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68-462: As discussed by Amos and Beaman, the bathymetry of the Zenith Plateau is very poorly mapped. Precise ocean floor depth data from bathymetric surveys, which used modern acoustic echosounders, across this undersea plateau are lacking. Transects across it by older, less precise singlebeam echosounder are few and insufficient to provide bathymetric data of significant detail. The bulk of the mapping

136-554: A tropical rainforest climate ( Af ) according to the Köppen climate classification ; the archipelago lies approximately midway between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn . The archipelago has two distinct seasons, the wet season and the dry season. The wettest month is April with precipitation totaling 262.6 millimetres (10.34 in), and the driest month is October with precipitation totaling 88.2 millimetres (3.47 in). Due to

204-583: A base for commerce raiders operating in the Indian Ocean. Following Japan 's entry into the war, Japanese forces occupied neighbouring islands. To avoid drawing their attention to the Cocos cable station and its islands' garrison, the seaplane anchorage between Direction and Horsburgh islands was not used. Radio transmitters were also kept silent, except in emergencies. After the Fall of Singapore in 1942,

272-642: A communication centre, the Japanese made no attempt either to raid or to occupy them and contented themselves with sending over a reconnaissance aircraft about once a month. On the night of 8–9 May 1942, 15 members of the garrison, from the Ceylon Defence Force , mutinied under the leadership of Gratien Fernando . The mutineers were said to have been provoked by the attitude of their British officers and were also supposedly inspired by Japanese anti-British propaganda. They attempted to take control of

340-621: A dialect of Malay as their first language. The territory is administered by the Australian federal government's Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts as an Australian external territory and together with Christmas Island (which is about 960 kilometres (600 mi) to the east) forms the Australian Indian Ocean Territories administrative grouping. However,

408-414: A frequency (for example between 8.5 kHz and 9.5 kHz) and for a duration adapted to the pre-localisation of wreckage" (i.e. with increased range). On ships built on or after 1 July 2014, underwater locating devices must ensure a regulatory transmission time of at least 90 days. A beacon is typically supplied with electrical power by a lithium battery , which needs to be replaced after several years. Once

476-590: A non-resident Administrator appointed by the Governor-General . They were previously the responsibility of the Department of Transport and Regional Services (before 2007), the Attorney-General's Department (2007–2013), Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (2013–2017) and Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities (2017–2020). As of November 2023,

544-724: A partial alternative to the Paya Lebar Air Base . Descendants of the Cocos Malays brought to the islands from the Malay Peninsula , the Indonesian archipelago , Southern Africa and New Guinea by Hare and by Clunies-Ross as indentured workers , slaves or convicts are as of 2019 seeking recognition from the Australian government to be acknowledged as Indigenous Australians . The capital of

612-573: A small book about his time with wife and son from 1964 to 1966 working at the Cable Station on Direction Island. In the 1970s, the Australian government's 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 A$ 6,250,000, using the threat of compulsory acquisition. By agreement, the family retained ownership of Oceania House, their home on

680-440: A suitable receiver to the location of the beacon underwater. An underwater locator beacon is fitted to aviation flight recorders such as the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR). ULBs are also sometimes required to be attached directly to an aircraft fuselage . These ULBs are triggered by water immersion; most emit an ultrasonic 10ms pulse once per second at 37.5 kHz ± 1 kHz. Research by

748-499: A total land area of 13.1 square kilometres (5.1 sq mi). Only Home Island and West Island are populated. The Cocos Malays maintain weekend shacks, referred to as pondoks, on most of the larger islands. There are no rivers or lakes on either atoll. Fresh water resources are limited to water lenses on the larger islands, underground accumulations of rainwater lying above the seawater. These lenses are accessed through shallow bores or wells. Cocos (Keeling) Islands experience

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816-628: A town in Borneo , and found that "he could not confine himself to the tame life that civilisation affords". Clunies-Ross returned two years later with his wife, children and mother-in-law, and found Hare already established on the island and living with the private harem. A feud grew between the two. Clunies-Ross's eight sailors "began at once the invasion of the new kingdom to take possession of it, women and all". After some time, Hare's women began deserting him, and instead finding themselves partners amongst Clunies-Ross's sailors. Disheartened, Hare left

