IX - Australian Antarctic Territory

Summary

Following the establishment of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947 the Australian Government was committed definitely to an expansive policy in the Antarctic. Australia had formally accepted territorial responsibility over an area of 2,472,000 square miles, about half the Polar continent, by the Australian Antarctic Territory Acceptance Act of 13 June 1933. This area, together with territory under the governance of the Falkland Islands Dependencies, had previously been claimed by Britain. British claims, and consequently Australian claims, besides the claims of the other metropolitan powers interested in the region, have never been recognized by either the United States or the Soviet Union, and hence Australian policy-makers have had to carefully consider the official attitudes of both these world powers.