Driving along Gaze Road toward the casino site and just past the old hospital (now holiday accommodation) is a small ruin set into the steep hillside on the right. When driving by, it is so easy to miss as it blends into the undergrowth. This ruin is not very large and from the roadside you would never know what it is hides.
As you enter through the doorway, with rusted door barely intact and into an interior room, an unexpected surprise awaits. Behind lies a sizeable dug out cave stretching back into the hillside.
Walking into this cave area the atmosphere is very still inside. The sound of the occasional car passing by on the road outside is muffled. It feels like time has stopped in there. It is thought this cave was used by the Japanese for ammunition storage during their occupation of Christmas Island from 1942-1945. Knowing of this possibility, thoughts of Japanese soldiers spring to mind. Perhaps they were working within this very area. In the darkness, with daylight barely penetrating and alone with such thoughts, the atmosphere is palpable.
In 2018 archaeologist Helena van der Riet visited Christmas Island and identified 19 Japanese World War II sites. There are likely more. Read her thesis (pages 175-185) to find out more about this particular site and why she believes that it may have been an ammunition storage site pre-dating World War II (pages 66-68).
I made a 3 minute video tour. It was my first filming experience and next time I know to film in landscape. But, if you want to get a feeling for this historic site then it is well worth to watch.