Talk:Christmas Island/Archive 1

Archive 1

Demographics and People sections

Aren't the sections titled "Demographics" and "People" essentially the same, except "Demographics" is more up-to-date? Kamezuki 14:36, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Postage stamps

There are some stamps printed with "Christmas Island" on top and "Australia" at the bottom. Are these stamps of the Christmas Island, or of Australia? — Instantnood 20:13, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

These stamps are probably printed in/for use in Christmas Island (hence the top) but are usable all over Australia (hence the bottom). novacatz 06:23, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Are the Chinese zodiac stamps printed every year? — Instantnood 09:50, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Seem to be a couple new zodiac stamps each year. Both Christmas Island and Australia stamps have been valid in each place since 1993. They are not printed on the island. The cynical might suggest that Christmas Island stamps are now just a ploy to get more money out of collectors, but of course only small corrupt African nations would do something so transparently shabby! :-) Stan 17:24, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

infobox

I started to fill out an infobox for the island. It is located at Template:Country infobox data Christmas Island. Please feel free to fill in the blanks. Hopefully it will be full enough to be placed on the article page soon. MJCdetroit 14:32, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Education System

What sort of Education System is available on Christmas Island? Are there any Universities? 129.252.234.61 06:39, 23 September 2005 (UTC) (*Kat* (who has lost her pw--again)

I would say it goes up to High School, then it would be local training, with the probability of flying to Perth to go to University or TAFE. - Boochan 03:47, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Location image

This article needs an image showing the location of the island. Qutezuce 09:06, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Added Kmusser 15:53, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Railway

I understand there was once a railway linking north to south along the eastern end of Christmas Island, and that large parts still remain, but in ruins. This should get a mention in "Communications and Transportation", but I don't know enough to write it! Timothy Titus 04:49, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Shire President

Is the mayor (Gordon Thompson) really a soap actor from The Young and the Restless? I find that hard to believe. PJY 01:29, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

so did I, and disambiguated him. --Roisterer 02:39, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

"Wonder of the natural world" POV

I re-added this removed bit (and noted that "it has been called one of the wonders of the natural world"). I cited it to an Australian website. It could be cited to many other sites, but I figured one would be enough. Lexicon (talk) 22:15, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Measurements

• According to http://shire.gov.cx/ "Christmas Island is an Australian Non-self Governing External Territory, located in the Indian Ocean on the rim of South East Asia, 360km south of Java and 2600 km North West of Perth." The article's intro had said 2,360 but the Geography section agrees with the source. Which is correct? I've assumed 2600 to be & fixed the page accordingly.
• There also seems to be an issue with false precision here.
  • This 2,360 km figure is converted to 1,466 mi. It should be rounded to the nearest 10 mi if the original is to the nearest 10 km. However, even this is rather blind to the facts that neither the island nor the city are point-like but measure on the order of 15-25 km across therefore anything more precise than this should be treated with caution. This is rather a moot point if we're going with the 2600 km figure noted above.
  • The conversion of 500 km to 310 mi was similarly dubious.
  • The article had given two conflicting values for area in square miles viz. 52.1 (twice) & 51.4. The first may be a conversion from 135 km². The second may be a mistake. The CIA factbook gives 135 km² conversion to square miles gives 52.1237914 sq mi. This should be rounded off to the nearest square mile (i.e. to 52 sq mi) not to the nearest 0.1 sq mi (i.e. 52.1 sq mi). 0.1 sq mi = 0.258998811 km² < 1 km².
  • In the Geography section we have "The island is the flat summit of a submarine mountain more than 4,572 m (15,000 feet) high, the depth of the platform from which it rises being about 14,000 feet (4267 m) and its height above the sea being upwards of 305 m (1,000 feet)." I smell a big rat here. These figures appear to be conversions from imperial to metric rounded to the nearest metre - the nearest hectometre would be pushing it.

