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Ashmore and Cartier Islands
The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands are two groups of small low-lying uninhabited tropical islands in the Indian Ocean situated on the edge of the continental shelf north-west of Australia and south of the Indonesian island of Roti. The territory includes Ashmore Reef (West, Middle, and East Islets) and Cartier Island (70 km east). While the islands have a total of 74.1 km of shoreline, measured along the outer edge of the reef, there are no ports or harbours, only offshore anchorage.
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Christmas Island
Christmas Island is a small, non self-governing territory of Australia located in the Indian Ocean, 2360 km northwest of Perth, WA, and 500 km south of Jakarta, Indonesia. It maintains about 1500 residents who live in a number of towns on the northern tip of the island: Settlement, Silver City, Kampong, Poon Saan, and Drumsite. It has a unique natural topography and is of immense interest to scientists and naturalists due to the number of species of endemic flora and fauna which have evolved in isolation and undisturbed by human habitation. The Australian Government runs an immigration detention centre on the island to process asylum-seekers arriving by boat from south-east Asia.
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Cocos (Keeling) Islands
The Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, also called Cocos Islands and Keeling Islands, is a territory of Australia. There are two atolls with 27 coral islands in the group. The islands are located in the Indian Ocean, about half way between Australia and Sri Lanka. The islands were brought under the British Empire in 1857, and then transferred to Australian control on 23rd November, 1955. In 1978 Australia caused a form of purchase of the islands from the Clunies-Ross family and subsequently manufactured an identity for locals to whom it gave a degree of autonomy.
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Coral Sea Islands
The Coral Sea Islands Territory is comprised of a grouping of small tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland. There are about 30 separate reefs and atolls, 12 of them wholly submerged or drying only during low tide, and 18 others with a total of about 51 islets and cays, some of which are vegetated. The atolls are scattered over a sea area of about 1 million km2, with the Willis Islets (Willis Group) the most important, but less than three square kilometres of land with no ports or harbours, only offshore anchorage. They are important nesting areas for birds and turtles, but their natural resources are negligible.
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Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is situated in the Pacific Ocean between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia, and is one of Australia's external territories. The Norfolk Island pine is a very striking evergreen tree endemic to the island and is quite popular in Australia, where two related species grow. Norfolk Island was colonized by members of Australia's colonial first fleet in 1788 to prevent it falling into the hands of France, whose naval leaders were also showing interest in the Pacific. Its use as a penal settlement ceased in 1855. On 6th June 1856, another group of exiles arrived at Norfolk Island, the descendants of Tahitians and the HMAV Bounty mutineers, resettled from the Pitcairn Islands. Their descendants form the main population of the island today.
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