Naming Christmas
Two crewmen aboard the British ship Cygnet were the first recorded humans to step foot on Christmas
Island in March 1688, though the uninhabited island had been first sighted back
on Christmas day in 1643 by William Mynors. On 6th June 1688 it was
claimed for the British crown, largely thanks to the deposits of phosphate on
the 50 square mile island.
Lying south of the largest Indonesian islands of Sumatra and
Java, Christmas Island is now an Australian overseas territory, home to roughly
1508 residents. The residents cling to the edges of the island, the majority of
the landmass given over to virgin monsoon forest. Phosphate remains important
to the Islanders. It continues to be mined and provides each islander with a
substantial dividend each year. Many of the original indentured miners were
Chinese, with large proportions of the population now classed as Chinese
Australian.
An awkward history
The island’s phosphate industry also made it a target of
occupation for Japanese forces during the Second World War. Protected by only a
handful of allied soldiers the island surrendered in March 1942. With little
phosphate having aided the Japanese war effort, the island was returned to
British sovereignty in October 1945 with the arrival of HMS Rother.
Christmas Island was administered as part of the (Malay)
Straits Settlements and Crown Colony of Singapore, and sovereignty was
transferred to Australia in 1957.
More recently, the island’s Australian territorial status
and relative proximity to Indonesia (compared to just about anywhere else) led
it to become an attractive destination for refugees, though Australian
officials have frequently denied the right of refugees to land. In 2001 the
Norwegian merchant vessel Tampa
carrying 438 Afghans was refused permission to enter Australian waters. The
Afghans had been rescued from a fishing vessel. The Tampa was boarded by Australian Special Forces troops, and within
days a new law passed to prevent such refugees reaching Australia.
Island crabbiness
But if anything, the island is best known for its land
crabs. A mass migration of 100 million red crabs occurs annually in November as
the crabs make their way from burrows to the sea to spawn. The crabs stream
over every surface. David Attenborough wrote of the migration:
“We caught it on film for The Trials Of Life in 1990 and it was an
astonishing, wonderful sight, but what makes it really stick in the memory is
the decision that I should sit in the middle of the beach to deliver my script. Of course, the crabs just treated
me as another obstacle - a particularly oddly-shaped boulder perhaps - and
simply walked straight over me by whatever route they could find. That's how I discovered how
difficult it is to deliver lines while several four-inch crabs, each armed with
sharp claws, are advancing menacingly up your inner thigh.”
Here’s to a Happy Christmas.