![\"Cocos](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Cocos-Keeling-Islands-on-the-Globe-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>The territory consists of two atolls<\/a> made up of 27 coral islands<\/a>, of which only two \u2013 West Island<\/a> and Home Island<\/a> \u2013 are inhabited. The population of around 600 people consists mainly of Cocos Malays, who practice Sunni Islam<\/a> and speak a dialect of Malay<\/a> as their first language. The territory is administered by the Australian federal government’s Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities,<\/a> and together with Christmas Island 600 miles to the east, forms the Australian Indian Ocean Territories<\/a> administrative unit. However, the islanders do have a degree of self-government through the local shire council<\/a>. Many public services \u2013 including health, education, and policing \u2013 are provided by the state of Western Australia<\/a>, and Western Australian law applies except where the federal government has determined otherwise.<\/p>\n The islands were first discovered in 1609 by William Keeling<\/a>, but no settlement occurred until 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<\/a> plantation. The Clunies-Ross family<\/a> ruled the islands as a private fiefdom for almost 150 years, with the head of the family usually recognized as resident magistrate<\/a>. The British formally annexed the islands in 1857, and for the next century they were officially administered from either Ceylon<\/a> or Singapore<\/a>. The territory was transferred to Australia in 1955, although until 1979 virtually all of the island’s real estate still belonged to the Clunies-Ross family.<\/p>\n The islands have been called the Cocos Islands (from 1622), the Keeling Islands (from 1703), the Cocos\u2013Keeling Islands (since James Horsburgh<\/a> in 1805) and the Keeling\u2013Cocos Islands (19th century). Cocos refers to the abundant coconut<\/a> trees, while Keeling is William Keeling<\/a>, who discovered the islands in 1609.<\/p>\n John Clunies-Ross, who sailed there in the Borneo in 1825, called the group the Borneo Coral Isles, restricting Keeling to North Keeling<\/a>, and calling South Keeling “the Cocos properly so called”. The form Cocos (Keeling) Islands, attested from 1916, was made official by the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act 1955.<\/p>\n The territory’s Malay name is Pulu Kokos (Keeling). Sign boards on the island also feature Malay translations.<\/p>\n The archipelago was discovered in 1609 by Captain William Keeling of the East India Company<\/a>, 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1825, Scottish merchant seaman Captain John Clunies-Ross<\/a> stopped briefly at 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<\/a> had similar plans, and hired a captain \u2013 coincidentally, Clunies-Ross’s brother \u2013 to bring him and a volunteer harem<\/a> of 40 Malay<\/a> women to the islands, where he hoped to establish his private residence. Hare had previously served as resident of Banjarmasin<\/a>, a town in Borneo<\/a>, and found that “he could not confine himself to the tame life that prosy civilisation affords”.<\/p>\n 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”.<\/p>\n After some time, Hare’s women began deserting him, and instead finding themselves mates among Clunies-Ross’s sailors. Disheartened, Hare left the island. He died in Bencoolen<\/a> in 1834. Encouraged by members of the former harem, Clunies-Ross then recruited Malays to come to the island for work and wives.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n On 1 April 1836, HMS Beagle<\/a> under Captain Robert FitzRoy<\/a> arrived to take soundings to establish the profile of the atoll as part of the survey expedition of the Beagle<\/a>. To the naturalist Charles Darwin<\/a>, 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<\/a>. He studied the natural history of the islands and collected specimens. Darwin’s assistant Syms Covington<\/a> noted that “an Englishman [he was in fact Scottish] and HIS family, with about sixty or seventy mulattos from the Cape of Good Hope<\/a>, live on one of the islands. Captain Ross, the governor, is now absent at the Cape.”<\/p>\n The islands were annexed by the British Empire in 1857. This annexation was carried out by Captain Stephen Grenville Fremantle<\/a> in command of HMS Juno<\/a>. Fremantle claimed the islands for the British Empire and appointed Ross II as Superintendent. In 1878, by Letters Patent, the Governor of Ceylon was made Governor of the islands, and, by further Letters Patent<\/a> in 1886, responsibility for the islands was transferred to the Governor of the Straits Settlement<\/a> to exercise his functions as “Governor of Cocos Islands”.<\/p>\n The islands were made part of the Straits Settlement under an Order in Council of 20 May 1903. Meanwhile, in 1886 Queen Victoria<\/a> had, by indenture, granted the islands in perpetuity to John Clunies-Ross. The head of the family enjoyed semi-official status as Resident Magistrate<\/a> and Government representative.<\/p>\n In 1901 a telegraph<\/a> cable station was established on Direction Island. Undersea cables went to Rodrigues<\/a>, Mauritius<\/a>, Batavia<\/a>, Java<\/a> and Fremantle<\/a>, Western Australia<\/a>. In 1910 a wireless station was established to communicate with passing ships. The cable station ceased operation in 1966.