Volcanoes in Australia

Australia has 4 Holocene volcanoes recorded in the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program database, making it one of the least volcanically active continents on Earth. This low count reflects Australia's position in the interior of the fast-moving Australian Plate, far from the subduction zones and mid-ocean ridges that generate most of the world's volcanic activity. Nevertheless, Australia's volcanic heritage is more significant than its modest tally suggests.

The country's two actively erupting volcanoes — [[volcano:heard|Heard Island]] and [[volcano:mcdonald-islands|McDonald Islands]] — lie thousands of kilometers from the mainland on the Kerguelen Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean, making them among the most remote active volcanoes on the planet. On the Australian continent itself, the [[volcano:newer-volcanics-province|Newer Volcanics Province]] in southeastern Victoria contains nearly 400 individual volcanic centers spread across 15,000 km² (5,790 sq mi), while the [[volcano:mcbride-volcanic-province|McBride Volcanic Province]] in northeastern Queensland covers approximately 5,500 km² (2,120 sq mi) with 164 volcanic centers. The youngest mainland eruption at Mount Gambier occurred roughly 4,900 years ago — recent enough that Aboriginal oral traditions may preserve memories of the event.

By comparison, neighboring [[country:new-zealand|New Zealand]] has 23 Holocene volcanoes and sits directly on a plate boundary, illustrating how tectonic setting fundamentally controls volcanic activity. Australia's volcanoes span an extraordinary geographic range: from latitude 18°S in tropical Queensland to 53°S in the sub-Antarctic — a spread of nearly 4,000 km (2,485 mi).

Australia's volcanism stems from two distinct tectonic mechanisms, neither of which involves the subduction zones or mid-ocean ridges responsible for most global volcanic activity. The mainland volcanic fields — the Newer Volcanics Province and the McBride Volcanic Province — are products of intraplate volcanism. As the Australian Plate migrates northward at approximately 6–7 cm per year (one of the fastest rates of any tectonic plate), it passes over stationary mantle plumes, or hotspots, deep beneath the lithosphere.

These plumes generate magma that rises through the thick continental crust, producing chains of volcanic centers that grow progressively younger toward the southeast, mirroring the plate's direction of travel. This mechanism is analogous to the hotspot volcanism that created the Hawaiian Islands, though Australia's continental crust produces smaller, more diffuse volcanic fields rather than towering shield volcanoes. The sub-Antarctic volcanoes on Heard Island and the McDonald Islands sit above the Kerguelen hotspot, one of the most voluminous large igneous provinces in the world.

Here, the hotspot has been active for roughly 130 million years, building the massive Kerguelen Plateau beneath the southern Indian Ocean. Unlike the mainland volcanoes, Heard and McDonald sit on thin oceanic crust less than 15 km thick, which allows magma to reach the surface more readily and produce sustained eruptive activity. Importantly, Australia is not part of the [[special:ring-of-fire|Ring of Fire]] — the circum-Pacific belt of subduction zones responsible for roughly 75% of the world's active volcanoes.

The nearest segment of the Ring of Fire runs through [[country:indonesia|Indonesia]] and [[country:new-zealand|New Zealand]], thousands of kilometers from Australia's shores.

**Heard Island (Big Ben / Mawson Peak)** — Rising to 2,745 m (9,006 ft), Heard Island is Australia's tallest volcano and the highest peak in Australian sovereign territory. The glacier-covered [[special:types-of-volcanoes|stratovolcano]], known as Big Ben, dominates the island, with the active summit cone of Mawson Peak sitting within a breached caldera. Heard Island is one of the most remote volcanoes on Earth, located approximately 4,100 km (2,550 mi) southwest of Perth in the southern Indian Ocean.

It has erupted at least 13 times since 1881, and the current eruption at Mawson Peak, which began in September 2012, has continued into 2025 — making it one of the longest ongoing eruptions among Australian volcanoes. The island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its unique sub-Antarctic ecosystem and active geological processes. Despite its remoteness, satellite monitoring confirms persistent thermal anomalies and occasional lava flows descending its glaciated flanks.

