Ashmore & Cartier Islands Tourism

Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve is located in the Timor Sea about 840 kilometres west of Darwin and 610 kilometres north of Broome. The National Nature Reserve includes 583 square kilometres of seabed, three small islands, a large reef shelf and surrounding waters. Rising from a depth of over 100 metres, Ashmore Reef is an example of a shelf-edge atoll. The reef platform is at the edge of the North-west Shelf and covers an area of 239 square kilometres.

Ashmore Reef lies at the western extremity of the Sahul Shelf where it is one of only three emergent reef systems. These biologically diverse platform reefs exhibit a high level of inter-dependency with adjacent ecosystems to the north and south.

An ocean current known as the Indonesian Through-flow provides a steady stream of nutrients across the West Sahul Banks. This current transports biological material from the rich and diverse reef systems of the Philippines and Indonesia. As initial recipients in Australian waters of this transported material the West Sahul reef systems play a primary role in the maintenance of biodiversity in reef systems further to the south.

Coral spawning in the Indo-pacific region coincides with the annual intensification of the Leeuwin Current that flows south along Western Australia and into the Great Australian Bight. It is thought that these coinciding events in the Indian Ocean form a strong linkage with ecosystems to the south by providing a regular influx of nutrients and genetically diverse recruits.

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Ashmore & Cartier Islands Tourism