Jɪmp 05:31, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Suggestion for addition of external link

I have started off a tourism section which I hope others will add to. I propose the following travel wiki which presents more tourist related information (yes, I do run the project, hence why I am suggesting it rather than just adding it) Christmas Island. The two sites have incompatible licenses hence why the information cannot go directly into wikipedia. What do people think? PSBennett 15:33, 18 May 2007 (UTC)PSBennett

Sorry to ask again but can anyone help me with this? PSBennett

At the suggestion of User:JJL I am adding the link after asking for thoughts twice. I hope that is ok! PSBennett 14:55, 27 June 2007 (UTC)PSBennett

Claims of Singapore

I deleted the following text from the article:

"Because of Australia, Singapore lost its soverignty-Christmas Island. Had it not been for Australia,Singapore's land area would have been larger. The sovereignty of Christmas Island should be reverted back to Singapore."

This is obviously not neutral point of view. Has the government of Singapore, or any political group within Singapore, ever requested that Christmas Island revert to Singapore's sovreignty? If so, that is material that should go in the text. --Jfruh 16:11, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Haha. No, of coz not. I wonder how many Singaporeans even know about the existance of such an island. Btw, perhaps we should mention something which goes something like "In 1957 the Australian government acquired Christmas Island from the Singapore Government for a compensation of 2.9 million pounds" as sourced from Christmas Island History, as the text made no mention of this?--Huaiwei 17:26, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Excellent! I've added the text. --Jfruh 19:35, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

actually, what does australia want with christmas island? :) regardless, singapore wouldn't be able to claim the island for long if it held on to it, seeing a lack of a navy; at best, singapore could do is to 'loan the island'. but the couple of millions gain from 'a sale' is something more useful to singapore. i just wonder if anyone in the christmas island has been to singapore... -_- Akinkhoo 15:22, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

The current Australian government sees a great value in Christmas Island as part of its activity in cutting back the number of refugees who arrive without visas. I note the link above to Singapore history does not work and is not in the article. The payment to Singapore needs a reference. --Bduke 21:41, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

'Sonic the Hedgehog' insertion

Mr. Negotiator added a link to Sonic the Hedgehog under a new 'Famous People from Christmas Island' section. I deleted it thinking that it was simple vandalism. Mr. Negotiator reinserted it and informed me he intended it as a serious edit.

I am now removing it again on the justification of the following argument:

'Sonic the hedgehog' is a fictional cartoon character. Details about this character may be relevant in an article dealing with fiction but are not relevant in an article dealing with real-world fact. In other words, it is relevant to state that he was (fictionally) born on Christmas Island in the Sonic article but not that he is a 'famous person' from Christmas Island in this article because it is simply not true. Oska 00:04, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I felt that a list of people/characters (which, if you notice, I put after your 1st deletion), as no babies had been born on Christmas Island since 1998, would be most interesting. As I could only find one person/character, I decided to put him on anyway for a bit of interest. After all, how many people know that Sonic the Hedghog was born on christmas island? I think that if the list had a chance to be built up and added to (without it being deleted every five minutes), it would make a witty and entertaining addition, as no where else seems to have one. Mr Negotiator 10:15, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

As a proposed compromise, I have added a Topics Of Interest section to the article, which can be found in most articles about countries (ie: France, Latvia). The list contains both famous people from christmas island, and fictional characters from christmas island, but can also contain sections like Sports on Christmas Island, or Holidays on Christmas Island, as can be seen in the Latvia article. I believe that this solution sorts out the disagreement, as now the article contains real world facts, and a section that can be found in many similar articles, but still allows a reader to find the infomation. I hope this works for everyone. Mr Negotiator 11:49, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Does List Of Fictional Characters From Christmas Island really warrant a seperate article when it only has one entry? Foolish Child 10:33, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Seeing as Oska objected to the inclusion of Fictional Characters From Christmas Island, I think that this is a good compromise. Feel free to add others, though I couldn't find anyone else but Sonic. The Halo (talk) 22:04, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Noting the appearance of "Santa Claus" in the article "The North Pole" as a "Cultural Reference", the reference to a mythical hedgehog from Christmas Island doesn't seem too far off. Scott Clarkson 10:06, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

swapping infoboxes

We should replace {{Infobox Country}} with {{Australia state or territory}} Chris 08:34, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Coat of Arms

File:Coat Of Arms of Christmas Island.svg

I am not sure why Image:Coat_Of_Arms_of_Christmas_Island.svg keeps on getting removed from the infobox by anonymous IP addresses. Any kind of controversy about it? Wongm (talk) 08:42, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Dear all, I am from Christmas Island and we don't have a coat of arms. This is the reason why I have been deleting it.

