where is macquarie island located

Feral cats had been recorded on the island as early as and mice and ship rats by the s. The last cats were eradicated in In a New Zealander named Joseph Hatch, who had begun a sealing operation on the island in secured exclusive sealing rights to Macquarie Island. His ships made 75 voyages there between and He did not take as much oil during his long association with the island as earlier exploiters had done, but his operations left some of the most visible remains there, notably at the Isthmus.

He began in at Lusitania Bay where he landed the first steam digester plant to begin exploiting the King Penguin population. This attempt failed because of the rapid reduction in penguin numbers and difficulties with the oil fermenting due to its high blood content.

Subsequently, Hatch moved his Macquarie Island headquarters to The Nuggets and introduced more steam digester plants to exploit the Royal Penguins there.

But even with those technical innovations, Macquarie Island was not always continuously occupied. In the late 19th Century, as seal numbers dwindled on the more accessible beaches, the production of oil from penguins, an industry believed to have been unique to Macquarie Island, became more important than sealing.

Penguin oil was not as valuable as seal oil, but it had the advantage that it could be based on a few large colonies. By the King Penguin colony at Lusitania Bay was so devastated that it ceased to be commercially viable.

The Royal Penguins at The Nuggets then became the focus of the oil industry. At their peak, around , the plant could process 2, penguins at one time. Each penguin yielded about half a litre of oil. Mawson loved the island and on his return to Australia he began a campaign to stop oiling and to have it made a wildlife sanctuary. World War One reduced the impetus, but after the war petroleum products were increasingly available for use making inroads into the animal oil market.

In the years there were recorded visits by sealers to Macquarie Island and during the same period several shore stations were established and at least nine ships wrecked on the island. The sealers lives were hard, their housing primitive. At one end there was a small hearth and a lamp was always kept alight. Beside the hearth was a bedstead. Provisions were stored at the other end of the hut.

Windows were bladder covered holes". Some traces of sealers huts remain and digesters and other artefacts from sealing days have also survived and may be inspected at the Isthmus by visitors. Scientific Visitors The first scientific investigation of Macquarie Island was the Russian expedition led by Bellinghausen, which visited the island in and made a small collection of the flora and fauna.

Scientific interest in Macquarie Island remained slight for a long time. An American expedition led by Charles Wilkes collected some specimens in , but they were later lost.

Joseph Burton sailed to Macquarie Island on the Gratitude in and spent three and a half years working on the 'dreadfully dreary' islands with oiling parties and collecting in his spare time. Expeditions visited Macquarie Island more frequently as Antarctic exploration became more common. Captain Robert Falcon Scott collected a small number of specimens in , a bottle of liqueur had to change hands before the collecting party was allowed to land.

Another British polar expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, called at the island in 'for the purpose of making zoological and geological collections and also of observing whether any Antarctic birds or penguins migrated there in the winter months'.

The first scientific station on the island was established in by Douglas later Sir Douglas Mawson and maintained until , the year Mawson was knighted. To do so they used a sealers flying fox to haul masts, aerials and timber up the cliff at Aerial Cove and constructed a transmission hut and an engine room and set up an aerial. The first permanent scientific station was established on the island by the Australian Government in They support several different vegetation formations, quite different from those found on sandy or stony beaches.

Much of the underlying soil consists of peats. The composition of the vegetation in this area is determined by drainage, the height of the water table and water run off from the coastal slopes and plateau uplands. Animal disturbance may also have an effect on the flora of this region.

In areas of good drainage grow mixed stands of Poa foliosa and Stilbocarpa polaris — the Macquarie Island Cabbage. Poa foliosa is also found bordering the edges of streams that run across the region.

In areas where runoff from the coastal slopes accumulates in flush lines, communities of the reed Juncus scheuchzerioides, Montia fontana and the moss Breutelia pendula can be found. This community is a quaking-mire and is typically dominated by mosses and liverworts. Pleurophyllum hookeri can also be found growing in these mire communities, often in rows.

Short grassland generally occurs in areas influenced by animals. These areas are dominated by Festuca contracta, occasionally along with Luzula crinita and Agrostis magellanica. One of the most extensive community types in the raised coastal terraces is herb field. This can occur in a range of varying environmental conditions, but most commonly occurs on well-drained soils where the water table is a little below the soil surface. Major plant species growing in these areas are Poa foliosa, Stilbocarpa polaris and Pleurophyllum hookeri, along with mosses, lichens, liverworts and other small vascular plants.

Animals abound in this region. This area is also an important habitat for introduced mice, rats and rabbits. Trampling and destruction of vegetation by animals like elephant seals, and increased nutrient levels owing to bird and mammal defecation and urination can cause significant local changes to the vegetation, as can rabbit grazing, causing some areas to be converted to short grassland. Bird, mouse, rat and rabbit burrowing has an effect as well.

Stilbocarpa polaris, the Macquarie Island Cabbage, is one of only two plants on the island to have conspicuous flowerheads the other is Pleurophyllum hookeri , and can grow up to a metre in height. The cabbage only occasionally grows from seed mice and rats eat large quantities of its seed and more often regenerates from a tough, underground rhizome. The plant was used by early inhabitants of the island, including sealers, expeditioners and scientists as a vitamin C source.

The stems, leaves and rhizomes of the plant can all be consumed by humans. Coastal Zone Vegetation The coastal zone communities on Macquarie Island are part of an active shoreline, constantly battered by waves and strong winds.

Storms are common and sea spray ensures a steady deposition of salt, which is partly offset by the frequent light rain. The two main coastal zone communities are those on rocky shorelines and those on beaches of sand, gravel or cobbles. In a typical coastal zone community on rocky shorelines, beds of kelp and marine algae are found in the intertidal areas, forming an algal zone.

