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92-504: Poon Saan is the second largest village on Christmas Island , an external territory of Australia . It is administrated as part of the island capital - Flying Fish Cove . Ethnic Chinese make up the majority of inhabitants. In Cantonese , Poon Saan ( 半山 , Jyutping : bun3 saan1 ) means "halfway up the hill". The architecture of Poon Saan reflects the Chinese heritage of the majority of residents in being Singapore style units, rather than

184-556: A cave environment limits an organism's ability to disperse, since caves are often not connected to each other. One hypothesis for how closely related troglobite species could become isolated from one another in different caves is that their common ancestor may have been less restricted to cave habitats. When climate conditions became unfavorable, the ancestral species was extirpated from the surface, but some populations survived in caves, and diverged into different species due to lack of gene flow between them. Isolated islands commonly develop

276-465: A constant amount in a country, as opposed to epidemic diseases, which are exploding in cases. The word was used in biology in 1872 to mean a species restricted to a specific location by Charles Darwin . The less common term 'precinctive' has been used by some entomologists as the equivalent of 'endemic'. Precinctive was coined in 1900 by David Sharp when describing the Hawaiian insects, as he

368-480: A dozen Japanese bomber aircraft launched an attack, destroying the radio station. The same day, a Japanese fleet of nine vessels arrived, and the island was surrounded. About 850 men of the Japanese 21st and 24th  Special Base Forces and 102nd Construction Unit came ashore at Flying Fish Cove and occupied the island. They rounded up the workforce, most of whom had fled to the jungle. Sabotaged equipment

460-478: A euendemic the vicariance was geologic in nature, such as the movement of tectonic plates, but in a cryptoendemic the disjunct distribution was due to the extinction of the intervening populations. There is yet another possible situation that can cause a disjunct distribution, where a species is able to colonize new territories by crossing over areas of unsuitable habitat, such as plants colonizing an island – this situation they dismiss as extremely rare and do not devise

552-402: A holoendemic is a cosmopolitan species. Stenoendemics, also known as local endemics, have a reduced distribution and are synonymous with the word 'endemics' in the traditional sense, whereas euryendemics have a larger distribution -both these have distributions that are more or less continuous. A rhoendemic has a disjunct distribution . Where this disjunct distribution is caused by vicariance, in

644-592: A language. Religion in Christmas Island (2021) Note that some statistical noise is added to the publicly released census data, in order to protect residents' privacy. Religious practices differ by geography across the island and effectively correspond to the island's three primary settlements: the capital (known simply as The Settlement), the Cantonese area Poon Saan , and the Malay water village which

736-437: A limited range. Paleoendemism is more or less synonymous with the concept of a ' relict species ': a population or taxon of organisms that were more widespread or more diverse in the past. A 'relictual population' is a population that currently occurs in a restricted area, but whose original range was far wider during a previous geologic epoch . Similarly, a 'relictual taxon' is a taxon (e.g. species or other lineage) that

828-683: A mechanical engineer and recent graduate of Purdue University , was sent to supervise the operation on behalf of the Phosphate Mining and Shipping Company. Murray was known as the "King of Christmas Island" until 1910, when he married and settled in London. The island was administered jointly by the British Phosphate commissioners and district officers from the United Kingdom Colonial Office through

920-433: A mosque but it is in a state of decay and disrepair with rotting timbers and cracks. Other smaller and less geographically concentrated groups include Anglicans who make up 3.6%, Uniting Church adherents who make up 1.2%, other Protestants who make up 1.7%, and other Christian groups with 3.3%. Other religious communities collectively constitute 0.6% of the island's population. As an external territory of Australia ,

1012-513: A much larger area, but died out in most of their range, are called paleoendemic , in contrast to neoendemic species, which are new species that have not dispersed beyond their range. The ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba , is one example of a paleoendemic species. In many cases biological factors, such as low rates of dispersal or returning to the spawning area ( philopatry ), can cause a particular group of organisms to have high speciation rates and thus many endemic species. For example, cichlids in

