Flying Fish Cove landscape master plan

The Our Christmas Island, 2030 Strategic Plan recognised the importance of Flying Fish Cove for all types of uses—industry, recreation and tourism. The Plan recommended that a long-term vision for Flying Fish Cove be established, and that the facilities in the area better support these uses.

To manage the implementation of this work, the department has commissioned Manteena and landscape architects Oxigen to develop a Landscape Master Plan for the Cove. The study area includes public land from the roundabout area to the base of the road entrance to Tai Jin House (but not including the Tai Jin House area).

Community consultation for the Flying Fish Cove Landscape Master Plan has been extensive. The first round was held in February 2021. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the second round was conducted remotely with the assistance of Island-based consultant Change Sustainable Solutions. This consultation period ran for four weeks in August 2020, with high participation in the letterbox drop feedback, surveys and attendance at the small group community consultations. The feedback has been captured in the community consultation outcomes report, and translated into the planning where feasible. The department has uploaded the feedback summary here for your information.

The Flying Fish Cove Landscape Master Plan provides a shared community vision for the future of this important area and provides a strategy for prioritising the capital improvements intended to deliver this vision. As a living document, it reflects the views and aspirations of the local community and offers an evolvable pathway forward to support the economic sustainability and liveability of this important community asset.

Current activities

The prioritised capital improvement works were all informed by the Christmas Island community. The order of works align with priorities identified during the community consultation and are shown in the ‘Key Moves’ legend on the Flying Fish Cove Landscape Master Plan. These are highlighted in ‘Traffic Lights’ with the current and next financial years' works highlighted as green, medium-term works in amber and longer-term works in red. The prioritised works for 2021 and 2022 are as follows:

  • Removal of ‘koppers’ logs from the Flying Fish Cove foreshore
  • Installation of six new Rubbish bins with Robber Crab motifs
  • Installation of public lockers installed outside the Harbour Master's Office engraved with line drawings of local fauna selected from a CI School art competition
  • Installation of new trees along foreshore from the round-a-bout to the end of the Cove. A total of six casuarina trees will be removed as they drop nuts making it uncomfortable to sit underneath them to take advantage of the provided shade. Three of these trees will be removed in the short term while the other three will be removed when the new trees have time to mature
  • Remediation of the Flying Fish Cove Boat Ramp including re-surfacing.

Christmas Island-based contractors have been engaged for all of these works.

It is important to note that full implementation of the Flying Fish Cove Landscape Master Plan would require a budget larger than is currently available. As such, the Landscape Master Plan will be delivered using a staged approach over a number of years.

Last Updated: 27 May, 2021