Christmas Island is an Australian Non-self Governing External Territory, located in the Indian Ocean on the rim of South East Asia, 360km south of Java and 2600 km North West of Perth.
The coastline of 73km comprises mostly sheer rocky cliffs 10 to 20 metres high with a few small coral and rubble beaches. The Island has a typical tropical equatorial climate with wet and dry seasons. Official temperatures range from a minimum of 22 degrees to a maximum of 28 degrees. Average humidity is between 80 – 90%.
The population of the Island is approximately 1,200 with a mix of Chinese, Malay and Europeans. The principle languages are Mandarin, Bahasa Malay and English. Other Chinese dialects are also spoken.
The Island is considered to have high conservation value due to the number of endemic bird, crab and plant species. Approximately 63% of the Island’s 135 square kilometres is gazetted National Park. Christmas Island’s economy is currently based on phosphate mining and tourism with a focus of its unique natural resources both on land and sea.
The Shire of Christmas Island has been operating since 1 July 1992. It was created as a result of the law reform process whereby the Commonwealth decided to apply the laws of Western Australia as Territory laws. The Christmas Island Services Corporation, a Commonwealth organisation, became the local government on this date. The Shire provides standard local government type services as well as acts as agent for the Commonwealth in the provision of some services.
As Christmas Island is a multi-lingual community, the Shire will be providing, over time, translations of information on this website in Chinese and Bahasa Malay.
We hope you find this web site useful and informative.
All Shire documents are stored in Adobe® Acrobat® PDF format. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed, please download it free from the Adobe website : http://www.adobe.com/downloads/
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