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Name
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Norfolk Island Penal Settlement
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Type of carceral site
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Penal Settlement
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Dates of use
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1788 – 1814
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1825 – 1855
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Quote
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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.
Novel, Historical Fiction.
Clarke, Marcus. For the Term of His Natural Life. The Floating Press, 2014 [1874], p. 544.
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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.
Novel, Historical Fiction.
Clarke, Marcus. For the Term of His Natural Life. The Floating Press, 2014 [1874], 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!'
Penal History.
Spruson, J. J. Norfolk Island: An Outline of Its History 1788–1884. Thomas Richards, Government Printer, Sydney, 1885, p. 17.
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On the beach of which I stand, a monument of destruction; driven by the adverse winds of fate, to the confines of black despair, and into the vortex of galling misery.
Autobiographical Narrative.
Backhouse, James. A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies. London: Hamilton, Adams and Co., 1843, p. lxxvii.
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Not so at Norfolk Island; for all that are sent thither are sentenced for their natural lives; so that every hope is cut off of ever obtaining deliverance.
Autobiographical narrative.
Loveless, George. The victims of Whiggery: being a statement of the persecutions experienced by the Dorchester Labourers, their trial, banishment, &c. &c. : also, reflections upon the present system of transportation : with an account of Van Dieman's Land, its customs, laws, climate, produce, and inhabitants. Published under the direction of the Central Dorchester Committee by Effingham Wilson, 1837, p. 23.
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Authority
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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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Contact
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Dashiell
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identifier
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SITE-NFLKP
A single man standing in front of what was once the doorway to a jail cell reputed to have houses Rufus Dawes the convict characterised in the novel "For the term of his natural life". Courtesy of the Auckland Museum.
The Kingston and Arthur's Vale Historic Area (KAVHA).
HMAT Supply took the first settlers to Norfolk Island in 1788. Maritime artist, Frank Allen.