Christmas Island(圣诞岛)

If you talk about Cocos island; you must know Christmas Island; Christmas Island is also part of Strait Settlement. In the 70s, there were many Malaysian, especially from Penang working in Christmas Island. At that time not many factories were around, job opportunity was limited. Christmas Island provide an opportunity for the school leavers. The jobs were advertised in local newspaper....

Map of location of Christmas Island in Indian Ocean

View Larger Map

The Territory of Christmas Island(圣诞岛) is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, 500 km (310 mi) south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and 975 km (606 mi) ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

It has a population of 1,403 residents who live in a number of "settlement areas" on the northern tip of the island: Flying Fish Cove (also known as Kampong), Silver City, Poon Saan, and Drumsite.

The island’s geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism amongst its flora and fauna, which is of significant interest to scientists and naturalists.

Phosphate, deposited as guano, has been mined on the island for many years. 63% of its 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi) is an Australian national park. There exist large areas of primary rain forest.

Flag of Christmas Island


Map of Christmas Island

View Larger Map

History

3 Feb 1615 Discovered by English Capt. John Milward of
East India Co. ship Thomas.
25 Dec 1643 Re-discovered by English Capt. William Mynos of
the East India Co. ship Royal Mary, named
Christmas Island.
6 Jun 1888 Annexed by Britain.
1889 - 1899 Leased to Clunies-Ross family (see Cocos Islands).
1899 Leased to the British Phosphate Company.
1 Sep 1900 - 31 Dec 1957 Administered from Straits Settlements/Singapore.
31 Mar 1942 - Aug 1945 Japanese occupation.
Aug 1945 - 1946 British military administration.
1 Jan 1958 British crown colony
1 Oct 1958 Australian territory (Territory of Christmas
Island).
1980 National park of covering over 65% of island
composed mainly of rainforest established.
1994 Proposal to separate from Australia rejected.
1995 Part of Australian Indian Ocean Territories
(Christmas Island and Cocos Islands).

Discovery
British and Dutch navigators first included the island on their charts in the early 17th century. Captain William Mynors of the Royal Mary, a British East India Company vessel, named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day in 1643. A map by Pieter Goos, published in 1666, was the first to include the island. Goos labeled the island "Mony"; many are not sure what this means.

William Dampier, aboard the British ship Cygnet, made the earliest recorded visit to the island in March 1688. He found it uninhabited. Dampier gave an account of the visit can be found in his Voyages: Dampier was trying to reach Cocos from New Holland. His ship was pulled off course in an easterly direction, arriving at Christmas Island 28 days later. Dampier landed at the Dales (on the west coast). Two of his crewmen were the first humans known to have set foot on Christmas Island.

Daniel Beekman made the next recorded visit, chronicled in his 1718 book, A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo, in the East Indie

The first attempt at exploring the island was in 1857 by the crew of the Amethyst. They tried to reach the summit of the island, but found the cliffs impassable.

During the 1872-76 Challenger expedition to Indonesia, naturalist Dr John Murray carried out extensive surveys.

In 1887, Captain Maclear of HMS Flying Fish, having discovered an anchorage in a bay that he named Flying Fish Cove, landed a party and made a small but interesting collection of the flora and fauna. In the next year, Pelham Aldrich, on board HMS Egeria, visited it for ten days, accompanied by J. J. Lister, who gathered a larger biological and mineralogical collection.

Among the rocks then obtained and submitted to Sir John Murray for examination were many of nearly pure phosphate of lime, a discovery which led to annexation of the island by the British Crown on 6 June 1888.



Settlement and exploitation

Soon afterwards, a small settlement was established in Flying Fish Cove by G. Clunies Ross, the owner of the Keeling Islands (some 900 kilometres to the south west) to collect timber and supplies for the growing industry on Cocos.

Phosphate mining began in the 1890s using indentured workers from Singapore, Malaya and China.

The island was administered jointly by the British Phosphate Commissioners and District Officers from the United Kingdom Colonial Office through the Straits Settlements, and later the Crown Colony of Singapore.

The Christmas Island,formerly attached to Ceylon,and Cocos Island were in 1886 transferred to the care the government of the Straits Settlements in Singapore along with the addition of Labuan in 1906.

The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under direct British control as a crown colony on 1 April 1867. The colony was dissolved as part of the British reorganisation of its South-East Asian dependencies following the end of the Second World War.

The Straits Settlements consisted of the individual settlements of Malacca, Penang (also known as Prince of Wales Island), and Singapore, as well as (from 1907) Labuan, off the coast of Borneo, Cocos Island & Christmas Island. With the exception of Singapore,Christmas Island and Cocos Island, these territories now form part of Malaysia.

