Story

The Thousand Islands are a chain of islands to the north of Jakarta's coast. It forms the only regency of Special Capital Region of Jakarta, the metropolitan province of Indonesia. It consists of a string of 342 islands stretching north into the Java Sea at West Jakarta Bay and in fact are located to the north of Banten Province. Pramuka Island is the regency seat. The islands, along with North Jakarta City, are the only administrative divisions of Jakarta Special Capital Region with a coastline.

A decree states that 36 islands may be used for recreation. Of these, only 13 islands are fully developed: 11 islands are homes to resorts and two islands are historic parks. Twenty-three are privately owned and are not open to the public. The rest of the islands are either uninhabited or support a fishing village.

Untuk menjaga kelestarian lingkungan serta keseimbangan ekologi, Pemerintah membagi gugusan kepulauan ini menjadi tiga zona: Zona pertama, diperuntukkan bagi eksploitasi sumber daya alam. Kekayaan di dalamnya bisa diambil dan dimanfaatkan sepenuhnya untuk kepentingan industri. Misalnya adalah terumbu karang mati yang dieksploitasi untuk kepentingan industri ubin teraso atau lainnya. Zona kedua, adalah pulau-pulau yang khusus disediakan untuk taman nasional atau tujuan wisata alam. Zona ketiga, ditentukan sebagai kawasan cagar alam yang dilindungi.

Map of Onrust Island (1650) The modern history of the Thousand Islands begins with its role in the defenses of the city of Batavia for the Dutch East India Company (abbreviated VOC) and the Dutch colonial empire. Before the arrival of the Dutch, these islands already had their present Malay language name. With the arrival of the Dutch, the islands received a second Dutch name. The Malay names are not forgotten, as both Malay and Dutch names of the islands are written side by side in some 18th-century Batavia maps. Since the establishment of Batavia in 1610, Pulau Kapal, later named by the Dutch as Onrust Island, has been a naval base.

After the VOC failed to obtain control of trade at Banten in 1610, the Dutch obtained permission from Prince Jayakarta to build a dock at one of the islands in Jakarta Bay as a place to repair and equip ships sailing to Asia, particularly South East Asia. The island Prince Jayakarta assigned to the VOC was Onrust Island, a island from Jakarta.

In 1615 the VOC built a shipyard and a small storage house on the island, which Jan Pieterszoon Coen hoped would eventually develop into a trade and defence base against threats from Banten and rival European powers such as the English. The VOC constructed a small rectangular fort with two bastions in 1656; the bastions protruded from the fort and were used as look-out posts. The Dutch enlarged the fort in 1671 and gave it an asymmetrical pentagonal shape with a bastion in each corner. The whole structure was made of red bricks and coral. In 1674 additional storage buildings were built.

After the dissolution of the Dutch East India Company in 1799, the Batavian Republic took over the management of the Dutch East Indies. In 1800, a Royal Navy squadron under Captain Henry Lidgbird Ball, consisting of, HMS Sybille, and entered the area. Ball's squadron seized five Dutch armed vessels, destroyed 22 other vessels and destroyed all the facilities on Onrust Island before withdrawing.

After the British departed, the Dutch rebuilt the facilities on Onrust Island, completing the work in 1806. However, a second British attack in the same year led by Admiral Edward Pellew again destroyed the facilities on the island. When the British occupied Batavia in 1811, they repaired the facilities on Onrust Island prior to handing over the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands in 1816.

Onrust Island is a historic island in the thousand Islands which functioned as a quarantine site for Dutch East Indies Hajj pilgrims

Onrust Island again received attention in 1827 during the period of Governor-General G.A.Baron Van Der Capellen and activities in the island were normal again in 1848. In 1856 a floating shipyard was built. However, the construction of Tanjung Priok harbour in 1883 resulted in a decline in the role and significance of Onrust island. In 1911–1933, Onrust island became a quarantine station for pilgrims returning from the Hajj. A barrack was built in 1911 that contained 35 units for about 100 pilgrims.

From 1933 until 1940, the Dutch used Onrust to hold the mutineers involved in the Incident of the Seven Provinces (Zeven Provincien). In 1940, the Dutch used it to hold Germans, such as Steinfurt, who was the Chief Administrator of Onrust Island. After the Japanese invaded Indonesia in 1942, the role of Onrust island declined again and it became a prison for serious criminals.

After Indonesia proclaimed independence in 1945, the island became a leprosarium under the control of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, until 1960. The leprosarium then relocated to Post VII at Tanjung Priok Port.

After a coup by General Suharto, Chris Soumokil, who had proclaimed a Republic of South Moluccas with himself as president, was arrested and held at Onrust. Soumukil was later executed there on 21 April 1966.

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, Kelor and Bidadari – an archaeological park to protect the artifacts and ruins on the islands that date back to the time of the Dutch East India Company.

On 28 February 2020, 188 Indonesian crew members from the cruise ship World Dream were quarantined for 14 days on the uninhabited Sebaru Kecil islet against COVID-19.

On 9 January 2021, a Boeing 737-500 (PK-CLC) operating Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 went missing after taking off from Jakarta Soekarno–Hatta Airport on route to Pontianak Supadio Airport. The aircraft crashed near the Thousand Islands.

ki|Sebagian pulau anggota Kepulauan Seribu terbentuk dari timbunan terumbu karang. Pulau paling bawah (selatan), adalah Pulau Karya. Tampak di tengah adalah Pulau Kelapa dan Pulau Panjang. Di kejauhan agak timur tampak Pulau Bira.

Kepulauan Seribu terdiri dari pulau-pulau karang sebanyak 105 buah dengan total luas wilayah daratan sebesar 8,7 km². Posisinya secara geografis adalah pada 5°24´–5°45´ LS dan 106°25´–106°40´ BT dengan luas 870 hektare (8,70 km²).

Kepulauan Seribu merupakan gugusan kepulauan yang terletak di sebelah utara Jakarta, tetapi kebanyakan berada di prairan utara Kabupaten Tangerang. Meskipun memakai nama "Seribu", bukan berarti pulau-pulau di dalam gugusan kepualaun itu berjumlah seribu. Jumlah pulau dan gosong adalah 342 pulau, termasuk pulau-pulau pasir dan terumbu karang yang bervegetasi maupun yang tidak. Pulau pasir dan terumbu karang itu sendiri berjumlah 158. Tidak semua pulau didiami manusia. Gugusan Kepulauan Seribu memiliki potensi yang tidak kecil untuk pengembangan berbagai macam industri, antara lain pertambangan, perikanan serta yang paling utama ialah pariwisata.

Wilayah Kepulauan Seribu beriklim tropis basah dan kering dengan dua musim yang dipengaruhi oleh pergerakan angin monsun. Angin monsun barat–barat laut berkaitan erat dengan periode musim penghujan pada bulan November hingga April. Sementara itu, angin monsun timur–tenggara sama dengan periode musim kemarau pada Mei–Oktober. Suhu udara sepanjang tahun umumnya berkisar antara 21 °C–32 °C dengan kelembaban udara rata-rata berkisar antara 60%–80%.