Heritage sites

Finger posts guided shipwrecked sailors to castaway depots - and a better chance of survival on desolate subantarctic islands.

The Derry Castle grave site on Enderby Island is a poignant reminder of the subantarctic shipping disasters which were so common during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The southernmost point of historic Polynesian voyages found to date is on Enderby Island - over 460km south of mainland New Zealand.

All that remains of the ill-fated Enderby Settlement, New Zealand’s southern-most planned settlement, is a few indistinct building platforms, a faint road alignment, and a small cemetery.

On 9 December 1874, eight German scientists studied a transit of Venus from Auckland Island. A rare opportunity allowing them to measure the distance between the earth and the sun.

What is left of the Auckland Island's earliest recorded shipwreck and the remnant fireplace of the survivors’ hut are found at Carnley Harbour (north arm).

The Sandy Bay Boatshed was a lifeline for shipwrecked survivors to row to the main castaway depot on Auckland Island.

Huts are found at the north and south ends of Auckland Island. These two stations watched the coast for enemy naval vessels during the Second World War.

Built in 1880, Stella Hut on Enderby Island is the earliest surviving and most complete of the original castaway depots still standing.