Australia
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island holds a remote, windswept landscape that is the only place on Earth where rocks from the Earth's mantle are actively exposed above sea level.
The active tectonic processes make it an important focus of geological study. The island and its associated islets lie about halfway between Australia and Antarctica and are home to huge penguin and seal colonies. Over 850,000 Royal Penguins breed here yearly.
Community Perspective: Els visited in December 2025.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- Macquarie Island (ID: 629)
- Country
- Australia
- Status
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Inscribed 1997
Site history
History of Macquarie Island
- 1997: Inscribed
- Inscribed
- 1992: Rejected
- Interesting geologically but not of Universal Significance. Possibility of a wider nomination possibly with NZ islands?
- Type
- Natural
- Criteria
- vii
- viii
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
- Official
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- antarctica.gov.au — Macquarie island
- Related
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- guardian.co.uk — Macquarie Island faces 'ecosystem meltdown'
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Official Website
- antarctica.gov.au — Macquarie island
Related Resources
- guardian.co.uk — Macquarie Island faces 'ecosystem meltdown'
News Article
- May 30, 2023 abc.net.au — Nine years after official pest-free status, Macquarie Island is recovering but it's a 'long game'
- Feb. 24, 2023 miragenews.com — More Protection for Macquarie Island World Heritage Site
- June 3, 2020 theguardian.com — Critically endangered herb thriving on Macquarie Island after seven-year feral animal eradication program
- Feb. 7, 2017 abc.net.au — Huon Aquaculture takes Tasmanian Government to court over salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour
- Sept. 17, 2016 thenewdaily.com.au — Macquarie Island base shutdown ‘a slap in the face’
- April 20, 2015 abc.net.au — Macquarie Island wildlife recovering after rabbit eradication
- April 8, 2014 abc.net.au — Macquarie Island declared pest free
- Jan. 25, 2012 gcaptain.com — Japanese whaling ship caught inside the World Heritage area of the subantarctic Macquarie Island
- July 22, 2010 news.smh.com.au — An ambitious plan to eradicate rabbits, mice and rats from Macquarie Island has been put on hold because of bad weather.A team of 20 experts left for the island in May, with the aim of exterminating the pests during winter by dropping baits strategically across the island from a helicopter.
- Jan. 13, 2009 bloomberg.com — Eradicating the cat population on Macquarie has damaged the local environment, allowing rabbits to rapidly reproduce in their absence
- Dec. 2, 2007 theage.com.au — Help is finally on the way for this unique southern outpost. But will it be too late?
- Feb. 24, 2007 news.independent.co.uk — Macquarie's feral cats: a delicate ecological balance
- Oct. 22, 2006 panda.org — World Heritage island in Australia threatened by rabbits and rats
Community Information
- Community Category
- Natural landscape: Volcanic
Travel Information
Takes more than 5 days to visit
One thousand visitors or fewer
Between 540 and 1074 annually in the previous 5 years (Periodic Reporting 2023)
Recent Connections
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Location for a classic documentary
"Siege of the South" is a 1931 Australi…
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Visitor Limits
"Up to 12 Ships, with up to 2,000 Visit…
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Steam technology
"The focus of exploitation eventually m…
Connections of Macquarie Island
- Geography
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Southernmost
No. 1, at 54?47 S -
Pacific Ocean
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Subantarctic
54°38′S 158°52′E -
Uninhabited islands
Except for base of the Australian Antarctic Division
-
- Ecology
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Seals
fur seal -
Sea Stacks
The coastline is generally rocky with a several offshore islets and stacks. (Coastal WHS) -
Megaherbs
"Tussock grass Poa foliosa with masses of long leaves sprouting from a root pedestal; Stilbocarpa polaris, Macquarie Island Cabbage (which looks more like a hairy rhubarb but is not related to either food plant); and Pleurophyllum hookeri, a rosette daisy with silvery leaves" -
Albatross breeding sites
Wandering, Black-browed, Grey-headed, Light-mantled -
Antarctic Floristic Kingdom
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Penguins
King, Gentoo, Royal, Rockhopper -
Whales
Southern right whale and rare sightings of sperm whale (UNEP-WCMC)
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Oceanic Dolphins
Orca, long-finned pilot whale (UNEP-WCMC)
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Tundra
"Ecologically, the island is part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion." (wiki)
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Endemic Bird Species
Macquarie Shag -
Peat
"Vast waterlogged areas on the coastal platform are heavily vegetated, forming a mire based on deep peat beds and known locally as "featherbed" from the sensation gained when walking over them. Old sea stacks testify to the continual uplifting of the island as they protrude through the peat beds, some of them now being several hundred metres from the existing coastline" (see link) -
Tectonic processes
Criterion (viii): ... The island is the exposed crest of the undersea Macquarie Ridge, raised to its present position where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets the Pacific plate. These unique exposures provide an exceptionally complete section of the structure and composition of both the oceanic crust and the upper mantle, and provide evidence of ‘sea-floor spreading’ and tectonic processes that have operated for hundreds of millions of years. -
