Coronavirus – Where is Christmas Island and why are Australians being quarantined there? – The Sun
AUSTRALIA has announced plans to quarantine its evacuees on Christmas Island, a small island that sits over a thousand miles from the mainland.
The decision is drawing controversy as in Australia as residents are upset about being exposed to the virus that is spreading rapidly across Asia.
Where is Christmas Island?
Christmas Island is a 136 square km island and Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. It lies about 2,360 km north-west of Perth and 500 km south of Java, Indonesia.
It has around 1850 residents, most of them are a mix of Malaysian-Chinese, Malays and Anglo-Australians. Around 60 per cent of the population speaks Chinese as a first language and come from an even mix of South East Asian backgrounds.
A national park covers two-thirds of the island, offering rainforest hikes to wetlands and waterfalls like Hugh's Dale.
The island has a lot of wildlife, including the red crab, which is famous for coating the island during the late-autumn migration to the sea.
The island is also ringed with snorkelling and diving reefs.
Why are Aussies being quarantined there?
Australia recently spent millions of dollars on an otherwise redundant immigration centre that opened last year.
Costs for using the facility are still being estimated depending on how many people decide that they want to leave to return over the weekend.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the reason for quarantining residents on Christmas Island is that he "can't clear out a hospital in Sydney or Melbourne to accommodate 600 people."
He added: "I don't have a facility otherwise that can quickly accommodate potentially hundreds of people and Christmas Island is purpose-built for exactly this scenario", later calling it "a sensible decision" to "not put Australians at home at risk".
Aussie's coming back from Wuhan will be placed in the detention centre for 14 days to make sure that they aren't carrying the virus, which may have an incubation period.
The decision has caused a political headache for the Australian government.
The Christmas Island Shire President Gordon Thompson messaged ABC calling the measure a "regressive colonial-era idea" saying the "convict settlement for innocent people now will be a leper colony".
The Australian Medical Association are also calling the use of Christmas Island "inhumane" and saying that the detention centre is "not appropriate". The World Health Organisation has also advised against taking foreign residents out of Wuhan.
Labour leaders have pointed out that other countries are not going to such lengths.
Australia has a total of seven confirmed cases of coronavirus as of January 29.
The Chinese national women's football team are being quarantined for two weeks in Brisbane as they passed through Wuhan before coming to Australia.
The island's history
The island was discovered by Richard Rowe of the Thomas in 1615 and got its name when it was later named on Christmas Day 1643 by Captain William Mynors.
It was a British territory from 1888, but was given to the Australians in October 1958. Its capital 'Flying Fish Cove' is named after the HMS Flying Fish that made a landing in 1886 under Captain John Maclear.
It was settled in the late 19th century and has been broadly undisturbed by human contact other than for scientific projects and phosphate mining.
It changed hands a few times during the second world war and was finally re-captured from the Japanese by HMS Rother in October 1945.
On October 1 1958 it was transferred to the Aussies for $20 million.
A controversial detention and immigration centre was built and was gradually expanded at a cost of $400 million since 2001 and was closed in September 2018, but re-opened in 2019.
The multi-million dollar facility has been empty since it was re-opened except for the family of four that currently live there.
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