Victoria, Labuan

Victoria Labuan Town
The financial park in Victoria.
Victoria Labuan Town Location in Borneo
Victoria Labuan Town Location in Malaysia
Coordinates: 5°17′N 115°14′E / 5.283°N 115.233°ECoordinates: 5°17′N 115°14′E / 5.283°N 115.233°E
Country	Malaysia
Federal Territories	Labuan
Formed during NBCC	1946
Time zone	MST (UTC+8)
Postcode	87xxx
Area code(s)	087

Victoria (Malaysian pronunciation: [vikˈtɔriˈa]) or Labuan Town (Malay: Bandar Labuan) is the capital of the Federal Territory of Labuan in Malaysia, an island group off the north coast of Borneo. It is located in the southeast corner of Labuan and its Malay name, "Bandar Labuan" is more commonly used by the locals than Victoria. The town is an urban district within the wider city limits of Victoria which includes Labuan Port, a sheltered deep-water harbour which is an important trans-shipment point for Brunei Darussalam, northern Sarawak and western Sabah.

History

Australian 9th Division Army jogging through the ruins of Victoria town hall and remains of the clock tower on 26 June 1945 after a heavy bombing from the Allied forces.

Since the 15th century, the town area including other parts of Labuan were under the Bruneian Empire.^[1][2][3] Its history dates back to the time when the island was ceded by Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II to the British.^[1][4][5] Rodney Mundy, a British naval officer, later visited the island under the name of Queen Victoria.^[1][6][7] The island was then occupied by Japan from December 1941 until June 1945 and governed as part of the Northern Borneo military unit by the Japanese 37th Army.^[1][8] During the Battle of Labuan it was liberated by the 9th Division of Australian Imperial Force on 10 June 1945 and placed under a British Military Administration until 15 July 1946, when it was incorporated into North Borneo Crown Colony.^[1] During this time, the Crown Colony government re-established much of the infrastructure that had been destroyed during the war.^[9][10] The island later became part of the state of Sabah and Malaysia in 1963 before the state government of Sabah ceded the island to the federal government in 1984.^[1] It was declared an international offshore financial centre and free trade zone in 1990 to assist the development of Victoria.^[1][11]

Economy

Labuan Port, an important area where economic activities for the island operated.

The major products produced on Labuan and exported through Labuan Port include copra, rubber and sago.^[12] Labuan Port is on a natural deep-water bay and large vessels can anchor there as the island are free from any sort of threat like typhoons and hurricanes. Vessels received include containers, bulk, and general cargoes. The main jetty is 244 metres long with an alongside depth of 8.5 metres and it can accommodate vessels to 16 thousand DWT. The wharf has four berths. There are about 15.6 thousand square metres available in open storage, two warehouses and a container yard. A ten thousand square metre yard and warehouses are available outside the port. Labuan Port has capacity to handle 100 thousand TEUs of containerised cargo per annum. There are five private jetties in Labuan Port. The Shell Jetty specialises in petroleum; the Iron Ore Jetty; the Methanol Jetty; and two offshore wheat and maize jetties called the Asian Supply Base Jetty and the Sabah Flour Mill Jetty.^[12]

One of Victoria's main features is the Financial Park along Jalan Merdeka which houses international offshore banks, insurance and trust companies. It is an offshore support hub for deepwater oil and gas activities in the region. In 2012, Victoria had a population of over 85,000 with nearly half of those coming from elsewhere in Malaysia and from Brunei Darussalam. It has a 1,500-seat capacity convention hall and a large shopping mall. This modern complex is reputed to be the only one of its kind to be found in any International Offshore Financial Centre in the world.

Climate

Climate data for Victoria
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	30 (86)	30 (86)	31 (87)	32 (89)	32 (89)	31 (88)	31 (88)	31 (88)	31 (87)	31 (87)	31 (87)	30 (86)	30.9 (87.3)
Average low °C (°F)	24 (76)	24 (76)	24 (76)	24 (76)	24 (76)	24 (76)	25 (77)	24 (76)	24 (76)	24 (76)	24 (76)	24 (76)	24.1 (76.1)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	112 (4.4)	117 (4.6)	150 (5.9)	297 (11.7)	345 (13.6)	351 (13.8)	318 (12.5)	297 (11.7)	417 (16.4)	465 (18.3)	419 (16.5)	284 (11.2)	3,572 (140.6)
Source: Weatherbase [13]

References

1. Stephen R. Evans; Abdul Rahman Zainal; Rod Wong Khet Ngee (1996). The History of Labuan Island (Victoria Island) (PDF). Calendar Print Pte Ltd. ISBN 981-00-7764-5.
2. R. W. McColl (1 January 2005). Encyclopedia of World Geography. Infobase Publishing. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-0-8160-7229-3.
3. Carlos Ramirez-Faria (1 January 2007). Concise Encyclopeida Of World History. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. pp. 97–. ISBN 978-81-269-0775-5.
4. B.A. Hussainmiya (2006). "Brunei Revival of 1906 (A Popular History) – The Surrender of Labuan and The First Brunei-British Treaty" (PDF). Brunei Press Sdn Bhd. Bandar Seri Begawan: Universiti Brunei Darussalam. pp. 12/34. ISBN 99917-32-15-2. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
5. W. H. Treacher, C.M.G. M.A. Oxon (1891). "British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo" (PDF). University of California Libraries. Trinity Theological College. pp. 12 / Chapter VI. Pages 84–92. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
6. Sabah. Jawatankuasa Penerbitan Perayaan Sabah 100 Tahun (1982). Sejarah Sabah dalam gambar (1881-1981) (in Malay). Jawatankuasa Penerbitan Perayaan Sabah 100 Tahun.
7. Stephen R. Evans; Abdul Rahman Zainal; Rod Wong Khet Ngee (1996). The history of Labuan Island (Victoria Island). Calendar Print Pte Ltd. ISBN 978-981-00-7764-8.
8. T. A. Edwin Gibson; G. Kingsley Ward (1989). Courage remembered: the story behind the construction and maintenance of the Commonwealth's military cemeteries and memorials of the wars of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0-7710-8786-8.
9. Keat Gin Ooi (1 January 2004). Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor. ABC-CLIO. pp. 1177–. ISBN 978-1-57607-770-2.
10. Dewan budaya (in Malay). Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. 2002.
11. "Chapter 8: Labuan International Offshore Financial Centre". Bank Negara Malaysia. Retrieved 1 May 2014. Labuan was declared as an International Offshore Financial Centre (IOFC) in October 1990 to complement the activities of the domestic financial market in Kuala Lumpur, strengthen the contribution of financial services to Gross National Products of Malaysia as well as develop the island and areas within its vicinity.
12. WPS – Labuan Port. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
13. "Weatherbase: Historical Weather for Victoria, Malaysia". Weatherbase. 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2011.