New New Zealand Island: Six Kiwis' mission to claim an unnamed Australian island

A Kiwi who drove past a "totally unclaimed, totally uninhabited" island in Australia almost daily with grand ideas of claiming it has done so, and says it is now New Zealand territory.

Located in the heart of Eildon in Victoria, Australia, the small island called New New Zealand Island was claimed by Jeremy Shanks and his five "bored" Kiwi friends.

Spearheaded by Nicholas Fausch, Jeremy Shanks, Liana Clark, Lucy McRae, Tanika Brown, and Jacob Real, the six New Zealanders took on the journey to establish NNZI last weekend.

"In my heart, it has been a plan for a few years."

"Every time I drive to work I see this island. This idea has been haunting me for quite a while now and it was a perfect day," Shanks told the Herald.

The land mass is not recognised on Google Maps or TripAdvisor, it has no name on local maps of Eildon, and was sitting there "for the taking", he said.

New New Zealand Island.

"Totally unclaimed, totally uninhabited. Every time I've passed the bridge I've thought, 'Wow that island is good for the taking for New Zealand'."

After years of contemplation, it was perfect weather last week for the Outdoor Education staffers and Real's birthday prompted the six to make a move on the island.

Surrounded by pondage which runs downstream and into irrigation, the group of pioneers ventured into "uncharted waters" to reach the land mass.

"Access to the island is a bit dodgy because of these undercurrents, but we braved them and overcame adversity and were able to claim the island," Shanks said.

The first hurdle before making landfall was getting through immigration, a pair of black swans.

"We knew it was going to be a New Zealand territory so we actually needed our New Zealand passports.

"Now, bringing passports over water is actually quite dangerous, we had snaplock bags with all six of our passports so we knew immigration was happy.

"The black swans did look at us a bit funny, but after we got on the island they were pretty happy."

The land, measuring about 62sq m using "Year 9" maths, was still being tamed, no one had yet climbed the summit which was "tapu".

However, three settlements had been established.

"Jacob's Landing, that's on the northwest side. It's where Jacob first landed.

"Then you've got Nicholas' Knob which is a little outcrop on the west side of the island. There are photos of that."

For the time being the island would adhere to NZ laws, he said.

Australians were also allowed on without paperwork or a visa, but they did have to fill out a customs form on arrival.

Agriculture, slippery rocks and blackberries would be the island's main exports.

"There's enough for two cows or maybe three sheep."

Now, waving proudly in the wind at the north-north-east side of the island, is the New Zealand flag.

A lot of locals were impressed after they had erected the flag, but that was because when they spotted it they thought it was an Australian flag, he said.

An unconfirmed source has told the group the island is actually called Snake Island.

NNZI has even sought comment from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about whether offshore visitors will need to apply for a visa to get on the island.

The small but humble island remains the sole focus of the group, who are planning future trips back to NNZI in the coming days.

"We're thinking of taking a few deck chairs over, a chilly bin, introducing maybe a few new species. That's far down the line though," Shanks said.

"We're thinking to maybe import a totara or maybe a rimu, and we'll move that onto the island to kind of signify it."