Talk:Australian Antarctic Territory

Redirecting this article to Antarctica

(WT-en) Cjensen suggests redirect to Antarctica, unless someone can define how a part of "Australian Antarctic" that is not within Antarctica.

I disagree. Australian Antarctic Territory is a region of Antarctica and Australia in a similar way the Ross Dependency is for New Zealand. Both countries claim these respective parts of the frozen continent, just as a number of other countries do. If we are going to permit the Ross Dependency have an article then there should be one each for the other Antarctic claims too, as each will be administered by a different country. Constitutionally, an Australian Territory is like a potential State, with its own laws, border controls and administration. So I see this article as a stub, rather than a redirect or a vote for deletion. -- (WT-en) Huttite 01:36, 27 Nov 2005 (EST)

I would very much like to avoid any further debates of the Taiwan / Palestinian Territories variety, and would very much oppose creating regions for Antarctica based on each country's claims (many of which overlap). If someone wants to divide Antarctica up into sensible regions based on tourism (Antarctic Peninsula and Ross Sea might be a good start) and then have territorial articles redirect to those regions it might make more sense, but creating regions based on territorial claims seems a recipe for disaster.

Also, to add a bit more, article 4 of the Antarctic treaty says that all countries with claims in Antarctica will ignore those claims while the Antartic Treaty is in force, so saying territorial claims are like "states" with their own laws and such is not entirely true at present. -- (WT-en) Ryan 02:19, 27 Nov 2005 (EST)

I support removing the Ross Dependency also. Unless the claimant nation enforces actual control over the claimed region, I fail to see how the claim matters to the traveller. In the absence of an effect upon travel, I see no reason to bother with the claims. The state of things does bear mentioning in the Antarctica article because it provides both good education and entertainment. -- (WT-en) Colin 04:09, 27 Nov 2005 (EST)

While I appreciate the claimant nations are not enforcing their claims, as such, nevertheless obtaining permission to visit these various regions of Antarctica generally means at least advising the appropriate administration in the particular country concerned. As making travel arrangements for these various regions of Antarctica are likely to differ, making separate pages for each region seems sensible to me. I admit they are administrative regions. However, until there is a better and more logical breakdown of the continent, these claim regions are going to keep coming back. I think a breakdown by administrative region should remain, if only to prevent these articles being randomly regenerated. -- (WT-en) Huttite 05:16, 28 Nov 2005 (EST)

That actually isn't entirely true -- visiting a base requires permission from the country that owns the base, but visiting (for example) the Antarctic Peninsula does not require informing any claimant nation. I was planning on cleaning up the Antarctica article after I visit again in January, but I'll try to take a stab at re-organizing things in the next couple of days just to try to add some order. The two main regions visited by tourists are the Antarctic Peninsula (claimed by several countries) and the Ross Sea area (also claimed by several countries), so I'd like to start with those regions and make any claimant articles redirect to the appropriate parent region. Let me know if that sounds unreasonable. -- (WT-en) Ryan 12:17, 29 Nov 2005 (EST)

I've redirect Ross Dependency and Australian Antarctic Territory to Ross Sea, which is how the area is more commonly known for tourists. Antarctica now has three regions: South Pole, Ross Sea, and Antartic Peninsula. That doesn't cover the entire continent, but it does cover the areas where the vast majority of tourists visit. Hopefully I've not ruffled too many feathers by making this change. -- (WT-en) Ryan 23:49, 1 Dec 2005 (EST)