 Panoramic view of Gaya Island, taken in 2006 | |
 Interactive map of Gaya Island | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Tunku Abdul Rahman Park |
| Coordinates | 6°1′5″N116°2′7″E / 6.01806°N 116.03528°E /6.01806; 116.03528 |
| Archipelago | Borneo (Greater Sunda Islands) |
| Adjacent to | South China Sea |
| Highest elevation | 300 m (1000 ft) |
| Highest point | Gaya Island High Point (300 metres (980 ft))[3] |
| Administration | |
| State |  Sabah |
| Division | West Coast |
| District | Kota Kinabalu |
| Demographics | |
| Population | est. 20,000–30,000[notes 1] (2024) |
Gaya Island (Malay:Pulau Gaya;Kadazan Dusun:Gayo;West Coast Bajau:Goyoh) is a sizeable island located in the West Coast Division ofKota Kinabalu District, Sabah in the South China Sea in Malaysia. With a size of 1,483 hectares (3,665 acres), the island forms part of theTunku Abdul Rahman Park (TARP) with an elevation of up to 300 metres (980 ft). Severalridges rise more than 180 metres (590 ft), peaking at 300 metres (980 ft), along the backbone of the island.
Historically, Gaya Island was the settlement harbour of the BritishNorth Borneo Chartered Company (NBCC).[5][6] Faced with various problems with the lack of streams and rivers,infertile soils, and the island position sheltered fromwinds, Gaya did not flourish as expected and was further razed to the ground by local resistance leader Mat Sallehduring a rebellion on 9 July 1897 and never thereafter rebuilt.[7] It has been gazetted as aforest reserve since 1923, during the administration of BritishNorth Borneo.[8] In 1974, the TARP became Sabah's second national park gazetted after theKinabalu Park.[9] Gaya is the largest island gazetted within the TARP, is closest to the state capital and is covered with densevirgin tropical forest.[3]
The island has 20 kilometres (12 mi) ofhiking trails and three five-star resorts named Gayana Marine Resort, home to the Marine Ecology Research Centre; the neighbouring Gaya Island Resort (by YTL Hotel Group); and the Bunga Raya Island Resort on the northeast part of the island.[10][11] The island is known as a paradise forsnorkellers, anddivers while also offeringpaddleboarding,zip lining andguided treks on its lush forests.[12][13] In the 2010s, there has been a plan to turn Gaya Island into a city island and tourism hub.[14][15][16] Acable car line has also been proposed before to connect with the city centre.[17] In 2024, the island has an estimated population of 30,000, with only 1,000 belonging to the original island inhabitants, while the rest wereillegal immigrants arriving in the 1970s.[4]
Gaya Island derived its name from the word "gayo", which means "big" in theKadazan-Dusun,[18] as well as "goyoh" in theBajau languages.[2] According to J. H. Macartney, a former local British Secretary for the Local Government in North Borneo, the name "gaya" comes from the local Bajau word "goyoh", which is translated as "big" inEnglish. Therefore, Gaya Island literally translates as "Big Island" by the British.[2] The island soil is described as brightred clay.[19]
As with most islands in northernBorneo, Gaya Island was once under thethalassocracy of theSultanate of Brunei.[20] In 1765, British navigatorThomas Forrest, serving under theEast India Company (EIC), made a survey on the island.[21] On 29 December 1877, SultanAbdul Momin of Brunei made acession and conferred the title of "Maharaja of Gaya and Sandakan" to German adventurer, businessman and diplomatBaron von Overbeck,[22] and the following year, on 22 January 1878, SultanJamal ul-Azam ofSulu also made a cession and conferred the title of "Dato Bendahara and Raja of Sandakan" to him.[23][24] This resulted in Overbeck having the authority over the area in northern Borneo, fromKimanis toSibuku Bay, as well as islands such as Gaya Island, Ambong Island andMarudu.[25] When Overbeck left, all rights were passed into British colonial merchant and entrepreneurAlfred Dent, who later formed theNorth Borneo Chartered Company (NBCC).[25]
The foundation of Gaya Island as an earlytrading settlement is associated with the foundation of the town ofJesselton.[26] Before theEuropeans' arrival, the island was inhabited by the localBajau people.[27] In 1882, the NBCC set up an early British trading settlement on the island with the focus on the development of infrastructure for it to become the central administration ofNorth Borneo as well as the collection site forraw materials gathered from thewestern coast.[26][27] Therefore, NBCC provided various infrastructure facilities such as administrative buildings, jetty warehouses, rows of shops and housing areas based on non-permanent materials such asnibong (oncosperma tigillarium) andrumbia (metroxylon sagu) roofs.[26] Based on the book of "Exploration of Mount Kina Balu, North Borneo" by English explorer and naturalistJohn Whitehead in 1893, he summarised the condition of the island infrastructure as follows:[28]
Gaya Island on 9 April 1885 had severalChinese shops built in a row facing thesea on a flat area of several acres, but the resident of Gaya Island at that time felt that the 'Town Lot' on the island would not achieve progress because a year later when the island was revisited, it was found that the shops, houses and administrative buildings were in a dilapidated condition and no longer suitable for use since the structure were only made based on ordinary materials found on the island.[26][28]
