The 'Australian Antarctic Territory' ('AAT') is the part of
Antarctica claimed by
Australia and is the largest territory of Antarctica claimed by any nation. It consists of all the islands and territory south of 60° S and between 44°38' E and 160° E, except for
Adélie Land (136°11' E to 142°02' E), which divides the territory into Western AAT (the larger portion) and Eastern AAT. It is bounded by
Queen Maud Land in the West and by
Ross Dependency in the East. The area is estimated at 6,119,818 km². The territory is inhabited only by the staff of research stations. The
Australian Antarctic Division administers the area primarily by maintaining three year-round stations (
Mawson Station,
Davis Station and
Casey Station), which support various research projects.
Subdivisions
The territory is divided into nine districts, which are from West to East:
Stations
Active and closed stations in the territory, from West to East:
History
Victoria Land was first claimed for
Britain on
9 January 1841 and Britain claimed
Enderby Land in
1930. In
1933, a British imperial order transferred territory south of 60° S and between
meridians 160 E and 45 E to Australia. The borders with
Adélie Land were fixed definitively in
1938. In
1947, Britain transferred
Heard Island and McDonald Islands to the territory. On
13 February 1954 [1],
Mawson Station was established as the first Australian station on the continent proper.
Australia's claim to sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory is recognised by the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and Norway
[2]. As Australia is part of the
Antarctic Treaty System, which accommodates differences of opinions over the status of Antarctic territorial claims which pre-dated the 1959 Antarctic Treaty - effectively placing claims in abeyance - Australia only exercises its
sovereignty in ways that in its view are consistent with good relations under the Antarctic Treaty.
Postage stamps
Main articles: Postage stamps of Australian Antarctic Territory
This 1959 cover commemorated the opening of the Wilkes post office.
Australia issues
postage stamps for the Australian Antarctic Territory. The first issues came in
1957, and sporadically thereafter, settling into a pattern of an annual issue by the
1990s. All have been Antarctic-themed, and all are valid for postage in Australia, so in practice they are just Australian stamps with a different inscription.
Telephone connections
Assigned the country calling code +672, four Antarctic bases operated by Australia can be reached by direct calling from anywhere in the world. The area codes are 10-6 for Davis, 11-7 for Mawson, 12-8 for Casey and 13-9 for Macquarie Island, in each case followed by three additional digits.
External links
★
Australian Antarctic Division
★
PDF-Map of the AAT
★
Australian Antarctic Gazetteer
★
Russian stations
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