Ashmore and Cartier Islands
The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands is an uninhabited Australian external territory consisting of four low-lying tropical islands in two separate reefs, as well as the territorial sea generated by the islands. The territory is located in the Indian Ocean situated on the edge of the continental shelf, about off the northwest coast of Australia and south of the Indonesian island of Rote.
Ashmore Reef is called Pulau Pasir by Indonesians and Nusa Solokaek in the Rotenese language. Both names have the meaning "sand island".
Geography
The territory comprises Ashmore Reef, which includes West, Middle and East Islands, in addition to two lagoons, as well as Cartier Reef, which includes Cartier Island. Ashmore Reef covers approximately and Cartier Reef, both measurements extending to the limits of the reefs.West, Middle and East Islands have a combined land area variously reported as, and. Cartier Island has a reported land area of.
History
Early history
Cartier Island was sighted on 5 March 1800 by Captain Nash aboard the British merchant ship Cartier, sailing from Amboina to England. Cartier grounded on a shoal the following day, probably at Scott Reefs. Ashmore Reef was discovered by Captain Samuel Ashmore in 1811 aboard Hibernia. It is likely the area was also visited by Dutch and Portuguese vessels travelling to the Dutch East Indies and Portuguese Timor.In the mid-19th century, guano deposits on Ashmore Reef were mined by American whalers. Ashmore Island was visited by HMS Barracouta in 1876. Two years later, the government of the British colony of Western Australia chartered a schooner, the Airlie, to explore the guano islands of North-West Australia and authorised its captain to annex Ashmore Island to the colony. The annexation was repudiated as an overreach of the colonial government's authority, but in December 1878 the Airlie landed an Admiralty survey party landed on the island. Lieutenant William Tooker claimed the island as a separate British possession, finding three men on the island engaged in guano mining with an estimated 100,000 tonnes of guano.
In October 1878, American whaling captain Amasa T. Webber claimed Ashmore Island for the United States under the Guano Islands Act and purported to rename it the Caller Group after his vessel, Sadie F. Caller. The U.S. Department of State rejected his claim two months later. Webber subsequently formed the Melbourne Guano Company with a group of Australian investors and obtained a licence to exploit its guano reserves. The government of the Dutch East Indies reportedly also considered annexing the island around the same time, and issued competing mining licences to another American citizen.
In December 1905, reasserted possession of the Ashmore Islands on behalf of the United Kingdom. The ship's commander Captain Ernest Gaunt went ashore accompanied by five officers and around 200 seamen, erecting the Union Jack on a flagpole and singing "God Save the King", while Cambrian returned a 21-gun salute. Cartier Island was also annexed in 1909. After their annexation, the British government occasionally granted licences on the islands for fishing or guano extraction. In the 1920s, the islands were used as a base for poachers targeting the Western Australian pearling industry. The lack of effective policing led to Australian lobbying for a transfer of control.
Australian administration
A British order-in-council dated 23 July 1931 stated that Ashmore and Cartier Islands would be placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia, when Australia passes legislation to accept them, and formal administration would begin two years later. The Commonwealth's resulting Ashmore and Cartier Islands Acceptance Act 1933 came into operation on 10 May 1934, when the islands formally became a part of Australia. The act authorised the Governor of Western Australia to make ordinances for the territory. In July 1938 the territory was annexed to the Northern Territory, then also administered by the Commonwealth, whose laws, ordinances and regulations applied to the Northern Territory. When self-government was granted to the Northern Territory on 1 July 1978, administration of Ashmore and Cartier Islands was retained by the Commonwealth.In 1947, interior minister Herbert Johnson became the first Australian government minister to visit the territory. The Age reported that Johnson had been unable to land due to rough seas and regarded the islands as "almost valueless".
In 1983, the territory was declared a nature reserve under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975, now replaced by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Cartier Island, which was a former bombing range, became a marine reserve in 2000.
