Macquarie Island lies in the southwest Pacific Ocean, about
half-way between New Zealand
and Antarctica, at 54° 30' S, 158° 57' E.[1] Politically, it is part of Tasmania, Australia
since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978, and a World Heritage
Site in 1997. It was a part of Esperance
Municipality until 1993, when the
municipality was merged with other municipalities to Huon Valley.
The island is home to the entire royal penguin population on earth during their
annual nesting season. Ecologically, it is part of the Antipodes Subantarctic
Islands tundra ecoregion.
Since 1948 the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has
maintained a permanent base, the Macquarie Island Station, on the isthmus at
the northern end of the island at the foot of Wireless Hill. The population of
the base, the island's only human inhabitants, usually varies from 20 to 40
people over the year.
