Horsburgh Island
| Horsburgh Island | ||
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_Islands-CIA_WFB_Map.png) |
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| Waters | Indian Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Coconut islands | |
| Geographical location | 12 ° 4 '36 " S , 96 ° 50' 23" E | |
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| length | 1.7 km | |
| width | 815 m | |
| surface | 1.04 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Horsburgh Island , also called Pulau Luar , is one of the coconut islands in Australia . The small island is 1.04 km² in size and in its center there is a small lagoon that opens to the northeast to the Indian Ocean . Horsburgh is the northernmost island of the South Keeling Islands atoll , the larger of the two atolls of the Cocos Islands.
The island is located 25 km south of North Keeling , about 2,940 km northwest of Perth , 3,695 km west of Darwin , 960 km southwest of Christmas Island and more than 1,000 km southwest of Java and Sumatra .
history
The Clunies-Ross family , who owned the Cocos Islands, originally kept deer on the island for hunting.
The island is named after James Horsburgh , a hydrographer with the British East India Company . He was the author of a standard work for navigation in the Orient published in 1809-11, which also contained the Cocos Islands and remained in use until the mid-19th century.
During the Second World War in 1941, cannons were set up by Ceylonese troops at the southernmost point of the island . On the night of 8./9. May 1942 the Cocos Islands Mutiny took place, with the Ceylon artillerymen trying to arrest their British superiors. They felt oppressed by them and since the war situation had changed in favor of Japan, they wanted to hand over the Cocos Islands.
On the island there are still the two 6-inch breech-loading guns - one in a very rudimentary condition - that are now a listed building.
literature
- Muhammadu Ibrahim Lutfee: Divehiraajjege Jōgrafīge Vanavaru . G.Sōsanī, Male '1999.
- Xavier Romero-Frias: The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom . Barcelona 1999.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Horsburg: Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent Ports, compiled chiefly from original Journals and Observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those Seas
- ↑ awm.gov.au : Noel Crusz: The Cocos Islands mutiny , Fremantle Arts Center Press, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Fremantle 2001
- ↑ environment.gov.au : Six Inch Guns, Horsburgh Island, EXT, Australia , in English, accessed September 15, 2011