evidence: The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands[1] is an uninhabited Australian external territory[2] consisting of four low-lying tropical islands in two separate reefs (Ashmore and Cartier), as well as the 12-nautical-mile (22 km; 14 mi) territorial sea generated by the islands.[3] The territory is located in the Indian Ocean situated on the edge of the continental shelf, about 320 km (199 mi) off the northwest coast of Australia and 144 km (89 mi) south of the Indonesian island of Rote.[3] [...] Ashmore has been regularly visited and fished by Indonesian fishermen since the early eighteenth century. A 1974 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Australia and Indonesia sets out arrangements by which traditional fishers can access resources in Australia's territorial sea in the region. This allows traditional Indonesian fishermen to access parts of Ashmore for shelter, freshwater and to visit grave sites. The area, known as the MOU Box, contains the Ashmore and Cartier Islands Territory.[18] [...] The area around the Ashmore and Cartier Islands has been a traditional fishing ground of Indonesian fishermen for centuries, and continues. In the 1850s, American whalers operated in the region.[3] Outside of fishing, the islands were historically used as sources of guano, beche-de-mer, trochus and tortoiseshell.[12] Mining of phosphate deposits took place on Ashmore Island in the latter half of the 19th century.[3]