European Discovery:

Norfolk Island was first brought to the attention of the rest of the world when it was discovered on a passage northwards from New Zealand in 1774 by James Cook, Captain of HMS Resolution. He named this tiny island “Norfolk” after “that Noble family”, that of the 9th Duke and Duchess of Norfolk. He sailed up the east coast, only stopping to replenish supplies of fresh water and search for green vegetation as a supplement to the diet to keep scurvy at bay. It was also recorded in his journal that the magnificent pines and flax growing in abundance on the island could be beneficial to the English navy as timber for masts and spars and flax for sail-making. Both these assumptions subsequently turned out to be incorrect as the pine trees had a very short grain which prevented any “give” and the flax was found to be inferior for sail-making needs.

It is not known if the island was inhabited in 1774 as there is no record of Cook sailing around the other side where there were sandy beaches and possible landing places. In 1995 a small site was unearthed which confirmed the presence of a Polynesian settlement – now dated at between 750AD to about 1450AD.

 1788:

The first records of the Island being inhabited was when a small group of seamen, settlers and convicts arrived from Sydney in March 1788 under the command of Lieutenant Philip Gidley King. This was ostensibly to stop the French from claiming it but also to establish a small settlement to inspect the pines and flax. The ground was found to be fertile and the weather, although blustery, was not subject to extremes of hot and cold. The island was quickly used as an agricultural settlement, suppling salt meat and grain for despatch to the colony in New South Wales.

Norfolk Island is quite small at about 2,000 hectares. It is in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean with the nearest land being New Caledonia to the north and New Zealand to the south, both about 800 to 900 kilometres away. Sydney is1200 kilometres to the west. It was an ideal place to establish a convict settlement – and to become the “bread basket” for Sydney – and lasted for 30 years as the “First Settlement”. Land grants were given to free settlers who set up farms across the island and many convicts eventually earned their ‘ticket of leave’ and went on to own and farm land.

The place had some semblance of normality. Although men and women convicts were sent here they were allowed to cohabitate, have children, build small houses on allotted pieces of land and were generally treated reasonably well. However, they were always convicts until gaining parole, punished by floggings, locked in solitary confinement and, for serious crimes, sent to the gallows. The Commandants in charge were stern but not particularly cruel and there are many instances recorded of leniencies. The settlement was closed in 1814 as it had outlived its usefulness. By this time the Napoleonic Wars were nearly over, Sydney could maintain its food supply as it had spread north and south as well as west to the Blue Mountains. Also, the Island was too hard to service as the ever-pounding ocean, mainly from the southwest, often prevented safe landings as there was no harbour.

Above: William Bradley, Norfolk Island (Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

Below: William Neate Chapman, View of Water Mill in Arthur’s Vale, 1796, pen and ink (Public Records Office, London)

1825:
After being uninhabited for some years, the Second Settlement was started in 1825, this time as a penal settlement. It was to be the most infamous place - probably in the world – for the cruel, harsh and inhumane treatment of the convicts. The Island was forbidden to free settlers, only Government ships or ships in distress could come and no women convicts were allowed so the men locked in goals and barracks succumbed to other methods of relief. The Commandants were unfeeling and had no interest in the needs of the men; they were only interested in statistics and bureaucratic reports that could enhance their position.

Building programs characterise the Second Settlement – they provided infrastructure for the convict establishment and had the added benefit of keeping the convicts busy. This legacy can be seen today and is described as one of the finest collections of Georgian buildings in the world. Mutinies were a fairly regular occurrence with several leading to murders of officers and mass executions of the convicts involved. Only one Commandant during this blighted time, Alexander Maconochie, stands out for his humane treatment of convicts and ideas of penal reform. However his reformist ideas were beyond his time and he was replaced by a number of cruel ‘disciplinarian’ Commandants. The colony was shut down in 1855, as after 30 years of degradation, there was no alternative but to close it.

1856:

The Third Settlement was begun in 1856 with the arrival of the entire population of Pitcairn Island – 194 people looking for a new home. These people had outgrown Pitcairn with only about 30 hectares able to be used, the rest being volcanic rock. For this reason they had requested the British Government to re-locate them. As descendants of the Bounty mutineers they were a tight knit community and required everyone to elect to leave before making the decision to go. They arrived on June 8th, now known as Bounty or Anniversary Day, and the cause for a yearly re-enactment of the landing with a community picnic. Life here was hard but only a few returned to Pitcairn and the remainder turned Norfolk into a place of peace and happiness, overcoming its very sad past. The Third Settlement is still ongoing. World Wars I and II interrupted life with many volunteers not returning and the building of the airstrip in WWII opened up the island to tourism, which is the mainstay of the island’s viability today.

When the Pitcairn Islanders came to Norfolk Island they brought their Pitkern language with them. This language was created by the combination of the English of the mutineers, the Tahitian of the women and some West Indian Creole, the influence of mutineer Edward Young. On Norfolk Island the language has continued to develop with new words and phrases to describe their new surroundings, so that now it is considered a separate language called Norf’k. In 1979 Norfolk Island became a self governing external territory of Australia. It has its own Legislative Assembly and many of its own laws.

The Polynesians

The last settlement to be discovered on Norfolk Island was actually the first – the Polynesian settlement. During the First Settlement from 1788 to 1814 many artefacts had been found. Philip Gidley King kept a journal during his years as Commandant and there are many references made to the possibility of earlier inhabitants. Remains of a canoe were found, a carved human figure and there was a clump of banana suckers growing in the swamp behind the landing area. As the Island became an agriculture area it was divided into provisional land grants. Artefacts such as stone adzes, hammer stones and flakes were discovered in the area now known as Kingston. These artefacts were interesting and recorded in journals but had no provenance as many of them were surface finds. During the Second Settlement, there does not appear to be any mention of stone artefacts, presumably because that Settlement had no other purpose except crime, punishment, disease and death – nothing of a frivolous nature seemed to have existed.

It was not until the early 1920s and ‘30s that the assumed presence of Polynesians or Melanesians was again recognised and academic studies were made of the abovementioned finds. Finally, permission was granted to an expedition to excavate a possible site in Emily Bay and between 1995 and 1999 the remains of a settlement were found: middens, hearths, a paved area that was probably a marae (a religious or sacred site), parts of posts that probably belonged to a hut, fish hooks, parts of a harpoon, hundreds of basalt flakes, basalt adzes and flakes of obsidian (volcanic glass that is not found on Norfolk Island). All the artefacts were catalogued and examined by academic experts. The organic material was radiocarbon dated and compared with other Polynesian material, finally establishing that there were Polynesian people here about 1000 years ago. No skeletal remains were found which was disappointing, as this would have revealed so much more about this or any other sites that may have existed.

Links:
Norfolk Island Tourism www.theworldofnorfolk.com.au
Norfolk Air www.norfolkair.com
KAVHA (Kingston, Arthurs Vale Historic Area) www.kavha.gov.nf
Norfolk Island Government site www.norfolk.gov.nf