Macquarie Island

This World Heritage Area is 1,300 kilometres (808 miles) south-east of Tasmania - latitude 54° 30' south, longitude 158° 57' east - and is about 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) from Antarctica. The island's southerly position in this cold and turbulent ocean gives it a climate attractive only to hardy travellers. The island is buffeted by winds - the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties - with typical speeds of 20 to 30 knots, rising to 70-knot cyclonic winds.

On a 'warm' summer day, expect a temperature of eight degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit) with a 10-knot wind. Sea-surface temperature is around four degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit), and strong southerly winds may be minus one degree Celsius (30 degrees Fahrenheit). A northerly wind may be as warm as nine degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit)! Macquarie Island's weather is mostly cold, windy, wet and cloudy. It has only two or three days of sunshine, clear skies and light winds per year and is mostly covered by snow during winter and spring.

The western side of Macquarie Island is exposed to the winds but a high north-south oriented plateau blocks the westerlies and provides shelter on the east for four million penguins and thousands of elephant seals.

Despite the challenging weather, Macquarie Island is a popular tourist destination. If you travel from Hobart to Antarctica your trip will more than likely stop in at Macquarie Island.

Rangers show visitors colonies of the penguin species - kings, rockhoppers, royals and gentoos - and elephant seals. The seals grow to weigh about three tonnes and congregate in groups up to about 12, spending a lot of time motionless on the sand. Tourists should not be deceived by the seals' apparent lethargy; they can react with extreme irritation when annoyed. The most common seabird on the island is the skua, but visitors may also see albatrosses and petrels.

In 1933 Macquarie Island was declared a wildlife sanctuary under the Tasmanian Birds and Animals Protection Act 1928. In 1972 it was made a State Reserve under the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Act 1970.

In 1977 it was listed on the Register of National Estate of the Australian Heritage Commission. It was also made a Biosphere Reserve that same year under the IUCN Man and Biosphere Program. It is the only Biosphere Reserve in the Southern Ocean. In 1978 it was extended to its present boundaries and named the Macquarie Island Nature Reserve. In 1979 it was declared a restricted area, with intending visitors required to obtain permits from the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service. In December 1997, Macquarie Island was listed as a World Heritage Area mainly because of its unique geological values.

You can get some idea of the climate and plant life when you visit the Subantarctic Plant House at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.