Revealed: the no-go zones off limits to visitors in Australia

No-go zones

Australia is packed with must-visit destinations, but it has some fascinating no-go spots too. Whether it's due to conservation reasons, because they're sacred Indigenous-owned areas, or they’re simply too dangerous for tourists, these places are off limits.

Click through the gallery to discover the places you can't visit in the wonderful land of Oz...

Heard Island

Volcanoes and glaciers are not what you’d expect to see in Australia. And sadly you won’t get a chance to visit wild and remote Heard Island, one of Australia’s most spectacular, hidden spaces.

The little-known landmass, located in the southern Indian Ocean about halfway between Australia and South Africa, is home to incredible wildlife including three species of seal, four species of penguin, and two endemic bird species – the Heard Island sheathbill and the Heard Island cormorant.

Heard Island

Access to the inhospitable subantarctic island, which has the nation’s highest active volcano, known as Big Ben, is strictly restricted to keep it free of introduced animal pests. Along with the McDonald Islands, it was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1997.

Visits are strictly regulated, so you’re highly unlikely to be able to go unless you’re part of a scientific expedition. Should you be granted access, you face a two-week voyage from Australia across some of the planet’s roughest seas.

Pine Gap, Northern Territory

All sorts of rumors swirl about this remote and covert Australian-American military base set in the central Australian desert just southwest of Alice Springs.

Commonly known as Pine Gap, it’s officially called the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap and is totally off limits to anyone but officials. Exactly what goes on in there is a closely guarded secret, but it inspired a Netflix series called Pine Gap. 

Pine Gap, Northern Territory

The US satellite surveillance base was operational from the 1970s. It's now thought to employ around 1,000 people and collect a wide range of signals intelligence, as well as provide information on early warning of ballistic missile launches.

Wittenoom, Western Australia

Wittenoom is notoriously the most contaminated site in the southern hemisphere and the government compulsorily acquired its last properties in 2019 to close off the town – though, incredibly, tourists have been known to still visit the area, despite clear signs warning of the deadly risks.

More than 2,000 workers and residents of Wittenoom have died from asbestos-related diseases.

Wittenoom, Western Australia

Based in Western Australia's Pilbara region, the former mining town sits at the mouth of the Wittenoom Gorge. As Australia's only asbestos mine, it was at its peak from 1950 through to the early 1960s.

It was officially removed from Western Australian maps in 2007, but remains a blight on the country's mining past.

Point Nepean National Park, Victoria

While you can hike around much of this stunning national park in Victoria, large sections are off limits thanks to conservation and potential hazards due to its past as a military firing range.

The remote and protected location, set on the western tip of the Mornington Peninsula, is home to rare species, such as the white-footed dunnart, black wallaby, and singing honeyeater, plus native coastal plants. 

Point Nepean National Park, Victoria

As the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, this point was important strategically and the site of many forts and military buildings, including the 19th-century Fort Nepean. A quarantine station was also established on the wild and windswept spit in 1852.

The waters are notoriously treacherous along the southern part of the park and boats are only permitted to land in designated areas in front of the old quarantine station.

Carnac Island, Western Australia

It might look enticing but don’t be fooled. This tiny white-sand island just off Fremantle in Western Australia is home to over 400 tiger snakes, a highly venomous reptile.

With no predators to cull their numbers, the snakes very much rule the roost. The nature reserve is also an important habitat for the rare Australian sea lion, as well as many seabirds including a variety of tern species.

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Carnac Island, Western Australia

It’s possible to visit the island by boat to see the sea lions – although there is a small exclusion zone to allow the sea lions somewhere to escape ogling tourists – but the interior is totally off limits due to the snakes.

It’s rumored that a snake showman called Rocky Vane released the tiger snakes on Carnac Island in around 1903, after his wife and then his partner were both fatally bitten by his snakes.

Cartier Island Marine Park

This small sand cay, which lies 373 miles north of Broome and is closer to Indonesia than Australia, is within a 66-square-mile marine reserve where around 16% of Australia's fish species can be found.

Cartier Island and its surrounding reefs have been prime fishing grounds for Indonesian fishermen for centuries looking to collect birds, bird's eggs, clams, sea cucumber, shells, turtles, and turtle eggs. It is now an official sanctuary zone and entering or anchoring is strictly forbidden.

Cartier Island Marine Park

The zone not only protects the marine park's biodiversity – it is an important habitat for sea snakes, turtles, whale sharks, corals, sea fans, and sponges – but also safeguards vessels against unexploded ordnance.

Cartier Island and the water up to a radius of six miles was used as a Defence Practice Area up to 2011 so there is a real risk that unexploded weapons remain in the area.

Albatross Island, Tasmania

As its name suggests, this lonely little isle in the Bass Strait, strewn just off the coast of northwest Tasmania, is home to 10,000 rare shy albatrosses. It’s one of only three islands where Australia's only endemic species of the spectacular seabird lives.

