There will be something missing from Chinese banquet tables this festive season – Australian rock lobsters – and their absence is a sign of deteriorating diplomatic relations between Canberra and Beijing. But it’s not just those dealing in crustaceans who are feeling the pinch; Sino-Australian relations on a Queensland holiday island have also reached an all-time low. In 2019, 20 per cent of Keswick Island (population 96, according to Wikipedia), which is located 34km northeast of Mackay, in the tropical Whitsundays archipelago, near the Great Barrier Reef, was acquired by Hong Kong-registered company China Bloom from leaseholder Keswick Developments for A$20 million (US$15.06 million). The 99-year lease includes plans to develop a resort capable of hosting 3,000 visitors. The remaining 80 per cent of Keswick’s 550 hectares is a Queensland government-owned national park that residents claim they are being kept out of. “Land-based access to sections of the national park have been ‘locked’ or blocked with boulders,” reported local online newspaper The Morning Bulletin on December 3. “The airstrip is no longer accessible and, worst of all according to locals, one of the island’s most majestic public beaches is off limits.” According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “Since taking over the lease, the developer has clashed with residents over issues including the building of a boat ramp without approval, the flattening of a shoreline where turtles are known to nest, and the company warding off tourists with ‘keep out’ signs.” I think that they want to have this island solely for the use of the Chinese tourism market Former Keswick Island resident Reports suggest that residents living in rented properties have been forced from their homes. Speaking to news.com.au, one woman who claims she was given three days to vacate said, “We were told there were no long-term rentals allowed.” Short-term rentals, including Airbnb, have also been prohibited, with television channel 9Now reporting that the island had been tourist-free “since September last year” as a result. A single Airbnb listing for Keswick has no reviews (yet) but plenty of availability. To add insult to injury, the community Christmas tree has been chopped down. An islander told news.com.au that she had nurtured the tree for 12 years. “At Christmas I decorated it for all to enjoy on the corner – a place where locals, friends, passing boaties and visitors from around the world would gather,” she said, adding that a resident had seen a truck “with just one tree in it and thought it was a bit strange” on December 4. Media attention appears to have inflamed the feud. A former Keswick resident told TV show A Current Affair , “I just don’t think they want Australians on the island. I think that they want to have this island solely for the use of the Chinese tourism market.” The Daily Mail Australia reported that “the subtropical paradise is more like Wuhan than the Whitsundays”. On December 7, China Bloom issued a statement saying the company was “implementing changes to the island’s operation to ensure compliance with the regulations set out in the headlease agreement”. It claimed that turtles hadn’t been seen on the island in 10 years and that “individual properties cannot be sublet” and it accused Keswick’s permanent residents – of whom there were just four, in China Bloom’s opinion – of being “anti-development” and “actively working to undermine the progress of any future development of the island”. Needless to say, the statement was not well received. For as long as Keswick remains inhabited opposition to Chinese development seems guaranteed. A Facebook group named “Keswick Island Reclaim Aussies Rights” has 6,500 members, and a “peaceful protest” has been planned for Australia Day (“Invasion day”, as it is also know, marks the arrival of British colonisers on January 26, 1788). And as for the Chinese tourists the island is supposedly being kept for, Covid-19 and geopolitics are likely to keep them at bay for the time being. Maldives to welcome 100,000 arrivals by the end of 2020 One country that is welcoming visitors is the Maldives, which reopened its borders in July and has seen a slow but steady stream of international arrivals since. According to online travel publication TTG Asia, a “surge” in tourists is expected over the festive season. A tourism industry official told the website: “Year-end arrivals are looking good and some of this credit should go to the Maldivian authorities for aggressive destination marketing.” In November, the archipelagic state recorded 35,759 visitors and is on track to meet its target of 100,000 arrivals between July 15, when it reopened, and the end of the year. That might be a fraction of the 1.7 million it received in 2019, but it’s not nothing in a year that has all but paralysed the tourism industry internationally. Phuket gets the official Monopoly board game treatment Anyone missing the popular Thai holiday destination of Phuket will soon be able to get their fix of island life in board-game form, with the launch of a Phuket Monopoly game. Produced by British company Winning Moves under licence from Hasbro, the Phuket edition will feature landmarks and locations across the island, and the public is being asked to help choose which will be included via a Facebook page. Suggestions range from high-end hotels such as the Amanpuri to natural wonders including Bang Pae waterfall, while comments on The Phuket News article about the game, which will be released in August, were a little less wholesome. “I hope they are realistic and include some of the realities of life here,” reads one, before listing: “useless cops, prostitutes, ladyboys, traffic smash-ups, dual pricing.”