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Heard Island.

54° 30' south, 158° 57' east

Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are sub-Antarctic islands located in the Southern Ocean

Heard Island is 42km in length and is dominated by an active volcano, Big Ben whose height highest point Mawsons Peak "is 2,745m above sea level, thus making Big Ben the the highest mountain in Australias territories.

Both Heard Island and the McDonald Islands teem with wildlife, in particular seals, penguins,and seabirds, some of which are listed Threatened Species (Southern Giant Petrel, Wandering Albatross, Heard Island Comorants, Subantarctic Fur Seal and Southern Elephant Seal).

The Islands are some of the few remaining areas of the world free from human-introduced animal or plants.

History:

The first person claiming to sight the island was Englishman Captain Peter Kemp, who in 1833 was exploring the area in his ship 'Magnet', looking for sealing and whaling opportunities.

Sixteen years later an American Captain Thomas Long also reported sighting land but neither he nor Kemp published their discovery.

This was left to another American, Captain John Heard who saw the island on a trip from Boston to Melbourne in his ship Oriental. Heard published his sighting allowing others to find it (and later the basis for America's claim of ownership)

By the 1850's whaling and sealing was well established on the island, then due to indiscriminate slaughter in the late 1880's it was difficult to find enought seals to continue and the island abandoned.

In 1908 the Britain government claimed the soverignty and allowed a Norwegian whaling factory to operate briefly out of the island.

Later in 1929 nine members of the BANZAR expedition under Sir Douglas Mawson stayed for eight days and undertook surveying, photography, biology and exploration.

During World War ll the Australian Navy cheched to see if the Germans were operating there. They were not but German raiders did use nearby Kerguelan Islands on a number of occasions.

After the war the British Government, aware of the American interest in Heard Island based on historical precedent, asked the Australian Government to occupy the island as part of its post-war Antarctic activity.

Bowden. T, The Silence Calling. 1997