Qualla: Christmas Island https://qualla.com/christmas-island en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:27 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/5/h/christmas-island-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Christmas Island https://qualla.com/christmas-island Christmas Island: Introduction https://qualla.com/christmas-island/ Photo credit Japanese Press (1930s-1940s), Public domain. On Christmas Island, the locals leave their doors unlocked and their cars open. There are no poisonous snakes, no dangerous insects, and the most serious hazard listed in the travel guides is rogue waves during monsoon season. This tiny Australian territory -- 1,550 kilometers northwest of the mainland, closer to Jakarta than to Perth -- is home to roughly 1,800 people: a mix of Straits Chinese, Malay, Australian, and other communities who share 135 square kilometers of steep-cliffed, rainforest-cloaked Indian Ocean island with a wildlife population that vastly outnumbers them.

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Image: Japanese Press (1930s-1940s) | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/5/h/christmas-island-wk/qq5h-christmas-island-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Christmas Island: Named on the Right Day https://qualla.com/christmas-island/ Photo credit Japanese Press (1930s-1940s), Public domain. Captain William Mynors of the East India Company ship Royal Mary named the island on 25 December 1643 -- Christmas Day -- though he never set foot on it. The cliffs were too steep, the shores too rough. Settlement did not begin until 1888, when the British annexed the island and ...

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Image: Japanese Press (1930s-1940s) | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/5/h/christmas-island-wk/qq5h-christmas-island-named-on-the-right-day.mp3 0:06 2 full Christmas Island: Flying Fish Cove and the Cliff Coast https://qualla.com/christmas-island/ Photo credit Japanese Press (1930s-1940s), Public domain. Christmas Island rises from the deep ocean as a forested plateau, its 80-kilometer coastline an almost continuous wall of limestone cliff. There are no gentle approaches. Sandy beaches exist, but they are small, scattered, and separated by sheer rock. The largest bay forms the is...

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Image: Japanese Press (1930s-1940s) | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/5/h/christmas-island-wk/qq5h-christmas-island-flying-fish-cove-and-the-cliff-coast.mp3 0:06 3 full Christmas Island: The Crabs Own the Roads https://qualla.com/christmas-island/ Photo credit Japanese Press (1930s-1940s), Public domain. Red crabs are the island's most famous residents. Each year, as the wet season begins in October or November, an estimated 100 million of them emerge from forest burrows and march to the coast to breed. Roads close. Crab bridges and underpasses channel the migration. The spectacl...

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Image: Japanese Press (1930s-1940s) | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/5/h/christmas-island-wk/qq5h-christmas-island-the-crabs-own-the-roads.mp3 0:06 4 full Christmas Island: A Crossroads Culture https://qualla.com/christmas-island/ Photo credit Japanese Press (1930s-1940s), Public domain. English is the common language, but walk through Poon Saan and you will hear Hokkien, Cantonese, and Malay. The island's cultural mix reflects its colonial labor history: Chinese and Malay workers came for the phosphate mines and stayed to build a community unlike anything on the...

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Image: Japanese Press (1930s-1940s) | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/5/h/christmas-island-wk/qq5h-christmas-island-a-crossroads-culture.mp3 0:06 5 full Christmas Island: Beneath the Surface https://qualla.com/christmas-island/ Photo credit Japanese Press (1930s-1940s), Public domain. The island's underwater world matches its terrestrial strangeness. The seamount drops into oceanic depths just meters offshore, creating sheer underwater walls where whale sharks cruise and manta rays glide through nutrient-rich upwellings. Scuba diving at Flying Fish Cove puts y...

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Image: Japanese Press (1930s-1940s) | Public domain

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/5/h/christmas-island-wk/qq5h-christmas-island-beneath-the-surface.mp3 0:06 6 full