NOTES FROM CHRISTMAS ISLAND. CHAPTER 2

Image: Portion of Roundabout noticeboard

 

Text below is the second in a series of five monthly reports I sent back to friends in 2007.

Should you be interested, recommend that they be read in order, to get the best out of them.

 

Notes from Christmas Island [CI]

Chapter 2

AUGUST 2007

 

Six weeks have elapsed since our arrival on Christmas Island, Indian Ocean 6798.

Our Christmas Island is one of a couple of Christmas Island’s on the planet.

As indicated above we are in the Indian Ocean or proudly rise above the Indian Ocean.

 

If an atlas is not handy, we are to the west of Australia, to those geographically challenged we are away from Australia in the direction that the sun goes down.

 

The Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean is not us, which also goes by the name of Kiribati and it is where there was Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb testing after WW2.

 

Don’t get us confused.

 

That’s not to say it hasn’t got confused in the past.

Mail can go the wrong place and the delay is significant, let’s say weeks to months.

Nominating the correct ocean on the bottom of a letter is not a wasted effort.

 

Some say, that in the fifties, a ship radioed in for permission to enter our harbour to deliver parts for a nuclear weapon, only to be told that they should give the Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean a try first.

 

In the time we have been here and the two-ish weeks since Chapter 1 we have established ourselves, socially, to a much greater extent.

Our circle of friends and acquaintances is developing.

Our experiences and knowledge is increasing.

 

There have been five prime drivers of this social intercourse.

- Old contacts

I have been to CI four times.

Fourteen months in 1990 as a full time resident and employed on island.

One and a half months 1993 employed on island.

One week in 2006 on holidays, to buy a block of land.

Current visit, one and a half months so far, on holidays and to be employed.

My friends from 1990 still number about seven or eight with another twenty or so people I recognise sufficiently to have a short conversation with.

 

- The Bank

My old CI employer, a bank is the only one on island and I have some common ground with the staff there.

Plus Jody and I have worked with the current bank manager many years ago in Perth.

The Loan Arranger has been a great source of friendship and assistance to us from the moment she was lined up behind us at the flight check in counter, in Perth, trying to get a outrageously long fishing rod purchased for her husband onto the plane without incurring excess baggage.

 

- Hash House Harriers (a running group)

This is a mammoth story in itself.

Story there for Chapter 3

 

- Tourism

I visit CITA, Christmas Island Tourism Association, very frequently.

This is one of two locations of Internet access to the general public.

Being 2600 km away from the mainland we use satellite Internet access.

The bandwidth is not very wide so access is slower than broadband but not too bad really.

CITA has 24 hour Wifi access.

What this means is that at any time day or night I can take my laptop and wirelessly send or receive emails or check the web, even if the building is closed and the staff have gone.

The bench outside CITA is directly above the ocean. There can’t be that many places worldwide for public Internet access that could possibly have a better location.

During the day great views of the ocean are there to be seen as the Indian Ocean [not the Pacific] ebbs and flows below and towards the horizon.

After dark the cooler breeze wafts past delightfully.

The darkness also makes the screen easy to see.

CITA staff, are very friendly to all. They appreciate the fact that to come to Christmas Island can cost more than other destinations.

But, they and we know that CI has much to offer and few leave disappointed.

It is all about perceptions and expectations.

Expect a resort like the over water chalets of Bora Bora in Tahiti then crushing disenchantment will be your companion.

Or be planning to see slick and glitzy town like Las Vegas, you will not find it.

Plan to see a charismatic, working island with magnificent wildlife, rainforest and geophysical splendour, this is your place.

Through CITA we have got to know most of those involved in tourism and met many visitors.

 

-Friendliness and openness of the locals

You should recall, if you were paying attention to Chapter One, of a serious water leak within our unit upon and after our arrival on the island.

Until the plumber arrived to start the long process of locating the source of the leak, the only way to stem the flow was to use towels.

Like all other interior domestic chattels they were in limited supply.

After our first Hash House Harrier run we were offered a spare room in someone’s own house, for up to two weeks free of charge pending the repair of the leak.

This was no half-baked dwelling, this was an absolute waterfront property!

They lady who so kindly offered this to us had only met us ten minutes before. Wow.

However we graciously declined the offer as we wanted to get the unit organised.

 

Casually mentioning elsewhere that water leaks were stretching the absorption rates of the few towels we had, resulted in a set of old towels appearing the next day neatly folded at our front door. Nice.

