For all its fairly turbulent history Christmas Island seems to have come out stronger.

For many years the populations on this island came from very different roots and yet they have survived on this island with respect for one another’s cultures, a celebration of each and a unity within all. It’s not a small achievement. Their little museum shows this clearly as do all the places of worship we have visited around the island. Chinese temples, mosques and churches all side by side sharing their feast days and cultural celebrations.

Several languages prevail. The kids go to school together. Settlements may have English names or Malay or Chinese names.

The letter of thanks from a refugee touched me deeply.

It all started many years ago with the discovery of phosphate which has been the island’s good and bad fortune.

Good because everyone wanted it and they still do today, bad because the conditions at the mine were often appalling.

It brought great wealth for some and a casino where money was undoubtedly won and lost and laundered along the way. This menu was from those days.

There are some wonderful personalities on the island who have lived through those times and they recorded their stories.

https://christmasislandstories.org.au/

Check out their stories in this link. In particular Ron and Brigitte’s story !

A Brigitte Bardot lookalike and a wheeler dealer. We think they were on our plane but we had no idea that they were such celebs !