White sand beaches fringed with coconut palms, water temperatures of 26-280C, winter average daytime maximum air temperatures of 280C, humidity 72-78 percent, islands brushed by cooling south east trade winds for most of the year, a sizeable part of the resident population of South-East Asian origin… sound like Indo?

No, this is the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean. And it is part of Australia. If you want to kick back for a total R&R holiday – which also includes some quality waves – then put this destination on the travel itinerary.

The 27 coral islands in the two atolls of the Cocos (Keeling) group are located at latitude 12deg.10’ South – about the same as Darwin – longitude 96deg.52’ East and cover a total land area of about 14 square kms. The main horseshoe-shaped atoll has a turquoise inner lagoon covering 100 square kms, with 52kms of fringing reef, white sands and coconut trees.

Cocos lies about 2,950km north west of Perth and some 2,000km west south west of Bali. Australia’s most isolated western outpost is five hours’ flying time from Perth. The islands are in the summer cyclone belt but rarely in the direct path of any big blows.

Cocos is one of Australia’s nine Federal territories. It is administered by the Commonwealth Government, operates under WA State law, with a Federal Police officer in residence, and the locals are registered as voters in the Northern Territory. Telstra payphones are available and the satellite earth station picks up ABC, WIN  and GWN.
You don’t need a passport to visit, just some form of identification at the airport. The currency is the Aussie dollar and Cocos benefits from Federal Government subsidies, tax exemptions and is duty free, so wine and spirits are cheap and beer is at about Aussie prices… always a good start for any surf trip.

There’s one pub, the Cocos Club, which you can walk or ride to on a bike to join the locals. There are lots of social events on Cocos, like football games, and island visitors are welcome to join in.

Only West Island and Home Island are permanently inhabited. The airport, all holiday accommodation, and most of the Commonwealth services and facilities are located on West Island, with a permanent population of about 130 people – mainly Australians on two or three year job postings. Some 480 Cocos Malays reside across the lagoon on Home Island.

Uninhabited North Keeling Island lies some 24km to the north and is a world class seabird rookery and protected national park. It is the only island in the group which was not replanted to coconut palms and so retains the original vegetation of large ironwood trees and dense tropical growth. North Keeling is also said to have some wild and remote big waves plus wonderful diving and deep-sea fishing.

Until a few years ago, Cocos had principally operated for decades as a strategic outpost of Britain or Australia for air and sea transport, quarantine, customs and meteorology. That’s been changing in recent years with a tourism infrastructure and services now emerging, but there’s still no tourist rush – that’s part of the attraction.
The islands became an Australian Territory in 1955 after previously having been part of the British Empire.

Captain William Keeling discovered the uninhabited atolls in 1609. In December 1825, Captain John Clunies-Ross made a short stopover, cleared an area on Direction and Horsburgh islands and planted crops. The following year the first settlers came with Alexander Hare.

Hare faded into history. Clunies-Ross brought in Malay labourers, cleared the native vegetation, planted coconut trees to extract oil and copra from the nuts and developed a flourishing trade. In 1886, Queen Victoria granted the islands to George Clunies-Ross (the third descendant of Captain Clunies-Ross) and his heirs in perpetuity. With a Clunies-Ross as the virtual ‘King of Cocos’, the family reigned for 150 years before being forced out and paid out by the Commonwealth Government in 1978. In a UN vote in 1984, the Cocos Malays elected to become part of Australia and Australian citizens.

Interestingly, some Clunies-Ross family ancestors still live on West Island and have more recently set up a new, small, but flourishing export industry with a clam farm breeding vividly coloured molluscs for European home aquariums.

The Clunies-Ross’ ancestral mansion on Home Island – Oceania House – is now privately owned but visitors can walk through the large walled gardens and old school yard. A museum on Home Island also details the rich history and a number of other historical site tours are available.
Cocos has witnessed much other history.
Charles Darwin visited in 1836 during his famous voyage on the Beagle and, although only staying 10 days, gathered evidence to support his first theories on the volcanic origins and growth of coral atolls.

