Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a volcanic South Pacific Island that lies between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia at 29'02º S and 167'56º E. It is approximately 600 miles from Auckland, 1000 miles from Sydney, 900 miles from Brisbane and 500 miles from New Caledonia.

Norfolk is lush and semi-tropical and the home of the world-famous Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla). The pine tree is represented in our flag and shapes the outline of nearly every island vista.

There is evidence of Polynesian habitation of Norfolk some 600 years ago. European discovery occurred on the 10th of October 1774 by Captain James Cook. Norfolk was soon thereafter settled as a British prison and was to become known as the Hell in the Pacific to the convicts who were transported to the island.

Abandoned as a penal colony in 1855, Norfolk Island became the new home of the Pitcairn Islanders, descendants all of the Mutineers of the Bounty. The Mutineers and their families created a community which eventually became too big for tiny Pitcairn Island. Her Majesty Queen Victoria, for whom the Islanders held the greatest allegiance, offered them Norfolk Island as their own and they relocated in their entirety in 1856.

A total of 193 persons left Pitcairn for Norfolk and 194 arrived, Reuben Christian, Fletcher's great-grandson, being born on the way. The Pitcairn surnames of Adams, Buffett, Christian, Evans, McCoy, Nobbs and Quintal still dominate the Norfolk Island telephone book.

Norfolk Island today is a tourists' destination with a robust economy and a bright future. We are proud of our educational system and our commitment to our young people. It was that commitment which brought us to introduce the Internet to the Island in 1998. And now we have one of the highest per capita computer ownership ratios in the southwest Pacific - and two Internet Service Providers.