user: gregoryignatiushu —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gregoryignatiushu (talk • contribs) 15:54, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Not that I don't believe you or anything, then what is the image that masquerades as it then? The only 'offical' thing I have managed to turn up is the Austflag site that says a design competition was held, but doesn't say about the results. It also says the flag is unofficial as well. The CIA factbook doesn't mention a Coat of Arms, but does mention the flag. Wongm (talk) 08:50, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The flag is official. It was adopted by an act of parliament(australia) non Territory day 2002. Look at http://www.christmas.shire.gov.cx/ for details. (talk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.56.81.5 (talk) 08:38, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

The Pigot

In 1771, the Indian vessel, the Pigot, attempted to find an anchorage but was unsuccessful. The crew reported seeing wild pigs and coconut palms, however, pigs are not known to have been introduced to the island at the time. Thus, it is thought[who?] that the Pigot may have found a different island.[citation needed]

I'm starting to think that this claim is a bit of bull's wool. According to this page, no Indian vessel called the Pigot was even in service in the year 1771. --Susurrus (talk) 00:43, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

SANTA CLAUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do you mean the Administrator of Christmas Island is SANTA CLAUS!! This island doesn't even have an Administrator so I am suggesting that putting Santa as the administrator may be a pun referencing to the name Christmas Island. I am not deleting it since it may be an unofficial position coined up by the natives. If it is, nice job since it was actually quite funny. You had me doing research there buddy! —Preceding unsigned comment added by ThisguyYEAH (talk • contribs) 21:31, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

• That was just somebody trying to be funny in the article. Reverted as vandalism. - Mike Rosoft (talk) 21:33, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Capital

Is The Settlement the capital, or is Flying Fish Cove? Most sources say The Settlement, but some say Flying Fish Cove. Flying Fish Cove seems to be the largest community on the island. OzLawyer 17:43, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

They are both the capital; They are the same city, just different names. Flying Fish Cove is the official name but most people call it The Settlement as a nickname. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Natan Sdn (talk • contribs) 23:26, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

So what is the population?

This article claims that the island's population is about 1500 people. Later it is said that 90% of the population of the island are refugees, 9% are government workers (mostly concerned with the refugees) and 1% are "locals". So there are only 15 Christmas Islanders living on the island? Is this right? Or does the population figure of 1500 people EXCLUDE refugees?--78.155.58.82 (talk) 23:01, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Japanese invasion

The section on Japanese invasion is worthless as a historical reference: Years are missing from dates and it's impossible in many cases to determine who did what to whom.

Further, it's unclear why Australia paid Singapore or what Singapore's interest was. Could someone who knows the history clean it up?

Thank you. --UnicornTapestry (talk) 02:35, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

It's a cut and paste from this site. I'll rewrire and add refs.

Rsloch (talk) 21:41, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Never reached by Malayans / Asians / Pacific Islanders? If not, why?

Was the island known to Malayan (or other Asian or Pacific Islander) peoples before Europeans arrived there? If not, is it known why that is so? Or is this not known? After all, Islander peoples reached a couple of Islands in the western Indian Ocean, much further away from their original home. -- 77.187.41.231 (talk) 11:09, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Additions to the article

I vote that we add a section on goatse.cx, due to its pervasive impact on the internet reflecting the traditions of the Christmas Islanders. Also, due to it being the first and only time I've heard of Christmas Island, the crabs thing notwithstanding. 76.230.192.81 (talk) 03:57, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

I think that, for its negligible significance to the island, it is sufficiently covered at .cx. Maias (talk) 05:13, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

"Chartered fishing boats"

This section under "Transport" is unnecessarily euphemistic and ironic; as such it could be classified POV. Someone should remove the ironic obfuscation and rewrite this to tell it as it is - the boats carrying assylum seekers from Indonesia - which have indeed increased in frequency in recent years. Ptilinopus (talk) 11:59, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

Coordinate error

{{geodata-check}}

christmas island coordinates given as near sumatra, when should be eastern pacific, something like 135 degrees west and 5 degrees north. please consult appropriate equipment and correct. (i used a globe.)