 

Here’s another one:

My cousins visited CI in early August, both of them were born here around the mid 60's and left in 1974.

This was the first time they have returned and they loved it.

The boys and I are second cousins, if I have worked it out correctly.

It goes like this, my father’s, father’s brother is their father’s father.

This is where I get to the point, so my second cousin, [let’s just go with cousin, it’s easier] the younger one, wanted to see his old house, his old room, where he spent the first eight years of his life.

With his family in tow, we drove around to the house, which excluding the decking much is the same.

He explained his situation to the lady who answered the door asking if could he come in and look around his / their house.

No problems, in they went and had a good poke around.

Elsewhere that mightn’t always be the outcome. Lovely.

 

One of the nicest facets of a small and isolated community is that when driving, we wave to every car and receive a wave back.

Such a simple, friendly gesture.

If three cars passed by none of them wave we start to wonder if we have unwittingly offended the whole island population.

 

We also say hello, as we pass by one and all in the street, it is pleasant.

 

A month and a half in, a trip to the supermarket can take quite some time as conversations down every aisle can occur.

We know enough people now that the gossip we hear is meaningful.

 

Before making my next point, a rather lengthy description of the island’s geographic layout is necessary.

 

This might take some time and space. But that’s ok, it is going to take me more time to write this than for you to read it, what with all the text, layout, continuity, grammar and spelling checks.

Please try hard to visualise this as a lush 3 dimensional geographic area with a complex rainforest ecosystem bashed into 2 dimensional text and 1 dimensional jokes.

 

The island area is 135 square kilometres.

To convert that into square miles, times by 5 and divide by 8.

So, 135 times by 5 would be:

5 times 5 is 25, carry the 2

5 times 3 is 15, add the carried over 2, being 17

5 times 1 is 5, add the carried over 1, being 6

So 135 times by 5 results in 675

 

675 then divided by 8 (anyone remember manual long division?)

8 into 6 goes 0.

0 times 8 is 0.

6 minus 0 is 6

Drop down the 7

8 into 67 goes 8

8 times 8 is 64

67 minus 64 is 3

Drop down the 5

8 into 35 goes 4

4 times 8 is 32

35 minus 32 is 3

Clearly, the answer 84 with a remainder of 3

To show as decimal, 3 divided by 8 produces 3 and 3/4

So simply, the answer is 84.375

Of course I think it would be ok to round down to the closest full integer, so the answer is 84.

And as we are talking square miles, then 84 square miles it is.

But who works in square miles these days, anyway?

 

For your perspective CI is:

- three times larger than Rottnest Island

- one fifth the area of Singapore

- almost three time the size of Hong Kong island, whether you subscribe to the One China, Two Systems policy or not.

- over twice the size of Sydney Harbour

- one and a half times the size of Manhattan Island

 

Next is the shape of CI

Picture a dog . . .

Closest is a Scottish Terrier. I kid you not.

 

There has actually been official Government reports produced for Parliament of Australia in which the region of the residential areas are described somewhat muttly as “Dogs Head”

 

As I type this, Jody has just pointed out that the dog even has a “sheath”, making it a male dog island.

I wasn’t aware of this till now. Hadn’t crossed my mind.

Jody said it is the first thing she noticed when she saw a map. Well, I never. . . . .

 

Back to non-biological information.

There are five suburbs:

Kampong, Settlement, Silver City, Poon Saan and Drumsite.

I use the term “suburb” flippantly.

Each suburb on average has only three hundred people.

 

The Kampong, closest and lowest point to the ocean near to the port area and location of the original settlement.

Historically this has been the home of the Malay population and their mosque.

The Malays were bought to the island as one group of workers for the phosphate mining that drove the island’s economy for a century.

 

The Settlement is the main business area, primary supermarket location, the one and only petrol station, port location, Government offices and CITA office.

It was the residential area historically for many European mine workers, government, medical and other staff and the area that we are currently staying.

 

Up the long, steep hill is Silver City an area developed in the sixties during an island infrastructure expansion.

These houses were made with flat roofs and aluminium sheeting for walls that gave Silver City it’s name.

Louvres were also built in to allow cooling breezes to flow through.

About ten years ago the government, at great public expense, developed an extension to this area lower down in Silver City.

This is the area that we bought the block of land last year.

In my opinion, whether you consider it important or not, the lower part of Silver City is the best location on the island, short of an absolute waterfront property in Settlement.

