East Montalivet Island and West Montalivet Island are islands off the north west coast of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, in the state of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

, in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

. They are often referred to together as the Montlivet Islands although this is not a gazetted name.

They were discovered by Nicolas Baudin

Nicolas Baudin

Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...

 in 1802, and named after Jean-Pierre Bachasson, 1st count of Montalivet (1766 - 1823), peer of France and French statesman, in the atlas of his expedition.

The locations of the islands are:

• East Montalivet Island : latitude 14°16' South, longitude 125°18' East
• West Montalivet Island : latitude 14°18' South, longitude 125°13' East

Further reading

• Edward Duyker
  Edward Duyker
  Edward Duyker is an Australian historian and author born in Melbourne, Victoria, to a father from the Netherlands and a mother from Mauritius...
  
  François Péron: An Impetuous Life: Naturalist and Voyager, Miegunyah/MUP, Melb., 2006, pp. 349, ISBN 978 0522 85260 8,

• Fornasiero, Jean; Monteath, Peter and West-Sooby, John. Encountering Terra Australis: the Australian voyages of Nicholas Baudin and Matthew Flinders, Kent Town, South Australia,Wakefield Press,2004. ISBN 1-86254-625-8

• Frank Horner, The French Reconnaissance: Baudin in Australia 1801—1803, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1987 ISBN 0522843395.

• Nicolas Baudin’s Scientific Expedition To The Terres Australes by Steve Reynolds - Marine Life Society of South Australia Inc.