List of administrative heads of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands

This is a list of the administrative heads of Cocos (Keeling) Islands since 23 November 1955, when it became an external territory of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Ordinal	Officeholder	Title	Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
Cocos (Keeling) Islands Territory of the Commonwealth of Australia
1	H. J. Hull	Official Representative of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	23 November 1955	13 November 1957
2	C. H. Cox	Acting Official Representative of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	14 December 1957	13 March 1958
3	John William Stokes	Official Representative of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	8 November 1958	27 July 1960
4	Charles Ivens Buffett		27 July 1960	17 April 1966
5	P. L. Ryan		18 April 1966	19 June 1966
6	Peter C. Burbrook		20 June 1966	25 June 1969
7	C. W. Suthern		26 June 1969	28 July 1972
8	C. McManus		29 July 1972	16 July 1975
9	Robert James Linford	Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	23 July 1975	15 November 1977
10	Charles Ivens Buffett		16 November 1977	25 July 1979
Granted autonomy from the Commonwealth of Australia
(10)	Charles Ivens Buffett	Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	25 July 1979	31 December 1981		(contd.)
11	Eric Herbert Hanfield		21 April 1982	22 November 1983
12	Kenneth Chan		14 December 1983	6 April 1984
Integrated with Australia in an act of self-determination (see 1984 status referendum)
(12)	Kenneth Chan	Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	6 April 1984	19 November 1985		(contd.)
13	Carolyn Stuart		20 November 1985	December 1987
−	W. N. Syrette	Acting Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	January 1988	30 June 1988
−	M. Jopling		1 July 1988	7 November 1988
14	Dawn Lawrie	Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	8 November 1988	27 November 1990
15	Barry T. Cunningham		1 December 1990	4 December 1992
16	John Bell Read		5 December 1992	4 December 1994
−	Danny Ambrose Gillespie	Acting Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	4 December 1994	31 January 1995
17	Martin Mowbray	Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	1 February 1995	30 January 1996
−	Jarl Andersson	Acting Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	1 February 1996	1 July 1996
Part of Australian Indian Ocean Territories of the Commonwealth of Australia
(−)	Jarl Andersson	Acting Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands Acting Administrator of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories	1 July 1996	12 April 1997		(contd.)
18	Maureen Ellis		12 April 1997	30 September 1997
19	Ronald George Harvey		1 October 1997 (1997-10-01)	30 October 1998 (1998-10-30)	1 year, 29 days
−	Graham Nicholls	Acting Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Acting Administrator of Christmas Island Acting Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories	1 November 1998 (1998-11-01)	3 February 1999 (1999-02-03)	94 days
20	William "Bill" Leonard Taylor	Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Administrator of Christmas Island Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories	4 February 1999 (1999-02-04)	30 July 2003 (2003-07-30)	4 years, 176 days
−	Ray Stone	Acting Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Acting Administrator of Christmas Island Acting Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories	31 July 2003 (2003-07-31)	1 November 2003 (2003-11-01)	93 days
21	Evan Williams	Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Administrator of Christmas Island Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories	1 November 2003 (2003-11-01)	31 October 2005 (2005-10-31)	2 years, 92 days
22	Neil Lucas		30 January 2006 (2006-01-30)	22 February 2008 (2008-02-22)	2 years, 23 days
−	Julian Yates	Acting Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Acting Administrator of Christmas Island Acting Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories	22 February 2008 (2008-02-22)	28 February 2008 (2008-02-28)	6 days
−	Sheryl Klaffer		28 February 2009 (2009-02-28)	2009 (2009)	0 years
−	Stephen Clay		2009 (2009)	5 October 2009 (2009-10-05)	0 years
23	Brian James Lacy	Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Administrator of Christmas Island Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories	5 October 2009 (2009-10-05)	29 September 2012 (2012-09-29)	2 years, 360 days
24	Jon Stanhope		5 October 2012 (2012-10-05)	6 October 2014 (2014-10-06)	2 years, 1 day
25	Barry Haase		6 October 2014 (2014-10-06)	4 October 2017	2 years, 363 days
26	Natasha Griggs		5 October 2017	4 October 2022	4 years, 364 days
27	Sarah Vandenbroek[1]	Acting Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Acting Administrator of Christmas Island Acting Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories	4 October 2022	26 May 2023	295 days
28	Farzian Zainal	Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Administrator of Christmas Island Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories	26 May 2023	incumbent	2 years, 78 days

Flag of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands

See also

• Australia portal

• King of the Cocos Islands
• List of administrative heads of Christmas Island