Heard and McDonald Islands

World Heritage

Australia

🎧 Listen to Introduction

Heard Island and McDonald Islands are located in the Southern Ocean, approximately 1,700 km from the Antarctic continent and 4,100 km southwest of Perth. As the only volcanically active subantarctic islands, they "open a window to the Earth", providing opportunities to observe ongoing geomorphic processes and glacial dynamics. Heard Island and McDonald Island are among the world's rare pristine island ecosystems, with unique conservation value in the complete absence of introduced flora and fauna and human impact.

# Pristine island ecosystem