The colony was dissolved with effect from 1 April 1946, with Singapore becoming a separate crown colony (and ultimately an independent republic), while Penang and Malacca joined the new Malayan Union (a predecessor of modern-day Malaysia). Labuan was briefly annexed to Singapore, before being attached to the new colony of British North Borneo. The Cocos or Keeling Islands and Christmas Island, originally made part of the crown colony of Singapore in 1946, were transferred to Australian administration in 1955 and 1957 respectively.

Japanese invasion

From the outbreak of war in South East Asia in December 1941, Christmas Island was a target for Japanese occupation because of its rich phosphate deposits. A naval gun was installed under a British officer and four NCOs supported by Indian soldiers. The first attack, on 21 January 1942, was carried out by the Japanese submarine I-159, that torpedoed a Norwegian vessel, the Eidsvold, which was loading phosphate in Flying Fish Cove. The vessel drifted and eventually sank off West White Beach. 50 European and Asian staff and their families were evacuated to Perth. In late February and early March 1942, two aerial bombing raids and shelling from the sea led the District Officer to hoist the white flag. After the Japanese naval group sailed away the British officer raised the Union Jack once more. During the night of 10-11 March a mutiny of the Indian troops, abetted by the Sikh policemen, led to the murder of the five British soldiers and the imprisonment of the remaining 21 Europeans. On 31 March a Japanese fleet of 9 vessels arrived and the Island was surrendered. A naval brigade, phosphate engineers, and 700 marines came ashore and rounded up the workforce, most of whom had fled to the jungle. Sabotaged equipment was repaired and preparations were made to resume the mining and export of phosphate.

Isolated acts of sabotage and the torpedoing of the Nissei Maru at the wharf on 17 November 1942 meant that only small amounts of phosphate were exported to Japan during the occupation. In November 1943, over 60% of the Island's population was evacuated to Surabayan prison camps, leaving of total population of just under 500 Chinese and Malays and 15 Japanese to survive as best they could. In October 1945 HMS Rother reoccupied Christmas Island.

Sources: Public Record Office, England War Office and Colonial Office Correspondence/Straits Settlements J. Pettigrew: 'Christmas Island in World War II ' Australian Territories January 1962 Interviews conduced by J G Hunt with Island residents, 1973-77 Correspondence J G Hunt with former Island residents, 1973-79

Transfer to Australia

At Australia's request, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty to Australia; in 1957, the Australian government paid the government of Singapore £2.9 million in compensation, a figure based mainly on an estimated value of the phosphate forgone by Singapore.

The first Australian Official Representative arrived in 1958 and was replaced by an Administrator in 1968. Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands together are called the Australian Indian Ocean Territories and since 1997 share a single Administrator resident on Christmas Island.

Refugee and immigration detention

From the late 1980s and early 1990s, boats carrying asylum seekers and mainly departing from Indonesia landed on the island. During 2001, a large number of mostly Middle Eastern persons landed with the intent to apply for asylum in Australia.

In 2001, Christmas Island was the site of the so-called "Tampa" controversy, in which the Australian government stopped a Norwegian ship, MV Tampa, from disembarking 438 rescued asylum seekers at Christmas Island. The ensuing standoff and the associated political reactions in Australia were a major issue in the 2001 Australian federal election.

Another boatload of asylum seekers was taken from Christmas Island to Papua New Guinea for processing, after it was claimed that many of the adult asylum seekers threw their children into the water, apparently in protest at being turned away. This was later proven to be false. Many of the refugees were subsequently accepted by New Zealand.

The former Howard Government later secured the passage of legislation through the Australian Parliament which excised Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone, meaning that asylum seekers arriving on Christmas Island could not automatically apply to the Australian government for refugee status. This allowed the Royal Australian Navy to relocate them to other countries (Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, and Nauru) as part of the so-called Pacific Solution. In 2007 the Department of Immigration finished construction of an "Immigration Detention Centre", containing approximately 800 beds. Originally estimated to cost $210 million, the final cost was over $400 million.

In 2007, the Rudd Government announced plans to decommission the Manus Island and Nauru centres; processing would then occur on Christmas Island itself.



Population

As of 2006, the estimated population is 1,493. (The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports a population of 1,508 as of the 2001 Census.)

The ethnic composition is 70% Chinese (mainly Hokkien), 20% European and 10% Malay. Religions practised on Christmas Island include Buddhism 75%, Christianity 12%, Islam 10% and others 3%. English is the official language, but Hokkien and Malay are also spoken. English, Malay and Hokkien are lingua franca.

Reference/related articles:
1. Christmas Island, wikipedia
2. Christmas Island, http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Christmas_Island.html