Strict Nature Reserve
Fully. "a limit of 750 tourists per year is allowed by the state Parks & Wildlife Service, though between 1990 and 2005, the average annual number of visitors was 334. The only access is by sea - some eight ships and yachts call per year - (Potter, 2007) and most of the island is closed so as not to disturb the wildlife. .... Visits are now by permit only, with care taken not to import any pathogens." (UNEP-WCMC)
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- Damaged
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'Threatened' by Infestation of Rats
Rats and RabbitsSee wwf.org.au
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- World Heritage Process
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Recommended for combination by AB
With the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands: "the Committee “encouraged the Australian authorities to consider for the future a renomination [of Macquarie] with the Subantarctic islands of New Zealand. . . ”
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- Human Activity
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Hunting or harvesting of Birds
Throughout the 19th century the King Penguins were hunted almost to extinction for their oil -
Seal Hunting
1810-1920
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- WHS on Other Lists
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World Biosphere Reserves
(1977) -
Biodiversity hotspot
New Zealand
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- Timeline
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Miocene
The geological evolution of Macquarie Island began 10 million years ago and continues today with the island experiencing earthquakes and a rapid rate of uplift, all of which are related to active geological processes along the boundary between the two plates. Nom file
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- Science and Technology
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Steam technology
"The focus of exploitation eventually moved from elephant seals to penguins and by 1905 there were steam digester plants processing up to 2000 penguins at a time with each carcass yielding about 500ml of oil." (official park website)
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- Visiting conditions
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Visitor Limits
"Up to 12 Ships, with up to 2,000 Visitors in total, can enter the Reserve per financial year for the purpose of undertaking commercial Shore Visits" (plus more daily limits, in the park guidelines)
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Biosecurity rules for tourists
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Takes more than 5 days to visit
Combined cruise with New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, 14 days -
One thousand visitors or fewer
Between 540 and 1074 annually in the previous 5 years (Periodic Reporting 2023)
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- WHS Names
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Named after individual people
Colonel Lachlan Macquarie
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- Literature & Film
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Location for a classic documentary
"Siege of the South" is a 1931 Australian documentary film by Frank Hurley, which documented the second British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) led by Douglas Mawson. While the film is about the expedition to Antarctica, it features footage shot on and around Macquarie Island, including its abundant wildlife like royal penguins and elephant seals.
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News
- abc.net.au 05/30/2023
- Nine years after official pest-fre…
- miragenews.com 02/24/2023
- More Protection for Macquarie Isla…
- theguardian.com 06/03/2020
- Critically endangered herb thrivin…
Community Reviews
Show full reviews
Macquarie (pronounced like “mac-QUARRY”, spoken with an Australian accent, and shortened as “Macca”) Island lies about halfway between mainland Australia and Antarctica. For the birds and sea mammals, it is the last place where they can land that is not permanently covered in ice and snow. Like the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, I visited it as part of an expedition cruise. The Australians are very picky about who they let in; companies have to bid for a quota and show their educational tourism ethos. Recent winners have been Heritage Expeditions (which I used), Ponant and Aurora Expeditions.
As a World Heritage Site, Macquarie has a messy history: IUCN did not really see it ("international geological heritage only") and rejected it in 1992, and "if they insist, they should team up with the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands". In the end (1997), without much supporting documentation available, it was inscribed on both geological and natural beauty criteria:
- It’s a geological unicorn, as it is the only place in the world where a part of the oceanic crust pops out above the sea. It has risen at its spot where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate and the Pacific plate collide.
- It has wild, natural beauty, with vast congregations of wildlife, particularly penguins, during the breeding season.
Notably lacking is criterion X, the floral and faunal diversity, for which it was never proposed but should easily qualify. With the NZL Subs, it has the Centre of Plant Diversity and the megaherbs in common. …
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