884-472: Is 4.1 mm (0.16 in) to 4.3 mm (0.17 in) per thousand years. According to these rates and the core description, the sediments covering this plateau are likely well-consolidated and possibly quite stiff. The northern flank of the Zenith Plateau underlies the part of the Indian Ocean that was initially suspected to be the final resting place of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 . According to

952-781: Is a women's rights organisation that represents the view of women at a local and national level. The archipelago was discovered in 1609 by Captain William Keeling of the East India Company , on a return voyage from the East Indies. North Keeling was sketched by Ekeberg, a Swedish captain, in 1749, showing the presence of coconut palms . It also appears on a 1789 chart produced by British hydrographer Alexander Dalrymple . In 1825, Scottish merchant seaman Captain John Clunies-Ross stopped briefly at

1020-488: Is based upon coarse interpretation of satellite altimetry data in which the ocean floor bathymetry is inferred from measured variations in the elevation of the overlying sea surface. The Zenith Plateau is named after the cable ship Zenith , which discovered it while surveying the cable route from Cocos (Keeling) Islands to Fremantle , Western Australia . It was initially known as the Zenith Seamount as shown in

1088-445: Is pleasant, moderated by the southeast trade winds for about nine months of the year and with moderate rainfall. Tropical cyclones may occur in the early months of the year. North Keeling Island is an atoll consisting of just one C-shaped island, a nearly closed atoll ring with a small opening into the lagoon, about 50 metres (160 ft) wide, on the east side. The island measures 1.1 square kilometres (270 acres) in land area and

1156-521: Is uninhabited. The lagoon is about 0.5 square kilometres (120 acres). North Keeling Island and the surrounding sea to 1.5 km (0.93 mi) from shore form the Pulu Keeling National Park , established on 12 December 1995. It is home to the only surviving population of the endemic, and endangered, Cocos Buff-banded Rail . South Keeling Islands is an atoll consisting of 24 individual islets forming an incomplete atoll ring, with

1224-568: The GEBCO Digital Atlas, the depth of the ocean bottom within the area that the ADV Ocean Shield detected acoustic signals that once were thought to be consistent with those emitted by underwater locator beacons (ULBs) mounted on flight recorders ranges from about 3,800 meters (12,500 ft) to 4,800 meters (15,700 ft). However, lengthy searches of parts of the Zenith Plateau found nothing. Except for its depth,

1292-814: The Indian Ocean , comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and relatively close to the Indonesian island of Sumatra . The territory's dual name (official since the islands' incorporation into Australia in 1955) reflects that the islands have historically been known as either the Cocos Islands or the Keeling Islands . The territory consists of two atolls made up of 27 coral islands , of which only two – West Island and Home Island – are inhabited. The population of around 600 people consists mainly of Cocos Malays , who mostly practise Sunni Islam and speak

1360-570: The Keeling–Cocos Islands (19th century). Cocos refers to the abundant coconut trees, while Keeling refers to William Keeling , who discovered the islands in 1609. John Clunies-Ross, who sailed there in the Borneo in 1825, called the group the Borneo Coral Isles , restricting Keeling to North Keeling , and calling South Keeling "the Cocos properly so called". The form Cocos (Keeling) Islands , attested from 1916,

1428-701: The Northern Territory ) and in the Senate by Northern Territory senators. At the 2022 Australian federal election the Labor Party received absolute majorities from Cocos electors in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Underwater locator beacon An underwater locator beacon (ULB) , underwater locating device (ULD) , or underwater acoustic beacon is a device that emits an acoustic pulse intended to guide searchers equipped with

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1496-533: The Royal Air Force ), which were also stationed on the islands. When in July 1945 No. 99 and No. 356 RAF squadrons arrived on West Island, they brought with them a daily newspaper called Atoll which contained news of what was happening in the outside world. Run by airmen in their off-duty hours, it achieved fame when dropped by Liberator bombers on POW camps over the heads of the Japanese guards. In 1946,

1564-415: The gun battery on the islands. The Cocos Islands Mutiny was crushed, but the mutineers murdered one non-mutinous soldier and wounded one officer. Seven of the mutineers were sentenced to death at a trial that was later alleged to have been improperly conducted, though the guilt of the accused was admitted. Four of the sentences were commuted, but three men were executed, including Fernando. These were to be

