Every year the Director of National Parks prepares a 'State of the Parks' report, as part of the Annual Report for the Department of the Environment and Heritage. The 'State of the Parks' report includes information relating to activities and outcomes for the suite of Commonwealth-managed parks and reserves, plus individual reports for each property, including the HIMI Marine Reserve. The 2006/07 'State of the Parks' report is available for download from the DEWHA website. (PDF)

Two exciting initiatives are bringing isolated Heard Island and McDonald Islands closer to your home.

A new Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) project to develop techniques for detecting environmental change from satellite imagery will allow the (AAD) - and you - to remotely keep watch on this important sub-Antarctic sentinel.

Also, you can take a closer look at the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve through a new collaboration led by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. A new marine protected area (MPA) layer in the interactive mapping tool, Google Earth, brings images, stories and information about marine conservation to millions of desktops around the globe.

For more information, read the media release.

Following approval by the Minister for the Environment and Heritage and consideration in both Houses of Parliament, the Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) Marine Reserve has entered into force. This Plan sets out rules and regulations to provide for the protection and management of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve for the next seven years.

The Protection and Management section of website contains more information on both the Marine Reserve and the Management Plan.

After some 75 000 years lying dormant and home only to seals, penguins and other seabirds, McDonald Island commenced erupting in December 1992.  The initial evidence came in the form of abundant pumice washing up on beaches north and south of The Spit at the eastern extremity of Heard Island, directly to the east of McDonald island. Recent satellite imagery shows that eruptions on the island are continuing. Read more...

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) periodically publishes the Australian Antarctic Magazine to showcase the activities and achievements of the Australian Antarctic program. The seventh edition was 'HEARD ISLAND in focus', and contains 19 articles about Heard Island and McDonald Islands, ranging from 'Who eats whom around Heard Island' to 'Protecting Heard Island's environment'. The magazine can be downloaded as a complete document or a series of individual articles in PDFs format from the AAD website.