Cartier Island is an uninhabited and unvegetated sand cay in a platform reef in the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea (, , or ) is a relatively shallow sea in the Indian Ocean bounded to the north by the island of Timor with Timor-Leste to the north, Indonesia to the northwest, Arafura Sea to the east, and to the south by Australia. The Sunda Tr ...

, north of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and south of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It is within the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, an external territory of

. The land area of Cartier Island is about . It is located at , on the edge of the

Sahul Shelf Geology, Geologically, the Sahul Shelf () is a part of the continental shelf of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, lying off the northwest coast of mainland Australia. Etymology The name "Sahull" or "Sahoel" appeared on 17th c ...

, about off the north west coast of

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, south of the Indonesian island of

Roti Roti is a round flatbread originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly consumed in many South Asian, Southeast Asian, Caribbean, East African, and Southeast African countries. It is made from stoneground whole-wheat flour, kno ...

, and south-east of Ashmore Reef. At the southern edge of the reef is a

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

of the '' Ann Millicent'', an iron-hulled barge of 944 tons wrecked in 1888. The remains of an RAAF

Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter (often called the Beau) is a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort t ...

can also be seen at low tide. Formerly used as a bombing range, access to the island is prohibited because of the risk of

unexploded ordnance Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not e ...

. The area is still a gazetted Defence Practice Area, but is no longer in active use. Cartier Island is completely unvegetated except for the

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...

Thalassia hemprichii ''Thalassia hemprichii'', called Pacific turtlegrass, is a widespread species of seagrass in the genus '' Thalassia'', native to the shores of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the western Pacific Ocean. Its growth rate increases with CO2 enrich ...

'', which grows in pockets of sand within the reef, and may be exposed at low tide.

History

The island was charted in 1800 and named after the ship ''Cartier''. Its charted position was somewhat inaccurate until corrected in 1878 during a hydrographic survey by Lieutenant William Tooker in the ''Airlie''. On 5 January 1888 the ''Ann Millicent'' was wrecked on the island during a voyage from the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

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South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. In 1909 it was annexed by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, but on 23 July 1931 both Ashmore Reef and Cartier Island were transferred to Australia. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the area was used as a bombing range. Cartier Island and the surrounding marine area within a radius was a gazetted Defence Practice Area up to 20 July 2011 and has been used in the past as an air weapons range. Although the site is no longer an active weapons range there is a substantial risk that

remains in the area. Cartier Island is within an area subject to a Memorandum of Understanding (known as the

MOU Box The MOU Box, or sometimes the MOU 74 Box, refers to a tract of marine waters in the Timor Sea, lying within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone, that is subject to a 1974 memorandum of understanding (MoU), and subsequent agreements, between Aust ...

) signed by Australia and Indonesia in 1974 and reviewed in 1989, which provided for continued Indonesian traditional fishing within limits.

Environment and protection

The Cartier Island Marine Park covers an area within of the centre of the reef which is protected as a Sanctuary Zone (IUCN Ia). In 2003, environmental authorities closed maritime access to the island and its surrounding reef to build up depleted fish stocks and for safety reasons. Announced as a seven-year closure,

Environment Australia Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

planned to monitor levels of marine wildlife, and determine the presence of unexploded ordnance. Before then, the area was frequented by yachts, and fished by Indonesian boats.

References

Sources

Cartier Island
at the

Gazetteer of Australia The Gazetteer of Australia is an index or dictionary of the location and spelling of geographical names across Australia. Geographic names include towns, suburbs and roads, plus geographical features such as hills, rivers, and lakes. The index is ...

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Ashmore and Cartier Islands
a

{{Coord, 12, 31, S, 123, 33, E, source:enwiki-plaintext-parser, display=title Ashmore and Cartier Islands Uninhabited islands of Australia