1632-683: The 1933 DMA Chart 5446 and the May 1975 Australian INT 708 chart. The Zenith Plateau is incorrectly designated as the Wallaby Plateau by a few official charts, some popular maps, American Association of Petroleum Geologists ' maps, and the ACUF Gazetter. This confusion likely is the result of maps by Heezen and Tharp that incorrectly show the Zenith Plateau and the Wallaby Plateau as a single, composite bathymetric feature. Because

1700-611: The 25th cruise of the R/V Dmitriy Mendeleyev indicates that the deep sea sediments covering the Zenith Plateau consist of calcareous ooze . One core, core 2036, recovered during that cruise penetrated 3 meters (9.8 ft) of rather compact light pale yellow pelitic , coccolith - foraminiferal ooze. Radiocarbon dating of samples from the upper 50 cm (20 in) of the core yielded dates ranging from 9790±750 to greater than 28,500 years radiocarbon. The average sedimentation rate calculated for sediments in this core

1768-807: The Administrator is Farzian Zainal , she is also the Administrator of Christmas Island . These two territories comprise the Australian Indian Ocean Territories . The Australian Government provides Commonwealth-level government services through the Christmas Island Administration and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. As per the Federal Government's Territories Law Reform Act 1992 , which came into force on 1 July 1992, Western Australian laws are applied to

1836-606: The Australian cruiser, which caught up to the troop convoy in Colombo on 15 November, then transported to Malta and handed over the prisoners to the British Army . An additional 50 German personnel from the shore party, unable to be recovered before Sydney arrived, commandeered a schooner and escaped from Direction Island, eventually arriving in Constantinople . Emden was the last active Central Powers warship in

1904-509: The Australian parliament approved plans to extend the airstrip by 150 metres so that it could take Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft capable of low-level anti-submarine warfare operations and high-tech military surveillance. Construction was scheduled to start in 2024 and be completed by 2026. Prior to the upgrade, the United States had been using the airstrip for several decades as a stopover point between Diego Garcia and Guam , and as

1972-607: The British Settlements Acts, 1887 and 1945, as applied by the Act of 1946. The legal steps for effecting the transfer were as follows: The reason for this comparatively complex machinery was due to the terms of the Straits Settlement (Repeal) Act, 1946. According to Sir Kenneth Roberts-Wray "any other procedure would have been of doubtful validity". The separation involved three steps: separation from

2040-584: The Clunies-Ross family still live on the Cocos. Extensive preparations were undertaken by the government of Australia to prepare the Cocos Malays to vote in their referendum of self-determination. Discussions began in 1982, with an aim of holding the referendum, under United Nations supervision, in mid-1983. Under guidelines developed by the UN Decolonization Committee, residents were to be offered three choices: full independence, free association, or integration with Australia. The last option

2108-525: The Clunies-Ross family: 229 voted for integration, 21 for Free Association, nine for independence, and two failed to indicate a preference. In the first decade of the 21st century, a series of disputes have occurred between the Muslim and the non-Muslim population of the islands. The airstrip on West Island has an airstrip that is more than two kilometres long and is designed to accommodate Boeing 737 passenger flights and smaller military planes. In 2023,

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2176-536: The Cocos Islands, "so far as they are capable of applying in the Territory"; non-application or partial application of such laws is at the discretion of the federal government. The Act also gives Western Australian courts judicial power over the islands. The Cocos Islands remain constitutionally distinct from Western Australia, however; the power of the state to legislate for the territory is power-delegated by

2244-533: The Colony of Singapore; transfer by United Kingdom and acceptance by Australia. H. J. Hull was appointed the first official representative (now administrator) of the new territory. He had been a lieutenant-commander in the Royal Australian Navy and was released for the purpose. Under Commonwealth Cabinet Decision 1573 of 9 September 1958, Hull's appointment was terminated and John William Stokes

2312-780: The French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA) has shown that it has had a 90% survival rate spanning 27 air accidents over the sea. The ULBs fitted in Air France Flight 447 , which crashed on 1 June 2009, were certified to transmit at 37.5 kHz for a minimum of 30 days at a temperature of 4 °C. After investigating the crash, the BEA recommended that FDR ULBs' transmission period be increased to 90 days and for "airplanes performing public transport flights over maritime areas to be equipped with an additional ULB capable of transmitting on

2380-589: The Governor of Ceylon was made Governor of the islands, and, by further Letters Patent in 1886, responsibility for the islands was transferred to the Governor of the Straits Settlement to exercise his functions as "Governor of Cocos Islands". The islands were made part of the Straits Settlement under an Order in Council of 20 May 1903. Meanwhile, in 1886 Queen Victoria had, by indenture, granted