The following coordinate fixes are needed for

—64.183.43.31 (talk) 21:15, 3 January 2013 (UTC) gp, gpeters@lapl.org, librarian, california64.183.43.31 (talk) 21:15, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

 Not done. There is more than one place known as Christmas Island. The one you're thinking of is probably Kirimati. The coordinates in this article are correct for the island that is the subject of the article. Deor (talk) 21:26, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

110% population?

When I add all percentages stated under demographics I get to 110%. This needs to be corrected. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.45.176.130 (talk) 04:58, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

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Population

The demographics section says there are 396 Christmas Islanders. The opening paragraph says, "It maintains about 1500 resident who live in a number of towns..."

Which is correct? Jonathunder 15:28, 2004 Nov 23 (UTC)

More information or interpretation is needed about the apparent "disappearance" of young women, as it is indicated by the ade/gender graph. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 45.51.77.190 (talk) 12:55, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

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Religion/Ethnicity

It's not possible that Buddhists make up 90% of the population when Chinese only make up 70% of the population. Malays and Europeans are almost homogeneously Muslims and Christians respectively. So which figure is to be trusted- 70% Chinese or 90% Buddhists?

So... Only Chinese people are allowed to be Buddhist? Utisoft 14:13, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

The article states that "The ethnic composition is 70% Chinese, 20% European and 10% Malay". Given that this is true, if 90% are Buddhists then at least 50% of the Europeans must be Buddhists. This would contradict the claim above that "Malays and Europeans are almost homogeneously Muslims and Christians respectively." Jɪmp 04:54, 30 May 2007 (UTC) I have put new figures in based on the CIA factbook. Jɪmp 05:07, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The data in the article is out of date, as there has since been a 2016 census. The data in the article also does not seem to match that given in the 2011 census, which in my reading has Christianity hot on the heels of Buddhism as the most commonly religious grouping - by 2016 the most commonly stated religion was Islam, still followed by Christianity in second place, which is quite a change in the fortunes of Buddhism. If I have time I will correct the article. I just wanted to check here that I'm not looking at the wrong sets of data:

2016 Census data

2011 Census data

Crinoline (talk) 20:18, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

HMS Rother

How could Christmas Island have been occupied by HMS Rother in 1945 when that ship was scrapped in 1919? There are four sources cited but none are online. Kendall-K1 (talk) 16:43, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Because a later ship was commissioned with the same name? See https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/90.html. Largoplazo (talk) 17:28, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Another editor has now retargeted the link as a red link to an article on the later ship. Largoplazo (talk) 17:33, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Nuclear Testing

I have redirected another page from here to Kiritimati again. If you are referring to nuclear testing, please note that this is the wrong Christmas Island and your nuclear testing articles should go to the island of Kiritimati, formerly known as Christmas Island. Kylesenior (talk) 09:37, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

History

Two paragraphs:

During the 1872-76 Challenger expedition to Indonesia, naturalist Dr John Murray carried out extensive surveys. At his urging, the British Admiralty annexed the 135 square kilometre island on 6 June 1888. But it was not until 1888 that Christmas Island was settled, when the Clunies-Ross brothers from neighbouring Cocos-Keeling Islands (some 900 kilometres to the south west) established a settlement at Flying Fish Cove to collect timber and supplies for the growing industry on Cocos.

vs.

[In 1888... ] the rocks then obtained and submitted to Sir John Murray for examination were many of nearly pure phosphate of lime, a discovery which led to annexation of the island by the British Crown in June 1888. Soon afterwards, a small settlement was established in Flying Fish Cove by G. Clunies Ross, the owner of the Keeling Islands, and phosphate mining began in the 1890s using indentured workers from Singapore, China, and Malaysia.

