Australia's Coral Sea territory spans 780,000 square kilometres but only 7 of land
The Coral Sea Islands Territory covers an ocean area larger than many countries, yet its scattered cays and reefs add up to about 7 square kilometres of dry ground. The highest point stands 9 metres above the sea. Its only residents are a few weather observers, and for decades nobody was sure who owned it.
The islands lie north-east of Queensland beyond the Great Barrier Reef, low heaps of coral and sand with little vegetation, occasionally swept by cyclones between November and April. They were charted in the early 1800s, Middleton Reef having been sighted in 1788, and several were mined for guano in the 1870s and 1880s without anyone settling. Numerous ships were wrecked on the reefs during the 1800s. A weather station went up on Willis Island in 1921, and a handful of Bureau of Meteorology staff still work there.
Ownership was murky. An 1900 British document folded Coral Sea islands west of a certain meridian into New South Wales, officials variously traced British possession back to James Cook in 1770, and Britain itself wondered whether places unable to support people could be claimed at all. Growing American and Japanese activity in the 1930s worried Australia, but the war interrupted the question. Cabinet decided to assert federal control in 1957, yet it took until August 1968 for Britain to confirm it claimed no interest, and the Coral Sea Islands Act came into force in 1969. Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs, nearly 800 kilometres further south near Lord Howe Island, were added only in 1997.
Today the whole territory sits inside two marine parks. Six species of marine turtle breed on its cays, and 36 seabird species, including red-footed boobies and frigatebirds, use the former nature reserves. Humpback whales pass through between June and November, and deep reefs support large shark populations as well as tuna and billfish.
Unmanned weather stations dot other reefs, the navy and border force patrol the waters, and visitors arrive mainly on live-aboard dive boats. Oddly, the islands run under legislation borrowed from the Australian Capital Territory, with criminal cases handled by Norfolk Island's Supreme Court.
Source: Coral Sea Islands
