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Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are uninhabited, barren islands located in the Southern Ocean at 53°6'S, 72°31'E, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. They have been part of Australia since 1947.
Heard Island is bleak and mountainous, and dominated by Mawson Peak , a 2745-meter-high volcano on the Big Ben massif; the McDonald Islands are small and rocky. They total 412 km˛ in area, and are on the Kerguelen Plateau . They have no ports or harbors.
The islands are a territory of Australia administered from Canberra by the Australian Antarctic Division of the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage. They are populated by large numbers of seal and bird species. The islands have been designated a nature preserve and are primarily visited for research.
There is no economic activity, but they have been assigned the country code and top-level Internet domain HM.
200px HMAS AnzacThree ships of the Royal Australian Navy have been named HMAS Anzac after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, which came into definite use in January, 1915: The first Anzac (G-00) was a Marksman class destroyer commissioned in 1920 and paid off in off Heard Island
Heard Island did not have visitors until 1833Events January 3 Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. June 6 U. President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train. September 29 The infant Isabella II becomes Queen of Spain, under the regency of her mot. It is probable that no human had ever seen the Island until this time. Peter Kemp, a British sealer (seal hunter), was the first person thought to have seen the island on November 27November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year. There are 34 days remaining. Events 399 St. Anastius I becomes Pope. 1095 Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. 1703 The first Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed in, 1833Events January 3 Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. June 6 U. President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train. September 29 The infant Isabella II becomes Queen of Spain, under the regency of her mot from the brig Magnet during a voyage from Kerguelen to the Antarctic, and was believed to have entered the island in his 1833 chart.
Captain John Heard, an American sealer on the ship Oriental, sighted the island on November 25November 25 is the 329th (in leap years the 330th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 36 days remaining. Events 1034 Malcolm II of Scotland died. Duncan, the son of his second daughter, instead of Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter,, 1853Events January 19 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome January 21 Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope folding machine January 29 Napoleon III marries the Spanish Countess Eugenie at the Tuileries March 4 Inauguration of US president Fra en route from BostonAlternate meanings: Boston (disambiguation Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. Boston is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts in the United States. It is the unofficial capital of the region k to Melbourne. He reported the discovery one month later and had the island named after him. Coincidentally, Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang discovered the McDonald Islands close to Heard Island shortly afterwards on January 4, 1854.
No landing was made on the islands until March 1855, when sealers from the Corinthian led by Captain Erasmus Darwin Rogers went ashore. In the sealing period from 1855-1880, a number of American sealers spent a year or more on the island, living in appalling conditions in dark smelly huts. By 1880, most of the seal population had been wiped out and the sealers left the island. In all, more than 100,000 barrels of Elephant Seal oil was produced during this period.
The islands became a World Heritage Site in 1997.