The AAD administers the Territory of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands.
A four-person team visited Heard Island in November 2000 to clean up the derelict buildings and rehabilitate the abandoned ANARE site at Atlas Cove.
The group returned an estimated 25 tonnes of waste to Australia for disposal, some of which had been stockpiled on the beach by a working party which visited the island on a fisheries patrol vessel in February 2000.
The cleanup follows assessments of the site’s contaminants and waste types, as well as a thorough heritage assessment which documents the station site’s evolution from 1947 to the present.
In January 2001 Senator Hill, Minister for the Environment and Heritage, announced plans to establish a Marine Reserve adjacent to Heard Island.
The reserve, of some 7.6 million hectares, will protect outstanding and representative habitats, geographical features, and terrestrial and marine species and their foraging grounds.
A management plan will be prepared for the marine area, and the existing World Heritage-listed Heard Island Wilderness Reserve.