Christmas Island / Wilayah Pulau Krismas / 圣诞岛领地

UnMonumental

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Christmas Island is an Australian offshore territory between Indonesia and the north west coast of the Continent. It has a diverse demographic stemming from its unique colonial history.

Christmas Island’s population is traditionally made up of Chinese, Malay, Indian and British people. The Island’s three main languages are English, Mandarin Chinese and Malay, and its three main religions are Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.

The oldest recorded sighting of the Island was in 1615 by Richard Rowe. The name Christmas Island was imposed on Christmas Day in 1643 by William Mynors from the English East India Company. A small colony was established at present-day Flying Fish Cove by the Clunies Ross family and the Cocos Malay labourers they had enslaved to supply timber for the Cocos Keeling Island colony.  

Phosphate of lime was found on Christmas Island by John Murray which led to the annexing of the Island by the British Empire in 1888. The British Government granted leases to John Murray and the Clunies Ross family to mine the rich deposits, which they sold to Germany and Japan. The mining companies cut corners and the outbreak of disease, alongside poor working conditions, led to the deaths of over 500 miners in the first 5 years of operation. The mine was operated by indentured slave labourers from the Cocos Keeling Islands, India, Singapore, Malaysia and China. John Murray from the Phosphate Mining and Shipping Company became known as the ‘King of Christmas Island’ due to the wealth he gained from the Island's resources and his reign over the enslaved labourers.

Rich phosphate deposits on the Island made it a target for Japanese occupation in the second world war. The majority of the European people on Christmas Island were evacuated to Australia and the Non European Christmas Islanders remained to defend it. In March 1942, 850 Japanese forces invaded the Island and in resistance to the invasion the Islanders sabotaged the mine and hundreds of Islanders were then shipped to Japanese prisoner of war camps in Indonesia. The Japanese occupied the Island until the end of the Second World War.

After the war, Christmas Island became a dependency of Singapore in 1946 and the sovereignty was transferred for 20 million dollars to the Commonwealth of Australia in 1958 under the Christmas Island Act 1958.

Since becoming an Australian offshore territory the remote location has been used for processing migrants. The Howard government's Pacific Solution (2001-07) saw Christmas Island excluded from Australia’s migration zone, so that asylum seekers on the Island could not apply for refugee status.

The Christmas Island detention centre has been used to process refugees seeking asylum, a temporary prison for non-Australian citizens with a criminal record, and as a quarantine facility to accommodate Australian citizens who had been in Wuhan China at the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

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References

https://www.regional.gov.au/territories/christmas/enviro_herritage.aspx
https://parksaustralia.gov.au/christmas/discover/history/
https://www.christmas.net.au/discover-christmas-island/history/
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/13/christmas-island-detention-why-is-australia-deporting-so-many-people

https://christmasislandarchives.com

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/discovering-christmas-island-s-brutal-chinese-past
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2020/01/31/the-grim-history-of-christmas-island
https://www.environment.gov.au/topics/national-parks/christmas-island-national-park/culture-and-history