Shortly before the colonial period Jakarta Bay was disputed between the Sunda Kingdom and the rising Banten Sultanate.

In order to service her ships, the VOC established a naval base at Onrust Island.

[1] Because of the massive naval needs of the VOC Onrust developed into a small town protected by a fortress of five bastions.

From 1823 to 1825 Governor-General Godert van der Capellen established a naval base at Onrust.

[1] On 19 June 1845 Rear Admiral Engelbertus Batavus van den Bosch [nl], the new commander of the navy in the East Indies arrived at Batavia.

Urgent improvements were required because many ships had to be repaired for the upcoming Dutch intervention in northern Bali (1846).

[2] Governor-General Jan Jacob Rochussen (1845–1851) was initially strongly opposed to plans to develop Onrust as a naval station because it would make the island a site of great strategic value.

Van den Bosch also secured funds to repair the careening facility and the slipway that could be used to pull ships out of the water.

Except for the graving dock all this was complete before Van den Bosch left the East Indies in April 1848.

Soon a massive coaling station was established at nearby Kuiper Island (Cipir Kahyangan) which attracted even more traffic.

A plan by Van den Bosch to connect and fortify Onrust, Kuiper, Purmerend and Kerkhof islands did not make it.

The colossal shear legs was visible from afar and the wooden dry dock made a good impression.

There was also an artesian aquifer in the center of the island, but its water was warm and unsuitable to drink because of the salt it contained.

It started a period wherein Onrust was the main naval repair shipyard in the Dutch East Indies.

In late 1883 the tower at Onrust had to make place for a canteen, and was blown up with dynamite in order to hasten demolition.

The obvious was to prevent an enemy from taking up a defensive position on the islands that were no longer part of a base.

Demolition was generally done by destroying the thick outer wall, which gave the fortresses their defensive strength.

This was done by filling up all the small ponds and other fresh water instances on the island and by removing most vegetation.

The Indonesian authorities prolonged this tradition when they interned Chris Soumokil (the president of the breakaway Republic of South Maluku).

In 1972 Ali Sadikin, then governor of Jakarta, declared Onrust Island a protected historical site.

In 2002 the administration made Onrust and its three neighbors – the islands of Cipir (Dutch: Kuyper), Kelor (Kerkhof) and Bidadari (Purmerend) – an archaeological park.

The local hospital that treated the fevers also drastically reduced the mortality that had previously been heightened by transporting the sick to the mainland.

[11] The diseases that killed called so many European and other inhabitants of the island were generally blamed on the swamps emitting bad air.

Some thought that the coral at Onrust emitted bad airs that were even worse than those coming from the marshes near Batavia.

They did arrive at the same conclusions, that when the coral was dried out, or covered by a thick layer of humus, like at Amsterdam Island,[13] the disease became less prevalent.