Christmas Island

Christmas Island rises from the Indian Ocean about 350 kilometres south of Java and Sumatra, isolated from the nearest Australian mainland by some 1,550 kilometres. The forested island has an area of 135 square kilometres, and most of its settlements are strung along the northern coast. Steep approaches and difficult landing places delayed human occupation. Richard Rowe sighted the island in 1615; Captain William Mynors passed it on Christmas Day in 1643 and gave it the name that endured. The island's isolation encouraged unusual plants and animals, including species found nowhere else. In these centuries the island was a remote ocean summit, sighted and named by passing ships but with no settled population.