Christmas Island

Christmas Island is a green island in the Indian Ocean.

It belongs to Australia. People live near a bay called Flying Fish Cove.

Christmas Island lies in the Indian Ocean, about 360 kilometers south of the island of Java and about 1,400 kilometers northwest of Australia. It is an external territory of Australia, which means it belongs to Australia but is not part of any Australian state.

The island got its name on Christmas Day in 1643, from a British sea captain. Almost all of its people are Australian citizens or residents. The main settlement and port is at Flying Fish Cove, on the northeast coast, and people pay with the Australian dollar.

Britannica places the island about 360 km south of Java and 1,400 km northwest of Australia; Parks Australia puts it 1,500 km from the Australian mainland. It is administered as an external territory of Australia: the governor-general appoints an administrator, and a locally elected assembly represents the islanders. Almost all residents are Australian citizens or residents under the Christmas Island Act and the Citizenship Act.

The main settlement and chief port is at Flying Fish Cove in the northeast. The island was named on Christmas Day 1643 by Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company. The currency is the Australian dollar.

Flying Fish Cove has a jetty and a small beach.

Steep green cliffs rise behind it. Boats float in the blue water.

Flying Fish Cove, also called The Settlement, is where most people live. The photo looks down from the forest at sunset over the cove, with a jetty, a small sandy beach, buildings along the shore and the port beyond.

Inland, the island rises to a central plateau. The highest point is Murray Hill, 361 meters high, in the west. Visitors watch the red crabs at places such as Ethel Beach and Greta Beach.

The 2021 census counted 1,355 people in The Settlement (Flying Fish Cove), most of the island's 1,692. Britannica notes an airfield used for weekly charter flights, roads, and a railway for carrying phosphate from the southern plateau to the port at Flying Fish Cove.

Murray Hill, the highest point at 361 m, rises in the west. Parks Australia names Drumsite, Flying Fish Cove, Ethel Beach and Greta Beach as the easiest places to watch the red crab migration and spawning. The photo, taken from the forest above, shows the cove at sunset with its jetty, beach, shoreline buildings and port.

Christmas Island is the top of a very old volcano under the sea.

Rainforest covers most of it. High cliffs drop to the ocean.

Christmas Island is the peak of an old volcanic mountain that rose about 5,000 meters from the ocean floor about 60 million years ago. A central plateau steps down in slopes and terraces to cliffs more than 20 meters high, with a few sand and coral beaches.

Rainforest covers most of the island, and almost two-thirds of it is national park. It is warm all year, about 27 °C, and about 2,670 millimeters of rain falls in a year, mostly from December to April. About half of the island's special plants are found nowhere else in Australia.

Parks Australia describes the island as the peak of a steep basalt volcanic seamount that rose 5,000 m from the ocean floor about 60 million years ago. Britannica describes a central plateau descending in alternating slopes and terraces to cliffs over 20 m high along much of the coast, sand and coral beaches, and valuable phosphate deposits.

The climate has a rainy season from December to April and little seasonal change in the 27 °C average; rainfall averages about 2,670 mm a year, and springs and wells supply fresh water. Tropical rainforest covers most of the island. Christmas Island National Park, 85 km², makes up almost two-thirds of it, and about half of the island's unique plant life is found nowhere else in Australia.

Christmas Island has millions of red crabs.

When the rains come, they march to the sea to lay their eggs. Baby crabs then march back to the forest.

More than 20 kinds of land crab live on Christmas Island, including an estimated 100 million red crabs. When the first rains of the wet season fall, usually in October or November, millions of red crabs leave the forest and march to the sea to breed, crossing roads, streams and beaches. The moon decides exactly when they spawn.

Each female can carry up to 100,000 eggs, which she releases into the sea before dawn. Tiny baby crabs about 5 millimeters across later march inland, taking about 9 days. The island is also a nesting place for about 80,000 seabirds each year.

Parks Australia lists more than 20 land crab species, including an estimated 100 million red crabs (Gecarcoidea natalis) that shape and maintain the rainforest. The migration starts with the first wet-season rain, usually October or November; spawning always happens before dawn on a receding high tide in the moon's last quarter. Each female holds up to 100,000 eggs in a brood pouch; larvae hatch on touching the water, and the 5 mm young take about 9 days to march back to the plateau. Most years few survive, but once or twice a decade huge numbers do; fish, manta rays and whale sharks feed on the larvae.

About 80,000 seabirds nest each year, four native reptiles are endemic, and at least five species have died out since settlement, among them Maclear's rat and the Christmas Island forest skink.

People on Christmas Island speak English and other languages.

Many visitors come to see the red crabs.

Britannica describes many people of Chinese background, a smaller number of European ancestry and Malay workers who came from Malaysia, Singapore and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. At the 2021 census, more people spoke a language other than English at home than spoke only English.

For most of the island's history, people worked in phosphate mining, digging up phosphate rock to ship to Australia and New Zealand. As the phosphate began running out, the island turned to tourism, and the red crab migration is now its biggest attraction.

Britannica describes a population that includes many ethnic Chinese, a small number of European ancestry and Malay laborers recruited mainly from Malaysia, Singapore and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. At the 2021 census, 757 residents spoke a language other than English at home and 495 spoke English.

The economy was long based almost entirely on phosphate mining for shipment to Australia and New Zealand, but this began to change in the early 1990s; with recoverable reserves nearly exhausted, efforts turned to tourism. Parks Australia calls the red crab migration the island's biggest tourist attraction. The ABS estimated 1,889 residents in June 2025, up from 1,692 at the 2021 census.