About Cocos Island Meteorological Office

The Cocos Islands were uninhabited in 1609 when Captain William Keeling (East India Company) visited them. In 1826 John Clunies-Ross (joined a year later by Alexander Hare) started to set up various small settlements on the main atoll and established the copra industry, bringing in Chinese, Malay and African workers. Annexed by Britain in 1857, the islands were placed under the Governors of Ceylon in 1878; in 1886 they became part of the Straits Settlements. Later they were part of the Colony of Singapore. In 1955 they were transferred to Australian sovereignty, and in April 1984 the inhabitants voted by referendum (observed by UN observers) for integration with Australia and became Australian citizens. In 1978 the government bought the greater part of the land owned by the Clunies-Ross family under a grant in perpetuity made in 1886; the rest of the family's property which was on Home Island was bought in 1993.

The Cocos Islands Co-operative Society was set up in 1979 to manage all the islands' business activities. Under a Memorandum of Understanding, signed in 1991 between the Australian government, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Council and the Cocos Islands Co-operative Society, steps are being taken to introduce mainland living standards to the islands.

Rainfall records commenced in 1901 at a site on Direction Island which may have been Cable Station. There is some doubt about when in 1943 or 1944 these observations were transferred to the Airport. The Meteorological Office opened in September 1943 under RAAF control and closed in August 1946. It was reopened in February 1952 as civil forecasting and observing office and downgraded to an observing office in 1968.