Norfolk Island 🇳🇫

Archaeological evidence shows East Polynesian settlers occupied the island, with both Polynesian and Melanesian artefacts recovered, suggesting contact from New Caledonia as well. Occupation ceased at least a few hundred years before Europeans arrived, the island's isolation and poor horticultural environment defeating long-term settlement.

Cook arrived on 10 October 1774 aboard HMS Resolution and named the island after Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk. His report of abundant New Zealand flax, a potential source of naval rigging, made the uninhabited island strategically interesting to Britain.

The outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775 had halted penal transportation to the Thirteen Colonies, overcrowding British prisons. In December 1785 the government resolved to send convicts to what is now Australia, the decision that would bring Norfolk Island into the imperial system.

Acting on John Call's proposal, the island was added to the plan for colonising the Colony of New South Wales. Russian policy under Catherine II, including the League of Armed Neutrality, threatened Britain's supply of hemp and flax for Royal Navy cordage and sailcloth, giving the island's flax strategic value.

Lieutenant Philip Gidley King founded the first British penal settlement on Norfolk Island, landing on 6 March 1788 with 15 convicts and seven free men after the First Fleet reached Port Jackson in January and Governor Arthur Phillip ordered him to take control of the island and prepare for commercial development. The settlement, also called Sydney, was reinforced with further convicts and soldiers, marking the start of continuous European involvement; it was ultimately abandoned in 1814.

The First Fleet vessel was lost on the island's coast while quartermaster Robert Watson was still serving aboard. Watson obtained and cultivated a 60-acre grant on the island the following year, an early instance of civilian land settlement.

The Britannia called in November 1793, the first of many whalers seeking water, wood and provisions, and sometimes recruiting islanders as crew. The last recorded call was the Andrew Hicks in August–September 1907, closing more than a century of maritime provisioning trade.

Grose argued the island was difficult for shipping and too expensive to maintain. His view eventually prevailed: departures began in February 1805, only about 200 people remained by 1808, and the remnants were removed in 1813.

From February 1814 until June 1825 the island lay uninhabited, a party having destroyed all buildings so that no rival European power would be tempted to claim it. The eleven-year hiatus interrupted the island's settlement history between its two penal phases.

Remoteness, once a liability, was now valued for detaining recalcitrant male prisoners, and the second penal settlement began in 1825. A study of 6,458 convict records shows most had committed non-violent property offences and served on average three years, contradicting the settlement's reputation.

A second British attempt to use Norfolk Island as a penal colony, notorious for its harshness, ran from 1825 until it was abandoned in 1855.

Repeated unrest marked the second penal settlement's two most intensive decades of coercive discipline. The failures reinforced the island's reputation as a place of severe secondary punishment.

On 29 September 1844 administrative responsibility for the island passed to the Colony of Van Diemen's Land, having belonged to New South Wales since 1788. It was the first of several nineteenth-century experiments in the island's administration.

The run-down began after 1847 and the final convicts left in May 1855, after transportation to Van Diemen's Land ceased in 1853 in favour of penal servitude in the United Kingdom. The island was then vacated, opening the way for civilian resettlement.

On 3 May 1856, 193 descendants of the Bounty mutineers and Tahitians left Pitcairn aboard the Morayshire; 194 arrived on 8 June, a baby having been born in transit. They occupied surviving penal buildings and established farming and whaling, founding the island's enduring community; 8 June is still marked as Bounty Day.

On 1 November 1856 the island was separated from the Colony of Tasmania under powers given by the Australian Waste Lands Act 1855, with the Governor of New South Wales appointed Governor of Norfolk Island with full law-making authority. This 1856 Order in Council became the foundation of the island's distinctive constitutional status.

The mission made the island a regional centre of Anglican activity in the western Pacific, and St Barnabas Chapel was built for it in 1880. In 1920 the mission moved to the Solomon Islands to be nearer its target population.

All Saints Kingston was established in 1870 and St Barnabas Chapel in 1880; a Methodist church followed in 1884 and a Seventh-day Adventist congregation, led by a son of Nobbs, in 1891. These bodies shaped the island's religious landscape for over a century.

The inquiry reopened the question of the island's constitutional status at a time when Australia was moving towards federation after the 1891 constitutional convention. In 1896 the Governor of New Zealand reported that islanders, while opposing any change, would prefer New Zealand control to that of New South Wales.

From 19 March 1897 the Governor of the Colony of New South Wales administered the island, though it was not made part of that colony and remained legally separate. When the Commonwealth of Australia was established on 1 January 1901, the responsibility passed to the Governor of the State of New South Wales.

The Act received royal assent on 19 December 1913, subject to British agreement, and a New South Wales proclamation of 23 December repealed and re-enacted the island's existing laws, including an Administration Law providing for an Administrator, magistrates and a criminal code. It laid the legislative basis for Australian control.

A UK Order in Council of 30 March 1914 under the Australian Waste Lands Act 1855 expressed British agreement, and the Governor-General's proclamation of 17 June gave effect to the transfer from 1 July 1914. Norfolk Island has been an Australian territory under section 122 of the Constitution ever since.

Hadley argued all subsequent Norfolk Island legislation was invalid; the High Court dismissed the case. It was the first of a line of judgments affirming Australian legislative authority over the island.

Australian, New Zealand and United States personnel constructed the strip in 1942, linking Australia, New Zealand and the Solomon Islands. Falling within New Zealand's area of responsibility, the island was garrisoned by N Force in a camp for 1,500 troops; too remote to be attacked, N Force withdrew in February 1944.

Whales were historically abundant in island waters, with commercial hunts continuing until 1956. Their end closed a resource industry that had supported the island since the whaling era of the nineteenth century.

