Are There 2 Christmas Islands
Chris
The Territory of Christmas Island is an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean comprising the island of the same name. It is located approximately 350 kilometres (190 nautical miles) south of Java and Sumatra and about 1,550 km (840 nmi) north-west of the closest point on the Australian mainland. It has an area of 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi).[2] The territory derives its name from its discovery on Christmas Day 1643 by Captain William Mynors.
Christmas Island had a population of 1,692 residents as of 2021[update],[3] with the majority living in settlements on the northern edge of the island. The main settlement is Flying Fish Cove. Historically, Asian Australians of Chinese, Malay, and Indian descent formed the majority of the population.[6][7] Today, around two-thirds of the island's population is estimated to have Straits Chinese origin (though just 22.2% of the population declared a Chinese ancestry in 2021),[3] with significant numbers of Malays and European Australians and smaller numbers of Straits Indians and Eurasians. Several languages are in use including English, Malay, and various Chinese dialects. Religious beliefs vary geographically; the Anglo-Celtic influence in the capital known simply as The Settlement means it is closely tied to Catholicism, whereas in the Poon Saan area Buddhism is common, and Sunni Islam is generally observed in the shoreline water village where the Malays live.[8] The religion question in the Australian census is optional, and 28% of the population do not declare their religious belief.[9]
The first European to sight Christmas Island was Richard Rowe of the Thomas in 1615. Captain William Mynors named it on Christmas Day, 25 December 1643. It was first settled in the late 19th century.[10] Christmas Island's geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of interest to scientists and naturalists.[11] The majority (63%) of the island is included in the Christmas Island National Park, which features several areas of primary monsoonal forest. Phosphate, deposited originally as guano, has been mined on the island since 1899.
The first European to sight the island was Richard Rowe of the Thomas in 1615.[12] Captain William Mynors of the East India Company vessel Royal Mary named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day in 1643.[13] The island was included on English and Dutch navigation charts early in the 17th century, but it was not until 1666 that a map published by Dutch cartographer Pieter Goos included the island. Goos labelled the island "Mony" or "Moni",[14] the meaning of which is unclear.[15]
English navigator William Dampier, aboard the privateer Charles Swan's ship Cygnet, made the earliest recorded visit to the sea around the island in March 1688.[14] In writing his account, he found the island uninhabited.[14][16][17] Dampier was trying to reach Cocos from New Holland. His ship was blown off course in an easterly direction, arriving at Christmas Island 28 days later. Dampier landed on the west coast, at "the Dales". Two of his crewmen became the first Europeans to set foot on Christmas Island.[18]
In 1886, Captain John 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 collection of the flora and fauna.[14] In the next year, Pelham Aldrich, on board HMS Egeria, visited the island for 10 days, accompanied by J. J. Lister, who gathered a larger biological and mineralogical collection.[14] Among the rocks then obtained and submitted to Murray for examination were many of nearly pure phosphate of lime. This discovery led to annexation of the island by the British Crown on 6 June 1888.[20]
Soon afterwards, a small settlement was established in Flying Fish Cove by G. Clunies Ross, the owner of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands some 900 kilometres (560 mi) to the southwest, to collect timber and supplies for the growing industry on Cocos. In 1897 the island was visited by Charles W. Andrews, who did extensive research on the natural history of the island, on behalf of the British Museum.[21]
Phosphate mining began in 1899 using indentured workers from Singapore, British Malaya, and China. John Davis Murray, a mechanical engineer and recent graduate of Purdue University, was sent to supervise the operation on behalf of the Phosphate Mining and Shipping Company. Murray was known as the "King of Christmas Island" until 1910, when he married and settled in London.[22][23]
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. Hunt (2011) provides a detailed history of Chinese indentured labour on the island during those years. In 1922, scientists unsuccessfully attempted to view a solar eclipse in late September from the island to test Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.[24]
From the outbreak of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II in December 1941, Christmas Island was a target for Japanese occupation because of its rich phosphate deposits.[25] A naval gun was installed under a British officer, four non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and 27 Indian soldiers.[25] The first attack was carried out on 20 January 1942 by the Japanese submarine I-59, which torpedoed the Norwegian freighter Eidsvold.[26] The vessel drifted and eventually sank off West White Beach. Most of the European and Asian staff and their families were evacuated to Perth.