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1104-522: A name for. Traditionally, none of Myers and de Grave's categories would be considered endemics except stenoendemics. Some environments are particularly conducive to the development of endemic species, either because they allow the persistence of relict taxa that were extirpated elsewhere, or because they provide mechanisms for isolation and opportunities to fill new niches. Serpentine soils act as ' edaphic islands' of low fertility and these soils lead to high rates of endemism. These soils are found in

1196-465: A number of endemics. Many species and other higher taxonomic groups exist in very small terrestrial or aquatic islands, which restrict their distribution. The Devil's Hole pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis , has its whole native population restricted to a spring that is 20 x 3 meters, in Nevada 's Mojave Desert . This 'aquatic island' is connected to an underground basin; however, the population present in

1288-427: A particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology , because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area, or becoming extirpated from an area they once lived), go extinct, or diversify into more species. The extreme opposite of an endemic species

1380-403: A population of 1,692 residents as of 2021 , with the majority living in settlements on the northern edge of the island. The main settlement is Flying Fish Cove . Historically, Asian Australians of Chinese , Malay , and Indian descent formed the majority of the population. Today, around two-thirds of the island's population is estimated to have Straits Chinese origin (though just 22.2% of

1472-697: A small settlement was established in Flying Fish Cove by G. Clunies Ross , the owner of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands some 900 kilometres (560 mi) to the southwest, to collect timber and supplies for the growing industry on Cocos. In 1897 the island was visited by Charles W. Andrews , who did extensive research on the natural history of the island, on behalf of the British Museum . Phosphate mining began in 1899 using indentured workers from Singapore, British Malaya , and China. John Davis Murray,

1564-498: A species can lead to endemism in multiple ways. Allopatric speciation , or geographic speciation, is when two populations of a species become geographically separated from each other and as a result develop into different species. In isolated areas where there is little possibility for organisms to disperse to new places, or to receive new gene flow from outside, the rate of endemism is particularly high. For example, many endemic species are found on remote islands , such as Hawaii ,

1656-429: A total coverage of 744,000 square kilometres (287,000 sq mi). The park will help to protect spawning of bluefin tuna from illegal international fishers, but local people will be allowed to practise fishing sustainably inshore in order to source food. Christmas Island lies near the southern edge of the equatorial region. It has a tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen Am ) and temperatures vary little throughout

1748-504: A very restrictive range, due to the unique environmental characteristics. The Kula Volcano , one of the fourteen volcanoes in Turkey , is home to 13 endemic species of plants. Endemics might more easily become endangered or extinct because they are already restricted in distribution. This puts endemic plants and animals at greater risk than widespread species during the rapid climate change of this century. Some scientists claim that

1840-625: A wide variety of evolutionary histories, so researchers often use more specialized terms that categorize endemic species based upon how they came to be endemic to an area. Different categorizations of endemism also capture the uniqueness and irreplaceability of biodiversity hotspots differently and impact how those hotspots are defined, affecting how resources for conservation are allocated. The first subcategories were first introduced by Claude P. E. Favager and Juliette Contandriopoulis in 1961: schizoendemics, apoendemics and patroendemics. Using this work, Ledyard Stebbins and Jack Major then introduced

1932-437: A wider distributed taxon that has become reproductively isolated without becoming (potentially) genetically isolated – a schizoendemic has the same chromosome count as the parent taxon it evolved from. An apoendemic is a polyploid of the parent taxon (or taxa in the case of allopolyploids ), whereas a patroendemic has a lower, diploid chromosome count than the related, more widely distributed polyploid taxon. Mikio Ono coined

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2024-783: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Christmas Island The Territory of Christmas Island is an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean comprising the island of the same name. It is located approximately 350 kilometres (190 nautical miles) south of Java and Sumatra and about 1,550 km (840 nmi) north-west of the closest point on the Australian mainland . It has an area of 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi). The territory derives its name from its discovery on Christmas Day 1643 by Captain William Mynors . Christmas Island had

2116-508: Is a small supermarket and several restaurants, the Malays live in their coastal kampong , and the Chinese reside in Poon Saan ( Cantonese for "in the middle of the hill"). The main languages spoken at home on Christmas Island, according to respondents, are English (28%), Mandarin (17%), Malay (17%), with smaller numbers of speakers of Cantonese (4%) and Hokkien (2%). 27% did not specify

