Coral Sea Islands

The Coral Sea Islands Territory includes a grouping of small tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland, around {{coor d|18|S|152|E|}}. There are about 30 separate reefs and atolls, 12 of them wholly submerged or drying only during low tide, and 18 others with a total of about 51 islets and cays (18 alone on the atoll Lihou Reef and Cays), some of which are vegetated. The atolls exhibit a wide range of size, from a few kilometers in diameter to perhaps the second largest atoll in the world by total area (including lagoon): Lihou Reef, with a lagoon size of 100 by 30 km and an area of 2,500 km², which compares to a combined land area of the 18 individual islets of only 0.91 km². The islands are all very low.

Related Topics:
Coral Sea - Queensland - Reef - Atoll - Cay - Lihou Reef and Cays - Lagoon

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The atolls are scattered over a sea area of about 1 million km², with the Willis Islets (Willis Group) the most important, but less than three square kilometers of land and no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorage. They are important nesting areas for birds and turtles, but their natural resources are negligible.

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The territory was created in 1969 by the Coral Sea Islands Act (before, the area was considered part of Queensland) and extended in 1997 to include Middleton Reef and Elizabeth Reef nearly 800 km further South, already in the Tasman Sea. The two latter reefs are indeed much closer to Lord Howe Island, New South Wales (about 150 km) than to the southernmost island of the rest of the territory, Cato Island (nearly 800 km). The islands, cays and reefs of the Great Barrier Reef are not part of the territory, they belong to Queensland. The outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef is the boundary between Queensland and the Coral Sea Islands Territory.

Related Topics:
Queensland - Tasman Sea - Lord Howe Island - New South Wales - Great Barrier Reef

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The territory is a possession of Australia, administered from Canberra by the Australian Department of the Environment, which has control over the activities of visitors. Defense is the responsibility of Australia, and the territory is visited regularly by the Royal Australian Navy. Australia maintains automatic weather stations on many of the isles and reefs, and claims a 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusive fishing zone. There is no economic activity, no permanent population, only a staff of three or four people to run the meteorological station on Willis Island (South Islet), established in 1921. The territory's data code is CR.

Related Topics:
Australia - Canberra - Royal Australian Navy - Nautical mile - Fishing

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Automatic, unmanned weather stations are located on following reefs or atolls:

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• Bougainville Reef
• Cato Island
• Flinders Reef (Flinders Coral Cay)
• Frederick Reef
• Holmes Reef
• Lihou Reef (Turtle Islet)
• Marion Reef
• Moore Reef

Lighthouses are located on following reefs or islands:

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• Bougainville Reef
• East Diamond Islet
• Frederick Reefs
• Lihou Reef
• Saumarez Reef
 
Coral Sea Islands: Geography ►