2448-507: The Indian or Pacific Ocean, which meant troopships from Australia and New Zealand could sail without naval escort, and Allied ships could be deployed elsewhere. During World War II , the cable station was once again a vital link. The Cocos were valuable for direction finding by the Y service , the worldwide intelligence system used during the war. Allied planners noted that the islands might be seized as an airfield for German planes and as

2516-456: The Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands is West Island while the largest settlement is the village of Bantam, on Home Island. Governance of the islands is based on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act 1955 and depends heavily on the laws of Australia. The islands are administered from Canberra by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts through

2584-410: The Zenith Plateau has not been studied in any detail, its internal structure and origin has largely been a matter of speculation and indirect inference from magnetic and satellite gravity studies and research involving adjacent bathymetric highs. It is generally inferred to be of the same geologic structure and origin as the adjacent and better studied Quokka Rise. Initially, the Zenith Plateau, along with

2652-469: The adjacent Wallaby Plateau, was thought to be part of a short-lived hotspot . As the result of detailed studies of the Wallaby Plateau, this hypothesis has been largely abandoned. Later, it was proposed that the Zenith Plateau, like the adjacent Wallaby Plateau, consists of a continental fragment of highly attenuated, stretched, and faulted continental crust that has been extensively intruded by magmatic rocks and deeply buried by volcanic rocks during

2720-600: The administration of the islands reverted to Singapore and it became part of the Colony of Singapore. On 23 November 1955, the islands were transferred from the United Kingdom to the Commonwealth of Australia . Immediately before the transfer the islands were part of the United Kingdom's Colony of Singapore, in accordance with the Straits Settlements (Repeal) Act, 1946 of the United Kingdom and

2788-456: The beacon becomes immersed in water, a built-in "water switch" activates it via the water's presence completing an electrical circuit, and the beacon starts emitting its "pings"; the battery power should be sufficient for 30 to 40 days after the activation. The minimum battery voltage is 2.97 volts and the maximum is 3.5 volts. The National Transportation Safety Board reported a case in 1988, involving an Aerospatiale AS-355F-1 helicopter, when

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2856-662: The blanket of foraminiferal ooze, which likely covers the Zenith Plateau, provides an environment that should be helpful for searching for any aircraft wreckage lying on the ocean bottom. According to William Sager, a professor of marine geophysics at the University of Houston in Texas , the surface of ocean bottom covered with foraminiferal ooze is soft enough to squeeze between a person's toes, but it's not so soft that airplane wreckage would sink into it. He stated: "Something big like pieces of an airplane, it's going to be sitting on

2924-476: The early 19th century. One of the first settlers was John Clunies-Ross, a Scottish merchant; much of the island's current population is descended from the Malay workers he brought in to work his copra plantation. The Clunies-Ross family ruled the islands as a private fiefdom for almost 150 years, with the head of the family usually recognised as resident magistrate . The British annexed the islands in 1857, and for

2992-565: The federal government. The kind of services typically provided by a state government elsewhere in Australia are provided by departments of the Western Australian Government, and by contractors, with the costs met by the federal government. There also exists a unicameral Cocos (Keeling) Islands Shire Council with seven seats. A full term lasts four years, though elections are held every two years; approximately half

3060-559: The final resting place for MH370. Deep Reef Explorer , James Cook University, Queensland, Australia. 22°10′S 104°40′E  /  22.167°S 104.667°E  / -22.167; 104.667 Cocos (Keeling) Islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands ( Cocos Islands Malay : Pulu Kokos [Keeling] ), officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands ( / ˈ k oʊ k ə s / ; Cocos Islands Malay: Pulu Kokos [Keeling] ), are an Australian external territory in

3128-430: The initial breakup of East Gondwana . More recently, the Zenith Plateau is inferred to be a volcanic plateau that consists of a thick sequence of highly attenuated, stretched, and faulted volcanic margin crust formed during the time of the continental break-up of Gondwana. This crust is inferred to be buried by voluminous volcanic deposits that immediately followed its formation. Later on, complicated tectonic activity that

3196-560: The island. He died in Bencoolen in 1834. Encouraged by members of the former harem, Clunies-Ross then recruited Malays to come to the island for work and wives. Clunies-Ross's workers were paid in a currency called the Cocos rupee, a currency John Clunies-Ross minted himself that could only be redeemed at the company store. On 1 April 1836, HMS  Beagle under Captain Robert FitzRoy arrived to take soundings to establish