After the islands became a first point of contact with the Australian migration zone, in September 2001, the Australian Government excised the Ashmore and Cartier Islands from the Australian migration zone.
Indonesian heritage and memorandum
Ashmore has been regularly visited and fished by Indonesian fishermen since the early eighteenth century. A 1974 Memorandum of Understanding between Australia and Indonesia sets out arrangements by which traditional fishers can access resources in Australia's territorial sea in the region. This allows traditional Indonesian fishermen to access parts of Ashmore for shelter, freshwater and to visit grave sites. The area, known as the MOU Box, contains the Ashmore and Cartier Islands Territory.Governance
Today, the territory is administered from Canberra by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, which is also responsible for the administration of the territories of Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, Jervis Bay Territory and Norfolk Island.The Attorney-General's Department had been responsible for the administration of Australian territories until the 2010 federal election. In that year the responsibility for Australian territories was transferred to the then Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport, and from 18 September 2013 the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development has administered Australian territories.
Defence of Ashmore and Cartier Islands is the responsibility of Australia, with periodic visits by the Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force and the Australia Border Force.
Nearby Hibernia Reef, northeast of Ashmore Reef, is not part of the Territory, but belongs to Western Australia. It has no permanently dry land area, although large parts of the reef become exposed during low tide.
Proposed Northern Territory annexation
The Northern Territory government has claimed on multiple occasions that the Ashmore and Cartier Islands should be returned to their jurisdiction, instead of remaining a separate territory. The Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs recommended in a 1991 report that the Northern Territory annex the islands. In 1998, John Howard's Coalition debated the issue in the leadup to the 1998 Northern Territory statehood referendum, and stated in a campaign release that it would "pursue incorporation of the Ashmore & Cartier Islands into the Northern Territory before or at the time of Statehood". However, these efforts did not lead to any changes.Environment and protection
The Ashmore Reef Marine Park and Cartier Island Marine Park are both classed as strict nature reserves and protect biodiverse areas of significant and international importance, as well as cultural heritage.Cartier Island is an unvegetated sand island, with access prohibited because of the risk of unexploded ordnances in addition to conservation restrictions.
Economy and infrastructure
There are no ports or harbours in the territory, with access only via offshore anchorage. As of 1999, water from the three wells on Ashmore's West Island is undrinkable due to being clogged with organic matter, with one also infected with cholera. The Australian Border Force vessel is stationed off the reef for up to 300 days per year, and the islands are also visited by seasonal caretakers and occasional scientific researchers.The area around the Ashmore and Cartier Islands has been a traditional fishing ground of Indonesian fishermen for centuries, and continues to be. In the 1850s, American whalers operated in the region. Outside of fishing, the islands were historically used as sources of guano, beche-de-mer, trochus and tortoiseshell. Mining of phosphate deposits took place on Ashmore Island in the latter half of the 19th century.
Petroleum extraction activities take place at the Jabiru and Challis oil fields, which are adjacent to the Territory, and which are administered by the Northern Territory's Department of Mines and Energy on behalf of the Commonwealth.
Migration
As Ashmore Reef is the closest point of Australian territory to Indonesia, it was a popular target for people smugglers transporting asylum seekers en route to Australia. Once they had landed on Ashmore Island, asylum seekers could claim to have entered Australian migration zone and request to be processed as refugees. The use of Ashmore Island for this purpose created great notoriety during late 2001, when refugee arrivals became a major political issue in Australia. The Australian Government argued that as Australia was not the country of first asylum for these "boat people", Australia did not have a responsibility to accept them.A number of measures were taken to discourage the use of the territory for this purpose, such as attempting to have the people smugglers arrested in Indonesia; the so-called Pacific Solution of processing them in third countries; the boarding and forced turnaround of the boats by Australian military forces; and finally excising the territory and many other small islands from the Australian migration zone.
In October 2001, the Royal Australian Navy detained two Indonesian boats carrying asylum seekers for seven days in the Ashmore Island lagoon. These boats were later returned to Indonesian waters through the use of force and deception.