2208-482: Is at the discretion of the federal government. The act also gives Western Australian courts judicial power over Christmas Island. Christmas Island remains constitutionally distinct from Western Australia, however; the power of the state to legislate for the territory is delegated by the federal government. The kind of services typically provided by a state government elsewhere in Australia are provided by departments of

2300-598: Is commonplace. Traditional Cantonese folk practices also are represented in this area. Chinese temples and shrines include seven Buddhist temples (like Guan Yin Monastery (观音寺) at Gaze Road), ten Taoist temples (like Soon Tian Kong (顺天宫) in South Point and Grants Well Guan Di Temple) and shrines dedicated to Na Tuk Kong or Datuk Keramat on the island. Malays who have settled on the island's edge in their shoreline kampong tend to follow Sunni Islam. The kampong has

2392-504: Is mainly tropical rainforest , 63% of which is national parkland. The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island poses a maritime hazard. Christmas Island lies 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) northwest of Perth , Western Australia, 350 km (220 mi) south of Indonesia, 975 km (606 mi) east-northeast of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and 2,748 km (1,708 mi) west of Darwin , Northern Territory. Its closest point to

2484-418: Is one with a cosmopolitan distribution , having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to species (and other taxonomic levels) that are restricted to a defined geographical area. Other terms that sometimes are used interchangeably, but less often, include autochthonal, autochthonic, and indigenous; however, these terms do not reflect

2576-434: Is only possible where 1.) the taxonomy of the species in question is not in dispute; 2.) the species distribution is accurately known; and 3.) the species have relatively small distributional ranges. In a 2000 article, Myers et al . used the standard of having more than 0.5% of the world's plant species being endemic to the region to designate 25 geographical areas of the world as biodiversity hotspots . In response to

2668-520: Is referred to often as the Kampong . Due to the large numbers of English and Australians who make up the bulk of the island's capital, there is a strong Anglo-Celtic influence in The Settlement which has contributed to the strong presence of Catholicism. This has been further reinforced by recent Filipino arrivals. In the Poon Saan area, which functions like the island's Chinatown, Buddhism

2760-618: Is the sole surviving representative of a formerly diverse group. The concept of phylogenetic endemism has also been used to measure the relative uniqueness of the species endemic to an area. In measurements that incorporate phylogenetic endemism, branches of the evolutionary tree are weighted by how narrowly they are distributed. This captures not only the total number of taxa endemic to the area (taxonomic endemism), but also how distant those species are from their living relatives. Schizoendemics, apoendemics and patroendemics can all be classified as types of neoendemics. Schizoendemics arise from

2852-671: The 2019 federal election , the Labor Party received majorities from Christmas Island electors in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. While there is no permanent Australian military presence on Christmas Island, the Royal Australian Navy and Australian Border Force deploy Cape and Armidale -class patrol boats to conduct surveillance and counter-migrant smuggling patrols in adjacent waters. As of 2023,

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2944-532: The Australian Defence Force for the purpose of acting as a forward operating base for Australian surveillance and electronic warfare aircraft in the region. Endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example,

3036-544: The Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be endemic to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can also be referred to as an endemism or, in scientific literature, as an endemite . Similarly many species found in the Western ghats of India are examples of endemism. Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in

3128-1076: The Galápagos Islands and Socotra . Populations on an island are isolated, with little opportunity to interbreed with outside populations, which eventually causes reproductive isolation and separation into different species. Darwin's finches in the Galápagos archipelago are examples of species endemic to islands. Similarly, isolated mountainous regions like the Ethiopian Highlands , or large bodies of water far from other lakes, like Lake Baikal , can also have high rates of endemism. Endemism can also be created in areas which act as refuges for species during times of climate change like ice ages . These changes may have caused species to become repeatedly restricted to regions with unusually stable climate conditions, leading to high concentrations of endemic species in areas resistant to climate fluctuations. Endemic species that used to exist in

3220-479: The Poon Saan area Buddhism is common, and Sunni Islam is generally observed in the shoreline water village where the Malays live. The religion question in the Australian census is optional, and 28% of the population do not declare their religious belief. The first European to sight Christmas Island was Richard Rowe of the Thomas in 1615. Captain William Mynors named it on Christmas Day, 25 December 1643. It

