What external territories does Australia have?

Australia administers seven external territories outside the six states and two internal territories. They are Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Norfolk Island, the Australian Antarctic Territory, the Heard and McDonald Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, and Ashmore and Cartier Islands.

Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean about 1,500 kilometres north-west of the Australian mainland, has a population of about 1,800. It became Australian in 1958 after transfer from the United Kingdom, and is famous for its annual red crab migration. The island also hosts the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, which has been used to process irregular maritime arrivals since 2001.

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands, 2,750 kilometres north-west of Perth in the Indian Ocean, have a population of about 600 mostly Cocos Malay residents and transferred from British rule in 1955. Norfolk Island, 1,400 kilometres east of mainland Australia in the Pacific, has about 2,200 residents and a complex history including its first European settlement as a penal colony in 1788 and the resettlement of Pitcairn Islanders in 1856; full Australian administration was imposed in 2015 after self-government was abolished.

The Australian Antarctic Territory covers about 5.9 million square kilometres or 42 per cent of the Antarctic continent and is administered through the Antarctic Treaty system. Three permanent research stations operate there: Casey, Davis, and Mawson, plus Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean. The Heard and McDonald Islands, 4,100 kilometres south-west of mainland Australia, are uninhabited and contain Australia's only active volcano. The Coral Sea Islands and Ashmore and Cartier Islands are uninhabited maritime territories.