**McDonald Islands** — Located approximately 75 km (47 mi) west of Heard Island on the Kerguelen Plateau, the McDonald Islands are a small volcanic complex that has experienced dramatic changes in recent decades. The main island is composed of phonolitic tuff and lava domes, and eruptions observed between 1992 and 2005 more than doubled the island's surface area. A submarine eruption in 1992 was followed by significant activity in 1996–1997, when volcanic plumes and fresh lava flows were observed.

The most recent confirmed eruption occurred in July 2005. The McDonald Islands complex volcano rises from the deep ocean floor and represents a separate volcanic center from Heard Island, though both are fed by the Kerguelen hotspot.

**Newer Volcanics Province** — Stretching across more than 15,000 km² (5,790 sq mi) of southeastern Australia from Melbourne to the South Australian border, the Newer Volcanics Province is one of the largest and most significant intraplate volcanic fields in the world. It contains nearly 400 individual volcanic centers, including small shield volcanoes, scoria cones, tuff rings, and maars, ranging in age from the late Tertiary to the Holocene. The youngest eruptions occurred approximately 4,900 years ago at Mount Gambier and Mount Schank in South Australia, where explosive phreatomagmatic activity created several maars and associated lava flows.

The flat-lying basaltic lava plains that dominate the province are agriculturally productive, and the city of Melbourne's western suburbs sit directly atop ancient lava flows. Aboriginal oral traditions from the Gunditjmara people may record eruptions at Mount Eccles (Budj Bim), which is now a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape for its ancient aquaculture systems built with volcanic stone.

**McBride Volcanic Province** — Covering approximately 5,500 km² (2,120 sq mi) of the Atherton Tableland in northeastern Queensland, the McBride Volcanic Province comprises 164 volcanic centers forming a broad topographic dome. The province is notable for its extraordinary lava flow lengths: one flow from the Undara crater traveled approximately 160 km (99 mi), making it one of the longest individual lava flows on Earth from a single volcanic center. The most recent activity has been dated to roughly 7,050 years ago at the Kinrara cone.

The Undara Lava Tubes, formed roughly 190,000 years ago, are among the longest lava tube systems in the world and are a significant tourist attraction in North Queensland.

Australia's recorded eruption history is sharply divided between its actively erupting sub-Antarctic volcanoes and its dormant mainland volcanic fields. Heard Island has the most comprehensive eruption record of any Australian volcano, with 13 documented eruptions since 1881. The earliest reported activity, an uncertain eruption in 1881, was followed by confirmed eruptions in 1910 and the early 1950s during scientific expeditions.

The volcano entered a particularly active phase from the 1980s onward, with eruptions in 1985–1987, 1992–1993, 2000–2001, 2003–2004, and 2006–2008, culminating in the current long-duration eruption that began in September 2012 and continues into 2025. Most eruptions at Heard produce effusive lava flows from Mawson Peak that descend the glaciated flanks, occasionally reaching the coast. The McDonald Islands entered recorded history more recently, with the first suspected eruption in 1992 (a submarine event inferred from phonolitic pumice found on Heard Island).

Subsequent eruptions in 1996–1997, 2001, 2004, and 2005 dramatically reshaped the islands. On the Australian mainland, all Holocene eruptions predate European settlement and are known only through geological dating. The Newer Volcanics Province experienced its youngest eruptions around 4,900 years ago at Mount Gambier and Mount Schank, involving explosive maar-forming eruptions with [[special:volcanic-explosivity-index|VEI]] estimates that remain uncertain.

The McBride Volcanic Province's most recent activity occurred roughly 7,050 years ago. Though no historical eruptions have occurred on the mainland, the Newer Volcanics Province is not considered extinct; volcanologists assess a future eruption as low-probability but not impossible, with recurrence intervals estimated at roughly once every 10,000–100,000 years.

Volcanic hazards in Australia vary dramatically between the remote sub-Antarctic volcanoes and the populated mainland provinces. Heard Island and the McDonald Islands pose effectively zero direct risk to human populations — the nearest permanently inhabited land is over 1,600 km (990 mi) away. However, eruptions at Heard could generate localized tsunamis affecting nearby islands and theoretically disrupt sub-Antarctic shipping routes.

