The
Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands are two groups of small low-lying uninhabited tropical
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
s in the Indian Ocean situated on the edge of the
continental shelfThe continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during interglacial periods such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and gulfs. The continental rise is below the...
north-west of Australia and south of the
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n island of
Rotiright|thumb|300px|Satellite photo of RotiRote Island is an island of Indonesia, part of the East Nusa Tenggara province of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It has an area of 1200 km². It lies 500 km northeast of the Australian coast and 170 km northeast of the Ashmore and Cartier Islands. The island is...
at .
Geography
The territory includes Ashmore Reef (West, Middle, and
EastEast Island is one of three islets on Ashmore Reef. It is located at 12º15'S 123º05'E, about midway between Australia and Timor. It is often referred to as East Islet, a name that is used, for example, in The World Factbook; the islet's gazetted name is, however, East Island.It has an area of...
Islets) and
Cartier IslandCartier Island is an uninhabited and unvegetated sand cay in a platform reef in the Timor Sea north of Australia and south of Indonesia. It is located at 12°31'S 123°33'E, on the edge of the Sahul Shelf, about 300 kilometres off the north west coast of Western Australia, 200 kilometres south of the...
(70 km east) with, a total area of 199.45 km² within the
reefIn nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
s and including the lagoons, and 114,400 m² of dry land. While they have a total of 74.1 km of shoreline, measured along the outer edge of the reef, there are no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorage. Nearby Hibernia Reef, 42 km Northeast of Ashmore Reef, is not part of the territory, but belongs to
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
. It has no permanently dry land area, although large parts of the reef become exposed during low tide.
- Ashmore Reef 155.40 km² area within reef (including lagoon)
- West Islet, 51,200 m² land area;
- Middle Islet, 21,200 m² land area;
- East Islet, 25,000 m² land area;
- Cartier Reef (44.03 km² area within reef (including lagoon)
- Cartier Island, 17,000 m² land area;
There is an automatic weather station on West Islet.
Government
The territory is administered from
CanberraCanberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth largest Australian city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
by the
Attorney-General's DepartmentAn Attorney-General's Department is a government department in certain countries.*Attorney-General's Department *Attorney-General's Department...
(before 29 November 2007 administration was carried out by the Department of Transport and Regional Services). The FIPS-10 date code is
AT; the territory is bundled along with Australia in
ISO 3166ISO 3166 is a three-part standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , and defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions . The official name is Codes for the representation...
. Defence is the responsibility of Australia, with periodic visits by the
Royal Australian NavyThe Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following federation of the Australian Colonies in 1901, the former colonial navies merged to become the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
and
Royal Australian Air ForceThe Royal Australian Air Force is the Air Force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF began in March 1912 as the Australian Flying Corps making it the second oldest air force in the world...
. The islands are visited by seasonal
caretakerA Property caretaker is a person who cares for real estate for trade or financial compensation, and sometimes in exchange for rent-free living accommodations. The caretaking profession includes positions as housesitters, ranch sitters, bed & breakfast and innsitters, property managers, estate...
s.
Ashmore Reef is called
Pulau Pasir by Indonesians, and considered part of Rote Ndao Regency of
East Nusa TenggaraEast Nusa Tenggara is a province of Indonesia, located in the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, including West Timor. The provincial capital is Kupang, located on West Timor....
province.
In the
Rote Islandright|thumb|300px|Satellite photo of RotiRote Island is an island of Indonesia, part of the East Nusa Tenggara province of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It has an area of 1200 km². It lies 500 km northeast of the Australian coast and 170 km northeast of the Ashmore and Cartier Islands. The island is...
language, it is called
Nusa Solokaek. Both names have the meaning Sand Island.
Ecology and environment
The Ashmore Reef Marine National Nature Reserve was established in August 1983. It is of significant
biodiversityBiodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems...
value as it is in the flow of the
Indonesian throughflowThe Indonesian Throughflow is an ocean current that transports water between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian Archipelago. In the north, the current enters the Indonesian seas through the Makassar Strait and Malacca Straits...
currentAn ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon the water, such as the wind, Coriolis force, temperature and salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun...
from the Pacific Ocean through the
Indonesian ArchipelagoThe Malay Archipelago and Maritime Southeast Asia are names given to the archipelago located between mainland Southeastern Asia and Australia. Located between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the group of 20,000 islands is the world's largest archipelago by area...
to the Indian Ocean. It is also in a surface current west from the
Arafura SeaThe Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea. It is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda and Ceram seas to the northwest....
and
Timor SeaThe Timor Sea is a sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, to the south by Australia and to the west by the Indian Ocean.- Geography :...
. There are 14 distinct species of
sea snakeSea snakes, or seasnakes, are venomous elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. Though they evolved from terrestrial ancestors, most are extensively adapted to a fully aquatic life and are unable to even move on land, except for the genus Laticauda, which...
in the area, more than in any other area. There is also an unusually high level of
species diversitySpecies diversity is an index that incorporates the number of species in an area and also their relative abundance. It is generally a much more useful value than species richness....
of
coralCorals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone-like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals...
, mollusks, and
fishA fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins...
. A memorandum of understanding between the Australian and Indonesian governments allows Indonesian fishermen access to their traditional fishing grounds within the region, subject to limits.
Cartier Island Marine Reserve includes the entire sand cay of Cartier Island, the reef surrounding it, the ocean for a 7.2 km radius around the island, and 1000 m below the seafloor. It was proclaimed in 2000.
Economy and migration
There is no economic activity in the Territory. As Ashmore Reef is the closest point of Australian territory to Indonesia, it was a popular target for people smugglers transporting asylum seekers to Australia. Once they had landed on Ashmore, asylum seekers could claim to have entered Australian territory and request to be processed as refugees. The use of Ashmore for this purpose created great notoriety during late 2001, when refugee arrivals became a major political issue in Australia. As Australia was not the country of first asylum for these "
boat peopleBoat people is a term that usually refers to illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate en masse in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made, rendering them unseaworthy and unsafe...
", the Australian Government did not consider it had a responsibility to accept them.
A number of things were done to discourage the practice such as attempting to have the people smugglers arrested in Indonesia; the so-called
Pacific SolutionThe Pacific Solution was the name given to the Australian government policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention camps on small island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland...
of processing them in third countries; the boarding and forced turnaround of the boats by Australian military forces, and finally excising Ashmore and many other small islands from the
Australian migration zoneThe Australian migration zone refers to the parts of Australian territory where a non citizen must hold a visa to legally enter and remain. It includes all states and mainland territories, plus some external territories, at the mean low water mark....
. Two boatloads of asylum seekers were each detained for several days in the lagoon at Ashmore after failed attempts by the
Royal Australian NavyThe Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following federation of the Australian Colonies in 1901, the former colonial navies merged to become the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
to turn them back to Indonesia in October 2001.
External links