3264-546: The island. In 1983, the Australian government reneged on this agreement and told John Clunies-Ross that he should leave the Cocos. The following year the High Court of Australia ruled that resumption of Oceania House was unlawful, but the Australian government ordered that no government business was to be granted to Clunies-Ross's shipping company, an action that contributed to his bankruptcy. John Clunies-Ross later moved to Perth, Western Australia . However, some members of

3332-524: The islanders do have a degree of self-government through the local shire council . Many public services – including health, education, and policing – are provided by the state of Western Australia , and Western Australian law applies except where the federal government has determined otherwise. The territory also uses Western Australian postcodes. The islands were discovered in 1609 by the British sea captain William Keeling , but no settlement occurred until

3400-466: The islands in perpetuity to John Clunies-Ross. The head of the family enjoyed semi-official status as Resident Magistrate and Government representative. In 1901 a telegraph cable station was established on Direction Island. Undersea cables went to Rodrigues , Mauritius , Batavia , Java and Fremantle , Western Australia . In 1910 a wireless station was established to communicate with passing ships. The cable station ceased operation in 1966. On

3468-469: The islands on a trip to India, nailing up a Union Jack and planning to return and settle on the islands with his family in the future. Wealthy Englishman Alexander Hare had similar plans, and hired a captain – coincidentally, Clunies-Ross's brother – to bring him and a volunteer harem of 40 Malay women to the islands, where he hoped to establish his private residence. Hare had previously served as resident of Banjarmasin ,

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3536-468: The islands were administered from Ceylon and West and Direction Islands were placed under Allied military administration. The islands' garrison initially consisted of a platoon from the British Army's King's African Rifles , located on Horsburgh Island, with two 6-inch (152.4 mm) guns to cover the anchorage. The local inhabitants all lived on Home Island. Despite the importance of the islands as

3604-480: The members retire each two years. As of March 2024 the president of the shire is Aindil Minkom. The most recent local election took place on 21 October 2023 alongside elections on Christmas Island . Cocos (Keeling) Islands residents who are Australian citizens also vote in federal elections . Cocos (Keeling) Islanders are represented in the House of Representatives by the member for the Division of Lingiari (in

3672-543: The morning of 9 November 1914, the islands became the site of the Battle of Cocos , one of the first naval battles of World War I . A landing party from the German cruiser SMS  Emden captured and disabled the wireless and cable communications station on Direction Island , but not before the station was able to transmit a distress call. An Allied troop convoy was passing nearby, and the Australian cruiser HMAS  Sydney

3740-466: The next century they were administered from either Ceylon or Singapore . The territory was transferred to Australia in 1955, although until 1979 virtually all of the territory's real estate still belonged to the Clunies-Ross family. The islands have been called the Cocos Islands (from 1622), the Keeling Islands (from 1703), the Cocos–Keeling Islands (since James Horsburgh in 1805) and

3808-799: The only British Commonwealth soldiers executed for mutiny during the Second World War. On 25 December 1942, the Japanese submarine I-166 bombarded the islands but caused no damage. Later in the war, two airstrips were built, and three bomber squadrons were moved to the islands to conduct raids against Japanese targets in South East Asia and to provide support during the planned reinvasion of Malaya and reconquest of Singapore. The first aircraft to arrive were Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIIIs of No. 136 Squadron RAF . They included some Liberator bombers from No. 321 (Netherlands) Squadron RAF (members of exiled Dutch forces serving with

3876-646: The population is 40 years, slightly older than the median Australian population age of 38 years. As of 2021, there are no people living on the Cocos Islands who identify as Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander). Religion in Cocos Islands (2021) The majority religion of the Cocos Islands is Islam, with 65.6% of the total population identifying as Muslim, followed by Unspecified (15.3%), Non-religious (14.0%), Catholic (2.0%), Anglican (1.5%). The remaining 1.6% of Cocos Islanders identify as secular or hold various other beliefs (including atheism, agnosticism and unspecified spiritual beliefs). 73.5% of

