• Change text size
• Skip to content

Marine Protected Areas

Search:

• About us
• Contact us

• Environment home
  • Atmosphere
  • Biodiversity
  • Coasts and marine
  • Heritage
  • Land
  • Parks and reserves
  • Human settlements
  • Water
  • EPBC Act
  • Arts and culture 

• Coasts and marine
  • Marine Bioregional Planning
    • About MBP
    • Getting involved
    • North
    • North-west
    • South-east
    • South-west
    • East
    • National Representative System of MPAs
    • IMCRA
    • Publications & resources
  • Marine pollution
    • Sea Dumping

• Marine protected areas
  • South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserves

• • Fisheries and the environment
    • Open for public comment
    • Commonwealth managed fisheries
    • NSW managed fisheries
    • VIC managed fisheries
    • QLD managed fisheries
    • SA managed fisheries
    • WA managed fisheries
    • TAS managed fisheries
    • NT managed fisheries
  • Great Barrier Reef
  • International activities
  • Marine species
    • Whales, dolphins and porpoises
    • Dugongs
    • Marine invertebrates
    • Seabirds
    • Seals and sea lions
    • Sharks
    • Marine turtles
  • Publications and resources

Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Marine National Nature Reserve

• MPAs
• Overview
• Activities
• Management
• Maps
• Resources

Overview

Summary

Proclamation date	23 December 1987
Size (current)	187,726 Ha (1 877 km2)
IUCN category	Habitat Protection Zone - Category II, Sanctuary Zone - Category Ia
Biogeographic context	Lord Howe Province
Management plan status	Current until 22 March 2013

Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Marine National Nature Reserve is located in the Tasman Sea approximately 600 kilometres east of Coffs Harbour. The reserve includes two separate reefs; Elizabeth Reef and Middleton Reef.

Elizabeth Reef is at latitude 29°56'S and longitude 159°05'E. Middleton Reef is at latitude 29°27'S and longitude 159°07'E.

The Reserve is relatively remote from other areas of marine conservation significance in Australia and is the most easterly site of marine conservation significance in Australia. The closest Marine and Estuarine Protected Areas, between 600 and 700 km distant, lie along the southern coast of Queensland and the northern coast of New South Wales. The southernmost part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park lies about 900 kilometres to the north-west.

Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs, together with reefs around Lord Howe Island 150 km to the south, are regarded as the southernmost coral reefs in the world. Their location, where tropical and temperate ocean currents meet, contributes to an unusually diverse assemblage of marine species.

History

Middleton Reef was discovered on 20 July 1788 by Lieutenant John Shortland in the Alexander. He had sailed to Australia with the First Fleet and was returning to Batavia (modern day Jakarta) when he saw the reef. It was named Middleton Shoals in honour of Admiral Sir Charles Theodore Middleton.

The first ship known to have been wrecked on Elizabeth Reef was the 300-ton whaler, Britannia. It went down in August 1806 while sailing from California to Sydney. However the discovery of this reef is generally credited to the ships Claudine and Marquis of Hastings, which reported the existence of a reef to the south of Middleton Reef in 1820. It was not until 1831, when the brig Elizabeth was wrecked there, that the Reef was given a name.

Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs might have escaped notice for a much longer had they not been close so to the major shipping routes from eastern Australia to Asia, the American west coast, and Pacific ports. Between 1806 and 1972, at least 32 vessels are known to have been wrecked on the reefs; 17 on Middleton Reef and 13 on Elizabeth Reef. Some authorities believe the real figure may be as high as 90 vessels because while some of the more recent wrecks are prominent features of the landscape, the majority of wrecks have not been located.

Special features

Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs are the peaks of volcanic seamounts. There are more than 20 such peaks in the Tasman Sea, but few rise above sea level. At high tide, when the Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs are almost totally submerged, they appear as only rings of white breakers, except for a small sand cay at Elizabeth Reef.

The variety of ecosystems within the Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Marine National Park are not represented in any other marine protected areas. The reefs are the most southerly coral atolls in the world and their isolated, oceanic environment has led to the development of plant and animal communities that are unique within Australian waters.

307 species of fish are known to occur on the reefs and with further research the number is expected to reach 450 species. At least ten species found in a study by the Australian Museum in 1987 were previously unknown to science. Two-thirds of the fish species recorded are widely distributed while the remainder is restricted to the southern or south-western Pacific Ocean.

Although before the reefs became a marine park reef fish were harvested for commercial and recreational purposes, present fish populations have returned to those thought to have occurred on the NSW coast 30 to 40 years ago.

Remote oceanic reefs like these are particularly prone to pressure from even low levels of fishing as their isolation means that fish populations are unlikely to be replenished from distant reefs. The reefs are important scientific reference areas with which to compare those marine areas elsewhere subject to high degrees of human influence.

The reefs are among the last few remaining strongholds of the black cod, Epinephelus daemelli. Once common along the New South Wales (NSW) coast, the black cod is now extremely rare and is protected under Commonwealth and NSW legislation. Though rarely seen, the black cod is widely distributed throughout most habitats at Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs. The reefs are also the southernmost limit to the range of the Queensland Groper.

The reefs are a vital resting and feeding area for migratory marine species including turtles and several seabirds listed on the Japan-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement and China-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement.

Green turtles are relatively common around the reefs. There is no land suitable for nesting in the Reserve but the area is important as a feeding ground.

Many coral species uncommon in other reef locations are abundant at Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs. 122 species of coral have been found on the Reefs, far less than the 550 species on the Great Barrier Reef. However the variety of corals is greater here than on the fringing reefs of Lord Howe Island where only 57 species are known.

Little was known about the echinoderms of Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs before an Australian Museum study in 1987. At least 74 species are now known with the most prominent of these being the crown-of-thorns starfish which feeds on live corals and poses a significant threat to the ecosystem.

Over 120 species of crustaceans (including crabs, lobsters and barnacles) have been found, but the total number of species in the Reserve is likely to be around 500.

Of the 266 species of molluscs (including squids, octopuses, cuttlefish and shellfish) recorded to date, nine occur nowhere else but in the region of Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Marine National Park, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. The Reserve also contains three species of molluscs previously unknown to science.