3312-520: The Rudd government decommissioned Manus Regional Processing Centre and Nauru detention centre ; processing would then occur on Christmas Island itself. In December 2010, 48 asylum-seekers died just off the coast of the island in what became known as the Christmas Island boat disaster when their boat hit the rocks near Flying Fish Cove, and then smashed against nearby cliffs. In

3404-699: The Straits Settlements , and later the Crown Colony of Singapore . Hunt (2011) provides a detailed history of Chinese indentured labour on the island during those years. In 1922, scientists unsuccessfully attempted to view a solar eclipse in late September from the island to test Albert Einstein 's theory of relativity . From the outbreak of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II in December ;1941, Christmas Island

3496-711: The Western Australian government provides many services as established by the Christmas Island Act. The Australian government provides services through the Christmas Island Administration and the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. Under the federal government's Christmas Island Act 1958 , Western Australian laws are applied to Christmas Island; non-application or partial application of such laws

3588-504: The cougar is endemic to the Americas, and all known life is endemic to Earth. However, endemism is normally used only when a species has a relatively small or restricted range. This usage of "endemic" contrasts with "cosmopolitan." Endemics are not necessarily rare; some might be common where they occur. Likewise, not all rare species are endemics; some may have a large range but be rare throughout this range. The evolutionary history of

3680-538: The "number of structures associated with the inception and development of the union movement on Christmas Island", while the cinema was considered significant for its role as a venue for mass meetings and as "an uncommon example of a relatively intact outdoor cinema". The Phosphate Hill Historic Area , 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of the settlement is also listed on the Commonwealth Heritage List. This Christmas Island geography article

3772-461: The Australian mainland is 1,550 km (960 mi) from the town of Exmouth , Western Australia. Only small parts of the shoreline are easily accessible. The island's perimeter is dominated by sharp cliff faces, making many of the island's beaches difficult to get to. Some of the easily accessible beaches include Flying Fish Cove (main beach), Lily Beach, Ethel Beach, and Isabel Beach, while

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3864-960: The Balkan Peninsula, Turkey, Alps, Cuba, New Caledonia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, the North American Appalachians, and scattered distribution in California, Oregon, and Washington and elsewhere. For example, Mayer and Soltis considered the widespread subspecies Streptanthus glandulosus subsp. glandulosus which grows on normal soils, to be a paleoendemic, whereas closely related endemic forms of S. glandulosus occurring on serpentine soil patches are neoendemics which recently evolved from subsp. glandulosus . Obligate cave-dwelling species, known as troglobites, are often endemic to small areas, even to single individual caves, because cave habitats are by nature restricted, isolated, and fragmented. A high level of adaptation to

3956-571: The East African Rift Lakes have diversified into many more endemic species than the other fish families in the same lakes, possibly due to such factors. Plants that become endemic on isolated islands are often those which have a high rate of dispersal and are able to reach such islands by being dispersed by birds. While birds are less likely to be endemic to a region based on their ability to disperse via flight, there are over 2,500 species which are considered endemic, meaning that

4048-651: The European and Asian staff and their families were evacuated to Perth . In late February and early March 1942, there were two aerial bombing raids. Shelling from a Japanese naval group on 7 March led the district officer to hoist the white flag . But after the Japanese naval group sailed away, the British officer raised the Union Flag once more. During the night of 10–11 March, mutinous Indian troops, abetted by Sikh policemen, killed an officer and

4140-547: The Immigration Department stated that there were 2,960 "irregular maritime arrivals" being held in the island's five detention facilities, which exceeded not only the "regular operating capacity" of 1,094 people, but also the "contingency capacity" of 2,724. The Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre closed in September 2018. The Morrison government announced it would re-open

4232-450: The Navy's Armidale -class boats are in the process of being replaced by larger Arafura -class offshore patrol vessels . The airfield on Christmas Island has a 2100m long runway while that on Cocos (West Island, 1,000 km, 620 mi to the west) is 2,400 m (7,900 ft) in length. Both airfields have scheduled jet services, however, the airfield on Cocos is being upgraded by