3944-487: The population were born in Australia - either on the mainland, on the Cocos Islands, or in another Australian territory. The remaining 26.5% come from other countries, including Malaysia (4.0%), England (1.3%), New Zealand (1.2%), Singapore (0.5%) and Argentina (0.5%), among others. 61.2% of the population speak Malay at home, while 19.1% speak English, and 3.5% speak another language (including Spanish and various Austronesian and African languages). Kaum Ibu (Women's Group)

4012-468: The profile of the atoll as part of the survey expedition of the Beagle . To the naturalist Charles Darwin , aboard the ship, the results supported a theory he had developed of how atolls formed, which he later published as The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs . He studied the natural history of the islands and collected specimens. Darwin's assistant Syms Covington noted that "an Englishman [he

4080-547: The strong maritime control, temperatures vary little although its location is some distance from the Equator . The hottest month is March with an average high temperature of 30.0 °C (86.0 °F), while the coolest month is September with an average low temperature of 24.2 °C (75.6 °F). According to the 2021 Australian Census, the population of the Cocos Islands is 593 people. The gender distribution stands at an approximate 51% male and 49% female. The median age of

4148-540: The surface." In addition, Robin Beaman, a marine geologist at James Cook University , Queensland , Australia , noted that any large metallic object lying on an ocean bottom covered by foraminiferal ooze would be readily recognizable on an autonomous underwater vehicle 's sidescan sonar . Sidescan sonar can be quite good at differentiating the acoustic return of a hard, metallic object compared to that of an ocean floor covered by ooze. Beaman, R., 2014, Zenith Plateau as

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4216-731: Was appointed on secondment from the Northern Territory police. A media release at the end of October 1958 by the Minister for Territories, Hasluck, commended Hull's three years of service on Cocos. Stokes served in the position from 31 October 1958 to 30 September 1960. His son's boyhood memories and photos of the Islands have been published. C. I. Buffett MBE from Norfolk Island succeeded him and served from 28 July 1960 to 30 June 1966, and later acted as Administrator back on Cocos and on Norfolk Island. In 1974, Ken Mullen wrote

4284-458: Was associated with local rifting and sea floor spreading separated the Wallaby and Zenith plateaus from Australia and each other. Judging from research conducted for adjacent oceanic rises and plateaus, it is presumed that the volcanic rocks, which comprise the Zenith Plateau are covered by a blanket of Cenozoic and older deep sea sediments of unknown thickness. Research conducted during

4352-417: Was detached from the convoy escort to investigate. Sydney spotted the island and Emden at 09:15, with both ships preparing for combat. At 11:20, the heavily damaged Emden beached herself on North Keeling Island . The Australian warship broke to pursue Emden ' s supporting collier , which scuttled herself, then returned to North Keeling Island at 16:00. At this point, Emden ' s battle ensign

4420-778: Was in fact Scottish] and HIS family, with about sixty or seventy mulattos from the Cape of Good Hope , live on one of the islands. Captain Ross, the governor, is now absent at the Cape." The islands were annexed by the British Empire in 1857. This annexation was carried out by Captain Stephen Grenville Fremantle in command of HMS  Juno . Fremantle claimed the islands for the British Empire and appointed Ross II as Superintendent. In 1878, by Letters Patent ,

4488-496: Was made official by the Cocos Islands Act 1955 ( 3 & 4 Eliz. 2 . c. 5). The territory's Malay name is Pulu Kokos (Keeling) . Sign boards on the island also feature Malay translations. The Cocos (Keeling) Islands consist of two flat, low-lying coral atolls with an area of 14.2 square kilometres (5.5 sq mi), 26 kilometres (16 mi) of coastline, a highest elevation of 5 metres (16 ft) and thickly covered with coconut palms and other vegetation. The climate

4556-408: Was preferred by both the islanders and the Australian government. A change in government in Canberra following the March 1983 Australian elections delayed the vote by one year. While the Home Island Council stated a preference for a traditional communal consensus "vote", the UN insisted on a secret ballot. The referendum was held on 6 April 1984, with all 261 eligible islanders participating, including

4624-560: Was still flying: usually a sign that a ship intends to continue fighting. After no response to instructions to lower the ensign, two salvoes were shot into the beached cruiser, after which the Germans lowered the flag and raised a white sheet . Sydney had orders to ascertain the status of the transmission station, but returned the next day to provide medical assistance to the Germans. Casualties totaled 134 personnel aboard Emden killed, and 69 wounded, compared to four killed and 16 wounded aboard Sydney . The German survivors were taken aboard

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