Once freedom has exploded in the soul of a man, the gods have no more power over him
- Jean-Paul Sartre -
The sole reason for any significant population on Christmas Island is the seemingly never-ending amount of ancient bird shit - also known as phosphate - that was discovered in 1887. The birds still shit on the island but it appears that they can't keep up with the pace for much longer and the mine will have to close. Many locals are anticipating that to happen in the next ten years or so. Large amounts of redundacies have already been paid. Half of the once 4000-strong population has packed their bags and pissed off, mostly to Western Australia. The remaining 1200 make up a rather unique society. A bit over half are Chinese, the lesser half mostly Malay and a minority of European / Australian. Despite the different cultures, they all feel fiercly Christmas Islanders. At least on the surface. Churches, Mosks and Buddhist Temples. Post Office, bank, phone box, hospital, supermarket, a few pubs, some paved roads - even a roundabout - some cafes, a dive shop (for sale), fishing charters, travel agent and so on. Oh, and the phosphate mine, still employing about 120 people.
A young Brown Noddy begs for food. The bird was not happy. What can I say? give me a photo and piss off. Catch your own food...
Somewhere in the horizon, Macca in the pub tells me, is a large Australian Navy ship. Always there. Indonesia is still only a few hundred miles north. Soon the Australian Government will be even better prepared. A new detention centre is being built in the southern end of the island. Many containers filled with suffering people wanting to "have a fair go". But the Aussie motto does not apply to them. It only applies to those already in. The navy keeps the rest out. Imagine the poor people, from a barb-wired refugee camp over the oceans in a leaky boat and straight into a barb-wired refugee camp! What is happening to humanity?
YOUTH
At night, youth gathers on the foreshore in small groups and big stereos. I approach Mohammad, a Malay bloke of twenty. His mates are busy fitting new speakers in the front doors of their car. Mohammad, with his alleged 24 volt battery (next evening the music was louder and the battery apparently 48 volt), is providing the music for the time being. Hip hop at 90 db. When I suggested that the stereo might cost more than the car, he laughed. Then he suddenly looked thoughtful and said: "That's right".
"There's not enough girls here. Next time you sail past, could you bring some women" he says. The boys giggle and call me "lucky" as Paula and I walk in the showers.
Mohammed works in the port, unloading supply ships and securing phosphate ships in their deep-sea moorings. He was born in Malacca, south of Kuala Lumpur, but has spent most of his life on C.I. as it's known. His car stereo is from Perth. (Though I suspect it was born in Japan). I ask him about racism - if he thinks that white guys get better jobs or better money. "No, I don't think so. It depends on what you can do." And if the mine closes? "I'll go to Perth and find another job" he says.
ENVIRONMENT
Graham Alistair leans back in his chair in an air-conditioned office. He represents the National Parks, or after the recent name change, The Department of Enviroment and Heritage. Graham looks after 65% of Christmas Island, that is, the remaining wilderness and wildlife. His boss in Canberra is busy employing graphic artists and printers to design new logos and colour schemes, printing new stationary and re-doing their website - all part of the change of name.
Creatures like Abbott's Booby, Pink Blind Snake, Golden Bosun and numerous other endangered animals endemic to the island have no idea about the politics or commercial interests and nature conservation. Graham's job is not only to look after the islands rainforests but to rehabilitate the areas of formerly mined areas. Phosphate mining has removed 15 million metric tons of topsoil, leaving only enough to rehabilitate 300 out 800 hectares of bare limestone rock left behind, Graham points out. "Plants grow only if there's soil and there is a lot of bare limestone rock that will remain bare forever" says Graham.
Christmas island has a number of bushwalks and lots of pristine nature
The mine has applied for nine new leases from the Government to mine a further 200 hectares of land, currently covered in rainforest. I asked Graham about the relationship between National Parks and the mine in the local level. Despite the totally opposing agendas, Graham claims to happily sit down for dinner with the mining executives. "The issues may disagree but as people, we get along just fine". Graham seems relaxed, almost placid. His frayed grey fuzzy long hair makes him look like a hippie grown old. Maybe he is.
He hands me a fancy government published book called "Christmas Island National Park, Management Plan" and remains very diplomatic. Yet, it is obvious that Graham has a real personal love for the island's nature and a passion to do his best to look after it. Instead of getting hot on politics, he puts his energy into grass-roots practical work. He's the man for the job. Good Luck.
THE PAST AND THE FUTURE
In the old days the mining labour was practically made out of slaves. "Up until the late 60's or early 70's the island was operating in apartheid-like fashion where the malay / chinese population earned a fraction of the wages and lived in their own areas. They were not allowed into the white suburbs." - Patrick Chan explains as we drive through Silver City and Poon Tang. Silver City got it's name out of the tin roofs visible from aircraft. It was the white suburb. Poon Tang (literally "half mountain") further up the hill was filled with blocks of tiny flats and occupied by the Chinese. Down the winding road, 300 metres below, is the ocean, the harbour and the Kampong flats where the Malays live.
The Kampong flats are nothing flash but the view is very oceanic. Ten steps to the beach. On the downside, the loading of the phosphate ships brings a lot of dust to the area and the up-the-hill suburbs are considered a better place to live in.
