While some people might think the island was named by Captain James Cook, that is not the case. This 153 square kilometres island was named as early as in 1643 by Captain William Mynors when he passed by the island on his ship called the Royal Mary on Christmas day.

Christmas Island is one of the western-most territories of Australia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, about 350 km south of Java and around 1500 km north-west of the West Australian border.

The island was found uninhabited when Captain Mynors named it and it remained so all until the late 19th century, when the first explorations of the island were undertaken by Sir John Murray, a British oceanographer, considered as the father of modern oceanography. Captain John Maclear collected samples of flora and fauna from the island in 1866. A year later, British zoologist Joseph Lister collected mineralogical samples from the island, uncovering large deposits of pure phosphate of lime, which led to the annexation of the island by the British Crown on 6.6.1888.

Soon after, the phosphate mining began by Phosphate Mining and Shipping Company using mainly Singapore, Malay and Chinese indentured labour. That means that, in order to pay for the transport to the island, they took out a loan by which they committed themselves to working for free for the employer and or lender for a certain number of years. After paying off the loan, they would often be rewarded with a parcel of land.

Today, the majority of inhabitants of Christmas Island are of Chinese, Malay and Singaporean descent. This is one of the areas of Australia where individuals of European-descent population are in the minority.

How did Christmas Island become an Australian territory?

After the annexation in 1888, the island was administered by the Colonial Office of the UK and later, after the second world war, by the Crown Colony of Singapore, which was established in 1946. In the 1960s, Australia made a request to the United Kingdom to transfer Christmas Island sovereignty from Singapore to Australia. Australia was successful despite there being widespread resistance to the move in Singapore. Singapore’s chief minister Lim Yew Hock lost the election largely on the basis of losing Christmas Island. Australia paid $20 million dollars to Singapore for lost income from phosphate mining revenue. On 1st October 1958 Christmas Island became officially the territory of Australia.

Since 1997, Christmas Island and the neighbouring Cocos (Keeling) Island are called the Australian Indian Ocean Territories. They are currently administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities of Australia. While they officially do not fall under any state jurisdiction, the laws of Western Australia apply to Christmas Island. Interestingly, for election purposes, Christmas Island is represented by the division of Lingiari in the Northern Territory.

Australia has been using the island extensively for asylum seekers since 1980s.

Residents of Christmas Island feel that they lack local autonomy. In 1986 the Christmas Island Assembly proposed having its own flag. They organised a design competition. The selected flag was announced in 2002 as the official flag for the island. The green colour represents the land and the blue colour the sea. It has three symbols. The symbol of the Southern Cross on the bottom left connects the island with Australia and the Commonwealth. The bird diagonally on the opposite side represents the golden bisun bird, the symbol of the island. The island has a number of endemic (found only in that area) fauna and flora due to its isolation. The symbol in the middle has a map of the island.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Island

Note, there is another island in Australia called Christmas Island. It resides in the New Year Islands group of islands just north-west of Tasmania but about them another time.