[tz] Missing entry for Heard Island and MacDonald Islands

Garrett Wollman wollman at csail.mit.edu
Fri May 11 22:36:03 UTC 2012


<<On Fri, 11 May 2012 15:05:59 -0700, Paul Goyette <pgoyette at juniper.net> said:

> Wouldn't we normally _not_ create a new zone until it diverges from
> its current zone?  Which makes the historical "has it always been
> GMT-5" important.  If that answer is yes, then there's no need (yet)
> for a new zone, but if there is an historical divergence then a new
> zone is warranted.

The historical practice of the maintainers up to this point has been
that locations that are uninhabited do not get a zone.  The Antarctic
bases are considered to be inhabited, by this definition, even if
there is no full-time civilian population, but there does not appear
to be any sort of permanent human presence on Heard and the McDonald
Islands.  The Wikipedia article at least claims that they are
"currently uninhabited".

heardisland.aq says:

	Since the first landing on Heard Island in 1855, there have
	been only approximately 240 shore-based visits to the island,
	and only two landings on McDonald Island (in 1971 and 1980).

That would suggest that they should not be assigned a zone.  If the
Australian government were to establish a permanent manned station on
the islands, then adding a new zone might be justified.

-GAWollman



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