The Territory of Christmas Island is a small territory of Australia located in the Indian Ocean, 2600 kilometres northwest of Perth in Western Australia, 500 kilometres south of Jakarta, Indonesia.
It maintains about 1,600 residents who live in a number of "settlement areas" on the northern tip of the island.
It has a unique natural topography and is of immense interest to scientists and naturalists due to the number of species of endemic flora and fauna which have evolved in isolation and undisturbed by human habitation.
While there has been guano mining activity on the island for many years, 63% of its 135 square kilometers is now National Park and there are large areas of pristine and ancient rainforest.
Christmas Island is most famous for the annual red crab migration. Millions of crabs leave the forest and crawl to the sea in order to lay their eggs in the ocean. During the migration, the crabs cover the routes to the coast so densely that they can be seen from the air. Volunteers shovel the crabs off the roads. Fun video of migration
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