4324-608: The Western Australian government, and by contractors, with the costs met by the federal government. A unicameral Shire of Christmas Island with nine seats provides local government services and is elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Elections are held every two years, with four or five of the members standing for election. As of 2024 women held one of the nine seats in the Christmas Island Shire Council . Its second president

4416-792: The Western style common in Flying Fish Cove . The Java sparrow has become established on the island with populations near Poon Saan. An area of the settlement, including the Poon Saan Club, Union of Christmas Island Workers office, cinema and several residential blocks, is listed on the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List as the "Poon Saan Group" for its "significance to the Chinese population", "architectural styles imported from Singapore and rarely found in other parts of Australia", and for

4508-546: The above, the World Wildlife Fund has split the world into a few hundred geographical ' ecoregions '. These have been designed to include as many species as possible that only occur in a single ecoregion, and these species are thus 'endemics' to these ecoregions. Since plenty of these ecoregions have a high prevalence of endemics existing within them, many National Parks have been formed around or within them to further promote conservation. The Caparaó National Park

4600-647: The case Plaintiff M61/2010E v Commonwealth of Australia , the High Court of Australia ruled, in a 7–0 joint judgment, that asylum seekers detained on Christmas Island were entitled to the protections of the Migration Act. Accordingly, the Commonwealth was obliged to afford asylum seekers a minimum of procedural fairness when assessing their claims. As of 20 June 2013 , after the interception of four boats in six days, carrying 350 people,

4692-634: The centre in February the following year, after Australia's parliament passed legislation giving sick asylum seekers easier access to mainland hospitals. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic , the government opened parts of the Immigration Reception and Processing Centre to be used as a quarantine facility to accommodate Australian citizens who had been in Wuhan , the point of origin of

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4784-583: The concept. In their view, everything is endemic, even cosmopolitan species are endemic to Earth, and earlier definitions restricting endemics to specific locations are wrong. Thus the subdivisions neoendemics and paleoendemics are without merit regarding the study of distributions, because these concepts consider that an endemic has a distribution limited to one place. Instead, they propose four different categories: holoendemics, euryendemics, stenoendemics and rhoendemics. In their scheme cryptoendemics and euendemics are further subdivisions of rhoendemics. In their view,

4876-518: The concepts of neoendemics and paleoendemics in 1965 to describe the endemics of California. Endemic taxa can also be classified into autochthonous, allochthonous, taxonomic relicts and biogeographic relicts. Paleoendemism refers to species that were formerly widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have recently arisen, such as through divergence and reproductive isolation or through hybridization and polyploidy in plants, and have not dispersed beyond

4968-609: The cool climates of mountain peaks are geographically isolated. For example, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France, Saxifraga florulenta is an endemic plant that may have evolved in the Late Miocene and could have once been widespread across the Mediterranean Basin . Volcanoes also tend to harbor a number of endemic species. Plants on volcanoes tend to fill a specialized ecological niche , with

5060-512: The flora and fauna. In the next year, Pelham Aldrich , on board HMS  Egeria , visited the island for 10 days, accompanied by J. J. Lister , who gathered a larger biological and mineralogical collection. Among the rocks then obtained and submitted to Murray for examination were many of nearly pure phosphate of lime . This discovery led to annexation of the island by the British Crown on 6 June 1888. Soon afterwards,

5152-568: The four British NCOs in their quarters as they were sleeping. "Afterwards all Europeans on the island, including the district officer, who governed it, were lined up by the Indians and told they were going to be shot. But after a long discussion between the district officer and the leaders of the mutineers the executions were postponed and the Europeans were confined under armed guard in the district officer's house". At dawn on 31 March 1942,

5244-466: The island could not apply for refugee status . Asylum seekers were relocated from Christmas Island to Manus Island and Nauru . In 2006, an immigration detention centre , containing approximately 800 beds, was constructed on the island for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs . Originally estimated to cost A$ 276  million, the final cost was over $ 400 million. In 2007,

5336-496: The island since 1899. The first European to sight the island was Richard Rowe of the Thomas in 1615. Captain William Mynors of the East India Company vessel Royal Mary named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day in 1643. The island was included on English and Dutch navigation charts early in the 17th century, but it was not until 1666 that a map published by Dutch cartographer Pieter Goos included

