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My wife and I had been discussing a trip to Japan and had told her father. He suggested Norfolk Island. This was not what we particularly wanted to do but he made regular comments as to how he would like to visit the Island. I decided what the heck! He is in his late 80's and one never knows the future. So we went over Easter 2019. No regrets. It is scenically beautiful and has an astonishingly superb world heritage area that would be a delight to anyone with an interest in Australian convict and colonial history. It's very friendly locals also have a complex attitude towards Australia that I found rather fascinating.
While on the island I purchased this history of the island. It was the only comprehensive one that I could find. Unfortunately it only goes up to 1998. There is an excellent chronology, fine maps and illustrations, a good index and it is footnoted very well indeed. The bibliography is superb.
The narrative is in four parts. Part one covers from 1774 when Cook became the first European to step foot on the island through to 1814 when the first penal colony was closed. Part two covers the second penal colony from 1825 to when the convicts left the Island in 1856. Part three is from 1856 when the Pitcairn Islanders arrived through to the end of World War 2 in 1945 with the final part from the end of the war to 1998.
Parts one to three are the most interesting in terms of the colonial aspect and the coming of the Pitcairners. Part four covers mostly administrative issues and the islands relationship with Australia.
Norfolk Island itself is the quintessential speck in the ocean. 8 kilometres by 5 kilometres with an average height of 110 meters and a high point of about 305 meters. There are two uninhabited offshore islands Nepean, where the sandstone for the buildings was quarried and Phillip. Visitors can go for a tramp on Phillip as its slow regeneration takes place after the original colonists allowed pigs, rabbits and goats to denude it natural flora and fauna. The main island itself lacks natural harbours as it is virtually cliff face the entire island with only the Kingston area and 2 other bays being suitable for sea craft and even then with limitations. The Kingston area is home to beautiful Emily Bay that due to its protective reef is the only ideal place for a swim in the very warm waters. Outside the reef we watched a 2 meter swell that the 2 surfers had fun with. I was told that the surf could reach great heights. 2 meters looked enormous to this land lubber.
The site of Cooks first landing is where the present Monument to that event is located in the National Park. This is a place of scenic beauty and there I had the pleasure of watching the rare and endemic Norfolk Parakeet fly into a tree near me. Cook made a report that the island was ideal for the harvesting of endemic Norfolk Pine and flax manufacture. He was wrong on both accounts but the island did make for a brutal penal colony. After the First Fleet had arrived at Port Jackson NSW the colony was established on Norfolk Island at Kingston on March 1788, only 2 weeks after. This makes Kingston the second oldest town in Australia. Some key issues in the early colonial history are covered including the first penal colony and its brutal history, its eventual closure due to cost, the sinking of the Sirius in 1790, the reoccupation of the island and its second penal colony and the again brutal history that included both uprisings and executions.
After the Pitcairn Islanders had outgrown their own speck in the ocean they were offered Norfolk Island as a new home by the British government so with that offer the entire population of 194 moved lock stock and barrel to Norfolk in 1856. Some never adjusted to the larger islands lifestyle and there was movement back by some families as early as 1858 with others following later. The Melanesian Mission built St Barnabus in 1880. We had the pleasure of a visit to this church and I recommend it to any traveller to the island. In 1902 the Pacific Cable came to Norfolk Island with a station at Anson Bay. This had the outside world closer than ever before with the next major event being WW2. The allies built the first aerodrome with the RNZAF stationed and doing patrols. This was a huge change for the seemingly insular islanders as they also had US and Australian military personal stationed on the island. Air travel became the major form of transport from then on.
The author writes at the start of Chapter 2 in part III “By contrast, the action filled decades highlighted by the violence, injustice and misery that preceded 1856, the pattern of Norfolk history after the arrival of the Pitcairners seems rather unspectacular. This is inevitable. The Pitcairners were a quiet, inoffensive people, much given to psalm singing and not at all to brawling-there was not a criminal amongst them. Whatever the future held in the way of disputes with the government, there was no bloodshed. If the story of Norfolk after 1856 seems prosaic by comparison with the stream of unrest that went before, it is still a better narrative. Commonplace affairs, though less exciting, are preferable to disasters.” I could not agree more. In fact what I found interesting to read from this book was that from 1945 onwards the administrative and political discourse covered may well be pedestrian to some but having been there for a week and listened to the Islanders thoughts on their relationship with the Australian Federal government I actually found the more mundane discussions on administrative disputes and even talk of succession interesting. A definitive case of “you had to have been there” I suppose. Part IV covered such items as aviation, harbours, education, law and administration among other such mundane topics. But in the end it all came down to constitutional issues and with that the relationship with the Australian Federal government.
Since this book was written a lot has happened in terms of Island status within the Commonwealth. As this book explains from the time of the Pitcairners arrival there has been dispute as to their status. The Pitcairners (who to this day dominate) claim they were ceded the island as self-governing under the British crown. The Australian Federal government disagree. As recently as 2016 the Federal government changed the status of the island and incorporated it into local government status. With that comes all the federal goodies such as welfare and voting rights. And then comes things they don't like such as taxes etc. While there the islanders had a tent embassy to explain their case to visitors such as myself. This item will explain in detail.
https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/resource/norfolk-islanders-take-bitter-independence-row-to-un/
This item writes “It is fair to say most Australians would be surprised by the news that indigenous islanders have gone to the United Nations in their campaign for restoration of the self-government stripped by Canberra in 2016.” and that is very true. When I told family and friends of this dispute they were amazed. An example I gave was the young girl working at the apartments we stayed at making it abundantly clear she was not an Aussie and had in fact “backpacked around Australia”. She was less forthcoming when I asked her about how she applied for a visa. “I have a passport” she said. It made my wife and I think that there was a little bit of wanting the cake and eating it as well. The request for grants to the Feds to assist with such things as the pier at Cascade Harbour seem a little too regular to me. I do understand some issues would rile though. The airport runway needs upgrading and it is suggested that rock will be imported in with that project. The islanders are correct when they say this will be an ecological disaster if such things as frogs, cane toads and various other nasties appear and devastate an already hurt ecosystem. This is a tough subject for the islanders in general and they have my sympathies. They are seeing their population drop and there are several empty shop fronts in the main settlement of Burnt Pine. They, for example, only have an optometrist turn up from the mainland periodically. The shelves of the supermarkets were beginning to empty when we were there as the long expected ship had not turned up. We could get no eggs for example. Milk is all long life unless one is fast to the butcher to get fresh milk from the only supplier on the island. We heard that one of the two butchers was in fact closing and there are many for sale signs everywhere.
But in the end so what I suppose. If one wants an isolated lifestyle one must accept the trials and tribulations that come with that. The slowness is a pleasure. The Kingston world heritage area is one of most interesting places I have ever been to. I made visit every day. The cemetery it contains is a must see for the sheer beauty alone and also its brutal history is fascinating. The museums are very good. It contains a lovely wind swept golf course and Emily Bay is magnificent for a swim and dive. The quarks of seeing the names from the Mutiny on the Bounty, the Christians and the Quintals for example, just about everywhere gives the island a unique feel. The cattle having right of way over cars is fun, the chance to take some great pics in some very isolated places is a must for those with that bent and the local fish The Trumpeter is delicious. Don't miss the weekly Fish Fry, well worth the price.
Would I go back? Yes but I suspect it will be later in life. A book recommended to those that have been there and found it interesting.