The Defence Force is about to splash more than $500 million on this remote part of Australia to upgrade the airstrip to take more high-tech spy planes. Locals, already concerned about parts of the islands falling into the sea, are worried what it'll mean for their futures.
Speaking from her front verandah on West Island, she explains the most obvious sign the seagrass is dying is that turtles are dying and starving.
He says the health of the Cocos turtles are important for the region, as genetic testing has found they have come from rookeries as far afield as Ningaloo in Western Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia. But Dr Whiting says despite the importance of the turtle population to the region, he thinks it's a case of out of sight, out of mind.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and Parks Australia share responsibility for the environmental regulation of Cocos Islands. The external territory is expensive to run, but it's also too strategically important for the government not to."Yes, sometimes I think that," says Michael Kirkpatrick, chair of the Cocos Islands Tourism Association."We've all expressed our views of about that to the various layers of government that run this place over the years, and we still have chronic underinvestment in infrastructure.
For now, sandbags provided by the Commonwealth hold back the water on both Home Island and West Island. Year 10 student Izaiah says he has noticed changes to the environment when he is out fishing with his grandad, such as the loss of seagrass."It's pretty, pretty disappointing. Or not disappointing ... devastating to see that.
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