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- Cocos Islands, or Keeling Islands
- Group of 27 small coral islands in the Indian
- Ocean, about 2,770 km/1,720 mi NW of Perth,
- Australia; area 14 sq km/5.5 sq mi;
- population (1986) 616. They are owned by
- Australia. Discovered by William Keeling
- 1609, they were uninhabited until 1826,
- annexed by Britain 1857, and transferred to
- Australia as the Territory of Cocos (Keeling)
- Islands 1955. The Australian government
- purchased them from John Clunies-Ross 1978.
- In 1984 the islanders voted to become part of
- Australia.
-