<\/p>\n On the morning of 9 November 1914, the islands became the site of the Battle of Cocos<\/a>, one of the first naval battles of World War I. A landing party from the German cruiser SMS Emden<\/a> captured and disabled the wireless and cable communications station on Direction Island<\/a>, 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<\/a> was detached from the convoy escort to investigate.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. The Australian warship broke to pursue Emden’s supporting collier<\/a>, which scuttled herself, then returned to North Keeling Island at 16:00. At this point, Emden’s battle ensign<\/a> was still flying: usually a sign that a ship intends to continue fighting. After no response to instructions to lower the ensign, two salvos 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.<\/p>\n 134 personnel aboard Emden were killed, and 69 were wounded, compared to 4 killed and 16 wounded aboard Sydney. The German survivors were taken aboard the Australian cruiser, which caught up to the troop convoy in Colombo<\/a> on 15 November, then transported to Malta<\/a> and handed over the prisoners to the British Army<\/a>. 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 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.<\/p>\n During World War II, the cable station was once again a vital link. The Cocos were valuable for direction finding by the Y service<\/a>, the worldwide intelligence system used during the war.<\/p>\n Allied planners noted that the islands might be seized as an airfield for German planes and as a base for commerce raiders operating in the Indian Ocean. Following Japan’s<\/a> entry into the war, Japanese forces occupied neighboring islands. To avoid drawing their attention to the Cocos cable station and its islands’ garrison, the seaplane<\/a> anchorage between Direction and Horsburgh<\/a> islands was not used. Radio transmitters were also kept silent, except in emergencies.<\/p>\n After the Fall of Singapore<\/a> in 1942, the islands were administered from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and West and Direction Islands were placed under Allied<\/a> military administration. The islands’ garrison initially consisted of a platoon from the British Army’s King’s African Rifles<\/a>, located on Horsburgh Island, with two 6-inch guns to cover the anchorage. The local inhabitants all lived on Home Island. Despite the importance of the islands as a communication center, 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.<\/p>\n On the night of 8\u20139 May 1942, 15 members of the garrison, from the Ceylon Defence Force<\/a>, mutinied under the leadership of Gratien Fernando<\/a>. 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 the gun battery on the islands. The Cocos Islands Mutiny<\/a> 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 the only British Commonwealth<\/a> soldiers executed for mutiny during the Second World War.<\/p>\n On 25 December 1942, the Japanese submarine I-166 bombarded the islands but caused no damage.<\/p>\n 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 re-invasion<\/a> of Malaya<\/a> and reconquest of Singapore. The first aircraft to arrive were Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIIIs<\/a> of No. 136 Squadron RAF<\/a>. They included some Liberator bombers<\/a> from No. 321 (Netherlands) Squadron RAF<\/a> (members of exiled Dutch forces serving with the Royal Air Force<\/a>), which were also stationed on the islands. When in July 1945 No. 99<\/a> and No. 356 RAF<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n In 1946, the administration of the islands reverted to Singapore and it became part of the Colony of Singapore.<\/p>\n 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 the British Settlements Acts, 1887 and 1945, as applied by the Act of 1946.<\/p>\n 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 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> 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 a small book about his time with wife and son from 1964 to 1966 working at the Cable Station on Direction Island.<\/p>\n 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 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 now lives in Perth<\/a>, Western Australia. However, some members of the Clunies-Ross family still live on the Cocos.<\/p>\n Extensive preparations were undertaken by the government of Australia to prepare the Cocos Malays to vote in their referendum of self-determination<\/a>. 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 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 the Clunies-Ross family: 229 voted for integration, 21 for Free Association, nine for independence, and two failed to indicate a preference. In recent years a series of disputes have occurred between the Muslim Coco Malay inhabitants and the non-Muslim population of the islands.<\/p>\n The Cocos (Keeling) Islands consist of two flat, low-lying coral atolls with an area of 5.5 square miles, 16 miles of coastline, a highest elevation of 16 feet and thickly covered with coconut palms and other vegetation. The climate is pleasant, moderated by the southeast trade winds<\/a> for about nine months of the year and with moderate rainfall. Tropical cyclones<\/a> may occur in the early months of the year.