The NBCC settlement on the island did not last longer than expected as a result of various problems such as extremelyhot temperatures, shallow waters, difficulty in obtaining cleanwater resources and destruction caused byMat Salleh's rebellion in 1897.[26][27] This situation caused the British to start looking for a new settlement area to replace the island's role as the administrative centre and port for the western coast of North Borneo.[26] As a result, Gantian was deemed a suitable location but due to itsmangrove swamps that made it difficult to build arailway system and difficult shipping routes with declining trade,[29] mainland Jesselton was founded in 1899 as the most suitable replacement of Gaya Island, named in honour ofCharles Jessel, a manager of the NBCC.[30][31]
ThroughoutWorld War II, the island was spared from destruction, and until the formation of the Malaysian federation, the island administration was passed down by the British to Sabah and subsequently under Malaysian sovereignty. In 1974, the major part of Gaya and Sapi islands was gazetted as TARP, covering an area of 8,990 acres (36.4 km2).[32] In 1979, the park was increased to 12,185 acres (49.31 km2) with the inclusion of the three nearby islands ofManukan, Mamutik andSulug.[3][33] The park is spread over 4,929 hectares (49.29 km2), two-thirds of which cover the sea.[34] In present days, the park is managed by Sabah Parks, with many of its areas classified under protected areas; this includes sites for educational nature trails, nature and wildlife conservation andproboscis monkey preservation through the Gaya Island Resort Wildlife Centre. The Gaya Island Resort Marine Centre, meanwhile, advocates for coral reef restoration, turtle rescue, and conservation through education.[9] Starting from the 2010s, there have been proposals to develop the island as the city tourism hub with the construction of facilities such as cable cars, a police base and the resettlement of the refugee inhabitants.[14][15][17]
Starting in the 1970s, Filipino-Moro refugees comprisingTausūg andBajau peoples began to inhabit the island in their bid to escape from thewar in the southern Philippines.[35][36][37] Their massive presence started throughout the administration of the Muslim-ledUnited Sabah National Organisation (USNO) ofMustapha Harun.[4] Despite this legacy, until present, neither theMalaysian federal government nor theSabah state government officially recognises the settlement and the inhabitants, as they are known asillegal immigrants.[38][39] The eastern shore of Gaya Island supports a well-known illegal Filipino colony, calledKampung Lok Urai (Lok Urai Village), withstilt houses girdling the beach as far as the eye can see. It has a large floating population of largely Muslim Filipinos who provide the capital city of Kota Kinabalu with a source ofcheap labour.[35] It is considered a dangerous, high-crime or "no-go" area by both the police and Sabahan locals.[14][40] The stilt houses are linked by walkways of weathered planks. As the population grew, new houses spread seaward, with no regard forsanitation.[37][38] The population on the island have also been criticised for their rubbish-throwing attitude, where most of the rubbish will be found floating around the sea near their settlements.[41] Three fires in 1994, 1998 and 2014 have wiped out nearly half of Pondo Village.[42]
The Sabah state government has since been working to end the Filipino squatter problems that have become the main cause for rampant crimes, terrorism and drug trafficking in the state, especially in Kota Kinabalu, as their location is too close to business areas, by relocating these squatters to a proper place for proper management,[43] while many of the problematic, illegal immigrants will be deported back to the Philippines and their further entry will be prevented.[15][44][45] After the fire in Pondo Village in 2014, the Sabah state government has proposed to move the illegal immigrants on the island toKinarut with a better facility of modern houses. This proposal has been vehemently opposed by Sabahan citizens, including some demands addressed to theChief Minister at the time,Musa Aman, to resign for mishandling his power.[46] In late 2016, the state government submitted recommendations to the Malaysian federal government through the Main Committee on Management of Foreigners to move any refugee placement schemes in the state to other more suitable locations far from the towns and industrial development areas.[47] The squatters' relocation is in line with theKota Kinabalu metropolitan development to turn Gaya Island into a city island and tourism hub.[15] In 2024, Chief MinisterHajiji Noor urged for an immediate relocation of the island residents to the mainland to allow the island to be transformed into a tourist destination, by which the early original island inhabitants of West Coast Bajaus and Ubian, supported by indigenous Kadazan-Dusunsmember of parliament (MP)Marcus Mojigoh, would distance the original inhabitants from the illegal immigrants by opposing the relocation plan from their ancestral lands.[4]
