Editor's letter: the battle to save our wildest outpost

We've been captivated this week by the photographs of Macquarie Island, a speck of land in the Southern Ocean and the southernmost point of Australia.

We've been captivated this week by the photographs of Macquarie Island, a speck of land in the Southern Ocean and the southernmost point of Australia.

What a remarkable place it is, although I'm sure journalist Matthew Denholm and photographer Chris Crerar came up with many less flattering adjectives as they battled extreme conditions to bring us this week's cover story.

And I'm not just talking about the weather; our intrepid pair found themselves dodging hissing elephant seals and stinking seal holes as they joined the hunting-dog team trying to track down every last rabbit, rat and mouse on the island.

It's no small task, but the unique ecological diversity of the World Heritage site depends on it.