[2] By the end of 1827 there were two groups of European settlers on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and there was antagonism between the two settlement leaders, John Clunies Ross and Alexander Hare.

[2] John Clunies Ross was desirous of establishing a supply depot on the Islands for spices and coffee for shipment to Europe.

He imposed an imperialist social and political regime on the Islands and managed them as a coconut plantation using non-European labour which gave the Clunies Ross family great power.

He established a contractual arrangement between his family and the Malay and later Banlamese people, who would provide labour for the plantations and for copra production.

Rates of pay were fixed at half a Java rupee for 250 husked nuts per day or reasonable services for labour.

The agreement bound the families and community heads to obey rules and lawful commands or quit the Islands and move elsewhere.

[2] Initially, there was an unsuccessful revolt against Clunies Ross by a group of Malay people but a written agreement was in force from 22 December 1837.

[2] The coconuts were husked, opened and the inside flesh was dried in the sun or later by artificial heat in purpose built furnaces.

New buildings and a jetty to load and unlaid ships were erected with a series of railway tracks to move produce on the Island.

The cable staff managed to send a message reporting the cruiser and HMAS Sydney arrived and a sea Battle of Cocos ensued.

[2] During World War II, the Islands were occupied by the armed forces and there was open scrutiny of the working and living conditions there.

In the years after the war, the Government of Singapore expressed that the paternalistic attitude of the Clunies Ross family to the Cocos Malay workforce was unacceptable.

The staff made regular day and night patrols over an 804.7-kilometre (500 mi) sea range and answered calls from ships and aircraft with sick or injured passengers and crew.

Its adaptation to a mosque was a function of the move towards self-government and self-determination of the Cocos Malay community following initiatives by the Australian Government in 1979.

[2] The West Island Mosque is historically significant as evidence of the emerging self determination of the Cocos Malay community following self government in 1979.

[2] Criterion A: Processes The West Island Mosque is historically significant as evidence of the emerging self determination of the Cocos Malay community following self government in 1979.

[2] This Wikipedia article was originally based on West Island Mosque, entry number 105219 in the Australian Heritage Database published by the Commonwealth of Australia 2019 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 15 May 2019.