Macquarie Island

Macquarie Island
Photo by Roman Bruehwiler.

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 associated islets lie about halfway between Australia and Antarctica and are populated by huge congregations of penguins and seals. Over 850,000 Royal Penguins breed here yearly.

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Site Info

Full Name
Macquarie Island
Unesco ID
629
Country
Australia
Inscribed
1997
Type
Natural
Criteria
7 8
Categories
Natural landscape - Volcanic
Link
By ID

Site History

1997 Inscribed

1992 Rejected

Interesting geologically but not of Universal Significance. Possibility of a wider nomination possibly with NZ islands?

Site Links

Unesco Website
Macquarie Island
Official Website

Macquarie island

Related

Macquarie Island faces 'ecosystem meltdown'

In the News

Nine years after official pest-free status, Macquarie Island is recovering but it's a 'long game' (2023.05.30)

More Protection for Macquarie Island World Heritage Site (2023.02.24)

Critically endangered herb thriving on Macquarie Island after seven-year feral animal eradication program (2020.06.03)

Huon Aquaculture takes Tasmanian Government to court over salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour (2017.02.07)

Macquarie Island base shutdown ‘a slap in the face’ (2016.09.17)

Macquarie Island wildlife recovering after rabbit eradication (2015.04.20)

Macquarie Island declared pest free (2014.04.08)

Japanese whaling ship caught inside the World Heritage area of the subantarctic Macquarie Island (2012.01.25)

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. (2010.07.22)

Eradicating the cat population on Macquarie has damaged the local environment, allowing rabbits to rapidly reproduce in their absence (2009.01.13)

Help is finally on the way for this unique southern outpost. But will it be too late? (2007.12.02)

Macquarie's feral cats: a delicate ecological balance (2007.02.24)

World Heritage island in Australia threatened by rabbits and rats (2006.10.22)

Locations

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Macquarie Island

Connections

The site has

Damaged
'Threatened' by Infestation of Rats: Rats and Rabbits
Ecology
Endemic Bird Species: Macquarie Shag
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.
Penguins: King, Gentoo, Royal, Rockhopper
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)
Seals: fur seal
Antarctic Floristic Kingdom
Tundra
Albatross breeding sites: Wandering, Black-browed, Grey-headed, Light-mantled
Sea Stacks: The coastline is generally rocky with a several offshore islets and stacks. (Coastal WHS)
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)
Geography
Uninhabited islands: Except for base of the Australian Antarctic Division
Pacific Ocean
Southernmost: No. 1, at 54?47 S
Subantarctic: 54°38′S 158°52′E
Human Activity
Hunting or harvesting of Birds: Throughout the 19th century the King Penguins were hunted almost to extinction for their oil
Seal Hunting: 1810-1920
Timeline
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
Visiting conditions
Takes more than 5 days to visit: Combined cruise with New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, 14 days
Biosecurity rules for tourists
One thousand visitors or fewer: 400 in 1991 (IUCN doc summary)
WHS Names
Named after individual people: Colonel Lachlan Macquarie
WHS on Other Lists
World Biosphere Reserves: (1977)
Biodiversity hotspot: New Zealand
World Heritage Process
Rejected, and then inscribed

Visitors

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The Plaque

  • wooden plaque near nature reserve station lookout point, missing year of inscription and OUV elements - -53.129050391735696, 163.62469678704093