North Keeling IslandNorth Keeling Island

North Keeling Island

The Cocos (Keeling) Group is named after Captain William Keeling. It was sketched, showing coconuts, by the Swedish captain Ekeberg in 1749 and appears on the 1787 chart reproduced by Dalrymple, the British hydrographer. Fitzroy examined and mapped it from H.M.S. Beagle in 1836, but made no landing.

North Keeling Island has not been inhabited for any extended period and is in a natural state. Fortunately, its remoteness from the main atoll, its difficult landing area and the absence of a reliable, fresh water supply have combined to preclude any possibility of permanent settlement. Nevertheless, small groups of Cocos-Malay boats have been paying occasional visits to this island almost every year since the early days of the occupation of the southern atoll. These hazardous voyages were usually made to collect coconuts, timber and seabirds (Bunce 1988).

Late in the nineteenth century, small camps of beri-beri sufferers lived on the island for short periods. Malay graves near the southern shore of the island mark the final resting place of a woman and a girl who succumbed to this dietary deficiency, and a male (also suffering from beri-beri), who died in an accident (Bunce 1988).

In November 1914 the German light-cruiser SMS Emden ran aground on the windswept southern reef of the island after her unsuccessful encounter with HMAS Sydney. Not all of the survivors were prepared to give themselves up and a handful hid on the island. In October 1915 a work gang from Home Island on the southern atoll found a number of their skeletons, which they buried on the shore near the wreck (Gibson-Hill 1948).

From October 1915 to January 1916, the islanders salvaged what they could from the German ship. Anything detachable and portable was removed and transported back to the landing area by trolleys that ran on narrow railway lines. The stripped hulk later slipped back off the reef into deeper water after a cyclone (Gibson-Hill 1948).

In 1950 a Japanese salvage company removed as much of the hull of the Emden as they could and shipped it back to Japan (Bunce 1988).

Between the wars, groups of 20 Cocos-Malay workers were stationed on North Keeling Island for up to 2 weeks at a time. These parties would live in atap (long-houses), built on the western shores of the lagoon. Once or twice a week they would receive a visit from an estate vessel, which would deliver foodstuffs and water and return to Home Island with timber, coconuts and birds (Bunce 1988).

After the death of John Sydney Clunies-Ross in 1944, the frequency of seabird hunting trips to North Keeling Island increased considerably. Groups of jukongs (small sailing boats) would go whenever the weather was suitable and thousands of birds would be brought down with shotguns as well as traditional flails. Barges would travel to the island once or twice a year to gather coconuts or bring back birds for Hari Raya festivities (Bunce 1988). All access to North Keeling Island was under direct supervision of the Clunies-Ross family. After the Government purchased the islands people were required to obtain a permit from the Shire Council prior to visiting North Keeling.