Unless you’re a conservationist, you have no chance of seeing this magnificent colony of birds. They're protected due to their vulnerability to rising air temperatures (which are very harmful to chicks), warming oceans, and torrential rainfall.

Dorre Island, Western Australia

One of three islands that make up the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia, Dorre Island is an uninhabited wilderness that is home to some of the world's rarest wildlife. If you were to visit you might spy the Shark Bay mouse, western barred bandicoot, banded hare-wallaby or rufous hare-wallaby.

Dorre Island is under a wildlife protection quarantine as it is one of only two islands free of a fatal wart virus that affects the threatened western barred bandicoots, so landing is currently prohibited to prevent the spread of the virus.

Arnhem Land, Northern Territory

It’s remarkable to think that this vast tract of land (more than 37,452 square miles) in the far northeastern corner of the Northern Territory has been visited by very few Australians.

Arnhem Land – a diverse place with a rugged coastline, remote islands, wild rivers, floodplain billabongs, rainforest, towering escarpments, and savanna woodland – is one of the country's last true wilderness areas and access is by special permission only.

Arnhem Land, Northern Territory

Over twice the size of Switzerland, Arnhem Land has a population of around 16,000, who mostly live in small outstations, and is Aboriginal-owned. The traditional home of the Indigenous Yolngu people, it is rich in culture and notably home to some of the country’s finest rock art galleries. It’s also where the didgeridoo was invented.

There are tours into the region, where operators negotiate permits, but there are many areas in this immense region that are completely inaccessible – especially in the wet season (November through April) when the roads and tracks become impassable.

Elliot Price Conservation Park, South Australia

A vast and lonely conservation area in the arid depths of central Australia, Elliot Price Conservation Park was established to help conserve the extraordinary wilderness of a southern section of the immense Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre), the country’s largest salt lake.

It covers the Hunt Peninsula and Brooks Island and, with all access prohibited, the area is totally untouched. 

The Blue Hole, Queensland

Deep in the ancient tropical rainforest of Daintree National Park in far north Queensland, the Blue Hole is a sacred women's place for the Jalunjiwarra clan of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people.

Men are forbidden to visit and women must be invited to the area, a traditional healing pool and birthing place, by the traditional owners. Signs urge visitors to respect the sacred site with the Jalunjiwarra believing unwelcome visitors in the waters will experience health problems. 

Swan Island, Victoria

The sand barrier island near Queenscliff has a long history of military use, with a fort first established here in the 1870s to protect the entrance to Port Phillip Bay from potential Russian invasion. It was used as a depot for naval mines in World War I and has been used as a training area since World War II.

No one knows exactly what goes on in the Swan Island Military Base but rumor has it that Australia's Special Forces currently carry out counter terrorism training here. Whatever is happening, there is no chance of you visiting this top-secret facility, but you can stare across at it and let your imagination run riot.

Woomera Prohibited Area, South Australia

The Stuart Highway cuts through the prohibited area of the RAAF Woomera Range Complex, but you're not allowed to venture off the highway without a permit.

The large weapons testing range, which was established in 1947 by Britain and Australia and covers a whopping 47,177 square miles, has been used for nuclear testing in the past. 

Woomera Prohibited Area, South Australia

Most of the vast Australian Defence Force aerospace and systems testing range in South Australia is closed to the public, including the airspace above it.

However, it’s possible to visit Woomera Village, which has a number of museums including the Woomera National Aerospace and Missile Park. The venue exhibits missiles and rockets that were developed and tested at Woomera, as well as aircraft that have been used in trials. 

Uluru, Northern Territory

After decades of controversy, tourists are now banned from climbing Australia’s most famous landmark. The Aboriginal Anangu tribe, the traditional owners of the rock, have always asked visitors to respect their culture and law by not climbing Uluru, but many have ignored the numerous signs.

In November 2017, however, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board and the rock’s Anangu owners decided to ban climbing altogether. Anyone caught doing so will be walloped with a hefty fine.

Uluru, Northern Territory

Just before the ban came into effect, hundreds of tourists scrambled to scale the sacred monolith for a final time. The climb to the summit of Uluru – which stands 1,142 feet high – is steep and slippery and has resulted in at least 37 fatalities.

Now visitors to the Red Centre will have to content themselves with a walk around the mighty rock’s remarkable circumference. 

Heart Reef, Queensland

This cute, heart-shaped formation near the Whitsundays in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has become one of Australia’s most familiar landmarks, appearing in numerous tourism campaigns – but you won’t get to see it up close.

Heart Reef has protected status so it’s forbidden to sail or snorkel here. You can however circle above to admire it on a scenic flight or helicopter tour.

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Now check out these former no-go zones that you can actually visit