Christmas Island
There is another island in the Pacific Ocean with the same constitutional
name, Christmas Island, also known as Kiritimati
The Territory of Christmas Island is a small, non self-governing Territory
of Australia located in the Indian Ocean, 2360 km northwest of Perth
in Western Australia and 500 km south of Jakarta, Indonesia. It maintains
about 1500 residents who live in a number of towns on the northern
tip of the island: Settlement, Silver City, Kampong, Poon Saan, and
Drumsite. It has a unique natural topography and is of immense interest
to scientists and naturalists due to the number of species of endemic
flora and fauna which have evolved in isolation and undisturbed by
human habitation. While there has been mining activity on the island
for many years, 65 percent of its 135 square kilometres are now National
Park and there are large areas of pristine and ancient rainforest.
History
For centuries, Christmas Island's isolation and rugged coasts provided
natural barriers to settlement. British and Dutch navigators first
included the island on their charts from the early seventeenth century,
and Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel,
the Royal Mary, named the island when he arrived on Christmas Day,
25th December, 1643. The island first appears on a map produced by
Pieter Goos and published in 1666. Goos had labelled the island Moni.
The earliest recorded visit was in March of 1688 by William Dampier
of the British ship Cygnet, who found it uninhabited. An account of
the visit can be found in Dampier's Voyages, which describes how,
when trying to reach Cocos from New Holland, his ship was pulled off
course in an easterly direction and after 28 days arrived at Christmas
Island. Dampier landed at the Dales (on the West Coast) and two of
his crewmen were the first recorded people to set foot on Christmas
Island.
The next visit was by Daniel Beekman, who described it in his 1718
book, A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo, in the East Indies.
In 1771 the Indian vessel, the Pigot, attempted to find an anchorage
but was unsuccessful; the crew reported seeing wild pigs and coconut
palms. However, pigs have never been introduced to the island, so
the Pigot may have found a different island.
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 HMS Challenger expedition to Indonesia, naturalist
Dr John Murray carried out extensive surveys. At his urging, the British
Admiralty annexed the 135 square kilometre island on 6 June 1888.
But it was not until 1888 that Christmas Island was settled, when
the Clunies-Ross brothers from neighbouring Cocos-Keeling Islands
(some 900 kilometres to the south west) established a settlement at
Flying Fish Cove to collect timber and supplies for the growing industry
on Cocos.
In 1887, Captain Maclear of H.M.S. 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 the H.M.S. 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 in June
1888. Soon afterwards, a small settlement was established in Flying
Fish Cove by G. Clunies Ross, the owner of the Keeling Islands, and
phosphate mining began in the 1890s using indentured workers from
Singapore, China, and Malaysia.
The island was administered jointly by the British Phosphate Commissioners
and District Officers from the U.K. Colonial Office through the Straits
Colony, and later the Colony of Singapore. Japan invaded and occupied
the island in 1942, as the Indian garrison mutinied, and interned
the residents until the end of World War II in 1945. At Australia's
request, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty to Australia;
in 1957, the Australian government paid the government of Singapore
2.9 million pounds in compensation, a figure based mainly on an estimated
value of the phosphate foregone 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 Australia's Indian Ocean Territories (IOTs) and since 1997
share a single Administrator resident on christmas Island.
Since the late 1980s or early 1990s Christmas Island periodically
received boatloads of refugees, mostly from Indonesia. These, and
the occasional illegal fishing boat, were never a large issue, often
welcomed by locals who looked forward to the exploding of the boats
once the "boat people"had been processed. During 2001, Christmas
Island received a large number of ylum seekers travelling by boat,
most of them from the Middle East and intending to apply for asylum
in Australia. The arrival of the Norwegian cargo vessel MV Tampa,
which had rescued people from the sinking Indonesian fishing-boat
Palapa in international waters nearby, precipitated a diplomatic standoff
between Australia, Norway, and Indonesia. The vessel held 420 asylum
seekers from Afghanistan, 13 from Sri Lanka, and five from Indonesia.
The standoff eventually led to the asylum seekers being transported
to Nauru for processing. 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.
John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, later passed legislation
through the Australian Parliament which excised Christmas Island from
Australia's migration zone, meaning that asylum seekers arriving there
could not automatically apply for refugee status, allowing the Australian
navy to relocate them to other countries as part of the Pacific Solution.
