PROCLAMATION

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

I, PETER JOHN HOLLINGWORTH, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council and under subsection 344(1) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999:

(a)   declare the area specified in the Schedule to be a Commonwealth reserve for the purpose of protecting the conservation values of Heard and McDonald Islands and the adjacent unique and vulnerable marine ecosystems; and

(b)   assign to the reserve the name “Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve”; and

(c)   specify that the land and seabed to a depth of 1000 metres within the declared area is within the reserve; and

(d)   assign the reserve to the World Conservation Union (IUCN) category of strict nature reserve.

Signed and sealed with the

Great Seal of Australia

on -3 OCT 2002

PETER HOLLINGWORTH

Governor-General

By His Excellency’s Command

David Alistair Kemp

Minister for the Environment and Heritage

Schedule

Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve

All of those areas of land and sea in the Southern Ocean contained within and bounded as follows*:

(a) the area bounded by the line:

(i) commencing at the point of latitude 51 degrees 50 minutes south, longitude 70 degrees 54 minutes east;

(ii) then along the geodesic in a generally south easterly direction to the point of latitude 52 degrees 25 minutes 30 seconds south, longitude 71 degrees 32 minutes 30 seconds east;

(iii) then along the geodesic in a generally north easterly direction to the point of latitude 52 degrees 12 minutes 30 seconds south, longitude 72 degrees 02 minutes 30 seconds east;

(iv) then along the geodesic in a generally north westerly direction to the point of latitude 51 degrees 38 minutes south, longitude 71 degrees 24 minutes east; and

(v) then along the geodesic in a generally south westerly direction to the point of commencement.

(b) the area bounded by the line:

(i) commencing at the point of latitude 52 degrees 57 minutes south, longitude 72 degrees 08 minutes east;

(ii) then along the geodesic in a generally south easterly direction to the point of latitude 53 degrees 03 minutes south, longitude 72 degrees 14 minutes 30 seconds east;

(iii) then south along the meridian of longitude 72 degrees 14 minutes 30 seconds east to its intersection with the parallel of latitude 53 degrees 30 minutes south;

(iv) then east along the parallel of latitude 53 degrees 30 minutes south to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 74 degrees 12 minutes east;

(v) then north along the meridian of longitude 74 degrees 12 minutes east to its intersection with the parallel of latitude 52 degrees 04 minutes south;

(vi) then along the geodesic in a generally north westerly direction to the point of intersection between the meridian of longitude 73 degrees 17 minutes east and the treaty line defined by Article 2 of the Maritime Delimitation Treaty agreed between the Government of Australia and the Government of the French Republic in January 1982 (the Treaty boundary);

(vii) then along the Treaty boundary in a generally south westerly direction to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 72 degrees 17 minutes east;

(viii) then along the geodesic in a generally south easterly direction to the point of latitude 52 degrees 08 minutes south, longitude 73 degrees 20 minutes east;

(ix) then south along the meridian of longitude 73 degrees 20 minutes east to its intersection with the northern limit of the territorial sea (TS**) adjacent to Heard Island;

(x) then along the northern limits of the TS adjacent to Heard Island and McDonald Islands in a generally westerly direction to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 72 degrees 48 minutes east;

(xi) then along the geodesic in a generally north westerly direction to the point of latitude 52 degrees 43 minutes 30 seconds south, longitude 72 degrees 38 minutes east; and

(xii) then along the geodesic in a generally south westerly direction to the point of commencement.

(c) the area bounded by the line:

(i) commencing at the point of latitude 51 degrees 44 minutes south, longitude 75 degrees 27 minutes east;

(ii) then east along the parallel of latitude 51 degrees 44 minute south to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 77 degrees 13 minutes east;

(iii) then along the geodesic in a generally south easterly direction to the point of latitude 51 degrees 55 minutes south, longitude 77 degrees 29 minutes east;

(iv) then east along the parallel of latitude 51 degrees 55 minute south to its intersection with the outer edge of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ***);

(v) then along the EEZ boundary in a generally north westerly direction to its intersection with the Treaty boundary;

(vi) then along the Treaty boundary in a generally south westerly direction to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 75 degrees east;

(vii) then along the geodesic in a generally south easterly direction to the point of latitude 50 degrees 57 minutes south, longitude 75 degrees 45 minutes east;

(viii) then west along the parallel of latitude 50 degrees 57 minute south to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 74 degrees 53 minutes east; and

(ix) then along the geodesic in a generally south easterly direction to the point of commencement.

*    All geographic coordinates are expressed in terms of the World Geodetic System 1984 ("WGS84").

** The “TS” is the territorial sea of Australia and its external territories established under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 in accordance with Articles 3 and 4 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  Australia has declared a 12 nautical mile wide territorial sea under the Act (by Proclamation which entered into force on 20 November 1990 and published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. S297 on 13 November 1990).  The outer limit of the territorial sea is 12 nautical miles seaward from the territorial sea baselines established under the Act (Proclamations published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. S29 on 9 February 1983 and No. S57 on 31 March 1987).

*** The "EEZ" is the exclusive economic zone declared in relation to Australia and its external territories under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 (Proclamation dated 26 July 1994 published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. S290 on 29 July 1994). It commences at the outer limit of the territorial sea (12 nautical miles from the territorial sea baselines established under the Act) and extends generally to 200 nautical miles from the baselines. In relation to Heard Island and McDonald Islands it is in part less than 200 nautical miles to take account of the treaty line defined by Article 2 of the Maritime Delimitation Treaty agreed between the Government of Australia and the Government of the French Republic in January 1982 (entry into force 10 January 1983).