By Damien Murphy
The last remnant of colonial grace and favour, the ancestral pile of the Clunies-Ross family on the Cocos Islands, fell to modern Australian in 1991.
The Hawke government agreed to pay $1.55 million to buy Oceania House, built from materials shipped from Scotland on a promontory overlooking the main Cocos lagoon, and its grounds, the vestige of the days when the family ruled the islands as their own private fiefdom.
They had hung on to the house and bit of land as their dynastic sole island possession after their former labourers voted to become part of Australia in 1984.
A Scottish merchant seaman, John Clunies-Ross, settled the islands in 1827 and used Malays brought to serve in a previous English settler's harem and indentured labourers to work on palm plantations.
In 1886, Queen Victoria gave the family the islands "in perpetuity". The male of each new generation declared himself King of the Cocos Islands.
Over the years the Clunies-Ross chain of islands in the Indian Ocean, 2700 kilometres north-west of Perth, saw HMAS Sydney fight the German cruiser Emden in 1914 and visits by Charles Darwin in 1836 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1954.
But a year after the Queen's visit, Australia took administrative control from Singapore.
Subsequently, constant media coverage in Australia of the Clunies-Ross family and their virtual slaves ensured the family's days of empire were numbered.
The Clunies-Ross feudal style of rule upset many Australians but it endured for three decades until Malcolm Fraser's government in 1978 forced the family to sell for $6.25 million or face compulsory acquisition.
The Clunies-Ross were allowed to keep the home and land.
But in 1983, a year before the Act of Self-Determination voted 229 to 28 (with two informals) in favour of being integrated with Australia, Canberra reneged and told the family to leave.
John Clunies-Ross won a High Court of Australia case that found resumption of Oceania House was unlawful.
But the Hawke government ordered that the family shipping company which had been bought with the sale of their island birthright could not be awarded any government work and Clunies-Ross went bankrupt.
In March 1991 Territories Minister David Simmons told the cabinet that the government had promised to purchase the property for them as part of negotiations during the lead-up to the Act of Self-Determination and did not want to be seen as using the house as a carrot for a pro-Australia vote.
"If purchase is not agreed, the Commonwealth may be seen to be going back on an undertaking to purchase the property given at the time the Cocos Malay people voted for integration with Australia at a United Nations-observed Act of Self-Determination," he said.
"The government could argue that circumstances have changed since then. Declaring North Keeling Island a National Park or Reserve will have strong support from environmental interests."
Pulu Keeling National Park was declared in 1995, long after Oceania House was sold to the Australian government and John Clunies-Ross left Cocos and went into exile in Perth, broken and impoverished.
Cabinet records release
Cabinet records for 1990 and 1991 held by the National Archives of Australia became eligible for access from January 1, 2016. Information about the cabinet records, lists of the documents and copies of key cabinet documents, including selected submissions and decisions, are available on the Archives' website (naa.gov.au). Click on the "Collection" tab, then "Popular research topics", then "Cabinet".
Requests for access to records not already released may be made via RecordSearch on the Archives' website.
