Ashmore & Cartier Islands - Travel Rooms and Hotels

Ashmore and Cartier Islands

Ashmore Reef in satellite-image (NASA)The territory includes Ashmore Reef (West, Middle, and East Islets) and Cartier Island (70 km east) with, a total area of 199.45 km² within the reefs and including the lagoons, and 114,400 m² of dry land. While they have a total of 74.1 km of shoreline, measured along the outer edge of the reef, there are no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorage. Nearby Hibernia Reef, 42 km Northeast of Ashmore Reef, is not part of the territory. It has no permanently dry land area, although large parts of the reef become exposed during low tide.

Ashmore Reef 155.40 km² area within reef (including lagoon)
West Islet, 51,200 m² land area;
Middle Islet, 21,200 m² land area;
East Islet, 25,000 m² land area;
Cartier Reef (44.03 km² area within reef (including lagoon)
Cartier Island, 17,000 m² land area;
There is an automatic weather station on West Islet.

Government
The territory is administered from Canberra by the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage. The FIPS-10 date code is AT; the territory is bundled along with Australia in ISO 3166. Defence is the responsibility of Australia, with periodic visits by the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force. The islands are visited by seasonal caretakers.

Ashmore and Cartier Islands