The Church established a continuing mission on the island, adding to the Anglican, Methodist and Adventist congregations already present. By 2021, 11 per cent of ordinary residents identified as Roman Catholic.

On 21 November 1963 the ham radio technician picked up distant signals from ABN-2 Sydney. It was the island's earliest link to Australian broadcast media.

The exercises highlighted the island's potential as a staging base for peacekeeping, disaster-relief and other South Pacific operations. Australia was meanwhile replacing Armidale-class patrol boats with larger Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels for such missions.

From 1 January 2022 Queensland provided state services directly, including the Department of Education assuming the running of Norfolk Island Central School, which had 282 students in 2015. The New South Wales curriculum was retained until the end of the 2023 school year.

The 2021 census count fell from a high of 2,601 in 2001, reflecting outward migration during years of economic difficulty. In the same census 35.7 per cent reported no religion, up from 24 per cent in 2011, while Anglican identification fell from 34 to 22 per cent.

The survey of 457 residents, about a quarter of the population, found 35 per cent preferred free association with Australia, 25 per cent full independence and 3 per cent full integration with Australia. It quantified continuing dissatisfaction with the post-2016 settlement.

The service started on 6 September 2019 using a Convair 580, after Norfolk Island Airlines ceased flights to Auckland and Brisbane in 2018 and Air Chathams signalled interest in mid-2018. Since the Trans-Tasman bubble reopened in 2021 the route has run on Thursdays with a 36-seat Saab 340.

The 1800 MHz network significantly improved data services for residents and visitors. It marked a step change in the island's digital connectivity.

Under the Norfolk Island Applied Laws Ordinance 2016 the island's law was transitional from 2016, with most New South Wales laws suspended until the end of June 2018. From 1 July 2018 all New South Wales laws applied as amendable federal 'applied laws', with the Local Government Act 1993 adapted for the island.

Islanders had voted in the ACT electorate of Canberra at the 2016 federal election, when 328 Norfolk Island votes were cast among 117,248. From 2018 the island was covered by the electorate of Bean, cementing its integration into the Australian franchise.

Elections were held on 28 May 2016 and the council took office on 1 July, from which date taxation, social security, immigration, customs and health arrangements applied as on the mainland. Income tax began, Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme applied, the Australian migration system replaced local controls, and travel to the mainland became domestic.

The formal petition of 25 April 2016 pursued the case, reported in 2015, for the island's self-governance. Norfolk Island People for Democracy Inc. sought inclusion on the UN list of non-self-governing territories, and a movement to join New Zealand also emerged after the autonomy reforms.

The change took effect on 4 October 2015, aligning the island more closely with eastern Australian time. It was one of several administrative harmonisations preceding the 2016 reforms.

The Act passed on 14 May 2015 and was assented on 26 May, ending self-government and converting the island's administration into a council under New South Wales law. On 17 June 2015 the Legislative Assembly was abolished, the territory being run by an Administrator and advisory council.

On 8 May 2015 voters were asked whether islanders should freely determine their political, economic, social and cultural development and be consulted by referendum before changes were enacted; 68 per cent of 912 voters agreed. The Australian Parliament proceeded with reform regardless.

The agreement was signed in Canberra on 12 March 2015 and announced on 19 March, against the wishes of the Norfolk Island government, with New South Wales to provide state services. Canberra cited the island's failure to achieve self-sufficiency and subsidies of $12.5 million in 2015 alone.

The Australian company received approval for cultivation on the island, ahead of federal legislation permitting medical and scientific cannabis cultivation in Australia passed in February 2016. It represented an attempt to diversify the island's narrow economic base.

Under the Immigration (Amendment No. 2) Act 2012, Australian and New Zealand citizens could enter freely and apply for residency, needing only to pass a police check and pay into the local health scheme. Entry to the island had previously been heavily restricted even for Australian citizens.

On 6 November 2010 Buffett said the island would voluntarily give up its self-governing and tax-free status in return for federal money to cover significant debts, a move that surprised many islanders. It set the terms of the reforms enacted five years later.

Financial problems and reduced tourist numbers forced the administration to seek federal assistance, with islanders to pay income tax for the first time in exchange for greater welfare entitlements. By May 2013 no agreement had been reached and residents were leaving to find work and welfare.

The new branch aimed at reforming the island's system of government from within the mainland party structure. It signalled growing mainland political engagement in island affairs.

A formal review begun in 2006 considered revising the island's model of government but concluded on 20 December 2006 that no change would be made, citing the significant disruption reform would cause the island economy. The reprieve postponed the loss of self-government by nine years.

Non-Australian citizens lost the right to enrol and stand for election to the Legislative Assembly. In 2007 the High Court upheld the change, again approving the Newbery decision and confirming the island's place within Australia.

The Act recognises and protects the language but does not require its use; official use must be accompanied by an accurate English translation. Just under three-quarters of ordinarily resident islanders could speak Norfuk at the 2011 census.

Only one tract of about 5 square kilometres of rainforest survived, and it was placed under national park protection. The island has 174 native plants, 51 of them endemic, making the reserve significant for biodiversity.

The Act created a Legislative Assembly elected by popular vote for terms of up to three years, running most of the island's affairs, though the Australian Parliament retained power to extend its laws and override local legislation. The 1979 model, requiring the island to deliver local, state and federal functions, governed until 2015.

The policy led to prosecutions such as that of Berwick Ltd, which claimed Norfolk Island residency and was convicted of failing to lodge a tax return. In 1976 the High Court unanimously rejected the company's argument, holding that Norfolk Island was part of Australia.

Newbery, convicted of failing to enrol for Norfolk Island Council elections, argued the island had gained a constitution and legislature in 1857 that the Crown could not abolish. Eggleston J held the Australian Waste Lands Act 1855 authorised any form of government, including placing the island under Australian authority; the ruling was repeatedly approved thereafter.