Christmas Island residents who are Australian citizens also vote in Commonwealth elections for the Northern Territory's Lingiari constituency of the House of Representatives. They are represented in the Senate by Northern Territory Senators.
In early 1986 the Christmas Island Assembly held a design competition for an island flag; the winning design was adopted as the informal flag of the territory for more than ten years, and in 2002 it was made the official flag of Christmas Island.
The annual red crab mass migration (around 100 million animals) to the sea to spawn has been called one of the wonders of the natural world and takes place each year around November; after the start of the wet season and in synchronisation with the cycle of the moon.
The Christmas Island National Park covers 63% of the island. This means that for the visitor interested in plants and animals there is a great deal to see. There is also lots of amazing marine life in the sea.
General
Tourism
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
The Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands () is a territory of Australia. There are two atolls and twenty-seven coral islands in the group. The islands are in the Indian Ocean, about one-half of the way from Australia to Sri Lanka.
Captain William Keeling was the first European to see the islands, in 1609, but they remained uninhabited until the nineteenth century, when they became a possession of the Clunies-Ross Family. Slaves were brought to work the coconut plantation from Indonesia, the Cape of Good Hope and East Asia by Alexander Hare who had taken part in Stamford Raffles' takeover of Java in 1811. A Scottish merchant seaman called Captain John Clunies-Ross, who had also served under Raffles in the takeover, set up a compound and Hare's severely mistreated slaves soon escaped to work under better conditions for Clunies-Ross.
On November 23 1955, the islands were transferred to Australian control under the "Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act 1955". In the 1970s, Australian government dissatisfaction with the Clunies-Ross feudal style of rule of the island increased. In 1978, Australia forced the family to sell the islands for the sum of AU$6,250,000, using the threat of compulsory purchase. By agreement the family retained ownership of Oceania House, their home on the island. However, in 1983 the Australian government moved to dishonour this agreement, and told the former last ruler, John Clunies-Ross, that he should leave the Cocos. The following year the High Court of Australia ruled that the government could not buy Oceania House. Instead the Australian government ordered that no government business was to be given to his shipping company, an action which contributed to his bankruptcy. John Clunies-Ross lives in exile in Perth, Australia, but his successors still live on the Cocos.
In 2004 there were 629 people living on the Cocos (Keeling) islands. There are about 120 Europeans on West Island and 500 Malays on Home Island. A Cocos dialect of Malay and English are the main languages spoken and 80% of Cocos Islanders are Sunni Muslim. India does not recognise Anglo annexation of these Cultural Indo-Indian/Indies islands as part of Australia and disputes it's status to counterbalance regional hegemonic sea power.
The capital of the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands is West Island while the largest settlement is the village of Bantam (Home Island). Governance of the islands is based on the "Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act 1955"
Notes
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands (abbreviated as HIMI ) is a territory of Australia. They are islands in the Indian Ocean. They are about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica.
The islands are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The islands were discovered in 1833 by the British sailor Peter Kemp. They have been territories of Australia since 1947.
Big Ben is an active volcano. The volcano is also known as "Mawson Peak".
The group's size is 372 km² in area.
Ross Dependency
The Ross Dependency is an area of Antarctica (and other land masses in the Southern Ocean) claimed by New Zealand. The Dependency takes its name from Sir James Clark Ross, who discovered the Ross Sea.
The Dependency includes part of Victoria Land, and most of the Ross Ice Shelf. Ross Island, Balleny Islands and the small Scott Island also form part of the Dependency, as does the ice-covered Roosevelt Island.
The scientific bases of Scott Base (New Zealand) and McMurdo Station (USA) are the only permanently occupied human settlements in the area – apart from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station at the very edge of the territory. The Dependency has a snow runway at Williams Field, and depending on conditions and time of year, two ice runways. This allows wheeled and ski equipped aircraft to come and go, year round.
The British government took possession of the territory in 1923 and entrusted it to the administration of New Zealand. Under the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty System, to which New Zealand is a signatory, no nation may make efforts to enforce sovereignty or territorial claims over the Antarctic continent proper. If one accepts the claim, the Ross Dependency comprises the bulk of the territory of New Zealand, far larger than the North Island and the South Island combined. However, the actual amount of land mass claimed is not large; most of the area defined as being in the Ross Dependency is either in the Ross Sea or the Antarctic Ocean. It is the smallest of the claims which were made prior to the implementation of the Antarctic Treaty System and the suspension of all territorial claims to Antarctica proper.
The Governor-General of New Zealand is also the Governor of Ross Dependency. Officers of the Government of the Ross Dependency are annually appointed to run the Dependency.
In the late 1980s, the British non-governmental exploratory vessel "Southern Quest" sank in the Ross Sea, United States Coast Guard helicopters rescued the crew, who were taken to McMurdo Station.
Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha is a group of remote volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and also the main island of that group. Tristan da Cunha is the most remote archipelago (group of islands) and the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world; it is at from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America.
The territory consists of the main island of Tristan da Cunha itself, which measures about across and has an area of , along with the uninhabited Nightingale Islands and the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible Island and Gough Island.
Tristan da Cunha is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. This includes Saint Helena to its north and equatorial Ascension Island even further north. The island has a permanent population of 275 (2009 figures).
The islands were first seen in 1506 by Portuguese explorer Tristan da Cunha (), but he did not go to land because rough seas. He gave its name to the principal island of the group () but it was soon changed by to "Tristan da Cunha".
In 1643 the crew of the Dutch ship "Heemstede" made the first recorded landing. In 1656 Jan van Riebeeck, the governor of Cape Town, sent a ship to the archipelago to see if it was possible to establish a military station but the project was abandoned.
Tristan da Cunha also discovered in 1506 the Inaccessible Island; its present name was given by French Capt. d'Escheverry (or d'Etchevery). In that same year, the Portuguese Gonçalo Alvarez discovered the Gough Island and named the island after him. It was re-discovered by the British Capt. Charles Gough who also gave its name to the island.
The Nightingale Island was discovered by Dutch sailors in 1656 and named it "Gebroocken Eiland". The British Capt. Gamaliel Nightingale, who visited the group in 1760, gave his name to the island.