ORIENTATION
macquarie ISLAND
Macquarie Island is the most isolated of the subantarctic islands, situated approximately halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica in the Southern Ocean. It is 34 km long and 5 km wide, and experiences consistent rain and wind throughout the year, with an average temperature of 4 to 7 °C. Macquarie is a territory of Australia and is managed by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service. The island is highly protected due to its unique location, geology, plant life, and wildlife, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Because of this, Macquarie is uninhabited, with the exception of the rangers and research scientists posted there, and special permission is needed to go ashore.
The island was first discovered in 1810, and quickly became a center for the rapid rise and fall of the sealing industry that developed in the subantarctic at this time. Fur seals were hunted to near extinction on and around the island, and, after the fur seal population was decimated, sealers switched their attention to elephant seals, which were slaughtered for their blubber. By the mid-1800s, the catastrophic decline of the seal populations led to a collapse of the sealing industry, as well as calls for regulation and conservation. In the early 20th century, sealing was completely banned on Macquarie, and efforts to protect the island and its flora and fauna increased throughout the 20th century.
The southern tip of Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island’s convenient location at the midpoint between New Zealand / Australia and Antarctica also made it a focal point for improving radio communications between the mainland and the expeditions that set out to explore and map the Antarctic Continent in the early 1900s. In 1911, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, led by Douglas Mawson, set up the first wireless radio transmission station on the island, which was used over the course of that expedition–and many later ones–to relay messages over the horizon between the mainland and the exploration teams at base camp in Antarctica. Because of incessant bad weather, building this initial station was a nightmare, and the project is described in detail in the amazing book Alone on the Ice by David Roberts, which documents the 1911 Expedition and Mawson’s incredible tale of survival in Antarctica.