Above the high water mark, a lichen-dominated zone exists. During stormy weather this area is subject to inundation by the sea. The lichens Verrucaria, Xanthoria, Turgidosculum Mastodia , Lecanora and the moss Muelleriella crassifolia are typically found in this area.

Above this lichen-dominated zone, moss and lichen species mix with tufts of the grass Puccinellia macquariensis and cushions of Colobanthus muscoides. During exceptionally stormy weather this zone may also be affected by waves.

Sandy and gravel beaches generally do not support any vegetation. Several vascular plants grow above the high water mark on cobble beaches, principally Cotula plumosa, Poa annua and Callitriche antarctica. The rocks may also support a number of crustable lichen species. Well above the high water mark, the beaches are covered by a tall tussock grassland of Poa foliosa.

These tussocks may reach heights of 2m or more. Rock stacks often rise above the shoreline or the water itself. These stacks are usually capped by grass tussocks and other vegetation, which provide nesting sites for birds, rats, mice and rabbits.

The composition and structure of coastal zone communities is determined by several factors: the topography of the coast, which determines the extent to which the shoreline is exposed to waves and wind; whether a beach is present, and its structure; and the surrounding vegetation composition and amount of animal disturbance present.

The most notable impacts are caused by the 3 to 4 million animals, principally birds and seals, which populate this region at various times of the year. Described as a wonder spot of the world, by Sir Douglas Mawson. Around 3. Macquarie Island is a site of outstanding geological and natural significance and was awarded World Heritage status in , forming a second Tasmanian World Heritage Area.

Further information on the Macquarie Island research station can be found on the Australian Antarctic Division website. Macquarie Island is a geological wonder. The rocks hidden under its tussocks and peat were formed on or deep below the seabed. This makes the island unique and the main reason for its listing as a site of World Heritage significance. Rock outcrops on the northern part of the island have been pushed up from about 6 km below the ocean floor, producing a unique exposure of rocks from the upper mantle.

No drill hole has ever penetrated these depths and these exposures provide a rare opportunity for geologists to gain an understanding of such rocks. The southern part of Macquarie Island is composed of rocks formed by lava erupting from long fissures across the ocean floor.

Mid-oceanic ridges like these are exposed in very few places, such as Macquarie Island and Iceland. Small earth tremors frequently shake Macquarie Island and larger quakes measuring 6. The weka, or Maori hen, was brought to Macquarie Island in from New Zealand as a source of food.

The weka put pressure on the native Macquarie Island parakeet and rail, and the species became extinct on the island. Weka numbers declined in the s and the last weka was dispatched in Feral cats were recorded as early as Colonies of ground and burrow-nest birds were easy prey for the proficient hunters and large numbers of them were destroyed within a few decades.

Cat control measures were implemented in , but it wasn't until the late s that the focus shifted to complete eradication.

Between and the intensive shooting and trapping program was successful in eradicating feral cats. Rabbits were brought to the island in the late s as a food source for the oiling crews working on the island.

The principal source for the above information was the original nomination for World Heritage status. Banks, M. Macquarie Island. Brothers, N. Breeding biology, diet and morphometrics of the King shag, Phalacrocorax albiventer purpurascens , at Macquarie Island.

Australian Wildlife Research Carrick, R. The wildlife of Macquarie Island. Australian Museum Magazine 12 8 : Studies on the southern elephant seal, Mirounga Leonina L. Population dynamics and utilisation. Christodoulou, C. The Geology of Macquarie Island. Commonwealth of Australia MacQuarie Island. Copson, G. The status of the black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses on Macquarie Island. Proceedings Royal Society of Tasmania 1 : Review of ecological restoration programme on subantarctic Macquarie Island: Pest management progress and future directions.

Cumpston, J. DEST DPWH Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage, Tasmania. Dell, R. Macquarie and Heard Islands' mollusca.

Dominion Museum 4: Griffin, B. University of Tasmania. The Macquarie Island ophiolite complex: mid-tertiary oceanic lithosphere from a major ocean basin. Chemical Geology Hilton-Taylor, C. Holdgate, M. The influence of man on the floras and faunas of southern islands. Polar Record 10 68 : Jones, E. Ecology of the feral cat, Felis catus L.

Australian Wildlife Research 4: A survey of burrow-nesting petrels at Macquarie Island based upon remains left by predators. Notornis 27 1 : Breeding distribution of the great skua at Macquarie Island in relation to numbers of rabbits. Emu 79 1 : Kerry, K. Following the band! Light-mantled sooty albatrosses on Macquarie Island.

Australian Bird Bander Lowry, J. Horning, D. The Australian Museum Trust. Lugg, D. The Geographical Journal Marmion, I. One of the Wonder Spots of the World. By Properties. Cultural Criteria: i ii iii iv v vi Natural Criteria: vii viii ix x.

Category Cultural Natural Mixed. All With videos With photo gallery. Country Region Year Name of the property. Without With. Macquarie Island Macquarie Island 34 km long x 5 km wide is an oceanic island in the Southern Ocean, lying 1, km south-east of Tasmania and approximately halfway between Australia and the Antarctic continent.

Macquarie eiland Macquarie - 25 kilometer lang en 5 kilometer breed - is een eiland 1. Source: unesco. Outstanding Universal Value Brief synthesis Macquarie Island lies almost 1, kilometres to the southeast of Tasmania, about half-way between Australia and Antarctica. Integrity The property is of sufficient size and contains the necessary elements to demonstrate the key aspects of the geological processes of Macquarie Island and the outlying Bishop and Clerk and Judge and Clerk islets. Protection and management requirements The property is vulnerable to the consequences of anthropogenic climate change.

News 5. WebGL must be enable, see documentation. Media Activities News Links. State of Conservation SOC by year Donate Now. Extended 44 th session of the World Heritage Committee.