Christmas Island National Park
Crazy Ant Campaign
Parks Australia and the Invasion Biology Group from Monash University were awarded a 2003 Banksia Foundation award for the Protection of Australia's Environment for their successful campaign to control yellow crazy ants. More about Yellow Crazy Ants
Christmas Island is located in the Indian Ocean at 10 ° 25'S and 105 ° 40'E. It is approximately 2800 km west of Darwin, 2600 km north-west of Perth, and 360 km south of the western head of Java.
The Island covers approximately 135 sq km, of which about 85 sq km (63%) is Christmas Island National Park. In addition to this terrestrial area, the Park includes a marine area extending 50 m seaward of the low water mark where terrestrial areas of the Park include the coastline.
Christmas Island supports a wide range of unique and unusual species and habitats, and although it has been mined for phosphates for much of the past century, most of the natural ecosystem remains intact. The declaration of the Christmas Island National Park in 1980, and extensions in 1986 and 1989, placed over sixty percent of the Island under formal protection. The Park contains the last remaining nesting habitat in the world of the endangered Abbott's booby and also supports the world's largest remaining robber crab population and probably contains the largest and most diverse land crab community anywhere.
