The Territory of Cocos Keeling Islands is an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean , comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and closer to the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
It is part of Southeast Asia and is in the Southern Hemisphere. The territory consists of two atolls made up of 27 coral islands , of which only two — West Island and Home Island — are inhabited.
The population of around people consists mainly of Cocos Malays , who mostly practise Sunni Islam and speak a dialect of Malay as their first language. However, the islanders do have a degree of self-government through the local shire council. Many public services — including health, education, and policing — are provided by the state of Western Australia , and Western Australian law applies except where the federal government has determined otherwise.
The islands were first discovered in by William Keeling , but no settlement occurred until the early 19th century. One of the first settlers was John Clunies-Ross, a Scottish merchant; much of the island's current population is descended from the Malay workers he brought in to work his copra plantation.
The Clunies-Ross family ruled the islands as a private fiefdom for almost years, with the head of the family usually recognised as resident magistrate. The British formally annexed the islands in , and for the next century they were officially administered from either Ceylon or Singapore. The territory was transferred to Australia in , although until virtually all of the island's real estate still belonged to the Clunies-Ross family. The territory's Malay name is Pulu Kokos Keeling.
