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Cartographic Name
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Norfolk Island Penal Settlement
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Identifier
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SITE-NFLKP
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category
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Penal Settlement
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temporalCoverage
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1788-1814, 1825-1855
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sourceOrganization
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Act 5 Will. IV No. 23 (10 June 1835): An Act for the more effectual Administration of Justice at Norfolk Island”
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text
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CHAPTER III. EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. JAMES NORTH.
May 12th—landed to-day at Norfolk Island, and have been introduced to my new abode, situated some eleven hundred miles from Sydney. A solitary rock in the tropical ocean, the island seems, indeed, a fit place of banishment. It is about seven miles long and four broad. The most remarkable natural object is, of course, the Norfolk Island pine, which rears its stately head a hundred feet above the surrounding forest. The appearance of the place is very wild and beautiful, bringing to my mind the description of the romantic islands of the Pacific, which old geographers dwell upon so fondly. Lemon, lime, and guava trees abound, also oranges, grapes, figs, bananas, peaches, pomegranates, and pine-apples. The climate just now is hot and muggy. The approach to Kingstown—as the barracks and huts are called—is properly difficult. A long low reef—probably originally a portion of the barren rocks of Nepean and Philip Islands, which rise east and west of the settlement—fronts the bay and obstructs the entrance of vessels. We were landed in boats through an opening in this reef, and our vessel stands on and off within signalling distance. The surf washes almost against the walls of the military roadway that leads to the barracks. The social aspect of the place fills me with horror. (Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life)
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"The dreadful place seems set apart for all that is hideous and vile in our common nature. In its recklessness, its insubordination, its filth, and its despair, it realizes to my mind the popular notion of Hell" Convict Fiction. Clarke, Marcus. For the Term of His Natural Life. The Floating Press, 2014, p.548.
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"The major who commanded the troops … was so appalled at the state of things at that fair but polluted spot, that, throwing up his hands, he exclaimed to me with great earnestness, ‘For God’s sake, go home and let them know the truth!’" Historiography. Spruson, J. J. Norfolk Island: An Outline of Its History 1788–1884. Thomas Richards, Government Printer, Sydney, 1885, p.17.
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Source
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Norfolk Island Museum (Kingston & Arthur’s Vale Historic Area).
Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (Spruson volume, convict registers).
National Archives UK (Colonial Office records).
National Library of Australia (Trove) (19th-century newspapers, engravings)
Margaret Hazzard, Punishment Short of Death (1984).
Hoare, Norfolk Island: A Revised and Enlarged History (1969).
Alan Kerr, A Federation in These Seas (2009).
Atholl Anderson & Peter White, Prehistoric Archaeology of Norfolk Island (2001).
Anderson, Atholl & White, Peter. Approaching the Prehistory of Norfolk Island (2001).
Clem Lack, Pirates, Blackbirders, and Other Shady Characters (1960).
W. B. Churchward, Blackbirding in the South Pacific (1888).