It
is
my
opinion
that
Norfolk
Island
is
the Paradise of the South Pacific
with a wealth of beauty and charm.
Norfolk lies in the Pacific Ocean
1,580 kilometres from Sydney Australia and 1,060 kilometres from
Auckland New Zealand descovered by Captain James Cook on his second
world voyage in 1774.
He is believed to have landed at Duncombe Bay,
and a memorial was erected there in 1953 .
Captain Cook reported that the island was fertile and
uninhabited and, when the British Government was preparing to establish
a convict settlement in New South Wales, Captain Arthur Philip, who had
been appointed first Governor, was ordered to secure the island for the
crown at the earliest opportunity.
Accordingly, on February 14, 1788, shortly after the
foundation of Sydney, Phillip sent Lieutenant P.G. King to Norfolk
Island in H.M.S. Supply with a small party, which included nine male
and six female convicts, in order to take possession of the island and
to establish a settlement.
After
five days' search for a suitable landing place, King disembarked his
small party at the head of Sydney Bay, on the southern side of the
island, on March 6.
This settlement, Kingston, thus became the second British settlement in
the Pacific.
The work of clearing land to form the settlement was arduous,
as the whole island was covered with the famous Norfolk Island pines.
Free settlers and convicts continued to arrive, until the population
grew to about 1,000.
But the settlement was expensive to maintain, and the lack of
a harbour, which led to the loss of H.M.S Sirius in 1790, made
communication difficult.
Accordingly, in 1803, the Secretary of State for Colonies
ordered the removal of the inhabitants to other settlements at Port
Phillip or Van Diemen's Land.
Captain Philip King, now Governor, who
entertained great hopes for Norfolk Island, did not pursue these
instructions with any vigour.
However, removals were made during
Bligh's governorship.
Governor Macquarie completed the transfer in
1813, when the last convicts were removed to New Norfolk in Van
Diemen's Land.
In 1826 the re-occupation of Norfolk Island was decided upon,
and another convict settlement established.
The fertile lands were
tilled again; a programme of bridge building and other public works was
pushed ahead.
Most of the substantial buildings and stone ruins on the
island today date from this period.
So also does its unsavoury
reputation as a gaol. It was partly owing to protests about the
brutality of the convict system that it was decided again to abandon
it.
After this decision had been made it was suggested that the
island should become the new home of the Pitcairners, and the
evacuation was arranged to coincide with this plan.
By May, 1855, only
a storekeeper and twelve men were left to await the arrival of the new
settlers.
In the following year the first free and separate settlement
was established. From that date there has been a continuous history of
free settlement, and it is the foundation of this new settlement in
1856 that is being observed as a public holiday known as Bounty Day.
The descendants of the Bounty Mutineers still form the
nucleus
of the Norfolk Island community.
