Norfolk Island

**Norfolk Island** (Norfuk: *Norfuk Ailen*) is a territory of Australia. It is in the South Pacific Ocean between Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia. It was one of the first British settlements in the Pacific. Twice it was used as a penal colony. People from Pitcairn Island were moved to Norfolk Island. It is now a popular place for holidays.

Norfolk Island is a small volcanic island. Its size is about  by . It is about  northeast of Sydney, and  north of Auckland. Most of the island is  above the level of the sea. There are two high points on the island about  above sea level. South of Norfolk are two smaller islands, Nepean Island and Phillip Island. The first European settlers  parts of a canoe and stone axes. Later work by archaeologists in 1995, found the remains of a house in the sand dunes at Emily Bay.

### Captain Cook
Norfolk Island was first discovered by Captain James Cook on October 10, 1774. He was on his second trip around the world in his ship, the *Resolution*. He landed on the island which was uninhabited (there was no one living there). He found a flax plant (Phormium tenax) and large trees, now called Norfolk Island Pines (Araucaria heterophylla). He thought the flax could be used to make cloth for ship sails and the pine trees would make good masts for ships. He used one of the trees to make a new top mast for the *Resolution*. Cook wrote about the island in his book, *A Voyage towards the South Pole*, printed in London in 1777. They were also able to eat their eggs. They called the petrel the "Bird of Providence", because they thought God must have sent the bird to save them.

In 1794, King suggested closing Norfolk Island as a penal colony. It was too far away from New South Wales, it was hard for ships to land there, and it cost too much to keep it going. In 1803, the Secretary of State, Lord Hobart, called for the moving everyone to Van Diemen's Land, because of the cost and the difficulties of travel between Norfolk Island and Sydney. It was to be the worst punishment short of death. Many of the convicts were lashed with a nine tailed whip. This could be as many as 300 lashes at one time, and many had been lashed over 1000 times. Because it was to be a prison, there were no free settlers allowed on the island, and there were no women prisoners. Only government ships, or ships in distress, were allowed to land at the island.

## Third settlement 1856
After the prison was closed, the British government gave the island to the people from Pitcairn Island. Pitcairn, with only 30 hectares of land suitable for farming, could no longer cope with a large population. All 194 people were moved to Norfolk in 1856. These people were descendants of the mutineers from HMS Bounty. They arrived on the island on 8 June 1856, and the anniversary is celebrated every year as Bounty Day.

## Climate
Norfolk Island has a humid subtropical climate (*Cfa* in the Köppen climate classification).

## Images

File:Norfolk Island Bomboras.jpg|Bomboras
File:Norfolk Island location map.svg
File:Norfolk Island Ball Bay.jpg|Ball Bay
File:Norfolk Island Emily Bay.jpg|Emily Bay
File:Norfolk Island St Barnabas Chapel.jpg|Melonesian Chapel
File:Norfolk Island Headstone.jpg

## Related pages
* Pitcairn
* Mutiny on the Bounty

## References