So. Did Murray examine the stuff in situ in the 1870s and recommend the annexation, or did he examine samples brought back to him ten years later and then recommend the annexation? These two disagree... Shimgray | talk | 17:00, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Has anyone noticed that the history section gets a bit repetitive in the few paragraphs after the settlement of the island by the British? 23:48, 2 July 2006 (GMT)

Nuclear Testing

What about the 1950s nuclear testing?? - Zebramatt 13:02, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

That was the other Christmas Island. FiggyBee 12:57, 15 May 2006(UTC)

Exactly. As far as I'm seeing in all the info I gathered, the nuclear tests were in the Pacific ocean, in Kiritimati. Martin

I have removed the references to nuclear testing regarding this Christmas Island. Scott Clarkson 01:54, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

My belief as well. Someone has put in a line about Operation Grapple, but I'll remove it unless someone can include a reference to the Indian Ocean Island! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.216.110.71 (talk) 11:54, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

I have a German encyclopaedia of 1970 where it is clearly THIS Christmas Island (166km from Java). They give the 15th May 1957 as the beginning of tests for the first British hydrogen bomb, after evacuation of the population. Nuclear weapons testing under water was from April 1962. I find it quite unlikely that they could err. page 62, Weihnachtsinsel, dtv-Lexikon, Band (volume) 20, May 1970 and mentions cooperation with Brockhaus. Underneath that entry is Christmas Islands (Plural Weihnachtsinseln) for the other island/s. Will take a quick look at what German Wikipedia says. 2001:8003:A070:7F00:34EA:28FD:CC9A:B285 (talk) 07:17, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

"Coat of arms of Christmas Island" listed at Redirects for discussion

A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Coat of arms of Christmas Island. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 October 29#Coat of arms of Christmas Island until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Ivar the Boneful (talk) 13:10, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Specification of Chinese Peranakans as 21.2% instead of just "Chinese"

Why was the ethnic groups section edited into unspecifying Peranakans Chinese ethnia. Maybe it was me or something, but a couple of months ago, the "Chinese Peranakans" was specifed and with a link redirected to its respective article, now it just suggest a generalized Chinese ethnicity. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.188.23.98 (talk) 17:17, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

Probably because it's based on Australian census data, which doesn't distinguish between mainland and overseas Chinese. If there's a source which states the Christmas Island Chinese community are Peranakans then feel free to re-add this. Ivar the Boneful (talk) 20:00, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

Registrars claim

Regarding the claim about the registrars: I was under the impression that everyone knew the name on goatse.cx (nsfw). I have forgotten it, however. It was mentioned on Slashdot at some point, I think. -Xoder 18:04, 8 Jan 2004 (UTC)

1997 or not

Can someone check the last edit? Daniel Quinlan 05:56, Mar 27, 2005 (UTC)

Please stop mucking with subjects you don't know about. "Called" is exactly the right verb, just as you might call Guadeloupe and Martinique the "French Antilles" - they are still separate territories. 63.209.14.211 23:23, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

hey christmas people, i just want to know the average income please could you inform me as soon as possible

say hi to sant sant!!! lovelove jp

Referendum of November 6th, 1999 in external Australian territories

Please anybody give me a reference on source (on this page) about and Republican referendum on Christmas island. --User:212.98.173.133 14:43 28 July 2007.

Possible expansion

NLB Infopedia has some info about the transfer from Singapore to Australia, not sure how much of it is already in the article. ~ KN2731 {talk · contribs} 06:50, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

Incorrect parliamentary reference?

The article states that the island is governed by the Northern Territory Senate and House of Representatives. However on the Australian Govt website it states that the Western Australian laws are used in conjunction with the federal ones. [1]https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/territories-regions-cities/territories/indian-ocean-territories/christmas-island/governance-administration 220.237.202.92 (talk) 13:29, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

Christmas Island is part of the Northern Territory constituencies for federal elections, however the state laws of Western Australia are applied in a number of areas. ITBF (talk) 13:35, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

HMS Challenger did not visit Christmas Island for Murray to survey

'Exploration and annexation' section: HMS Challenger did not visit the island for Murray to survey. The two paras following the statement describe how Murray acquired the samples after returning to the UK at the end of the Challenger voyage. The ref. cited below notes that to support his studies on how coral reefs formed he requested for the two ships mentioned to be diverted to the island to collect samples. His studies of the samples showed their phosphate content and he became involved in the commercial exploitation. Ref. e.g. 'Endless Novelties of Extraordinary Interest', by D. Macdougall, 2019, Yale University Press. pp. 171-179. Triops56 13:47, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Christmas Island Product Exports (2019).svg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 14:49, 23 March 2023 (UTC)