Today's community is no longer segregated but the old times are easily imagined. While the different cultures still 'do their own thing' and live mostly in their own areas, there is a common future and a unity that makes everyone just... Christmas Islanders. (Of course, as a visiting yachtie, there is no way to really know the community.)
The uniting factor on Christmas Island is the island's economy and the future of providing jobs and services. For some years there was a Resort / Casino on the island. It was run by David Kwon, a Korean bloke with lots of money and a fascination for doing stuff on Christmas Island. most - if not all - of the Casino's $100 million turnover disappeared overseas but at least it kept an airline coming in, gave lots of jobs for the locals and boosted the tourism. The dive shop and the fishing charters were booming. The business was closed in 1997 and in 2004 the Australian Government still refuses to renew the licence needed to re-open the casino.
The Federal blokes in Canberra are also privatising most of the island's services (port, health care etc.) and selling the jobs for the highest bidder. This means more asian islanders out of work and more highly paid contractors from Perth doing their jobs. While the asians are obviously upset about the job losses, the whole community is upset about the lack of power to manage their own community. Decisions are made in Canberra. "The Government continues to demonstrate that they have no interest in this community. ...All decisions made without consultation with, or consideration for this community" reads the editorial of "The Islander", the island's fortnightly newsletter.
David Kwon is a Korean business man. When he was a child, he had a dream about launching rockets. He still has the dream. It may well remain a dream. Behind the sign is an overgrown limestone rockpile. You can almost imagine the footprints left by the foreign investors as they ran away.
Patrick Chan is a casino black jack dealer turned into a quality control officer in Phosphate Resources Ltd. He came to the island as a young child from Malacca, south of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Today, Patrick Chan does Public Relations and drives us around all the mine sites. It is maintenance week and production is closed. He is enthusiastic and friendly, a natural born tour guide. With a yellow flashing light on the roof of his four-wheel drive ute, we have access and ability to drive up any old rockpile.
I ask him about re-habilitation. "Looking after the environment is very important to us and we take great care to re-habilitate any mined areas" Patrick says. "And, you know, it looks really good on the records too" he adds and reveals the real motivation. He shows us areas of lime rock pinnacles covered in rigorous re-growth of ferns, moss and seedlings. "In this climate, everything grows well" Patrick assures us. "Including marijuana" he adds half-jokingly.
Patrick tells us that all the new mining applications are on 'Crown Land' and not in the national park. He also admits that there is no long term future for the mine and that there is a need for a transitional period over the next ten to fifteen years, to prepare the island for economic survival without the mine. Like everyone else we meet, Patrick names tourism as the only option for the future. But it's all in the hands of Government.
CRUISING YACHTS
The cruising guides generally brush off Christmas island as an uncomfortable anchorage and state that most yachts go directly to Cocos (Keeling) Islands where anchorage is superb. And of course they go directly there. The bloody cruising guide says so and they all follow the flock.
The Island's only natural shelter, the Flying Fish Cove, is probably the worlds deepest anchorage. Permanent deep-water moorings have been put down to hold ships off the rocky shore. The ocean swell makes tying up on a jetty impossible. The mooring buoys are attached to anchors, some up to 350 meters deep. Half a dozen yacht moorings are laid in shallower water, 30 meters or so, very close to the majestically steep forested foreshore.
In the pub I meet Neil who works for the port. "The yachts? They're a pain in the ass", he tells me. I like his honesty. Neil is talking about the cost of the moorings and the meagre contribution to the local economy in return. "Yachties usually want everything for free", Neil says. I know what he means. Bloody backpackers.
Paula and I don't have a lot of money but we like doing our best to contribute to the dwindling economy of the island. Christmas Island is GST and Duty free and that gives me - a Finn, remember - a few ideas for shopping. A 20 litre container of Jim Beam for $198.00. Phooaaa! Crazy stuff, but I felt like doing something crazy. I didn't know you can buy a 20 litre container of Jim Beam. Let alone for less than $10 per litre? All the alcohol and tobacco, at least for me, seems dirt cheap. So I stock up with the old excuse "hey, it's not going to go off, is it?".
Unlike most yachties, we don't cringe too much about the price of the rest of the goods either and buy fruit, vegetables, cookies, pizza, pub-meals and so on. We hire a car for the day and explore. A week goes fast and I barely find enough time to do the odd fix-it jobs on the boat. There's a leak on the deck, where the GPS antenna cable goes through. I fix it with the old "shitloads of silicone" trick. A few other little jobs, the hardest now being the problem of where to put all the duty free.
And the Ancorage? Well, I admit it gets a little bit rolly at some nights, when the wind dies and the boat starts to wonder around. That happens in many places, though. After 19 days at sea from Darwin, I really don't give a rats ass about a 0,2 meter swell rocking the boat. It is comfortable. The water is clear and the coral is good for snorkeling. The mooring is secure and cheap ($50 / week or $10 / day). Dinghy access is good with a jetty close by. Hot showers at the end of the jetty, and a tap for topping up your tanks. Shop and internet access is a short walk away.
Flying Fish Cove with the mine's cantilevers and deep water moorings in the background. Anchoring opportunities are limited.