In World War I, a party from the German raider SMS Emden landed to try to destroy the radio station on Direction Island. In the Royal Australian Navy’s first sea battle, HMS Sydney crippled the Emden and the German warship ran aground off North Keeling Island. The Japanese also attacked the installations in World War II.

Direction Island is the ‘must see’ for any visitor to Cocos. You can get there by private boat but the ferry which runs between Home and West Islands mid week does a run to ‘DI’ for a truly magical Saturday day trip. There’s a bus pick up the morning to take trippers to the ferry jetty at the northern end of West Island, with the return trip in the late afternoon.

Direction Island offers an incredibly beautiful, long, crescent-shaped soft bleached white beach with stunningly blue waters. It is also the islands’ protected anchorage for the many globe-circling yachties making a mid ocean stopover at Cocos.  On the sparkling palm-edged stretch of beach are covered tables and benches for picnic lunches. An interesting collection of yachties’ memorabilia left behind to testify to their Cocos sojourns are strung under the roof. Walkways have been carved through the dense palms across the island.

But the ‘must do’ for any trip to Cocos is ‘The Rip’ on Direction Island. Located at the southern end of the beautiful beach, it is a great natural wonder that visitors can easily experience. All you’ll need is goggles, a snorkel and booties – the current from the tide rushing between two islands carries you down a reef on the edge of a channel and eventually to a safety rope barrier at the end. It’s like swimming through a giant tropical aquarium.

As well as great snorkelling, Cocos features world ranked diving. Dieter and Karen Gerhard at Cocos Dive provide boats, air tanks and other equipment with fully guided day trip dives to all the best underwater sites.

Cocos offers great fishing too. Beach fishing is pretty simple and effective using live bait. Crab bait is preferable as it does not attract the large numbers of small reef sharks to compete for your catch. But once you start pulling them in, the small sharks will gather around anyway. Deep-sea fishing is also available.

The inner lagoon and the prevailing trade winds also make Cocos a magnet for windsurfers and sail boarders from around the planet.

After all that water action and beach recreation, it’s time to go surfing.  West Island features one main surf spot – ‘The Shack’. It is located a few kilometres north of the main settlement on the leeward east coast via a track through the abandoned Quarantine Station (hire cars with flat tray backs are available to haul your boards). It works consistently through the winter months and has waves but is more inconsistent through summer. On a medium swell, the place consistently delivers shoulder and over head height waves – and up to double overhead on the sets.

‘The Shack’ is a walling left which breaks along the fringing coral reef not far off the beach. It features good steep take offs and long rides. After the first drop, bottom turn and fast trim sections, there’s a smaller inside re-form which is ideal for Malibus for two or three more cutbacks and sometimes even the opportunity for a small inside noseriding section.

The waves get bigger and hollower, with deeper take-off pits the further out you paddle in the line-up. Most Mal riders would be better suited waiting a little further inside to pick off the wider sets, at least till you get the feel for the place.

Booties are recommended for visitors navigating the reef and for getting in and out of the break but no wetties are needed in the soft warm water – just rashies and boardshorts. The waves are challenging and there are also much bigger sets to watch out for (and scratch for the horizon to avoid being hammered inside). The wave character changes with different swell direction and swell size and it is tide-affected… mid tide is apparently best.

It is virtually always offshore at ‘The Shack’. While the south east trade winds will often be kicking up white caps on the lagoon and around the settlement, the combination of a small downwind point, the dense coconut trees along the shore and the inner reef combine to protect the waves. While a few hundred metres offshore will be wind-whipped, the wave faces are remarkably clean.

The persistence and strength of the prevailing winds means there is often a quite powerful and energy-sapping longshore drift to paddle against in order to stay in the line-up. The strength of the current varies with the changing movement of water from the tidal cycle and wind. Bottom line – The Shack is not a beginner’s wave.

There is a local crew of mainly shortboard surfers who live and work on Cocos. Respect in the water is recommended (not to mention good surf manners!). When it’s working, there are plenty of waves if you wait and surf smart. Mid week in the middle of the working day, the waves don’t usually get crowded.

