about 320 km -1 abbr=on off the northwest coast of Australia and 170 km -1 abbr=on south of the Indonesian island of Rote.

The Ashmore and Cartier Islands were discovered by Indonesian fishermen in the early 1700s and were regularly visited for the harvesting of sea cucumbers. Cartier Reef and Ashmore Reef were discovered by Europeans in around 1800 and 1811 respectively, and were mined for guano by American whalers in the late nineteenth