[Maslyn Williams Christmas Island photographs]

PXB 293 (v.1)

series

ca. 1910-1979 (Most are dated from 1912 to 1935, with the remainder taken in the 1950's and 1970's)

Graphic Materials, Photographs

52741

45 photographic prints - silver gelatin
4 negatives - black and white
1 postcard - colour

A contents list compiled by Maslyn Williams is available in the Mitchell Library Original Materials Reading Room at PXB 293

"The first known settlers on Christmas Island were members of the Clunies Ross family who used the island as a staging place when sailing between their home island of Cocos and the trading centres of Batavia (now Jakarta) and Singapore

Although they called there mainly for fresh water, fish and shelter, the Ross men started a garden to grow vegetables and also to experiment with fruit trees and commercial crops such as coffee and cocoa.

To begin with their efforts in this direction were desultory but towards the end of the nineteenth century, when it seemed that the Dutch might have eyes for the island, the family decided to establish an off-shoot settlement there.

Meanwhile the Scottish scientist, Sir John Murry, who had seen samples of rock taken from the island by a scientific expedition, concluded that they indicated the presence of rich phosphate deposits.

Both Ross and Murray requested the British Government to annexe the island, and both sought rights to develop its resources, each for his own reasons. The island was annexed in 1888 but it was not until 1897 that Ross and Murray were able to come to an agreement about mining the phosphate in partnership as the Christmas Island Phosphate Co. with the Murray family managing the enterprise. The first shipment of phosphate left the island in 1899.

These early photographs were taken by members of the Murray family (sons or in-laws) who worked on the island in the early days. They came mainly from sources in the United Kingdom" - -- Foreward to the contents list

Most are annotated and dated on reverse