About 300-400 metres south of ‘The Shack’ is a much bigger wave location – North Park. It breaks further offshore, is hollower and only for the brave, skilled and strong. A similar distance north of The Shack is a gentle, smaller, inner reef break for the local grommets.



Where to stay
A range of some eight comfortable villas and bungalow-style accommodation, and one aging ‘60s-style motel establishment, are available for holiday-makers on West Island. Most are self-contained and have barbecue facilities – as do many beaches. It is a barbecue lifestyle on Cocos. Only the Cocos Beach Motel provides meals.

The longbreak crew stayed at the Cocos Village Bungalows.  It is a strange feeling as an international traveller to step from the airport arrival lounge and walk with your luggage and longboards less than a hundred metres to your accommodation.

The bungalow complex is adjacent to the general store, less than two minutes’ walk to the Cocos Club, the clubhouse for the island’s nine-hole golf course – located either side of the airstrip – is close by, and the ocean is just across the road.

Cocos Village Bungalows’ managers Rod and Peta Croxford, who live on-site, built the complex with the help of their son Brett. The bungalows were opened in 2002 and are the primo holiday accommodation.
The 10 spacious, self-contained double and twin bedroom bungalows and studio apartments, all come with their own bathrooms, kitchens and covered and furnished outside decks.

The result is a stunning design for the tropical environment. The units are built on stilts and are all constructed of timber with polished jarrah floors, stained pine walls and vaulting pine ceilings. The craftsmanship is outstanding. All rooms also have big fully adjustable louvred floor-to-ceiling doors and windows, which allow the cooling breezes off the Indian Ocean to flow through. All rooms and decks have ceiling fans and most have split system air conditioning units too.

The accommodation buildings surround a beautiful landscaped central garden courtyard with a cabana with sun lounges, an outdoor shower, a great barbecue and an al fresco dining area.

Eating out
The options for eating out on Cocos are limited. West Island has only one restaurant which operates seven nights a week and is BYO. There is also a lunch bar restaurant which opens Mondays to Fridays. Both serve reasonably priced, basic food. Mutiara, the lunch restaurant,  also opens Wednesday nights to offer authentic Cocos Malay cuisine – bookings are essential.

West Island’s only general store provides groceries plus greens and meat. The range of goods is limited, with prices higher than back home in Australia, especially for meat. The store also has a bakery which makes fresh supplies twice a week but only on order. The store and restaurants all have limited opening times, so it is advisable to check notices posted which show operating hours so you won’t get caught out. The store is closed on weekends. It is  therefore wise to take some food with you for your Cocos holiday: meat and sausages for barbecues; cereals and vegemite for breakfast; maybe snacks such as muesli bars; and ‘nibblies’ for evening drinks.

How to get there
National Jet Systems operates 71 seat, twice-weekly, same-day up-and-back flights Mondays and Thursdays from Perth to Cocos and Christmas islands – flying time of five hours from Perth, including a refuelling stopover en route at Exmouth in WA’s north west, and up to two hours longer if via Christmas Island.

Most ticket classes qualify to earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points and the points can be used to redeem flights on the route.
For details and bookings contact:
Christmas Island Travel (08) 9481 1200.
Island Bound Holidays (08) 9381 3644
or your local travel agent.

More info – websites to get you started 
www.cocos-tourism.cc 
www.dotars.gov.au
www.nationaljet.com.au 
www.cocosdive.com
www.cocosvillagebungalows.com.au 
www.ausmuseum.net.au/cocos/

Travel warning for longboarders
The BAE146 four-engine jets which service the Cocos-Christmas route also fly in frozen meat, perishables and other priority emergency supplies for the islands. As a result, air cargo space on Cocos-bound flights can be limited. So it is recommended to check with National Jet Systems or your travel agent – longboards may have to go up as separate freight on an earlier flight to guarantee delivery for your trip to Cocos. Return flights to Perth generally only handle passengers’ luggage and so there is usually not a problem carrying boards back down.