<\/p>\n 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 160 feet wide, on the east side. The island measures 270 acres in land area and is uninhabited. The lagoon is about 120 acres. North Keeling Island and the surrounding sea to 0.93 miles from shore form the Pulu Keeling National Park<\/a>, established on 12 December 1995. It is home to the only surviving population of the endemic, and endangered, Cocos Buff-banded Rail<\/a>.<\/p>\n South Keeling Islands is an atoll consisting of 24 individual islets forming an incomplete atoll ring, with a total land area of 5.1 square miles. Only Home Island and West Island are populated. The Cocos Malays maintain weekend shacks, referred to as pondoks, on most of the larger islands.<\/p>\n The population of the islands is approximately 600. There is a small and growing tourist industry focused on water-based or nature activities. In 2016, a beach on Direction Island was named the best beach in Australia by Brad Farmer, an Aquatic and Coastal Ambassador for Tourism Australia and co-author of 101 Best Beaches 2017.<\/p>\n Small local gardens and fishing contribute to the food supply, but most food and most other necessities must be imported from Australia or elsewhere.<\/p>\n The Cocos Islands Cooperative Society Ltd. employs construction workers, stevedores<\/a>, and lighterage worker operations. Tourism employs others. The unemployment rate was 6.7% in 2011.<\/p>\n The Cocos (Keeling) Islands have 9.3 miles of highway.<\/p>\n A tourist bus operates on Home Island.<\/p>\n The only airport is Cocos (Keeling) Islands Airport<\/a> with a single 8,009 foot paved runway. Virgin Australia<\/a> operates scheduled jet services from Perth Airport<\/a> via Christmas Island<\/a>. After 1952, the airport at Cocos Islands was a stop for airline flights between Australia and South Africa<\/a>, and Qantas<\/a> and South African Airways<\/a> stopped there to refuel. The arrival of long-range jet aircraft ended this need in 1967.<\/p>\n An inter-island ferry, the Cahaya Baru, connects West, Home and Direction Islands.<\/p>\n There is a lagoon<\/a> anchorage between Horsburgh and Direction islands for larger vessels, while yachts have a dedicated anchorage area in the southern lee of Direction Island. There are no major seaports<\/a> on the islands.<\/p>\n The flag of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands was created in 2003 and adopted on 6 April 2004.<\/p>\n The flag consists of a green field, with a palm<\/a> tree on a gold disc in the canton<\/a>, a gold crescent in the center of the flag and a gold southern cross<\/a> in the fly. The palm tree represents the islands’ tropical flora; the colors are Australia’s national colors<\/a>; the crescent represents Islam<\/a>, the religion of the Cocos Malays<\/a> who make up a majority of the population; and the Southern Cross is a symbol of Australia and the Southern Hemisphere<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flag of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands was created in 2003 and adopted on 6 April 2004.<\/p>\n The flag consists of a green field, with a palm tree on a gold disc in the canton, a gold crescent in the center of the flag and a gold southern cross in the fly. The palm tree represents the islands’ tropical flora; the colors are Australia’s national colors; the crescent represents Islam, the religion of the Cocos Malays who make up a majority of the population; and the Southern Cross is a symbol of Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[58,63,5,6,7,31,29,62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Home](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Home-Island-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Name:<\/h2>\n
![\"Malay](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Malay-Sign-Board-300x136.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Discovery and Early History:<\/h3>\n
![\"Clunies](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Clunies-Ross-Family.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Annexation By the British Empire:<\/h3>\n
![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Stephen-Greenville-Freemantle-162x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>World War I:<\/h3>\n
![\"Crew](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Crew-of-the-Emden-Leaves-the-Islands-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>World War II:<\/h3>\n
![\"King's](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Kings-African-Rifles-Troops-199x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"Supermarine](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Supermarine-Spitfire-Mk-VIII-300x112.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transfer to Australia:<\/h3>\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/John-Clunies-Ross.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"Cocos](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Cocos-Keeling-Islands-Map-278x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/South-Keeling-Islands-Map-259x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"Cocos](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Cocos-Keeling-Islands-Airport-Runway-300x216.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands:<\/h2>\n
![\"Flag](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/07\/Flag-of-the-Cocos-Keeling-Islands-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>