Macquarie Island

Macquarie Island lies about fifteen hundred kilometres southeast of Tasmania, halfway to Antarctica, and it is geologically unique: the only place on earth where rocks from the mantle, six kilometres below the ocean floor, are still being actively pushed up above sea level, where two tectonic plates meet. That earned it World Heritage listing in 1997. It also holds enormous wildlife concentrations, including royal penguins, which breed nowhere else, along with king, gentoo and rockhopper penguins, elephant seals and fur seals in the hundreds of thousands. A pest eradication programme completed in 2014 removed rabbits, rats and mice, and the vegetation has recovered dramatically since.

History

Frederick Hasselborough discovered the uninhabited island on 11 July 1810, and it was named after Colonel Lachlan Macquarie. Seals and then penguins were hunted for their oil almost to extinction, latterly by Joseph Hatch, who leased the island from the Tasmanian government. From 1911 the island was a base for Sir Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, whose weather station closed in 1915; it was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1933, and in 1948 the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions set up their headquarters here. Macquarie Island was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 5 December 1997, and after a long campaign against introduced rabbits, rats and mice it was officially declared pest-free on 8 April 2014 (Wikipedia, Macquarie Island).

What you'll find

• The royal penguins - a species that breeds only on this island.
• The king penguin colonies - vast rookeries along the beaches.
• The elephant seals - large breeding populations on the shore.
• The exposed mantle rock - the geology behind the World Heritage listing.

When to go

November to March, the subantarctic summer, when expedition cruises operate; there is no other season and no independent access. Landings depend entirely on weather and swell, and cruises budget for missed days.

What to expect

Access is only on expedition cruises costing many thousands of dollars, usually as part of a longer subantarctic itinerary. Landings are frequently cancelled by weather. The research station is not a tourist facility, and quarantine procedures before landing are strict.

Nearby

Hobart is the usual departure port; the New Zealand subantarctic islands lie east.

Key facts