As of 2005, the department of Immigration has begun construction of
an "Immigration Reception and Processing Centre", due for
completion in late 2006. The facility is estimated to cost $210 million,
and will contain 800 beds.
People
As of July 2005, there are approximately 1600 Christmas Islanders.
(The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports a population of 1508
as of the 2001 Census.) The ethnic composition is 70% Chinese, 20%
European and 10% Malay. Religions practiced are Buddhism 36%, Islam
25%, Christianity 18%, Taoism 15% other 6%. English is the official
language, but Chinese and Malay are also spoken.
Please note that the CIA's World Factbook has been reporting the
population as 361 for some years.
Government
Unofficial flag of Christmas IslandChristmas Island is a non-self
governing territory of Australia, administered by the Australian Department
of Transport and Regional Services. The legal system is under the
authority of the Governor General of Australia and Australian law.
An Administrator (Evan Williams, since 1 November 2003) appointed
by the Governor-General of Australia represents the monarch and Australia.
See list of previous office holders [1]
The Australian Government provides Commonwealth-level government
services through the Christmas Island Administration and DOTARS (CI).
There is no State Government; instead, state government type services
are provided by contractors, including departments of the Western
Australian Government, with the costs met by the Australian (Commonwealth)
Government.
A unicameral Christmas Island Shire Council with 9 seats provides
local government services and is elected by popular vote to serve
four-year terms. Elections are held every two years, with half the
members standing for election.
The flag of Australia is used. In early 1986, the Christmas Island
Assembly held a design competition for an island flag; the winning
design was adopted as the informal flag of the territory for over
a decade, and in 2003 it was made official.
Economy
Phosphate mining had been the only significant economic activity,
but in December 1987 the Australian Government closed the mine. In
1991, the mine was reopened by a consortium which included many of
the former mine workers as shareholders. With the support of the government,
a $34 million casino opened in 1993. The casino closed in 1998 and
has not re-opened. The Australian Government in 2001 agreed to support
the creation of a commercial space-launching site on the island, however
this has not yet been constructed, and appears that it will not proceed
in the future. The Australian Government built a temporary immigration
detention centre on the island in 2001 and plans to replace it with
a larger, modern facility, in 2006.
Christmas Island has the top-level Internet DNS domain ".cx".
Geography
Located at 10°30'S 105°40'E, the island is a quadrilateral
with hollowed sides, about 12 miles in greatest length and 9 miles
in extreme breadth. The total land area is 135 km², with 138.9
km of coastline. The island is the flat summit of a submarine mountain
more than 15000 feet (4572 m) high, the depth of the platform from
which it rises being about 14000 feet (4267 m) and its height above
the sea being upwards of 1000 feet (305 m).
The climate is tropical, with heat and humidity moderated by trade
winds. Steep cliffs along much of the coast rise abruptly to a central
plateau. Elevation ranges from sea level to 361 m at Murray Hill.
The island is mainly tropical rainforest, of which 65% is National
Park.
The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime
hazard.
Flora and fauna
Christmas Island is of immense scientific value as it was uninhabited
until the late 19th century, so many unique species of fauna and flora
exist which have evolved independently of human interference. Among
the best-known is the Christmas Island red crab, which numbered some
100 million on the island as of 2004. Two-thirds of the island has
been declared a National Park which is managed by the Australian Department
of Environment and Heritage through Parks Australia.
The dense rainforest has evolved in the deep soils of the plateau
and on the terraces. The forests are dominated by 25 tree species.
Ferns, orchids & vines grow on the branches in the humid atmosphere
beneath the canopy. The 135 plant species include 16 which are only
found on Christmas Island.
The annual red crab mass migration (around 100 million animals) to
the sea to spawn is one of the wonders of the natural world and takes
place each year around November; after the start of the wet season
and in synchronisation with the cycle of the moon.
The land crabs and sea birds are the most noticeable animals on the
island. 20 terrestrial and intertidal crabs (of which 13 are regarded
as true land crabs, only dependent on the ocean for larval development)
have been described. Robber crabs, known elsewhere as coconut crabs,
also exist in large numbers on the island.
