Geography

Timor is an island about five hundred kilometres north of Darwin, Australia’s northern gateway to Asia.  Before 1975 the half-island which was then known as Portuguese Timor was a quiet backwater, one of the world’s least known colonial relics.

East Timor is approximately fifteen thousand square kilometres in area, with a present day population of just less than a million.  Even in this small area there is marked difference in landscape and climate between the eastern and western sections of the island which lies roughly  north-east by south-west.

The shape of the island and land features of Timor gave rise to a legend that it originated from a crocodile. Versions of the myth abound and the crocodile symbol is widespread.

A mountain range lies along most of its length, where terrace villages and fertile valleys are home to many Timorese.  Those villages have had considerable importance historically, their people having given hospitality and help to  Australian troops in the 1942 conflict with the Japanese, and from 1975 to Fretilin and to Falintil, the armed wing of the resistance.

A coastal plain to the south has dense tropical vegetation yet the easternmost region  is comparatively arid.  Some productive areas are found around Baucau and Lautem and in the central parts near Maliana.  The island has few permanently flowing rivers and no real harbours, Kupang at the western end of West Timor being the most utilised port.   As a result, large ships cannot land cargo or people along the southern coast and Timorese are not a sea-going people except for the fishermen of Atauro island to the north.  Yet the location of Timor and an abundant supply of spices and sandalwood ensured that it was for centuries part of the trading pattern between Asian and European markets.  The position of the island  on the most direct route to East Asian ports ensured that trading vessels were familiar with it. 

In more recent times the deep sea channels adjoining the island’s north have been important for United States nuclear powered submarines. As a source of natural gas and oil channels in the Timor Sea are subject to envious exploratory drilling, especially by companies based in Australia.

Margaret Press RSJ