5428-565: The island's interests." John William Stokes succeeded Nickels and served from 1 October 1960, to 12 June 1966. On his departure, he was lauded by all sectors of the island community. In 1968, the official secretary was retitled an administrator and, since 1997, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands together are called the Australian Indian Ocean Territories and share a single administrator resident on Christmas Island. The settlement of Silver City

5520-566: The island's population were evacuated to Surabaya prison camps, leaving a population of just under 500 Chinese and Malays and 15 Japanese to survive as best they could. In October 1945, HMS  Rother re-occupied Christmas Island. After the war, seven mutineers were traced and prosecuted by the Military Court in Singapore. In 1947, five of them were sentenced to death . However, following representations made by

5612-545: The island. Goos labelled the island "Mony" or "Moni", the meaning of which is unclear. English 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. In writing his account, he found the island uninhabited. Dampier was trying to reach Cocos from New Holland . His ship was blown off course in an easterly direction, arriving at Christmas Island 28 days later. Dampier landed on

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5704-557: The island. In 2001, Christmas Island was the site of the Tampa controversy , in which the Australian government stopped a Norwegian ship, MV Tampa , from disembarking 438 rescued asylum-seekers. The ensuing standoff and the associated political reactions in Australia were a major issue in the 2001 Australian federal election . The Howard government operated the " Pacific Solution " from 2001 to 2007, excising Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone so that asylum seekers on

5796-447: The majority of Christmas Islanders were those of Chinese, Malay and Indian origins, the initial permanent settlers. Today, the plurality of residents are Chinese , with significant numbers of European Australians and Malays as well as a smaller Indian community, alongside more recent Filipino arrivals. Since the turn of the 21st century and right up to the present, Europeans have mainly confined themselves to The Settlement, where there

5888-468: The more difficult beaches to access include Greta Beach, Dolly Beach, Winifred Beach, Merrial Beach, and West White Beach, which all require a vehicle with four wheel drive and a difficult walk through dense rainforest. The volcanic island is the flat summit of an underwater mountain more than 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) high, which rises from about 4,200 m (13,780 ft) below the sea and only about 300 m (984 ft) above it. The mountain

5980-611: The newly independent government of India, their sentences were reduced to penal servitude for life . The United Kingdom transferred sovereignty of Christmas Island to Australia at the latter's request, with a $ 20 million payment from the Australian government to Singapore as compensation for the loss of earnings from the phosphate revenue. The United Kingdom's Christmas Island Act was given royal assent on 14 May 1958 by Queen Elizabeth II, enabling Britain to transfer authority over Christmas Island from Singapore to Australia by an order-in-council. Australia's Christmas Island Act

6072-650: The older beds. Reefs near the islands have healthy coral and are home to several rare species of marine life. The region, along with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands reefs, have been described as "Australia's Galapagos Islands ". In the 2021 budget the Australian Government committed $ A39.1M to create two new marine parks off Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The parks will cover up to 740,000 square kilometres (290,000 sq mi) of Australian waters. After months of consultation with local people, both parks were approved in March 2022, with

6164-498: The pandemic. The evacuees arrived on 3 February. They left 14 days later to their homes on the mainland. The island is about 19 kilometres (12 mi) in greatest length and 14.5 km (9.0 mi) in breadth. The total land area is 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi), with 138.9 km (86.3 mi) of coastline. Steep cliffs along much of the coast rise abruptly to a central plateau. Elevation ranges from sea level to 361 m (1,184 ft) at Murray Hill . The island

6256-677: The pool remains isolated. Other areas very similar to the Galapagos Islands of the Pacific Ocean exist and foster high rates of endemism. The Socotra Archipelago of Yemen, located in the Indian Ocean, has seen a new endemic species of parasitic leech, Myxobdella socotrensis, appear. This species is restricted to freshwater springs, where it may attach to and feed upon native crabs. Mountains can be seen as ' sky islands ': refugia of endemics because species that live in

6348-481: The population declared a Chinese ancestry in 2021), with significant numbers of Malays and European Australians and smaller numbers of Straits Indians and Eurasians. Several languages are in use including English, Malay , and various Chinese dialects. Religious beliefs vary geographically; the Anglo-Celtic influence in the capital known simply as The Settlement means it is closely tied to Catholicism, whereas in

