Australian expeditioners are set to embark on a historic voyage to one of the most remote and extreme locations on Earth — an area not seen by humans in decades.
Often referred to as a land of fire and ice, the uninhabited Heard Island is home to Australia’s only active volcano.
The remote World Heritage-listed island is also home to 12 glaciers and a range of diverse wildlife, including penguin and seal colonies.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today 
This month, the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) is leading a group of expeditioners and scientists to this ecologically significant location for the first time in more than 20 years.
Accessible only by a two-week boat trip from Hobart, the campaign plans to complete important checks on the state of the island’s unique flora and fauna as well as that of the nearby McDonald Islands.
The islands are located in the southern Indian Ocean, more than 4,000km southwest of the Australian mainland at the outermost limits of the country’s external territories.
“(The islands) illustrate some of the most undisturbed and dynamic ecosystems in the world,” Australian Antarctic Division protected areas and species director Annette Dunkley said.
“This means natural processes like evolution, volcanic activity and glaciation have been happening with almost no human interaction or disturbance.
“As an external territory of Australia, it is our responsibility to understand and protect this very special area.”
Expeditioners will travel on the RSV Nuyina, an icebreaker usually reserved for the delivery of personnel and supplies to Australia’s Antarctic bases.
However in September it will detour via the islands to enable the team undertake important data checks, potentially providing valuable insight for climate scientists.
“Some of our priorities include understanding the current status of threatened seabirds and seals and conducting surveys of marine ecosystems to inform fisheries management,” project lead Dr Aleks Terauds said.
“We will also be mapping the bathymetry (sea floor) around the islands and conducting climate science to better understand glacial retreat.”
Glacial retreat is the shrinking or melting of glaciers due to global warming and climate change, a phenomenon that has become more prominent worldwide since the mid-20th century.
“Understanding the current status and trends of the wildlife, ecosystems and environment is essential for managing this unique World Heritage Area and Marine Reserve,” Terauds said.
In 2009, scientists told ABC News some glaciers on Heard Island were observed to have retreated 50m in just three years.
“The Heard and McDonald Islands are one of Australia’s greatest environmental assets,” the Australian Research Council’s Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF) director Dr Steven Chown said.
“(They are) virtually pristine wilderness areas with unusual species of flowering plants, insects and other animals, living alongside Australia’s only mountain glaciers and active volcano.
“Climate change is affecting these extraordinary values. Our work as part of the Australian Antarctic Program, in collaboration with the AAD, aims to understand the scale of the change and what we can do to secure these extraordinary, globally significant environments, recognised on the World Heritage list.”
In April, Heard Island and McDonald Islands made headlines when US President Donald Trump imposed 10 per cent trade tariffs on them — despite no one living there.
Only a few months earlier, in January, the Australian government expanded its marine reserve, placing almost 90 per cent of the exclusive economic zone around Heard Island and McDonald Islands under protection.
The AAD said visits to the islands are strictly controlled to limit human impacts.
Avian influenza
The H5 bird flu, which has devastated wildlife around the world, has been found on nearby French-owned Kerguelen and Crozet sub-Antarctic islands, but it is yet unknown if it the deadly virus has reached Heard Island and McDonald Islands.
AAD said wildlife ecologist Dr Julie McInnes and her team are also among those heading to Heard Island to survey seabird populations, map breeding colonies, and monitor signs of H5 bird flu.
McInnes’s first job will be to visually scan the island for signs of the virus, which has killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds and seals around the world.
“We’ll use helicopters initially to give us a broad overview of the island and allow us to assess for wildlife mortalities in larger species such as elephant seals,” McInnes said.
“From there we will use a combination of drones, zodiacs and on-ground surveys with personal protective equipment (PPE) to assess for signs of the disease across the island.”
Population surveys on elephant seals, black-browed albatross, southern giant petrels, gentoo penguins, and the endemic Heard Island cormorant will be conducted by scientists with the help of drones.
“The thing about sub-Antarctic islands that just blows my mind is the high densities of animals,” McInnes said.
“Heard Island is a stronghold for some species, for example there’s thought to be over a million macaroni penguins on Heard Island.
“These small islands spotted through the Southern Ocean provide essential habitat for wildlife to come ashore to breed.”
Stream free on
