Conservation fears mark end of miners' jobs on remote outpost

Set amid the vast blue haze of the Indian Ocean, Christmas Island is a unique tropical melange of Chinese, Malay and European cultures. Its incense-scented Buddhist temples, bright green mosque and Malay kampong or village make this Australia-administered speck of rock the least Australian of places.

Two-thirds of the population are ethnic Chinese, the descendants of those brought here in the 19th century by the British from Penang, Malacca, Singapore and Hong Kong.

But the jungle-clad island, which lies closer to Java than Australia, fears that a decision made this month by politicians in far-away Canberra could spell the end of its distinctive way of life. The federal government announced a ban on new phosphate mining, the industry that has been the cornerstone of the island's economy since it was incorporated into the British Empire in 1888.

Environment minister Malcolm Turnbull said there would be

'an unacceptable impact' on threatened species, including the rare Abbott's booby, the Christmas Island frigate bird and the endemic pipistrelle bat. The ban was hailed as a victory by conservationists, who were appalled by plans by the Christmas Island Phosphate Company to bulldoze pristine rainforest in order to extract the rich deposits of phosphate below.

The new mine would have killed up to 1.5 million of the estimated 60 million red land crabs that inhabit the forest floor. Each year, the crabs go into a breeding frenzy, turning roads and beaches into a crimson carpet as they scuttle from the rugged interior to the sea, inspiring naturalist Sir David Attenborough to call the island 'kingdom of the crabs'.