Ashmore and Cartier Islands is an external territory of Australia that consists of three reefs with small, low-lying, uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean, situated on the edge of the continental shelf northwest of Australia and south of the Indonesian island of Roti.
Ashmore and Cartier Islands was a British overseas territory until 1933, when it became a part of the Northern Territory of Australia. In 1978 its administration was transferred from the Northern Territory to the federal government, and Ashmore and Cartier Islands became an external territory of Australia.
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