Dampier landed on the west coast, at "the Dales". His ship was blown off course in an easterly direction, arriving at Christmas Island 28 days later. Dampier was trying to reach Cocos from New Holland. Įnglish 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. Goos labelled the island "Mony" or "Moni", the meaning of which is unclear. The island was included on English and Dutch navigation charts as early as the beginning of the 17th century, but it was not until 1666 that a map published by Dutch cartographer Pieter Goos included the island. Captain William Mynors of the Royal Mary, an English East India Company vessel, named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day, in 1643. The first European to sight the island was Richard Rowe of the Thomas in 1615. History Geological history Ĭhristmas Island is situated at the peak of a basalt volcanic seamount which arose from the ocean floor in the Eocene era about 60 million years ago, when the ocean eroded cliffs from uplifts, forming steep terraces and cliffs at the central plateau. Phosphate, deposited originally as guano, has been mined on the island since 1899. The majority (63 percent) of the island is included in the Christmas Island National Park, which features several areas of primary monsoonal forest. Its 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. The island was later named on Christmas Day (25 December) 1643 by Captain William Mynors but only settled in the late 19th century. The religion question in the Australian census is optional and 28% of the population do not declare their religious belief, if any. Islam and Buddhism are major religions on the island. Several languages are in use, including English, Malay, and various Chinese dialects. Today, around two-thirds of the island's population is estimated to have Straits Chinese origin (though just 21.2% of the population declared a Chinese ancestry in 2016), with significant numbers of Malays and European Australians and smaller numbers of Straits Indians and Eurasians. Historically, Asian Australians of Chinese, Malay, and Indian descent formed the majority of the population.
It has an area of 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi).Ĭhristmas Island had a population of 1,843 residents as of 2016, the majority living in settlements on the northern tip of the island. It lies 2,600 km (1,600 mi) northwest of Perth and 1,327 km (825 mi) south of Singapore. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around 350 kilometres (220 mi) south of Java and Sumatra and around 1,550 km (960 mi) north-west of the closest point on the Australian mainland. Christmas Island, officially known as the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name.
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