Christmas Island,
officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is a territory of
Australia in the Indian Ocean, comprising the island of the same name.
It has a population of 2,072 residents, who live mainly in settlements
on the northern tip of the island, including Flying Fish Cove (also
known as Kampong), Silver City, Poon Saan, and Drumsite. Around
two-thirds of the island's population are Malaysian Chinese, with
smaller numbers of ethnic Malays and whites. Several languages are in
use, including English, Malay, and various Chinese dialects, while
Buddhism is the primary religion, followed by three-quarters of the
population. The island was discovered on Christmas Day (25
December) 1643, but only settled in the late 19th century. Its
geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led
to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of
interest to scientists and naturalists. 63% of its 135 square
kilometres is an Australian national park. There exist large
areas of primary monsoonal forest. Phosphate, deposited originally as
guano, has been mined on the island for many years.
[R1]
The island issued its own postage stamps from 1958. Those issued by
Australia Post since 1993 are also valid in Australia, as are
Australian stamps in Christmas Island. On 1 February 1969, postal
responsibility on the island was transmitted by the Phosphate
Commission to the Christmas Island Administration. It quickly created a
philatelic office and in 1971 chose an agent for sale in the rest of
the world, the Crown Agents. The stamp program was then decided
locally, produced with the Agents' expertise and printed by specialised
printers in Europe,[2] and in Australia starting in the late 1980s
[R2] So far there are only stamp that related to Paleontology: paleontologist Charles William Andrews, issued in 1978.
Official stamps of Christmas
island related
to Paleontology: paleontologist
Notes: [1] From
April 30 1977 to September 1st 1978,
post of Christmas Island issued 4 sets of Famous visitors, 4 stamps at
time. All together build a set of definitive stamps, as every stamp has
unique face value from 1 cent to $2.
45c stamps (
last stamp in the third row), issued on May 31 1978, shows Charles
William Andrews (1860 -1924) a British palaeontologist
whose career as a vertebrate paleontologist, both as a
curator and in
the field, was spent in the services of the British Museum, Department
of Geology. His first concerns were with fossil birds, and he described
Aepyornis titan, the extinct "Elephant Bird" of Madagascar
(1894). In 1897 he was selected to spend several months at
Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, to inspect it before the
activities of phosphate mining compromised its natural history. The
results were published by the British Museum in 1900 More
info is on Wikipedia
References: [R1] More information
about Christmas Island is on WikipediaWikiTravelFlag
Country [R2] More
information about postal
history of Christmas Island is on Wikipedia
Links to Christmas Island 's post authority
and
stamps catalog websites are here