Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L01891:body:0:p161
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L01891
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 459993–462962

comprises the area
known as KAVHA with the exclusion of areas of freehold tenure. This Statement of Significance is based
on the KAVHA record (RNE 13637). The place is significant for its association with four distinct settlement
periods in one place: the pre-European, Polynesian occupation; and three periods of later settlement, two
during the convict era referred to as the First and Second Settlements (1788-1814, 1825-1855); and the
Pitcairn period (1856-present), referred to as the Third Settlement. KAVHA comprises a large group of
buildings from the convict era, some modified during the Pitcairn period, substantial ruins and standing
structures, archaeological sub-surface remains, landform and cultural landscape elements, which
represent an outstanding example of the development of global convict transportation.

KAVHA is closely associated, through fabric and artefacts, with the wreck of the Sirius in 1790, a
calamitous event in the early history of the colony of New South Wales (NSW).

The place is important for its role in the evolution of the colony of NSW. Agricultural activity, during the
initial settlement at the place, the remains of which are still visible, arguably saved the settlement at
Sydney Cove from failure.

KAVHA is significant for demonstrating transportation as part of a world movement in penal practice. It
was the centre of one of the two long lasting places of secondary punishment for British convicts in the
nineteenth century (the other was Port Arthur) which, although partly ruined, has not been further
substantially altered by subsequent development.

KAVHA is one of two places of secondary punishment of particular infamy for its treatment and
degradation of convicts (the other was Macquarie Harbour) and intended at various times to be the
extreme expression of the severity of the transportation system. As such it was the site of the one of the
major experiments in penal reform in Australia in the period 1788-1855 for which physical evidence is still
extant. Other evidence remains at Longridge on Norfolk Island.

KAVHA illustrates the role of the military, penal systems and changes in penal philosophy in the British
Empire from 1788-1855. The place illustrates the continuity of administrative history since European
settlement.

KAVHA is significant for its association with the arrival of the Pitcairn Islanders in 1856, descendants of
Bounty mutineers and Polynesians and the subsequent development of the Norfolk Island community.

KAVHA is significant for its richness of settlement history and array of extant features. It contains areas,
buildings and other elements of outstanding individual cultural significance including Government House
(1829+), one of the earliest and most intact remaining government house buildings in Australia and the
Old Military Barracks (now the Legislative Assembly and Norfolk Island Court) (1829+). The Old Military
Barracks, together with the Commissariat Store