Christmas Island is a focal point for sea birds of various species.
Eight species or subspecies of sea birds nest on the island. The most
numerous is the Red-footed Booby that nests in colonies, in trees,
on many parts of the shore terrace. The widespread Brown Booby nests
on the ground near the edge of the seacliff and inland cliffs. Abbott's
Booby (listed as endangered) nests on tall emergent trees of the western,
northern and southern plateau rainforest. The Christmas Island forest
is the only nesting habitat of the Abbott's Booby left in the world.
The endemic Christmas Island Frigatebird (listed as endangered) has
nesting areas on the north-eastern shore terraces and the more widespread.
Greater Frigatebirds nest in semi-deciduous trees on the shore terrace
with the greatest concentrations being in the North West and South
Point areas. The Common Noddy and two species of bosuns or tropicbirds
with their brilliant gold or silver plumage and distinctive streamer
tail feathers also nest on the island. Of the ten native land birds
and shorebirds, seven are endemic species or subspecies. Some 76 migrant
bird species have been recorded.
Communications and transportation
Telephone services are provided by Telstra and are a part of the
Australian network with the same prefix as Western Australia (08).
A GSM mobile telephone system replaced the old analogue network in
February 2005. Four free-to-air television stations from Australia
are broadcast (ABC, SBS, GWN and WIN) in the same time-zone as Perth.
Radio broadcasts from Australia include ABC Radio National, ABC Regional
radio and Red FM. All services are provided by satellite links from
the mainland. Broadband internet became available to subscribers in
urban areas in mid 2005 through the local internet service provider,
CIIA (formerly dotCX).
A container port exists at Flying Fish Cove with an alternative container
unloading point to the south of the island at Norris Point for use
during the December to March 'swell season" of seasonal rough
seas. There are two weekly flights from Perth, Western Australia operated
by National Jet Systems on Mondays and Thursdays and a single weekly
flight from Denpasar, Bali, operated each Saturday by Austasia airlines.
A bus service on the island runs frequently from Flying Fish Cove
to the new recreation centre at Phosphate Hill. There is also a taxi
service. The road network covers most of the island and is generally
good quality, although four wheel drive vehicles are needed to access
some more distant parts of the rain forest or the more isolated beaches.
A
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Christmas Island - Territory
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H
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I
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also Pridnestrovie)
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and popularly known as Burma)
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the Palestinian National Authority a pivotal role in the process that may involve
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See Transnistria for Pridnestrovie
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Q
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S
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fragmented with its Transitional National Government in exile, see also Somaliland)
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Africa
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T
Taiwan (ROC) - Republic of China (diplomatically
sometimes known as Chinese Taipei (or other names), regarded by UN as "Taiwan,
Province of China", the political status of the ROC and the legal status
of the Taiwan Island (and its outlying islands) are in dispute)
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(federal state)
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Tokelau (overseas territory of New
Zealand)
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or Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic (the Transnistrian government uses as translation
Pridnestrovie, de facto independent state inside Moldova)
Trinidad and Tobago -
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
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of Saint Helena, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom)
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Turkmenistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
(overseas territory of the United Kingdom)
Tuvalu (Commonwealth Realm)
U
Uganda - Republic of Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
(federal state)
United Kingdom - United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Commonwealth Realm)
United States - United States
of America (federal state)
Uruguay - Oriental Republic of Uruguay
Uzbekistan - Republic of Uzbekistan
V
Vanuatu - Republic of Vanuatu
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City (administered by a Pontifical Commission appointed by the Pope who is concurrently
the head of the Holy See and that of the Vatican City)
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of Venezuela (federal state)
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Virgin Islands (British) -
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Virgin Islands
(U.S.) - United States Virgin Islands (unincorporated organized territory of
the United States, popularly known in its abbreviated terms as U.S. Virgin Islands)
W
Wallis and Futuna (overseas
collectivity of France)
Western Sahara - Saharawi Arab
Democratic Republic (currently recognized by over 40 countries, the SADR only
exercises effective control over the territory east of Moroccan Wall, whereas
large portion of the territory is occupied by and integrated in Morocco)
Y
Yemen - Republic of Yemen
Z
Zambia - Republic of Zambia
Zimbabwe - Republic of Zimbabwe
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