The primary monitoring concern for these volcanoes is aviation safety, as eruption columns could affect flight paths between Australia, South Africa, and Antarctica, though traffic on these routes is minimal. The mainland volcanic provinces present a more nuanced hazard picture. The Newer Volcanics Province underlies portions of metropolitan Melbourne (population ~5 million) and the cities of Geelong, Ballarat, and Warrnambool.

While the probability of an eruption in any given year is extremely low, the potential consequences of even a small basaltic eruption near a major population center would be significant: lava flows, tephra fall, volcanic gas emissions, and ground shaking could affect hundreds of thousands of people. Geoscience Australia and the University of Melbourne have conducted probabilistic hazard assessments, and the region is monitored by a sparse but functional seismic network. The Lake Nyos-type carbon dioxide gas release hazard, famously deadly in [[country:cameroon|Cameroon]], is not a significant concern for Australian volcanic lakes, though some crater lakes in both provinces have been studied for dissolved gas content.

Australia's volcanoes are distributed across two dramatically different geographic zones separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean. The sub-Antarctic volcanic zone encompasses Heard Island and the McDonald Islands on the Kerguelen Plateau, centered at approximately 53°S latitude in the southern Indian Ocean, roughly 4,100 km (2,550 mi) southwest of Perth and 1,600 km (990 mi) north of Antarctica. Both islands sit on thin oceanic crust above the Kerguelen hotspot, one of the largest large igneous provinces on Earth.

On the Australian mainland, the two volcanic provinces occupy the eastern portion of the continent, consistent with the broader Eastern Australian Volcanic Province that stretches from Far North Queensland to southeastern South Australia. The Newer Volcanics Province in Victoria and South Australia occupies a broad lowland plain between the Great Dividing Range and the Southern Ocean coast, stretching approximately 400 km (250 mi) from east to west. The McBride Volcanic Province sits on the Atherton Tableland of northeastern Queensland at around 18°S latitude, approximately 2,500 km (1,550 mi) north of the Victorian fields.

While Australia is not typically associated with volcanism, its volcanic landscapes have had significant cultural and economic impacts. The Newer Volcanics Province's basaltic soils are among the most fertile in southeastern Australia, supporting productive dairy farming and agriculture in the Western District of Victoria. The Budj Bim cultural landscape — volcanic stone aquaculture systems built by the Gunditjmara Aboriginal people at least 6,600 years ago using lava flows from Mount Eccles — was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, making it the first Australian site listed exclusively for its Aboriginal cultural values.

Aboriginal oral traditions across southeastern Australia appear to contain descriptions of volcanic eruptions, potentially representing some of the oldest oral records of geological events in the world. In Queensland, the Undara Lava Tubes have become a significant ecotourism destination, attracting visitors from around the world to explore the 160 km lava tube system. Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Australian external territory; while uninhabited, they are important for scientific research into sub-Antarctic volcanism, glaciology, and climate.

Visiting Australia's active volcanoes is exceptionally challenging due to their extreme remoteness. Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are among the most difficult places on Earth to reach, requiring a multi-day voyage by ship from either Western Australia or the French sub-Antarctic territories. Access is strictly controlled under Australian environmental protection legislation, and permits are rarely granted outside of scientific expeditions.

The mainland volcanic provinces, by contrast, are highly accessible and offer excellent volcanic tourism. In Victoria, the Newer Volcanics Province features numerous easily visited sites: Tower Hill near Warrnambool is a large maar with a nature reserve, Mount Elephant near Derrinallum is a classic scoria cone, and the volcanic lakes near Camperdown offer scenic walks. Mount Gambier and its Blue Lake in South Australia are major tourist destinations, with the lake's famous seasonal color change from grey to vivid blue.

In Queensland, the Undara Lava Tubes National Park offers guided tours of spectacular lava tube caves, and the crater lakes of the Atherton Tableland (including Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine) are popular swimming and bushwalking destinations.