Police used tear gas on Tuesday to end three days of unrest sparked by the death of an Iranian asylum seeker.
CCTV images appear to show two detainees, one armed with a machete, lighting and throwing a petrol bomb.
Photos of the aftermath show broken windows, ransacked offices and smashed equipment.
The unrest began on Sunday after an escaped detainee was found dead. Inmates started fires and barricaded themselves inside a compound with weapons.
Meanwhile, a Border Force spokesperson confirmed that seven detainees who allegedly participated in the unrest were being transferred from Christmas Island to Australia's mainland.
"The detainees are travelling on a charter flight accompanied by security officers. Restraints are used where appropriate for the safety and security of detainees, staff and the aircraft," a statement provided to the BBC said.
Christmas Island is a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, 2,650km (1,650 miles) north-west of Perth.
The facility houses asylum seekers alongside people, including New Zealand citizens, whose Australian visas have been cancelled after they committed crimes.
Australia's immigration minister Peter Dutton earlier defended housing asylum seekers with "serious criminals" at the detention centre.
Mr Dutton told the ABC that the asylum seekers held at the compound with the convicted criminals - including the New Zealand nationals - were only sent there after risk assessments.
"Some [asylum seekers] have had an extreme threat assessment worked up and that's as a result of their own behaviour," he said during a radio interview.
"That is the basis on which the [Australian] Border Force officers make a decision about whether somebody is at a high security facility or whether they are at a low-security arrangement."
He blamed the unrest on "a hardened criminal population that occupies the immigration detention centre".
He also rejected suggestions that some of the New Zealanders held at the camp had only been convicted of minor crimes such as shoplifting and traffic offences.
Under controversial policies, Australia sends all intercepted asylum seekers to Christmas Island as well as Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the South Pacific.

Connor Smith, 19, "turned" on work colleague Anil Jnagal during a night out on Birmingham's Broad Street, the city's crown court heard.
He was drunk and had cannabis before attacking Mr Jnagal, who had been trying to calm him down.
Smith admitted wounding and his barrister said he was remorseful but added "nothing is going to bring the complainant's ear back".
More updates on this and other stories in Birmingham and the Black Country
Prosecutor Tariq Shakoor said Smith, of Summerlee Road, worked with Mr Jnagal, 25, at a branch of Harvester in Birmingham's Star City leisure complex.
He told the court the victim remembered Smith "turning on him" and the pair fell to the floor, where the defendant bit his ear.
The court heard reconstructive surgery was unlikely due to the nature of the injury.
Jonathan Barker, defending, said Smith was in an emotional state at the time of the attack due to the recent death of his aunt.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Bond, said: "All the victim did was to try and stop you being aggressive towards others.
"It ended up with you quite deliberately using your teeth as a weapon and you bit off a really large chunk. About half of his ear has completely disappeared.
"This is not something that happens in a millisecond - to bite through somebody's ear takes real determination and a real effort."

Tait, who picked up a medal alongside Kate Hornsey in the women's pair, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2013.
Australian Rowing head coach Chris O'Brien said: "Sarah has been, and will continue to be, an inspiration to many Australian rowers.
"She was a strong role model to young athletes, and particularly influential with our emerging female athletes."
Tait and Hornsey finished behind Great Britain's Heather Stanning and Helen Glover in the 2012 pairs final, which was GB's first gold of London 2012.
Glover became friends with Tait following the final and told BBC World Service she was an "incredible personality".
She added: "To achieve so much in her too short life - two beautiful children, a husband, an Olympic silver medal, the list goes on.
"Above all that, she was an inspirational and truly lovely person that has paved the way for women in sport at home in Australia and all over the world."
The Australian government has released pictures showing the riot at Christmas Island migrant detention centre earlier this week and its aftermath.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
A man who bit off half his friend's ear has been jailed for two years.
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Australian rower Sarah Tait, who won silver at the London Olympics in 2012, has died aged 33.