At ninety metres above sea level our block is a recipient of the wonderful evening breezes.

 

Above Silver City is Poon Saan, meaning “half hill” in Chinese.

This is the area between the lower Kampong / Settlement coastal areas and the higher Drumsite.

Poon Saan was traditionally the living area of the Chinese mine workers and location of the outdoor cinema.

 

Finally high up on the hill is Drumsite,

Named for the drums, which coiled the cables, that winched the rail carts from Settlement far below, up to the top of the island.

This was prior to the road being built in the middle of last century.

 

As you can see most of the names are of a practical nature.

 

To drive from Settlement or the Kampong to anywhere else requires a transit around the roundabout.

And at the roundabout, is The Noticeboard.

 

Beyond telling someone a secret, the most efficient manner of getting a message across to the community is to use the Noticeboard.

Attached to the side of a building The Noticeboard is a series large school type blackboards.

Chalk is a freely acquirable commodity and anything may be written.

Upcoming island events are listed as are birthdays, goodbyes, special offers, items for sale, what the upcoming movie is, where the next Hash run is, missing dogs, the list is endless.

It is self-censoring and how interesting a message is, depends on how long it lasts.

No one is in control, no permission is required, just don’t make it obscene, offensive or slanderous and it can stay till it get superseded.

Traffic around The Roundabout is usually walking pace as vehicular occupants take the time to read what is new.

That, by the way was the point I was going to make where I needed an explanation of the island layout.

 

For your information, the rainforest and remnants of mining are everywhere else.

More on rainforest, mining and the wildlife next time.

 

I mentioned in Chapter 1 how houses and cars are left unlocked.

With our mountain bikes, we ride to where we want to go, lay down the bike, put the bike helmet on the handlebars and upon completion of our task the bikes will always be there when we get back.

Bike locks, haven’t seen one yet.

 

By the way, many thanks for the responses to Chapter 1.

It was rewarding to find that most were coherent and enlightening.

And where my global weather stereotypes were not stereotypical, thanks for the advice.

To answer a question asked, Christmas Island was named on Christmas Day 1643.

First recorded sighting was 1615, the year before Dirk Hartog, landed on Australia.

CI is unusual in that there was no indigenous population.

 

More history another time.

 

By the way, I found some casual employment too.

This part is so cool.

 

From now on you can refer to me as Christmas Island Jungle Tour Guide or on more formal occasions, Mr Guide.

And to the question I received via text message late last week from a friend, enquiring as to whether I would now be known as Tarzan, the answer is: No.

 

I have acted as unofficial tour guide to anyone I met who had come to Perth and even here on CI.

However now I can show off this great island to a greater number of people in an official capacity and receive fiscal renumeration.

Let’s hope the tourist numbers are steady so everyone comes out a winner.

 

My first tour of three and a half hours was for a very nice couple from Germany.

Did I have enough to show them and did I have enough to talk about?

Sure did.

They were so impressed they bought the company.

No they didn’t, but they did enjoy the tour and did buy me lunch,

Fried Bee Hoon with gravy from the Chinese Literary Association, which is also the noodle hut.

 

Only after we returned did I tell them that they were my first tour.

They asked where did I get all my training?

Told them that charisma can’t be taught, or I should have said that.

 

Getting the facts straight on the island features can be learned and I know my fair share.

Some people want to know the answers to questions like:

Should we see a Doctor, now that I snapped my ankle falling off that rock pinnacle?

&

Since I put my finger in the claws of a robber crab, can it be sewn back on?

 

Well, I just know, my tourists are smarter than that!

They will be, for sure. They won’t be dopey, whiney or needy.

They will desire a feel of the island, the workings, the history and the stories.

We’re going to have a great time.

 

It has just started to rain.

Rain in a rain forest is a wonderful thing.

Right now we are in the dry season so consistent rain is not the case now.

In a month or two there will be plenty of rain.

Like anywhere else, when it rains it seems like a renewal has swept through.

I love running in the rain up here, keeps things cool.

Getting soaked when running is fabulous.

Think I might go for a run and come back to this later. . . .

 

. . . Later . . .

 

Cannot wind this up without a reference to the current weather:

Sometimes it gets sufficiently cool at night, we have to put a sheet on the bed and those those of you in the midst of a cold winter you know how good that must sound.

 

Consider Chapter 2 unexpectedly finished.

 

Time for bed.

 

Thank you and Goodnight

 

Keith

 

 

Done