Dropping In on Christmas Island

Named Christmas Island, or CI, in 1643 for the day of its discovery, this dot in the Indian Ocean is 360 km  south of Jakarta, 975 km ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and  2,600 km NW of the city of Perth. But it is a very convenient and interesting stopover point for the World ARC crews as it lies on the rhumb line route between Bali and Cocos(Keeling) Islands and is also about half the passage distance.

The most significant economic activity on Christmas Island is phosphate mining, with toursim second. And it was because of the early economic activity that settlers from many cultures were attracted to Christmas Island. The majority of the population is Chinese Australian (70%) with the remaining contingents being European (20% )and Malay (10%). This creates an interesting socio-economic mix which displays itself in the local township activities, the food served in the restaurants and pattern of daily life.

The island is also interesting for its natural habitat and scenery - almost two-thirds of the island has been declared a national park. One of the wonders of the natural world is the annual red crab mass migration to the sea. This extraordinary event is highly protected in the island. Christmas Island hasalso been identified by BirdLife International as both an Endemic and Important Bird Area because it supports five endemic species and five subspecies as well as over 1% of the world populations of five other seabirds.

The World ARC 2012-13 will have around 48 hours to spend in CI before making landfall in Cocos (Keeling) Islands.