Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01389:body:0:p90
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01389
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 260636–263447

or endangered aspects of Australia's natural or cultural history
Values
   * The robber crab found on North Keeling Island is listed as vulnerable to extinction in the IUCN red data book.
   * The buff-banded rail, listed as endangered by IUCN, is restricted to North Keeling Island.
   * The island is one of the four remaining red-footed booby nesting areas in the world.
   * Thirteen species of birds protected by migratory treaties have been recorded on the island.
   * Two species of turtles listed as endangered by IUCN, the green and hawksbill, nest on the island.
   * Because of its pristine condition North Keeling Island is a rarity in the Indian Ocean.
 Criterion C
The place has significant heritage value because of the place's potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia's natural or cultural history
Values
   * Of particular significance in the history of Australia in World War I, due to the sinking of the SMS Emden by the HMAS Sydney in 1914.
   * Retains the original flora and fauna observed by Charles Darwin on Cocos Island in the 1830s.
Criterion D
The place has significant heritage value because of the place's importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of:
     1. a class of Australia's natural or cultural places; or
     2. a class of Australia's natural or cultural environments
Values
   * One of the few remaining unmodified tropical islands in the Indian Ocean region; its plant communities are thus significant as representative of island vegetation.
   * Climax closed-canopy forests no longer found on other Cocos Islands still exist here.
   * Species generally found as stunted shrubs on shorelines grow as tall trees here.

Description
The island is a typical coral atoll with a central lagoon connected to the open ocean. North Keeling is principally covered by Pisonia grandis and Cocos nucifera forest with Cordia subcordata, Argusia argentia and Sesuvium portulacustrum herbland. Cordia subcordata, which generally occurs as a stunted shrub on coral islands, reaches the size of a large tree amidst the pisonia forest. The pisonia trees themselves are unusually tall. Crabs are the most conspicuous and probably the most plentiful inhabitants of the forest floor and beach fringe of the island. Six species of land crab occur on North Keeling including the robber crab (Bigros latro), the largest land crab in the world, which is listed as vulnerable to extinction in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red data book. North Keeling is one of the few remaining pristine tropical islands in the Indian Ocean and is undoubtedly of unique importance to Indian Ocean birds, containing perhaps the widest variety of species in that ocean. A total of nineteen species have been recorded,