 The administration of the territory is established in the "Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act 1953", which places it under the laws of the Australian Capital Territory and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory.The islands are contained within a marine reserve and are primarily visited for research, meaning that there is no permanent human habitation.From 1947 until 1955 there were camps of visiting scientists on Heard Island (at Atlas Cove in the northwest, which was in 1969 again occupied by American scientists and expanded in 1971 by French scientists) and in 1971 on McDonald Island (at Williams Bay).