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Ascension Island
Ascension Island is an isolated and relatively young volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, some west of the mid-Atlantic Ridge, from Liberia (Cape Palmas), and from Brazil (Recife). The nearest land is Saint Helena, to the south-east.
The Ascension Island is named after the day of its recorded discovery, Ascension Day. It is part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, of which the main island is St Helena.
The island is the location of a Royal Air Force station with a United States Air Force presence, a European Space Agency station and the BBC World Service Atlantic Relay Station. There is in the island one antenna of the five that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational system (others are on Kwajalein Island, Diego Garcia, Colorado Springs and Hawaii).
The Galician explorer João da Nova, working for Portugal, saw the Ascension island in the South Atlantic in 1501, when he was going to India; named it "ilha da Conceição" (Conception Island). En 1503 when the Portuguese navigator Afonso de Albuquerque saw the island on Ascension Day, in the church calendar, he named it after the feast day.
Organised settlement of Ascension Island began in 1815, when the British sent soldiers to the island as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon I on Saint Helena to the southeast.
In 1836, Charles Darwin visited the Saint Helena and Ascension islands during his voyage in the Beagle. He described Ascension as an arid treeless island, with nothing growing near the coast. Sparse vegetation inland supported "about six hundred sheep, many goats, a few cows & horses", and large numbers of guineafowl imported from the Cape Verde islands, as well as rats, mice and land crabs.
In 1843, botanist and explorer Joseph Hooker visited the island. Four years later, Hooker advised the Royal Navy that with the help of Kew Gardens, they should develop a long-term plan of shipping trees to Ascension. So, from 1850 and continuing year on year, ships came each with different plants from botanical gardens in Argentina, Europe and South Africa. By the late 1870s Norfolk pines, eucalyptus, bamboo, and banana trees grew at the highest point of the island, Green Mountain, creating a tropical forest covered with clouds.
In 1899, the Eastern Telegraph Company (now part of Vodafone) installed the first underwater cable from the island, connecting the UK with its colonies in South Africa. In 1922, the Ascension island was made a dependency of Saint Helena. The island was managed by the head of the Eastern Telegraph Company on the island until 1964 when the British Government appointed an Administrator to represent the Governor of Saint Helena on Ascension.
In 1981, the British government changed the status of Saint Helena and the other Crown colonies to "British Dependent Territories".
In 2009, Saint Helena and its two territories received equal status under a new constitution, and the British Overseas Territory was renamed Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
The island is roughly triangular in plan, about 13 km across, with
an area of , and has about 100 km of coastline. While the west and north-west coasts have sandy beaches, the south and southeast coasts form steep cliffs.
The highest point of the island is Green Mountain, or just "The Peak" (), which is high. Other high mountains are Weather Post (680 m - 1,995 ft), White Hill (525 m - 1,722 ft) and Sisters Peak (445 m - 1,460 ft).
There are several small islands (islets) and rocks surrounding the Ascension Island; the largest is Boatswainbird Island, north of the eastern part of the island.
Ascension island has a tropical but oceanic climate, with little changes from one season to another. The island is in the path of the South-East Trade Winds, and southeast and easterly winds blow for more than half of every month.
The Köppen climate classification subtype for this climate is Am ("Tropical Monsoon Climate").
The temperature is constant throughout the year. Monthly average maximum temperatures at sea-level vary only between about 27 °C and 31 °C. At 660 m on Green Mountain maximum temperatures are typically about 13 °C lower and minimum temperatures about 7 °C lower than
at sea-level. The relative humidity at sea-level is around 70%.
The average temperature for the year in Georgetown is 25.6 °C (78.0 °F). The warmest month, on average, is March with an average temperature of 27.8 °C (82.0 °F). The coolest month on average is August, with an average temperature of 24.4 °C (76.0 °F).
The human population is about 1,000, made up of civilians
working for the RAF and USAF, and a small number of military personnel. The personnel are mainly from the UK, USA and St Helena, none of whom are permanent residents.
There are five settlements:
Two Boats School is the only school on the island and provides education to all resident children 3½–16 years old.
Ashmore and Cartier Islands
The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands is the collective name for two groups of small low-lying uninhabited tropical islands.The islands are in the Indian Ocean north-west of Australia and south of the Indonesian island of Roti. The Australian mainland is about to the southwest, the island of Timor (and Roti next to it) is about to the north.
The territory includes Ashmore Reef (West, Middle, and East Islets) and Cartier Island east with, a total area of within the reefs and including the lagoons, and of dry land. They have a long coastline, over , but there are no ports or harbours, only offshore anchorage. Nearby Hibernia Reef, northeast of Ashmore Reef, is not part of the territory, because it has no permanently dry land area, although large parts of the reef become exposed during low tide.
The territory is administered from Canberra by the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage. Therefore, it is a dependency within the commonwealth. The islands are visited by seasonal caretakers.
Australian Antarctic Territory
The Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) is the part of Antarctica claimed by Australia and is the largest part of Antarctica claimed by any nation. The area is about 6.119.818 km². Only the staff of research stations live in the territory.
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. On 13 February 1954 , Mawson Station was set up. It was 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 . 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.
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.