At dawn on 31 March 1942, a dozen Japanese bomber aircraft launched an attack, destroying the radio station. The same day, a Japanese fleet of nine vessels arrived, and the island was surrounded. About 850 men of the Japanese 21st and 24th Special Base Forces and 102nd Construction Unit came ashore at Flying Fish Cove and occupied the island.[25] They 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. Only 20 men from the 21st Special Base Force were left as a garrison.[25]
Isolated acts of sabotage and the torpedoing of the cargo ship Nissei Maru at the wharf on 17 November 1942[27] meant that only small amounts of phosphate were exported to Japan during the occupation. In November 1943, over 60% of the island's population were evacuated to Surabaya prison camps, leaving a population of just under 500 Chinese and Malays and 15 Japanese to survive as best they could. In October 1945, HMS Rother re-occupied Christmas Island.[28][29][30][31]
After the war, seven mutineers were traced and prosecuted by the Military Court in Singapore. In 1947, five of them were sentenced to death. However, following representations made by the newly independent government of India, their sentences were reduced to penal servitude for life.[25]
At Australia's request, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty to Australia, with a $20 million payment from the Australian government to Singapore as compensation for the loss of earnings from the phosphate revenue.[32] The United Kingdom's Christmas Island Act was given royal assent on 14 May 1958 by Queen Elizabeth II, enabling Britain to transfer authority over Christmas Island from Singapore to Australia by an order-in-council.[33] Australia's Christmas Island Act was passed in September 1958, and the island was officially placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 October 1958.[34]
Under Commonwealth Cabinet Decision 1573 of 9 September 1958, D.E. Nickels was appointed the first official representative of the new territory.[35] In a media statement on 5 August 1960, the minister for territories, Paul Hasluck, said, among other things, that, "His extensive knowledge of the Malay language and the customs of the Asian people ... has proved invaluable in the inauguration of Australian administration ... During his two years on the island he had faced unavoidable difficulties ... and constantly sought to advance the island's interests."
John William Stokes succeeded Nickels and served from 1 October 1960, to 12 June 1966. On his departure, he was lauded by all sectors of the island community. In 1968, the official secretary was retitled an administrator and, since 1997, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands together are called the Australian Indian Ocean Territories and share a single administrator resident on Christmas Island.
The settlement of Silver City was built in the 1970s, with aluminium-clad houses that were supposed to be cyclone-proof.[36] The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, centred off the western shore of Sumatra in Indonesia, resulted in no reported casualties, but some swimmers were swept some 150 metres (490 ft) out to sea for a time before being swept back in.[37]
From the late 1980s and early 1990s, boats carrying asylum seekers, mainly departing from Indonesia, began landing on the island. In 2001, Christmas Island was the site of the Tampa controversy, in which the Australian government stopped a Norwegian ship, MV Tampa, from disembarking 438 rescued asylum-seekers. The ensuing standoff and the associated political reactions in Australia were a major issue in the 2001 Australian federal election.[38]
The Howard government operated the "Pacific Solution" from 2001 to 2007, excising Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone so that asylum seekers on the island could not apply for refugee status. Asylum seekers were relocated from Christmas Island to Manus Island and Nauru. In 2006, an immigration detention centre, containing approximately 800 beds, was constructed on the island for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Originally estimated to cost A$276 million,[39] the final cost was over $400 million.[40] In 2007, the Rudd government decommissioned Manus Regional Processing Centre and Nauru detention centre; processing would then occur on Christmas Island itself.[41][42]
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