6440-424: The population of Christmas Island was 40.5% female and 59.5% male, while in 2011 the figures had been 29.3% female and 70.7% male. In contrast, the 2021 figures for the whole of Australia were 50.7% female, 49.3% male. Since 1998 there has been no provision for childbirth on the island; expectant mothers travel to mainland Australia approximately one month before their expected due date to give birth. Historically,

6532-541: The population was of Indonesian origin. As of 2021, most are people born in Christmas Island and many are of Chinese and Malay origin. 40.8% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was Malaysia at 18.6%. 29.3% of the population spoke English as their family language, while 18.4% spoke Malay, 13.9% spoke Mandarin Chinese, 3.7% Cantonese and 2.1% Southern Min (Minnan). Additionally, there are small local populations of Malaysian Indians and Indonesians. The 2016 Australian census recorded that

6624-404: The presence of endemic species in an area is a good method to find geographical regions that can be considered priorities for conservation. Endemism can thus be studied as a proxy for measuring biodiversity of a region. The concept of finding endemic species that occur in the same region to designate 'endemism hotspots' was first proposed by Paul Müller in a 1973 book. According to him, this

6716-484: The species is restricted to an area less than five million hectares (twelve million acres). Microorganisms were traditionally not believed to form endemics. The hypothesis 'everything is everywhere', first stated in Dutch by Lourens G.M. Baas Becking in 1934, describes the theory that the distribution of organisms smaller than 2 mm is cosmopolitan where habitats occur that support their growth. Endemism can reflect

6808-464: The status of a species that specifically belongs only to a determined place. The word endemic is from Neo-Latin endēmicus , from Greek ἔνδημος, éndēmos , "native". Endēmos is formed of en meaning "in", and dēmos meaning "the people". The word entered the English language as a loan word from French endémique , and originally seems to have been used in the sense of diseases that occur at

6900-471: The summit of the plateau, but they failed to find a route up the inland cliff and were forced to turn back. During the 1872–1876 Challenger expedition to Indonesia, naturalist John Murray carried out extensive surveys. In 1886, Captain John Maclear of HMS  Flying Fish , having discovered an anchorage in a bay that he named "Flying Fish Cove", landed a party and made a small collection of

6992-424: The term 'aneuendemics' in 1991 for species that have more or fewer chromosomes than their relatives due to aneuploidy . Pseudoendemics are taxa that have possibly recently evolved from a mutation. Holoendemics is a concept introduced by Richardson in 1978 to describe taxa that have remained endemic to a restricted distribution for a very long time. In a 2000 paper, Myers and de Grave further attempted to redefine

7084-572: The threatened nature of a geographic region. A similar pattern had been found regarding mammals, Lasioglossum bees, Plusiinae moths, and swallowtail butterflies in North America: these different groups of taxa did not correlate geographically with each other regarding endemism and species richness. Especially using mammals as flagship species proved to be a poor system of identifying and protecting areas of high invertebrate biodiversity. In response to this, other scientists again defended

7176-545: The two religious festivals which are official holidays are Christmas and Easter . Other non-official festivals include Spring Festival , Chap goh meh , Qingming Festival , Zhong Yuan Festival , and Hari Raya . Christmas Island is a non-self-governing external territory of Australia as of February 2020 , part of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications (from 29 November 2007 until 14 September 2010, administration

7268-818: The west coast, at "the Dales ". Two of his crewmen became the first Europeans to set foot on Christmas Island. Captain Daniel Beeckman of the Eagle passed the island on 5 April 1714, chronicled in his 1718 book, A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo, in the East-Indies . The first attempt at exploring the island was made in 1857 by Captain Sidney Grenfell of the frigate HMS  Amethyst . An expedition crew were sent ashore with instructions to reach

7360-435: The wet season, bringing very strong winds, heavy rain, wave action, and storm surge . ancestry of Christmas Island' (2021) As of the 2021 Australian census , the population of Christmas Island is 1,692. 22.2% of the population had Chinese ancestry (up from 18.3% in 2001), 17.0% had generic Australian ancestry (11.7% in 2001), 16.1% had Malay ancestry (9.3% in 2001), 12.5% had English ancestry (8.9% in 2001), and 3.8% of