"Mwaka wa 1991 ""mzizi wa ukoo wa Clunies-Ross"" ulianguka kwa Australia ya kisasa." Serikali ya Hawke ilikubali kulipa dola milioni 1.55 kununua Oceania House, iliyojengwa kwa vifaa vilivyoletwa kutoka Scotland kwenye kilima kinachoangalia ziwa kuu la Cocos, na ardhi yake, mabaki ya siku ambazo familia ilitawala visiwa kama fiefdom yao binafsi. Walitumia nyumba hiyo na sehemu ya ardhi kama mali yao ya kifalme baada ya wafanyakazi wao wa zamani kupiga kura kuwa sehemu ya Australia mwaka 1984. Mfanyabiashara wa baharini wa Scotland, John Clunies-Ross, aliishi katika visiwa hivyo mwaka wa 1827 na alitumia Wamalaya walioletwa kutumikia katika haremu ya mpangaji wa zamani wa Kiingereza na wafanyakazi wa mkataba kufanya kazi katika mashamba ya mitende. "Mwaka 1886 Malkia Victoria alitoa visiwa hivyo kwa familia hiyo ""kwa umilele.""" Mwanamume wa kila kizazi kipya alijitangaza kuwa Mfalme wa Visiwa vya Cocos. Kisiwa cha Clunies-Ross, kilicho karibu na Perth, kilikuwa na meli ya kivita ya Ujerumani Emden mnamo 1914, na Charles Darwin mnamo 1836 na Malkia Elizabeth II mnamo 1954. Lakini mwaka mmoja baada ya ziara ya Malkia, Australia ilichukua udhibiti wa kiutawala kutoka Singapore. Baada ya hapo, habari za mara kwa mara za familia ya Clunies-Ross na watumwa wao wa kweli zilihakikisha kwamba siku za utawala wa familia hiyo zilikuwa zimehesabiwa. Mfumo wa utawala wa Clunies-Ross ulisumbua watu wengi wa Australia lakini ulidumu kwa miongo mitatu hadi serikali ya Malcolm Fraser mnamo 1978 ilipolazimisha familia hiyo kuuza kwa $ 6.25m au kukabiliwa na ununuzi wa lazima. Familia ya Clunies-Ross iliruhusiwa kubaki na nyumba na ardhi. Mwaka 1983 sheria ya kujitawala ilipitishwa na kura ya kura 229-28 na Canberra ilikataa na kuamua kuondoka. John Clunies-Ross alishinda kesi ya Mahakama Kuu ya Australia ambayo iligundua kwamba kuanza tena kwa Oceania House kulikuwa kinyume cha sheria. Lakini serikali ya Hawke iliamuru kwamba kampuni ya usafirishaji ya familia ambayo ilikuwa ilinunuliwa na uuzaji wa haki yao ya kuzaliwa kisiwa haingeweza kupewa kazi yoyote ya serikali na Clunies-Ross alivunjika. Mnamo Machi 1991, Waziri wa Wilaya David Simmons aliiambia baraza la mawaziri kwamba serikali ilikuwa imeahidi kununua mali hiyo kwa ajili yao kama sehemu ya mazungumzo wakati wa kuongoza kwa Sheria ya Kujiamua na hakutaka kuonekana kama kutumia nyumba kama karoti kwa kura ya pro-Australia. "Ikiwa ununuzi haukubaliwi, Jumuiya ya Madola inaweza kuonekana kuwa ikirudi nyuma kwenye ahadi ya kununua mali iliyotolewa wakati watu wa Cocos Malay walipiga kura kwa ushirikiano na Australia katika Sheria ya Kujitegemea iliyofuatwa na Umoja wa Mataifa. """ "Serikali yaweza kusema kwamba hali zimebadilika tangu wakati huo. Kutangaza Kisiwa cha North Keeling kuwa Hifadhi ya Kitaifa au Hifadhi kutakuwa na utegemezo mkubwa kutoka kwa maslahi ya mazingira". Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Pulu Kiling ilitangazwa mnamo 1995, muda mrefu baada ya Oceania House kuuzwa kwa serikali ya Australia na John Clunies-Ross kuondoka Cocos na kwenda uhamishoni huko Perth, amevunjika na maskini. "Kabinet Records ya 1990 na 1991 iliyohifadhiwa na ""National Archives of Australia"" ilitolewa kwa watumiaji wa kwanza wa Januari 1, 2016." Taarifa kuhusu rekodi za baraza la mawaziri, orodha ya nyaraka na nakala za nyaraka muhimu za baraza la mawaziri, ikiwa ni pamoja na mawasilisho na maamuzi yaliyochaguliwa, zinapatikana kwenye tovuti ya Hifadhi (naa.gov.au). Bonyeza kwenye tab "Kusanya", kisha "Mitu maarufu ya utafiti", kisha "Kabinet". Maombi ya upatikanaji wa rekodi ambazo bado hazijachapishwa yanaweza kufanywa kupitia RecordSearch kwenye tovuti ya Hifadhi.