Christmas Island - why? what? where?

The name “Christmas Island” has come up a few times recently , so here’s an answer to a few questions…

Christmas Island began appearing on the charts of English and Dutch navigators from the early 1600s. But it wasn’t until 1643 that Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company named the island after sighting it on Christmas Day.

The Australian and New Zealand governments purchased the Christmas Island Phosphate Company in 1949, and administrative responsibility for the island shifted from the UK to the British colony of Singapore.

But with Britain giving up many of its colonies after the war, Australia expressed an interest in acquiring Christmas Island. In 1958, the island was excised from Singapore and sovereignty was transferred to Australia. As part of the transfer, Australia paid Singapore £2,800,000 as compensation for lost phosphate revenue.

Christmas Island became an Australian territory on 1 October 1958 – a day still celebrated on the island as Territory Day.

A new national park

The 1970s brought concern about the impact that phosphate mining could have on the Abbott’s booby, an endangered seabird that only nests on Christmas Island.

In 1974, a Federal Government committee recommended that a conservation area be set up to preserve the island’s unique flora and fauna.

The first national park was declared in 1980 and covered the southwestern part of the island. Two more stages were added in 1986 and 1989 to create the Christmas Island National Park.

Today the national park makes up 64% of Christmas Island’s land area and extends 50 metres offshore. It protects rainforests, wetlands, freshwater mangroves and crucial habitats for numerous rare and endemic species.

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Today Christmas Island is a lush, off-the-beaten-path tourist destination famed for its caves and coral reefs. The biggest yearly attraction is the migration of fifty million red crabs down to the sea to spawn.