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The island is situated off the western coast of northernBorneo, opposite the city of Kota Kinabalu and the Likas residential and commercial district, the former Likas Plain. Its geographical characteristic is ahilly, forested island withcoral reefs,mangrove forests, and beaches.[48] With a size of 1,483 hectares (3,665 acres), it is the largest island within theTunku Abdul Rahman Park (TARP).[9] Before theIce Age, the islands of the present TARP, including Gaya, formed part of theCrocker Range formation, consisting of a mass ofsandstone andsedimentary rock on the mainland of northern Borneo.[3][49][50] Around a million years ago, the meltingice brought about changes in thesea level, and parts of the mainland were cut off by the sea to form the five islands of Gaya, Sapi, Manukan, Mamutik, and Sulug,[3] which can be seen from the exposed sandstone of the coastline forming thecliffs, caves,honeycombs, and deepcrevices.[51][52] The highest point on the island is located in the centre, the Gaya Island High Point (Malay:Puncak Tinggi Pulau Gaya), at a height of 300 metres (980 ft).[3]
It features a highbiodiversity,[10] withmammal species such as thered giant flying squirrel, proboscis monkey,long-tailed macaque,Sunda pangolin,Bornean wild boar, andreptile such asmonitor lizards.[53][54] The island also became the home for severalbird species, such as theoriental pied hornbill, thecollared kingfisher, and the rarePhilippine megapode.[55] The surrounding waters feature a variety offish species, such as theblack-blotched porcupinefish andtwo-lined monocle bream, along with various corals,crustaceans, and seagrass.[56]
The island features atropical rainforest climate (Af), characterised by high temperatures andhumidity year-round, with average temperatures between 25 °C (77 °F) and 32 °C (90 °F). Twomonsoon seasons occur on the island, from March to early September, which is suitable for activities likesnorkelling anddiving, while the second monsoon season, from November to February, is marked by heavyrainfall and rougherseas.[57]
Since 1923, the island has been gazetted as aforest reserve by the authority of BritishNorth Borneo.[8] Further, in 1974, the island was gazetted as TARP by Sabah Parks.[32] The areas within the TARP also became the rehabilitation site of themarine ecosystem, with Gaya Island Resort Marine Centre initiating itsturtle rescue programme, especially for endangered turtle species such as thegreen sea turtle andhawksbill turtle.[58] Through collaboration with Reef Check Malaysia, an organisation that promotescoral reef conservation and management in the country, the marine centre also works in part on the coral reef restoration within the island.[58] The Gaya Island Resort Wildlife Centre focuses on its land wildlife habitat conservation, such as the proboscis monkey, with an estimate of a hundred living around the island.[58]
The island is inhabited byseveral ethnic groups, the most being the West CoastBajau, Kagayan and Ubian, theBruneian Malays,Bisaya,Rungus,Chinese andSuluk,[59] including recent migrants ofMoro ethnic groups arriving from thesouthern part of the Philippines due to theMoro conflict in the 1970s.[36][60] In 1884, prior to the establishment of British settlement on the island, the population stood around 384 people, with around 70Chinese people.[61] By 2024, the population had increased to over 20,000–30,000, with only 1,000 of the residents being born from the original inhabitants throughout the British administration and before the massive influx of migrants.[4]
The main sources of income for the Gaya Island inhabitants arefishing and harvesting marine life such assea cucumbers,shells, andclams, includingpufferfish,[62] with their catch sold to the markets in mainland Kota Kinabalu, such as theAnjung Kinabalu.[59] Others also work in the boat transport sector and boat making, the island resort and hotel sector, while the islander women do matweaving andcraft-making from sea produce. The close proximity to the state capital also provides the city with cheap labour from the island.[59]
The island once housed various administration buildings during the British period.[26] Since the relocation of many government infrastructures to the mainland in the 1800s, the island houses theSabah Parks jetty and other tourism facilities aside from the islanders' stilt houses. The site on the edge of Gaya Island nearest to neighbouring Sapi Island is used by the park authority, which offers a small, quiet beach for public recreational use.[63] There are two schools serving for the education of the islanders: theprimary school ofSK Pulau Gaya [ms] and thesecondary school ofSMK Pulau Gaya [ms].[64][65] There are around threemosques within the settlements on Gaya Island, with the Al-Alif Mosque being the main mosque.[66] In 2019, aclinic also started to be established to improve the basic health of island residents;[67][68] one such clinic is the Medisinar Clinic.[69] Azip line connecting Gaya and neighbouring Sapi Island is also available within the TARP.[12]
Jesselton Point Waterfront in the mainland of Kota Kinabalu serves as the main ferry terminal for the islands within the TARP and the resorts on the islands, such as the Bunga Raya Island Resort, Gaya Island Resort, and the Gayana Marine Resort.[70] In 2025, the Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) opened a new tourist jetty to serve as the main transportation to the city's TARP,[71] while ensuring safer and higher-quality transportation for tourists.[72]
Text is licensed by Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Environment Management under CC BY-4.0
Media related toGaya Island at Wikimedia Commons
