Australia’s most magnificent island left me overwhelmed – and horrified

On our second day at Macquarie Island, we’re told we won’t be able to go ashore for our morning excursion. It’s disappointing, given the incredible experiences we had ashore on day one, but after we arrive at Lusitania Bay, it becomes apparent why.

Looking out from the deck of our ship, a few hundred metres offshore, stretches a long, black-sand beach. Or, at least, I think there’s a beach there. It’s hard to tell, because it seems that every square metre of space is occupied by a king penguin. There are thousands of them. Tens of thousands. There’s no landing at this beach because there’s simply nowhere with enough space for us to land. Instead, we’re content with a cruise in our Zodiacs along the shoreline, marvelling at this magnificent sight.

Macquarie Island, a tiny strip of land 1500 kilometres south-east of Hobart, is the centrepiece of our voyage exploring the sub-Antarctic islands of Australia and New Zealand on board the Heritage Adventurer. Discovered in 1810 by sealer Frederick Hasselborough and named for the then-governor of New South Wales, Macquarie was originally judged a wretched place – considered fit only for a penal colony, but ultimately deemed too remote.

For the wildlife, however, this “wretched” place is a paradise. More than 1.5 million king and royal penguins breed and moult here, alongside 80,000 elephant seals. Today, the only human residents are based at a small station on a northern isthmus, staffed by the Bureau of Meteorology and the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (TPWS).

We land at Giants Neck Beach on the isthmus on the day of our arrival. The temperature is just 4 degrees, despite summer having just begun. Thankfully there’s little wind or cloud – the best weather the locals have seen in months, we’re told. We split into small groups, each with a member of the ship’s team leading us, navigating a path around young elephant seals. Despite their immense size, they are lazy on land, only showing displeasure by opening their mouths wide, a warning to back off (which we’re sure to do).

Unlike other islands on our itinerary, there are no fur seals here; they were completely wiped out by sealers 130 years ago and have never returned. Attention then turned to the elephant seals, whose numbers were reduced so drastically that the industry became unprofitable. The penguins were next. Horrifying evidence of this still remains in the form of “digesters”: essential giant pressure cookers used to extract oil from penguins in the early 1900s. These devices could “process” up to 1000 penguins a day.

It was the famed explorer Sir Douglas Mawson who, appalled by the slaughter, enlisted supporters from around the world, including famed sci-fi writer H.G. Wells, to launch one of the first international wildlife protection campaigns. The Tasmanian government eventually declared the island a protected area in 1933, and it joined the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997. Following a successful eradication program in 2014, targeting goats, cats, rats and more, the island is now entirely pest-free.

The penguins have recovered brilliantly. At Sandy Bay, both kings and royals congregate in massive numbers alongside more elephant seals. It’s a few months after calving season, so the beach is littered with young seals. Their big black eyes give them an incredibly cute appearance – a look the males lose once they develop their huge proboscises.

While we are required to stay five metres away, the penguins have other ideas. Kings are fascinated by humans and often approach us; while we’re warned to never encircle an animal, it’s not uncommon to find yourself encircled by them. Off-limits to us are the two rookeries, though we are able to get close enough to get a good view of the fluffy brown chicks. It’s an intense experience – many of the passengers, myself included, feel overwhelmed.

A few minutes before I’m due to catch a Zodiac back to the ship, a king penguin emerges from the water in front of me. Stuck around its upper beak is a plastic ring. It looks like the seal from the top of a plastic bottle.

One of the Heritage crew nearby contacts a ranger, who, with the help of a colleague, is able to throw a net around the animal and hold it still long enough to remove the ring. I tell her how shocked I am that, even here, in the middle of nowhere, our waste is impacting wildlife. “You’d be amazed how much plastic washes up on this beach,” she says.

It’s a depressing reminder of how, despite the remoteness of the island and the efforts to keep it pristine, humankind’s negative influence remains present. Mawson would be appalled all over again.

THE DETAILS

CRUISE
Heritage Expeditions “Galapagos of the Southern Ocean” 12-day cruise through the sub-Antarctic islands has departures this year on November 22 and December 17, starting from $15,655 per person including all meals, expeditions, accommodation in Queenstown and transfers to Bluff. Various other cruises will also visit sub-Antarctic islands. See heritage-expeditions.com