7452-453: The year. The highest temperature is usually around 29 °C (84 °F) in March and April, while the lowest temperature is 23 °C (73 °F) and occurs in August. There is a dry season from July to October with only occasional showers. The wet season is between November and June and includes monsoons , with downpours of rain at random times of the day. Tropical cyclones also occur in

7544-557: Was Lillian Oh , from 1993 to 1995. The most recent local election took place on 21 October 2023 alongside elections in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Christmas Island residents who are Australian citizens vote in Australian federal elections . Christmas Island residents are represented in the House of Representatives by the Division of Lingiari in the Northern Territory and in the Senate by Northern Territory senators. At

7636-530: Was a target for Japanese occupation because of its rich phosphate deposits. A naval gun was installed under a British officer, four non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and 27 Indian soldiers. The first attack was carried out on 20 January 1942 by the Japanese submarine  I-59 , which torpedoed the Norwegian freighter Eidsvold . The vessel drifted and eventually sank off West White Beach. Most of

7728-518: Was appointed the first official representative of the new territory. In a media statement on 5 August 1960, the minister for territories , Paul Hasluck , said, among other things, that, "His extensive knowledge of the Malay language and the customs of the Asian people ... has proved invaluable in the inauguration of Australian administration ... During his two years on the island he had faced unavoidable difficulties ... and constantly sought to advance

7820-523: Was built in the 1970s, with aluminium-clad houses that were supposed to be cyclone -proof. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami , centred off the western shore of Sumatra in Indonesia, resulted in no reported casualties, but some swimmers were swept some 150 metres (490 ft) out to sea for a time before being swept back in. From the late 1980s and early 1990s, boats carrying asylum seekers , mainly departing from Indonesia, began landing on

7912-543: Was carried out by the Attorney-General's Department , and prior to this by the Department of Transport and Regional Services ). The legal system is under the authority of the Governor-General of Australia and Australian law. An administrator appointed by the governor-general represents the monarch and Australia and lives on the island. The territory falls under no formal state jurisdiction, but

8004-537: Was first settled in the late 19th century. Christmas Island's 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 majority (63%) of the island is included in the Christmas Island National Park , which features several areas of primary monsoonal forest. Phosphate , deposited originally as guano , has been mined on

8096-566: Was formed in the Atlantic Forest , a biodiversity hotspot located in Brazil, in order to help protect valuable and vulnerable species. Other scientists have argued that endemism is not an appropriate measure of biodiversity, because the levels of threat or biodiversity are not actually correlated to areas of high endemism. When using bird species as an example, it was found that only 2.5% of biodiversity hotspots correlate with endemism and

8188-491: Was originally a volcano , and some basalt is exposed in places such as The Dales and Dolly Beach, but most of the surface rock is limestone accumulated from coral growth. The karst terrain supports numerous anchialine caves . The summit of this mountain peak is formed by a succession of Tertiary limestones ranging in age from the Eocene or Oligocene up to recent reef deposits, with intercalations of volcanic rock in

8280-697: Was passed in September ;1958, and the island was officially placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 October 1958. This transfer did not see any process involving the local population, who could remain Singaporean citizens or obtain Australian citizenship. Links between Singapore and Christmas Island have occasionally reemerged in Singaporean politics and in Australia–Singapore relations . Under Commonwealth Cabinet Decision 1573 of 9 September 1958, D.E. Nickels

8372-401: Was repaired, and preparations were made to resume the mining and export of phosphate. Only 20 men from the 21st Special Base Force were left as a garrison. Isolated acts of sabotage and the torpedoing of the cargo ship Nissei Maru at the wharf on 17 November 1942 meant that only small amounts of phosphate were exported to Japan during the occupation. In November 1943, over 60% of

8464-509: Was uncomfortable with the fact that the word ' endemic ' is often associated with diseases. 'Precinctive' was first used in botany by Vaughan MacCaughey in Hawaii in 1917. A species is considered to be endemic to the area where it is found naturally, to the exclusion of other areas; presence in captivity or botanical gardens does not disqualify a species from being endemic. In theory, the term "endemic" could be applied on any scale; for example,

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